Like global warming. We cant do that if people feel embarrassed to be associated with the United States. You combine that with the fact that the State Department has essentially been neutered, e s eviscerated by this administration thus far and watching in real time as america and americas image withdraws from the world. Do you know any republican senator or member of the house whos a republican, any party member of any party who believes the president believes he was wiretapped, who even believes he believes it . I dont think anybody knows exactly what donald trump believes and what he doesnt believe. I think whats scary to many republicans is that theyve had the opportunity to walk this back and theyre putting not only the presidency and the reputation of the presidency, but the reputation of the entire country at risk, the longer that this floats out there. The reality is is congress can ask the Department Of Justice as to whether theres a wiretap, bul but if theres an active investigation, the Department Of Justice may not tell us, so its difficult to get to the bottom of this what do you mean, an active investigation wait a minute. Well senator mccain, i think, is from the sane era of politics. Heres how some other Top Republicans reacted including Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell and chair of the senate and house Intelligence Committees. I think we have an existing committee, the Intelligence Committee, looking at all aspects of what may have been done last year related to the russians or the campaigns and well leave it there. Have you seen any evidence of that . Mr. Leader no, i havent. We dont have anything today that would send us in that direction, but thats not to say that we might not find something. I have not seen that evide e evidence. As you know, i think a lot of that was maybe a little bit the multiple tweets were perhaps a little bit strung together. As you all know, the president is a neophyte to politics. Hes been doing this a little over a year. And i think a lot of the things
that he says, you guys sometimes take literally. Sometimes he doesnt have 27 lawyers and staff looking at when what he does. What do you make of that . Thats a cover . Thats explaining a guys behavior . Its like hes hes treating the president as if hes in a crib and wants his pacy. He talks about him like he doesnt know what a tweet is. He knows how to tweet better than all of us. He gets up at 6 00 and does it. He accused the previous president of wiretapping him. Theres nothing complicated about this. Why doesnt mr. Nunes, chairman of the committee, call up the fbi director, said was anybody asked for a fisa warrant on this . Did Anybody Ask Permission to wire this guy or not . End it. This is going to float out there for months and years. Yeah, listen. I wouldnt tweet my 8yearold like that. The fact is we would hope that an adult would occupy the oval office and we couldnt expectwo
team of 27 lawyers around him to decide whether he should falsely accuse the previous president of the United States of tapping his phones. Thats a ridiculous standard. And in the end, yeah, it is Pretty Simple to get to the answer to this question. There is no evidence that barack obama tapped Donald Trumps phones because it didnt happen. And republicans right now could ask the questions necessary to get at least that answer. Maybe we wont know if the fbi was or is investigating trump, but we can get the answer to that question, republicans can. Okay. Thank you very much, senator chris murphy of connecticut. Well, there was troubling reporting in the the New York Times today about President Trumps mood swings last weekend. According to the times, he was in high spirits after he fired off the posts, those tweets but midafternoon after returning from golf, he appeared to realize he had gone too far with his tweets although he still believed mr. Obama had Wiretapped Him according to two people in trumps orbit. In some conversations that afternoon, the president sounded uncertain of the procedure for
obtaining a warrant for secret wiretaps on an american citizen so he didnt know how you would do it but said obama did it. Anyway, meanwhile, were getting reaction on former president obamas reaction to the news. According to nbc, our network, a source close to him, told nbc news, mr. Obama rolled his eyes. And the Wall Street Journal report, he was livid over the accusation that he bugged the Republican Campaign offices believing mr. Trump was questioning both the integrity of the Office Of The President and mr. Obama, himself. Of course, he was. Im joined by the Wall Street Journals carol pllee who wrot that article. And the washington posts phil rutger whos been all over this thing. Carol, did you notice the way that this young, relatively young member of congress, nunes from california, i dont know much about the guy, treating the president like hes a little baby. You know, he gets a little upset once in a while, says things he really shouldnt and doesnt have the help of advisers like lawyers around him so he does things that really dont make
much sense, but we shouldnt blame him because hes a neophyte. Hes a neophyte. Yeah. Theres definitely thats a defense. Thats what a criticism looks like. Theres thats the republicans the republicans why are so they theyre greading him on a curve. Theyre helping him hide. By the way, boehner, when trump was running around saying obama was an illegal Ill Grant Frmmig kenya, people asked him, tell your fellow members its not true, he said i dont tell them how to think. This is the way they behave in the Republican Party today. Theyre so intimidated by this guy, trump, that they just cover for him. Your thoughts. Well, i think, yeah, the republicans dont want to get crossways with the president. Why . They also why are they afraid of him . Because they have flithings y would like to actually get done in congress and dont want to pick a fight with the president. And they also are taking theyre aligning with the white house in terms of the cleanup of this where you have the white house saying, well, we dont look at it, well look into it
pane, you know, congress, take a look thal look into it. What happened, more importantly, what the democrats are doing, this winds up being a gift to them because you have people like schiff saying were going to oblige him on his request, look into this. The white house is going to wind up getting all the things they didnt really want like hearings on this. And a further investigation into this. Congress loves hearings. Lets face it. They go on and on and on, get on tv, on and on and on. When do they get to a conclusion . A big one on march 20th. When you talk to white house officials as we were doing this week, this is the last thing they want to talk about. Want to be talking about health care, tax reform, about Angela Merkels visit next week, about all these other issues and stuck having how long have you been around . Let me ask you a question about having to get flak for the president. I thought about what kind of job that would be, i think it would be a very difficult job. People like josh earnest know how to do the job well. Its doable. Ive never seen a Press Secretary have to deal with a president thats saying stuff he or she doesnt believe. I mean, really. Spicer has ever since the Crowd Measurements back in january 20 he had to lie for the president which is a terrible word to do, but he had to do it. Had to say, oh, yeah, 3 million to 4 million out there and all this. This time around he doesnt want to do that. Hes saying, im telling you what the president says. Then somebody asked yesterday, do you believe him . He said, thats a cute question. Its not a cute question. You ask the president s spokesperson if he or she believes what the president is saying. Its a reasonable question. He has really distanced himself from that, its interesting to watch. He said, you know, if you ask him, what you zdo you think . He says it doesnt matter what you think. It does matter. We he says its above my pay grade. Thats a tired old line. Youre the spokesman for the whou white house. Its not above your pay grade. Its your job. He got into the job. Decided to bt he doesnt want to have his
career ruined, i can tell. Hes pulling away from trump. He is not lying for him. This is a pattern in Donald Trumps life, he inserts things that are got necessarily true, tries to find evidence for it. Did you see kellyannes pivot the other day . He knows so many things we dont know. She didnt say shes covering for herself in this case. Thank you, carol lee. Thank you. Its a tough time to be a straight reporter. This is not a straight world. Phil rutger, thank you. Coming up, the rolling disclosure on trumps potential russian connection continues. Today we learn trumps former Campaign ManagerCorey Lewandowski gave carter page leave to go to russia last summer. It just keeps growing and growing. Plus on this International Womens day, the trump administrations considering separating women, or mothers from their children if they try to enter the country illegally. Thats going to be wonderful. I mean sar castically. Its going to be table. The hardball roundtable here tonight to talk about the challenge of separating fact from fiction today and trying to get to the truth during the trump era. Finally let me finish with the trump watch. You wont like this one, either. Youre watching hardball where the action is. Oh. Not the smooch method come on. Whats going on here . You know how Ge Technology allows us to fix problems before they. They slow production, yeah. Well, no more catchy business acronyms. Wait, we dont need to smooch . Im sure we can smooch a solution we just need to hover over the candice, problem until. Just let it go. Hey, sorry im late for team building. Smoooooooch that felt right. Whats wrong with you . Hes so trusting. Well, when he was a candidate, donald trump said he loved wikileaks. The website that collaborated with russian intelligence to help defeat hillary clinton. Well in fact, he repeatedly professed his love for wikileaks. By the way, did you see another one, another one came in today, this wikileaks is like a treasuretrove. This wikileaks is unbelievable. What weve learned about her and her people. We love wikileaks. Boy, they are really wikileaks. They have revealed a lot. Boy, that wikileaks has done a job on her. Hasnt it . I tell you, this wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart. You got to read it. Now, this just came out, this just came out, wikileaks, i love wikileaks. Well now wikileaks, the beloved wikileaks, released a trove of what it says are cia documents showing how the agency broke into smartphones and even tvs for spying and today the cia said it had no comment on the authenticity of those documents. When we come back, well talk to u. S. Congressman Waukeen Castro of the Intelligence Committee about the latest Wikileaks Dump and what were learning about President Trumps relationship with russia. Back after this. That could sense vehicles in your blind spot. Take on the unexpected, with six 2017 iihs top safety picks. Its clear why were americas fastestgrowing auto brand. Get to nissan now for 0 financing on 11 models no payments for 90 days. I love to see businesses that just started from ground up grow into further success. It just feels good to know that im helping someone else. My first goal is to learn about their business, what theyre currently doing in their advertising. Pull some research, create a great story. Trying to figure out some way of building some kind of trust in a very quick moment. You have to love to work with people. Our goal, without a doubt, is that all customers are satisfied before they leave. Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with russia during the course of the election . No, nobody that i know of. Youre not aware of any contacts during the course of the election . How many times do i have to answer this question . Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that i deal with does. Welcome to hardball. Last month, President Trump denied that anyone in his campaign, as you just saw, had any contacts with russia during the election. But in making that statement, the president directly contradicted the word of Russias Deputy foreign minister who said just days after the election that, there were contacts during the campaign. We now know that thee members of Trumps National security advisory committee, senator jeff sessions, j. D. Gordon, carter page, all spoke with the Russian Ambassador during the campaign. Additionally just before the Republican Convention, carter page traveled to moscow where he delivered a Commencement Address ken vogel of politico reports, page emailed Campaign ManagerCorey Lewandowski and spokeswoman asking for formal approval for the trip and told by lewandowski he would make a trip to moscow but not as an official representative of the campaign. Corey lewandowski telling politico i dont remember that, i probably got a thousand
emails at that time and dont remember every single one i sent. I wouldnt necessarily remember if i had a oneword response to him saying he would do something as a private citizen. Page left the campaign in september. Trump Campaign Officials later distanced themselves from him. Late today a source close to former utah governor jon huntsman tells nbc news that huntsman was offed and has accepted the position to be the next u. S. Ambassador of russia. Joined by u. S. Congressman Joaquin Castro of texas, serves on the House Select Committee on intelligence. Also here, ken vogel who wrote the story, chief Investigative Reporter for politico. Congressman, youre in there and i guess my question is, we know an awful lot thanks to the 17 Intelligence Agencies about the way russia wanted hillary to lose and if it could be really lucky, get trump to win. How they wanted to undermine our democracy. Thats all on the record. We also have a lot of other things on the record. How trump romanced or bromanced the russians all through the campaign. Said wonderful things about their little instrument called wikileaks, said wonderful things about vladimir putin, about everything over there, how hes
going to be their allies in the world against isis, et cetera, et cetera. Seems to me a lot of information is out there about the symbiotic relationship between trump and the russians. What do you know more, or can you hichbt nt at where you thins storys going . You know, chris, insaid very clearly as have others on this committee, we need to get to the bottom of one question. Did any americans conspire with the russians who interfered with our 2016 president ial election . And specifically, did anyone associated with the Trump Campaign help those who interfered with the 2016 president ial election . When we keep seeing more and more connections between trump advisers, at least coming out in reports, these trump advisers and the russians. And so, of course, this just speaks to how important the investigation is. Well, doesnt the i mean, my experience over the years is the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence effort in this country, which all other countries have, they have all kinds of electronic wiretaps and information like, leb trelectro
communication, involving the Russian Ambassador and officials who look like they might be under cover. Why cant dont we get that information out . Whens it going to come . The information. The nsas got it, the cias got it, certainly the fbi. Whats the wait for . Thats a great question. You know, ive been critical of the pace of the investigation at least in the house committee. I said last week there is a gap between what the Intelligence Agencies know and what the committee has been told. Adam schiff, the democratic ranking member, has essentially said the same thing. So im with you on that. I think we should be moving in a brisker pace. You see theres a few hearings on this issue that have now been scheduled and publicly hopefull start moving at a quicker pace because all americans deserve an answer to these questions and getting to the bottom of it really is fundamental to our democracy. We know what russia did to
help get trump elected and as a candidate, trump repeatedly made overtures to putin. Lets watch him. I think i gd get along very well with vladimir putin. I just think so. Wouldnt it be nice if actually we could get along with russia . And whats wrong with are russia wants to drop milliondollar bombs on isis . I say, good. Putin said donald trump is a geni genius, hes going to be the next great leader of the United States. My attitude, when people like me, i like them. Even putin. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Putins a killer. A