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>> yes, yes. >> a good laugh was had by all. even the president doesn't know or care, 25 journalists have been killed in russia since 2000. we should also point out that one year ago today, a mass shooter killed five employees of the "capital gazette." let's talk about this with james clapper. >> director clapper, when you see and hear this kind of levity between the president and vladimir putin, i'm wondering what goes through your mind. >> i think for the president and his supporters, he was smoking and joking. for me it was kind of a -- i don't know stunning but not surprising to treat a pr...

You, your thoughts on the fact that, you know, the chair of the fec, we never hear from these folks, right? most americans are not going to know who ellen weintraub s the fact that she had to come out and say unequivocally, let me make something 100% clear to the american people, it's illegal for any person to solicit that stuff. how big is that? >> it's huge. as far as i can recall unprecedented. i don't recall, you know, an official in the white house being called out for a hatch act violation. there is all kinds of unprecedented things here that are, you know, stunning, but not surprising. ...

For concern. you know, kind of the message i'm getting now two and a half years later is what we should have done is ignored what the russians were doing. >> we've talked about this many times before. the information is the interference with this in the way russian interfered in 2016 in other countries. the stolen clinton and podesta emails, information weaponized in effect. it's the interference. so if a u.s. president or a candidate for president or another politician accepts some information, listens to some information, are they aiding the foreign government's interference? >> in essence t...

They have information. i think i'd take it, if i thought there was something wrong i'd go maybe to the fbi if i thought there was something wrong, but when someone comes up with upper research and they come up with upper research, oh let's call the fbi and you talk honestly to congressmen. they all do it and always have and that's the way it is. it's called opp ore search. >> claiming that's just the way it's done. author of "facts and fears. hards truths from the life of intelligence." director clapper, is this just the way it's done? >> it certainly isn't, anderson. i've run out of adjective...

It's called oppo search. >> claiming that's just the way it's done. joining us is james clapper. author of "facts and fears. hard truths from the life of intelligence." director clapper, is this just the way it's done? >> it certainly isn't, anderson. i've run out of adjectives to react or describe a reaction to this. incredible, amazing, stunning and disturbing that the president would advocate the use of accepting information provided by a foreign country, notably, a foreign adversary and in doing so completely overlooking the fact that this could well be, probably would be disinformation, i...