Wolf Blitzer looks at politics, breaking news and international stories. Historically, because a lot of our viewers will remember. When you and bob woodward were working on the watergate related stories, was president nixon as anxious publicly during your reporting as we now see this president being very anxious, deeply concerned about the Mueller Probe . First, i think what were seeing is more than anxiety on the part of donald trump. We are seeing a president who is behaving and acting unhinged. Nixon did not really publicly act unhinged, but i think we need to look at something larger. That is that in watergate, the system worked. The president of the United States did not publicly declare the press an enemy of the people and seek to undermine the First Amendment and the very legitimacy of what the press did, though he did try to make our conduct an issue, or the issue in watergate, rather than his own conduct. Can share my own personal perspective. Ive certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that i know not to be fully accurate. So ive, you know, had some i have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they sort of feel targeted. But no, i do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people. All right. Well, shes clearly taking a different stance than her dad, who does believe the socalled Mainstream News Media is the enemy of the American People. Whats your reaction . My reaction is if she really believes what she says and believes its important, she should get up there with her father, and she should say, if he wont do it with her loud and clear, i am holding a Press Conference myself to talk to the American People and say that
this member of the family does not believe in suppression of the First Amendment, that i do not believe in whipping up the kind of hysteria that President Trump is in terms of making the media, quote, the enemy of the people. I dont believe in this approach to our democracy. Let her say it loud and clear. I think this is a kind of ruse. If she really means it, shes had every opportunity to say it loud and clear. She has the platform to do it beyond a short interview with axios, such as weve seen there. Indeed, i think that it may be the press who ought to be going to her now that shes said that and say, miss trump, wed really like to sit down with you on this topic and explore it. I think its a good story for us to pursue. I want you to stand by, carl. Our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta is over at the white house. Hes getting ready for this
briefing scheduled to begin any moment now. Two brief in addition two dayin. Sort of unusual. What are you hearing . Reporter well, the white house was receiving a lot of scrutiny for not holding a lot of briefings. Theyre no longer daily briefings. Theyre weekly briefings, on average. Although, the last couple days were having briefings. Well have to see what happens in the next several minutes. Perhaps the white house will have a guest or two to come out here today. Maybe thats why theyre having two briefings in a row. I think when Sarah Sanders begins to take questions here in the briefing room, she is going to be asked about what President Trumps daughter ivanka trump said earlier this morning with mike allen. That is not only the president s daughter disagreeing with the president of the United States, it is an employee who works under the president. The president doesnt usually take too kindly to his subordinates going in another direction. So when ivanka trump says, no, the media are not the enemy of the people, i think thats very
interesting. I suppose Sarah Sanders will be asked about that. At the same time, there are all kinds of other weighty issues about what Rudy Giuliani said yesterday with respect to the president and these Legal Options that theyre apparently weighing behind the scenes, as to whether or not the president will sit down with Robert Muellers team and answer questions about some of these areas they want to cover as weve been reporting. The mueller team is floating the possibility of whittling down some of these questions in order to entice the president s cooperation. I can tell you from talking to my own sources, sources that are familiar with these discussions that go on inside the president s legal team, that is something that has been advocated for a long time. Its been hotly debated for some time, that the president at the end of the day, wolf, if he wants to fully put this behind him, is going to have to sit down, according to some people inside the president s legal team, and answer some of these questions, whether theyre via email or in person or some
combination of both. If the president does not do that, the feeling is that the president is just not going to fully put this behind him. I think obviously thats going to come up as well. Wolf, theres a whole host of issues that Sarah Sanders will be asked about if she has an extended briefing. As weve seen before, on some of these occasions, especially when we have a couple briefings in a row during the week, sometimes you have an Administration Official coming out to talk about whatever subject the white house wants to talk about on any given day. So we may see that happen here as well. All right. Jim acosta, stand by. I want our viewers to stand by. Carl bernstein is still with us. We have our other analysts and reporters. Were all awaiting the start of this briefing moments away. Well be right back. Are you done yet . You have a real motorcycle . And real insurance, with 24hour customer support. Arcade game wipeout oh well. I retire as champion. Game hog champion. Ivanka trump breaking from the white house she serves. By the way, the briefing was scheduled for the top of the hour. Were still waiting for the start of the briefing. Well get there shortly. In the meantime, lets talk about the president s daughter and senior adviser. She told reporters just a few hours ago that her fathers policy that separated families at the border has been the lowest point of her time. Well have much more on that. But in the meantime, heres Sarah Sanders. Safeguard our nations elections. The president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from my nation state or other dangerous actor. Last year the president signed an Executive Order to strengthen and review the cybersecurity of our nation and its Critical Infrastructure. Last week the president chaired a meeting of his National Security council to address
ongoing threats. He asked the officials standing next to me to brief the American People on the work being done to protect the integrity of our elections. Efforts are under way to provide Cybersecurity Assistance to state and local authorities and actions to investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable those who illegally attempt to interfere in our political and electoral process. To address these matters further, i want to welcome director of National Intelligence dan coats, fbi director christopher wray, director of the National Security agency, general paul, and National Security adviser ambassador john bolton to make some comments and take questions on this topic. As you all know, weve addressed what occurred during the 2016 election numerous times and rather extensively. The purpose of todays briefing is about what we are doing now and in the future to protect the integrity of our elections moving forward, and we ask you stay on that topic. In order to help this run smoothly, wed also ask you
direct your questions to a specific person. With that, ill turn it over to ambassador bolton to make some comments. Thank you very much, sarah. What wed like to address today is Election Security in the 2018 election and in the future. The president has made it very clear, i think, what his priority is. Weve had obviously a number of inquiries from congress on this, including a letter to me in the past couple days from five senators, signed by Senator Schumer and four others. I have responded to that letter today. Weve made Copies Available to you. It forms a kind of framework for the briefing that the four heads of Operating Departments are going to give you here today. They are the ones who are implementing and operation operationalizing the policy we have developed. There are other agencies involved, but these are the four primary ones. I think its important that we address the question of the president s involvement in this, his leadership, his determination to prevent russian and other foreign influence in elections. We meet on this constantly. The senior staff here at the white house, we meet with the heads of the different agencies involved. We discuss it quite regularly. In my tenure as National Security adviser, weve had two full National SecurityCouncil Meeting chaired by the president. As i say, countless other discussions as well. Since january 2017, the president has taken Decisive Action to defend our Election Systems from meddling and interference. This includes measures to heighten the security and resilience of Election Systems and processes, to confront russian and other foreign malign influence in the United States, to confront such aggression through international action, and to reinforce a strong
sanctions regime. Now, as you know, elections are administered by state and local governments, so the federal role is to assist them. Well be addressing that through the comments of the heads of the operating agencies. I might also say by way of introduction that many federal government actions to protect elections in the United States such as those implemented by the Intelligence Community or Law Enforcement agencies are necessarily sensitive and highly classified. We do not wish to make the efforts of our adversaries any easier through injudicious public disclosures. Nonetheless, we have offered to do briefings to members of congress in secure facilities. So what id like to do here, as sarah said, is turn the briefing over to the people whose agencies have this responsibility. Well start off with director of National Intelligence dan coats. Hell be followed by the
secretary of Homeland Security, kirstjen nielsen. Shell be followed by christopher wray. Then finally, the director of the National Security agency, general paul nakasone. Dan . As director of National Intelligence, i would like the American People to know that the Intelligence Community and all of its agencies are postured to identify threats of all kinds against the United States. The president has specifically directed us to make the matter of Election Meddling and securing our election process a top priority, and we have done that and are doing that and will continue to do so. We have incorporated the Lessons Learned from the 2016 election and implemented a Broad Spectrum of actions to share more information across the federal
government as well as with state and local governments and also with the public and the private sector. The Intelligence Community continues to be concerned about the threats of upcoming u. S. Elections, both the midterms and the president ial elections of 2020. In regards to russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the United States. These efforts are not exclusive to this election or future elections but certainly cover issues relevant to the election. We also know the russians tried to hack into and steal information from candidates and Government Officials alike. Were aware that russia is not the only country that has an interest in trying to influence our domestic political environment. We know there are others who have the capability and may be
considering influenced activities. As such, we will continue to monitor and warn of any such efforts. I am committed to making sure that the Intelligence Community is working together in integrating across organizations and missions and seeking Greater Transparency with the public. The odni has instituted a Broad Spectrum of actions covering collection, analysis, reporting, education, and partnerships, all designed to provide the best threat assessments to federal, state, and local officials as well as to the public and private sector when necessary. For example, my office leads the Interagency Working Group now meeting weekly as a push towards november with department of justice, fbi, department of Homeland Security, cia, and nsa inclusive of regional cyber and
counterintelligence experts, all focused on ensuring election safety. The Intelligence Communitys focus right now is persistent support to the fbi, to the department of Homeland Security, and other agencies in their election responsibilities, and my office is ensuring these organizations receive timely and proactive Intelligence Community support. Good afternoon. Thank you, all, for joining us. I want to start by briefly mentioning that on tuesday dhs hosted the First National cybersecurity summit. This brought together government, industry leaders, and academia to discuss opportunities to join forces to counter threats to our nations Critical Infrastructure. I want to thank all of those who joined us from academia, government, and the private sector, all who participated, and those who signed up to concrete actions to confront cybersecurity challenges. Across every Critical Infrastructure sector from energy to Financial Services to transportation to communication and so many others, a single attack can have widespread and cascading consequences. I look forward to working with the nations leading minds in the digital realm as we stand up the National Risk management center. But its not just risks to our prosperity, privacy, and infrastructure we have to worry about. Thats why were here today. Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Free and Fair Elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and it has become clear that they are the target of our adversaries who seek as the dni just said to sow discord and undermine our way of life. I fully share the community intelligences assessments and past efforts and those today to interfere with our election and of the current threat. Our adversaries have shown they have the willingness and capability to interfere in our elections. Dhs has and continues to work closely with state and localElection Officials throughout the country by offering a range of services to help identify weaknesses in their Election Systems. Whether its offering no cost, voluntary technical assistance, or sharing Best Practices for securing online Voter Registration databases or providing Technical Advice on Rans Ransomware and destructive malware, our department stands ready to provide tailored support based on each jurisdictions unique needs. This is another example where one size does not fit all. Im pleased to inform you that to date, all 50 states, the district of columbia, and over 900 local governments have partnered with dhs in order to bolster the resilience of the nations Election Infrastructure. Various states also have organic capabilities and are engaging with the private sector and academia to improve the security of elections. Election infrastructure is not a destination. It requires aggressive and ongoing vigilance. Everyone must play their role to ensure that every vote is
counted and is counted correctly. All of us up h