Evidence. Senators Lindsey Graham and sheldon whitehouse, however, who lead a judiciary subcommittee sent a letter to that Department Today asking about any wiretapping warrants against the Trump Campaign. Good for them. Senator graham said today the country needs answers on this. Lets watch him. President trump claims that president Obama Administration targeted his campaign, trump tower, in the tweet. I have no knowledge of that, but hes challenged the congress to help him so lets help. Not trying to compromise classified information. Not trying to compromise an investigation. The question is, has there ever been a warrant issued . This is a major deal for the country. I want to get to the bottom of it. He knows what hes talking about. Whats at stake is the reputation of the u. S. Country of america, you might say. The president accused the u. S. Government under his predecessor of tapping his phones. Wow. Well, senator tim kaine said today that kind of behavior coming from the white house has its effect. Lets watch. So that hes saying he was wiretapped or that his, you
know, inaugural crowd was bigger than it was. It shouldnt surprise us, but it is shocking. You dont want to see that behavior in the president. Ive wanted congress to up its game in the Previous Administration and we definitely have to up our game in this one because, you know, our citizens and folks around the world, theyve got to see some adult behavior. Theyre not seeing it out of the white house right now. Joining me, senator chris murphy of connecticut, member of the Foreign Relations committee. Senator, i know you hear this, im hearing it from my family, im hearing it from paul today in rwanda. Countries All Around The World that look up to us, even if theyre left, right or center or corrupt or clean, they do look up to the United States as a good model for how to run a democracy. Representative democracy. And theyre changing their minds now. Yesterday, in the paper today, this is rwanda talking, rwanda, saying theyre no longer going to look to the west because we dont know how to run a country anymore. Family members over in vietnam hearing the same thing from the communists. Its unbelievable what this president is doing with this wiretapping nonsense. The question of whether there is a wiretap or was a wiretap, thats something that congress often asks and doesnt get answers. Okay. Heres a reaction, by the way, senator john mccain to the president s charge. I think that the president of the United States who has stated categorically that trump tower was wiretapped, that he should come forward with the information that led him to that conclusion. Its a very serious charge against the previous president of the United States. 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 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 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
and mr. Obama, himself. Of course, he was. Im joined by the wall street journals carol lee who wrote that article. And the washington posts phil rucker 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 grading him on a curve. Theyre helping him hide. By the way, boehner, when trump was running around saying obama was an illegal immigrant from 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 things they 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 theyll 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 do 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 white house. Its not above your pay grade. Its your job. He got into the job. Decided to be the 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 not necessarily true, tries to find evidence for it. Coming up, the rolling disclosure on the Trump Connection continues. Former Campaign Manager, Cory Lewandowski gave carter page leave to go to moscow last summer. Well get to everything we know about trumps relationship with russia, next. This is hardball where the action is. My hygienist told me. Can you say that anyone had contact with the russians. Nobody that i know of. During the course of the election. How many times do i have to answer if 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 was. 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 three 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 offered 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 17Intelligence 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 hint at where you think this 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, electronic communication, involving the Russian Ambassador and officials who look like they might be under cover. Why 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 announced. And so hopefully were going to 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. When we return, finish with trump watch. This is hardball where the action is. A criminal, no leader is willing to come Autoand Throw water on the president s fish story. This isnt about how big his hands are or how many people he can see in the Washington Mall or illegal voters were out there last november. Its about truth and untruth. The truth that the russians helped him win the election. Untruth that president obama had him bugged. Buried up tr. He didnt get away it because he blew the whistle and sent him back to the courts and ran him out of politics. To take his bugging accusation and stauf it back where he got it. Thats hardball for now. Thanks for being with us. Join me again tomorrow night at 7 00 eastern, see you then. Tonight on all in we are out in full sell mode