Today about last nights partyline vote to release a memo crafted by House Intel Committee chairman devin nunes and his staff, a move that the trumprun Justice Department deemed, quote, extraordinarily reckless, said this. There may have been malfeasance at the fbi by certain individuals. So it is our job in conducting transparent oversight of the executive branch to get to the bottom of that. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. What we want is all of this information to come out so that transparency can reign supreme and accountability can occur. Paul ryans platitudes about disclosing the republican memo written by nunes who according to democrats on the committee has not even read the underlying intel, comes on the heels of paul ryan rebuffing fbi director chris wray and Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who fought to protect the countrys most sensitive secrets. The Washington Post reporting that earlier this month, fbi director chris wray, Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein trekked to capitol hill in a lastditch effort to avoid giving republican lawmakers access to intelligence they considered so sensitive that it could not leave their control. House Intel Committee chairman devin nunes has been agitating for information, which included investigative documents, interviews with top fbi officials, and texts between fbi employees. The post reporting ryan, however, was unmoved. Nu in nunes committee, he argued, deals with sensitive, raw intelligence and this case was no different. Its worth reminding our viewers nunes stepped aside from his committees work last april while house investigators looked into ethics charges against him. The Washington Post writing last april that nunes has come under fire in recent weeks for speaking publicly about classified Foreign Surveillance reports he viewed on white house grounds. But that gave Speaker Paul Ryan no pause. The Washington Post reports that wray was also rebuffed by the committee when he asked to brief House Intel Committee members before they voted last night. The post reporting today, quote, wray, the fbi director, has seen the memo, but its unclear whether the Justice Department remained opposed to its release. Schiff said that wray raised concerns about the memo after viewing it and asked the committee to allow him to brief the members before voting on its release. They did not do so, he said. To help us better understand how these developments create a relatively unprecedented backdrop for tonights state of the union address, were joined by favorite reporters and guests for the hour. With us from the Washington Post, White House Bureau chief phil rucker. From the New York Times, chief White House Correspondent peter baker. With us on set, republican strategist and msnbc contributor steve schmidt. Kimberly atkins, chief washington reporter for the Boston Herald and msnbc contributor. And john heilemann, nbc news and msnbc National Affairs analyst. Phil rucker, let me start with you, because its your papers superb reporting on all of these efforts by chris wray, the trumpappointed head of the fbi, who went up to capitol hill with Rod Rosenstein, made the case for not putting this information in the hands of devin nunes who one ultraconservative trump ally said to me if a leftwing plot to sort of infiltrate the fbi and doj were going to be uncovered it wouldnt be by devin nunes, not really highly regarded by National Security establishment folks on the far right. Talk about, though, what chris wray has been through in efforts to keep this information from being politicized. Hes trying to protect the sources and methods at the department of justice and at the fbi that he feels would be compromised by the public relice of this memo, but hes also manage the white house and ultimate boss, president trump, who would like to see this come forward, feels like this memo would be a way to discredit the overall russia investigation and expose what trump has felt all along has been political motivationbehis behind what he s a witch hunt here on russia. Its a pretty extraordinary moment, though, because traditionally the white house shouldnt have anything to do what the department of justice is doing and what the fbi is doing. But its a very political situation and quite tenuous and has a lot of longtime Law Enforcement leaders quite upset and bothered by what they see. Peter baker, i just hung up with a former, very senior National Security official who worked in both the obama era, intel agencies for multiple president s, democrats and republicans, who said hes sad and frightened. He said the fisa process is one of the most incorruptible processes. I wonder if you can speak to what we sort of set this up with, the fact that devin nunes was removed and investigated because of his shenanigans regarding fisa intel. Hes now refusing to let the director of the fbi brief his committee about raw fisa intel to help inform them before they vote. Can you talk about to us just how plainly corrupted the House Intel Committee process appears from the outside . Well, certainly isnt going to build credibility with president trumps critics that its a partyline vote and a memo written by republicans that the minority doesnt agree with. Thats, unfortunately, the state of affairs in congress these days where both parties take the same set of facts then see them through a completely different lens. It makes you wonder, okay, what are these facts, how should we evaluate them . We dont know because we havent seen the memo yet. But are they presented in a dispassionate and objective fashion or are they presented selectively in a way thats intended to achieve a political goal . Is it possible the fbi, in fact, ba acted badly . The Inspector General report hinted at in the last 24 hours suggests there may be some issues there that are worth investigating and worth evaluating. The problem is if it becomes a partisan thing, partyline thing, where one party is focused on it for its own goal, the other party is not focused on it, focused on it in a different way, it leaves obviously a lot of people scratching their heads trying to figure out what it is were supposed to believe here . Do you think the fbi director is one we should believe here . Yeah, i mean, i think, look, hes a guy whos president trumps appointee. Hes not obviously got a stake in the previous fbi leaderships handling of this. Certainly you would think he would have a more, you know, more reason to be, you know, open about the previous regimes mistakes if he thought mistakes were made, but hes obviously representing the institution. The institution is concerned about the release of this memo and concerned about, perhaps, you know, a version of the facts that might not tell the full story in his view. We dont know for sure, again, because we havent seen this moem mo memo yet. The republican majoritys refusal to allow the democrats to release their own memo which would take the same facts and present them in a different way. Phil rucker, do you think the president enjoys seeing his current fbi director basically rebuffed and humiliated by being turned down by paul ryan when he and Rod Rosenstein went up and asked devin nunes not get his hands on this Sensitive Information and being turned down by the committee, by devin nunes, when asked to brief them . Do you think the president delights in seeing his fbi director really publicly, i dont know another word, publ publicly humiliated. Does the president enjoy the weakening of the fbi even under hisappointee . I dont know if he enjoys the weakening of this particular fbi director personally, but certainly he agrees that this moem memo should come to light. He wants to see the nunes memo made public, thinks it will help vindicate his point of view on the russia matter, what he sees as the politicization of the russia investigation. And hes been highly critical of the fbi, and what he has called the deep state and short of the Law Enforcement community that he feels has been compromised throughout the past year and a half of this russia investigation. Sure, he appointed the director of the fbi, but if, you know, his political ally in congressman nunes and chairman nunes is going to have his way over the fbi, i think the president s very happy to see that. Steve schmidt, can you speak to just the president s complicit hes sitting there watching his fbi director make the case to protect classified information. Hes watching this. I understand from democrats on the committee that theres constant communication between the president and devin nunes. The president could simply have picked up the phone and backed up or reinforced his fbi directors case about classified information. Obviously, the president wants sensitive, classified information in the Public Domain and this former National Security official, you heard my end of the conversation, saying hes sad and frightened. This is is not a man who frightens easily. No. What were seeing is a complete abregation from devin nunes. Obvious ga obligation to conduct appropriate oversight over the nations intelligence agencies but to support in the end their strengthening as institutions that are necessary to protect us from foreign threats. Including from the Russian Federation that beyond certainty interfered in the United States election process and maybe in a way that materially benefited the president. Theres an investigation under way that has already indicted three top trump advisers, and we know that there have been a series of dishonest statements from the president , the Vice President , the attorney general, discounting their relationships with russians, and weve seen the political smearing, attack, and firing of the Deputy Director of the fbi or his resignation precipitated by these political attacks. This is not normal in a democracy, in a republican democracy, with fidelity to the rule of law. We have traditions of independence in h these agen agencies. The reality is the fbi, the concept of the rule of law, and the Justice Department, they have been now attacked directly and fiercely by the republican majority in the congress, abe d by a Television Network spinning all manners of conspiracy theories alleging a deep state conspiracy thats subverting the constitution and all aimed at one thing, which is undermining the integrity and the findings of the mueller investigation. This is a very, very serious moment in this country. And its a serious moment because the institution that is designed to guard the American People in the constitution in this case is the congress and the Majority Party from the speaker, to the chairman, is utterly failing in that duty. All right. Someone whos not failing, lets bring in democratic congresswoman jackie speier, a member of the House Intel Committee. Thank you so much for joining us. I wonder if you have trust and confidence in chris wray as director of the fbi. Well, i want to believe that i have trust and confidence in him. I wonder to what extent he, like so many other republicans who used to stand up to the president , have shrunk from their responsibility to put the American People first. Have let me i think time will tell. I want to ask you about this reporting that he went up to the hill and he and Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general, trekked to capitol hill on a lastditch effort to avoid giving republican lawmakers access to intelligence they considered so sensitive it could not leave their control. He was rebuffed by paul ryan who said, oh, you can trust devin nunes, never mind he had to recuse himself and was investigated by the ethics economy for his handling of classified fisa intel. Really the most sensitive kind of information you all deal in, right . Thats correct. And the department of justice said in a letter to the committee, to devin nunes, that it would be reckless to release this very sensitive document to the public, and furthermore, said that it violated the agreement between, or among, the speaker of the house paul ryan, the hipse committee, the Intelligence Committee and the department of justice. So they have just absolutely thrown out their word, the constitution, the respect for the department of justice and the fbi, they are on a vendetta. They are going do stop at nothing less than trying to tear down these two institutions, department of justice and fbi, and more specifically, the mueller investigation. I think once the transcript of our open hearing comes out tomorrow, it will be perfectly clear, it is stunning how the chairman refused to answer the question. Did mr. Wray ask that any element be somehow redacted . Or was any element not supposed to be made public because it was too sensitive . He would not answer that question. The chairman would not answer the question. He asked, furthermore, one of our colleagues, asked furthermore if they had been in communication with the white house. With anyone in the white house. Again, they would not answer the question. So, its pretty obvious, i think, to most people that this is all part of a quilt thats being woven to promote the messaging, the script, from the white house, and to shut down the mueller investigation. Meanwhile, weve already had two guilty pleas and two indictments. So, the Mueller Commission is delivering to the American People under the constitution and the last thing we need is to have it put down. Do you think thats all related to what has been a waning interest from republicans in the house and the senate to back legislation to protect mueller and permit him to take his investigation to its conclusion . I think so. I think what we have seen is that, you know, members lose their backbone when the president speaks out critically about them, and so we have seen many incidents over the last few months where members who have shown a great deal of conscience have somehow lost it over the course of a couple of tweets from the president. I stopped believing in coincidences about 15 months ago. I wuonder if you believe its a quince debs coincidence theres news out today reported by the the New York Times that the sanctions against russia wont be imposed, they dont need to be imposed because just the threat of sanctions is adequate, which was certainly not the case advocated by democrats or republicans when it came to sanctions for russia. Or anyone else, frankly. This is a truly stunning act by the white house. You have the congress of the United States, democrats and republicans, overwhelmingly support the imposition of sanctions on russia and a number of other countries, and it was a vetoproof bill that the president felt compelled to sign but there was one little language piece in there that provided that it could be waived if there was evidence that the cyber activities by russia had diminished. Well, theres no indication that the cyber activities from russia have diminished. So how is it that a bill that was signed into law by this president is not being enforced . Its a stunning setup for tonights state of the union. I appreciate your spending some time with us. Please come back. We appreciate you. All right. Thanks, nicolle. Thank you so much. Kimberly at kins, your thoughts . Well, you know, very much in line with thereaat, i was speak to a former Department Justice person, what do you think the point of a constitutional crisis comes . He said, no, were already in the constitutional crisis. Its not like watergate where one or two incidents sort of fueled this. This has been happening in slow motion, in real time, for months. The undermining, first, of intelligence agencies over before his inauguration. Right. Over whether or not there was actual russia meddling. Now the systemic undermining of the Justice Department and the fbi. The firing or threats of firing, i mean, how many people, sally yates, james comey, Christopher Wray. Rumors about rosenstein now. Rumors about Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. Its this constant steady drum beat. Now you have the republicans on the Intelligence Committee are falling right in line and providing cover for this very systemic effort to undermine all the agencies that pose at least in the president s mind any threat to him moving forward. So there are people who are terribly, terribly concerned about this. That this is already at the point of constitutional crisis. Heilman, you asked a question this morning that lit social media and television on fire about whether some of these people are agents of the russians. Its a plausible theory when you i suppose it could all be a coincidence that were not going to enforce our russia sanctions, that devin nunes was investigated by the Ethics Committee for mi