Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20180720

National intelligence, he found out on a stage in aspen while being interviewed by nbc. We have breaking news. It was announced on twitter vladamir putin is coming to the white house in the fall. Say that again. Vladamir putin coming to the did i hear you . Yeah. Okay. Thats going to be special. Director coats was not told of the decision to invite putin to washington this fall nor does he by his own admission know what went on with helsinki in that meeting oneonone with vladamir putin, nor do we. And well talk about the claim trump is making about how tough he is on the russians and these summit plans were being rolled out and whether this rewards putin for bad behavior, the Justice Department issued a dire warning about bad behavior by russia and others. Ongoing bad blaifr behavior a threat unfolding as we speak. Word of it came at the aspen forum the same place coats learned about the invite. You were in the room when coats found out about the putin invite. Talk about how this unfolded today. Ill tell you, its remarkable there. Clearly, as he was told there by andrea mitchell, it was clear he did not know. That was the first he was hearing about it. He also laughed it off a little bit in a way that indicated this is not the first time hes been surprised, right . Normally, you would expect the nations senior most intelligence official to not be made aware of or more importantly be consulted on by the white house sitting down with the leader of a foreign, a hostile nation, as many revelations about russias interference in u. S. Politics have shown this week. Normally, theyd be consulted as well. He was not. I think the humor there is something of a protective mode youll see many u. S. Officials in this administration wrap themselves in a bit because theyve been here before. The nature of the way donald trump does business, again, something he takes very seriously. In the rest of his commentary this afternoon, he made it very clear he views russia as a very dangerous adversary and one continuing to attack u. S. Democracy. How unusual is it that coats acknowledged, a, he acknowledged it, and, b, the facts he doesnt know what went on between president putin and President Trump in that oneonone meeting . That was one of the more hard to pick the most remarkable moment but yet another one. Senior intelligence official you would expect to be consulted, debriefed by the president afterwards as to what vladamir putin told him, what they agreed to. He said, pointblank, i dont know what happened in that meeting. Listen to how he laid that out. I dont know what happened in that meeting. I think as time goes by and the president has already mentioned some things that happened in that meeting, i think we will learn more. That is the president s prerogative. If he had asked me how that ought to be conducted i would have suggested a different way. Thats not my role. Thats not my job. It is what it is. Reporter there you have it, again saying that he would have recommended to the president he not meet oneonone with no one else present, yet in the same conversation he learns the president s going to do it again. Inviting vladamir putin here to this country to meet with him. We dont know yet if that will be a oneonone meeting with no one else present except translators, in the face of all weve learned of russias continuing interested interference the president tuning it out. Saying he once again wants to meet with him which is a win for putin. He said he would continue to stay on in the job . Reporter he did, as were a lot of officials. Chris wray were asked this question and others was there a moment they felt so insulted not being consulted by the president they would resign. Dan coats asked the same. His answer very interesting. He said something along the lines of, thats not something i would share publicly, so he did not say, no, i never thought about it. He did say, listen, as long as i feel i can seek the truth and speak the truth, that he will stay in this job. And, clearly, we were hearing him in that meeting being willing to speak the truth. He said he does so to the president and here he was doing it to the American Public as well. Thanks. More now on the genesis of summit 2. 0. The white house with more on that. This invitation to putin, clearly a sign he is doubling down, not acknowledging a mistake at helsinki. No surprise there. Do we have any idea when putin would come . Before the midterm elections or after . This is happens fast. It was a doubling down. No doubt about it. We have seen President Trump when hes been criticized by something, he leans in and owns it. Its a doubling down. Saying this meeting went fine and wants another one. Theres no sign a doover would be any different. He spent the last three days cleaning up and clarifying statements he made. Still not making clear saying i did not speak forcefully enough to vladamir putin. It was said he asked john bolton, the security advisor, to issue that invitation to vladamir putin. That happened midday, obviously one person not told about that, one of many was the intel chief, dan coats. The invitation just went out today or something discussed on that oneonone meeting, do we know . Reporter thats a great question. We dont know what happened on that oneonone meeting and revealing by dan coats saying he still does not know. And officials and people do not know what they talked about for two hours in helsinki. It was clear perhaps they discussed another meeting, something they would do avermaet it was clear that was something the president wanted john bolton to invite him today. Talking to variety of people. The president has gotten a lot of blow back. They are doubling down and making it clear. He has made mistakes but wants that relationship. The timing was the fall, before the midterms or after the midterms, we dont know, but, boy. And also asking whether the has confidence in dan coats and dan acknowledging the president didnt consult with any questions before he met with oneonone vladamir putin. You would think you would talk to as many people as possible you appointed running important positions. Also, it was dan coats the president referenced in that press conference with vladamir putin, coats came in, told me about the meddling, i can tell you putin was very powerful, he denies it, i dont see why they would have. Reporter dan coats clearly said, look, im taking a stand. One thing i heard from a variety of people after that interview, is he trying to get fired . Or does he not care. We dont know what the president thought of the interview. As we have seen from the president. He reacts to News Coverage of events. I do expect reaction of the president whether he supports him or not. The sheer reality is dan coats was doing something we have not heard from any other Top Administration with the exception of former secretary of state Rex Tillerson for speaking his mind. In front of an audience essentially laughing at the president. Thats basically the butt of the joke was, that will be special, he didnt know about it. Anyway well see. More now on the troubling notion that and the president S National Security team were kept in the dark about all of this. Joining us michael hayden, author of the assault on National Intelligence and former director of National Intelligence, james clapper, author of facts and fears. Hard truths from a life in intelligence. Does an invitation to putin to the white house make sense in the fall based on how the last meeting seemed to have gone . As a matter of policy, no. Actually, there is a rationale. We have a phrase out of langley, to live the cover story. The cover story for the president is that he was strong, that he was effective, that it was a successful meeting. I may be the only one in the National Capitol area who is saying that. Thats his story and sticking to it. Hes messaging thats his story by saying, i will do it again. Living his cover. Fascinating. Director clapper given the talk about ongoing attacks from russia, what does it say about inviting putin to the white house after that . This is something of a reward for bad behavior. I wasnt crazy about the first one. For that reason. What has putin done to help the United States . The typical pattern of the president is to double down on that. I personally dont think its a real good idea. I agree with mike about the rationale for it. General clapper, when you hear what the man who has your job now, director of National Intelligence, says he president didnt talk to him about meeting with putin and still doesnt know still, does that surprise you . I would have thought the president would come out of that meeting with putin and thered be a quick debrief with his top intelligence officials or staff and that might get disseminated to coats indirectly. Thats certainly the conventional manner in which these things are done, first, the National Security team would be a part of the decisionmaking process to have a summit. Work out the details for the agenda and the objectives and rules and all that sort of thing. As we have come to know, with this president , whos not conventional and very unorthodox, no, it doesnt surprise me everyone on his team is in the dark. General hayden, in terms of the whole idea of living the cover, perhaps the president is putting it out there as a doubling down to show a brave face. Perhaps theyre not actually going to go through with having vladamir putin come whether its before or after, sometime in the fall, the midterm elections, which according to the intelligence officials, russia is trying to be involved with. My instincts are, no, once its out there and once the invitation is made, walking it back carries its own second and third order effects. Even i might not want the United States or have the relationship suffer. I do think this is going to go on. Anderson, can i add a thought to what jim said earlier . Sure. In addition to director coats not knowing what happened at meeting, there isnt a great deal of evidence the American Intelligence Community and director coats was much involved in the preparation for the meeting. Let me tell you a question the president really need to ask. Dan, what is it your folks are saying that putin will bring up to me in this meeting, so the president can be prepared for the things putin will surface in addition to the things he might want to surface. What are the things putin wants to get out of this meeting which is obviously the kind of thing you want to know before you go into a meeting. So youre not surprised. Were already living with first and second order effects of the swap of witnesses as to the mueller investigation, ambassador mike mcfaul. Perhaps the president wouldnt have said this was a fascinating idea if he had expected the president of the Russian Federation to bring it up to him and already prepared for himself in his own mind how to push back what is patently a very bad idea. Now, the white house said the president doesnt think its a good idea despite what he said on the stage and we all heard for ourselves. What do you think would be the reaction with the Intelligence Community about this new invitation and what do they do in anticipation of it . If the president is going to ask for i dont know if the president will ask the Intelligence Community to do anything in anticipation of it but what would they do in a normal time . Exactly what mike suggested. Had that happened with this first summit, President Trump might have reacted in a better way than he did to what he characterizes a wonderful suggestion to exchange witness, which is and particularly, make available a former ambassador, which is completely absurd. Had there been preparation for this that might not have happened. Hopefully hope springs eternal there will be a Lesson Learned here and this time there will be some preparation for what might be on putins agenda. Director clapper, we have seen the president say over and over again it could have been russia who interfered in the election, it could have been someone else, too, there are a lot of people out there. You were one of the four people who briefed the president that it was russia. To the extent you can can you tell us what he said and how he reacted when you told him . I cant go into a lot of detail about that. I might as sidebar mention the New York Times article today, which was not entirely accurate. I wont go into details about what was and wasnt accurate. That is kind of an example of that. I would cite the two indictments issued by special counsel mueller, the one in february involving the Internet Research agency and particularly, the more recent one, indicting the 12 gru officers. If you read those two together, particularly the last one, you get some insight into the level of detail we had and why we had such high confidence in our findings that we included in the Intelligence Community assessment we agreed, with President Trump on the 26th of january 2017. He took it very well. It was a professional exchange. Although immediate ly he wanted to write a press release saying the russian interference had no impact on the outcome of the election which we didnt say anything about in our assessment. I can assure you we did provide substantiating evidence, some highly classified but i wont go into details about it. Youre referencing what we now learned from the mueller were talking tonight about a Major National policy decision and news about a National Policy player. I want to show you the moment again. Dan coats was taken aback at todays summit news. We have some breaking news, the white house has announced on twitter that vladamir putin is coming to the white house in the fall. Say that again. Vladamir putin coming did i hear you yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thats going to be special. Some people laugh but when you think about it its not really much of a laughing matter, says something about how decision are made at the white house. With us to talk about it. Gloria borger and mike rogers and Matthew Rosenberg National Correspondent for the New York Times, interNational Security analyst. Chairman rogers, you have the invitation being extended or us learning about it on the same day director coats wasnt informed of the invite and doesnt know what happened in the private meeting between President Trump and vladamir putin, should that be cause for concern . Absolutely. I think putin is getting exactly what he wants. He set up the conditions for the meeting and got trump to meet alone by the way, trump said he didnt want leaks, but he met alone and there werent a lot of prepared staff people around the table to deal with thorny issues and subsequent to the meeting he began his campaign for the next one. About 100 billion in u. S. Debt, Treasury Bonds russia has dumped since may. After the meeting, he starts broadcasting how his military prowess and technology exceeds, in an implied way, the United States of america, does two things, tells folks thinking whose team they should be on. Sends a clear message russia might want to be on that list and who might want to buy military hardware. All of this serves putins interests. Thats whats so frustrating to me. If you go into a meeting like this without an agenda, i guarantee you putin was prepared and everything that happens in that meeting is prepared and trump was reacting to all of it and why he got himself in so much trouble. Seemingly react ing the moment. He did seem surprised at putins ridiculous offer having the mueller team go over there and russian team come over here, interrogate american citizens. Look, trump got played, completely, 100 . I think what were seeing today is his reaction to washington reacting to that by inviting putin, you know, to come back here, hes throwing a tantrum and saying, look, okay, guys. Hes up against the wall. He got criticized, he doesnt like that. He had to admit he made a mistake and misspoke and change his opinion on that incredible offer youre just saying about. Hes saying, okay, i will throw this into chaos again, i set the agenda, nobody else in my administration. Im going to do this and im going to show you whos in charge. Its such a trump tantrum were witnessing, and unfortunately, its dangerous. Matthew, youre reporting two weeks before the inauguration, the president was shown National Intelligence that putin was responsible for the cyber attacks. How do you connect that with the comments made by the president. Trump knows what has convinced every other intelligence official in the u. S. Government the russians tried interfere in the election, they were looking to support him. Trump knows what they know. It seems like the Homeland Security secretary doesnt know that says shes not convinced it was to throw it for trump. Even though putin said he wanted trump to win. Then she walked that back a little bit. This has been a walk of week backs for the half the administration. The president says what he thinks it is in the moment. Sitting next to putin, maybe he didnt do it. Get back to washington, i think he did it. Its hard to know what he believes on this. I do wonder what he thinks were gaining from all of this. Russia is a country with a far smaller economy. There are three u. S. States with a bigger economy than russia, their population is in decline. This is not an equal global power and were not in a cold war. Its not like i have to have vladimir back. Looks like hes dealing with an administration that doesnt think helsinki is a success and will double down on my successes. What does President Trump think he is getting out of all this. Obviously, there are plenty of nefarious explanations people may have. On a clearly geopolitical u. S. Foreign policy stance. Russia is not powerful. The president focuses how powerful vladamir putin is as a leader and apparently a fan of him after the Miss Universe pageant tweeting out, i wonder if we will become best friends. What do you think the president thinks he is getting out of this. Russia is not powerful economically, true, yes, they have a demographic problem and in 25 years they will have real problems. They are a very dangerous country. Why . They have good technical ability in cyber warfare and Cyber Warfare Operations and candidly, were right in the middle of another one i think is going russias way and are a Nuclear Armed country and have services they are willing to export where they can to influence parts of the world. Syria was a great example, ukraine another one, talked about sending troops to russia. I would be careful saying, yes, theyre not economic theyre just dangerous. Acting the the way they are they could cause a lot of concern. If we dont check that, vladamir putin will continue to do it. Hes not even talking to us anymore, anderson, us being the United States. Hes talking to other adversaries he wants to be allies of russia. Hes moved beyond the helsinki summit as the old his ambassadors this morning, guess what, theyre in political turmoil in the United States. Let them deal with that. We have friends and allies we need to recruit around the world. Thats what i worry about. I dont think trump actually sees that because hes afraid to take a staff person in the room that might leak everything they said. I agree. The president doesnt seem to agree with what you just said, one of the explanations why russia should be focused on is because of their cyber capabilities. It is not clear the president really believes russia was behind the attack because even in reading a prepared statement he then adlibbed it could be russia but theres a lot of other people out there. You hug Vladimir Putin youre goipg to get a knife in the back. I think trump honestly believes if he develops this relationship he can tone down other problems with russia. The problem is that is not the way putin thinks. He is a trained kbg officer and they are trained to exploit those weakness, why you saw the press conference out of the ambassadors sending the message to the rest of the world, the heck with the United States, thumping his chest in a very diplomatic way to try to gain advantage and influence in places we probably dont want them to have. Maybe thats one of the reasons trump invited him back to show him, i can thump my chest, too. Theyre laughing at me here, i will end up being on top. I think trump regards this in many ways as a real estate negotiation. Only it isnt. Only putin knew what his agenda was going to be and donald trump did not have an agenda, as a result, when moscow comes out of this summit they are announcing the agenda and what they got and nobody knows what trump said or did. Members of congress have to decide are they going to trust the people in the administration who disagree with trump or are they going to list on the president. Matt, do people you talk to have a theory why the president doesnt seem to believe the russian attack . It ranges from the obvious theories about what we to this day have no clear cut evidence of, to plausible theories the president still does, signalled to aides, they believe, any kind of suggestion this election was interfered with by the russians would throw his victory into question and question the legitimacy of his presidency. He cant do it. Even if theyre just talking about the swaying of the election, the mere fact it exists is too much. Thank you. The question that continues to loom over all this, why is the president differential to a man, according to u. S. Agencies directed attacks against american democracy. Tweeting this from a counterintelligence perspective, something is going on behind the scenes. Before helsinki, i was unsure and post helsinki, i feel sick. Steve hall and his former colleague. Joining me next. Keep it comin love. If you keep on eating, well keep it comin. All you can eat riblets and tenders at applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Thats confident. But its not kayak confident. Kayak searches hundreds of travel and Airline Sites to find the best flight for me. So im more than confident. Hows your family . Kayak. Search one and done. Im a small business, but i have. Big dreams. And big plans. So how do i make the efforts of 8 employees. Feel like 50 . How can i share new plans virtually . How can i download an efile . Virtual tours . Zipfile . Really big files . In seconds, not minutes. Just like that. Like everything. The answer is simple. Ill do what ive always done. Dream more, dream faster, and above all. Now, ill dream gig. Now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. Its day three of the fallout from the helsinki summit and what happened between trump and putin. One thing we do know the visit to washington. By the russian president. Everything else is a mystery. Lets see what chief of operation, steve hall posted on twitter. From a counterintelligence perspective, something is going on behind the scenes. Before helsinki, i was less sure. Post helsinki, i feel sick. Steve joins me with a former officer who spent time in moscow. You choose your words carefully. What makes you feel sick . Before the helsinki summit i was not prepared to go to the darkest corner in the room and say there is compromising information on donald trump. But, then, after i saw him together with vladamir putin, the murderer, person who has done the standard litany of things were all familiar with and i saw donald trump treat him in a fashion that is inexplicable, the only conclusion i can come to and i would disagree with one of your former guests, i think there is information and data out there that implies that there is indeed compromising information that vladamir putin has on donald trump. Look, why else would he treat him this way . Donald trump has been pretty tough with the chinese. Theres an impending trade war. Hes been pretty tough with rocket man when they were comparing the size of their buttons. Not as if donald trump has any problem being tough with people. Why not be tough with a guy like vladamir putin. The only explanation i have is he is concerned the compromising information putin has on him will get out. And everybody else he treats differently. That is what sickens me. Do you feel this way as well . I agree with the symptoms but not sure i understand the cause. In other words im not prepared to go there saying the president is influenced directly by any compromising material the russians have. What i would add is it doesnt matter. We cannot proceed with any realistic explanation with the russians if the president is not prepared to take a hard line with vladamir putin. His entire Intelligence Community is in opposition to him and a struggle to watch to both support the president whom they serve as well as their conviction we need to confront the russians. As a matter of fact if you look at the decade of history between the u. S. And russia and the cold war today i dont think theres ever been a period we could achieve progress in relations, except when weve been tough with one another. Remember, when president Ronald Reagan confronted the russians, in the beginning it was the evil empire. That was a necessary precondition for the progress that was made with president gorbachev and after that, the hard line faded into the relationship. I think if President Trump believes he can develop a friendship with putin based not on reality, as his Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement community and policy community sees it, hes not only deluding himself, president putin will not respect him for it. It does seem like everything about the russians, people have said, come at them from a position of strength. They respect strength. I keep wonder what is going through vladamir putins mind when hes standing on that stage listen to the president go through all his greatest hits of all the things vladamir putin has no doubt read transcripts of the president saying before about his election victory and no collusion and all these things. The president is not a great poker player. He things to give away everything that is in his head. Sure. Undoubtedly a very weak performance. I would agree with rolf, theres no reason not to go with the russians tough. The question is, then why isnt he doing that . To get to rolfs other question many have asked, what is this compromise and this information, the salacious tapes, all that stuff, i dont think that concerns trump or his base. Go back and look at the finances. Donald trump has been doing business and his organization have been doing business, by his own sons admission, if you look at the record for years. What is the most important thing for donald trump, not being a rich man, the ego satisfaction, being a tycoon and the best dealmaker of all. To have somebody like vladamir putin, who can say, you know what, guess who was behind that. Guess who bailed you out and helped you Via Deutsche Bank and other mechanisms when you were having trouble, that is the russians and Donald Trumps vulnerability and why he is not tough with the russians. When the president says nobody has been tougher on russia than he has, his supporters point to russian mercenaries were killed in a battle in syria by forces and bombing in syria and supplying weapons to ukraine, a, do you buy nobody has been tougher on russia than donald trump and Deputy Attorney general rosenstein said the attacks are persistent and ongoing meant to undermine the democracy, how serious do you take the warning . I have to come to the conclusion either the president is delusional about the advice hes getting from his advisors about russia is trying to do and ask convincing himself hes being tough by making statements hes the toughest president , when that is patently ridiculous, frankly. I dont want to sound disrespectful. That raises a key question. Watch the summit, the contrast between President Trump and putin could not have been clearer. President putin also adopted an unusual approach or demeanor in which he became very bitter. Many of his comments were very bitter. He offered these two proposals he had to understand were completely unacceptable to the entire National Security investigation calling for the investigation in russia. Its a slap in the face of the mueller investigation. The only person he could appeal to was the president himself. He did appeal to him and the president said on the stage he said it was a great idea. Twice he referred to that. Thank you so much. Really fascinating. Thank you. New polling how President Trump fared in the wake of the helsinki summit. Well tell you the results when we continue. Can worldrenowned artist red hong yi use the chase mobile app® to pay practically anyone, at any bank . All while creating a masterpiece made of tea leaves . Yes. But this isnt for just anyone. Hong yi its for the strongest man in her life. Life. Lived reds way. Chase. Make more of whats yours. Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. Stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. South l. A. Is very medically underserved. When the old hospital closed people in the community lived with untreated Health Problems for years. So, with the countys help we built a new hospital from the ground up and having citi as an early investor worked as a signal to others to invest. With citis help we built a wonderful Maternity Ward and we were able to purchase an mri machine. Weve made it possible for the people who live here to lead healthier lives and thats invaluable. New polling from cbs news on attitudes how President Trump handle himself at the helsinki summit. 55 disapproved and 32 approved. Theres a sharp divide only 8 of democrats approved. Republicans approved by a 68 margin. Joining me now are three republicans. Do these numbers surprise you at all . Weve been hearing all week from both sides of the aisle condemning the president s comments to greater or lesser degrees . The republican support doesnt necessarily surprise me but it alarms me. The fact that the Republican Party and such a large majority would look at what took place on monday and think that performance by President Trump basically cozying up and siding with an enemy of this country, a murderous dictator over our u. S. Intelligence community is really really disturbing. What a 180. Over a couple years ago the republicans were up in arms rightfully over the relations whispering to medvedev that they will have more flexibility after the elections and Ronald Reagan, tear down this wall and the evil empire and russians very hawkish and President Trump has softened the position on russia and obviously reflecting in polls where republicans look at this and think what he did was okay. That should alarm everyone. What he did was not okay. It was abhorrent. More than half republicans say they believe that the russians meddled in the u. S. Election. What does that say if the belief in the institution set out to protect us. Has the efforts to undercut their credibility succeeded . Youre ascribing that to the president , they harmed themselves with james comey and others looking so partisan, they have done a huge disservice to our Intelligence Community and under mining their credibility. Certainly the president is playing on that and helping it. Theyre not the only ones. The other thing i say about this poll is, tara, outside of republicans in washington where some spoke out, youre talking about literally millions and millions of americans. One of the things that happens when Something Like this goes on, they see the president , republicans, talking grassroots americans across the country, they see wall to wall coverage of the president being attacked and immediately come to his defense, i dont believe this. It looks like a lot of noise. I will back him up if the pollster calls me, i agree with how the president handle this. They think hes being attacked. We lost the ability to analyze a summit like this and having a conversation without people going in their corners. This poll is reflective of tha i think it s reflective of group think uninformed or not. Group think is different in an office you have a bunch of people. Or millions of people who follow something trump said and repeating it over and over again whether its true or not. I think thats an unfortunate dismissal of americans to say its group think that theyre stupid and their interests dont matter. Millions of americans voted for President Trump. I tried that for a long time. He took the side of a murderous dictator of this country. Enemy of the country. Thats not my point. Mike is making the point that the pushback from people who are going into their corners, they saw the media reacting, even people on fox news reacting the way they did and saying to pollster, look, im supporting this guy. No matter what. They think hes being attacked. They werent all glued to their television, theyre at work and see the coverage, hes being attacked for this, probably did something right and they dont like it. Im about as fervent a trump supporter you can find. I wrote an article on real clear politics saying i thought his press conference was disastrous, and im glad he corrected and clarified himself, which he did. What youre bringing up, an important point. He didnt side with russia. I dont know when it became unpatriotic to view our Intelligence Services with skepticism. If george w. Bush had viewed the Intelligence Communitys analysis with skepticism, we would have thousands of american taxpayer money i dont know if you believe the wouldwouldnt excuse. During that press conference he certainly did seem to take vladamir putins side in the idea that, well, putins so powerful in his response saying he didnt do it, i dont know why he would have done it. You dont crazy our Intelligence Agency on foreign soil. In front of an enemy. Can i have a minute . I agree. I just said, i wrote about this publicly right afterward. I agree that was a poor performance because he seemed to give a moral equivalency. On one side we have american intelligence and on the other side putin and kgb. And theyre not equal. Of course not but my point is, and this is important. The idea that we take the word of u. S. Intelligence as sacrosanct is, number one, not logical. Its not historical. But also for President Trump, its not politically feasible because we have unfortunately listen, i love the men and women of Law Enforcement and our security agencies who do hard, dangerous work for our country. But the leadership of those agencies, people like mccabe and strzok and james clapper, who lied under oath to the american people, and john brennan, who hacked the senates computers, they have proven themselves time and again to be totally unworthy of our trust. Do you believe the russians meddled in the election, steve . Do you believe the russians meddled in the election . Do you believe they attacked our electoral system . I think the russians among many nations tried to interfere in our elections, yes. So youre qualifying this also. And i also believe they changed a single vote. They didnt change a single vote. Thats not what i asked you. I asked you whether mike when steve is talking about the leadership in the Intelligence Community, you referenced, well, i totally get that perspective. The president says the same thing. Hes put his own people in. He now has confidence in his Intelligence Community. But the people who are actually the career intelligence people, the people actually doing the intercepts, the case officers in the field, who are doing the analysis, theyre pretty much the same people who were there in the obama administration, probably in the george w. Bush administration. They are career intelligence people, and theyre the ones making these assessments. Its not right. Thats right. Its not, you know, comey who is twisting it and handing it to the president. No, thats right. But but they also get a lot wrong. Lets be honest. They do. Of course, yes. They get a lot wrong. We should never have gone to war in iraq. Youre saying its the leadership which is antitrump, and im just saying its actually, you know, the core workers in the Intelligence Community who are doing the work. Thats right. Who are collecting this intelligence and analyzing it. Im saying youve had a leadership under president obama. You had a leadership which was incredibly corrupt and incredibly biased. In addition to that, separate from that, you also have i dont know about that corruption but trumps own people have come to the same conclusion. A history of them frankly just missing a lot and being wrong very, very often. So the president is elected to be in charge of the Intelligence Community, not the other way around. All right. Weve got to end it here. They work for him. They also work for the american people. Time to check in with chris cuomo to see whats ahead on cuomo prime time. But i was enjoying that. I love to see you because you are so reasonable and civilized, and i love to see when theres a food fight. Id love to see inside your head in those moments, but not tonight. Cortes told me last night it was the new form of birtherism. He mentioned that. Did he run that tonight . Yeah. I was getting made up at the time. I had gone to my special place in my head. It went over like a lead zeppelin here on prime time. All right. Tonight were going to be talking to tom donilon, the National Security adviser to president obama, perhaps one of the people trump folk are now calling corrupt and dirty. How does he see what we had to link through in helsinki and what this new word of a meeting this fall is all about . Well talk to him. Weve got Anthony Scaramucci on, who says he can tell us why trump is doing what hes doing right now with regards to russia. Well see where he takes us. All right. Thanks very much. Thats in about seven minutes from now. New developments linked to russia tonight namely about that alleged spy. Details ahead. 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We have one to two fires a day and when you respond together and you put your lives on the line, you do have to surround yourself with experts. And for us the expert in gas and electric is pg e. We run about 2,500 2,800 fire calls a year and on almost every one of those calls pg e is responding to that call as well. And so when we show up to a fire and pg e shows up with us it makes a tremendous team during a moment of crisis. I rely on them, the firefighters in this department rely on them, and so we have to practice safety everyday. Utilizing pg es talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. The things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harms way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldnt ask for a better partner. New tonight, free maria butina. Thats the Hashtag Campaign thats been launched by Russias Foreign Ministry for the alleged kremlin spy after her arrest in washington. Russian diplomats have also visited her in the Detention Center where shes being held until trial. A federal judge agreed she is a flight risk so she has to stay in custody. Randi kaye tonight tracks her path which, as you know, once crossed with the trump campaign. Im visiting from russia. My question will be about foreign politics. Reporter thats how close this accused russian spy got to then candidate donald trump this july 2015. At freedom fest in las vegas. Her name is maria butina. I believe i would get along very nicely with putin, okay . Reporter that same woman now charged with conspiracy and acting as an agent of the russian government. The 29yearold graduate student from American University is accused of using sex and deception to cozy up to highlevel politicians and steer them toward moscows objectives. Prosecutors say she had a personal relationship with a man cnn confirms was paul erickson, a republican political operative nearly twice her age. Butina reportedly describing him as her boyfriend. Prosecutors say she used her own moscowbased gun group, right to bear arms, to build relationships with the National Rifle association. Im a representative of Russian Federation here, and i am a chairman of the right to bear arms. Reporter butina once posed with a pistol, wearing stilettos and leather for this risque russian gq magazine shoot. And in 2015 at the nra convention, she managed to meet republican president ial candidate scott walker, and thats butina at the 2017 National Prayer breakfast, once again in the same room as donald trump. This gathering is a testament to the power of faith. Reporter butina has pleaded not guilty, and her lawyer insists shes no spy, just someone looking to create a better relationship between the two nations. But prosecutors tell a very different story. They say butina came to this country in 2014, if not earlier, and once offered sex in exchange for a position with a special interest organization. She was issued a student visa in august of 2016. Prosecutors say it was all just a cover. In fact, before she arrived in the u. S. , she worked for an unnamed highlevel russian government official, who allegedly directed her efforts in the u. S. Also Court Filings show butina and her mentor, russian banker aleksandr torshin, had once tried to establish Backchannel Communications between donald trump and Vladimir Putin. In her latest endeavor, documents show torshin allegedly praised her, writing, you have upstaged anna chapman, referring to another russian sleeper agent. Butina texted him a photo of herself from Donald Trumps inauguration, smiling in front of the u. S. Capitol, and he allegedly wrote back, daredevil girl. For now, maria butina remains behind bars. Shes considered a flight risk given that agents found she had terminated her lease and packed her bags. Randi kaye, cnn, new york. Its a fascinating story. Before we go, quick reminder. Dont miss our daily newscast on facebook. You get to pick the stories we cover. Its called full circle, week nights at 6 25 p. M. Eastern. Go to facebook. Com Anderson Cooper full circle, all one world. Ill see you tomorrow at 6 25, also again at 360 at 8 00 p. M. Right here on cnn. The news continues. Im going to hand it over to chris and cuomo prime time. Chris . Thank you, brother cooper. I am chris cuomo. Welcome to prime time. So what do you do when your biggest adversary attacks your election . President trump is inviting him home for the holidays. Yes, trump says a second sitdown is coming and soon. It sounds like a movie, like a drama that plays like a comedy until it is revealed to be a horror flick. Welcome to washington, comrade vlad. Lets get some perspective. Tom donilon has met with putin before. He knows exactly what is at stake, and the former National Security adviser will pass along his wisdom to you tonight. So you know who was stunned by the news of the invite . The head of u. S. Intelligence, dan coats