This culture is very educational for people. But i think we need to stop believing victims, we need to start believing the women. And i think those are strong words that the white house would probably take issue with. So that is why you are here. Thank you all. That does it for us. Mtp daily starts right now. Hi, chuck. Thank you for all of that. If it is tuesday, russia could be meddling right now. Is anybody in the u. S. Government watching . Tonight the nations intelligence chiefs say russia is targeting the midterm elections. And the white house isnt trying to stop it. Has the president directed you and your agency to take specific actions to confront and blunt russian influence activities . Not as specifically drektsed by t directed by the plus. Plus the fbi director con are
a Difficults Tcontradicts The W claims about what they knew and when. And some democrats are pushing further left to battle president trump. Is anyone even trying to hold the middle ground . This is mtp daily and it starts right now. Good evening. Im chuck todd here in washington. Welcome to mtp daily. The fbi raised serious questions about the white houses time line regarding what it knew about the allegations of spousal abuse Facing Rob Porter and when they first knew about it. You will hear how the white house is struggling to get its story straight again. And well dive into that in just a moment. But well begin with even more unbelievable testimony from our nations intelligence chiefs today on the issue of russia. We heard from the director of national intelligence, cia chief, fbi director and the nsa
point out understanding a threat is not the same thing as combatting it. Well speak with senator reed in a moment. But lets sum again. Were under attack. Russian intent is under way. And there is no clear strategy. And president isnt asking about one. John mccain has called the meddling an act of war. So can you imagine if say a year after another act of war like 9 11 the president didnt have a strategy to fight back . Despite Intelligence Community warnings him of another attack or an attack that is ongoing, okay now imagine that the president wasnt even asking about a strategy to fight back. Joining me now is Michael Leiter and former director of National Counter terrorism center. Welcome back. Good to be here. You raised i dont you are a your Aye Broweeyebrows in surpr. A lot let unsaid, but the
created. And we looked it up, it was some task force out there, but there still seems to be an accumulation mode. In fairness again to this group, as intelligence groups, it is not their job simply implement policy. So it is the state department, defense department, justice department, Treasury Department who have to step up and take action. So these guys are just sounding alarms . They did their jobs today, they sounded all the alarms . No, i dont think they have yet done their job because there are tools of u. S. Power through the nmsa, fbi, cia, covert act and the like, that can be tools to counter this russian campaign. But they have to be directed by policymakers. Lets use a really simple example. They sounded the alarm less than a month ago when the white house had to respond with potential substantials as punishment for russian involvement in the 2016
election. The administration didnt adopt any further sanctions. So that is another clear statement. You have an overwhelming majority bipartisan in the congress. Do something about this. And the policy team and the white house have not moved in that direction. Clint watts sunday said there is not ever we can do if there is not a unified message out of the federal government. And at the end of the day, when the president is not saying the same things as his intelligence heads, there is no unified message. I dont think there is any doubt that right now the president s general opposition to the Mueller Investigation has completely overwhelmed the white houses ability to speak with a single voice not about that issue of collusion, but what the russians are doing now. That has to stop. If you were still running the counterterrorism center, would you be classifying what russia did as a state sponsored Terrorist Attack . And would that matter . Our elections, but to protect our banks, our dams, all of these pieces. And i think the chinese and russians still see this as an area where they can operate with relative impunity. Not completely, but they can do things in cyberspace that if they did in spphysical space, i russians tried stuff a balance lo ballot box, we could address them. But we dont have the same set of standards to know what the appropriate response should be. Ill leave it there. As always, appreciate you doing this without the partisan political perspective. Coming at it from a guy who has been in the room. Thank you. Joining me now is democratic senator jack reed, he have one of the tougher questioners at the hearing and frankly i think asked the question that turned out to give the most alarming answer. Welcome to the show, sir. Thank you. Did you expect anything different when you asked that
great integrity and responsibility responding to questions as best they could in an open setting. And i think that is something very commendable. I think they displayed integrity and fidelity to their responsibilities. So what does this tell you . They are basically waiting to be told what the policy is, they may have ideas, but they cant necessarily implement them on their own. What did you take away from this that needs to be the next step for you . Well, i think what they indicated was their responsibility is to provide the information to the president , very deep tailed information. Their responsibility to congress, to the American People, is in an appropriate way provide information. They did that today. And then the next step lies with the president to order effective planning and take effective action to stop these penetrations as best as possible. He had the opportunity with sanctions. He chose not to do that. But at some point unless we will allow sort of untrampled actions to our elections, we have to take steps to stop russian incur against. I remember if the white house didnt create bowlessimpson, they would do it on their own. There hasnt been an Iraq Study Group or a 9 11 commission. I know senator mccain was a big one pushing for some sort of commission to try to come up with okay what do we do now. Set aside the mueller part of this. More of a strategic sense. Could you force the president s hand and set up your own commission at this point, is that at direction to go here if he is not going to respond on a policy front . Well, i think we could do that. Obviously we could length lakoc Something Like that. It would take time and we dont have a lot of time. But who is doing it now . Weve been sitting here 18 months with nothing. I understand that, but i think the most effective thing that can be done is to focus public attention as we tried to do today on the responsibility of the government led by the president to take effective actions. The other factor too, there is a lot of peace meof piece meal acg on. You have lots of sectors of state that are taking some steps, but we havent gotten the coordinated response that we need from the federal government. That was what was evidenced today by very honorable and decent Public Servants saying weve done our job, but our job is not to many cases plan and execute a responsibility to this russian incursion. At what point should some people conclude that it is almost as if the white house wants the intervention . Well, i dont think it is so much that they want the intervention. I just think that they do not want to dwell on russian
penetration of an election because of all of the Clouds Circling around 2016, the collusion you mentioned yourself, that i think is the great stumbling block. It is essentially i think prevented the president from focusing on 2018 and looking at 2018 as a challenge to him and to the country. I think he tends to listen but not to act. And that is detrimental to our democracy. Have you changed anything of how you conduct business for fear of how the russians might come at like whether its your campaign, your Senate Office . I think every campaign, particularly the active ones now, have taken steps to protect information, to ensure only using trusted sources to be very careful about email. I think that is now a fact of life. An unfortunate one, but it is
fact of life. Do you have the kind of Financial Support lets say within congress to change the way you do business on a Security Front or do you feel like there is more work to be done on in a front . I think this is such a tremendous challenge because of evolving technology that in terms of our communications as senators, that has to be worked on constantly. As campaigns. Ten years ago, 20 years ago, you said not have to hire someone to be your Security Expert for electronic communications. Now most campaigns are doing just that. And it will be evolving. The threat will not diminish, it will grow as Technology Yeef Invol evolves. Is there is a Point Of No Return if the president doesnt focus attention on this and get departments focused on protecting the midterms in 2018, is there is a point evof its t late now . I think every day that goes by, we are closer to an election which if the perception is that its been significantly influenced by outside forces, russian or otherwise, Will Cast Doubt On our democracy. And frankly that is what the russians are trying to do. Not just the russians, that is what they are trying to do, they are trying to doubt our democracy processes, trying to question the legitimacy ever what we do every two years. For our lifetime, the history of the country, weve taken a great symbol of america. We have free and Fair Elections that are based on the votes of the American People, not the influence of outside entities. Jack reed, democrat from rhode island, long time Ranking Member on armed services. Thank you sir much appreciated. Up ahead, the fbi contradicts the trump administrations version of the rob porter time line. And we now know about a new Security Agency within the white
house in a apparently oversees all this stuff. So why does the white house keep changing its version of the story . This new day looks nothing like yesterday. Trails are covered. Paths arent what they used to be. Roads nowhere to be found. and its exactly what youre looking for. when heartburn hits. And its exactly what youre looking for. Fight back fast with tums smoothies. It starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum. Smoothies. Only from tums
frets about losing his tennessee seat. But these reports raise a lot of questions. First, is this really about concern that republicans will lose that seat or is it more about a washington establishment concern that a nonestablishment figure perhaps like a republican congresswoman named Marsha Blackburn might win that seat . Wanted to, could corker win a gop primary begin his past statements on trump . Hed likely need an endorsement from the president if he was going to do this. And whether hed get that and whether hed ask for it are also questions. Well be back with more of mtp daily. Re wrap. 3, 2, 1. Not cool. Freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting . Now thats cool coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. And no surgery. Results and Patient Experience may vary. Some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. Ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting. Com today. For your chance to win a free treatment. Going somewhere . Whoooo. Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more. Than 200 Booking Sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. Had a little incident witht kia moped in bermuda. E. Oh. Even with insurance, we had to dip into our 401 k and it set us back a little bit. Sometimes you dont have a choice. But it Doesnt Mean You Guys cant get back on track. Great. Great. Yeah. No judgment. Just guidance. Td ameritrade. Welcome back. Another Major Development today at the Senate Hearing was this, chris wray appeared to directly contradict the white houses account of what it knew about the allegation of spousal abuse Facing Rob Porter and when. The white house said the fbi review was on goiging on. At the same time, fbi says nope,
it was quote closed. White house said they hadnt received any specific papers about a completed Background Check. The fbi says they did most certainly give that information to the white house. Which kept him on staff and kept giving him access to sensitive information. And the fbi says it gave the white house a partial report on porter last march months earlier than the white house has reportedly claimed it first learned there was any issue. This afternoon Sarah Huckabee sanders was again repeatedly pressed on the time line. Christopher wray said it was closed in january. Who is telling the truth . Both. As i said, the fbi portion was closed. The White House Personnel Security Office who is the one that makes the recommendation forred a jude da ed a juadjudic finished their work or made a recommendation to the white house. And you said yesterday that you didnt get any paperwork from the fbi. Chris wray says he did submit
paperwork. Again, that would come through the White House Personnel Security Office which had not completed their investigation and not passed that information to the white house. Well, lets bring in the panel. Elaine cooper, Eugene Robinson and danielle plutka. Ill start but, you have covered Whout White Houses and the Security Clearance issues. The new piece of information that Sarah Huckabee sanders has given us is now the White House Personnel Security Office which tells me that what she is saying is the fbi Background Checks were simply suggestions. That is essentially what shes confirming, they were suggestions and they would take them into account with whatever extra vetting they were doing. Which we did not know. We did not. This is watching that Press Conference today, i felt it was incredibly surreal. It seems as if this white house has sort of lost the ability even to state just things that would seem completely true in any kind of a credible way. And when she starts dancing around like that, it just came across as some sort of circular where you keep going around and around an argument where she lost all credibility whatsoever. It feels to me that if the problem is white house staffers arent telling each other the truth because they dont have their straight story. Well, lets ask the White House Personnel Security Office whatever that is. Who is in a nthat thain a that . Im sure that i thought the white House Counsel office
was the head of vetting. Thats how Houshl It Comko through. But if the fbi says there is a problem, there is a problem. This is all highly weird for a number of reasons. I feel sorry for Sarah Huckabee sanders when i watch her because i think a lot of this is actually driven by incompetence and not by today screams incompetence. But i still dont understand. I had a Security Clearance. I had an interim Security Clearance. In my day when you had interim, you could only have up to secret. This man was the Staff Secretary. Weve forgotten in the wife beating who told who what what his job was. He carries papers to the president of the United States. That means that every single thing that went to the president no matter what its classification was being carried by this gentleman. And what i dont understand is how. I mate to be crass, but if you were a foreign entity and you were looking to go after a
person that the public didnt know about but you wanted to gets a a source, it would be rob porter. The Staff Secretary is a vulnerable guy. This is why you have a Background Check. Youie treatment right now would be fabulous. Basically the concern was ultimately it is about are you blackmailable. Which this is a central question at the heart of so a person with good character. And i answer two or three of these a week thousand. So you are being called quite a bit. Absolutely. Washington is a small town. And the fact is im sure that the conversation that was head between general kelly and rob was very straightforward. So im hearing you got a little trouble with some of your exwives. Yeah, you know, a lot of rancor, not a pretty divorce. Probably ill fix it. Probably said ill take care of it. And nobody bothered to say hey, so punched one in the face . And why do we have two . One i might be able to say okay, maybe there is a