To give him a pep talk, to have conversations with him about how he might be more respectful to the president. And thats according to a white house official, and other sources have said the same. You know, he didnt deny calling the president a moron. He essentially gave a series of different Policy Issues in which hes saying the president has been successful on, he really backed the president , he supports the president. He also said he doesnt intend to go anywhere, that hes just getting started. It was very much, as our own chuck todd tweeted earlier, it very much seemed like a statement that was serving an audience of one, and that is the president. I think the question all of us has now is what happens to Rex Tillerson . Is this enough for the president . And kristen, we know that President Trump was paying attention to this because we can read his twitter and hes been talking about this. Very clear that the Vice President wasnt among those who specifically talked him out of resigning, saying, the Vice President values the service of the Secretary Of StateRex Tillerson and is grateful for his strong affirmation of President Trumps America First agenda. As the Secretary Of State made clear, at no time did he and the secretary ever discuss the prospect of the secretarys resignation from the administration. Any report to the contrary is categorically false. So bottom line here, hallie, were getting a lot of pushback, but again stressing the story states the Vice President s role in this was more to counsel secretary tillerson, try to smooth over tensions. But those tensions have been on display. Weve reported on them widely, including over the weekend when the president tweeted, criticizing his own Secretary Of State for how hes handling the crisis in north korea. So the president can call this fake news, but he himself has made it very clear that hes broken with his own secretary of
state on a whole host of Policy Issues. And those Policy Issues, kristen and carol, is a critical backdrop to all of this. Were talking about the Secretary Of State, as you have, the crisis in north korea thats been intensifying in the last few months. You got what was happening with the u. S. Relationship with iran and questions about what happens with the nuclear deal next, carol. Right, and those are just two of the issues that secretary tillerson and the president have clashed on. We also know they clashed on how to handle the saudi arabia and the United Arab Emirates conflict with qatar. You saw the president the secretary say one thing and then the president come out and undercut him on that. You may know that secretariy tillerson, around the time he was considering resigning, really pushed the president on signing the nuclear deal. The president was very hesitant to do that. There is a wide display of public irritants between these two. We spoke to a dozen people for this story, and they all said the same thing. This is a relationship that was tried to reset in july and yet seems to not be able to be reset, that it keeps having these setbacks instead. We just saw most recently over the weekend in north korea where the white house officials can say what they want in terms of pushing back on our reporting, but we all know that they were and really angry that secretary tillerson said what he said about talks with north korea. He didnt clear that with the white house. To go back earlier, this is the type of stuff that Vice President pence has been talking to tillerson about not doing, and yet he continues to do it. Carol, we know the president is landing in las vegas any minute to visit with folks
there. When we look at the backdrop of all of this, kristen, too, with whats happening with Rex Tillerson, Whats Happening With T the issue is senator corker. He ended up being not supportive in the way i hope a Secretary Of State would be supportive, and thats just from my vantage point. But ive never you know, i have no knowledge of the comments or anything else. I think hes in a very trying situation, trying to solve many of the worlds problems a lot of times without the kind of support and help that i would like to see him have. Senator corker, kristen, very frank there, saying that President Trump is not giving his own Secretary Of State enough support. How does this play out now when it comes to the relationship between members of the
administration and including what comes next for the United States in terms of these policy challenges. Its a bit of a drip, drip, drip, hallie. Whats significant about senator corkers comments is they outline the fact that, yes, there may be tension pz not the scenes and particularly with the administration and with congress dealing with so many pressing issue issues. This really bubbles up to the surface and isnt going away, hallie. Kristen and carol, youve both had a very busy morning. Thank you for being on with me. I want to turn to Senator Blumenthal who is with me now. Senator, thank you for being with us. You had reporting this morning from nbc news, the secretarys response. Can Rex Tillerson remain aSecretary Of State right now . What concerns me now, hallie, is less the confidence and trust that the president and Secretary Of State have in each other than the confidence and trust we should have in the Secretary Of States ability to conduct diplomacy. The beginning of talks with north korea were a hopeful sign that maybe diplomacy would replace some of the fury and fire talk and maybe we would avoid miscalculation or another mistake that would draw us into war. Can Secretary Of State tillerson remain . Not if the president continues to undercut his pursuing a rational and sensible policy, and these talks were at least the beginning of such a policy. And my hope is that they will not only reconcile with each other but pursue a policy that aims at stopping a nuclear farm
in north korea without the use of military force, which would be devastating. You talked about the importance of americans having confidence and trust in a Secretary Of State snmt. At this moment, i think many of us are wondering if he has the credibility of a serious person, which he is, if hes capable of peaceful negotiations with other nations, which he is. I hope to trust him like i do any other official, but its a question mark. It sounds like you dont right now, senator . Its a question mark, because of the president undercutting him. Thats whats so pernicious about the president s seemingly offtweet remarks, without any apparent previous thought or analysis. If he lacks confidence in the Secretary Of State, then demand. What more can the senator do . Hes come out in this impromptu News Conference. What else does secretary tillerson need to do . He needs to fill the ravngs of t ranks of the Department Of State. Theyre essential to the diplomatic effectiveness of the United States of america. There are no responsible officials for many of the key policymaking and also representative posts in the Department Of State. And he cannot be effective and he cannot have the trust and confidence of the American People if he is operating alone without that support. What about the trust and confidence of world leaders, senator . Does the State Department have that . Right now i think thats another big question mark. I havent traveled recently but i hear from colleagues of mine that have been in the capitals of our allies as well as
adversaries that there is a deficit of confidence in the ability of the Department Of State and the Secretary Of State and this whole government to conduct diplomacy. And thats a confidence that is ebbing and it has to be restored vigorously and promptly. The secretary in those remarks we heard this morning, senator, seemed very frustrated with leaks, essentially, the dissendi dissension in the ranks. Is he right to be fed up with that . When the history of this era is written, the heroes will be our free press and our independent judiciary. I say the free press because its taking advantage of information that ought to be made available to the american public. They ought to know what is happening because leaks have been around as long as there have been administration pz. Nobody likes adverse wars. But the public is entitled to know it sooner rather than have it escalate. I think with all due respect to the secretary, the underlying and i dont want to address them. I was on capitol hill yesterday talking to some of your colleagues on both sides of the aisle about what congress can do, what you need to do. The discussion has centered around something called bump stocks which allows a gun to fire faster, like an automatic. If the president took action, would you support that . I would not only support that, Senator Feinstein and i
announced legislation a moment ago that would ban bump stocks. The Firing Mechanicism that harness Recoil Energy and make it possible to convert semiautomatic to automatic. Yes, we should ban them, and i think its a point of Common Ground where we can come together, in addition to others. That was my question. Have you spoken to republicans about this . John thune told me yesterday these discussions should take place. The high capacity mag magazine on this, there is
receptiveness that i think is very, very significant on the point of bump stocks. Before i let you go, in the next couple minutes, we expect to hear from a couple more of your colleagues that lead the Senate Intelligence committee talking about russias interference in the 2016 elections. You can see a live shot expected to begin any moment. What do you expect to hear and i want to focus on these facebook ads. These facebook ards, thousans of them, reflect on our democracy. The Intelligence Committee will shortly have a press conference, but its only another step. The investigations of the committee where i serve, the judiciary committee, as well as the Intelligence Committee, and most important, the Special Counsel have to under. Its full ex tenlt. Ive likened it to an attack of war, an act of war. We need to know all of what happened, and the special council slel howill discuss it more. I want to go near the room you just saw a live shot of. Any minute, kacie, the members of the Bipartisan Committee coming and giving us a Status Update of how well things are going. Hallie, youre right, a rare meeting of the chairman and Vice Chairman. They described it to us as a status report, but we also know they may take the Trump Administration to task for not
doing enough to protect the country from future election tampering. Of course, the president himself, as recently as july, has been raising questions about whether it was the russians who tampered with the election or were trying to tamper with the election. The sense here from this committee likely to concur with what the Intelligence Community has for future elections. The results and events of 2016 alive, there is an election for governor coming up. All states are unprepared to deal with this in the future. So were also going to talk hopefully a little bit about Social Media Platforms Efforts to tamper with the election. Were learning more about which
states were targeted bill th this by this ads that were targeted. But those states included some major swing states and some states that were critical to the president s victory. Wisconsin, michigan, but also florida, ohio, georgia, as well as some states that were not swing states in the election. California, new york, texas, mississippi, alabama. This was spread across. And there is also some suggestion it may have been because of election day, that it was designed to inflame tensions across the board. There were some ads in states where there was incidence of Police Shooting africanamericans, for example. We know that the black lives Matter Movement seemed to be a part of what seems to be the jat
ji here. Google in the spotlight expected to testify in an open session. By my count we have roughly 60 second left if that twominute warning was accurate before we see these leaders of the Senate Intelligence committee. What happens in 2018 . The risk that moscow may medal again, and i imagine these senators may address that. I think thats right, hallie. This is a potentially different concern than what we may have experienced in 2016. Obviously these investigations are still ongoing. Were waiting for conclusions about what was successful, what worked, what didnt . The more time that goes by, the
more they try of this, the more they potentially learn. And some of them are moving into different ways of Counting Votes or using different kinds of machines. Are those machines vulnerable and what responsibility does the students raves have so i think there is a lot of about how do we make sure is prepared and ready to handle a potential attack from a foreign entity across the country, so theres some states better prapd than other
others. Thats what security is doing in preparation for it. Kacie, i see you checking out with your eyes for a moment we dont often see this. We dont oochb see in it to answer questions about their. This is a very rare situation, but i do think its important in that theyre going to carry a board in here that i think you may see, and forgive me if our shot goes a little sideways. This is investigation update. So they say theyve had 150plus people interviewed already, 250 hours of interviews, 4,000 pages of transcripts. Now, they also say there are 11, so that may suggest what were
going to do. Theres 80plus copies of war and peace. I dont think ive made it through warm and peace west. They did say this was going to be a Progress Report. I think that gives, ah little bit of sense of what the scope is community iing. Lets listen to this Progress Report. Thank you for being here. Its a busy day around the country. Mark and i recognize the tragedy of nevada this week, and at this point im glad to say that it doesnt seem to have a terrorism nexxus. Thats not always the out come, but our hearts and our prayers
go out to all the individuals who were affected, both directly and indirectly. And i can sure you that frl tumd. Theyre providing as many assets to local Law Enforcement and to shows people that are tasked with were here to update you and the American People about the investigation into russiwhe started this investigation on 23 january of this year, we had a very clear foes urs. Additionally the investigation was too look into any collusion by either campaign during the 2016 elections. The third piece was an assessment of the ongoing
russian active measures including information and influence campaigns that may still exist and may be ongoing. The investigation started with those three buckets of interest. Now were over 100 interviews later, which translates to 250plus hours of interviews. Almost 4,000 pages of transcripts. Almost 100,000 pages of documents reviewed by our staff and some by members. It includes highly classified intelligence reporting. It includes emails, Campaign Documents and technical cyber analysis products. The committee has held that touches elections interference. I can say the staff have literally worked 16 hours a day since 23 january to get us to the point where we are today. Six to seven days a week, excuse me. So far in the interview process, we have interviewed everybody who had a hand or a voice into the creation of the Intelligence Community assessment. We have spent nine times the amount of time the ica spent putting the document together by the ica. Then again, what ended up on the Cutting Room Floor they may not have found relevant to the ica itself but that we found relevant to our investigation. We have reviewed every interview of the Obama Administration to
see what interest they had in the russia involvement and what drove those actions. I remind you welcome out with a finding at some point and hopefully that will be to recommendations and changes we need to make. So weve tried to think about this as much as we can. We have interviewed you. Theres some that snuck through because you dont know who they are. Now, its safe to say th