host: that with lindsey graham saying that the appointment of the special counsel will in pizza work on capitol hill. other headlines from the meeting behind closed doors -- he said , rod rosenstein, he knew that james comey would be fired before he wrote the memo. he said -- two hotlines were dropped -- disco bombshells were dropped. lawmakers,o rosenstein confirmed that the investigation into russia is no longer strictly a counterintelligence investigation. a kind of probe that doesn't normally result in charges. he said he was aware that trump was firing comey prior to writing the memo that the white house used as the excuse for the dismissal. all members are getting a briefing today. we will have our cameras outside of that meeting to talk to any members coming up. coming up, we talked to jim hunt. a member of the intelligence committee. aboutl talk to him questions that he had. in the meantime, back to your phone calls and thoughts. ted, a democrat. you agree with the president that this is dividing the country? problem is that outside interference and the rich trying to stir up

lindsey graham has entered the hearing room. we'll see members of the hearing trickle in before we see the witnesses. but this will be interesting from the opening statements to the first round of questions. as i mentioned, matt miller is here with us. he's a veteran of the justice department and the only member of our group here in the studio who knows and has worked with sally yates. matt, i think it's fair to say that even people who follow politics closely first heard the name sally yates the night she refused to put into motion the muslim ban as proposed and signed and enforced by the trump administration. she was dismissed. she was acting attorney general. in my memory, what gave her that distinction was she could act on warrants, and they needed someone in that job. are we correct so far? and tell us about the sally yates you know. >> you're right, she was one of the only people that could approve them. sally yates is a classic career prosecutor. she spent years as a line assistant attorney general in georgia, prosecuted

republicans senator lindsey graham said the president should pick somebody within the fbi ranks. the minority leader, chuck schumer, said the new fbi director should be someone of not a partisan background. former president obama's supreme court nominee, merrick garland is in the mix. the former aid to mitch mcconnell said the senate majority leader supports the idea of merrick garland as the next fbi director. even though he and other republicans refuse to hold hearings for him as a supreme court justice. catherine herridge has more. catherine? >> merrick garland, is that a name the president would possibly consider in the move to name the new fbi director? >> the search for a new fbi director is being handled by the department of justice. my expectation would be as they conduct that search, they'll present names to the president. they're the ones leading the effort. >> a senate republican that sits on the committee that will handle the hearings for the next fbi director said sunday that garland is an inspired choice. >> it's a great suggestion. absolutely serious about it. this

i think as lindsey graham has said, nonpartisan, nonpolitical. >> always appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks, don. nice being with you. >>> how conservative media spends the trump presidency. you're going to be hanging out in here. so if you need anything, text me. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. ...doesn't happen by accident. but we've got the get tdigital tools to help. now with xfinity's my account, you can figure things out easily, so you won't even have to call us. change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. add that premium channel, and watch the show everyone's talking about, tonight. and the bill you need to pay? do it in seconds. because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. go to xfinity.com/myaccount >>> the president not holding back today saying the appointment of a special counsel hurts the country and calling the russia investigation the single greatest w

south carolina senator lindsey graham says republicans got our clock cleaned. if the bill survives the house, the next step is the senate which could vote as early as tomorrow. let's get back to chief white house correspondent john roberts. john? >> jon, the white house is pushing back very aggressively against this idea that they got rolled by the democrats over the spending bill insisting the president got a lot of his priorities. the omb director, mick mulvaney, frustrated and now happy with the way the democrats have played this. the democrats went to get some sort of a compromise bill. they were willing to give up some things. the democrats came out of the negotiations spiked the football and said we won. here's what mulvaney said about that earlier today on fox. >> they were desperate to show we couldn't govern. desperate to show that we were unreasonable, that people made a bad choice in president trump and what we're hearing, everybody recognized he cut a good deal, he worked with democrats because we have to, we need 60 votes to do that. people forget

>> shepard: the white house has said that lindsey graham look into president trump's business dealings to see if there's ties to russia. senator graham said it would be helpful to see his tax returns. but that it's too early to say whether the senator will attempt to subpoena them. this comes after senator graham yesterday asked the former director of national intelligence james clapper whether he was worried about possible connections between president trump's business interests and russian officials. clapper said he couldn't comment because the issue could be part of an ongoing investigation. president trump has so far refused to release his tax returns and as we reported here, he's called the investigations into potential collusion between the campaign and russia a total hoax. back to john roberts. john? >> i spoke with somebody close to senator graham. this person insists this is being blown out of proportion. senator graham was musing an answer about whether or not he would want to investigate president trump's business dealings in russia. this person that i talked to pointing out

senator lindsey graham was asked whether clapper sticks by it. >> we include any evidence in our report, that is nsa, fbi, cia with my office, director of national intelligence, that had anything to do, any reflection of collusion between members of the trump campaign and the russians. no evidence of that included in our report. >> but does it exist? >> not to my knowledge. >> is that still accurate? >> it is. >> my answer would require me to reveal classified information. i think director clapper said he was unaware of the counterintelligence investigation. >> bret: you have this report said to be signed off by the fbi, cia, nsa. not every -- but the intelligence giving this report and giving the conclusion they didn't have evidence of collusion. sally yates is saying i can't talk about it because there was an ongoing investigation he didn't know about. >> clapper stood by the testimony saying that the best of his knowledge, again today, it wasn't happening. it appears there was an investigation happening, for whatever reason, people weren't giving him that information. >> bret: becaus

i thought lindsey graham had a very deft line of questioning when he asked them, do you still stand by the statement that the trump campaign wasn't spied on? he said absolutely. he said, did you get a warrant, a fisa warrant on carter page? he said, i want to answer that question. he didn't answer it, partly because were not supposed to talk about fisa warrant, but partly because it would completely contradict what had said. he also mentioned there were material inconsistencies between what comey had told had been in dianne feinstein in private meetings and the information they were getting from the justice department's. this was the more interesting part for my perspective. >> bret: jonah. >> first off, let me say that i am nauseated by director comey's misuse of the word nauseous. more broadly, -- >> bret: thank you for the grammarian element. >> the thing that i find flabbergast dating, and at it brought back and triggered the campaign, why aren't they in jail? i have friends and family who have intelligence, have security clearance, that would be carted out of the building in handc

i've given the letter to senator lindsey graham. he has the letter and i think frankly, i assume he's going to give the letter out but it says i am not involved in russia. no loans, no nothing. >> did you worry at all when you made the decision to fire comey when you did? the day before lavrov was here? did you think through the optics? >> it was set up awhile ago and frankly, i could have waited, but what difference does it make? i'm not looking for cosmetics. i'm looking to do great job for the country. i'm looking to create jobs. i'm looking to create strength and security. i'm looking to have i'm looking for things like that. it's a good thing i meet with people. this is a public meeting because when you cover this, the people watching may say oh, he met with lavrov like a number of days ago i spoke in a good conversation, very public in the sense they knew this was taking place. i talk all the time. i spoke with the new head of the south korea that got elected. i speak with the head of india. i speak with the head of china. i h

graham who said that he's not sure he buys this report. listen to what he had to say on state of the yun. >> i don't know who leaked this supposed conversation, but you have the ambassador to russia reporting back to moscow on an open channel. hey, jared kushner's going to move into the embassy. i don't trust this story as far as i can throw it. i think it makes no sense that the russian ambassador would report back to moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we're monitoring. the whole story line is suspicio suspicious. >> grant oig's defen >> reporter: as we've said, the white house has not confirmed or denied the report, instead saying if it were true, it really wouldn't be that big of a deal. among them h.r. mcmaster the national security adviser and john kelly homeland security sect. meanwhile the president has a busy sunday meeting with advisers about the path going forward public bemeanwhile the busy sunday meeting with advisers about the path going forward public be and we spotted marc kasowitzs attorney retained, and he was s

lindsey graham/ -r- south carolina: "i think it makes no sense that the russian ambassador would report back to moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we're monitoring." butt sot i've never been more concerned and suspicious about all things russia than i am right now."the president deflected reporter questions about kushner.reporter: "mr. president, did jared try to set up a back channel to the russians?"white house officials have not commented on the report. i'm david daniel reporting. (james) still ahead. a driver is caught ramming into cars at random... we'll show you the entire video and hear from an outraged community. plus. a navy skydiver dies when his parachute fails to open during a fleet week celebration. details on the investigation. and. a man in is under arrest after a shooting rampage killed eight people including a sehrrif's deputy... we hear his confession. after the break. who are these people? the energy conscious people among us say small actions can add up to something... humongous. a little thing here. a little thing there. starts to feel like a badge maybe

lindsey graham is not calling for a special prosecutor yet. there's distance yet to cover, i think, before you see any sort of mass defections. >> how that plays out we look ahead to 2018, particularly on the republican side with one gop operative saying you might see people redistance themselves from donald trump the way you saw in 2016 if it continues the way it is. >> you have several congressman running less popular than the president. how do they run on something like healthcare when people don't want to necessarily distance themselves from donald trump? >> a lot of unfinished business, healthcare, tax reform. >> i have unfinished business. i have to stop there. that's all we have for today. happy mother's day to all those mothers out there. mine, my wife, a great mother and katty. there you go. >> thank you. all four of my kids are home. >> all of washington is united behind one wall, john wall. good luck and see you tomorrow and next sunday. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> you can see more end game edge as the blockbuster cyb

lindsey graham is not from a coal state. there's an argument that older voters are more skeptical about climate change and the republican party will dig a deeper ditch with millennials if the president goes forward with this. >> we got so used to the president flipping on campaign promises over the last few months or hedging whether it's moving the embassy to jerusalem or whether it's ripping off nafta that i think this is more of a surprise to some of us because we had gotten used to, well, he'll flip to whatever the kind of conventional position is ultimately. and he didn't do that this time pep stuck to his campaign promise. so i can't say that i'm actually all ta surprised. the incentives for his base are entirely to pull out of the ingredient. yeah, there are some moderate to liberal folks in this white house who want him to stay in. but i think his near term and longer term political incentives are to pull out of this. >> you mentioned the embassy. elise labott is reporting the president is expected to renew the waiver

people like lindsey graham defending the administration and senator graham, the republican, who last had it tends words against president trump and his for policy with russia. , a then people like senator republican from north dakota who told me it raises questions about why president trump decided to fire director comey. either way, this has rattled washington, d.c. just outside of the white house on our way in, we were hearing shouts from several dozen protesters protesting for more answers, both the minority leader, chuck schumer speaking on the florida senate earlier, questioning the timing and calling for a special prosecutor. haswhat vice president mike had to say moments ago. vice president pence: he took the action needed to remove director comey and the president is evaluating individuals who will be able to fill the spot and lead the fbi. this was the right decision at the right time. kevin: as republicans look to move forward to a couple shrink -- encompassing their priority list -- accomplishing their priority list, senator richard blumenthal who received the wrath of pre

morg morgan, you had dinner last night to senator lindsey graham. he said, we're going to get to the bottom of this. what did he tell you and what's next? >> i think -- and marco rubio was there, as well. impressive room of people. i think what was really interesting is they were very focused on this provision in the leaking. i think this is important. i know democrats are going to say, well, republicans are just using the leaks as a diversion, but if you look actually at the history of the past eight years of the obama administration, they were very aggressive in going after leakers. i think as a former intelligence professional, someone who served bush and obama administrations, what's most worrisome to me in this debate is is intelligence being polite sitpoliticized by administration? there are people working every day who don't want to see political appointees politicizing the intelligence they're using. >> wait -- >> yates and clapper said they did not leak. they have never leaked. >> right. >> so was the sense at the table last night they're g

lindsey graham is not calling for a special prosecutor yet. there's distance yet to cover, i of mass defections. >> how that plays out we look ahead to 2018, particularly on the republican side with one gop operative saying you might see people redistance themselves from donald trump the way you saw in 2016 if it continues the way it is. >> you have several congressman running less popular than the president. how do they run on something like healthcare when people don't want to necessarily distance themselves from donald trump? >> a lot of unfinished business, healthcare, tax reform. >> i have unfinished business. i have to stop there. that's all we have for today. happy mother's day to all those mothers out there. mine, my wife, a great mother and katty. there you go. >> thank you. all four of my kids are home. >> all of washington is united behind one wall, john wall. good luck and see you tomorrow and next sunday. if it's sunday, it's >>> you can see more end game >>> this morning the sworld on edge as the blockbuster cyber attack could ge

so then why is republican lindsey graham calling for an investigation into the president's business ties to moscow? we'll ask house intel committee member eric swalwell about that and former president barack obama in italy for a conference on foot security and climate change. a live report from milan on his speech and what he's saying about some of the trump administration's policy and we are, as we frequently are, a few moments away from the white house press briefing with sean spicer. when that happens, we will bring it to you live. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ all umm...ed. you wouldn't want your painter to quit part way, i think you missed a spot. so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve,

even senator lindsey graham, he is like you, very skeptical. didn't vote for him either. he to determine that donald trump is telling the truth and wants the best for the image of people. with the appointments that he is making, that is proceeding. that is one reason why the other side is so upset. donald trump is succeeding. by creating jobs, reducing unemployment to the lowest level 10 years. over and over again, we see success by following through ssad, responding to the use of chemical weapons, mass murdering citizens, by providing the bomb to kill isis leadership in afghanistan. over and over again, we have a president defending the market people. -- the american people. he was my wife's first choice. she knew better. i do support president trump now and he is telling the truth. host: in new york, mike. caller: good morning, mr. wilson. thank you for having me on. the remarks that the congressman made about north korea are very troubling. front, reaction to "the new york times" article is overwhelming. memo, therehearsay -- it will be thrown out in every court in thi

senator lindsey graham in an interview that he did today said the only thing i can say when it comes to russia, they are an unreliable partner. does the administration share that point of view that russia is an unreliable partner? >> i think first and foremost, you saw by the comments of the three individuals, they were troubled by the report in the "washington post." so that's the first thing i would say. the second thing is -- because again, look. when you go back and realize that three people who were in a very small meeting come out, the secretary of state, the national security advisor and deputy national security advisor, and dispute the account, and yet on the other hand you have a budge of no -- bunch of anonymous sources using leaked information that's disputed from what was actually briefed and not briefed, you realize that that -- you have to question the intention of why that was done. that is something that we're equally concerned with in terms of the report itself. that a leak that came out does this kind of damage. clearly, you've got to wonder why it was done and who

>> sounds like lindsey graham might, who knows? the point is is that it's off the house's agenda. the senate will have pressure. they can't just say we'll ignore it. personally speaking i like to see senators work. >> today was a disappointing day for the united states of america on both sides. you had a republican congress and leadership who failed to fundamentally do their job. i don't care how you voted on the bill but understand what's in it if it's going to affect one seventh of our economy. and democrats who acted as if this was their first rodeo who looked childish. i was disappointed in my of my mentors for singing on the floor when you have women who are going to have breast cancer and won't be able to get insurance. so everybody today sucked and that's the fundamental problem. >> we're using that political jargon, we'll take a break. thanks to everybody. house republicans passed the bill without waiting for the congressional budget office to calculate its cost. we'll drill down on the unknowns and who stands to win and lose the most. ♪i don't care about the funny way y

lindsey graham speaking live. let's listen. >> clinton hired an individual lawyer to deal with all things related to ken starr. so the white house could conduct its business. if i were the president, i would focus on defending the nation and trying to get his legislative agenda through the congress. one of the side benefits of this is that congress has been sidelined, not completely but pretty much. we can go back to dealing with legislative matters that affect the american people. the bottom line, the president may not have liked this decision. it was made. i had questions about it. i honor it. he couldn't have picked a better man to do the job. most people in that meeting are generally okay with the idea of the special counsel. what they don't understand yet -- i would be reluctant to subpoena someone or a document in their possession if i thought they would be part of a criminal investigation. >> did you get an explanation from rosenstein about why comey was fired? >> this is limited to what congress can do. i

graham of texas, mike lee of utah, lindsey graham is one thing off and marching to the beat of his own drummer. he's not in lock-step with the party line on many occasions, but when you have a conservative like mike lee from utah demanding the release of the tapes, or at least suggesting that if they exist, they should be turned over, that's a bad sign for this white house. chris? >> let me go on to what the ranking senate mike warner said, he thinks it's going to be very tough to get democratic support for a new fbi director. are wet ts early stage gettg any sense that democrats are unid on the front? >> the democrats are united. the one thing against democrats not in their favor is the math here in the senate. 52 republicans, 48 democrats. they don't have a majority to do that. so like other big ticket items or high profile items or controversial items, we'll see these time and time again, whether it be health care or the republicans looking into the russian meddling or work in tandem with what is already going on in the senate intelligence committee. incidentally, rod rosenstein was

graham: i would encourage the president to pick somebody we can all rally around, including those who work in the fbi. on meet the press--republicans senator lindsay graham said its time to "clear the air" i think it's time to call the fbi director before the country and explain what happened //you can't be cute about tapes. the tapes in question, those referenced by the president in a friday tweetstorm, when he wrote, james comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! sot - sen. mark warner (d) virginia we have got to make sure that these tapes, if they exist, don't mysteriously disappear. sot - sen. mike lee (r) utah if, in fact, there are such recordings, i think those recordings will be subpoenaed and i think they will probably have to turn them over for his part, president trump, declined to answer questions about those referenced tapes at a golf course sunday, nats up: natsot (yesterday) reporter: mr. president, are you recording any of your meetings in the white house, sir? there are still weighty questions remaining ab

we'll show you lindsey graham, the senator who is with us. he was in charge of that hearing of course. was also the story, members of opportunity at penn state university taking very serious criminal charges after the death of a fellow member. are those charges going too far or not far enough? when we come back. >> in honor of her son, we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that no other parents will have to go through the pain and grief we are currently experiencing. thanks to tena... not anymore! only new tena intimates has pro-skin technology designed to quickly wick away moisture. to help maintain your skin's natural balance. it goes beyond triple protection from leaks, odor and moisture. so you can feel fresh and free to get as close as you want. only tena, lets you be you. ♪ when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. you know how painful heart

. >> lindsey graham is dead wrong. you just have to look at the history and what happened during the watergate case. there was not only the special prosecutor who was investigating the same allegations, but there was also the senate select committee. later on there was the house impeachment committee. each of these entities have their own responsibilities here, and there is no reason why any of these congressional committees should drop the ball. the only part of prediction that comes in on any of these is whether or not you grant immunity to any particular witness. >> right. >> and normally what happens -- >> and if you look at history, that has popped up as a problem in the past. >> well, it popped up with watergate. the first thing i did when i joined cox in may of '73 was to gather all of the evidence on john dean so that we could still prosecute him, knowing that he was going to testify before the senate watergate committee. now, with oliver north, that problem got worse because he was prosecuted, and the supreme

here is senator lindsey graham today talking about that elemen element. >> my advice to the president would be, if you're going to talk to the russians about anything sensitive, run it through the system first. there was an effort by the obama administration to share intelligence with the russians regarding air targets and we pushed back, believing anything you gave the russians would end up in assad's hands. i've never seen anything like the spirit people are taking a law and their own hands. you may not like this president and you may not like what he's doing but it's a crime to take classified information. i think there is a greater good. those who feel the need to share classified information, we need to find who those people are. >> bret: somebody said today, president trump says he wants to drain the swamp. now the swamp is battling back. >> a little bit of unclear water in the swamp. there are two issues. one is the leaking. that's always been an issue, starting with the outing of michael flynn. it's not to say there can only be one story at a time. the separate stories, in the

and yet lindsey graham did not. >> all right. heidi's talking about senator graham voicing ambivalence about special prosecutor. >>> all right. we're going to squeeze in one more break. our panel will be here when we come back. ♪ fun in art class. come close, come close. i like that. [ music stops suddenly ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. awww. try this. for minor arthritis pain, only aleve can stop pain for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. thank you. ♪ come on everybody. you can't quit, neither should your pain reliever. stay all day strong with 12 hour aleve. there's nothing more than my vacation.me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. they offer free cancellation if my plans change. visit booking.com. booking.yeah. surfing is a sport that takes a lot out of you ♪ physically. from the moment i wake up on my tempur-pedic mattress i feel like i'm ready to take on the day. i don't have aches and pains from

republicans like john mccain, lindsey graham, very close to senator lieberman saying it is a good idea. patrick leahy, a veteran senior democratic on the judicialary committee from ver month said this, i was struck by this. nothing against joe, but i think we should have somebody that has not been involved in partisan politics. if the president goes this direction, that's some of the criticism he will be facing here, why name someone in politics, why not someone from the law enforcement community. wolf. >> jeff zeleny reporting for us from the white house. thank you. rod rosenstein who named the special counsel last night was up on capitol hill today briefing the full u.s. senate. let's go to our congressional correspondent, sunlen serfaty. what are you learning? >> reporter: spending about two hours on capitol hill meeting behind closed doors with the full senate. this was scheduled last week in the wake of james comey's firing but certainly taking on new importance tonight, not only with the daily drip of information about this investigation, the appointment of a special council, but

i think once it was probably brought to the president, i think lindsey graham is right. there are probably issues of loyalty that were involved here. there were issues concerning other members of the trump campaign staff that had had relationships with the russians, and where would this possibly end? all of those considerations probably came into play, but very frankly none of that, none of that, should have interfered with the president of the united states taking the right step here which would be to immediately fire general flynn because the possibility of having a national security advisers who might be involved by the russians and that blackmail wouldn't involve money but information from the national security adviser, that would be a serious national security threat to this country. >> we know after 18 days he was fired but only after "the washington post" reported the information suggesting that there was this problem. i don't know this, but a former trump transition was asked how much vetting was done on michael flynn before he was named national security vicer.

>> in fact, i just sent a letter to lindsey graham from one of the most prestigious law firms in the country, a tremendous, highly rated law firm, that i have nothing to do with russia, i have no investments in russia, none whatsoever. i don't have property in russia. a lot of people thought i owned office buildings in moscow. i don't have property in russia. and i am in very -- i mean, i'm in total compliance in every way. i have to tell you, i file documents, hundreds of pages worth of documents with the federal elections bureau. everybody has seen them. i built a great company. but i'm not involved with russia. i have had dealings over the years where i sold a house to a very wealthy russian many years ago. i had the miss universe pageant which i owned for quite a while, i had it in moscow long time ago. but other than that, i have nothing do with russia. >> and one last question on this matter, did you ever -- >> i have a certified letter so you understand. i'm not just saying that. i've given the letter, i've given the letter to senator lindsey graham, he has the letter and i as

we should point out this isn't just lindsey graham shouting this from the sidelines. he is now going to be asked to vote on this. >> it is likely a bill dead on arrival on the senate. we heard that from different senators. bob corker said the way the bill stands now, what's happening with the medicaid expansion. there's some moderates, there's some conservatives there as well. but that is this sentiment about this rushed process is what i'm hearing from republican strategists as well. i was just texting with one. he said that he can't believe that they're rushing this. there's no scoring or anything and it's going to do real harm. the harm he is thinking about is what they're going to hear from democrats. these are basically congress people who are putting their careers on the line the ads right themselves. if you say it's a work in progress it's going to change in the senate, you see what the ads are going to look like in their districts. >> john king, yesterday i was interviewing john portman and he's a senator from ohio. he's just reelected so he doesn't have to wo

i've given the letter to senator lindsey graham. he has the letter, and i think frankly i assume he's going to give the letter out. but it says i am not involved in russia. no loans, no nothing. >> did you worry at all when you made the decision to fire comey when you did, the day before lavrov was here in the white house and the russian ambassador? did you think through the optics of the way this would look? >> i never thought about it. it was set up a while ago, and frankly i could have waited. but what difference does it make? i'm not looking for cosmetics. i'm looking to do a great job for the country. i'm liking to create jobs. i'm looking to create strength and security. i'm looking to have strong borders. i'm looking for things like that. i think it's really a good thing that i meet with people. now, this is a public meeting because you know when you cover this, the people watching may say, oh, he met with love rov. well, this was announced at a meeting with lavrov just like a number of days ago i spoke, had a very good conve

lindsey graham are not ofticizing the firing director comey. mark: is tax reform dead this year? kevin: i'm not sure it is dead. the ability for congress to walk and chew gum at the same time is something they always struggled with. i've spoken with several republicans who have questions and some defending them. question to all of them and they said they are confident that they will be able to move ahead. senator thune raised the issue that this has become a distraction. they needed to put this behind them in order to get to health care. at the end of the day, it will be even more difficult to pass the health care bill out of the senate. they are prepping the white house for answers to let political capital the white house has to use -- the majority is smaller than in the house. it is still a republican-controlled senate. vonnie: thank you. we are continuing to monitor this senate intelligence committee. an annual one on worldwide threats. richard burr just said this is not about russia. this is about greater threats. we have the testimony, pre

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lindsey graham and others have said the same thing. we need to put a marker down this kind of behavior is unacceptable or it will continue to happen. i say to my republican friends it happened to hillary clinton last time. if donald trump crosses vladimir putin it will happen to him next time. we need to get to the bottom of it and ensure our democracy is protected from bad act force like vladimir putin who is probably the most dangerous man in the world right now because of his collusion with all sorts of rogue regimes. >> i defy julie to find 10 people in america whose opinion changed based off a russian hack. the first nine can be liars. >> shannon: we'll put julie down as one. not just me but any polling you saw after that. >> julie's opinion did not change about the election. she was never voting for donald trump. >> shannon: that's fair to say. we won't ask you on the air. that's a private matter. julie and david, thank you very much. >> bill: i don't think we'll get a consensus. a plot out of a james bond film north korea claims

. >> and lindsey graham just tweeted out a bill just provided yesterday. not costed out yet. three hours of final debate should be views with caution. >> i think that senator graham should be very excited because the senate is about to have the ability to work there on the final legislative product. >> michael steele, thank you so much. dr. john torres, and mike and kelly. ron wyden is the top senate on the committee that has to deal with this as well. i want to talk to you first about this health care bill. >> the senate is not going to turn back the clock and go back to the days when health care was for the healthy and wealthy. the reality is in a no matter how much money they have promised in the house, that is what the house bill does. when you green light discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, it dramatically changes american health care for the worse. and millions of people will be walking on an economic tight rope. they won't be able to pay cancer bills, and they will not regard that has an idea that even has a pulse. >> the president just anounls

. >> lindsey graham says he has nothing to hide. >> he acts like a man that is frustrated with the process. he's got to be more disciplined in terms of respecting the process. i don't see a man who has something to hide. he's very frustrated and needs a grip on it. >> shepard: let's bring in a.b. stoddard from realclearpolitics.com. if this is true, what is this? >> senator graham describes this as someone that came from the outside, doesn't understand these are checks and balances built into the structure of our government and an important part of his job where he's not allowed to ask these questions and make these demands of people about investigations. if he has nothing to hide, he's still making a big mistake. it's crossing a line and going way over a line to ask people to come out and publicly disavow or, you know, deny the existence of certain parts of an investigation, whether it's about collusion or not about collusion. so the president has shown whether there's collusion or not, whether there's any grounds from obstruction. i'm not a lawyer and i'm not going to get into that. a wi

that the invitation only became -- only came from lindsey graham. she did not agree to the request which the lawyer calls "a significant departure from the bipartisan invitation." susan rice, the former national security adviser to president obama is refusing to testify before a senate subcommittee next week on allegations of unmasking from transition officials. from state college, pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: i believe that comey needs to be fired. not only for his handling of the clintons but also trump. i do believe that hillary clinton and her associates should be prosecuted for mishandling and copying classified information. susan rice has done nothing but lie. the obama administration has targeted christians, conservatives, and i think washington is a mess and i'm hoping that donald trump cleans it up. pedro: political activity by religious groups is a topic of an executive order that will be signed today by the president. the washington times reporting that the order is aiming on prohibitsovision that churches from directly opposing or end

and you have lindsey graham, his subcommittee is doing their own investigation telling "the washington post" that his committee would probably have a hard time finding a link now and said mueller's appointment probably well shuts it down. guest: i disagree. it doesn't shut it down in any sense. we talked about the difference of a congressional investigation and an f.b.i. investigation. this happens a lot. you'll have at times congress investigating something and the f.b.i. looking at a criminal investigation. sometimes you have the f.b.i. doing a criminal investigation and state authorities doing an investigation. whenever you have that you want to coordinate it. i think -- while i think senator graham and senator rubio overstated it, what may happen is always what happens in situations like this. you'll try to deconflict. the f.b.i., just to give you an abstract example. if the f.b.i. wants to interview someone who they think is a key witness and they really want to structure that interview in the way they do to get to the answers, they might call up congress and say, hey, that open h

from are a lot of concerns moderates in the senate like senator lindsey graham who feel this piece of legislation does not do enough to cover those who are already insured. of contention is this is not scored by the nonpartisan budget office. david: nancy pelosi's victim house floor at this moment. we did not get a vote last time. what has the white house learned since that first failed attempt to get this up for a vote? i like the discussion is lindsay graham is a minor it. it's better to get the vote when you have the votes. they think they have the votes they need today and they probably do. what will be interesting to watch is how many republicans and districts they let the fact to give them that political cover they need to not have this hanging over them coming up into 2018 and beyond. there will be many republicans who will be extremely affected by this who will need to say that i stepped away and we did not have a cbo score. the bill has only come out and they are still parsing language. the white house has gotten better. recently as the beginning of last week, the fact that w

graham to support them. i am not seeing nevada of movement but the democrats will make this a litmus test for republicans and patriotism and then we seeus them go web it further to appoint the new fbi director also based in my reporting it think we will see their calling for a director komi to testify in public at a congressional hearing. so that is the sequence that we can expect but the bigger picture what we can expectn is they are going to obstruct the agenda using this as a demand. >>host: how likely is it that director comey would testify in the open hearing? >> i think it is quite likely there was a fascinating interview last week that did not get a lotat of attention with one of the director comey friends who said this is not based on a conversation he has had to adjust based on knowing him so well that at a time and place of his choosing any congressional setting will give his side of the storyscribg to say he is probably the only person in washington than he means that the history is he makes decis

graham. i think it ought to be in a political choice. i think the ideal candidate now not speaking to anyone in particular, i think the ideal profile the candidate to be someone who's a retired judge or active judge willing to step down from the bench. ideally that has prosecutorial experience in the past. but someone that i think is very consistent with the true independence in that role. whether the president is credible on the subject or not, the senate has an incredible responsibility of making sure that no one has confirmed for that job, that we can have absolute confidence with a fully independent. i will say this also about why that is so important, their three primary investigations going on in the russian issue. one in the house intelligence committee, one in the senate intelligence committee. that is being done by the fbi. they have resources we don't have, we cannot re-create what the fbi can do. nor should we try. we have to run our own investigations. but we do have to make sure

lindsey graham/ -r- south carolina: "i think it makes no sense that the russian ambassador would report back to moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we're monitoring." butt sot i've never been more concerned and suspicious about all things russia than i am right now."the president deflected reporter questions about kushner.reporter: "mr. president, did jared try to set up a back channel to the russians?"white house officials have not commented on the report. i'm david daniel reporting. (justine) president trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, is facing allegations of trying to set up a secret back channel with russia. but homeland security secretary john kelly said today...it's "not a big deal." <> john kelly:"i think any channel - back or otherwise - with a country like russia is a good thing. i mean multiple ways to communicate back and forth is a good thing, and particularly with a country that's russia. so it doesn't doesn't bother me"(justine) some government officials believe kushner considered the back channel in december. it would've allowed the trump transition team to ta

lindsey graham/ -r- south carolina: "i think it makes no sense that the russian ambassador would report back to moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we're monitoring." butt sot i've never been more concerned and suspicious about all things russia than i am right now."the president deflected reporter questions about kushner.reporter: "mr. president, did jared try to set up a back channel to the russians?"white house officials have not commented on the report. i'm david daniel reporting. (justine) as you just heard- president trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, is facing allegations of trying to set up a secret back channel with russia. but homeland security secretary john kelly says...it's "not a big deal." "i think any channel - back or otherwise - with a country like russia is a good thing. i mean multiple ways to communicate back and forth is a good thing, and particularly with a country that's russia. so it doesn't doesn't bother me"(justine) some government officials believe kushner considered the back channel in december. it would've allowed the trump transition team to tal

lindsey graham calling for this kind of investigation, right? >> reporter: that's right. look, he chaired the hearing yesterday. he is in charge of the subcommittee that oversees the fbi, and i think he is -- has a history of, experience as a prosecutor. he and others, democrat and republican, will say that whether it is about russia and its involvement in the u.s. elections or anything else that has the potential for criminal or untoward activity, you follow the money. so it is not surprising given that, that that is what he is saying he wants to look into now. it is surprising, to your point -- there's sean spicer. i will stop talking. >> we will go to the briefing. >> good afternoon. the president this morning met with general mcmaster, as you know, general mcmaster is helping lead the team that's organizing the president's upcoming foreign trip. this week the president has been focused on meeting with the team getting ready for the various stops he will be making in meetings he's going to be having. during his many conversations with world l

at the same time, i think lindsey graham is taking a calm approach to this. let's remember the fbi under comey or under somebody new is not going to be in charge of this investigation, the attorney general sessions recused himself. so the deputy attorney general -- >> yet he signed off on a letter firing the guy running the investigation. >> a very good point. one of the many, many inconsistencies but the fbi is not in charge of this investigation. they gather facts. the criticism of comey is that he set himself up as the decider in the hillary e-mail case, which he did, but traditionally and the argument here is let's get it back to the professional prosecutors. >> but bob, when we get it to professional prosecutor s who makes a decision whether they can prosecute a case if grand juries come up with evidence of crimes? >> allegedly and according to what they've said, the deputy attorney general -- >> the guy who just recommended firing man who's running the russian investigation -- the circle is complete here. >> but, joe, that's the problem here. the fbi is

you mentioned lindsey graham on meet the press yesterday. we wanted to get your take on some of his comments. jonathan: i'll think president trump is the target or subject of any collusion with the russians. that is what i believe but this tweet has to be answered. i would advise the president not to tweet or comment about the investigation as we go forward. interferens didn't with our election. the president needs to back off and let the investigation go over. we need to call comey and get to the bottom of all of this. >> jonathan swan on the president's role and particularly his communication strategy and the last six or seven days. >> lindsey graham is reflecting views of a pretty substantial number of republican senators. they are fed up with hearing that the president equivocates about whether the russians interfered with the election about whether that is an indisputable fact that is agreed upon by every part of the intelligence community. lindsey graham is sending a signal to the president that he could be -- it to be a major problem

we got senators an gus king, richard blumenthal and lindsey graham. they will tell us what they see as next. remember the president said he'll unite people. he did it but did it in a way i think he didn't want to. you have democrats and republicans that are united airlines and concerned about this. we have former attorney general gonzalez on. we got condoleezza rice on. we'll give you both ailsles. so what happens next? >> looking forward to it. to chris' point about nixon. president nixon never fired the director of the fbi. that was tweeted 30,000 times last night. >> he got rid of the person who was investigating. >> remember that's what that statute was all about. that expired in '99. we needed to remove it from political pressure. so when he did that you could argue it was equally controversial. >> all right. chris cuomo nice to see you this morning. you got a lot of big interviews up there. democratic lawmakers want to investigate a noted investor of the president's special adviser carl icahn. big questions there. cnn's money stream is next. she

graham on unmasking and so forth. i want to give them the benefit of the doubt and get you to respond. can you imagine if you're don mcgan and obama administration acting aj comes over and tells you, we've got transcripts of the conversation and international security adviser, while you might be a little spooked or worried about the possible political use of intelligence. >> i think your first thought ought to be, what are the national security ramifications of this. the fact that after this meeting, after sally yates came over and we learned today for the first time that she didn't just come over once, she was brought back the following day to further explain herself and even after all of that they, apparently, took no steps whatsoever to limit general flynn's access to highly sensitive meetings to classified information. he remained a fully operated member of the trump establishment for 18 days, despite their knowing that the fbi and the department of justice and united states had determined that this was a guy who

. >> reporter: lindsey graham wants a candidate from inside the fbi to lead the agency. chuck schumer wants a leader who has surge and experience. >> the nominee should not be part of either party. this demands a down the middle investigation. >> reporter: president trump says he may pick an fbi nominee by friday. >>> a bill could help immigrant farm workers get their green cards. dianne feinstein and kamala harris introduced it. it allows documented workers to get a blue card. after several years of typicalled work they would be eligible for a green card. >> if not for then americans would not be able to give thanks every day. >> 70% of california's farm workers are documented. >>> a rally for tomorrow to support two document workers detained this month. he and another documented worker were picked up by i.c.e. when they showed up to their construction job at the air force base. the father lived in san rafael and been in the u.s. illegally for over a decade. tomorrow community members will urge immigration officials to release the two. gathering happens tomorrow evening