Transcripts For FBC Countdown To The Closing Bell With Liz Claman 20170316

Of course, is a democrat, and both were saying they have done their investigation, they have found nothing to uphold the claims that President Trump made through twitter, and we have a statement actually that we can put up on a joint statement. Oh, okay here it is. The joint statement from the leaders of the Senate Select committee and theyre saying. Liz before or after. Remember, this is what trump tweeted early on the morning of march 4th, quote terrible, just found out obama had my wires tapped, just before victory. Nothing found. This is mccarthyism. Peter barnes is standing by in washington, d. C. , and obviously, this is a major breaking story, peter. Reporter thats right, liz and, of course, we do have the press Secretary Sean Spicer coming out here in just a few moments with the budget director mick mulvaney, and sean spicer is going to get asked about this, as you recall, after the tweet on march 5th, spicer issued a statement that called on congressional Intelligence Committees to determine, quote, determine whether executive the Senate Intelligence committee saying exactly what you said, that they saw no evidence of this, and no indications that trump tower was the subject of surveillance. Liz peter weve g twominute warning about 22 seconds ago. Could they be late because theyre crafting a response. The media are and give the definitive answer . Reporter were waiting on that, and expecting to hear something from comey on that shortly. But the statement from the two senators came out about 20 minutes before the briefing was supposed to happen, it was supposed to start at 2 00 eastern, and now were an hour late. I have a feeling that the statement, their response to the senators statement is what theyve been working on. Liz and again, just to recap here. The Senate Select Intelligence Committee chairman, is republican, richard burr, of North Carolina has come out and said they have found no evidence, and theyve soundly rejected President Trumps accusation. Here is sean spicer. Breaking news, he begins an hour late. Lets hear what he has to say. Couple coming. Sorry for the delays guys, budget day. I was supposed to kick this off with director mulvaney. Hes still on a call with the governors. He hosts a ton of briefings with key stakeholders, so my goal if this times out right, as we finish up, director mulvaney will walk in the room right on cue and he will talk to you about the budget and well walk through q a on that. Hopefully this all works. Im going to skip past the part where i say thank you director mulvaney. [laughter] as the director will say, the president s budget blueprint keeps its promise to put americas security first, turning his words directly into policies that restore and respect for citizenss hard earned tax dollars. There was additional nonbudget events of the day. This morning the president had a bilateral meeting with taoiseach kenny of ireland, he was to recommit to strong, social economic political relations in ireland. This afternoon the president made the remarks at the friends of ireland lunch at the capitol, celebrating americans bipartisan commit to peace and security in ireland was started in 1983 by president reagan and speaker oneale and has been attended by every president and taoiseach since then. Dan coats as the next director of National Intelligence in his ceremonial office. Former senator coats has the sound judgment required to lead our Intelligence Community and the president is finally glad to have him on board as part of his team later this evening, the president along with taoiseach kenny will attend the st. Patricks day reception and participate in the ceremony. Since 1952, the president has invited the taoiseach to come to the celebration of st. Patricks day where they present a bowl of shamrocks as the symbol of the profound and lasting relationship between the two countries. The president and taoiseach kenny will make remarks, i have a few more notes before i get to director mulvaney. First, i want to share a letter that should be going out shortly, if it hasnt already that the president signed this morning wishing ray chavez, the oldest living survivor of pearl harbor a happy 105th birthday. Our nation owes mr. Chavez a debt of gratitude for extraordinary legacy of liberty, freedom around the world fighting to ensure security and prosperity for millions. A copy of the letter will be sent out if it hasnt already, and we extend our warm wishes to ray and his family as they celebrate his 105th and the president signed the letter wishing he hopes to have several more birthdays to come. This afternoon the president announced intent to nominate several individuals to key posts at the department of defense. Robert gaggle as director of program evaluation, elaine mccluster as deputy undersecretary of defense. David norquist as comptroller, kennh rompono, captain shanahan as deputy of secretary of defense for policy. The president s glad to have these extremely qualified men and women on board to assist secretary mattis as he undertakes the great rebuilding of the nations military. This afternoon, the president declared a major disaster in the state of california and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local Recovery Efforts in the areas affected by severe winter storms, flooding and mudslides this january. We announced this afternoon, second lady karen pence will lead the delegation to the Special Olympics in austria. The House Budget Committee met early this morning and approved the American Health care act make together Third Committee to move the ahc a forward. Were working hand and glove with the house to make improvements and confident the thoughtful and thorough process will lead to legislation that Reforms Health care making it more affordable and accessible to every american. Since we wont have a chance to meet tomorrow in light of the president s and chancellor merkels press conference. The president will welcome german chancellor merkel here to the white house, inclement snow prevented that the other day. The president will have a host of meetings and roundtable focusing on Vocational Training with american and german business leaders. They will also have a press conference in the afternoon. Well have details on the entire day later this afternoon. Also tomorrow, the president wiend a listening session with Veterans Affairs and va secretary shulkin and representatives from the various veterans organizations. Its important that we reform the va system to fulfill the promises made to the men and women who risk their lives for our nation. He looks forward to discussing potential changes that can help improve the veterans administration. On monday, the president will meet with bill gates, cofounder of microsoft and have lunch with the Vice President and meeting with secretary of state. Later that afternoon, the president will welcome Prime Minister abadi of iraq to the white house and wednesday the president invited all 49 members of the Congressional Black Caucus to come to the white house for a meeting. The president hopes for productive discussion want and to remind everyone that diyesterday via twitter that the lottery for the 139th annual easter egg roll is open until this coming saturday. Everyone interested in attending can go to recreation. Gov, further information at whitehouse. Gov for details. The president addressed the decision by the Federal District court and hawaii to block his lawful executive order. As the president said last night the law and the constitution give the president the power to suspend immigration when he deems it to be necessary in the national interest. The court didnt bother to quote the relevant statute which could have shown the president has the authority. I know you heard it before, since the court didnt, 8 u. S. Code, 1182 states whenever the president finds the entry of aliens or class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interest of the United States, he may, by proclamation, and for some period he deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem appropriate. The department of justice strongly said in a statement they strongly disagree with the Federal District courts ruling flawed in reasoning and scope. D. O. J. Continued the president s executive order falls squarely within Lawful Authority in seeking to protect our nations security, and the department will continue to defend his executive order in the courts. The department is exploring all available options to vigorously defend this executive order. We intend to appeal the flawed rulings. The department of justice is determining the legal strategy and timing. We expect action to be taken soon to appeal the ruling in the 4th circuit and seek clarification prior to appeal in the 9th circuit. The danger is real and the law is clear. The president was elected to change our broken immigration system and will continue to exercise his Constitutional Authority and president ial responsibility to protect our nation. And just before i get to your questions, and then before i will introduce director mulvaney. Want to follow up on a couple questions recently. John decker asked multiple times on the enforcement of the president s executive order to restrict lobbying activities of executive branch employees which includes a fiveyear ban on lobbying which you served and lifetime ban to foreign governments. The executive order has a section, section 5 which focuses on enform. The order outlines tasked with working with the government of ethics to determine procedures to determine violations. The executive order authorizes the department of justice to enforce the order through several mechanisms. Debarring proceedingings that would respect the tities from doing businessith the federal government. Seeking injunction such as restraining order from lobbying for ten years, the five years in the ethics agreement and additional five years or civil penalty commensurate with the nature of the violation. The president expects the department of justice to vigorously enforce this executive order. Yesterday several of you asked where the house is in regard to additional legislation as outlined in the third prong of the acha and the president s plan to Reform Health care. Please do note, leader mccarthy in the house introduces pieces of legislation that would reduce burdensome regulations and lower costs. The hr 372 which eliminates antitrust protection for insurance provider creating competition so that americans are not left with just one choice for Health Care Coverage. The Small Business health fairness act hr 1101 which allows Small Businesses to band together and negotiate lower prices. To protecting access to care act. Hr 1215 which limits frivolous lawsuits and drives up Health Care Costs and the hr 1304 which protects workers who get Health Care Coverage from employers that selfinsure but providing a backdrop on catastrophic losses. In terms of following up from yesterday in regard to the d. O. J. s indictments of Russian Hackers and yahoo data, this action demonstrates the United States commitment to identifying cybercriminals and bringing them to justice no matter where they are and highlights the importance of criminal cooperation to our cyberregime. And like i said yesterday, as this is a lawful enforcement action, anything beyond that i direct you to the department of justice and the fbi. Before i continue, let me turn it over to the director mulvaney. Good afternoon and happy day before st. Patricks day, known as budget day. Most of you heard me talk about the budget before, im not going to say too many things, but we will remind you recalling the First American budget. We had America First candidate, you have an America First president , and shouldnt surprise anyone we have America First budget. Youve seen the details5. 4 billion of additional defense spending. We have details where the money is going. Were seeing increases at the va. Increases within the department of justice for Law Enforcement. Increases within the department of Homeland Security for things that include Border Security and immigration controls. Increases within the department of energy to deal with Nuclear Triad and corresponding reductions in similar amounts offsetting dollar for dollar in other programs. The largest reduction, if youve seen the budget already is 31 reduction within the Environmental Protection agency. The next largest production on percentage basis is within the department of state and other departments are reduced in lesser amounts. I think the smallest reduction we have is nasa which is less than 1 , but there again as with many of the agencies you see certain line items within the budgets. This is the message the president wanted to send to the public, to the press, to capitol hill, he wants mor money for defense. More money for border enforcement, more money for enforcement generally. More money for the vets, School Choice and to offset that money with savings elsewhere so all of that is done without additional dollar added to the deficit as i mentioned before. This budget does not balance the budget. It reallocates and reprioritizes spending as any family or business would do. This budget does not, for those of you not here last week, this budget does not address the big picture items such as policy changes. Revenue flows. Tax policy. Mandatory spending. This is the top line spending budget, thats why we call it the budget blueprint and not the full budget. The full budget which will contain all the rest of the pieces and parts will be released in may. Before i take questions, im going to do something i dont ordinarily do. I call on the New York Times because theyre in trouble. Apparently, where is my New York Times guy. Matt and alan are in big trouble. Ill give you the first question but you have to deliver the message that i am the father of 17yearold triplet girls. My 17yearold daughter really wish that happened but 17yearold sons are upset. If you could clarify that, that would be great. Ill give you the first question if youve got one. Go ahead. Reporter we are not good at math at the New York Times. The math is right, it was the gender that is wrong. Reporter candidate trump talked about National Debt, which, of course, is reaching 20 trillion. You mentioned it in budget message this morning. Is there a plan, as the president talked about during last Years Campaign to eliminate the National Debt in eight years. He said during the campaign it would be easy to eliminate the entire debt, not the deficit but the debt in eight years. Is that something the president is committed to do. I suggest its not the right time for the question. The budget blueprint does not deal with the debt and doesnt deal with the deficit. It is the first part of the appropriations process. Well send this up to the hill now and the appropriations committees of the house and the senate. The house controls the power of the purse congress controls the power of the purse, this will be the first step in the process. We will address the issues of longerterm deficit, longerterm debt in the budget. Well have to deal with things like mandatory spending, tax policy, revenue flows to the government. Its a fair question i dont think now is the time to ask the question. Reporter the 28 that comes out of the state department. Youre leaving a lot o discretion to the people in arge tre and all of the agencies for having to implement e cuts. How much is intended to come out of foreign aid budget of 10 billion . A lot of it. Keep in mind, as ive said before, one of the reasons you seen a reduction basis is not that the president doesnt think diplomacy is important. Secretary tillerson had a tremendous won diplomatic success on the deal with iraq. President believes in diplomacy and believe the budget protects that core function of the state department. It just so happens that much of the foreign aid that the president talked about in campaign, much of the money that goes to climate research, green energy, those types of things are in the state Department Budget. If thes line items had been in the department of commerce, you would see department of commerce going down by similarly large percentage. The answer to the question is most of the cuts within the state department try to focus directly on foreign aid. Yes, sir . Reporter yes, the budget showed a. 8 decrease for nasa, but youve talked about in the Administration Using private companies such as spacex, for example, for more of that. So does this show some of this going to be shifted over to the private sector, and does this show a commitment on the administrations part for science and nasa. It does, if you go back to the president s speeches, the interviews he gave and talking to him, we tried to identify his priorities and one of the things he told us is look, im still interested in america exploration. Though the overall top line number at nasa is reduced by 0. 8 as you mentioned, individual line items that deal with Space Exploration are plussed up. Part of the intent is to promote what you talked about. Yes, sir . Reporter two questions. Experience in the house tells you that a lot of the cuts havent been voted for before. Do you consider this budget an opening bid and expect pushback from republicans on the specificity and the size of these cuts . And secondly to take your point about the president s points on the campaign, those of us around say you didnt want to touch medicare, the big entitlements, is that a signal that the programs remain untouched and ignores 70 of spending and 90 of growth over the next decade . Ill deal with the second one first. The president is going to keep the promises he kept on the campaign trail. You will see no references to social security, no reference to medicare, medicaid or the mandatory programs or entitlement programs because thats not what the budget is. This is the discretionary part of the budget, half is defense and the other half is everything else. The alphabet soup of government. Just because its not here doesnt mean were dodging the issue. You would never see the blueprint that deals with social security, medicare and medicaid. To the other question about it not being popular on the hill. I can recognize that. Some of these are very unpopular. Keep in mind the president is in a unique position. Ive been a member of congress, i represented 700,000 people in south carolina. I had my constituency. It was a district. Senators representn entire state. Were always dealing with special inrests from home, dealing with lobbyists. The president is beholden to none of that. The president drafted a budget for the entire nation, thats who he sees himself as representing. He did not ask lobbyists for input, he did not ask special interests for input on this and did not focus on how the programs impact a congressional district. We know that going into it. We want more money for the things the president talked about, defense being the top one, National Security and dont want to add to the budget deficit. If congress has another way to do that. Were happy to do that. Yes, sir in the glasses. Reporter james spade from al jazeera, facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of world war ii. 20 Million People facing starvation or famine and yet youre cutting funding to the u. N. , fot foreign aid budget. Are you worried that some of the most Vulnerable People on earth will suffer as a result . Were absolutely reducing funding to the u. N. And various foreign aid programs including those run by the u. N. And other agencies. That should come as a surprise to no one who watched the campaign. The president said specifically hundreds of times, im going to spend less money on people overseas and more on people back home. Thats what were doing with the budget. Reporter given your focus for dollar for dollar offsets, for fiscal year 2017 request, you didnt insist on dollar for dollar offsets. Why is that . Why are you not concerned about adding to the deficit in fiscal 2017 . The large part the question deals with 2017 request, which is a 30 billion, i think its 3 billion, billion and a half for the wall and not offset. Couple reasons, one is time, another is some of that is what they call overseas contingencies operations. You also know i have a somewhat colored history with the overseas contingency operation. We went through this and made sure the money requested, means its focused truly on the areas where we are involved overseas, iraq, syria, afghanistan, those places. We have sent 18 billion worth of proposed reductions in 2017, not all were offset. Yes, maam. Reporter the president called for eliminating funding for corporations for public broadcasting and the National Endowment for the arts. Yet the Republican Congress sent the president appropriation bill that funds it, would he veto the bills and tell the Republican Leadership to send bills that defund those things . I think the message the president sent right now is we want to defund those and completely defensible reasons for doing. That i put myself in the shoes of that steelworker in ohio. The coalmining family in west virginia. The mother of two in detroit, and i think, okay, i have to go ask these folks for money, and i have to tell them where im going to spend it. Can i really go to those folks, look them in the eye and say look, i want to take money from you and give it to the corporation for public broadcasting. That is a hard sell, something we cant defend anymore. As to specific vetoes, we know it doesnt come over one by one, they come over in large appropriations bill and work with congress to go through the appropriations process and go with determinations whether or not to sign Appropriations Bills or veto them at the appropriate time. Yes, sir . Reporter several places in the budget youre talking about eliminating funding for unauthorized programs. Are you laying down a marker and do you think spending discipline would be improved if congress authorized everything . We hope so. For those of you who arent familiar with, this we spend a lot of money in the federal government on programs that arent authorized at all. To break it down, its a threestep process to spend money, you have to budget for it first, then you have to authorize it and you have to appropriate it, but a lot of the programs we spent money on for years have been unauthorized spending. Either they used to be authorized and simply lapsed and some were never authorized in the first place. They were appropriated without authorization. And yeah, the message is thats not the right way to do it. We think thats the wrong way to do it. You heard the president talk specifically on the campaign trail 5 reductions on unauthorized programs and thats what generated this budget. Director mulvaney, you talk about keeping the promises the president made during the course of the campaign. For housing and urban development this budget blueprint calls for 13 reduction. 6 billion. During the course of the campaign President Trump said specifically to urban black voters, he says what do you have to lose . 6 billion that goes to many programs that benefit those communities. What do you say to those americans . Nobody is going to get kicked out of their houses. What we did when we looked at the hud budget to spend money better and i talked to dr. Carson about this today. We went through the analysis of the hud budget is a lot of the money got spent on Government Housing and building it. Actually infrastructure. And what secretary carson and i talked about is figuring out a way to do that better, we realized we are working on a Large Infrastructure Program that we hoped to rule out this summer and what secretary carson wants to do is take the money for the infrastructure thats in hud right now and not very well run and move that into the larger program. You will see the same line items or similar line items at the department of transportation for the same reason. These do not mean the president is changing commitment to infrastructure. Far from it. What were saying is for years and years we built infrastructure like this and doesnt work very well let me finish and back to you. Were taking it out of the discretionary budget and move it into the larger infrastructure plan this summer. Housing and urban development talked about housing, they support a variety of different programs, including in part meals on wheels that affect americans and austin, texas, one organization there that delivers the meals to thousands of elderly say those citizens will no longer be provided those meals. What do you say to those americans who are losing out, not on housing but other things taken out of the budget . The cdbgs have been identified as programs, since the first, or Second Bush Administration which are not showing any results. We cant do that anymore. We cant spend money on programs just because they sound good. Meals on wheels sounds great. That is a state decision to fund that particular portion. Take federal money give it to the states, look we want to give you money for programs that dont work. I cant defend that anymore. Were 20 trillion in debt. Well spend a lot of money but not spend it on programs that can not show they actually deliver the promises we made to people. Talking about programs do work or dont work, program called the shine. In pennsylvania, Rural Counties of pennsylvania that provides afterschool Educational Programs for individuals in those areas which so happens to be the state helped propel President Trump to the white house. Im curious what you say to those americans in community where they tell me 800 individuals will no longer, children who need it most will no longer be he provided in most neediest communities education care they need. You have advantage over me, i have to memorize 4,000 line items. Afterschool programs are Educational Programs, right . They are supposed to help kids dont get fed at home do better in school. Guess what . There is no demonstrable evidence that doing that. No demonstrable helping kids do better in school. What when we took your money from you to say look well spend it on afterschool program, way we justify these programs will help kids do better in school and we cant prove that happening. To be clear, administration saying no afterschool programs out there are doing their job in helping educate these children. Now youre asking me the question i dont know the answer to, i dont believe we cut all the funding for those types of things. Mr. Mulvaney to follow up on that talking about the steelworker in ohio and coal miner in pennsylvania and so on, they have elderly mother who depends on meals on wheel programs with kids in head start. Yesterday and today you described that hard power budget but it is hard hearted budget . No, i dont think so. There is one of the most compassion things to do youre only focusing on half of the equation, right . Were focusing on recipient of the money. Were focusing on recipient. Money and those who give the money in first place. Single mom of two in detroit, give us your money. Were not going to do that anymore unless we can guarranty, let me finish. Let me finish. Unless we guarranty to you that money is used in proper function. That is about as compassionate as you can get. Yes, maam . Question on the border wall. Sure. [inaudible] you know the budget, as i understand it asked for 4. 1 billion. So 1. 5 for this year and 2. 6 for the u. S. For it as the president pledged. So where is that money coming from for the border wall . A couple of things. Your number is correct it is 1. 5 for 2017. Back to your question about 2017. 2. 6 for 2018. People asked me a couple times does that build the whole wall . No, it doesnt. It gets us a start on program. Some of the wall is being built this year we increase funding in 2018 but the wall will take longer than two years to build. As for the source of funds that is up to the president and treasury and state Department Im the folks, were guys at omb, gals a the omb take money in budget and allocate it and for somebody else to figure where it comes from. Reimbursement state an local jails Holding Immigrants in the country. Some. Money goes to sanctuary cities. Is that part of president s promise to with hold money from sanctuary cities . Are there other elements intended to carry out the punishment the president talked about . Honestly im not familiar with particular line eyent an deal with doj and increased in homeland deal with this topic. Increase in homeland for increase in detention facilities. Fairly increase in detention facilities president says he wants to stop the catchandrelease program. He signed an executive order to do just that. We fund that. We increase amount of money for detention facilities for folks come into the country. I give you a followup because i didnt answer your first question very well. Cuts making to transportation and housing. You said those would be paid for later with other appropriations. You said this would be balanced. You have been a fiscal hawk yourself. Sound like a bit of a shell game youre saying now this is balanced budget but youre not stopping to pay for other things because those will be paid for later. Where will you pay for the other things . Doesnt all this stuff have to get paid for. To clarify this is not a balanced budget. 488 billion deficit according to congressional budget office. We simply didnt add to that president s priorities. Moving out of the base budgets into agencies and infrastructure, the Infrastructure Program is just recently started. It wont probably come until summer or maybe recall fall. We have to do Obamacare Repeal and replace first, tax reform second. That leaves infrastructure probably third which may come after the august recess in congress. Youre making an assumption im not willing to make the youre making an assumption all the infrastructure we provide for later on in the year will go to the deficit. Im not willing to make that assumption. Yes, sir . Reporter two questions. One, provides robust funding for Embassy Security. Yes, sir. Reporter benghazi review board, does that mean increase considering all the criticism that the president and republicans he levied against president obama for supposedly cutting Embassy Security . That is one of those line items we leave up to secretary tillerson. We talked about the state Department Budget and how he decides to allocate that. It may be there are some embassies dont need a lot more security and some that do. So we give him the flexibility to do that. Gentleman in the back had a question. Reporter many countries around the globe [inaudible] getting u. S. Aid who are not with the u. S. , supporting terrorism against the u. S. And also not working with the u. S. How does President Trump feel now about continue the aid . U. S. Taxpayers are asking that we dont have to spend on those countrys who are against the u. S. . Again, i come back to what the president said on the campaign which he will spend less money overseas. To your question, this came up the other day, hard power versus soft power, there is a very deliberate attempt here to send a message to our allies and our friend such as india and our adversaries, other countries shall we say, this is hard power budget. This adminstation tend to change course from a soft power budget to a hard power budget. That is message our adversaries and allies alike. I will take one question. Im sort of running down. Reporter what message the president is trying to send by eliminating a lot of funding for science and Climate Change research as you said earlier. Just to follow up later [inaudible] sure. A couple different messages when we talk about science and Climate Change. Lets deal with them separately. On science, going to function, well focus on the core function. There is reductions for example, in the nih, National Institutes for health. Why . Thank you. Why . Because we think there has been mission creep. We think they do things outside the core functions. There is tremendous opportunity for savings. A couple facilities being combined and cost savings. This comes back to the president s business person view of government which is if you took over this as a ceo, and you look at this on a spreadsheet why do we have all the facilities, why do we have seven when we can do the same job with he three . Will that save money . The answer is yes. Part of the answer focusing on efficiencies and doing what we do better. On the question of Climate Change, were not spending that money anymore. We consider that a waste to go out and do that. That is specific tie to his campaign. You got followup. Reporter meals on wheels. A lot of programs are dreamed, have not been doing its job he effectively. What evidence are you using to make that statement . Is not feeding seniors in off itself the fulfillment of my understanding from having been in the state government, i may have this wrong, ive been wrong several times today, this manot be first time, my understanding of meals on wheels that is stat determination the federal government doesnt directly fund that. It fund the Community Development block grants, the cdbgs. Some states choose to take the money meals on wheels. Some other localities do something else. We l we look at this as 150 billion spent over 40 years without appreciable benefits to show for that type of taxpayer expenditure and that is why we have the reduction. Reporter [inaudible]. How sean does this every day for hour 1 2 i have no idea. [laughter]. Ive been up since 4 00 a. M. This morning. I will turn it back over to sean. Thank you very. Around here that is a half day. Exactly right. Jonathan karl. Reporter so sean, yesterday you were extremely confident that the house and Senate Intelligence committees would ultimately vindicate the president s allegation of trump tower was wiretapped as im sure you have now seen, the senate it will against committee has said they see no indications trump tower was the subject of surveillance. That seems to be a pretty blanket statement. Whats your reaction . I think there are several things. I would also, it is interesting to me that just as a point of interest, when one entity says one thing, that proves, that claims one thing, you guys cover it ad nauseum. When devin nunes came out and said very possible yesterday, there was crickets from you guys. When devin nunes came out no connection he saw with russia, crickets. When tom cot tan said the same. You dont want to cover the stuff. Reporter house Intelligence Committee and senate here is the direct quote, jonathan. I think it is very possible, end quote. That is what he said when he said the president S Communications could have been swept up in collection. So again reporter no indication of wiretapping. I understand that the president has been very clear when he talked about this and talked about it last night, talked about wiretapping he meant surveillance. There have been incidents that have occurred. Devin nunes couldnt have state ited more beautifully. You choose not to cover that that. You chose not to cover when tom cotton went out, richard burr, chairman nunes, hold on i understand that jonathan. Where was your passion and where was your concern they all said no connection to russia . Where was it then . You, crickets from you guys. At the end of the day, no, no. Hold on. Im making a point. The point is this, number one that it is interesting how when evidence comes out and people who have been briefed on russia connection come out and say that there was nothing they have seen that proves a connection you choose not to cover that. You dont stop the narrative. You continue to perpetuate a false narrative. When he came out yesterday, quote i see no evidence this happened. When he said quote, i think it is very possible like i said we should no later. You dont cover that part. You only cover the part. Lets go through what we do know. Hold on. Hold on. Im trying to answer your question, jonathan. If you can calm down. If you look at what the New York Times reported on january 2012, 2017, said quote, in final days the Obama Administration has expanded the power ofhe National Security agencyo share globally intercepted personal communications with the government 16 other tell again agencies before applying privacy protection. The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits what nsa may do by gathering information with the most powerful operation which are largely unregulated by wiretapping laws. Sara carter, start of the new year brought unexpected politicizing intelligence gathered in secret. Separately the Obama Administration amended longstanding executive order allowing information intercepted through fisa warrants or the National Security agency shared by wider audience and 16 other Government Agencies when obama was leaving office. Intelligence reserved for handful of Intelligence Leaders was spread throughout briefings to scores of workers. Leaks began to appear in media organizations often stories lacking context how National Security investigations are actually concluded. On march 3rd, fox news chief anchor bret baier said following quote, there is a report june 2016, a fisa request by the Obama Administration, forward Intelligence Surveillance, monitor communications involving donald trump and several other campaign officials. Then they got turned down. Then in october, then they were renewed it, startup wiretap of trump tower with computer in russian banks. Bayer continues. June fisa request that foreign Intelligence Surveillance courts get shot down. Jonathan, you can ask, you can follow up. A judge says nogo to monitoring trump tower. They go back in october. They do get a fisa granted this is wiretap going on monitoring of computers sometimes they believe tied to russian accounts. By all accounts they dont come up with anything in the investigation but the Investigation Continues and we dont know it. November 11, 2016, days after the election, heat street reported quote, two separate sources with links to the counterIntelligence Community have confirmed to heat street that the fbi sought and was grant ad fisa warrant in october giving counter surveillance intelligence permission to cam inactivities of u. S. Persons in Donald Trumps campaign with ties to russia. The first request which sources say named trump was denied back in june. The second was drawn more narrowly and granted in october evidence presented of a server possibly related to Trump Campaign related to two banks. Sources suggest a fisa warrant was granted to look at full context of related documents that concern u. S. Persons. Two separate source with links to the counterIntelligence Community confirmed fbi and sought and grant ad fisa warrant in october giving counterintelligence to examine activity of u. S. Persons in Donald Trumps campaign with ties to russia. They go on the fiz can warrant granted with investigation of suspected activities between the server and two banks, however it is thought that the Intelligence Community that the warrant covers any u. S. Person connected to this investigation and thus covers donald trump and at least three further men who are either formed part of his campaign or acted as media surrogates. On january 19th the New York Times reported the following. American Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communication and Financial Transactions as part of a broad investigation, of possible leaks between russian officials and associates of president elect donald j. Trump. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications have been provided to the white house. It is uncleawhich russian officials under investigation or what particular conversations caught the attention of american eavesdroppers. The Legal Standard for opening these investigations is low. Andy mccarthy, writing National Review suggested quote, from three reports from the guardian, heat street and New York Times it appears the fbi has concerns about a right server in trump tower connected to one or two russian banks. Hoot street describes the concerns centering on quote, possible financial and banking offenses. This is his quote. It tall sized word offenses because it denotes crimes. Ordinarily when crimes are suspected there is criminal investigation not a National Security investigation. We go on, sara carter reporting intelligence professionals tell circa news that some of the russian intelligence was spread to Group Briefings to much larger audience back in scrap. This would happen during the final days of Obama Administration when it expanded executive order 1233, which allows employees need to know further unfettered access to raw data stowed by the nsa. This the new rules allowed nsa to sarah signals intelligence conversations including those involved in phone conversations and emails the, expansion of the order makes difficult to narrow on leaks and allows too many people access to raw data that was only available to a select few on a u. S. Official granted unanimity and. Reported on fbi investigation and trump advisors and mcclatchy revealed existence of multiagency working group to coordinate investigations across the thing. On february 14th, New York Times referring to phone records and intercepted calls. Let me quote them. American Law Enforcement Intelligence Agency intercepted communications around the same time they were discovering evidence russia was trying to disrupt the press decks Election Hacking into the Democratic National committee three officials said. The intelligence agencies thought to it learn whether the Trump Campaign was colluding with the russians on hacking or other efforts to influence the election. The officials interviewed in recent weeks so far they have seen no evidence of such cooperation. The officials said that the intercepted communications were not limited to Trump Campaign officials and other associates of mr. Trump. The call logs and intercepted communications are part of a larger trove of information that the fbi is sifting through. Days later the New York Times then reports, quote, in the Obama Administrations last days, some white house officials scrambled to spread information about russian efforts to undermined the president ial election of donald trump, connections between the president elect and russians across the government. But the increasingly hard to escape conclusion in our government where that individuals in our government were instead trying to undermine the new president by saying quote, this is the New York Times again, at intelligence agencies therwas a push to process as much raw intelligence as possible analysis to keep the report at relative itly he low classification levels to insure a widespread readership across the government. In some cases quote, among them european allies. This allowed the up load of as much information, intelligence as possible to intelpedia a secret wiki used by analysts to share information. Sean hannity and went on fox to say, quote, protections known as minimization procedures have been put in place to protect americans not under warrant, american citizens caught under surveilance. Their identities are protected. Their Constitutional Rights are protected this was not the case with lt. General flynn a transcript of this call was created and given to intelligence officials who leaked this information which is a felony to the press that printed it, end quote. Last on fox news on march 14th, judge Andrew Napolitano made the following statement. Quote, three intelligence sources have informed fox news the president obama went outside the chain of command. He didnt use the nsa. He didnt use the cia he didnt use the fbi and didnt use the department of justice. Used gchq. What is that. British Intelligence Agency. President needs transcripts of conversations involving candidate trumps conversations involving president elect trump he is able to get it. No american fingerprints on this. Putting the published accounts an common sense together this leads to a lot. So, sean, are you saying that despite the findings, bipartisan findings of the Senate Intelligence committee theyre not findings. There is a statement out today. Of this not begun this as you know yesterday, two days ago the department of justice asked for an additional week. So they, the statement clearly says that at this time, that they dont believe that. They have yet to go through the information. The department of justice as you know has not supplied this. I just read off to you, interesting when New York Times reports. Hold on. Hold on. Waited for whole long answer. Appreciate night are you saying that the president still stands by his allegation that president obama ordered wiretap iting or surveillance of jump tower despite the fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee Says they see no incation that it happened . The president still stands by the allegation. He stands by it. Youre mischaracterizing what happens today. No. Exactly from the statement. I understand that at the same time they acknowledge that they have not been in contact with the department of justice. So but again i go pack to what i said at beginning. It i interesting hold on hold on. At the same time where were you coming to the defense of that same Intelligence Committee and those members when they said there was no connection to russia . You didnt seem to report it then. So you, hold on you want to comment and perpetuate a false narrative i did report that clapper said that. When those individuals gone out time and time again. Chairman nunes said number one there is no information he aware of that existed that got zero reporting. Number two when he said yesterday that is very possible. You dont include that the in the question mark . The bottom line the president said last night there would be Additional Information coming forward. There is a ton of media reports out there that indicate something was going on during the 2016 election. It is interesting, where was questioning of New York Times and other outlets when that was going on . Reporter [inaudible] i believe he will. You were. Reporter you were quoting sean hannity. I get youre going to cherrypick. Reporter youre citing sean hannity. You tend to over look all the other sources, i know you want to cherrypick it. No, no. You do. Where was your concern about the New York Times reporting . You didnt seem to have concern of that. We have done plenty of reporting on all of this. But you want to cherrypick one piece of commentary. Reporter associate of president to the russians all looked at. How do you know all this . How do you seem to be such an expert in this . Reporter im saying this has been looked at sean. How do you know it has been looked at. Hold on. Im sorry, im afraid can you tell me how you know all of this is quote, been looked at . Reporter asking me whether or not it has been looked at . You said quote, all of this has been looked at. Reporter other outlets have reported when your outlet said this is all looked at. Reporter sounds like during the context of investigation there might have been intercepted communications. House Intelligence Committee mentioned that. We reported that. Others reported that on our air in various publications but sean, what you are refusing to answer, the question that you are refusing to answer is whether or not the president still im not refusing. I said it to jonathan. Reporter you have senate and house Intelligence Committee, both leaders from both parties on both of those panels saying that they dont see any evidence of any wiretapping. So how can the president go on and continue to because youre mischaracterizing what chairman nunes said. He said quote i think it is possible. He is following up. Youre stating unequivocally reporter said weve already clear that up. He said exactly that the president already said clearly wiretapping referring to surveillance. Reporter sounds like you and president are saying we dont mean wiretapping. That is not true. Other forms of surveillance. What is going to be next. Jim that is cute but at end of the day we talked about this for three or four days. What the president had to quote wiretapping in quotes he was referring to broad surveillance. Now youre basically going back. We talked about this several days ago. The bottom line the investigation by the house and the senate has not been provided all of the information. When it does, but where was the concern reporter news reports but i addressed that last night and he said there is more to come. This is pointing out there is widespread reporting that throughout the 2016 election there was surveillance done on variety of people that came up. Reporter what investigation i find it interesting you somehow believe that you reporter theyre looking at those various i get it, you seem to believe you have all of this information of the. Youve been read in on all these things which i fine very interesting. Reporter i havent been read in by the fbi but the house and senate for a guy has zero intelligence classification [laughter]. Reporter give me some credit for a little intelligence maybe. Clearance. I wasnt don clrance. Maybe both. Reporter come on. Those two panels spoken with the fbi director and told there was no evidence of this. This question has been asked and answered. Interesting how you jump to all of these conclusions what they have, they dont have, you seem to know all the answers but at the end of the day there was clearly a ton of reporting hold on jim, let me answer, i think, there has been a vast amount of reporting which i just detailed about activity that was going on in the 2016 election. There is no question that there were surveillance techniques used throughout this. I think by a variety of outlets that reported this activity concluded. When you ask those two people, whether or not or not, chairman nunes when you take it literally wiretapping the president already has been clear he didnt mean specifically wiretapping, he had it in quotes. Fall back on that is a false premise. That is not what he said. He was very clear about that when he talked about it yesterday, major. Reporter sean, just to be clear, youre good and the president is good with stories with Anonymous Sources . No, it is interesting. When it comes to the russia story and on the record sources who have been briefed by the fbi continue to conclude there is nothing there, you guys continue to fall back on these Anonymous Sources an perpetuate a false narrative. When it comes to us talking about all the reports in there you criticize Anonymous Sources. It is interesting the sort of double standard that exists when it comes to us citing stories, when how you intend to use them. Reporter let me ask you what the president said last night. He was asked by Tucker Carlson youre in charge of the various inteigencepparatus. You can k them getting reporter let me answer the question. He is reluctant to do that. Put two things together, you told us when asked has the president directed the Justice Department to collect an distribute information to the various relevant congressional committees. If i remember your answer correctly we havent that specific direction. Has that changed . No. Reporter is he directing Justice Department and asking himself for the intelligence agencies reporting to him to provide specific answers to underlying questions from the separate reports youre citing. No. Reporter why not . Ring andvered this before. Appropriate process to allow the house and senate to do it so it doesnt appear were interfering. I understand that said this the other day, if we asked them, you will turn around and you interfered and pressured them. Its a catch 22. The president made it clear two sundays ago house an Senate Intelligence committee to work with agencies and collect the information to make a report. That is what were doing, in order to make sure there is separation from us, you cant turn around and accuse us of forcing or pressuring an agency to produce a document. Were asking them to go through the process. Reporter what process . Separation of powers and going to the different entities, the department of justice said yesterday. They want an additional week. Were allowing the process to play through. Got it . Reporter sean, does the president making these statements based on information . Im not getting into how the president make as decision. What is clear through the reporting i just read there is clearly widespread open source material pointing to surveillance that was conducted during the 2016 election. Reporter is that Information Available to members of the house and senate and public as you noted. Theyre looking at that information and come to the conclusion no, no. That is not true. Reporter does he have evidence to back up the president s claims. If there is other information why wont the president release it . I will not get into that. The president discussed that last night on his interview. Well let the process play out. I understand what he discussed. They have, they have clearances in the house and Senate Intelligence committees. Theyre able to conduct this. Alexis. Reporter sean, i would like to ask you about two topics can you [inaudible] no. I actually called the question. Alexis. If you dont want to ask a question, i can call on somebody else. Thank you. Gabby. In the case judge watson issued retaining order against the president s second travel ban, he included one of the president s tweets and this is also included in the Washington State case. Im wondering does it give the president any pause that this virtual paper trail is creating, having an impact on advancing his agenda . Well, i mean i think that the department of justice statement speaks for itself when it comes to that last night. The, the federal law that i read out clearly gives the president the authority. This is what we argued during the first one. I think for a judge to ignore that statute and talk about tweet and or interpreting something that happened during the campaign trail is not in keeping with how theyre supposed to interpret the law. Im not going to continue to comment. We tailored that additional, that second executive order to comply with the judges order. To go back, say, based on how the first order was conceived makes absolutely no sense. I will let the department of justice litigate that, how they do it. But the second order literally was tailored to the concerns that were rendered by the ninth circuit in the First Executive order. So for them to then turn around and make arguments that are nongermane seems kind of odd. But i will let the department of justice do that sikh