it turns out now the phone call of vladimir putin were treated that way. phone calls with the saudi royal family were treated that way, and that's a break with the way previous presidents have treated these phone records. >> yeah, that's right. so much of this is troubling on so many levels. i spent the last couple of days trying to wrap my brain around all these allegations as more and more comes to light. there is a couple of common themes to all of this. number one, it all seems to be related to helping donald trump win re-election. everything he does seems to be geared towards how can he help his election better his prospect in 2020. and i think it is important that you know, you think about the national security aspect of this and his complete disregard for our national security professionals, our troops, people who have taken the oath who are putting their lives on the line to defend this nation. context is really important. when president trump was talking about javelin missile systems with president zelensky, these are weapon systems that are neede

it turns out now the phone call of vladimir putin were treated that way. that is a break with the way previous presidents have treated these phone records. >> yeah, that's right. so much of this is troubling on so many levels. i spent the last couple of days wrapping my brain around all these allegations as more and more comes to light. there is a couple of common themes to all of this. number one it all seems to be related to helping donald trump win reelection. everything he does seems to be geared towards how can he help his election better his prospect in 2020. and i think it is important that you know number two, you thoif the national security aspect of this. complete disregard for our national security professionals and troops for people who are taken the oath and put their lives on the line. contact is important. when president trump was talking about missile systems with president szelensky these are weapons needed from moving forward and evading ukraine. we have tens of thousands of u.s. troops in europe that are in harm's way, i take it personal

it turns out now the phone call with vladimir putin was treated that way. that is a break with the way previous presidents have treated these phone records. >> yeah, that's right. so much of this is troubling on so many levels. i spent the last couple of days wrapping my brain around all these allegations as more and more comes to light. there is a couple of common themes to all of this. number one, it all seems to be related to helping donald trump win re-election. everything he does seems to be geared towards how can he help his election, better his prospects in 2020. and i think it is important that number two, you think of the national security aspect of this. complete disregard for our national security professionals and troops for people who have taken the oath and put their lives on the line. when president trump was talking about missile systems with president zelensky, these are weapons needed russian tanks from moving forward and evading ukraine. we have tens of thousands of u.s. troops in europe that are in harm's way, i take it personal. >> you

moscow's city parliament a stagnating economy declining living standards and they fall in vladimir putin's approval ratings are all seen as the main reasons the opposition leader alexina vonnie he called on russians to vote tactically to block candidates from united russia after some opposition candidates were banned from running. even the mascots outside the polling stations don't seem very enthusiastic overall turnout in moscow was only 21 percent city council elections 2 candidates from the governing united russia party and other kremlin friendly parties but many opposition candidates were kept off the ballot president vladimir putin cast his vote early the lack of choice didn't bother him too much because there's been some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have with the candidates to. the exclusion of dozens of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police of crack down hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested the best known oppositio

this threat from a former communist kgb official, vladimir putin against america's democratic process of election? the answer he did not want to get involved. and he didn't. then for months after the election not a single republican senator spoke on the senate floor about the mounting and devastating evidence of russia's attack on our election and in 2016 i know that's personally because the first casualty in that attack was my state of eilinois and the russians found a way through their trolls to get into the file of my home state and into the voting records of 70000 or more americans who lived in illinois. what did they do with that information? it appears little or nothing but they could have changed it could of had a dramatic impact on the rights of these american citizens to make m their legitimate constitutional choice in the election. four months the silence was deafening as well as president trump defended vladimir putin's brazen denials of these attacks. president trump took the word of vladimir putin over that of his own american intelligence professionals. senate republican

putin at a time when president trump is saying he wants vladimir putin and russia to be welcomed back into the g8. russia expert evelyn farkas with her take on what vladimir putin is up to now and what the president of the united states should be doing about it. and our second-favorite rachel will be back with us tonight. political scientist rachel vidikoffer will give more explanation of why the data she is using in her election model has given her a prediction of the democrat, whoever the democrat is, winning a solid electoral victory in the electoral college in the next election. and we begin tonight where we left off last night, with the clock ticking on the death sentence, the trump administration has, we hope unwittingly, imposed on maria isabel pueso this is the most important story we discussed last night and it is the most important story we will discuss tonight ar life hangs in the balance because of an immigration policy change made by the trump administration which has decided to refuse to grant any extensions of permission to stay in the united states for medical treatmen

moscow city parliament a stagnating economy declining living standards and a fall in vladimir putin's approval ratings they're all seen as the main reasons opposition leader alexina vonnie he called on russians to vote tactically to block candidates from united russia after some opposition candidates were banned from running. even the mascots outside the polling stations don't seem very enthusiastic overall turnout in moscow was only 21 percent city council elections 2 candidates from the governing united russia party and other kremlin friendly parties but many opposition candidates were kept off the ballot president vladimir putin cast his vote early the lack of choice didn't bother him too much with your friends in some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have with the candidates to. the exclusion of dozens of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police have crackdown hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested the best known oppositi

so this person, while he wasn't in putin's inner circle, "the times" reports, he saw vladimir putin on a regular basis and had access to his decision making. and he was the source of the information that putin directly ordered this 2016 election interference campaign, directly ordered the hack of the dnc and wanted to hurt hillary clinton and help donald trump. we had reported and others reported during the election campaign that that information came from human sources, and it was a cia assessment. and now we're learning that it came from in particular this high level source who apparently has been exfiltrated from russia. >> ken dilanian, i know you're going to be developing more on this. i can kind of tell the way this story was unfolding today that by 10:00 p.m. tonight, we would know a lot more than we knew when we were thinking about it this afternoon. thank you very much for joining us, ken. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we're joined now by mieke eoyang. she's a former staff member of the house intelligence committee. also joining us john heilemann, national analyst for

for example, what was vladimir's intentions -- vladimir putin's intentions in 2016? what are his intentions in 2020 vis-a-vis the u.s. election? did members of the trump administration collude or conspire with russian intelligence? presumably if this source was as well placed as he sounds, we would know some of the answers to those questions. >> it's fascinating. steve hall, i really appreciate it. rolf larsen, thank you so much. >>> president trump went after the three republicans so far who have said they'll run against him for the republican presidential nomination. coming up, i'll talk to one of those the president went after today, former congressman joe walsh, and explore why the republican party is trying to limit the number of gop primaries next year. i can't believe it. that sophie opened up a wormhole through time? (speaking japanese) where am i? (woman speaking french) are you crazy/nuts? cyclist: pip! pip! (woman speaking french) i'm here, look at me. it's completely your fault. (man speaking french) ok? it's me. it's my fault? no, i can't believe how eas

so this person, while he wasn't in putin's inner circle, "the times" reports, he saw vladimir putin on a regular basis and had access to his decision making. and he was the source of the information that putin directly ordered this 2016 election interference campaign, directly ordered the hack of the dnc and wanted to hurt hillary clinton and help donald trump. we had reported and others reported during the election campaign that that information came from human sources, and it was a cia assessment. and now we're learning that it came from in particular this high level source who apparently has been exfiltrated from russia. >> ken dilanian, i know you're going to be developing more on this. i can kind of tell the way this story was unfolding today that by 10:00 p.m. tonight, we would know a lot more than we knew when we were thinking about it this afternoon. thank you very much for joining us, ken. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we're joined now by mieke eoyang. also joining us john heilemann, co-executive producer of showtime's "the circus." mieke, this is one of the nights wh

it's appalling. >> it also -- i mean when he was in helsinki on the stage standing next to vladimir putin after having a private meeting with putin with just an interpreter present, he said that he didn't understand why russia would have done this, that he doesn't -- essentially he was siding with putin over the belief of the then-dni dan coats. so to your point, he's saying publicly, you know, he's sort of muddying the waters, said he doesn't think russia did it, he doesn't understand why they would do it. yet here he is saying directly to the russians something seemingly different. i want to bring in shane harris from "the washington post." he's the reporter on this story. shane, this is extraordinary. can you just explain exactly what you are reporting tonight? >> sure. we're reporting that in 2017, when president trump met in the oval office with the russian foreign minister and the ambassador to the united states, he told them that he was not concerned about moscow's interference in our recent election because the united states does the same things in other countries. this alarmed se

if it was vladimir putin and there was a promise made, whether it's donald trump giving vladimir putin some compliment on an official call, the russian government knows or whomever was on that call. at this point the president is stonewalling congress from what was said again despite the fact that that foreign government has that information. >> even though the foreign leader has the information. we don't know which foreign leader it was. >> correct, we don't. >> or which promise was made. i interviewed jackie earlier saying this president used unsecure cell phones. why do you think she raised that point? >> because the cell phones are so insecure. if there was not a transcript of this call, if it was done from a cell phone, for example, that cell phone represents a major counter intelligence risk. if you're a foreign government you are trying to survey his phone, his contacts. that is an easy collection target for a foreign government. at this point though we don't know if it was a cell phone or an official call. what we do know is that someone within the intelligence community though

it's a local election but a test for vladimir putin the russian president's party takes a hit in moscow's poll that's come after weeks of protests against the government so how will you deal with this setback and is he losing influence this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm homage enjoy him it's sparked some of the biggest demonstrations the country has seen in decades thousands took to the streets over the summer in russia after some of the kremlin's fiercest critics were barred from a regional ballot but despite moscow's attempt to silence them the ruling party lost a 3rd of its seats in the capital in sunday's local election president vladimir putin's united russia still holds a majority but the opposition communist party has almost doubled its number of seats so what does this mean for the national elections in 2 years time is putin beginning to lose his popularity will be speaking to our guests in a moment but 1st step fasten has more from moscow. pretty interesting developments here in moscow and also a politically complicated scheme that has played out for sure

putin and his united russia party tell us why this is. well it really has to do with some simmering popular anger that we saw and manifest itself in the demonstrations we've seen in recent weeks and it really comes at a very inopportune time for you know it as c.e.o. which is the party that backs president putin it's facing historically low polling numbers with only around 30 percent of the population seen the support the ruling party and similar region elections last year actually shown that unlike in the past where just being on the go to see a ticket was a guarantee of election electoral success many candidates lost in a surprise loss to opposition candidates now when it comes to that brand you deny to see in the major cities we're talking about moscow and st petersburg it's become so toxic that many of the candidates running on me in the midst of a ballot here have distanced themselves from the party are actually running as independents for fear that association with the party could actually cause open them up to a net an attack from

putin and his united russia policy tell us why this is. well it really has to do with some simmering popular anger that we saw a manifest itself in the demonstrations we've seen in recent weeks and it really comes at a very inopportune time for you know you know a c.e.o. which is the party that backs president putin it's facing historically low polling numbers with only around 30 percent of the population saying they support the ruling party and similar regional elections last year actually shown that unlike in the past where just being on the go to see a ticket was a guarantee of election electoral success many candidates lost in surprise last opposition candidates now when it comes to that brand you deny to see in the major cities we're talking about moscow and st petersburg it's become so toxic that many of the candidates running on me in the midst of a ballot here have distanced themselves from the party are actually running as independents for fear that association with the party could actually cause open them up to a net an attack fr

intelligence in the dismemberment of jamal khashoggi and vladimir putin? >> it doesn't sur please me at all because the way this white house has apparently worked is unconventional. >> just something that makes you scratch your head and what were you thinking. >> unconventional and inkofrnable. >> both wrapped into one. >> in the case of the crown prince, the saudi crown prince, ordinarily pamela's reporting there would be a group of people that would be given a rough transcript of what transpired in this phone call. nothing was circulated at all and highly unusual after a high-profile conversation. you know how these things are done. how unusual would such a thing be? >> it is very unusual and it leads you to believe that something is hiding something or somebody wants to keep things from getting outside and this is the same secretive attitude that we have found straight on which is one of the reasons why we issued the subpoena today, and i signed the subpoena because we really want to find out what's happened. as chair of the foreign affairs committee an

you know, when talked about vladimir putin's a killer. a lot of people are killers, there's a -- a lot of people do a lot of things. it is extraordinary to hear the president saying that directly to the russian ambassador and the foreign minister. is it clear to you how that conversation was limited? the reporting that cnn had earlier, cnn was only able to say that the -- the distribution of it or the access to it was limited. do you know any more details on how it was limited? >> sure. we know that essentially this was no longer available to people who might actually have access, ordinarily have access to it. now the white house -- what i mean by this, if you're a country expert or an issue area, you ordinarily would get access to conversations from that area. other senior nsc people who might have security clearance could get it. at the time this conversation happened, the white house had already started restricting these memos fearful of press leaks. we're told that this memo about this conversation with lavrov and kislyak was restrict

putin and his united russia party tell us why that is. well it really has to do with some simmering popular anger that we saw in manifest itself in the demonstrations we've seen in recent weeks and it really comes at a very inopportune time for you know you to see you know which is the party that backs president putin it's facing historically low polling numbers with only around 30 percent of the population saying they support the ruling party and similar regional elections last year actually shown that unlike in the past where just being on the go to see a ticket was a guarantee of election electoral success many candidates lost in surprise last opposition candidates now when it comes to that brand to deny it is see in the major cities we're talking about moscow and st petersburg it's become so toxic that many of the candidates running on meet the municipal ballot here have distanced themselves from the party or actually running as independents for fear that association with the party could actually cause open them up to a net an attack

of calls, for instance, between russian president vladimir putin and president donald trump. these comments follow the release of a transcript of a call in july between ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky and president trump. certainly this is a matter of concern for the russians, and it's also interesting to note this is part of a pattern of secrecy that we've seen on the part of president trump when it comes toen conversations with putin. we know, for instance, that president trump took the notes from a translator following a meeting in 2017 with president putin and instructed that translator not to discuss the content of that conversation that had happened. so certainly this is something that is being watched closely on the russian side, christi. but we're still awaiting news that has emerged from overnight, christi. >> the kremlin says it hopes the white house doesn't release the calls between putin and president trump. how is this received by the people there in russia because i think a lot of people here in the u.s. probably look at that and may wonder about the legi

moscow city parliament a stagnating economy declining living standards and a fall in vladimir putin's approval ratings they're all seen as the main reasons opposition leader alexina vaughany he called on russians to vote tactically to block candidates from united russia after some opposition candidates were banned from running. even the mascots outside the polling stations don't seem very enthusiastic overall turnout in moscow was only 21 percent city council elections 2 candidates from the governing united russia party and other kremlin friendly parties but many opposition candidates were kept off the ballot president vladimir putin cast his vote early the lack of choice didn't bother him too much was that in some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have with the candidates to. the exclusion of dozens of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police have crackdown hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested the best known opposition figu

moscow's city parliament a stagnating economy declining living standards and a fall in vladimir putin's approval ratings they're all seen as the main reasons opposition leader alexina vonnie he called on russians to vote tactically to block candidates from united russia after some opposition candidates were banned from running. even the mascots outside the polling stations don't seem very enthusiastic overall turnout in moscow was only 21 percent city council elections 2 candidates from the governing united russia party and other kremlin friendly parties but many opposition candidates were kept off the ballot president vladimir putin cast his vote early the lack of choice didn't bother him too much with your friends in some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have with the candidates to. the exclusion of dozens of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police of crack down hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested the best known oppositio

if it was vladimir putin and there was a promise made whether it's donald trump giving vladimir putin some kind of compromise on official call, the russian government knows what was said or whomever was on that call. and at this point the president is stonewalling congress from knowing what was said. again despite the fact that that foreign government has that information. >> even though the foreign leader has the information. we don't know which foreign leader or what promise was made. but i interviewed congresswoman jackie sphere earlier and she brought up that the president used unsecure cell phones. why do you think she raised that point? >> if it was done from a cell phone, for example, that cell phone represents a major counter intelligence risk. if you're a foreign government, you are definitely trying to survey the president's cell phone. you are also trying to surtheir contacts. that is an easy intellection target. what we do know is that someone within the intelligence community thought that a promise was made that represented an urgent and credible threat to national securi

so, yes, we just are highly skeptical about any calls that this president has with vladimir putin considering that russia's behavior has not changed since they invaded crimea, since their human rights abuses in syria, since they interfered in our election and it seems counter to our interests that we would engage the way this president does. >> congressman, thank you so much. i know this is all in progress. >>> coming up, mixed messages. military veteran and republican congressman mike gallagher joining us to respond to the president's rhetoric on iran. on and i recently had hi, ia heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. in a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. brilinta reduced the chance of having another heart attack... ...or dying from one. don't stop taking brilint

officials say notes about calls to leaders including russia's vladimir putin and the saudi crown prince have not been handled in the usual way. it comes as an impeachment investigation into president trump over his administration's dealing with ukraine is gathering pace. live now to our north america correspondent, peter bowes. the white house acknowledged that it had restricted access to the transcript of the call between president trump and ukraine's leader. we now understand they did the same for other calls as well. what for other calls as well. is the significance of that development? what is the significance of that development? it exposes two sides of the story. according to these reports, the white house has been restricting the transcripts of conversations that the president has had with world leaders like president putin, the crown prince of saudi arabia and essentially keeping that information on a special server with access only for a few people in the white house. the implication is that was done to stop leaks of conversations the president was having. there was one he had

moscow's city parliament a stagnating economy declining living standards and a fall in vladimir putin's approval ratings they're all seen as the main reasons the opposition leader alexina vonnie he called on russians to vote tactically to block candidates from united russia after some opposition candidates were banned from running. even the mascots outside the polling stations don't seem very enthusiastic overall turnout in moscow was only 21 percent city council elections drew candidates from the governing united russia party and other kremlin friendly parties but many opposition candidates were kept off the ballot president vladimir putin cast his vote early the lack of choice didn't bother him too much. in some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have with the candidates to. the exclusion of dozens of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police of crackdown hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested the best known opposition figure al

conversations with other world leaders including russian president vladimir putin, saudi prince mohammed bin salman were kept under wraps as well. >> senior correspondent pamela brown said transcripts were placed under more than normal tighter controls. >> they extended to phone calls with saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman and russian president vladimir putin. those calls were among the presidential conversations that aides took remarkable steps to keep from becoming public nchl the case of trump's call with prince mohammed, officials who ordinarily would have been given copies of a rough transcript never saw one according to sources. instead a transcript was never circulated at all, which the source said was highly unusual particularly after a high-profile conversation. it came as the white house was confronting the murder of jamal khashoggi which they say came at the hanldss of thands of the sa government. it's not clear if aides took the additional step of playing the saudi arabia and russian phone calls in that same highly sew cured code word operated system that held that now i

president vladimir putin's united russia still holds a majority but the opposition communist party has almost doubled its number of seats so what does this mean for the national elections in 2 years time is putin beginning to lose his popularity we'll be speaking to our guests in a moment but 1st step fasten has more from moscow pretty interesting developments here in moscow and also a politically complicated scheme that has played out for sure united russia the ruling party of lattimer put in has lost more seats here in moscow than ever before but on the other hand they still have a majority so it's more like a psychological loss for a party that is simply not used to losing and has been having a monopoly position here in the city duma for such a long time and has been in power in russia for such a long time on the other hand it doesn't mean that now there's an independent opposition in the city duma because they were simply banned from running in these elections the opposition has then called for this so-called smart fold voting for anyone basically who can beat united russia and thi

putin continues his threats of further invasion after invading their country already. but explain how the president continued to hold up aid to ukraine at the same time eight times he was pressuring the ukrainian president to interfere in america's political process. >> just a few seconds of background here. after ukraine was invaded first

they tried to bury information about calls with vladimir putin. and saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman. coming in the midof out rage over the murder of jamal khashoggi. impeachment possibly as soon as thanksgiving. resigned just one day after the complaint was made public. that after rudy giuliani told cnn he spoke to the state department. at least ten times about his work in ukraine. insisting he has quote a feis little trail of text messages with ambassador. to prove his story. also tonight secretary of state pompeo subpoenaed by the chairman of the house foreign affairs, intel and over sight committees. why? failing to turn over adopts on ukraine. documents on ukraine. they have given him until next friday to comply. also scheduled depositions with five state department officials including the ambassador. as house intel committee chairman schiff says he's negotiating to interview the whistleblower. the one who wrote the explosive complaint that alleges that president trump pressured ukraine to investigate joe biden. all in effort to dig up

nbc's ken dilanian >> he wasn't a putin insider, but he was in the room with vladimir putin he had access to documents he was able to report to the cia on vladimir putin's orders and his intentions and his moods it was an incredibly valuable source, and it's a great loss that he is no longer in place. >> reporter: today russia confirming the man worked in the kremlin, but says he did not have direct access to putin, calling the u.s. reports pulp fiction the russian foreign minister saying "i have never seen this man. i have never met and have never monitored his career or movements. once in the u.s., the russian was apparently living in plain sight under u.s. government protection in the washington area where nbc news found his house and knocked on the door, but no one answered. >> i get in my car, and i notice an suv screeching down the street at a high rate of speed it stops nose to nose with my vehicle. inside are two men they were clearly u.s. government agents who had been alerted to my presence and rushed to the house. >> reporter: no secret to the russians >> i'm convinced after 25

on july 31st there was a phone call between president trump and russian president vladimir putin. the reason we know about this phone call is because the kremlin put it out. the kremlin first put out the read out of what they spoke about, and then reporters went to the white house and said what can you give us and hours later the white house put out their account. here's all we know about this phone call. this is from the kremlin's press service. president trump offered putin assistance in fighting forest fires in siberia. then what the white house said was president trump spoke with president vladimir putin today and expressed concern over the vast wildfires afflicting siberia. so one is a promise of assistance. one is expressing concern. so there's a discrepancy, but it can't be about wildfires, right? would a whistleblower be so concerned about this phone call? >> not as described, no. but, of course, as we know, this white house has routinely now not put out information or full details about meetings the president has or conversations he has with foreign leaders. and russia be

putin and his united russia party last cow has been rocked by weeks of protests in the run up to the elections with hundreds arrested demonstrating in support of opposition politicians banned from standing several protesters were also detained on polling day. even the mascots outside the polling stations don't seem very enthusiastic by early evening turnout in moscow had reached only 17 percent of the city council elections drew candidates from the governing united russia party and other kremlin friendly parties but no opposition candidates were allowed president vladimir putin cast his vote early and the lack of choice didn't seem to bother him much in the near future in some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have with the candidates. the exclusion of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police have cracked down hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested. the best known opposition figure alexina valmy took to social media to call f

putin cast his vote in the capital where demonstrations have erupted in recent weeks protesters were angry after authorities banned several allies of opposition leader in a valley from standing a police crackdown around 2000 people the times. for more on this let's bring in our correspondent our until he's in moscow will only have a full sagan's tomorrow but do we have any was also i saw well we're russia is quite a large countries around which amounted to we get the official election totals but looking here at moscow which is actually the most closely watched races we're seeing that voter turnout is roughly in line with what it was last year and that was only around 21 percent which is quite low and that could be an indication that these weeks of protests would lead up to this polling actually failed to have a large impact on and feel like total shit here when these regional elections are being seen as a serious test for russian president vladimir putin and his united russia party why well that's because if the united see united russia as you are seeing right there is fear you seen

putin's power base. the election to the moscow city duma has given the country's opposition in the unlikely chance to challenge the power and control of united russia. and its complete domination of russian political life now you know you're a c.e.o. is actually face seen historically low poll numbers with the rhondda only 30 percent of russians saying they currently support the party now the brain is also considered toxic in many of the country's major cities and that's part of the reason why many candidates here in moscow chose to run as independents out of fears that association with the party could hurt their chances in today's polling you know this also might be part of the reason that we've seen such heavy handed tactics from russian security forces when it came to some of the opposition back demonstrations we've seen in recent weeks they're speaking to many political experts here they tell me that that was heavy handed tactics have actually gone a long way to help politicizing a new generation of

a source tells cnn the top spy extricated from russia has access to vladimir putin and could even provide images of documents on the russian leader's desk. the decision to remove the informant was driven in part by concerns that president trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence that could expose the intention asset as a spy. the kremlin is responding this morning and we'll have much more on this fascinating story in just a few moments. >>> he was in charlotte north carolina on today's special election. this is a big day, not just for north carolina but i think for the entire trump presidency, diane. >> reporter: yeah, john, and the people here in the ninth district have been without representation for almost a year at this point, so when the polls open in half an hour, they are ready to finally get their congressman. the thing is right now it is a tight race in a district that both trump and romney won by 12 points, meaning that since it's a toss-up the president, the vice president, and all sorts of republicans who bring their clout with them are here t

putin cast his vote early the lack of choice didn't bother him too much when you're in some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts or i think we have with the candidates to. the exclusion of dozens of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police of crackdown hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested the best known opposition figure alexina valmy took to social media to call for voters to choose candidates who would do the most harm to the governing party. didn't you look at every single vote for a party doesn't get is good even if it's not for rose but we hope that we can do more to counter them. local and regional votes were held across the country but the real test comes in 2 years with new parliamentary elections. counts for more on that let's bring in our correspondent who is in moscow so erin tell us a little bit more about the results that we have so far. well now with 100 percent of the vote counted we've seen that the that russia's fractured

there's concern about whetherhe nato will be strong enough to sustain a test to nato by vladimir putin or russia. do you worry about that? >> well, my concern isot about a direct challenge. we've always depended on a force presence to remind the soviet or russian president, "don't go there, because youki migh an american, and that will cause an american president to attac" that's why we had a tripwire for all of those years. so, on a direct challenge, i'm not as worried. what i'm worried about is that you would find the russians using these hybrid attacks, where it's a little bit cyber, it's a little unclear who the people are, the kinds of things that they've done in ukraine. etand i worry more about sng along those lines. >> it brings me to ather question. and, as you know, this program was first hosted by william f. buckley jr., and he hosted it from 1966 to 1999. and in 1987, there was a republican presidentiaary in which all the candidates, republican candidates, came to talk to bill buckley, and your former boss, george h.w. bush, was on that stagtalking about the inf treaty. >>

putin during some of his conversations with vladimir putin, so it is not, i think, a complete surprise that this whistleblower complaint has come forward. we don't know the details about all of it, and asman our manu r is reporting on capitol hill, the attorney general so far is not disclosing to the intelligence committee in the house any details from this whistleblower complaint. obviously house democrats are upset about this on capitol hill, and so far besides this tweet from the president, the white house is not saying very much about this so far, brianna. >> jim acosta, thank you so much for that. this latest revelation adds to a series of concerns about how the president has handled classified information. with me now is senior correspondent alex mccord. alex, just remind us of some of the incidents that caused intel officials to raise red flagds. >> that's right, brianna, the with the has a series of, shall we say, questionable information when it comes to dealing with intelligence as well as foreign world leaders. let's look at the most glaring examples. back in may of 2017, th

in the 1st place but as she puts it himself a great friend of the russian president vladimir putin and finally the heads of 2 asian mongolia and malaysia a lot was said about what's left of global security now that the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty is gone because the u.s. administration thought that was the way to go in the 21st century mr putin said that he believes the world will have plenty of reasons to worry about after all a potential new arms race is a very big deal what you see us in the least it was a series of challenges facing humanity imagine if the some weapon maybe a nuclear bomb in a little bit over our heads. this could drastically change the security situation across the globe as for my own american partners keep silent when we suggest continuing to negotiate to some and there's nothing new in that. another key message from the russian president was that moscow will keep up with all the missile r. and d. that the west will get itself involved in but when it comes to the deployment that won't happen on the part of russia when it comes to the weapons previous

putin and his united russia party why . well that's because you the united see united russia as a receiving right there is phase seen some rather historically low polling numbers right now only around 30 percent of the russian population says they actually support the party which is formed kind of the backbone of the support for letting a putin for almost the last 20 years now and their brand is especially considered toxic in some of the major cities we're talking about moscow and st petersburg here that's part of the reason why many of the candidates for the state duma here in the city duma rather here in moscow too is run as independent candidates out of fear that association with the brand of you do not see it could actually hurt their chances in today's polling and what outcome is the opposition campaigning for considering that many of its candidates have been barred from running. well it really depends on what you mean by the opposition it's hard to speak from are of a unified opposition when it comes to russia when it

on day 2 of the eastern economic forum russian president vladimir putin was joined for discussions by the indian and japanese nation and mongolian leaders and had to move forward on trade technology and the environment and avoiding global military escalations reporting from for it if. that was quite a company in that room the leader of the 2nd most populous country in this world and as we. we began to realize in the last few years a staunch ally of russia and the plus the leader of japan an ally of the us in the 1st place but as she puts it himself a great friend of the russian president vladimir putin and finally the heads of 2 asian mongolia and busy malaysia a lot was said about what's left of global security now that the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty is gone because the u.s. administration thought that was the way to go in the 21st century mr putin said that he believes the world will have plenty of reasons to worry about after all a potential new arms race is a very big deal if you're. in the recent was it a serious challenges facing humanity imagine if there's some we

putin of russia another sticking point here was a man named someone who was a fighter on the side of russia backed separatists in the done in the region of danielle school bus who is a witness or even a suspect in the downing of the mh 17 flight in 2014 which led to the deaths of 298 people russia wanted him included in the exchange we learned from ukrainian officials but but it was a difficult decision for ukraine because he is also wanted in the netherlands and giving him up would mean that he would be less available for questioning in the end he was included in the exchange we saw him get off the plane in moscow that was definitely a difficult decision in ukraine. but we have been seeing some pictures of prisoners arriving at the airport in ukraine some very joyous pictures nic tell us what the view is in russia how are russians perceiving this president exchange. well this is a bit of an asymmetrical story in a way this is not the same huge domestic story here russia as in ukraine most of the people who headed back from kiev to moscow today all the household names here in russia

putin decided it's worth adding a bit of humor and jokingly suggested that america should waste money if it can buy some of the arms technology from russia. which i told donald do you want us to sell you those weapons they are saying they will soon produce their own that might be so but then why would they spend the money if we have already spent it wouldn't breach of security but would help to create balance. another landmark international agreement that is now in real jeopardy because of the new diplomatic methods of the us administration is the so-called iran's nuclear deal while judging by what the japanese prime minister said at the plenary session donald trump and shinzo abhi aren't on the same page in this regard despite them being allies. we have long told the u.s. we have our concern in iran and the nuclear deal i wish it would be resolved through negotiations i talked to the supreme leader and he said that iran isn't going to produce or use nuclear weapons he said it very clearly believe it or not before shaking hands and vladivostok mr putin and mr abbay met $26.00 times be

putin and finally the heads. of to asia mongolia and malaysia a lot was said about what's left of global security now that the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty is gone because the us administration thought that was the way to go in the 21st century mr putin said that he believes the world will have plenty of reasons to worry about after all a potential new arms race is a very big deal at the fuel which she used in the recent series of challenges facing humanity imagine if the sun weapon maybe a nuclear one in orbit over our heads. this could drastically change the security situation across the globe as for my own american partners keep silent when we suggest continuing to negotiate some moments there's nothing new in that another key message from the russian president was that moscow will keep up with all the missile r. and d. that the west will get itself involved then but when it comes to the deployment that won't happen on the part of russia when it comes to the weapons previously outlawed by the i.n.f

in the 1st place but as puts it himself a great friend of the russian president vladimir putin and finally the heads of 2 asian men go and malaysia a lot was said about what's left of global security now that the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty is gone because the u.s. administration thought that was the way to go in the 21st century mr putin said that he believes the world will have plenty of reasons to worry about after all a potential new arms race is a very big deal which wasn't the reason it was a serious challenges facing humanity imagine if the some weapon maybe a nuclear weapon in a little bit over our heads. this could drastically change the security situation across the globe as for my own american partners keep silent when we suggest continuing to negotiate the summons there's nothing new in that. another key message from the russian president was that moscow will keep up with all the missile r. and d. that the west will get itself involved in but when it comes to the deployment that won't happen on the part of russia when it comes to the weapons previously thought by t

putin's united russia party but he's warned officials could try to rewrite the results before they're finalized no vonnie had called on russians to vote tactically to block candidates from united russia after a series of opposition candidates had been banned from the polls. even the mascots outside the polling stations don't seem very enthusiastic by early evening turnout in moscow had reached only 17 percent the city council elections drew candidates from the governing united russia party and other kremlin friendly parties but no opposition candidates were allowed president vladimir putin cast his vote early and the lack of choice didn't seem to bother him much was different in some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better look it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have would be candidates to. the exclusion of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police have cracked down hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested. the best known opposition figure alexina valmy took to social media

putin and his united russia party why . well that's because he the united see united russia is or is saying the right thing there is phase seen some rather historically low polling numbers right now only around 30 percent of the russian population says they actually support the party which is form kind of the backbone of the support for letting a putin for almost the last 20 years now and their brand is especially considered toxic in some of the major cities we're talking about moscow and st petersburg here that's part of the reason why many of the candidates for the state duma here the city duma rather here in moscow chose to run as independent candidates out of fear that association with the brand of you do not see it could actually hurt their chances in today's polling and what outcome is the opposition campaigning for considering that many of its candidates have been barred from running. well it really depends on what you mean by the opposition it's hard to speak from are of a unified opposition when it comes to russia