Transcripts For CNNW New Day With Alisyn Camerota And John Berman 20240713

Correspondent abby phillip, and cnn political commentator joe lockhart. Great to have all of you here in studio. Ill pull it up one more time, heres what we expect, the expected articles of impeachment, abuse of power, obstruction of congress, joe, anything surprising here that there are just two or what they are . Well, i think theyre still debating the third, and i think its an interesting debate. It establishes a pattern, if you bring in mueller. I think there are a lot of nervous democrats about bringing in mueller. As ive been saying, i think they should because the patterns important. I also think that for the nervous democrats allowing them to go vote no on one of these actually helps them at home with their constituents. Having said all that, i think were just going to see two. Look, there were articles that were voted down with nixon and clinton. It does not look like thats where were going now just so people are clear on what the reporting is, theyre still discussing we were told overnight possible obstruction of justice with mueller. Its unlikely they will include that. It doesnt look like theyre going that way, which tells us something. It tells us that nancy pelosi wants unanimity. She wants to be unified and she wants to go fast, and i think thats important. By the way, i dont think either of those things matter to the final outcome. I dont think the president at this stage is going to be removed from office, but i think that going fast has the benefit of doing this before the end of the calendar year and getting into an actual election year. We can talk about my tie in a second. I can see where your eyes are going. Anyway dont change the subject. Were talking about history, i didnt bring up the poinsettias. I thought the compelling case that they made yesterday in presenting the evidence was that theres an imminent danger that the president s trying to interfere with the 2020 election through all of this. Thats an important point for them to make, to rebut that argument theyre in a rush to impeach. Chairman jerry nadler addressed that himself about the to timing. If these abuses go unchecked, they will only continue and only grow worse. Each of us took an oath to defend the constitution. The president is a continuing threat to that constitution and to our democracy. Okay, so thats what democrats think, that first President Trump invited russian interference and then shortly on the heels of that being somewhat resolved, then he sought out ukrainian interference. And you can see the argument here, which is essentially that because the Mueller Investigation because of this do doj guideline that the president cant be charged with a crime, the president was never charged with anything associated with what was in the second section of the Mueller Investigation on obstruction, and as a result of that, democrats argue that he felt emboldened and continued on to do what he did in the ukraine incident. That being said, you can establish that as a rhetorical tool to establish the gravity of the situation, why its so important to protect elections, to have congress put a line in the sand on this issue without necessarily forcing members to vote on it. I think thats where democrats are ending up here. They dont necessarily believe that they need to actually make people take a difficult vote. Some of these moderates who have already said months ago that they did not think they should impeach President Trump over what was in the mueller report. Im also struck by the calendar here. It was last night. It was within hours after they were done with that last hearing that we heard there was going to be this announcement imminent this morning laying out the articles of impeachment. That means there could be a vote on articles thursday. I mean, tomorrow or thursday, the committee, the Judiciary Committee could vote on that. Early next week the full house will impeach the president of the United States. Thats true. I mean, theres a lot of talk about the democrats going too fast. This is already the longest impeachment process in our history. Andrew johnson was impeached in four days and brought to the senate. Bill clinton, i believe it was 73 or 74 days. Were now at day 77. So there is theres a precedent for moving like this once you think you have the facts. It is it does feel like its moving very quickly, but theres a we live in an environment right now where peoples attention moves quickly from one subject to another, and democrats are i think trying to seize the moment and say the president did this. Were going to hold him accountable, and here you go. We dont need to deliberate forever. Jerry nadler, and youve pointed to this, gave a reason why it needs to be not in his mind. They think timing is of the essence. As i watched that hearing, very fascinating academic exercise to hear from the attorneys. I mean, really, i thought it was compelling. However, i got the impression that peoples feelings were locked in at that point. So what more is there to hear . I dont think there is a lot more to hear. You know, one thing we should hold out, theres the potential for additional evidence to come up. The Intelligence Committee is still investigating. Whats been remarkable about this from the start is we knew what happened. The president didnt deny what happened, and now republicans with a little bit more clarity are saying, yeah, we know what happened, and there was nothing wrong with it, and heres why because they really want to make this about president ial decisionmaking and judgment, and you shouldnt impeach him even if you think he made a bad decision as opposed to abuse of power. And so you know, that is where we are. But i do think theres a lot of clarity about the evidence. Again, i thought i dont think it changes minds necessarily but the point being that if you agree that the president is trying was trying to alter the 2020 election, that is akin to what the russians did in 2016. That is a reason to move forward and take this out of the hands of voters if its going to be a corrupted process. I will note that the Russian Foreign minister will be at the white house today, the day that the articles of impeachment are announced. I will also note, this is an interesting bizarre split screen, there could be a deal between the white house and House Democrats on usmca, the new nafta, the trade. So on the very day that articles of impeachment are announced, they may make their biggest bipartisan gesture with each other . I guess they can walk and chew gum. Ask thatnd thats what nancy is trying to say. She started almost every News Conference that ended up being about impeachment talking about policy priorities they have in the house, particularly on trade and health care and all these other issues and youll note that the president s talking point is democrats are the do nothing congress. They wont even approve this usmca deal, theyre taking that off the table. Theyre about to get this deal essentially ratified, and i think that that is one of the things that nancy pelosi wants these parallel tracks to be happening at the same time. Congress is working, impeachment is happening. Although i will say some democrats are saying why hand the president a win at this juncture . You know, thats an internal debate thats happening within the Democratic Party as well. Some democrats like that guy sitting to your right right there. I actually think it does prove the point that you can do the peoples business and both of these things are the peoples business. Going back to davids point, this idea that this is not about a look back to what happened in 2016. Its about protecting 2020 is exactly why nancy pelosi changed her mind on impeachment. Its exactly why adam schiff changed his mind on impeachment. Exactly why i changed my mind. Weve been talking for months about why the democrats shouldnt impeach up until then. Its a critical point. Its not a talking point that theyre just using for an argument. Its why they are moving so quickly. Ask tnd the trade diaeal, th nafta, ive forgotten what i know what it is. I do think its important because you know, were living in a time of purity tests on all of these issues, and for progressives to say, no, no victory for the president , this is something that a lot of progressive thinks will be good for u. S. Workers. Its an important statement for democrats. Amid all this torrent of news, there was one Statement Last night by the fbi director that i think will upset the president more than anything el else, and i am waiting to see how the president responds. Well play it for you next. And im going to take a picture of your tie. New day brought to you by sleep number, discover the sleep number 360 smart bed for proven quality sleep, only at a sleep number store. Your sleep number. So, can it help us fall asleep faster . Yes, by gently warming your feet. But can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. And will it keep me in the holiday spirit . 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Not my thing. We have no information that indicates that ukraine interfered with the 2016 president ial election. I think its important for the American People to be thoughtful consumers of information to think about the sources of it. Wow. Wow. Wow. I really cant get over that. Thats the fbi director, Christopher Wray rejecting the Conspiracy Theory that ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, but even more than that, he basically said consider the source of the people spreading these conspiracies, the source being. The president. Exactly. And his allies. Back with us, david gregory, abby phillip, and joe lockhart. Ive heard that multiple times this morning, david, i cant get over it. To me it appears to be the kind of thing that will just drive the president crazy. Yeah, well, look, i think Christopher Wray has been a real institutionalist since the beginning, and its been refreshing. Its someone who cares about the f fbi and the fbis mission, who is not going to be buffeted, who is not going to act like a political appointee. Youre supposed to transcend politics in that job, but its a credit to him. I do think its important when we talk about this Inspector General report, its essential to underline they didnt find any political bias, but i think the mistakes they made and the abuses in applying for some of these fisa warrants are deeply troubling not just because of how it looks, but just to get to the bottom of why they did that. Was it a zeal in their investigation toward, you know, getting who they thought the bad guys were . Even if it wasnt true political bias, its a real problem. See, prothe problem david wi what youre saying is youre using critical thinking, bad boy. Thats exactly what Christopher Wray is saying that voters are going to have to do. Youre going to have to be able to keep two thoughts in your head at once, and youre going to have to see nuance, and thats not what the president specializes in. If you go back to the Oklahoma City bombing, there was a big controversy. There was a time headline that said whats wrong with the fbi because of the handling of the evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing case. You know, they people, and not just a jury but the American Public was able to separate some of those things, problems in the lab with some kind of systemic abuse. Its harder today. It is harder today. What Christopher Wray did is he tauksz about the Inspector General report. Thats a separate thing. He went above and beyond in a separate issue and said that ukraine we have no evidence that ukraine meddled in the 2016 election chr election, which is what the president has said, and again, he said you need to consider the source of this. Hes not going out on a limb on this. There is no evidence to support the idea that ukraine meddled in the 2016 election in the way that russia did. That was evident in all of the testimony that we heard from people who were brought forward as republican witnesses and as democratic witnesses. Its not surprising that Christopher Wray would think that. We have breaking news, and mr. President thank you for watching. I dont know what report current director of the fbi Christopher Wray was reading but it sure wasnt the one given to me. With that kind of attitude he will never be able to fix the fbi, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men and women aworking there. How do you know him so well . The president of the United States cannot handle when the fbi drerkirector as long as hes watching, i have a message for him. This is the longterm damage that Donald Trumps doing to the country. He has systematically sought to undermine every institution in our government. He is stone walling congress and saying the constitution doesnt matter. Doj with what barr is doing is reprehensible, and bad mouths the real press. The media, of course, you know what hes done, and hes done that from the beginning. This is going to this is damage that will live long past donald trump, and you know, put on my partisan hat, its working. It is working. That is why thats why Christopher Wray is getting under the president s skin. From day one he has defended the men and women of the fbi, which he views as part of his job, rebuilding the morale of that organization in the face of a lot of attacks from the president of the United States, and hes doing it because hes right, and i think this is justified in the i. G. Report, that a few bad apples doesnt indicate that the entire organization is rotten from the bottom up. And i think that thats what hes trying to say here, that there are problems. We need to fix them. We need to identify why these things occurred to davids point, but to say that the entire organization is corrupt is not the case. Stand by, friends, were going to keep our promise to daid gregory. Were going to talk much more about the Inspector General report and his tie with a former fbi general counsel because his tie it is a legal matter. Jim baker is going to join us coming up to talk about this u. G. Report that debunked years of conspiracy theories. Jim baker thinks the president owes the country an apology. Thats next. Were carvana, the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Now weve created a brand new way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. So go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our technowizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds. When youre ready, well come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. Thats it. 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This report shed light on some areas of this investigation that we really have known very little about, and boy were they revealing. The first revelation, there was no fbi mole in the Trump Campaign. If you look at clapper, he sort of admitted that they had spies in the campaign. Reporter the president has long claimed there was at least one implanted for political purposes, but the i. G. Said no, the fbi did not insert any agents nor recruit any trump staffers. When one source was offered a campaign job, the fbi response, no, no, no, absolutely not. Number two, the ivanka connection. My father and our next president. Former british agent Christopher Steele has been accused of being biased against donald trump and eager to dig up dirt on the billionaire, but steele told investigators that was ridiculous. If anything he was favorably disposed toward the trump family because he had a personal relationship with a family member. Cnn has confirmed is ivanka, visiting trump tower, giving her a gift. Shes had no public comment. Number three, an fbi agent did attend Trump Campaign briefing. The report says an agent sat in on an intelligence briefing for the Trump Campaign and he was collecting information, but the target was not trump. The next president of the United States right here. Reporter rather it was former general Michael Flynn who would briefly serve as Trumps National security adviser before pleading guilty to misleading the fbi about his contact with russians. Number four, the trump friendly agent. Despite trumps mocking of fbi agents he says were using the russia probe to defeat him. Well get that son of a bitch out. Reporter the report found an agent who messaged another after trump won the white house that he was so elated with the election it was like watching a super bowl comeback. And number five, the alleged sex tapes. I dont know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes. The i. G. Found the fbi did look into the possibility that the russians had potentially embarrassing videos of trump with women in a moscow hotel. But a primary source for that claim said they never found proof. It was unconfirmed rumor and speculation. John, alisyn. Our thanks to tom foreman for that. Joining us is the fbis general counsel when the fbi russia investigation began. Jim, thanks so much for being with us. You have lived this, and i really mean that, on every level now for well over two years. Youve had a night to digest this, the top line that the russia probe properly predicated legal and unbiased. Your reaction . It was not a hoax. It was not a witch hunt. It was not a coup attempt. There was no sedition. There was no treason. Thats not what we were trying to do. This case was about russia. It was about defending the United States from the russians who as we now know were engaged in a systematic attempt to attack the United States and disrupt our elections. And thats what they were trying to do, and thats what theyre still trying to do, and so were all still living with that. The fbi was not trying to gain political intelligence on the president or disrupt the political campaign. We wanted to stay as far away from politics as we possibly could coming out of the Hillary Clinton matter we were sick of politics. We didnt want to have anything to do with it. We were thrust back into it by the information we got related to george papadopoulos. Thats why we started the investigation. It would have been misconduct honestly for us not to pursue the investigation at that point in time given what we knew. The current fbi director clois Christopher Wray we have brand new sound on his reaction to that top line finding, no spying, no deep state. Listen to this. Based on the findings in the Inspector General report, the fbi wasnt part of some deep state . I think thats the kind of label that is a disservice to the 37,000 men, women who work at the fbi. Thats not a term i would ever use. So the fbi did not spy on the Trump Campaign . Well, thats not a term at the fbi we use to describe our work. Do you have any evidence that the fbi targeted the Trump Campaign unfairly . I dont. He doesnt. Neither does the Inspector General report despite years of the president suggesting there was a spy inside the campaign. Again, you lived this, jim, and overnight you called on the president to apologize to you and to the fbi and to the country. Why . Because he was wrong with respect to what he said, and what he said was damaging to us personally, and it was damaging to the institution of the fbi, and he should step up and do it. Its i respectfully request that he do that. Thats the right thing to do under these circumstances when the facts come out and it proves that he was wrong, which the facts do prove that he was wrong notwithstanding some of these statements i think by attorney general barr and mr. Durham. They dont undercut the fundamental conclusions of the Inspector Generals report. What about those statements by the attorney general and john durham who was a u. S. Attorney . The attorney general said while he respects horowitz, he basically doesnt agree that there was a legal justification for the investigation and durhams reaction was im doing another investigation now and my evidence hes suggesting doesnt comport with what the Inspector General found. That seems unusual. Well, mr. Durhams statement, let me take that one first. Mr. Durhams statement is extremely opaque, and i cant really figure out what in the world hes actually saying, and so i would have to wait to see, you know, exactly what he comes up with. I was quite surprised that he did it, that he made that statement. I dont see how doing so really is consistent with im story with the department of justice policies, procedures, norms, and its something that the Inspector General criticized us for doing with respect to the Hillary Clinton investigation. I dont get that one. The attorney general, look, hes complaining that the fbi in the start of this investigation with Something Like he says the thinnthi thinnest of predications. We followed the attorney general guidelines that were established in 2008 by president bushs attorney general, and the current attorney general can change those guidelines anytime he wants to if he thinks the predication standard for the fbi to open an investigation is too low. He hasnt done that to my knowledge. There were several, multipresident errmultiple errors found, serious infractions here and that had to do with the fisa applications to surveil carter page. Whats your reaction to that . So those are completely unacceptable. Im not going to defend those, and people need to be held accountable. Theres just no doubt about that. That was unacceptable. Ive worked for literally decades on trying to improve the fisa process and trying to make sure that what the government, the United States government was filing with the court was full, complete, and accurate, and so im extremely disappointed, and i applaud the steps that the fbi director is taking to address the problems, and i support the recommendations that the Inspector General made. But look, its a hard preparing fisa applications in the middle of investigations of this nature and Counter Terrorism investigations is really hard. Theres a lot of work to do. You cant expect youre going to to solve this problem. One of the arguments you will hear and are already hearing from some is oh, well, the carter page fisa applications were flawed, that means all of cross fire hurricane was flawed. Thats not true. Thats just completely wrong. It misunderstands the role of fisa. Fisas are investigative tools. They are not an investigation. The investigation is much broader than that. You have to have a different standard to open the investigation. You use a whole bunch of investigative tools throughout it. Fisas one of them. Fie issa was only used with res to one person in this investigation. Thats completely false. If i can ask you one last thing, Christopher Wray among other things he sees no ed ukraine attacked the 2016 u. S. Election. Christopher wray seems to be standing up to the president of the United States on this and other matters. Youve lived through one fbi director being fired by the president of the United States. What do you think will happen with Christopher Wray . I applaud him for saying what he did. Its the right thing to do, so thats a great thing. I would doubt that the president having gone through what he went through after firing jim comey, his reaction, i wont say it because some of it was quite colorful that was recorded in the mueller report, but i dont see the president firing director wray at this point. I think he learned a lesson that thats a bad idea. Thank you for being with us, and sharing your unique insight to this historic moment. Appreciate it. Thank you. Now to this story, the death toll is rising from a volcanic eruption in new zealand. We have an update on the search for the missing next. When you move homes, you move more than just yourself. Thats why xfinity has made taking your internet and tv with you a breeze. Really . Yup. You can transfer your Service Online in about a minute. You can do that . Yeah. And with twohour Service Appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. So while moving may still come with its share of headaches. No kidding. Were doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. New developments this morning in the deadly volcanic blast off new zealand. At least six people have died, eight still missing. Nine americans were among 47 people exploring white island at the time of the blast. The groups local tour guide was killed and many of the survivors suffered burns. Emergency crews are still unable to get on the island, but police say as far as they can tell there are no signs of life. The saudi gunman who attacked a Naval Air Station in pensacola legally bought the gun used in that attack that killed three u. S. Servicemen. Officials are also investigating whether a cyber attack on monday is related to that shooting. Cnns brin begynn gingras is li. Reporter the gunman was able to legally get it with a hunting license that he was able to get here in the state of florida with the nonimmigrant visa that he held. Now as far as the investigation, its still a global investigation. Its our understanding from a source that up to a dozen saudi nationals are still being restricted to base, basically theyre to answers questions of authorities. But its causing some tensions their confinement, so much so that a high level defense saudi has come here to pensacola to help assist with all of this. But investigators really want to know what they knew, you know. They have told, according to a sour source, nrinvestigators that th were part of a party before this attack happened where they were viewing mass shootings. Also, they were able to point to the demeanor of the gunman and authorities want to know did they have any advanced knowledge of this attack before it was carried out. Investigators are also analyzing the digital footprint of this gunman. Wither aware of a twitter account that aligns with the killer, has not been con furmd with t confirmed with the fbi, but it basically retweets a lot of it posted a chilling message before this attack was carried out really expressing hate for america. So officials are really looking at social media as well as credit card statements, all of this, again, to just determine if this gunman was radicalized in any way and point to a clearer motive about what caused thispensacola, the city underwent a cyber incident, strangely it shut down a lot of city services, but the fbi said they have no indication as of yet if that had any connection to the shooting took place here friday morning. It will be very interesting to hear what President Trump has to say about any al qaeda connection and terrorism. Thank you very much. Back here democratic president ial candidate Pete Buttigieg getting permission to disclose the names of his clients during his threeyear stint at mckinsey, thats the consulting firm, and they waived a confidentiality agreement that he had been under. Abby phillip is here with more. Do we think that this is going to reveal some sort of deep dark secrets about the clients he was working on . Thats less clear. This was during a period of time for Pete Buttigieg. He was in his early 20s working at mckinsey for about two and a half years, but it has been hanging over his president ial run for months now, since over the summer hes been asking mckinsey to let him out of this nondisclosure agreement. They have now, but its happening in part because of Elizabeth Warren who has been pushing him to be more transparent about this period of his life when he was working for this Corporate Consulting firm and also about his fund rauzers. He is one of the candidates unlike warren who has these big dollar fundraisers including this week, which are happening in new york, and the fundraisers have been closed. Now the Campaign Says theyre going to open those fundraisers to the media. Theyre also going to continue to disclose the bundlers, these are the uber wealthy people who raise money from other extremely wealthy people for president ial candidates. I find the Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren dynamic to be fascinating and until recently uncover here. His rise in iowa has come largely at the expense of Elizabeth Warren, and there is overlap there among their support. They are fighting over the same voters. When youre in iowa and you talk to voters, theyre looking at Elizabeth Warren and theyre looking at Pete Buttigieg, even though they are on different parts of the ideological spectrum. Warren being more progressive, buttigieg trying to stake out a more moderate lean. This issue of transparency actually goes to the heart of that. You see a lot of warrens supporters pressing buttigieg not just about opening the fundraisers, but about having them in the first place. Many of them saying that he is taking money from the very corporate interests that Elizabeth Warren is trying to rein in. I want to go back to the mysterious mckinsey years because he hasnt been able to until now disclose that. What he has said he was basically an underling, a grunt there, a junior person who spent a lot of time in a Conference Room doing powerpoint presentations. Do we think that there will be anything revealing . Well, thats probably true to some extent. He says he did a lot of analysis. He create add lot d a lot of po rk. He worked for a Nonprofit Health provider in michigan, a retail chain Grocery Store in toronto. He even did a contract with a u. S. Government agency in iraq and afghanistan, but you hear some of the his critics saying if you look at the contracts, for example, a Health Care Company in michigan, theres a big debate in the democratic primary right now about medicare for all, about how Health Care Works in this country, some people are saying we want to know what he advised this Health Care Company. Also who is this Health Care Company . Well learn a little bit more about that as soon as this week, even as early as today about who exactly some of these clients were. In the next democratic debate which will air on cnn one week away. A Major Investigation into americas longest war. Did u. S. Officials mislead the public about the war in afghanistan . The lead author of a truly explosive new report joins us next. the enchanted disney fine jewelry collection. With exclusive bridal styles at zales. only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol®. 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Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repairs dermproven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. Neutrogena® a Major Investigation by the Washington Post has uncovered major revelations about the nearly two decade long war in afghanistan fl. Top u. S. Officials repeatedly misled the American Public to conceal doubts about the likelihood of success in afghanistan. Cnns jim sciutto has been digging through this report. I know its not the pentagon papers, its different, but its almost within the same vane. Its pretty damn close. This is deeply disturbing and alarming. It should be for the American People. A campaign of lies through multiple administration of both parties through americas longest war, misleading the American Public on early fears that this war was unwinnable, and it harkens back to the pentagon papers, and thats what that established regarding the vietnam war. It is worth a read. This is a massive new trove of controversial documents obtained by the Washington Post reveals u. S. Officials systematically lied to the American Public about the afghan war. Virtually since the beginning, 18 years ago. The objective to conceal widespread fears that america was losing. The post says its obtained more than 2,000 pages of documents. Some part of a lengthy government report called Lessons Learned and that several of those interviewed describe sustained efforts by the u. S. Government to deliberately mislead the public. They said it was common at military headquarters in kabul and at the white house to distort statistics to make it appear the United States was winning the war when that was not the case. The report includes interviews with more than 600 people with firsthand war experience. It includes memos from former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, who once wrote in april 2002, six months after the war began, i know im a bit impatient but the fact iran and russia have plans for afghanistan and we dont concerns me. He ends the note with help, exclamation point. General douglas lute who served for president s bush and security adviser to obama is quoted in the report saying in 2015, we were devoid of a fundamental understanding of afghanistan. We didnt know what we were doing. What were looking at here is something that calls into question not only our military operations but also is a dishonor to the sacrifices that have been made by the servicemen and women in afghanistan over these years. This is an inexcusable way to run things. The revelations are reminiscent of the pentagon papers. A top secret study of the vietnam war. First made public in 1971 when they were published by the new york times. Its very similar to what happened with the pentagon papers because, again, a strategy is being called into question. The rosy picture painted by our political and military leadership is not the real picture on the ground. To date the u. S. Has not carried out a comprehensive accounting of how much its spent on the war in afghanistan. The government has spent or appropriated more than 934 billion and 978 billion. An inflationadjusted estimate in the post. In the report, one unnamed executive with usaid estimated that 90 of what u. S. Spent was overkill. The post says it obtained the documents through the freedom of information act after a threeyear quest. In response to the piece, the Defense Department spokesperson campbell said, quote, theres been no intent by dod to Mislead Congress or the public. Most of the individuals interviewed spoke with the benefit of hindsight. The military spent years, decades even, rebuilding confidence after what was discovered in the pentagon papers, changing the way commanders were educated. Whole host of processes. And to have a similar result on decades later on what has turned out to be americas longest war is deeply disturbing. The political implications, as you know, President Trump has spoken about the possibility of pulling troops out of afghanistan. He wants to do it. Every time hes gotten right up to the step where he would do that, the military has cautioned him it would be a real mess. How does the president read this, and does that make it more likely troops are gone before the end of his term. He will think it justifies the calls hes been making. Joining us now is the lead reporter on that story, Washington Post Investigative Reporter greg whitlock. Craig, its hard to overstate the magnitude of what you have unearthed here and reported on. And so jim took us through some of it. Can you just briefly tell us how hard it was for you to get your hands on all of this information and how long it took. Well, it did take us awhile. It took three years at the end of the Obama Administration, i got a tip that Michael Flynn had given this long unpublished interview where he gave this blistering critique of the afghan war. He was in charge of military intelligence in afghanistan for a while. We were really interested in what he had to say and tried getting a copy of this interview he had given to a Government Agency call the special Inspector General for afghanistan. First, we thought we would get it. It was a straightforward request. These werent classified documents but this agency started digging in its heels and we ended up having to sue them twice in federal court and only just this past august got the remainder of the documents. Were still suing them trying to get the names of all the people who gave these interviews. We only know about 100 names. A lot more has been redacted. Its more than the tip of the iceberg, but we still dont know everything yet. Thank goodness for freedom of information act that allows you to win those some of those battles. But lets talk about some of the Key Takeaways from what youve now unearthed. So number one, year after year, u. S. Officials failed to tell the public the truth about the war. And what you found out was that bob crowley, based at military headquarters in kabul says the strategy became selfvalidating. Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible. Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable. It reinforced everything we were doing was right and we became a selflicking ice cream cone. And so, what are we to take from that. That they were intentionally lying to the public . Its not just colonel crowley. There were many other interviews. One with the senior National Security counsel. They redacted his name but he said these statistics, these distorted numbers would always try and cherry pick some number that made it feel like things were going well. The number of american troops getting killed was going up and they were taking the fight to the enemy. If the casualties were going down theyd say that shows were winning, too, but this National Security council official said it went up to the white house and ultimately to the president of the United States. At that point, president obama, that they knew these statistics werent right. They knew they werent telling the truth but they still would this is what they would tell the American Public. We see this time and again in these papers where they knew the war wasnt going well. But they were resolved to present a different picture to the American People. Im glad youre pointing that out. Thats bipartisan deception. Lets talk about donald rums feld because we remember that he was one of the salesmen at some point and so what you found ous that the u. S. And allied officials admit it had no Clear Mission and outlined objectives. There were hundreds of Donald Rumsfeld memos. Heres one from september 8, 2003. He says, i have no visibility into who the bad guys are. We are woefully deficient in human intelligence. So what are we to make of how Donald Rumsfeld dealt with all of this . Its even worse than that with rumsfeld. A couple years later, the documents showed he got some confidential reports from folks that had gone to the war zone and they came back with these reports to rumsfeld and said the war is going really badly. The taliban is starting to win. We need to do something or were going to lose this war. Rumsfeld read these memos and was very concerned. At the same time, though, the pentagon is putting out talking points. His own speech writers put out this big long list of five years into the war, this is 2006, this is why were winning and they put out all these ridiculous statistics to show that things were going great. Like the number of roads paved and how fast people are driving on the roads and the number of women who had become chicken farmers and they put out these talking points saying, look, these naysayers in the media are saying were losing, but were winning. Ru rumsfeld saw this and said this is brilliant. We need to get these talking points out to as many people as possible at the same time his own people in afghanistan are telling him hes losing the war. And that leads to 1 trillion squandered at the end of this. 2400 lives lost. And i want to get to that part of the takeaway. This is number four that says the u. S. Wasted vast sums of money trying to remake afghanistan and it bred corruption in the process. Heres the quote from ryan crawford, the u. S. Ambassador to afghanistan. You cannot put those amounts of money into a fragile state or state and not have it fuel corruption. You just cant. That 1 trillion squandered, so much of it didnt go to rebuilding roads or any of that stuff. I mean, it just ended up creating corruption. Well, these papers we obtained, they have horror story after horror story. They have people in the war zone, aid workers, military officers saying they were under enormous pressure to spend money. That people back in washington didnt care what they spent it on. They didnt care if it made any sense that congress, the Defense Department and others wanted to spend money like there was no tomorrow during the Obama Administration because there was such a rush to show results during obamas surge. And again, you just get account after account, people saying build schools, build roads, build dig ditches. We dont care. Just spend the money. We want to show the Afghan People this war is working and it was really just mindless. But the power of these papers, it isnt one person saying this or two or ten, its dozens and dozens of people who are directly involved in the war giving these pretty blistering accounts. These accounts are staggering. And i encourage everybody listening to go and read your report in the Washington Post. It is just jaw dropping how much the public was misled throughout all of this. Craig whitlock, thank you for coming up and sharing it with our viewers. Thank you to our international interviewers for watching. For u. S. Viewers, House Democrats about to make a huge announcement on impeachment. New day continues now. Articles of impeachment will be unveiled after a contentious final day of house hearings. Where is the Impeachable Offense . Why are we here . He used his power, betrayed his oath and corrupted the election process. To impeach a president over eight lines in a call transcript is baloney. Each of us took an oath to defend the constitution. The president is a continuing threat to our democracy. This is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Good morning and welcome to your new day. Tuesday, december 10th, 8 00 in the east. And the breaking news this morning, were awaiting a major announcement on capitol hill. Very shortly, House Democrats will announce the formal articles of impeachment. These are the impeach charges against the