russia cannot be russia unless it is a great power. i remember in the 1990's, very often hearing russians say to me we are very weak now, but russia is condemned to be a great power. the second is the sense of the fragility of the social basis of the order that might be threatened by democratic ideas. i think in china, i do not know. if my colleagues have not seen it as a threat that they certainly move against western ideas coming in. i think, if i can manage one more we talk about the collapse point, of the soviet union. we think of the collapse of the soviet union was a total natural process. of course people would choose freedom area but such freedom. but the way it is regarded in russia or china is to take it very seriously. especially in china that has relevance to our regime. what was it that caused the soviet union collapsed -- two collapse -- to collapse? the conclusion that has been drawn is that weak leadership and the dangers of trying to begin to reform an authoritarian system and power -- in power. it makes it extremely d

and russia. and two people are killed in baltimore during the city's seventy two hour cease fire as homicides eclipsed two hundred for the year of those stories and more coming up right.

i own nothing in russia i have no loans in russia. i don't have any deals in russia. >> reporter: now, one year into this complex probe, the fbi has reviewed financial records related to the trump organization. the president himself as well as his family members and campaign associates. cnn has told that they've gone through the list and scrutinized the roster of tenants at trump tower in manhattan reaching back several years. officials familiar with the investigation tell cnn mueller's team has examined the backgrounds of russian business associates connected to trump, dating back to the 2013 miss universe pageant that trump hosted. cnn could not determine whether the review has included trump's tax returns. but even investigative leads that have nothing to do with russia, but involve trump associates are being referred to the special counsel to encourage subjects of the investigation to cooperate. trump's team seeking to limit mueller's investigation. >> the president's point is he doesn't want the special counsel to move beyond the

russia relations. well it's another hit for them really and this all started last year during the presidential election of course one which russia was accused of having meddled in that election since then there has been no concrete proof presented whatsoever but yet the claims persist and since then over the past year russia has been hit with a number of sanctions by the sea and it seems that the scales were just tipped too far for putin earlier this month when trump did sign off on yet another round of sanctions against russia and at that point putin did respond ordering that the u.s. embassy reduce its staff numbers in russia by seven hundred fifty five people so and of course today we're seeing the response that the united states saying that they have made the reductions that were requested and they are responding with having the russian consulate in san francisco needs to be closed down along with an annex here in d.c. and in new york closed down by september the second a very very short timeline a

russia is fine. >> what we're learning about where this investigation is headed. >> this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> the new bipartisan push to prevent the president from firing robert mueller. >> any effort to go after mueller could be the beginning of the end of the trump presidency. >> and how the president is responding tonight. >> mr. president, are you considering firing robert mueller? >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. we now have multiple reports that indicate significant forward movement in special counsel robert mueller's criminal investigation into potential collusion between trump campaign and russia. first to the "wall street journal" which says that he has impaneled a grand jury in washington, d.c. nbc news has not independently confirmed that report. before mueller took over in may, prosecutors had been using a grand in west virginia which lawmakers said was focused on two men. paul manafort, trump's former campaign cheryl, and michael flynn, the president's national security adviser. both of whom are key figures in the invest

sanctions on russia. the public you know this is not the german government this is the german public this is not the swedish government this is the swedish public so you have people who are opposed to war opposed to militarism opposed to nato expansion of close to us bases in germany expressing their viewpoint and that's you know not typically in news in europe and especially not in the united states. you know you could say that over the last four years trump and obama helped make america great again or at least a great threat. one of the countries that views the u.s. as the major threat is turkey it comes amid a rile between the two nato allies but the pentagon recently slamming ankara's our present decision to buy a russian air defense system rather than opting for nato technology washington says the russian equipment could be incompatible with other systems used by the nato alliance generally speaking it's a good idea for allies to buy into or probably quitman with any ally with any partner with whom w

of mind over us that when we invaded was the president russia imposed sanctions on iran russia went along with sanctions against north korea and there were no russia is important sanctions on north korea so but like i just said victor the important thing is here is how a plan to move forward i mean what i saw from the u.k. from the americans is that something must be done something must be done the usual mantra they don't know what to do that's the problem here the chinese and the russians have proposed to jointly jointly how to move forward on north korea and that is very important because the only two major powers i see pushing diplomacy here because that's what we need we do have voices in the united states talking about preventative. war this is insanity well look at the way the secretary that's going on but now he went to iraq and what happened with the ever increasing sanctions regime against iraq year after year the sanctions would be deepened that increased but why didn't with hundreds of thousands by some estimates of children and those people losing their land and you remember w

new sanctions targeting russia saying that the. clearly unconstitutional provisions of the new sanctions hinge not only u.s. russia relations but also pose a threat to washington's ties to europe. businesses. deescalation zone is about to come into effect in syria the moderate rebels committing to. welcome to the program here on the international we have. donald trump has signed a new sanctions bill targeting russia however the american leader branded the restrictions as flawed and signaled that he was reluctant to approve them. i favor tough measures to punish and deter. and the stupid lies in behavior by iran north korea and russia this legislation is significant you fool it's haste to post this legislation the congress included a number of clearly i'm constitutional provisions a number of provisions purports to displace the president's exclusive constitutional authority and those comments live a lot of questions and the way the president states that even though he stands for legislation that's unconstitutional he signed off on i

make a response towards the expansion of sanctions towards russia and do. interview we have expressed all of our views through an interview that mr putin gave to the russia channel. with all the reasoning behind our decisions were explained at length and. in particular we believed that the u.s. would not go towards this path of confrontation with russia but unfortunately the u.s. congress. create a blockage towards that. we have also talked and discussed a number of other issues and we discussed what have been discussed on the meeting in hamburg and we have discussed the issue of cyber security in the fight against cyber crime and preventing cyber crime we have also addressed issues relating to our contacts there's a little on a number of international issues. of. north korea and its nuclear problem was also one of the issues that we have discussed. we believe that the contacts between the state department and our ministry would be very beneficial towards resolving this issue and we are open to such contacts we believe that. this will be this will be met wi

which russia shouldn't of be off what is that obviously that is the object of russia should not that not an active middle where meddle in determining the african government of course russia shouldn't do that so should the united states not do that but if the u.s. is in afghanistan to fight extremism that's the name in which they came. to afghanistan and if they have failed and if there is need for help is that is to to competition or a strategic alliance tours a call for an objective of the purpose of the united states is to use of ghana stand as a strategic launching pad of course there will be rivalry to it of course the countries in the region will feel threatened we will feel threatened as well and we will not allow that because that will make as the ground on which we fight takes place and of course the research is a competition with it and we don't want that but if the us is in afghanistan to accomplish the purpose defeat terrorism and big peace to afghanistan which is what they have declared then they must seek help not competition there's like i say let me ask you a question.

government's own assessment treated less than one percent off russia's. media element and i mean they're targeting this television stations you're on right now it's sputnik here essentially saying how good it would be cruel to go back to and what in sixteen are saying i mean this is a century saying that foreign broadcasters do not have first amendment speech rights in this is not been tested legally here it's those are words but if that's right but there is they're targeting certain media outlets and denying them freedom of speech versus a lot of the totalitarian the share of the current american information is here where we see that the american elites are scared they're afraid that the american people are going to have access. points of view so whether it's our t. whether it's put new whether it's cheney's. or any other in your other they're going to hold going to hopefully that's what they want to keep them and i believe that i'm american station i would go back to the cold war years and. actually in the seventy's some californias the shows broadcast

you speaking for myself, i own nothing in russia, i have no loans in russia, i don't have deals in russia. >> reporter: one year into the complex probe the fbi has reviewed financial transitions of the president and his family and campaign associates. cnn is told they've combed through shell companies and trump-branded companies. they scrutinized a roster at trump tower in manhattan reaching back several years. officials familiar with the investigation tell cnn special counsel robert mueller's people have examined the backgrounds of associates related to trump. >> miss universe, 2013 -- >> reporter: -- dating back to the 2013 miss universe pageant he hosted in moscow. >> thank you for your amazing hospitality -- >> reporter: cnn could not determine whether the review included trump's tax returns. even investigative leads that have nothing to do with russia but involve trump associates are being referred to the special counsel to encourage subjects of the investigation to cooperate. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> reporter: president trump keenly aware of the financial focus

russia. >> reporter: but the meddling in our election was not the first time russia has tried to exert power through deception. sochi, 2014. a grand spectacle of russian glory at the 22nd winter olympic games. the host country taking home an impressive 13 gold medals. spiking national pride and boosting the stature of president vladimir putin. but behind the pomp and pageantry an explosive secret. >> russia had pulled off the single biggest fraud in the history of sport. >> reporter: a stunning accusation. russia cheated, taking advantage of its home turf. >> dozens of russian athletes, including 15 of the 33 russian medal winners, were part of a state-run doping program. >> reporter: at the center, a russian scientist, dr. grigory rodchenkov. >> big boss vladimir putin saying we have to show the best result in sochi. >> two people connected with the russian doping program are already dead. >> there never was anti-doping in russia. ever. >> reporter: an explosive story now chronicled in the new netflix documentary "icarus." >> be very careful recording. >> would it be safe to say when

it's been at the united nations where russia, the u.s. and china agreed tough new economic sanctions against north korea that will cost them an estimated $1 billion a year. that's about a third of its export ref knew at the meeting of the u.n. security council nikki haley said don't anyone be fooled into thinking this is enough. it's not even close she said. more action is required. but the action won't come here. it will be a lot of talk but north korea will be left in no doubt number one that it's isolated and number two that 26 countries want it to stop being provocative. >> bill neely, thank you so much for that report. >>> a search and rescue mission for three missing u.s. marines has been suspended. it was conducted off the east coast of australia where an osprey aircraft crashed yesterday. it hit the deck of a ship during landing and crashed into the bay. 26 other marines were rescued. >>> coming up why people lined up at an oklahoma health care clinic yesterday. which is such a dad thing to do. after he gave his name the woman fro

-russia relationship, i debate. that should be a news stands i think quite soon, and some of the pieces are already online on our website.as i o as i opened up to questions, let me ask each of you as i call on you please to identify yourself for our speakers, and also toha raise your hand so that my colleagues with our microphones are able to find you and ensure that we can all hear your question. let's open it up. who would like to go first? [inaudible] >> sorry, enough i could ask you to wait for the mic, sorry. >> neither one of you sound i was a terribly enthusiastic about sanctions. so given the pessimism or a parent pessimism, and george, tickle your analysis, and given quite frankly the track record of sanctions german-speaking getting any regime let alone the russians to change behavior the way we would want them to change behavior, to me this sounds like a net negative with a huge downside risk and very little upside. th why are we bothering to do this? >> who wants to take that first? >> we are probably no

-russia relations. what did the most recent sections that now have been put on russia actually do? guest: it's a variety of things. the most unprecedented element of it is the congressional review. so basically, the number of the sanctions that have already been imposed by executive order, by president obama and could have been repealed by the stroke of a pen by president trump can now only be repeeled with essentially the approval of congress. and that is unprecedented in the history of u.s. sanctions. there are a huge variety of news sanctions imposed for a number of different activities such as the interference in the election, russian activities in syria, this activity in ukraine. there are reports demanded from the executive branch by the russian olgark. -- ol garth. host: what are we talking about? guest: the sanctions come in a number of different forms. there are visa bans and their asset freezes. there are financing restrictions on russian institutions. there are transaction bans. any companies

from doing all of this, why did russia invade ukraine, why did russia violate the treaty, why did russia continue to conduct these nuclear war games against united states? all of this on president obama's watch while those 700 supposedly earth shattering diplomatic staff were there. we are in the middle of some really high-stakes stuff right now across the globe and i think president trump handled the situation perfectly, he didn't give vladimir putin the satisfaction, moving on. >> jon: good discussion, thank you both. >> melissa: paul manafort taking action amid growing scrutiny from the russia investigation, why my next guest says the former trump campaign chairman is in serious legal peril. plus, a high school searching for answers after preseason football practice turned deadly. >> a tragedy like that is honestly so horrible for the community. because i don't use my cellphone when i'm driving. even though my family does, and leaves me all alone. here's something else... i don't share it with mom. i don't. right, mom? i have a brand new putter you don't even know about! it's awesome.

his of the push that is what russia should be doing that's what i advised russia to do in that's what they're doing right now in other words if one power has failed to deliver the goods and we keep suffering shouldn't be invited everybody is to cooperate with the power to bring the results that we seek and this approach the consultative process process launched in moscow and broadening this process to including the taliban and the afghan government would hopefully bring us now the u.s. secretary of defense general james mattis has already called russia a strategic competitor when it comes to afghanistan so he clearly doesn't appreciate developing corp as much as you do and i think that also reflects the sounds of insecurity psychological insecurity that the americans have to sort out first it has little to do with afghanistan i think it's internal american problem how do you think the world the regional power should talk to the united states to persuaded in the. existence of mutual interest that it could be actually beneficial for all to join forces and finally put an end to that endl

that is slandering russia that is presenting russia in the worst possible light so when i was asked to comment on this article in the washington post today i was wondering what's new and what am i going to say but i have to admit that reading the article for early and carefully i don't something that your commentator overlooked and that is that basically the journalist responsible for this article was giving his editors the finger because the implication of the of the headline is that russia is justly seen as a center of white supremacy by american neo nazis the in the middle of the article is a paragraph which undermines totally such a fabricated view of russia and of mr putin he the author went out of her way to stress that russia that moscow has the biggest mosque in europe that russia is the second most important country for old migrants have to united states in the world and so forth but in the russia of course is a multinational country with many different. ethnic and religious groups who have been in in peace this was unnecessary to say but it tells you what goes on in journa

, his family and russia, his team and russia. that includes many years of financial transactions whether it's the miss universe pageant or real estate deals in new york. we know that's the case with paul manafort and his real estate deals. at the end of the day, one of the original allegations here is that russia tried to compromise donald trump and members of his team with financial arrangements. now, that's unproven, but that's something that the mueller team has to look into. has to get to the bottom of, nicolle. >> julie pace, let me give you the last word before you dive back into your reporting that i'm sure you're itching to go do. you said my favorite thing about donald trump since this all began, that there is no inner monologue with donald trump, it's all monologue. so i wonder how you think this will weigh on him. if you expect that we'll hear from him in this campaign event tonight. and if you think that privately people are urging him not to give -- not to put more gasoline on the fire that's obviously still burning

good evening friends we start tonight with the latest on the sanctions on russia president trump has signed a bill authorizing sanctions against russia and limiting his power to ease them in the future after signing the bill the president released a formal statement of his opposition to the bill in particular he's upset with the fact that the bill say he says is hasty and criticized provisions limiting the power of the executive branch to conduct foreign policy russian prime minister dmitri met medvedev criticized the bill as a full scale trade war against moscow he also criticized president from for cowering to establishment interests in maintaining a new cold war with the russians spokesperson for the state department heather knew or was not so skeptical she expressed the view russia and the united states should cooperate despite the recent sanctions i think many folks around the world agree that the united states and russia should be able to work together in areas of mutual cooperation. if you look at the cease fire in southwest syria that has now taken hold and for the most part

i had nothing to do with russia, folks. i have no dealings with russia. i have no deals in russia. i have no deals that could happen in russia, because we've stayed away. and i have no loans with russia. i have nothing to do with russia. i have no investments in russia. none whatsoever. i don't have property in russia. >> no property in russia. so here's what's different right now. even if that statement by donald trump were true, today's revelation shows it was not for lack of trying. the trump organization wasn't just trying to build a trump tower in moscow, when the project stalled it tried so hard, they wanted to get vladimir putin to help seal this deal. and putin is not known for his charity work. if he does something for you, he expects something in return. let's get right to it with carol lee, national political reporter on the russia story. richard painer, white house ethics white house for the bush 43 administration. glen covers the white house for "the new york times," of course. richard, this looks big to my investigative eyes. i'm curious, your view of the significance

the aggressor when it comes to russia they have although all the nato troops on the border of russia they helped overthrow the ukrainian government with the with the help of the ngos they had to keep having missiles in the direction of russia and then of course you have the sanctions which are an act of war that self so how can the media keep or training as russia's aggressor when the evidence suggests the contrary just because russia cares about its border or they want to protect their sovereignty somehow there are literally hitler of the next over the next boogie man that the united states needs to topple so odd the propaganda coming from the coersion news now we're going to just it's both comical and frightening michael if you've worked in government at the high levels here let's talk about the american election being hacked whatever that really really means because i don't know i mean you were sitting with people in power were well aware of how the united states in meddled in elections all around the world and they wouldn't think twice about doing that would they but the even the

and russia analyst martin mccauley says that russia's ambassador to the u.s. will have a tough time. it's timed by the americans to embarrass him. and that he he in fact. is going to have find it very difficult to perform his duties and to establish trust because by his main job as a diplomat is not to trust between the two governments. and say let's talk. let's get together and find what what we can do together and so on you can find it very very difficult because they when it comes. to russia. so the buses are. really learns on the worst possible day and the only thing you can say for is it. is up to him to get better. and as we've already mentioned the display by the u.s. can be traced all the way back to the american presidential elections and alleged russian meddling occasions of russian interference continue to be thrown even during special senate hearings russia's blatant interference in the united states twenty sixteen presidential elections was unprecedented in both scale and scope many have said this is actually the crime of the century. if you think

sanctions russia. we have a couple of highly experienced speakers who will give us some perspective on that and we are quite grateful to them for taking the time out of their day to be with us. to my right we have dan russell, the president and ceo of the u.s.-russia business council. diplomatformer career who was deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for russia, ukraine, moldova, belarus, and other matters. during the previous administration, the obama administration, he was also the deputy chief at the u.s. embassy embassyw and the u.s. in cause extent in addition to a number of other important posts. george, who is senior director for -- director for intelligence programs at the center for the national interest. george was a career u.s. intelligence professional who led the russia analysis unit at the central intelligence agency. he was an advisor on russia to vice president dick cheney during the bush administration. he was also the president of a data analytics firm called behavior matri

and russia. brings us the russian reaction. so when it comes to the hopes that russia u.s. ties could go back on track it looks like we have reached the end of the line here at least judging by the three points that were made by the russian prime minister dmitri medvedev first there is no hope for any improvement of our relations with the new american administration second the total trade war has been declared on russia the trumpet ministration has demonstrated complete impotence of all executive power to congress in the most humiliating way this changes the political balance of power in the us what does that mean for them the american establishment has definitively beaten trump when the u.s. congress initially approved a new round of sanctions even without the signature by donald trump moscow already head back we know that more than seven hundred fifty american diplomats will have to leave moscow and also in retaliation to similar measures by the u.s. government american diplomatic property in moscow has been seized but perhaps new measures could still be following and tha

recent sanctions against venezuela predictably upset russia russia russia has actually said it may lead to to war. meanwhile he's threatening. him. iran which is of course as an ally of russia he has doubled down in afghanistan as you point out which is seen also as a hostile act towards russia so as you say it's hard to see where trump is headed except toward some coalition collision course with russia at the present time what would good relations with russia look like and why has the political media faddish been in the united states so hostile that to that concept it seems if you believe a working with russia is a good thing you must be a putin puppet. yeah well that's an interesting thing i mean i think cooperation would manifest itself in the u.s. and russia fighting terrorism together in the middle east including in syria maybe trying to bring some stability to the region. while the u.s. appears to do everything it can to destabilize the region. it would it would manifest itself in russian the u.s. working together in ukraine again maybe bringing some resolution to that conflict ma

and russia. first there is no hope for any improvement of our relations with the new american administration second a total trade war has been declared on russia third the trumpet ministration has demonstrated complete impotence handing over all executive power to congress in the most humiliating way this changes the political balance of power in the us what does that mean for them the american establishment has definitively beaten trump want to discuss why these sanctions are part of a greater headache fortran and he joins me live in the studio hi there they are so well i mean on them with president child well i guess no president would like to be in donald trump's shoes right now or really tough times for mr trump in the white house you know being america's top man in charge but not being able if you think of it to really exercise the powers that he's got right now and even worse as we're seeing being cornered into making the decisions that he doesn't want to make and doing that just to keep or

at the time russia was attacking the u.s. presidential election last year. one of the investigative reporters at the washington post who broke the story open both over the weekend and then today, ka carol is going to join us live in just a moment. we've got a little news to break on the trump-russia dossier prepared by christopher steele last year, the dossier of alleged dirt published by buzzfeed in january, created such an uproar at the time. people who commissioned the dossier described it as a road map into the investigation as to whether or not donald trump colluded with the russian attack. people who commissioned the dossier stand by it saying that the dossier is direct. the dossier is now back at the center of what we know about the trump-russia investigation. we're going to break a little bit of news on that later on the show this evening. but you know, the day that we the public all first learned about the dossier was actually before the election. it was on october 31st, halloween, 2016. david corn at mother jones ma

-russia relationship debate. standsould be in news quite soon and some of the oures are already online on website. questions, let me ask each of you as i call on identify yourself for our speakers and also to your hand so that my colleagues with our microphones to find you and ensure that we can all hear your question. open it up. first?e to go sorry, if i can ask you to wait the mic. you sound one of terribly enthusiastic about the sanctions. given pessisms to change behavior the way we would want to change behavior. to me this sounds like a net negative with a huge downside and very little upside. this?e we bothering to do take thatts to that first? >> we probably not the people you should be asking. a follow up question after that question. on this iserspective that this is being done largely purposes.ic political i find is hard to disagree with that. >> i think if you look at it from business perspective, if you looked at the obama era, sanctions.ver like they're not going to. but the obama administration und

and russia. we'll take you inside syria where locals tell us who they give the credit for this newfound quiet. allergy sufferers if you have symptoms like these try new xyzal®. for relief is as effective at hour 24 as hour one. so be wise all take new xyzal®. >>> the city of chicago getting rad to sue the justice department. -- getting ready to sue the justice department. mayor rahm emanuel is placing sanctions on grant money requiring stipulations that federalize local detention facilities and violate the fourth amendment. the trump administration threatening to cut off funding for sanctuary cities like chicago. last year chicago police received $2.3 million from justice department assistance grants using the money to buy s.w.a.t. equipment, radios and tasers. >>> excessive corrosion caused a fair ride to malfunction last month at the ohio state fair. the interior gondola support beam eroded so badly over 18 years it caused a catastrophic failure. the ride broke apart, launching some people 20

. >> when we return i ask general mcmaster about russia, the president's understanding of russia, about the arrival of john kelly as white house chief of staff and about a famous book about how military men and officials owe the president candor and their best advice. a book h.r. mcmaster wrote. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. for over 100 yearsaking like kraft has,al cheese you learn a lot about people's tastes. honey, what do you want for dinner tonight? oh whatever you're making. triple cheddar stuffed sliders. sold! 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. >>> welcome back. now for my final seg

it didn't necessarily come straight out of russia. there are other countries which are known to do this, but this is where the russians work. this is other places where some of this information could come from. so, it's not necessarily from russia, but it could be from a different country, you know, folks working for the russian government that are doing this. >> shimon, pamela brown, guys, excellent reporting for us. thanks very much. >>> let's get some more on all of this. jake sullivan is joining us, former senior advisor to hillary clinton's presidential campaign also advisor to the former vice-president joe biden. react to this new information that we're learning. i don't know if you knew about this in advance, that the fbi was actually monitoring this russian fake news, trying to damage hillary clinton on election day. >> well, i have two immediate reactions. the first is this is consistent with what american intelligence agencies told us in a comprehensive report in january. they said the russians mounted a sophisticated multif

congress that's the view of russia's foreign minister who met with his american counterpart on the sidelines of the major forum in asia. and the week's top stories president trump signs a new russia sanctions bill angering several of america's key allies moscow describes it is declaring a full scale trade war plus the pressure to step down from korea to the u.n. security council vote unanimously for tough new sanctions on pyongyang over its missile. to kid dictator. venezuelan president is also targeted by u.s. restrictions over his from ation of a controversial new legislative body that would rewrite the constitution. for the welcome the latest development and look back at what's been happening over the last seven days as well you watch in the weekly here on r.t. international now moscow's top diplomat says it's strong and t. russian sentiment in the u.s. congress that has led to the latest downturn in relations between the two countries made the comment at a meeting with his american counterpart rex tillerson earlier today richie joins us now for more details he's been following events the

should we punish russia for that? where can they be punished, and what can they be deterred from doing in the future without the same thing we have been talking about before? is this an area in which we can recently in list the help of the do -- in list -- enlist the help of the europeans to keep russia from interfering in their elections? since something that was unprecedented in the united states when it comes to the fire. it was the most successful covert operation in history some say. you get my point. i would like your thoughts on that. >> paul told me there would be no hacking questions today. [laughter] >> so on the question of the intelligence community's conclusion and what i think about them, there are three conclusions that were prominent in the intelligence community assessment that got published in january. one was that russian hackers were the ones who had the dnc -- hacked the dnc server. one other was they did it on the orders of putin, and the third was to advantage trump and to undermine our democrac

russia relations to an all time low in the tweets the u.s. president said it's thanks to the people on capitol hill who forced him to sign the anti russia signed a bill he said he had to abide by the decision of the lawmakers after their landslide vote last week gave him no other choice for one way congress can now check trump's deal making potential is by stopping him from lifting russia restrictions the new nor require the president to obtain congressional approval for any such move well let's talk about this then with the trunk of that what's behind trump's rhetoric. it's only a. kate well hi again i guess no president would like to be donald trump's shoes right now times really are getting tough as they can get for the president you know being america's top man in charge but at the same tommy think of it not being able to exercise his power and even worse being cornered into making the decisions he doesn't want to make just to keep order and as we've been hearing from the white house spokesperson who's been explaining that very signature

anyway, russia's coming up later in the show. meanwhile, back in the united states, russia. folks, things are not looking good for president son and store-brand billy baldwin, donald trump, jr., because of a meeting he took last year with russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya. and now we've learned that there was another russian at that meeting, russian lobbyist rinat akhmyetshin. ♪ ♪ funny detail-- he's reportedly a former soviet counterintelligence officer. of course, when it comes to don, jr., there's not much intelligence to counter. now, here's the deal-- ( cheers and applause ) ( piano riff ) now, akhmyetshin "denies any current ties to russian spy agencies." it must be true. remember the first rule of spy club-- tell everyone you're in spy club. ( laughter ) point is, that's just another lie because, last week, don, jr. didn't mention this russian guy. no, he said this: >> this is everything. this is everything. >> stephen: this is everything. must have slipped his mind. with all that hair gel, things just slide out. ( piano riff ) ( laughter ) so there was a fifth

to do russia's bidding. the other part, it alleges overt knowing conclusion between trump and russia and russia's effort to hurt hillary clinton in the election. that's what the dossier says. if it is about to be publicly defended and explained and backed up, that's conceivably the whole ball game. when is the judiciary committee going to take that vote. i love you, basement guest bathroom. your privacy makes you my number 1 place to go number 2. i love you, but sometimes you stink. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love the most can stink. and try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. breathe happy with febreze. >>> in the public domain is this question of the steele dossier, a document that has been around now for over a year. i'm not sure when the fbi first took possession of it, but the media had it before you had it and we had it. at the time of your departure from the fbi, was the fbi able to confirm any criminal allegations contai

russia meddled in the american election russia the american election there are investigations going on now we have the public hasn't been given any new proof but the u.s. government in congress has already made its drawn its conclusions when we have no conclusions whatsoever i mean that this is the folly of all of this here you again act before you know what the what the facts are on the ground and they're not interested in facts because none of them have really been produced the socks out from under my bed. but the bottom line is all of these accusations there is no evidence presented there can't even be any evidence because neither the f.b.i. the n.s.a. the cia the office the office of the director of national intelligence no one actually looked at the purported scene of the crime that democratic national committee servers where e-mails were supposedly hacked by russia wiki leaks says they got them from a whistleblower and then these e-mails expose. the d.n.c. and the hillary can claim maine colluded to. break their own primary to have hillary clinton elected and that is what this is