Well break it down and President Obamas spirited Farewell Speech included a forceful defense of his record, an emotional thank you to the first family. It falls to each of those to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy, to embrace the joyous task that weve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. I will be right there with you as a citizen all my remaining days. Tonight, as im sure you heard, theres a stunning report thats surfaced regarding what donald trump was told last week in his briefing of russias roll in the u. S. Election. The materials prepared for trumps Briefing Last Friday included information that made
damaging allegations about trumps deelgts with the russians. The Officials Say that the material initially circulated among opponents of donald trump and was passed to u. S. Intelligence agency. The information has not been verified and the sources would not comment on the nature of the allegations. Neither of the officials said that the fbi was actively investigating the information. But according to reports by cnn and the washington post, the material summarized allegations that the russians have compromising material on trumps personal life and financial dealings. Donald trump tweeted this allcapped response tonight, fake newsa total witch hunt. Tomorrow donald trump is supposed to be holding his First Press Conference since july. In an interview with lester holt, President Obama had this to say. Mr. President before we sat down there was a word from source that is the intel report on Russian Hacking had
this work will continue after i leave. Congress in possession of both the classified and unclassified reports that the President Elect and his administration in possession of the classified and unclassified reports will take it seriously and now get to work reinforcing those mechanisms that we can use to protect our democracy. And we will see more of lesters exclusive interview with President Obama throughout the week on msnbc and nbc news. Joining us, david corn and malcolm. I want to start with you malcolm. We got a little bit of back and forth about it with senator ron white and got a chance to question james comey about a possible investigation by the fbi. Take a listen. There is, however, extensive
press reporting on relationships between the russians and the individuals associated with both the Trump Campaign and the incoming administration. My question for you, Director Comey is has the fbi investigated these reported relationships and, if so, what are the agencys findings . Thank you, senator. I wouldle never comment on investigations whether we have one or not in an open forum like this. So i cant answer one way or another. Will you provide an unclassified response to the question i asked and release it to the American People prior to january 20 . Sir, ill answer any question that i ask but the answer will likely be the same as i just gave you, i cant talk about it. One said he found that ironic. Would you find it surprising malcolm as an intelligence professional if the fbi were not investigating this . Yes. I find it very surprising. Theres the regular Field Offices of the fbi and the main part. But there is a counterintelligence center. These are the spy hunters. These are the people who actually have to run down when american citizens are having liaisons with foreign nations and the activities of the Foreign Intelligence Service ises. If they were operating optimally, if there were real risks, if some of these reports out there even though they may be unsubstantiated and in the political realm a good director would be trying to make sure this is not true. The worst thing that could happen to this nation is if someone using the political process is an actual agent of a foreign intelligence agencyaged infiltrates their way into government. Or if they had enough on him,
they could sort of make the president of the United States do what they want him to do. A letter to comey was released and up ended the election. He said that he believed in a the fbi had explosive info on the trump teams ties to russia. He said eats become clear that you possess scloif information between trump and the russian government. He wanted that information made public. Do you have any reason to believe as a journalistic matter is that that explosive information is this explosive information . Not necessarily. There are several angles into what harry reid or others might have been referring to. We talk about trump and russia. These memos were put together by
the operatives of another nation, which i wrote about before the election, show that or allege that moscow has an ongoing project to cultivate a co on, donald trump for years writing back and that there had been communication between the Trump Campaign and russians and that russia had developed Compromising Information of a personal nature about donald trump. The allegations of the reports that came out during the campaign of ties between trumps inner circle, carter page, who may or may not have been close to the Trump Campaign but also the Campaign Manager and connections they had to russian Business Interests or russian individuals who were close to putin. There are indications that the fbi looked at both those people and maybe others. We just dont know. We know a lot about the fbi investigation of the email server. We know very little about the investigation of the memos and those other associations. Yeah. Malcolm and im glad david brought up that before the election, mother jones was reporting on that, sorts of waving a red flag about the ties and whether or not intelligence officials were aware of it. You, sir, were on with me on my Weekend Program dating back to maybe august and you were saying with a high degree of confidence that there was a likelihood that there was something compromising going on or that the russians had some reason that donald trump was being so slolies tus o them. Is this the kind of thing you were warning about going back to the Republican Convention . Yeah. Actually, the date was july 27
that we first talked about the potential compromise by russian intelligence due to his past. That being said, i think that some of the things that were in david corns reporting have been corroborated by u. S. Intelligence and that is what showed up in the twopage pdb. Its a neat way for the Intelligence Community to actually show information they have confidence in without actually having to show their cards of the sources and the methods of highly classified sources. Sure. For the exact same information. So first, really quickly, could this be being leaked as retaliation for donald trump being so disdainful of the Intelligence Community . O im not sure the Intelligence Community is going to make that kind of leak. This is most probably coming from the political world. Democrats, republicans, congressional staffers, people within various levels of the administration could have done this. This could have come from a lot of different sources. I dont think youll see cia handing off documents. They have a lot of allies handling this for them. An important thing to note is that these memos were sent in from a counterintelligence professional who had a track record helping with u. S. Government agencies and whether they were fully investigated or not, at the end of the day when the Intelligence Community was preparing these memos or assessments for druch and barack obama, they thought it was important enough to include this material and i would hope that they dont give trash to the president or the President Elect, but i do think that its incumbent i know
james comey, as he said today in the hearing i covered, doesnt want to say if an investigation has happened yet or not its getting pretty close to the line. He has to tell the public whether this stuff was looked at or not. I think the American Public has a righto know. Hes very selective with the information he gives out. Malcolm, david, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. The Promise Ed 11 00 a. M. Ne conference went way, way up. Im about to start the Natures Bounty hair, skin and nails challenge to help with lustrous hair, vibrant skin and healthy nails. So in 30 days, my future self will thank me. Thank you. Wait, i become a model . . No. Whose cellphone is that . Sorry. Sorry. Sorry about that vent blowing your hair. Start the hair, skin nails challenge today and notice a difference or your money back. Natures bounty. Like their photo claims tool. It helps settle your claim quickly, which saves time, which saves money. And when they save, you save. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance, an allstate company. Click or call. Esurance does insurance a smarter way, which saves money. Like Bundling Home and auto coverage, which reduces red tape, which saves money. And when they save, you save. Thats home and Auto Insurance for the modern world. Esurance, an allstate company. Click or call. Psst. Hey. Where you going . Weve got that thing you know. Diarrhea . Abdominal pain . But we said wed be there. Woap, who makes the decisions around here . Its me. Dont think ill make it. Stomach again. Send if youre living with frequent, unpredictable diarrhea
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for president. If you travel as an individual, i guess you take more chances than somebody who is a politician. However, we do now have this as something we have to deal with. It came up today when senator Chuck Grassley and his committee were interviewg members of the incoming president s team and members of the current government. Lets listen to Chuck Grassley asking about these new reports. Sure. Tonight that russians may have actually gotten some personal or Financial Information about the President Elect that actually compromise the President Elect. One, have you ever been briefed about t the information about this . I have not. Do you have any concerns about that . Well, of course. If what you described is accurate, I Dont Question that it is accurate, but if it is accurate, yes. I think the best thing we can do is in the area of sanctions. What do you make of this whole thing, rick . These accusations and rumors have been swirling around the intelligence and Diplomatic Community for well over a year now. They were certainly certain to reach a fever pitch over the summer in june and july as david corns reporting and others reporting has indicated. The fact of the matter is donald trump has deliberately of skated his relationships with russia, not only about his travel there and his Business Dealings there but about whether or not many of his companies such as bay rock were involved in what essentially looks to be a set of Business Partnerships and entanglements with russian ol garks and crime families. Theres been a lot of reporting about that. I think what youre seeing is the natural blossoming of this. For two reasons, one, the Intelligence Community is increasingly upset and angry that trump has insulted them repeatedly, tried to put off their investigations repeatedly. I think donald trump has alsov and will be more transpampt about it but he wont. There will be many variations on the stories that are floating around. The fact of the matter is his supporters are making a Big Bet Tonight that the cia and British Intelligence and others are lying or making something up just to hurt drurp politically that had been circulating for quite some time way before the election reached its fever pitch
in november. Theyre saying everyone is simply wrong. What if theyre right . As a former diplomat what could be the risk to the United States if you have a president that a Foreign Intelligence Services have personal information on . All Intelligence Agencies gather intelligence on Major Political figures, including billionaires in the year 2013. So that they were trying to gather intelligence about donald trump, i have no doubt. What i dont know, of course, is what they have and of course i have no idea if what they have could be used in some kind of blackmail way. I dont want to speculate. We need to know more answers and i fear what i really fear is come next friday, were going to forget about this. Were going to say its time to move on. My belief is that we need a
bipartisan investigation of russian interference in the most sovereign act that we do as american citizens, vote for our president. And if we dont have that, were going to be speculating like we were right now. Do you have any yfdconfidence that the Republican Party is going to do that . I have especially folks in the senate on the Intelligence Committee