Transcripts For FBC The Intelligence Report With Trish Regan

The crown prince of abu dhabi as we speak right now. I want to take a look at the markets because so far so good right here, up nearly 100 points, a lot of 52week highs. Youve got the s p 500 up almost 12 points, nasdaq trading up about half a percent. I do want to point out cybersecurity stocks, they are also soaring because because, o, that global hack attack which we will have more coming up on, how you can prepare and secure yourself. This is the future, folks, and this is why these cybersecurity stocks are rallying right now. We need to keep our Computers Online safe. Im trish regan. Welcome, everyone, to the intelligence report. Now as we await mr. Spicer, i want to bring in the panel for discussion, american majority ceo ned ryan, ive got former Obama Campaign Foreign Policy adviser for you david that furry. Ned, lets start with you. Lets talk about fbi replacements. Short list. Ray kelly, i keep hearing from a lot of sources, is one that is very well regarded, considered independent and might, might actually have some traction here. Walk us through some of this, the most possible contenders. Well, it looks like theyre going to try and make a very quick turn around here, and probably by friday we will have at least a nomination from trump on who the new fbi director will be. They did have there is a list of about a dozen names out there. The names that are playing well down here in d. C. , trish, one of them is ray kelly. The other is michael ludig. There are a couple of names that are not playing well down here. Mike rogers, former member of the house intelligence committee, neither is acting director mccabe. So if you were to ask me to, you know, kind of scope it out, i would say ray kelly and michael ludig are look good as a short list for fbi director. My mope with this, trish, is theyre going to deal with this quickly, get ahead of the story. Schumers saying we need to have a special prosecutor. My question back to him is wheres the crime . Appoint a new fbi director. Comey had lost confidence trish you know theyre going to do that though. You know theyre going to do that, but heres the deal. If you look back, the mainstream media, Chuck Schumer, nancy pelosi can get away with utter hypocrisy because of statements they made a few months ago saying we have lost confidence in director comey, we think his behavior is appalling x now theyre defending him trish sure. But unfortunately, it is what it is. Its predictable, and you can see this scenario playing out, of course pelosi and schumer are going to play that card. Unfortunately, in some ways donald trump kind of ran right into that one, and hes stuck now having to pick up the pieces. Ive got to say, if he actually had anything to do with the russians at all, if there actually was any collusion, then i can bet he never would have fired comey, because it would have looked so suspicious. Go ahead. Thats the thing that mccabe said under oath that i think people need to be reminded of. There has been no impediment to the russian investigation, they had adequate funding, and they are going to take it to its ultimate conclusion. Trish, you and i both know there was no evidence, there is no evidence, there will never be evidence of collusion. Trish it doesnt matter though, as far as Chuck Schumer and nancy employeesly is concerned its all politics. Trish yes. Let me go to david, what do you thinks going to happen now . Are they really going to impede the ability to get someone new in at the fbi until they get a special prosecutor . And if so, what does that mean . The most important thing is we need an fbi director who is neutral and infect and is going to Carry Forward every investigation of the fbi in a fair, impartial manner x. That includes the very serious, important investigation into ties between russia and the Trump Campaign and why and how russia interfered in our u. S. Election. Lets start with one basic point. Everyone agrees that russia interfered in our election, and the question now is whether there was collusion or collaboration between the Trump Campaign trish right now theres no evidence of that. Right now theres absolutely no evidence of that. And by the way thats true trish david, when you say that they interfered in the election, just by saying it, it makes it sound as though they actually rigged the system and affected things so much that Hillary Clinton lost. I didnt want say that trish is that actually what you think . I didnt say that. You and your guest is saying theres no evidence, but you dont know what the evidence is. I dont know what the evidence is. Theres evidence that the fbi is studying and looking at as well as trish so why to you need a special prosecutor then, david . Do you not trust the fbi to do it right . Let me just finish, and ill answer that question too. Theres evidence that the fbi and congressional committees are looking at. We havent seen that evidence, and they havent completed their investigation. Its good for all of america for this investigation to be completed, and no one should judge the evidence before it is all in. The reason why we need a special prosecutor or an independent commission is because those would be completely impartial, they would not be subject to interference by the administration which we saw with the dismissal of comey who was in charge of the investigation he was incompetent. Moreover if i could just finish, please. And moreover, a special counsel or independent commission would also have some of the expertise that you need to investigate a complicated case like this including lawyers and investigate ors with financial expertise to track payments between russia that may have, may or may not have trish okay. So let me ask you this and thats an important part of this. Trish hang on, david. You make some interesting points. Ned, david is saying you cant get a fair investigation by the fbi because itll somehow be influenced by donald trump and the administration. I think thats a sad, a sad statement, to think that somehow our fbi will not be able to actually conduct an investigation thats worthwhile and that youve got to bring a special prosecutor in to somehow deal with it. Right. Trish id like to believe our fbi and whoever we put there in the slot to run the fbi could actually be fair and do the right thing. Right. Trish but, you know, assuming this is all true, a potential prosecutor where thuz that take us . Be do we just once again get bogged down in politics to the extent that you cant actually move this country forward, do what you need to do policy wise because youre caught up in this massive destruction . Oh, couldnt agree more. And, again, i always im coming back to where is the crime . There is no crime. Trish, the thing that people are forgetting, there is the fbi investigation, theres the house intelligence committee, there is the Senate Intelligence committee. We have three bodies looking at this, investigating was there potential and, of course, i dont believe that there was any collusion between russia can and the Trump Campaign. Quite frankly, im in agreement with some senate democrats, joe manchin and feinstein, who have both said in the last few weeks there is no evidence of collusion. I think this is a fairy tale that the democrats and the left have spun up. They put themselves to bed with it at night hoping when they wake up, Hillary Clinton will be in the white house. You know what, trish . The only way trish or donald trump will be impeached. And dont forget, maxine waters, from the day he was elected, has been calling for this saying, well, hes going to be impeached if she can remember what day it is. [laughter] trish but, you know, this is not helping him, for sure, right now. I do want to bring in former fbi assistant director ron has coe to the panel as well. Your take on where we are with all of this and whether or not, indeed, there will be a special prosecutor brought in to uncover whatever evidence the left actually believes there might be regarding collusion with russia. Well, trish, first, i will readily admit my bias, and that bias is in favor of the fbi. Having served 30 years there, i believe that the men and women there are consummate professionals and will, over time, absolutely get to the truth of the matter. Trish okay. I want to stop you there, because thats important. David was just telling us he didnt trust the fbi to do it right, that they would be too heavily influenced by the administration no, that is not what i said. But that is not what i said. I didnt say that the administration we couldnt trust the fbi. I said we trish then why do you need a special prosecutor that we cannot trust the administration i said we cannot trust the administration to seek to interfere with the fbi given the acts of donald trump in dismissing the head of the fbi trish well, david, okay suspect circumstances. Trish youre saying the administration is going to interfere. Were making the point then that you somehow dont trust the fbi enough to do their job, and i think rons pointing out that you trust the fbi to do whats right regardless of anything that may be coming from the administration . I do, trish. I think the challenge here is because the administrations selections recently, certainly the Deputy Attorney general who is now arguably in charge of the russia investigation because the a. G. Is recused, the questions going to be, you know, for the fbi to do its work with the maximum impact, by and large you need the assistance of able and willing prosecutors. And so that comes from doj. And i think questions are being raised about whats going on within doj now. Will they move slowly, will they see things differently than the fbi. The fbi needs Legal Process in many of its investigations particularly when youre talking about complex financial transactions, overseas transactions. You really need a team of both very capable investigators as well as prosecutors. And in this environment, i am not at the point where i say we need a special prosecutor because it implies, as your guest suggested, it implies somebody needs to be prosecuted. What we need is a thorough, competent, complete and apolitical investigation that i, frankly, dont believe should be led on capitol hill because of the partisanship that weve heard trish right. For this many months. Trish guys, we dont have a ton of time, and weve got a lot of ground to cover. I actually want to ask ron specifically, get your input as well, both david and ned, i want to ask about this hack attack. Because i do think that thisll come up as well. We understand the white house had some meetings on this over the weekend. We know at least 150 nations were struck in this just horrific cyber attack, ansome attack that happened ransom attack that shut down a number of u. K. Hospitals. Ron, you know, what is your sense of where all this is going right now in that we are living very much in a brave new world where peoples devices are increasingly not secure, and they run the risk as weve seen over the last several days of being held for ransom, in this case for bitcoin of all things, 300 in bitcoin ransom. How does the Administration Confront this new kind of threat, and will we hear much on it today . Well, i dont know that well hear i do believe we need a wholeofgovernment approach with determined and capable and empowered investigative teams supported by dhs that is engaging every day with private industry, the private sector and with government to harden our defenses. And too often it seems like in the past we have pulled against each other. Theres a lot of private industry out there that gets hit by these cyber attacks. Sometimes the fbi may be the first to know because of something theyve seen, fbi is out knocking on your door to say youre a victim, you just dont know it yet trish ned, you need the government to stay on top of this cyber warfare right. Trish and a lot of people are reluctant to anticipate that the government is out in the forefront of technology. They might trust the Technology Companies a little bit more so because theres some incentive involved. Finish but, you know, this is the new reality in which we live. Right. Trish how much does this administration need to be how much does the military need to be thinking about this, the fbi need to be thinking about this, etc. , as we confront this new reality . No, i think youre right. Cyber warfare is the battleground of the 21st century, and the thing weve been experiencing, trish, is we have too many people leaving the the military, going into defense contracting who still have this old mindset of we need more planes, more boats. Granted, we need that, we need our military up to Veterans Hospital strength, but we need to start investing more money into cybersecurity as well. The encouraging thing is trump has asked for millions of dollars in next years budget. This is one of the things that private industry deals with all the time. Ask the companies how many times theyve had to deal with chinese hackers. Itsing . , again, where its something, again, where government has lagged behind. Trish a 22yearold researcher over there in the u. K. Was able to stop the bleeding, thankfully, because you had people not able to get into the hospital to get their prescriptions, their operations, they were being rerouted, ambulances being rerouted in the u. K. This is serious, significant stuff. Also on the agenda today, of course, north korea. You know, Vladimir Putin is out there saying, hey, the u. S. , david, should back off north korea. Stop intimidating north korea, Vladimir Putin says. My gosh i mean, is this some kind of perverse reality or what . We should back off intimidating north korea, says Vladimir Putin . I agree. Its ridiculous for putin to have made that statement and for him to warn the u. S. About intimidating north korea when north koreas entire playbook is to intimidate the u. S. , to intimidate south korea and to intimidate the world by, you know, hijacking the agenda just because its developing nuclear weapons. Its a big problem. But it shows how difficult it is for us to resolve these types of problems when we have such significant tensions with russia. You see that in the cyber attack issue which you just discussed where russias blaming the u. S. For this cyber attack. We see it with north korea where russia is sort of pointing the finger at the u. S. And saying dont intimidate north korea, and you see it again with the attack on the dnc email system by russia which needs to be properly investigated by the fbi. So we need to work out all of these problems. We need to punish russia so it knows it cannot, you know, escape punishment for things that it does wrong to the u. S. , and we need to get it trish okay. To take down the rhetoric, especially on north korea, where an International Resolution is necessary. Trish going you know, you brought it back to the fbi again, and that is, you know, the story du jour. You know, i think, ned ryan, that theres an element to Donald Trumps personality that is very much sort of ceolike, in that things respect going so well, he was getting arent going so well, he was getting annoyed with comey. And as opposed to you know what . Weve got mr. Spicer coming out. Lets listen in. Before we get started, i want to bring Homeland Security back up here to discuss the administrations response to the ransomware hacking, and then ill go on with the events of today and answer your questions without further ado. Tom . Thanks, sean. Thank you. Good afternoon, im the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and counterterrorism, and if i could, id like to start today by acknowledging the falling Police Officers that the president and Vice President acknowledged today. They are the front lines of our Homeland Security, and the event today was an honor for me to attend. On cybersecurity, as the president s Homeland Security adviser, part of my responsibility is to coordinate u. S. Government cybersecurity efforts. I want to give you an update on the wanna cry. We continue closely monitoring the situation around the clock at the highest levels of government. Were bringing all the capabilities of the u. S. Government to bear on this issue and are working side by side with our partners in the private sector and our international partners. I spoke moments ago with my counterpart in Great Britain and learned an update from them that they have a feeling of control over this ransomware event and that as their affected computers seem to have been tied to the fact that their Health Care System is so large a network. They are painfully aware of the fact that this is a global attack, as are we. As of this morning, it has reached approximately 150 countries and infected more than 300,000 machines. The good news is the infection rates have slowed over the weekend. We had been concerned about that when last we talked. The ransomware has disrupted telecommunications companies, hospitals and other organizations. The u. K. National Health Care Service announced 48 of its organizations were affected, and that resulted in inaccessible computers and telephone service. But an extremely minimal effect on disruption to patient care. That was something quite evident in my conversation. Computers at the Spanish Telecommunications Company Telefonica were compromised, and we had a small number of affected parties in the u. S. Including fedex. Secretary kelly at department of Homeland Security continues to lead operations and Public Private coordination. His team is issuing twicedaily reports, holding multiple calls per day among experts and Operation Centers managing our response. As of today, no federal systems are affected. Overall, the u. S. Infection rate has been lower than many parts of the world