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It really questions whether this man should have security clearance and in my opinion he's not acting like a responsible adult and shouldn't have security clearance at this point. >> your problem is not necessarily having a backchannel but having one that would use the russian embassy and washington communications and not go through u.s. communications, it is that right? >> yes. the biggest problem here is the fact that you're trying to hide something. our domestic agencies are not going to be listening in on regular chatter between government agencies and government heads to foreign heads. it...

Extending to general flynn, hesitate to the say this, the stupidity to believe that in this environment as the incoming president that you're going to v a backchannel, that's not secret. whoever made this decision had to know it's going to go south. it's remarkable arrogance. >> on top of all of this, the president has major decisions. he's got to make and presumably fairly soon, has to decide on a new fbi director. several people have taken their names out of consideration. >> so right before donald trump left for his trip we heard no decision was made, he had soured on joe lieberman and whil...

>> there really is no excuse, naivety or not. he's roughly my age. i know of young men and women have that security clearances that are much younger than him that serve in the military. they note consequences of their actions. you know, he needs to realize that this is the grown-up world now. if he cannot handle his job, he needs to turn in his security clearance and go back to doing real estate in new york city. this is serious work and people's lives are at stake and there's no difference whether it was ma initials or unintentional. >> when he had the contacts with certainliy kislyak, michae...

Me. son-in-law, national security adviser incoming within six weeks or otherwise until inauguration seven weeks. we have an issue that's prominent during the campaign, russian meddling during the campaign. we have the president who has repeatedly spoken, something that's controversial, about improving ties with a dictator that's vladimir putin and his team, people who are next to him every single day on a prominent national security issue are going and saying i want a special channel with the russians and the president-elect doesn't know. can you sell me a bridge to brooklyn, i don't buy it. >...

Defended the reputation of the fbi. >> for the men and women of the fbi, uncompromising integrity both personal and institutional is the core value. >> reporter: the administration isn't denying the kushner reports. >> any channel of communication, back or otherwise with a country like russia, is a good thing. >> reporter: instead, homeland security secretary john kelly spent sunday morning playing down the severity of the situation. >> there's a lot of different ways to communicate, backchannel, you know, publicly, with other countries. i don't see any big issue here relative to jared. >> i d...