denigrated or downgraded or called into question. but that doesn't speak to even if that were the case, it doesn't speak to where we are now. i mean there is a threat now. and one of the reason there's is a confusion that leon speaks about is that the president is parroting putin's line. when the president calls the russian investigation a hoax, that is exactly what moscow said today. this is the kremlin line today. they were bitterly denouncing the investigation and said there was no truth to it. so the president keeps reinforcing the kremlin's line. and that is a source of great concern and confusion for anyone who is trying to read what's actually going on here in our own government. >> david axelrod, secretary leon panetta, thank you very much. a lot more straight ahead, including the breaking news of a federal judge's rebuke of trump administration attorneys who wanted a civil liberties group, the aclu, to take charge of finding hundreds of immigrant parents deported without their kids.