Friday something important happened. He was asked during that on camera moment whether or not he had been told about this reporting in the Washington Post that the then National Security advisor Michael Flynn was correcting his recollection in terms of what happened in that conversation between himself and the Russian Ambassador about sanctions against russia during the transition period. That is certainly going to be there is a whole range of questions that are going to be asked of the press secretary. Mainly because of the shifting and wide ranging assortment of comments that weve gotten from Top White House officials in the last 24 to 48 hours. One of those comments came from the white House Counsellor Kellyanne Conway when she said yesterday afternoon that Michael Flynn had the full confidence of the president and then just an hour later the White House Press secretary told reporters that, no, President Trump was revi reviewing the situation when it came to Michael Flynn, and then later on there was a story in the post that the Justice Department informed the white house a month ago that there was this conversation that occurred that dealt with sanctions and the fact that Michael Flynn did not tell the Vice President this before he went on National Television and vouched for the National Security advisor that that potentially could be used as blackmail to compromise the National Security advisor. The question is, wolf, if the white house was told a month ago about all of this, what did they do with that information . I think one name thats going to come up at this briefing, wolf, if the questions are allowed to be asked by folks in this front row and the front couple of rows, were among several reporters in this room are going to ask this question is did the white house chief of staff not the chief of staff, but the white House Counsellor don mcgan inform the chief of staff Reince Priebus about all of this, and was that information relayed to the president . Was all that communicated to the president , or was there a Communications Breakdown somewhere along the way. Those are key questions. There were several administrations over the years. When information like that comes from the Justice Department, top officials at the white house, it is always incumbent upon officials to brief the president. You cant have them going to cameras if those officials had briefed the president , then, of course, we have a situation on friday where perhaps the president was not being forth right with those reporters at that time. We just dont know. Thats why there is some very crucial questions that are going to be asked in the Briefing Room here in just a few moments, wolf. Very important questions, indeed. Jim, there are questions about ties with russia. Theyve been going on for some time involving President Trump and his aids. His former campaign manager, he resigned in the wake of questions about his ties to russia. There were questions involving secretary of state rex tillerson, former ceo exxonmobil faced about his connections to russia. He seems to have adequately answered those questions during his confirmation hearings, and now the flynn resignation. What are the other aspects that comes up as President Trump as a candidate, as a president elect now is president. He rarely if ever says anything negative about putin or russia for that matter. Heres the question. How serious is this overall potential problem involving russia . I think its a very i think its a very serious question, wolf. Whether its the president or top officials in this administration or, as you mentioned, Paul Maniford, who was the former chairman of the campaign, why is it that theres always this line drawn from it these individuals to russia whether its the president who declines to criticize vladimir putin, whether its Paul Maniford who has these contacts, whether its the National Security advisor, Michael Flynn who had this conversation with the Russian Ambassador during the transition. We also dont know whether or not the National Security advisor had additional conversations with russians during the campaign. Thats another outstanding question. Wolf, theres also another serious question that has to be asked, and that is why arent these top officials in the white house talking to each other . How is it that Kellyanne Conway can go out in front of a camera on National Television and say that Michael Flynn has the full confidence of the president when it was obvious at that time that he did not have the full confidence of the president. What i am told by talking to a very well placed republican source who is in contact with top officials in this administration is that theyre not talking to each other because theyre too busy undercutting each other behind the scenes. There has just been a game of thrones situation inside this white house, im told, by this well placed source, and that that is a part of the reason why you have this breakdown in communication that you saw yesterday. Another top official, the White House Press secretary, saying something dramatically different. Wolf, this is a white house that is just heading into week four of an administration and you have a National Security advisor stepping aside because of questions about russia and you have top officials that arent singing from the same song sheet. It is just a very bizarre and unusual situation and not a good situation for an administration that is just trying to get going in these first few weeks of the administration, wolf. Absolutely right. It was shocking yesterday. Flynn h after saying flynn has the president s full confidence, then sean spicer says they are evaluating. A lot of us suspected that he was probably toast as they say. Jim accosta in the Briefing Room. Were going to get back to you shortly. Were going to stand by for sean spicers briefing about to begin. Meanwhile, democrats in congress are pushing for investigations into the flynn affair. Theyve gone as far as saying Republican Leaders have no spines and question their patriotism for refusing to look into the role of the president in the Michael Flynn conversations with the Russian Ambassador and in the possibility that flynn actually could have been a blackmail target by the russians. Joining us now from capitol hill, congressman seth molten. He is a massachusetts democrat. A member of the Armed Services committee. A veteran serving a u. S. Veteran serving in iraq. Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. Its good to be back, wolf. This blackmail concern that the russians could have blackmailed flynn, should the investigation be on that specific . Its unclear what they presumably could have blackmailed him for for that fear of blackmail, or is there a bigger problem, the ongoing relationship that the trump team has with russia. Youre absolutely right. The bigger problem, the scandal of the century, not the scandal of the week, is this ongoing relationship with russia. There is no question its the unequivocal conclusion of all our intelligence agencies that russia wanted donald trump to be elected president. Either thats just because they think trump is putins buddy and he is going to do his bidding or because they have material they can use against the administration. We dont need to just know what flynn knew or what his associates in the white house knew. We need to know what russia knows and what they still hold over the heads of the people in the white house. Do you think flynn acted alone when he made that phone call to the Russian Ambassador in washington . I dont think that anything in washington happens alone. Certainly not a call with the ambassador to our number one enemy for the last 65 years. I mean, lets not lose perspective on exactly who were talking about here. If members of the administration are essentially conspireing with russia either through the campaign earlier now than the look, wolf, thats the definition of treason. This is a very, very serious affair. We all have to understand whats going on with Michael Flynn, but we cant let this little skanlds or perhaps a big scandal at the moment let us lose sight of the much bigger scandal, which is what is the overall connection between russia and the Trump Administration. Let me be precise on this. Youre throwing out a huge word, treason. Explain exactly what your concern is. The definition of treason is putting the interests of our enemy ahead of our own. Thats what the definition is. It seems like theres a lot of evidence that there are members of the administration who are more concerned about russias goals than our own. They continually prioritize the desires of the kremlin, like, for example, rescinding the sanctions that have been so importantly put in place, and its just the voice of the administration thats doing it. You hear both democrats and republicans on capitol hill saying that this makes no sense. It makes no sense to pull back sanctions against our enemy. I its not the whole administration. Nikki haley, the u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. , speaking before the u. N. Security council on crima. She was very tough on the russian. General mattis, in his confirmations, very tough on the russians. Other officials, rex tillerson, even though he had business dealings with the russians, received an award from putin, very tough in his comments on the russians. Its not the administration as a whole. Well, absolutely it is. It starts at the top. That doesnt mean that everybody is implicated, but this is exactly what we need to figure out, wolf. I dont think that Michael Flynn is going to be the only person to fall here. I find it very hard to believe that in an administration that has continually drawn the line as jim accosta said against criticizing russia has continually favored russian interests very publically. Its hard to believe that theres just one fall guy here. I think in a lot of ways thats what the Trump Administration was hoping. That this scandal with flynn will dis tract attention from the larger issue, which is why did russia want to influence our election . Why did russia try very fer vently to influence our election to get donald trump elected president . Well get to that a little bit later. Theres been reporting that russia has secretly deployed a ground launch Cruise Missile that violates the arms treaty that exists between the u. S. And i wonder if you have been briefed on this. I just heard the news. This is another concerning move by the russians where he this think they can take advantage of it. The cold war that we had with russia for over 50 years was a standoff. It thrived on deterence. Deterence was what we used, not hot war to prevent russians from doing things against us. They must think that deterence value is going down. When trump gets out there. When trump talks about unilaterally releasing the sanctions against russia, says thats a signal to the recommend kremlin that they can do whatever they want, and were seeing evidence of that today. Congressman, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you all. As we await sean spicer, he is about to take the electric turnover at the white house Briefing Room and start answering reporters questions. I assume theyll begin with some opening comments, schedule, and other issues. I want to bring in our panel in washington. Our chief National Security correspondent jim schudo is with us. Our political director david, and our political analyst david brger, and correspondent who is here with me, the host of reliable sources brian gloeb gloria, you actually broke the story last night. You and sarah murray had the information. What does this say about the state of the the affairs in the white house right now and the overallstate of u. S. National security . Well, first of all, inside the white house i think its safe to say that its dysfunctional. There is a lot of turmoil. There are people in the white house trying to figure out where they go from here. What weve discovered with all these questions that have been raised about the white House Counsel, knowing that the Justice Department thought that general flynn might be open to blackmail and potentially was told of that and did he tell Reince Priebus and all of those questions. I think what you have in this white house is something that often occurs, and that is a white house that is siloed and that people are not talking to each other the way they ought to be talking to each other. This happened during the Obama Administration during the rollout of health care reform, and the president at that point admitted they had a problem and tried to get folks to deal with each other more, and i think that is an issue inside this white house when you have different factions who are not communicating well with each other. That doesnt serve the president well. There are going to be questions raised on the russian question and on general flynn in particular, and going all the way up to the oval office. As the democrats raised earlier, what did the president know . John mccain himself has said we need to get to the bottom of this, says and so youll have the microissues of how you run a functioning white house, and then you have the larger macrogeopolitical Foreign Policy questions about what does this tell you about the u. S. Relationship with russia in the administration of donald trump. Stand by. Jim, a group of democratic lawmakers asked the secretary of defense to investigate whether or not flynn had received money from foreign governments, including russia. Just a short time ago, he made the announcement about that. What did they say . He this say that its not accurate to say that theres an Ongoing Investigation in this. This is pouring some water on that particular fire. I think just to ek quo what gloria said, the key question in this press conference remains to be seen if it will be asked of sean spicer. The key question is, in effect, that old question, what did the president know and when did he know it . Did plilk e Michael Flynn act directly or did he think he was acting on directions of the president to deliver a message to russia, and thats something that its not just democrats frankly asking that question. Lindsey graham asking that. John mccain and others. Its a fair question, and its a potentially i can sense the love in the room. Its valentines day. First off, last night the Treasury Department of foreign asset control labelled the venezuelan Vice President as a specially designated narcotics trafficker under the king pin act. Before i continue with the briefing and look forward to your questions, i want to turn it over for a short time to newly minted secretary of the treasury Steven Manuchin to share a brief statement on this and answer a few questions. Pleasure to be here on my first busy dah day in office. Yesterday the department of treasurys office of foreign asset control known as owe pack designated Venezuelan National tariq al alsami as a specially designated narcotics traveller according to the king pin designation act for playing a significant role in International Narcotics trafficking. His primary front man venezuelan was also designated. These designate igs nations follow a multiyear investigation into the criminal activities. President trump appreciates the hard work put into this case by the department of treasury rrks department of state as well as the National Security counsel and many people throughout law enforcement. Following the signing of the executive order last week, designing to break the back of criminal drug cartels, this action demonstrates the president s seriousness about fighting the scourge of drugs in the united states. In addition, he wants to send a clear message to the people of venezuela that america stands with them. Sanctions are directly relevant, obviously, to the Treasury Department, which is an agency that you now receive. Can you tell us about plans to sanction russia and if you would keep obamas sanctions against russia . The current sanctions are in place, and i would say sanctions are an important tool that we will continue to look at for various different countries. Its a very Important Program within the Treasury Department. Can