And theyre being decent to the each other and creative. It kind of gives you hope. They are an amazing combination of good soldiers and leaders at the same time. Thanks, rachel. Vanity fairs contributing editor has been watching Donald Trumps moves for decades she knows more about donald trump than most of the political reporters who have only covered him a couple years. She said something this week, we should keep in mind about every trump story, in an interview with the british paper she said, everyone says he is crazy, which maybe he is, but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as donald trump. You just dont. And donald trump proves that every time he says this. Im like a really smart person. I have a very high aptitude and intelligence. I have the best words. I went to the Wharton School of finance. Trust me, im a smart person. No smart person has ever said any one of those things. So when donald trump gets caught doing something very, very stupid, he always has to publically pretend that its the right thing to do. Even when he privately realizes that it wasnt the right thing to do. So today the Los Angeles Times reports that President Trump was privately furious today, all day, just furious, that his white house leaked the fact that he was specifically told, warned do to the congratulate before he made a phone call to Vladimir Putin yesterday and congratulated Vladimir Putin for winning the rigged election of russia. Putin himself of course rigged the election by jailing his toughest opponent. Something no doubt donald trump would like to do. The white house leaked in the briefing materials given to donald trump before the phone call, it said in capital letters, do not congratulate. Theres more than one reason why donald trump then congratulated Vladimir Putin. But one of the reasons thats always present in what donald trump does, is what fran lieberman said about him, the scary thing about him is that he is stupid. That is deeply scary because that would mean even a well intentioned version of donald trump could make deadly mistakes as president of the United States. The Associated Press is reporting he has told confidants the leak was meant to embarrass and undermine him said white house officials. So donald trump thinks the leak was meant to embarrass him. How could it embarrass him if congratulating Vladimir Putin was the right thing to do, the smart thing to do. Unless after the fact donald trump realized how wrong it was to congratulate Vladimir Putin for winning an election rigged by Vladimir Putin. Unless he realized it made donald trump look stupid and incompetent and possibly a partner of Vladimir Putin or a servant of Vladimir Putin, a colluder with Vladimir Putin. So while he spent the day furious and embarrassed by the leak to not congratulate. We had to publically be proud of the thing that we know embarrasses him. So he tweeted i called president putin of russia to congratulate him on his election victory. The l. A. Times is reporting one person who speaks regularly with white house officials said the most recent leak seemed more geared toward infantilizing trump who has ignored numerous suggestions that he rebuke putin. Im sure theres going to be a scalping over this. How is the leakiest white house in history going to catch the person or persons responsible for this particular leak . We now know that all of the white house leakers have signed a completely ridiculous and unenforceable confidentiality agreement that they violate every time they leak something. It was the trump familys idea to force them to sign the nondisclosure agreements. Ivanka trump was a cheerleader of the idea. It was a stupid idea. In all of the reporting today, every account stresses, as the l. A. Times put it, white house chief of staff john kelly also is said to be infuriated, on a warpath according to the person in close contact with National Security officials. John kelly is, of course, on the suspect list for this leak. If not suspect number one. He does leak to the press. John kelly does speak off the record to the press. John kelly is unprofessional and incompetent when he speaks to the press. John kelly has lied to the press and been caught in those lies. John kelly has told reporters completely inappropriate things like exactly where in the bathroom Rex Tillerson was sitting when john kelly told him on the phone he was fired. The president is probably not entirely right when he tells people that the leak was meant to embarrass him. The leak was also meant to remove the embarrassment from the white house staff. The embarrassment that the president of the United States congratulated Vladimir Putin for winning the election he won. Most people have no idea how wrong it is for donald trump to congratulate Vladimir Putin for winning the election that Vladimir Putin rigged. Does the white house believe the election in russia was free and fair . In terms of the election, they were focussed on our elections. We dont get to dictate how other countries operate. What we do know is that putin has been elected in their country. And thats not something that we can dictate to them how they operate. We can only focus on the freeness and fairness of our elections. There is no publically Available Evidence that she is even 1 smarter than that answer. But some other people in the white house are, and they were no doubt embarrassed and infuriated that donald trump did congratulate Vladimir Putin after he was told not to. So they probably wanted to put the stain of that embarrassment where it belongs, which is entirely on donald trump. And they wanted to send the signal to the rest of us, and to the world, that not everyone in the white house thinks that Vladimir Putin should be congratulated for winning a fraudulent election. Thats a good thing to know. We are better off tonight knowing that not everyone in the white house is in putins pocket. There was only one way to communicate that, through this leak. Now in my experience in government i found that people who leak are often the ones who pretend to be the most infuriated about the leak. So john kelly, trying to get the word out to every reporter in every newspaper, that hes infuriated about the leak makes him no less a suspect. And another likely suspect is, of course, donald trump himself. Who we know is constantly complaining to people outside the white house, on the phone about his white house staff. And its entirely possible that donald trump himself told several people that they actually wrote do not congratulate on his notes. And that one of those people, or many of those people, might be among the leakers of this information. The weakness of that theory, of course, is that donald trump actually read any of the words that were written for him in his briefing materials before getting on the phone with Vladimir Putin because donald trump famously does not read. The president made the call to Vladimir Putin, not from the oval office where theyre made surrounded by experts, he made it from the residence. Its not clear who was present during the phone call. For those details we might have to wait for the next Michael Wolff book or the next Michael Wolff like book that will be supplied by all those people who signed all those nondisclosure agreements in the white house. Joining us john hileman and ted price. So john hileman, theres going to be a scalp, according to the l. A. Times theyre going to find the leaker and fire the leaker. How many leakers so far have been fired . There have been a lot of people fired. Some of them have been leakers. But how many have been fired for a specified leak. I believe that number had to be zero. Close to zero if not zero. I think theres a leaker might be h. R. Mcmaster, at some point kelly is going to get fired. The only person not fired by donald trump is donald trump. I dont think anything is going to happen in terms of personnel changes. I think there are interesting theories about what generated the leak. Go ahead. The two main competing theories, if its not donald trump, seem to be one the National Security establishment is upset about the fact that trump cozies up to putin at every opportunity. And the other is peoples vanity has been wounded by the notion they put this briefing paper in front of donald trump, they told him do not congratulate and then he disregarded his advise. Again, like you said, the people who complain about leaks are usually leakers. And its the argument on principle that hes too upset about putin, or the argument on vanity for ignoring my advice, its usually vanity. Or it can be both. Upset the advice wasnt followed but also believe it was good advice and they want to get the message out that there are people in the white house that dont think like donald trump. As we know this white house is a snake pit. Its hard to disentangle one leak from the next, especially when you look to motivation. Some days its vanity, fewer days i think its principle. This is interesting, though, because i think this may be one of those leaks of principles. When you look the Washington Post description, it describes them as two officials familiar with the note card. There was no den graduation of other officials. It was just a very simple leak that the president failed to heed the headline of that note card. When you read the headline, it doesnt seem they leaked any classified information. Do not congratulate is not classified. Theres no classified information there, especially when President Trump himself said he had spoken with Vladimir Putin before the story came out. I think like most leaks in the white house, there is a compelling case that maybe this was done on principle, people seeking to do right, to remember the oath they took, to protect against all enemies foreign and domestic. Let me go back to one point. There have been comments this is classified material, the president s briefing material for a call with the president of russia. So any leak of that could even be illegal. But were you making the point did i hear you make the point that there can be material within those files that is not classified . Especially if its a separate card that says do not congratulate. And since thats not classified material, that would not be a violation . Its a little bit complicated. You have a briefing package for the president and that package, the entire package is classified secret or top secret. But individual discreet snip ets within that packet can be unclassified. To me that headline seems unclassified. If they wanted this call secret, if they wanted the call between donald trump and Vladimir Putin to never see the light of day. Thats not the case. The kremlin, as it always does, went to the press immediately. Donald trump later gloated to the White House Press he had this conversation with putin. So theyre not trying to keep the call secret. So there seems nothing secret to me in the headline of that note card. Lets look at the reaction to this, which was stronger than usual. I dont agree with congratulating putin. You dont congratulate with someone for a fake election. Every time you talk to putin and give him a pass, that emboldens him. I see a lack of credibility, calling him now i dont know why the president felt like calling Vladimir Putin on a fake election. Poisoning people with nerve gas is a criminal activity, i wouldnt have a conversation with a criminal. Mitch mcconnell never criticizes the president. And the way he put it calling him wouldnt have been high on my list but for Mitch Mcconnell thats the anger equivalent of grassley saying i wouldnt have a conversation with a criminal. Or calling the president an idiot. The chorus of republicans here outspokenly saying it was a mistake for the president to call Vladimir Putin to congratulate him and to not raise any issues of contention, race the 2016 election meddling, the poisoning in the uk, that very chorus points back to the question of the leak. Which is that there is such a giant bipartisan establishment consensus on it being a bad idea for trump to have done these thing so you can imagine john kelly or h. R. Mcmaster or any other white house official wanting to broadcast to the world were with you, we know this was a bad idea. Dont blame us. Theres one culprit here, the guy in the big chair who couldnt read the big block letters that said do not congratulate. Im washing my hands on him. Ned price thank you very much, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Coming up, he is afraid of the president of russia. And we already know, just by saying that sentence, we know who were talking about. But you might not know who said it this time. A lot of people have said it. And we now know that the man who Jeff Sessions fired last friday night had authorized an investigation of Jeff Sessions. What does it take to make Digital Transformation actually happen . It takes dell technologies, a family of seven Technology Leaders working behind the scenes to make the impossible. Reality. Were helping to give cars the power to read your mind from anywhere. And were helping up to 40 of the nations donated blood supply to be redirected to the people that need it most. Magic cant make Digital Transformation happen. But we can. Looking for a hotel that fits. Whoooo. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. I think hes afraid of the president of russia. So whats the most amazing thing about that statement by president obamas cia director . I think the most amazing thing about it is we all know who hes talking about even though john brennan didnt say a name. He said i think hes afraid of the president of russia. The entire knows who the he is. Because the entire world for the last year has listened to the president talk like hes afraid of the president of russia. The first president of the United States in history to appear to be afraid of russia. As a former director of the cia john berman knows a lot more than he is saying all the time. Its one thing for you or me to say i think the president is afraid of the president of russia, which ive said many times, but thats nothing compared to the former director of the cia saying that. I think hes afraid of the president of russia. Why . I think one can speculate as to why. That the russians may have something on him personally that they can roll out and make his life more difficult. Clearly its important to improve relations with russia. But the fact he has this fawning attitude toward mr. Putin, has not said anything negative about him, continues to say to me that he does have nothing is fear. Hes acting more and more like a corn erred animal lashing out whatever he can and who knows what that corn erred animal can do. He began speaking on morning joe at 7 03, he was interpreted by the special break at 7 18, and then in the middle of what he had to said, President Trump tweeted a quote, special counsel is told to find crimes, whether a crime exists or not. I was posed to the selection of mueller to be special counsel. I am still opposed to it. I think President Trump was right when he said there never should have been a special counsel appointed because so stated by alan dershowitz. The misspelling of the council is not the fault of alan dershowitz, but is fault of the president. The editorial tomorrow is based on what john brennan said today in the new york times. The headline is why is trump so afraid of russia. It goes on to catalog a list of weaknesses in the face of putins aggression. The last line of the editorial is, if mr. Trump isnt mr. Putins lacky, its past time for him to prove it. This afternoon, four star general Barry Mccaffrey said this. Why is this president of the United States acting this way . Do they have something on him . Id say theres a significant they do. Putin is going to stick it to him for sure sooner or later. He has a rope around his neck if theres actually incriminating, embarrassing evidence. Joining us now is jim macina and john hileman is still with us. Jim, i wanted to get your reaction to what john brennan had to say, having worked in the same administration as he has. This is the former director of the cia talking about the president being afraid of putin. Its unprecedented. Lawrence, theres an old country song that says you got to dance with the one who brung you. And donald trump is dancing with Vladimir Putin. Theres no question that he is refusing to criticize him every single moment. I think the interesting thing about what trump did yesterday wasnt what he said in the congratulations, although thats unprecedented, its more what he didnt say. Ive been with president obama when he made these calls. An