Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With John Berman And Poppy Harlow 20180717

Wont donald trump speak for america . Even trumpfriendly outlet like drudge and the New York Post are being critical this morning. We will hear next hour from the spouse who reminded the president yesterday that russia is not our ally but for now the white house isnt saying anything. No press briefing is scheduled. Still bebe again at the white house where we find our abby phillip. Good morning. No tweets from the president at all this morning. What are you hearing . The silence at the white house is deafen inning and it highlights some of the criticism is coming from unusual places. Long time defenders of the white house are criticizing President Trump saying he made a big mistake and saying he should probably try to rectify this in some way but so far youre not hear hearing any officials leaping to his defense. Meanwhile, President Trump sat down with sean hannity and heres how he characterized their oneonone meeting yesterday. I thought president putin was very strong. Were doing really well with russia as of today. We were doing horribly before today. Really, horribly. Dangerously. That dramatic today . I think it was great today but i think it was really bad five hours ago. I think we really had a potential problem. Clearly the president s view of that meeting is likely to change today. He might be the only one who thinks relations are that much better today. The president doesnt have a lot on his schedule. He has a meeting with republican lawmakers later this afternoon. No White House Press briefing but we will be looking to see if they taken a opportunity to open up that meeting and have the president address this criticism because its reaching a fever pitch. The front pages in the United States and europe not being too kind to President Trump, poppy. Not at all. Abby phillip let us know when you hear from folks inside. The republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says Vladimir Putin knows he gained a lot in that halfday summit in helsinki and probably celebrated with caviar on the flight home. Thats what bob corker said yesterday. Lauren fox is on the hill with more. Look, fretty much you have Republicans United on this. Absolutely. More than three dozen republican lawmakers have come out against the president s to performance in helsinki deeply concerned about the comment President Trump made, that he believes president putin over u. S. Intelligence communities fabct that russia meddled in the u. S. Election. Senator john cornyn told and seen the then hes considering a measure that lawmakers are talking about a way to reaffirm their support of the Intelligence Communitys findings on the issue of russian meddli meddling. And a lot of republican lawmakers deeply frustrated. You can hear in the their voices. Heres senator bob corker of tennessee and lawmaker will hurd of texas talking about their frustration with the president yesterday on capitol hill, poppy. The president s comments made us look as a nation more like a pushover. Vladimir putin spouted many of his usual lines that were just completely wrong and he did it standing next to the leader of the free world and there was no rebuttal. Having the u. S. President side with putin over u. S. Intelligence is just unacceptable. I think one of the issues here for lawmakers is that they viewed this meeting as already problematic. Yesterday trumpS Performance, of course, seems like a worstcase scenario for Many Republican lawmakers on capitol hill. Moments ago the president tweeted. Let me read it to you. Thank you rand paul, you really get it. Then he quotes rand paul saying yesterday on cnn with wolf, the president has gone through a year and a half of totally partisan investigations, what is he supposed to think . Lauren, rand paul is pretty much on an island here. Remind us what hes been saying. Well, there were just a few republican lawmakers who came out in support of president donald trump. Rand paul was one of them. Mark meadows was another. Heres what those two lawmakers had to say in support of President Trump yesterday. To draw far reaching conclusions isnt indicative of where we are as a nation. Where this president is and what actions are required on our part. Weve made this all about the sour grapes of Hillary Clinton losing the election and its all about partisan politics now. This is truly the trump derangement syndrome that motivates all of this. Strong support for the president but they are in the minority. We have to remember a lot of republicans like we said earlier coming out with a strong rebuke of the president S Performance yesterday in helsinki. But what will they say to his face . Hes headed to the hill shortly. That we will see. Lauren fox, thank you. Joining me now is republican congressman mike turner of ohio, a member of the Intel Committee. Thank you for being with us, sir. Let me begin with the words of your fellow republican senator john mccain in response to the press conference. He says its disgraceful. Do you agree . Its deeply damaging. I serve on the Arms Services committee and the Intelligence Committee and im the liaison of the Nato Parliamentary Assembly so lets talk about how damaging it is because i dont think the president understands that. We could lose it in the dialogue here. How can we ask poland, romania, hungary, to stand up to russia meddling in their own countries if the president of the United States, leader of the free world, cant do it. How do we say to the baltics, estonia, latvia, lithuania, who have meddling and hacking going on from the russians that we dont believe the russians are doing it . How do we say to the netherlands who are concluding their investigation on the downing of the malaysian airliner where russia murdered innocent civilians in a commercial airliner and came out and firmly pointed the finger at the russians with the president of United States not doing that. This deeply damaging statement that the president has made of not believing the Intelligence Community which clearly congress is on record of believing needs to be reversed the. President needs to understand he has damaged Foreign Policy. Do you believe the president has, negotiation what you say, damaging our country, a country he says that its always America First, do you think he gave a green light to russia yesterday in that press conference to meddle in 2018 and in 2020 . Hes giving them a pass which gives them the ability to continue all the things theyve seen. Thats a green light, right . We dont have to do a traffic signal. I think i clearly said i think hes giving them a pass and certainly not holding them accountable for what theyre doing and thats what we need from the president of the united stat states. Congress clearly stated russia meddled that russia is an ally but when the president of the United States cannot stand up to russia our ally cans not and they dont have the strength we do to ask for the president s of smaller countries who are allies of ours to stand up to russia when the president of the United States does not is damaging to us and then, it allows russia to continue. When you look to also what theyve done in ukraine, invading, people are continuing to die in ukraine, the murderous actions that have been taking place in syria, this is a country that does not deserve a pass. Russia needs to be held accountable and the president of the United States is the one to do that. Is there anything, one iota of something, that america gained yesterday . This was a dangerous summit to begin with. The president didnt set out what his goals, if you asked anyone what it would be, no one would be able to say so what we know now is the only thing thats come out of this summit is dangerous policies, dangerous statements, divisiveness between the president and congress, the president needs to make firm statements that he understands that russia is not an ally, that russia has meddled in the elections, that russia is a destabilizing force. He just left europe and chastised germany for being too close to russia because they buy their energy there and then went and gave a complete pass to russia and Vladimir Putin on everything hes doing on the world stage. So this morning in the New York Times, columnist tom friedman writes this. Quote, every single republican lawmaker will be and should be asked on the election trail, are you with trump and putin or are you with the cia, fbi and nsa. So i will ask you, congressman . Are you with trump and putin war the cia, fbi, and nsa . I think thats a dangerous statement to make. Members of congress are part of democracy. The Intelligence Community is a creature of congress. I dont think we want elected officials to say im with the Intelligence Community. Im with the Intelligence Community and i have voted so on the Intelligence Committee and have sent to the president of the United States a statement that russia meddled for the purposes of damaging Hillary Clinton, all things which he disagrees with but its a dangerous road to go down in a democracy to say were going to elevate the Intelligence Community among our democratic institutions. In april you and your fellow members of the house Intelligence Committee released your final report on part of your more than year long russia probe and the Committee Found no evidence of collusion and disputed the Intelligence Communitys assertion in part asserting that the interference in the election was done to help elect donald trump but listen to what president putin said yesterday when a reporter posed this question to him asking him if he wanted President Trump to win. President putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that . Yes, i did. Yes, i did because he talked about bringing the u. S. russia relationship back to normal. Yes, yes, i did. Does that change at all your belief and should that change your committees findings . It doesnt change my belief. In march i said i disagreed that i did believe russia did so for the purposes of damaging Hillary Clinton and her expected presidency and this was absolutely meddling for the purposes of damaging her campai campaign. I think the report youre referring to is different than the commentary after it. The report itself which i did support said the means and methods at which the Intelligence Community was looking at that intelligence was not up to the level of the other review that the Intelligence Community has done but my assessment, my belief is i agree with the Intelligence Community that this was done to damage Hillary Clinton and that is for the purposing of aiding donald trump. But it did find congressman, just to put a button on it, that the belief of the republicans on the Intel Committee was that the meddling was not done with the purpose of helping elect donald trump. It does not say that. This is very important. Pull the report out. It does not say that. Mike connoway said that but the report itself does not and in march prior to the report being concluded and adopted by the Intelligence Committee firmly stated it is my belief that he was doing it for the purpose of hurting Hillary Clinton, for the purposes of helping donald trump and that is consistent with what we are seeing in the Intelligence Community. Appreciate your time this morning, congressman. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Tough on putin. Not the president. This guy. Reporters reporter jeff mason joins me next. And when the president throws you under the bus on the world stage, how does u. S. Intelligence recover and what does this mean for the director of National Intelligence dan coats . Plus, no White House Briefing as backlash grows. What were learning is going on behind the scenes at 1600 pennsylvania a. Is it to carry cargo. Or to carry on a legacy . Its show of strength. Or its sign of intelligence . In crossing harsh terrain. Or breaking new ground . 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Visit tripadvisor. Com or download the app . Do you want russia accountable for anything in particular and what would you consider them that they are responsible for . Yes, i do. I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think weve all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago. A long time, frankly, before i got to office and i think were all to blame. I do feel that we have both made some mistakes. I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think its kept us apart. Its kept us separated. The person that asked that very important question was Reuters White House correspondent jeff mason seizing on the moment asking not one but two tough questions on Russian Election medding to the president. Heres the second. Why should americans and why should President Trump believe your statement that russia did not intervene in the 2016 election given the evidence that u. S. Intelligence agencies have provided . Will you consider extraditing the 12 russian officials that were indicted last week by a u. S. Grand jury. Well, i would have let the president answer the second part of that question but as you know the whole concept of that came up perhaps a little bit but before it came out as a reason why the democrats lost an election which frankly they should have been able to win because the Electoral College college is much more advantageous for democrats as you know than it is to republicans. We won the Electoral College by a lot. If you missed it, that was the president running interference as the New York Times puts it this morning to a question that jeff mason who joins me now posed to president putin. You were asking putin and the president jumps to his defense. Thank you for doing your job so well and asking important questions. You got called on in brussels and to ask a question at cheque chequers. Were you surprised when Sarah Sanders gave you a question here as well . You have to be prepared for questions with President Trump and a journalist should be prepared anyway so i was prepared but surprised. I figured i had gotten a couple questions so i wasnt expecting to be the first one but i its always a privilege to have an opportunity to ask questions. Certainly in this case yesterday the fact that it was both the president of the United States and the president of russia having such a historic summit, there were important questions to ask and i was happy to play a role in that. Jeff, did it surprise you when the first sentence out of the president s mouth when you asked him if he holds russia responsible for anything was a both sides answer once again, akin to charlottesville . And by the way the u. S. Was in his words foolish. In the first sentence. It did but maybe it shouldnt ha have. Hi kicked off his day in helsinki with that tweet which he blamed as i said in that question u. S. Foolishness, u. S. Blamed the United States and the Robert Mueller probe and u. S. Stupidity was his words. There were a whole list of words he could have used when describing what he held russia accountable for and his advisers would have prepped him for that because in the weeks going up to the trip his advisers said on the record russia was responsible for malign activity and the president not only didnt use that word, he didnt come up with crimea or election meddling or syria or ukraine. To be clear, dni coats came out after the presser to reiterate where the u. S. Intelligence Community Stands so there is no White House Press briefing today. Whenever the next one is, what will you ask . Im sure the white house is working on some damage control. I think they started a little with the president s tweet last night but that didnt change much, what he said in that tw t tweet. Im sure theyll continue to watch how republicans in particular are reacting in addition to democrats and americans across the country. The next question is is the president reconsidering this at all but its hard to imagine he is because he would have been prepared or should have been prepared for those types of questions yesterday. Those are the things weve been asking for a month or a year and a half and this is genuinely what he believes so hes not somebody who is quick to turn around on that. Just look at charlottesville. This is in some ways similar to that. If he starts to feel cornered hes usually someone who will double down. Except you have even more republican lawmakers breaking with the president on this one than did charlottesville. Will it be different when he s e hill today . Jeff mason, thank you, good to have you. My pleasure. A russian womans arrest potentially shed not guilty light on russias efforts to undermine americas democracy and interfere in the election. 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The fbi writes in part, quote, moscow seeks to create wedges that reduce trust and confidence in the democratic process, denigrate democratic efforts and weaken u. S. Partnerships with european allies. Ivan perez joins me now. What do we know about her . Mariia butina spent the last few years trying to make inroads with conservative political organizations including the National Rifle association. The goal according to the charges filed in federal court was to influence american politics to, quote, advance the agenda of the russian federat n federation. Prosecutors said in Court Documents there were americans involved in trying to help her. Butina worked with a russian official named alexander tortian that was put on the list earlier this year. Prosecutors said there were many other way she is tried to make connections with influential republicans. She went to conservative political conferences, attended the National Prayer breakfast in 2016 and 2017, even raising the possibility that Vladimir Putin could attend the prayer breakfast. An attorney for butina says shes not an agent of any government, just a student of International Relations working to build better relations with the United States and russia. She was arrested over the weekend and Law Enforcement sources say investigators were concerned he was about to leave the d. C. Area. Prosecutors told a judge, poppy, this is an Ongoing Investigation and that there are other subjects that are still under investigation. Right which means there could be a lot bigger than this one person. Exactly. Evan perez, thank you for that. Ahead, it was shocking but did it just shake the world order or was it more . Well get more reaction to what people are saying around the globe about the putin ow trump summ summit. Harsh headlines after the trump and putin summit in finland. The front page of a major paper in helsinki trump 0putin 1. The uk gardian saying nothing short of treasonous and frances le monde saying trump is putins best ally. Joining us now, nic robertson. There is agreement around the world on the front page this is morning. There is also the resounding sound of silence coming from the european leaders. Normally you would expect that President Trump stood up to president putin and said dont attack our elections. You would have expected them to applaud President Trump. You would have been defending u. S. Democracy and defending european democracy. There was silence because President Trump didnt do that. That is causing consternation amongst european allies. They have further insights into what President Trump is thinking, president putin is thinking, rather, from his interview with foxs Chris Wallace after the press conference that so astounded people yesterday on the fundamental issue of was russia did it have an interest in President Trump, this is how putin responded to that. Translator we dont have anything on them and there cant be anything on them. I dont want to insult President Trump and i may come off as rude but before he announced that he will run for presidency he was of no interest for us. But he also sort of contradicted that, theres certainly evidence that might contradict that that could come out later. We also heard from president putin pushing back on the att k attack, hacking the dnc computers, missing the point entirely that theyd done something illegal, hacking in those computers by essentially saying what he found on there was factual. This is how he explained that. Translator listen to me, please. The information that im aware of, theres nothing false about it. Every single grain of it is true and the democratic leadership admitted it. Seems almost an admission of guilt on his part. But thats not the way he was framing it. When you listened again i will refer to that sound of silence coming from europe. If President Trump seems not to be listening to his Intelligence Services, theres growing concern in europe today that if he doesnt trust his Intelligence Services how can he trust his allies and their Intelligence Services. The United States allies will be wondering if President Trump isnt acting on the best interest of his own National Security Strategic National interest, how can it be acting on the National Strategic security interests of his allies . That is a very fundamental question. I say again, the sound of silence that should be applause and praise for President Trump, none of it. Nic robertson, thank you for that. With me now steve hall, cnn National Security analyst, formerly chief of russia operations for the cia david rode, online news analyst for the news director. That was a master class in interintinte interviewing an adversary. It does seem like and at mission of guilt from putin saying yeah, but the emails that were hacked, that was nothing but the truth. It was a great day for journalism. There are suspicions that the Republican National committee emails were hacked so this is why people are stunned and alarmed by President Trumps behavior because there could be emails that are embarrassing. Just not released yet. But this is what putin could be holding over. Which is what republicans like marco rubio kept warning about. Lets talk about the stunning statement and assertion by Vladimir Putin that, no, of course we have nothing no kompromat on donald trump. I say stunning in that hes expecting americans to take that at face value, should they . Absolutely not. But Vladimir Putin is a professional intelligence officer, he understands the west very well and he understands the kuwa quaint western approach people take oh, lets hear him out. The russian fsb, the Success Organization to the kgb as well as other Intelligence Services are expert at gathering information and they would have gathered as much information about donald trump as they could have when he was in moscow as well as his associates. Because hes a rich guy . Its a general principle. Wherever you have somebody who the best way to think about it is Vladimir Putin and the Intelligence Services think about a guy like trump either in the 80s or later on as an american oligarch so collect information because you dont know when youll need an oligarch. Manu raju is reporting that republican lawmakers are talking on the hill about what they can do. What Power Congress has to tie the president s hand when it comes to russia. We know that passed sanctions with a vetoproof majority but what can congress do and do you believe republicans will act to bar against interference, another attack on our elections in 2018. One bill proposes heavy sanctions on russia if there is renewed hacking. Another thing, democrats have backed this, is legislation protecting Robert Mueller. One thing donald trump did in this press conference was made it harder for him to fire Robert Mueller. But that wouldnt stop russia it would not. But the president insisted on the summit, it hurt him politically. Ronald reagan was a proud defender of the free world. The fact that the american president didnt stand up and say we are going to protect our democracies in the u. S. And europe was astonishing and so against the republican and Ronald Reagan tradition. Letstron what the president said yesterday applauding Vladimir Putin for an offer he made. Listen to this. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I this i thats an incredible off offer. Hes talking about the 12 russians indicted. Bill browder whose lawyer magnitsky was jailed and died in prison after uncovering over 200 million in fraud by the russian government, this morning in time heres what he writes in response to what the president called an incredible offer. Putin offered to allow american investigators to interview the 12 russian intelligence agents just indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller in exchange for allowing russians to have access to me and those close to me. He has had threats against his life but the president calls this an incredible offer. Whats the significance of that . Another great example of russian mass nip lating western sensibilities so sure, ill make this offer, well talk to some of our guys, you talk to some of our guys. Thats not how it works in russia. If we got access to these 12 gru officers to ask them how they did this we would get nothing out of them and the russians have no business coming in and trying to talk to anybody in the United States because there is no rule of law in russia, its silly to presume there would be some sort of fair adjudication. So its putin playing the west and playing the president himself who turned around and said yeah that sounds like a good idea to me. Ludicrous. Sounds like he didnt know the important background and context. Staffers at the white house urged the president to be tough on putin so now that he wasnt, the white house faces condemnation and the question this morning, will anyone walk . E your pets life. Were redefining what nutrition can do. Because the possibility of a longer life and a healthy life is the greatest possibility of all. Purina pro plan. Nutrition that performs. 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This morning, the former president obama is in south africa giving a speech at a mandela lecture series. He seemed to address what we have seen unfold on the world stage in the last 24 hours. Confession number three. When my staff told me that i was to deliver a lecture, i thought back to the stuffy old professors in bow ties and tweed, and i wondered if this was one more sign of the stage of life that im entering along with gray hair and slightly failing eyesight. I thought about the fact that my daughters think anything i tell them is a lecture. I thought about the American Press and how they often got frustrated at my longwinded answers at press conferences, when my responses didnt conform to twominute sound bites. But given the strange and Uncertain Times that we are in and they are strange, and they are uncertain with each days news cycles bringing more head spinning and disturbing headlines, i thought maybe it would be useful to step back for a moment and try to get some perspective. So i hope you will indulge me, despite the slight chill. All right. Joining me now, ron brownsteen, matt lewis. To you, strange, headspinning, disturbing, Uncertain Times. For the first time in a long time, i think a lot of republicans on capitol hill would agree in lockstep with president obama. What do you say . Yeah. If theyre being honest, they would. We had lots of problems with president obama, to be sure, as a conservative, i can say that. What we saw yesterday with President Trump is really kind of a new low. If you are a conservative who grew up admiring Ronald Reagan, gene kerpatrick what they talked about was moral clarity. The people who atatacked Ronald Reagan were arguing a moral equivalency. Yes, russia does bad things but we do bad things, too. I never thought i would see the day when a republican president echos that sentiment. What donald trump said was a moral equivalency. Yeah, were both at fault for this. He said both sides, just like he said in charlottesville. Ron, did you United States, the American People from this America First president , gain anything yesterday . The loss, i think, was really what you have to talk about. It was an enormous loss. It was compounding the losses we have seen from the g7 meeting to the nato summit to the efforts to undermine the domestic politics in germany and great britain. The president has been a consistent wrecking ball through the western alliance that has been the foundation of americas influence in the world, in a way of magnifying and amplifying our power. Its not only the words that he directed at Vladimir Putin, it is the contrast to the words and the deeds that he is directioning at odirection i that he is directing at the allies. If he is trying to undermine the alliances that have existed since world war ii, what would he be doing differently . Thats a legitimate question for republicans on capitol hill. Its worth noting i do believe the charlottesville analogy is right here. This is the Foreign Policy equivalence of charlottesville. It tells us how far outside the boundaries of what had been acceptable or imaginable behavior of a president and how unwilling republicans are to hold him to account. Ron, since the charlottesville statement, the president held on to a high popularity rating, at least within the republican party. Yet, the condemnation from republicans, matt lewis, to what we heard yesterday next to putin w was swift and broad. As the president goes to capitol hill, i wonder if you think anything changes in the wake of an editorial that says he was weak and a national embarrassment. Does anything change . What do republican lawmakers say to his face today . Its so weird. Its such an unusual time. My disappointment is really not so much with trump. He is who i always thought he was. Im disappointed that we elected somebody who would say this, who would go and stand next to Vladimir Putin and blame America First. Im disappointed that the party of Ronald Reagan has made this the standard bearer. It was one week that donald trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court. Most conservatives say that will make a difference for conservatism. Republicans and conservatives are being squeezed. I dont know at what point he crosses the rubicon. I have seen more public criticism but theres a long way to go before he loses his party. Ron, will republicans in Congress Just talk and issue these statements and say things like representative turner said on my show or will they do something . Will they tie the president s hands with votes that are that the president cant veto . What are they going to do about it . The first thing to be clear about is there is a lot they could do and are choosing not to do. Bob corker criticized the summit. Isnt he the chair of a committee that could compel testimony from the administration and other experts about what exactly was agreed to in helsinki, what the preparations were for helsinki . Could not republicans pass legislation to defend Robert Mueller . Could not a single republican in the senate refuse to vote for move forward key legislation until the President Administration agrees to testify about what happened in helsinki . They are voluntarily choosing to abdicate their responsibility for oversight for the reason that matt alluded to, which is that there is a bargain here. The president is giving them their judges, their tax cuts, regulations they want that they did not have the power to achieve without oat vthe oval o. In return, they are turning away from what might have been impeachment hearings if Hillary Clinton maybe this is the straw. I dont know. I dont think theres a straw. Thank you both. Top House Republicans are set to speak after they split with the president on his summit with Vladimir Putin. Were on it. burke at farmers, weve seen almost everything so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a cactus calamity. man 1 i read that the saguaro can live to be two hundred years old. woman how old do you think that one is . man 1 my guess would be, about. man 2 id say about two hundred. man 1 yeah. burke gives houseplant a whole new meaning. And we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum whoooo. You rely on tripadvisor so you dont miss out on the perfect hotel. But did you know you can also use tripadvisor so you dont miss out on the best price . Tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want for the lowest price. Saving you up to 30 so you can spend less time missing out. And more time paddling out tripadvisor. Visit tripadvisor. Com or download the app almost 250 years ago, two lanterns were hung here to warn of the incoming attack on america. Today we have to acknowledge what our president wont our democracy is under attack again. Donald trump praises Vladimir Putin and meets with him on foreign soil, while rejecting our own Law Enforcement officials who say putin launched a hostile attack on our last election and is planning to do it again this year. Why would an american president want to meet with a dictator whos trying to undermine our democracy . Is trump again getting played by putin, or is he conspiring with a man who helped put him in office . If paul revere and other patriots had waited to act until it was safe or politically correct, we would never have the country we have today. Its time for congress, republicans and democrats, to put their political interests aside and act on behalf of our country. To put their political interests aside 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. Top of the hour. Good morning. Im poppy harlow in new york. This morning after President Trump committed what one staunch supporter calls the most serious mistake of his presidency and a former cia director calls treason, he is lifting up one of the few republican lawmakers, really lawmakers on either side