He pleaded guilty this aftern n afternoon. Nbcs ari melber putting the development in context telling us, mueller is showing how tough he will be on anyone who lies or contributes to obstruction, including lawyers caught up in h or working on the matter. This is as donald trump blusters away on twitter about the significance of fridays 13 indictments of russian nationals for their role in meddling in the 2016 president ial election. The president tweeting this morning that it was all obamas fault and pointing to coverage on fox friends to prove it. Thank you to fox friends on the great timeline on all the failures the Obama Administration had against russia including crimea, syria, and so much more. We are now starting to win again. And this, ive been much tougher on russia than obama, just look at the facts. Total fake news. The fake news is the part of that tweet where President Trump claims to have been tougher on russia. A claim Sarah Huckabee sanders echoed in the White House Briefing just a few moments ago. But while obama was slapping on sanctions, expelling diplomats and shuttering russian compounds, drup druonald trump this. What do you think generally about sanctions against russia . I think we ought to get on with our lives. Computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of computer made it where nobody knows exactly whats going on. It seems like you have a tendency, r looking it from the outside, to doubt american intelligence when it comes to russian hacking. Im trying to better understand why it seems that way. I just want them to be sure because its a pretty serious charge and i want them to be sure and if you look at the weapons of mass destruction, that was a disaster, and they were wrong. And so i want them to be sure. I think its unfair if they dont know and i know a lot about hacking and hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else, and i also know things that other people dont know, and so they cannot be sure of this situation. I know things. Heres Sarah Huckabee sanders getting in on the blame game. What is he specifically doing about the fact that russia interfered with our election and has every intention we are told of doing it again . What is he doing about it . Look, just last week, the department of Homeland Security secretary Kirsten Nelson met with a number of relevant stakeholders. Theyre discussing this process, going through, looking every single day at the best ways forward. Everyone wants to blame this on the Trump Administration. Dont forget this happened under the Obama Administration. He hasnt called out putin, criticized obama, criticized the fbi, he didnt even criticize Vladimir Putin. Hes been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined. Hes imposed sanctions. Hes taken away properties. Hes rebuilt their military. Hes done a number of things to put pressure on russia and to be tough on russia. Just last week there was an incident that will be reported in the coming days in another way that this president was tough on russia. Its a coming attraction, if you will. To help us uncover the truth underneath all that trumpian projection, were joined by the best of the best. From the nooicthe new york tim White House Correspondent peter packer. Washington post White House Reporter ashley parker. At the table with us, alyssa, former Obama White House deputy chief of staff for operations. Who could barely keep a straight face through all that. Michael crowley, Senior Foreign Affairs correspondent politico. Jim rutenberg with the new york times. Lydia pulgreen, editor in chief. Let me start with you, that was Sarah Huckabee sanders taking on the art of the tease. Whats she talking about, whats the new tough on russia news that the white house is holding back from you guys . Yeah, we should all be investigating that. I dont know the answer to the question. I wish i did. Look, you know, unpacking what she said there, it is true, of course, that there was criticism of what president obama did or did not do last year. Including from some of his own, you know, former top aides who wish they had done more at the time, try to pressure him to do a little bit more. Its also true that he no longer is the president of the United States, and that what happened in 2016 under president obama doesnt stop President Trump from doing anything now, if he feels, in fact, that there is, you know, evidence of meddling by russia. And he hasnt really, in fact, addressed that. When Sarah Sanders says the administration has taken some actions, its true, there have been some actions taken by the administration at various points in the last year. Almost none of it, though, voiced or vocalized by President Trump, himself. Hes gone out of his way to avoid being the tough guy on any of this kind of stuff. Presen for instance, when russia ordered the American Embassy in moscow to get rid of twothirds of his staff, President Trump was asked about it, said, hey, im grateful to them, it means we dont have to pay them anymore. The administration shut down a couple diplomatic facilities in russia. President trump didnt announce. He let that be announced by people lower than him. So he has personally stayed away from either a, talking at any length about this interference by russia in the election, other than as it represent relates toz ca his campaign. B talking in any tough way about Vladimir Putin, russia, action he thought should be taken to penalize it for previous actions and prevent any future actions. Ashley parker, let me bring you in on this. On this idea. I know i got one sitting right here, im going to let her speak for herself. This, on the one hand on the other hand, drives Obama Administration alums crazy because on the one hand, they were grappling with the final days and weeks of a pretty heated president ial election, but president obama never said anything like this. When asked by bill oreilly about Vladimir Putin, heres what donald trump said. A killer, though. Putins a killer. We have a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent . So, ashley parker, the idea that Donald Trumps affection and affinity for Vladimir Putin is so deep, so engrained, so sell cellular, he thinks america is just as bad as Vladimir Putin who has murdered russian dissidents, who has murdered journalists who cover Vladimir Putin, makes the heads of any Previous Administration explode. Is the white house trying to say, seriously, with a straight face to you guys behind the scenes, when the cameras arent rolling, that obama was really worse on russia than they are . They are trying to say that, and that clip you just played, theres a number of factors that can explain President Trumps affinity toward Vladimir Putin. You know, one, of course, we just discussed is that hes very reluctant to take on this issue of russia interference in the 2016 elections because he feels that if he gives it much creden credence, it will sort of undermine his own legitimacy as president. That said, that particular sound bite you just plays go to a different part of trumps psychology which is his ability to sort of relate and even admire strong men and dictators and putin is not sort of the first tough leader who President Trump has praised, praised their policies, praised their toughoncrime stances. So that aspect there seemed to be what he was relatinging to with put putin. Peter, shes right. Let me put up a timeline. So Donald Trumps sort of backchanneling of his prorussia actions included a meeting ostensibly to discuss the dirt that russians had on hillary clinton. On december 29th, while balm was ma slapping sanctions on russia, Michael Flynn called kislyak to discuss those sanctions. We now know that all indications are that he lied when he was asked about those conversations by the fbi and thats what hes pleaded guilty to making a false statement over. December 30th, president elect trump praised putin, he called him v. Putin, his little i guess thats his nickname for vlad, i always knew he was very smart, he tweeted. July 18th, 2017, trump discusses sanctions with putin but denies it on twitter and so on and on. Even if you put up the body of trump actions on russia against the body of obama actions on russia, which democrats and republicans, ive seen the adam schiff out countless times saying he wish hed done more. Its still not in the same category. Well, again, as ashley was talking about, the odd affinity for Vladimir Putin in a personal way is very striking. Its hard not to look at that and say what is that about . You know, obviously, george w. Bush, obviously, barack obama, both tried at various points to work with Vladimir Putin. They saw that as their jobs and then when things went south like the invasion of georgia in 2008, the invasion of ukraine in 2014, you know, they took tough action against russia as a result. This president has allowed tough action to be taken at times by people beneath him, by his administration, but himself, he doesnt want to do that. And it does beg the question of why. Does he have an admiration for strong men, as a lot of people have said, does he have a personal interest in russia in some way that he hasnt disclosed . We dont know the answer to that, but its he has made it seem more suspicious by the way he has so consciously avoided saying anything about Vladimir Putin that would be in any way seen as critical. And ashley, youve done some extraordinary reporting over the weekend twitter tirade. I dont want to go back too much, except to two things, one, your piece about how the white house looked at the tragedy in florida just in terms of operationally as a reprieve from what was a slowmotion scandal about background checks, and then to what followed that. The unleashed nature of donald trump on twitter this weekend, essentially blaming the fbi for the shooting. I saw Sarah Huckabee sanders try to clean that up. I dont think she had much success. But she the president all but blamed the Florida Shooting on the russia investigation. What do white house aides have to say about that . So he did and sarah, as you saw, did not have a particularly good answer. She sort of said he didnt mean exactly what he said in that tweet, but as with a lot of his tweets, and a lot of his offthecuff statements this entire presidency, his aides have no idea what is coming. They see them in realtime. Just like the rest of us. And then theyre forced to scramble to respond. So privately, theyre not particularly thrilled with having to take that tweet on and kind of try to give it a backbone and some, you know, afterthefact sunday morning quarterbacking credence, but it is what they have to do. You saw sarah do it. It wasnt particularly effective. I dont think this is going to. Be a talking point theyre going to be going out there and echoing. Its a fair question for them to get asked and one which theyll have to respond to. Alyssa, what is the reaction in inside president obamas inner circle to these musings from the president . I mean, its just, its ridiculous. You know, if they want to go around and say that barack obama could have done more, fine, stipulate it. But its your bag, pick it up, you know, does that mean that now he doesnt have to do anything . So, i mean, for most of us, i just think its really sad to see someone who literally is constitutionally incapable of being a president and leading, and if he really did care about what russia did, why didnt he start a commission . Start a commission. Every member of his Intel Committee has said there was meddling. It happened. And he just moves on. And so thats sad. But what about the fact that he now has his own can you imagine any scenario where susan rice would have been at the Munich Security Conference and saying anything about russia or anything else and president obama would be live tweeting his dissent or critiquing her performance . Never, ever, because we were unified and we spoke and we had a Foreign Policy strategy that the whole government was clued in on, but, no, also, you know, we didnt let barack obama have his twitter. So but even if he did i mean, just the idea no, he never would have. That there is no theres no topic thats too sacred for the president to undermine his own aides. And theres no theres no aide that immune from being attacked by the president on twitter. Just as someone who worked at the highest levels of a white house, how outside the norm. Is that . Its so outside the norm, i dont understand why people actually continue to work there. I mean, hes a tank. He knows one direction, forward. Hes going to mow over all of them. Theyre all going to leave the building with no credibility and complete reputational damage. And so for him, i just you know, the only person so far, the ochnly two who are immune a ivanka and jared. So far. That remains to be seen. And hope hicks. So far. She had bad judgment about rob porter, dont forget. Yeah, he hasnt attacked her on twitter. Youre right. Im glad youre here, jim, because i want to ask you about, so mike ambassador mcfaul, former ambassador in the obama era to russia, tweeted this last night, creating a bit of confusion whether hed seen sean hannity, the man, or the program. Turns out he meant the program. Caught sean hannity at the gym tonight, didnt know he was talking about american alleged interference in other countries elections as an excuse for russia violating our sovereignty. Thats exactly the whataboutism argument putins tv channels make. Exactly. So, you know, i guess one of the differences between any stipulated lack of fulsomeness in the obama era response was it didnt have a network distorting the truth for it. Donald trump does. Right. And, but, you know, what i missed sean hannity last night. Me, too. But there is some truth to fact that the United States has engaged in election meddling over its history. The cia has. But what ambassador mcfaul was on to is its not always the same thing. Right . Like here, you can help and a Democratic Movement deal with a sometimes its standing up for the iranian dissidents who are being hung from cranes for being gay. Americas role in supporting democracies is stated u. S. Policy. Im not sure of any sort of embrace or National Interest in permitting russia to intervene in our democratic process. Right. And that whataboutism is coming to dominate the political discussion and the wind at this president s back, and, so, yes, sean hannity is very much of a part of that. Look over there, look over there, look over there, guess whats happening in the meantime. The russian behavior were talking about now is ongoing, its probably iterating. Were coming into the midterms and were still trying to figure out what happened during 2016, but this is an infrastructure w information war happening now and nowhere in the game. The hypopocrisy of adopting whataboutism is so rich. Whataboutism is what the soviets did in in the u. N. Banging shoes on the table, what about lamumba being assassinated by the cia, now we have figures on the hard right using that exact same technique. Its the highest and rankest hypocrisy to my mind. A president echoing its also, fox news existed as an ecochamber for the politicians they supported. You now have the politician, himself, echoing the ecochamber. I dont know what you call it, stereo in 340. I want to read something john brennan tweeted, never ceases to amaze me, successful you have been making yourself so small, so petty, and banal. Ive been practicing that all day. With your tweets. Your insecurity is well deserved. Thomas paine was rite when he said these are the times that try mens souls. Obviously a very high degree of skepticism from the u. S. Intelligence community. I am sure that that represents the view of more than just one former cia director. Yeah, absolutely. I hear some people saying theyre struck by some of these intelligence professionals who are coming out being very outspoken, people who had reputations for being nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and occasionally someone says, boy, clapper is really out there, brennan is really out there, have they been democrats all along . I dont think thats whats going on. I dont think its partisanship. I think theyre horrified their entire careers were based on defending the country from threats like these. More recently focused on terrorism, but certainly these are men who came of age during the cold war, and are just horrifying of what the russians have done. I think share this feeling that so many people have that its completely surreal that the president of the United States doesnt seem to be taking it seriously. And almost as though george w. Bush after 9 11 said we dont know who did this, it could have been a lot of people, and didnt really take the lead on action to reinforce cockpit doors or increase airport security. You just kind of cant believe that its happening. I think thats why you see that sort of a reaction. Peter baker, Michael Crowley mikes a point that many on the right have been making, max boot i think has a piece in the Washington Post making this point. Watching donald trump react to what general hayden, another one of the Intelligence Community officials whos highly alarmed at what hes seeing, certainly no one has ever suspected him of being a liberal, they are making this parallel that russian meddling was a political 9 11 and you covered george w. Bush, i worked for george w. Bush, his post9 11 body of policies are highly controversial, divided this country in some terrible ways but the patriot act passed the u. S. Senate 982, in the same way that the sanctions passed the senate. There is not a lot of debate in congress on the russia question. The outlier is the Trump White House. What are they going to be able to say for themselves if they couldnt to be so out of step with democrats and republicans in congress, with h. R. Mcmaster, the sitting National Security adviser, with the Intelligence Community which simply cant sustain the trumpian message which is that russias role had no effect . That is not the Intelligence Community assessment at this hour. Yeah, no, the Intelligence Community has not, in fact, said whether or not it thinks that the russian interference did or did not change the outcome. It has not weighed in on that. Doesnt have a way, i think, perhaps, to measure that necessarily. Certainly you cannot read that from the indictment that was handed up on friday. They dont take an issue with that one. The other, the president has chosen to interpret it that way because its obviously an argument he wants to make. The outlier isnt the Trump White House. The outlier is the president. Even his own white house says as Sarah Sanders did today, as general mcmaster did on saturday, that there is no question about the idea that russia interfered in the election. Whats striking is how much the president , himself, is at variance with the things being said by the very people he, himself, has appointed. That includes general mcmaster, includes, you know, obviously the Intelligence Agency chiefs who testified last week. It includes, you know, rex tillerson, it includes nikki haley. Basically every person in washington in positions of power with the exception of the president has in a fullthroated way said russia did something here thats important and we should be wary of and should do something to prevent again. Regardless of who it helped or didnt help. And thats the one thing the president seems basically unwilling or unable to say. And we will eventually get to the bottom of it, somebody will. His last name might be mueller. When we come back, what bob muellers latest moves tell us about the speed and aggressiveness of his investigation. And what about all those white house staffers without full security clearances . One of them is the president s soninlaw. Why does he still have so much access to classified information . And could he be about to be cut off . And Donald Trumps woman problem. Will it make the difference in 2018 . Sh your brain is an amazing thing. But as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. Thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. The secret is an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. 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Russianlinked attorney alex van der zwaan departing a district courthouse moments ago after pleading guilty for lying to the fbi. Hes now the fourth person to cut a deal in bob muellers russia probe. Trumps attorney, ty cobb, says the white house has no comment because he says van der zwaan has nothing to do with the white house. Sounds like Wishful Thinking to me. Joining us now is nbcs ken dilanian, and natasha who cove s s intel and National Security for the atlantic. Peter baker and the table are also here. Ken dilanian, break down todays argument. Do you agree with ari melbers assessment this shows just how aggressive and just how much material the Mueller Probe has to work with in terms of pursuing everyone and anyone that obstructs their pursuit of truth . Yeah, nicolle, at a minimum, it sends a very stark message which is do not lie to the fbi, do not lie to Robert Mueller. This man, alex van der zwaan went into the courthouse a dashing young lawyer and comes out on his way to becoming a convicted felon, disbarred. His legal career is over. Heres the interesting thing about this, prosecutors and investigators will tell you witnesses lie to them all the time in federal investigations and they dont always prosecute those cases. Generally they do so for stre strategic reasons. Now we have a plea agreement. The question is what does this man have to give . It really looks like hes got something to say about rick gates, potentially about Paul Manafort, and this soot way to put pressure on these guys. Why would mueller be doing that . Hes already got massive indictments against these men. It really looks like he badly wants Paul Manafort to plead guilty to flip, to cooperate, and thats how this may relate back to the white house because if Paul Manafort flips, he may have things to say about potential collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia, nicolle. Natasha, you have a piece that dropped at 3 58. We love your timing. Tell us, one, what you uncovered on another extraordinary day in the Mueller Probe and weigh in on this idea of the publicfacing outputs of the Mueller Probe increasing in pace. Right. So, so far, weve seen about 19 indictments from muellers team including, you know, four people who have already pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents. Exactly like ken said, this sends a very strong message not to lie to muellers team. He has a ton of documents, resources, human sources, to work with, and the plea deal today, or the guilty plea today from this guy, this lawyer, really shows that hes honing in yet again even more so homi on manaforts work in ukraine. Essentially has to do with a report he fihired this law firmn 2012, a trial against victor n yanocovic. Whether this was illicitly financed. In the indictment of Paul Manafort and rick gates there was a clue back in october this was always going to be on muellers radar. He alleged that Paul Manafort and rick gates funneled 4 million through offshore kpaechbs into skadens pocket to produce this report on behalf of the Government Back in 2012 so now that kind of implicates skaden which is a massive, influenti influential, International Law firm. The fact they secured the cooperati cooperation, said today in a statement to reporters it is, in fact, cooperating with federal investigators, it really indicates that that could shed a lot of light on what Paul Manafort did with regard to this particular deal and whether or not it was illicit and that could potentially put more pressure on manafort to flip and talk about the Trump Campaign. And lydia, i mean, Steve Bannons words are ringing in h my ears which is never a good thing, but steve bannon lays it out in fire and fury and he says andrew wiseman, who happens to be the prosecutor in todays charging documents listed, is a Money Laundering guy. Steve bannon says in fire and fury, thats how they get to trump. This is not a direct quote. Goes right through kushner, goes right through manafort. This was laid out by the president s own chief strategist as the prosecutorial strategy for getting trump. Absolutely. And i think, you know, you had cnn reporting earlier today about mueller looking into kushners business dealings, you know, possible loans from a big russian state bank. You have all of the charges that seem to point to manaforts involvement in very, very shady things in ukraine. These are all leading up to squeezing and squeezing and squeezing so that you get higher and higher, higher up the food chain so somebody who knows something thats going to link back to the white house. The problem is that we havent gotten there yet and i think for a lot of americans, they hear, you know, all these ukrainian names and Paul Manafort, he didnt its very easy for trump and his abetters at fox news to say, this doesnt have anything to do with me, i dont know any ukrainiaukrainians. And so i think that speed is a really important part of bob muellers strategy here which is to knock them down one by one and get higher and higher and higher up the food chain as quickly as possible. This needs to happen fast. And Michael Crowley, ken dilanian e plained to me this concept that theres no value for mueller in flipping people unless you have a target in mind. You dont flip them right. Out of the kindness in your own heart to give them a lighter sentence because they have a baby coming. Thats an interesting detail. Thats not why. Th may be what motivated this lawyer personally. Theres something in their sights. Go back to the Republican Convention in cleveland for the first time in history, the republican platform included more lenient language than certainly what was advocated when the two men i worked for, george w. Bush and john mccain were the republican nominees. So theyre already the quid pro quo may be hiding if plain sight. Thats where the manafort story line merges with the trump story line because manaforts representation in ukraine would give him an incentive to he knows he understands the importance of ukraine to russia very well. He has a lot of contacts in moscow. He knows that for the russians, having america back away and stop resisting russian interference in ukraine is essential. Whats interesting about what happened today is it is possible that hes further squeezing m manafort. He already had so much on manafort. Right. Itss a little puzzling to se it in that context. A lot of talk that maybe rick gates could be ready to plea, could this be related to gates potentially flipping . Is there somebody else in the mix we havent learned about yet who may still be a part of this . Last thing, this story reflects so poorly on this law firm including, im sorry, i know im in the presence of a former Obama Administration official. Its okay. Greg craig, white House Counsel under obama, who actually has a very distinguished record for standing up for great causes, has done a lot of work on human rights and people who deserve to have more of a kind of a legal powerhouse in washington speaking for them, his name was attached to this report that really does seem to have been essentially justifying a political imprisonment in ukraine and maybe theres more to the story that we havent heard yet from the firm, but i have to say, it shows you the power of this sort of oligarch money and how it can apparently buy people off in really unpalatable ways. It makes it, ken dilanian, illogical for anyone to assume that there isnt more that we know we dont know on the russia front. I mean, i think the white house the president s lawyers have created this sort of soothing of the president by saying its almost over, it didnt touch you. Even the president figures out hes been lied to. It took him until saturday afternoon to realize they were spinning him. Yeah, thats one thing thats been reaffirmed to us in recent days, nicolle, is were only seeing the tip of the mueller iceberg. Yes, this manafort ukrainian stuff is confusing to people, yes, it seems like its on a separate track from this whole question of collusion. Dont forget, Paul Manafort was the chairman of the campaign. He was offering private briefings during his time with the campaign to a russian oligarch. He was sitting in that trump tower meeting. Now Robert Mueller on friday has laid out a criminal conspiracy by russians to defraud the United States of america and violate u. S. Election laws. If any americans participated knowingly in that conspiracy, if Paul Manafort knows about any americans doing that, that is relevant and thats how the manafort gates stuff links up to the white house, nicolle. In normal times just the mere fact he was Donald TrumpsCampaign Chairman and gates deputy would be enough of a tie, but i know were not living in normal times. Ken dilanian, natasha, thank you so much for joining us this hour. Remember the security clearance controversy . It was last Weeks White House scandal. It may force the white house to make a difficult decision about Jared Kushners access to classified information. Thats next. After all the drama surrounding the white houses security clearance procedures this month, where an accused Domestic Abuser was allowed to view topsecrete information under his interim status, chief of staff john kelly is overhauling the whole operation. His fivepage memo detailing the changes included this. Effective this friday, discontinue any top secret or scilevel interim clearances for individuals whose investigations or ajude digs judjudications h pending since june 1st 2017 or before. Likely included in that group the president s soninlaw, jird kushner. According to the Washington Post, a Senior Administration official with knowledge of kellys thinking says that the chief of staff has been frustrated with kushners high level of access without a final clearance and he was aware of the new policies announced friday could jeopardize kushners ability to carry out his duties in the west wing. The move puts a, bullseye on kushner the official said. Last hour the White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders was asked about this. Her response is raising more questions than answers. I can tell you that no decision within the memo will impact anything that Jared Kushner is working on in terms of specifics on security clearance. I cant get into does he not need classified information to do his job . I cant answer whether someone has security clearance or not, as we addressed many times before. But i can tell you that nothing that has taken place will affect the valuable work that jared is doing. He continues and will continue to be a valued member of the team and hell continue to do the important work that hes been focused on with the last year. Sounds like hes about to give west wing tours. Peter bakers still here. Alyssa, i mean, i dont even know what to say. In the white house in which i worked, ive said this on the air many times, if the fbi flags something, it was reported to the white House Counsel and then that persons manager knew, so if it had been me, r as a senior staffer, it would have gone to the chief of staff. If it was one of my employees in the coms department, i was told and that person was fired that day. Of course. I mean, the thing that i dont understand about his memo is that it doesnt actually do anything. If theyre saying the interim clearances are going to be wiped out, everybody has to go, but they keep kushner whos probably the most dangerous person who has the interim clearance, or has the most access to highly classified information, thats he sees the pdb. I never touched the it was we were very need to know. Im sure you guys were, too. And so for him, its like, and also the additional protocols that, like, if youve had an interim clearance since june, then youre going to be kicked out, like, it just one size doesnt fit all at the stage that theyre in. Theyre going to end up with 100 people potentially who have no security clearance and this person, man, president , is going to be alone with no one around him just doing whatever he wants. He doesnt read the pdbs. He doesnt. So you are, you know, finger on the pulse of the media world. The last two administrations, and this one, talk a lot about prosecuting leaks, about prosecuting leaks of classified information to journalists. They potentially have a very senior staffer or several, we dont know, who dont have the proper clearances. Who havent been deemed as not risked for blackmail by the fbi, handling classified information. Sort of undermines any high ground in terms of prosecuting at least classified information to journalists which is one of sarahs favorite lines in the briefing room. Absolutely. The whole thing, its should they make any move against journalists on leak investigations, first of all, you bring that up, theyre the leakiest white house weve ever seen. Right, they call us. Then you have this issue which is gigantic. I was going to make a joke, though, do you really need classified information for mideast peace . We all know its messed up there. Fair enough. Peter baker, i just wonder, i mean, this scandal was about really the real dark underbelly of the trump brand of incompetence. Of not having a transition. Ive seen some reporting in your papers and others that people felt rushed filling out these forms. Filling out these forms was really the moment as a white house staffer that you realize its not about you, if you lie on these forms, its a crime. And i dont remember thinking that it wasnt a big deal and that everybody did it. Nobody did it. Everyone told the truth on the forms and let the chips fall where they may. Your only sort of path to redemption was in telling the truth and working with anyone who knew everything about you. Does this white house actually see a path forward where someone who cant clear a background check can continue to have their hands on a pdb . Well, thats an excellent question, you know, just last week, they basically said goodbye to a relative ly low aide working on Climate Policy because it turns out had smoked marijuana sometime between 2010 and 2013, hadnt been a problem before up until this point but now under this new policy, he could no longer continue Going Forward under the interim clearance process. Thats going to raise a lot of questions. If this guy has to go for Something Like marijuana smoking which used to be considered a bigger deal than it has been in recent administrations, then what does it mean for others who are at a higher level who have a higher level of access to information, as you say, the president s daily brief is the highest, you know, form of intelligence that goes into a white house on any given day. And theyre not answering these questions, theyre not, you know, they havent given a very precise understanding of what they will. They may not be able to they may not choose to answer reporters in the briefing room. Theres going to be a moment when people on the hill who have a little bit more authority than we do are going to ask some questions and it will be interesting to see how they answer them. Also just one point, lets remember that maybe 25 to 3550 of the Republican Campaign in 2017 was about the mishandling of classified information. Something a little satirical about that context. Quick point number two, how are you the envoy in charge of middle east peace if you dont have a full security clearance . I mean, you were talking about so many youre not. Have sensensitive im not joking. People dont understand what clearances are for. When you go to china or anywhere where they might spy on you, which is sadly just about everywhere, the schedules classified. The schedules classified. What can an aide without any clearance, and there are many aides without any clearance, what can an aide with no clearance do in the white house . I really dont know. You need at least, at least if you have a secret clearance, you can navigate to an extent, but it theyre saying its not like they have secret clearances that are locked in and they can move on to the next level, which would be top secret, then i dont know what they can do with no nicolle, i dont know what their badge would say. Would it be red . I dont fknow. This really is its not a Scarlet Letter but allows the situation room to not i mean, they are career professionals so they cant ask everyone their clearances. And this is actually an interesting thing, though, because in the situation room, there is a sign that says the security level, the clearance level, of the meeting. So i dont now how people go into almost everything in h the situation room is ts level or higher. At least. So i dont know how theyre attending things. Fundamentally, this is about blackmail, right . Yes. Thats what everyone is afraid of. Weve had a series of stories where the president was basically blackmailed over a porn star and a playmate, you know . And there have been long articles in the new yorker and elsewhere about Jared Kushners vulnerability to china through his business dealings and i just it just seems unthinkable to me you would have people work bing in this white house thats already got a background of playing fast and loose and a vulnerability to blackmail at the highest levels that you would continue to have folks who are working without appropriate clearances. And lydia, the other thing is theyre trying the bush or the Trump Administration keeps trying to put forward that this is a problem with the fbi and the cia. No, the problem is that they lied on their forms so theyve had to be revised multiple times. Like, ive been very open. I smoked pot. I had an issue with my clearance. But when they interviewed me, i was like, no, no, i smoked pot a lot. There was no them coming back extra pages exactly. They were like, okay, we got you, girl. As long as were going full oprah here so did i. Me, too. The way it works, once you flag it on your form, you get an interview and feel like a you feel like a criminal. You feel never mind that youre usually like the goody two shoes of your class. You feel like a loser and you go in and the fbi youre laughing. Did they ssh no, they dont. What they are trying to ascertain is if thats it. Yeah. Is this it . And do they have everything . And then they this is another place where the Trump White House has lied their little tushies off. The fbi hands it over to the white House Counsel and says this is it, this is her form, this is her amended form and this is her interview where she cried and told me she was a bad person. Basically it. But, you know, it is then left to the white house managers. So, you know and we should let peter get back in on this because you covered this rob porter scandal which is how this whole conversation was tipped off. Do you have any sense that if the rob porter Domestic Abuse allegations hadnt come to light that the white house ever would have done anything about people working on interim clearances . Well, you know, its hard to imagine. I mean, there was this we now understand that john kelly, chief of staff, did in november, you know, order a halt to new, you know, interim clearances at that point. There clearly was a concern in november broadly that the policy wasnt being very well handled there, but it took all the way until now, until february, to put out this new memo and the new memo outlines a policy which i have to say you would know better, has to be close to one that was in previous white houses. Its hard to imagine how we had to reinvent the wheel here. This is not the First Administration to come in with security clearances that needed to be taken care of, yet it feels like they hadnt really focused on it until the newspapers began showing pictures of rob porters wife with a black eye. Last word. So i actually think their problems are much different than most peoples have had. What i would say about it, don mcgahn was told by a woman who had been rob porters girlfriend that he was abusive and he did nothing with it and that was a couple months ago. So i just think this is willful, you know, covering up. They wanted to protect him. Its not a flaw in the process as much as it is a flaw in the leadership. Human error and not at the fbi, folks. Peter baker, thank you so much for being with us for so much of the show. We appreciate it. Breaking news out of florida, a live report coming up on that measure to ban assault weapons. Gas, bloating, constipation and diarrhea can start in the colon and may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. Only Phillips Colon Health has this unique combination of probiotics. It provides fourinone symptom defense. Its your daily probiotic. As more than 100 students from Marjory StonemanDouglas High School make their way to floridas state capital as we speak, here is what they are walking into. State legislatures declined to even hear a bill having to do with an Assault Rifle ban. Tammy leitner is on the road with those students. Any reaction from the students on the bus to the state legislature essentially refusing to hear the bill . Reporter of course there is reaction. These students are making their way 400 plus miles to go and lobby state lawmakers to tighten gun bills here. And word is slowly trickling around the bus. Im here with daniel. Daniel, what is your reaction to this, the fact they wont even hear this . Im just upset. I mean, were coming drive like eight hours to see these state length lay tors ae ledge gives me more drive. Im morlt filt mortified. That is a big screw you. They know hundreds of kids are coming up to the state capital which by the way is extremely far from us. Just to talk to them. And they are just not even are considering the bill to stop things like this. Never again hashtag has been going around and its like they dont even care that we dont want this to happen again. Why should anyone else have to live through this . I dont understand. Lets me ask your sister, julia, any thoughts of turning around at this point, is this discouraging enough . No. As daniel said, if anything it gives us more drive to push forward and go and talk to them facetoface. They cant back down. They wouldnt be able to just block us or ignore us. Well go right to their face and say this is not what we have want, it is not a preference, but it is rather a need to feel safe every day in our schools and not feel like our lives are in danger. If anything, they should be willing to compromise with us. We dont have to go all the way and go in one full step. We can take smaller steps. And if they are unwilling and they tell me they dont want to compromise, then i will be voting them out in the election. Nicolle, the one thing about these students, they are looking at this not as a setback, but they are looking at this as fuel to their fire. And they will keep plugging away. And you need to tell them that it is because of them and because of that bus that the whole country now knows what the Florida Legislature did. 65 republican controlled and if it wasnt for daniel and his sister, the whole country would not be hearing right now that . The tallahassee statehouse, they have just voted down a motion to even here debate on the banning of assault weapons. So they are already making a difference. They just did today. Reporter youre right about that. Thank you, tammy. Thank them. It is heartbreaking on one level, but on the other, i mean were talking about this because they are sitting on that bus. And the intract ability of the gun debate as a new audience. And they are not cynical and resigned the waythe gun debate as a new audience. And they are not cynical and resigned the way some people are. I think the fact that a vote that im sure those people the men and women in tallahassee, im sure they had no idea this would be a national story. Im sure that is a vote they have taken a dozen times. But they have new constituents and they have new people watching them. I think these students can bring new scrutiny to people doing the nras bidding. I think that what they are doing is incredible and i have great faith that it will have a real impact. Since the shooting last week, they have instragram accounts, they have twitter handles, they are marching. And i think that you have to wonder like what were they talking about in the cloak room of that down in florida to decide that knowing these kids were on their way, that they would be like were not even going to talk about it. It really you have to wonder how far ofafield they have gone. Cynical interpretation would be that they knew the kids were coming and that is why they voted that way because they didnt want a debate unfolding with the kids in the gallery. This which is not to excuse it. No, but i see these photographs of young people lying on the ground, and instantly what comes to mind to me is the fight for treatment for hiv and aids in the 1980s. People forget that that was actually one of the most powerful social activist movements in our countrys history. And they were able to change the world so fast by using their bodies to lie down and say we will not die. We will not die in silence. And i think also the amazing thing here, these are fresh voices. They are uncorrupted voices. They are speaking from the heart from a horrible thing they had to experience and were seeing the kind of ugliest part of twitter, social media, conspiracy world trying to get at them. There is something im not going to repeat the name of the publication, it doesnt deserve it, but they have tried to slam one of them, a father in the fbi part of the antitrump conspiracy, give me a break. And your paper has a front stage story about russian bots and trolls already attacking these kids. And i want to say one last thing about these kids. Theyre a lot savvier than we were. When i started out on campaigns, i never had the presence of mind to say ill take a compromise. They have almost flipped the script. They are the new adults and they are coming for you, tallahassee. We have to sneak in a break. So thats the idea. What do you think . I dont like it. Oh. Nuh uh. Yeah. Ahhhhh. Mmmm. Oh. Yeah. Ah. Agh. Ddd. No. Hmmm. Uh. Huh. Yeah. Uh. Huh. In business, there are a lot of ways to say no. Thank you so much. Thank you. So were doing it. Yes. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. We help all types of businesses with money, tools and knowhow to get business done. American express open. Do you remember we were talking when the kids from park land oig being the targets of russia control i trolls. And facebook, bringing us back to the 13 indictments essentially a tool of russia propaganda. And it continues. This russian operation continues to iterate. What does facebook say . I think they say they are trying to do some things, but i find it very defensive. All right. Well keep this going. My thanks to you all. That does it for our hour. Mtp daily starts right now. Hi, chuck. If it is tuesday, russia cant meddal in these olympics, but they can meddle in our election. The president has been extremely tough 00 ruon russia. He has been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was eight years combined. How about the u. S. Punish russia for election meddling . Plus why a new congressional map in the keystone state could open the door to a democratic comeback on capit