Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live 20170214

Isnt that there were discussions. There was nothing wrong or inappropriate with about the discussions. It purely came down to a matter of trust. Thats it. Thank you guys, see you tomorrow. Happy valentines days. Happy valentines days, indeed. That was sean spicer finishing up another contentious News Coverage one in which the white house is being pretty vehement in that they believe that general mike flynn did not break any laws he only violated the president s trust when it was found out that he did in fact speak about russian sanctions with the Russian Ambassador before donald trump was inaugurated. The white house only finding out that he was essentially lying or misleading the public and the administration about that when the doj came to the white house three weeks ago and said hey listen we have transcripts of these conversations and mike flynn was not telling the truth. Not only that, but we believe that he has opened himself up to potential blackmailing by the russians because they know the truth of these conversations. We want to get you right to that sean spicer sound. You can hear for yourself what he said. We got a point not based on a legal issue, but based on a trust issue where the level of trust between the president and general flynn had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change. The president was very concerned that general flynn had misled the Vice President and others. The white House Counsel reviewed and determined that there is not a legal issue but rather a trust issue. We have got a team of reporters ready to break this all down. Halle jackson is inside the Briefing Room. Casey hunt will soon be with us. She is on capitol hill. Eli stokel is a political. Glen thrush of the New York Times, and Jonathan Swan of actionio. Halle, the white house is calling this a matter of trust as you heard, not a legal issue. They seem to be doing what they did so well and so successfully on the campaign trail, which is dig in. Okay. What i can talk about is what happened here in the press Briefing Room where sean spicer went through what he presented as the time line for how this went down. The idea that in mid janua you had Vice President pence publicly talking about essentially defending mike flynn saying that in late january it came out via white House Counsel from that heads up from the department of justice that in fact there were some serious questions about the National Security advisor misleading the president. I think there are still Unanswered Questions here and you heard the reporters trying to get at that which is despite in the president s view in the white House Counsels view not being a legal issue after the first few days after the first time period of looking into this, it became a trust issue. Sean spicer was extremely clear about that point. The question, though, became, and i think still remains, if it was a trust issue, after the first few days, what happened over the following couple of weeks . Until last night at 10 00, 11 00 at night when apparently the president asked for mike flynns resignation and that was submitted . That is the part i think we are still trying to unravel as we are now finally learning at least a little bit more about the timelines and about the details here. Spicer would not talk about the transcripts that exist of this call. We did learn, however, when it comes to sanctions against russia, there are clearly no immediate plans to change those, at least from what youered from treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin when he surprised the press when he came in to speak to members of the press hours after being sworn in as treasury secretary. Those election related sanctions, separate from the sanctions about crimea are still in place. Thats more than we knew a couple of hours ago. Mike flynn talking to Vice President mike pence and saying he had not talked about sanction. Vice president mike pence going on National Television and repeating that. Halle, what role did the Vice President play in debting this resignation . Did he play a role . It is our understanding katie based on a source close to the president yes there was pressure from mike pence to take this action given that the Vice President felt misled and publicly as youered from sean spicer at the podium the rest of the administration, other members of the administration, includingpicer said himself, sean spicer apparently not told the entire truth by mike flynn or at least not told the relevant part that talks about sanctions katie. Eli, the talking point they seem to be moving to is that the reason they werent able to get the resignation faster is partially because Jeff Sessions wasnt confirmed at the doj, right . Yeah, but that doesnt make any sense given they needed Jeff Sessions to remain unconfirmed and in the senate in order to confirm the education secretary, betsy devos. Thats a talking point that falls apart quickly. I think the irony about this dealing with trust issues, there are trust issues. With the west wing, and with the press its hard to trust any message coming out of the administration because they are tricker to. Kellyanne conway saying one thing, sean spicer talking about another. He told us President Trump asked for the resignation even though last night aides were telling me general flynn decided to he radio sign on his own. Its hard to ascertain what is actually the truth here. Glen, they call it a trust issue, ultimately mike flynn did not have the trust of the president. It seemed they were pushed up in getting the resignation because of the reporting that came out from the New York Times also from the Washington Post that said the white house knew about this. Is this a trust issue just internally . Or is it a leak issue that they got caught doing this . And at what point did they have an obligation to the American Public to say hey listen, no, this is actually what happened with our National Security adviser . I think the latter part look, i think that was a very sloppy, clearly hastily organized time frame, time line that sean spicer came up with that has an awful lot of holes in it. Let me point to a couple of factual issues here. First of all we know from our reporting that the obama administration, through various departments had in its possession some of these wiretaps for a while. The question that has not been answer is was any of in a information communicated to any of the trump people at any point in time prior to that . The other thing that spicer didnt address even though he was asked about it was the interaction between the president and flynn. Did the president know and approve of what flynn was doing . Spicer jumped over that. Another big contradiction, spicer says they learned about they learned about the existence of the transcripts 17 days ago but they were not able to determine that it was a breach of trust until now. Two minutes later, he said mcgahn in the counsels office was almost, quote, unquote, immediately able to determine tlnt an legal issue. So why did we have the 17 days . And finally, i think most importantly, the question is, he said, spicer said it was mcgahn who determined that it was an issue of trust. He actually said that, that the counsel determined it was not a legal issue but an issue of trust. White House Counsels dont traffic in trust. They give legal opinions to president s. So that is abrogating some of that responsibility to the president. It is a very, very sloppy and implausible time line. And i think it just beg as lot of questions and will require a lot of reporting. Up with last thing. When spicer comes on there and talks about leaks, it is entirely likely that general flynn, who has done all of this stuff that is quite questionable and to some degree unprecedented, certainly in the early going without any of those leaks the pub wouldnt have known about any of this stuff and it is quite likely that mr. Flynn would have remained in office. They could have been biding their time and hoping for the news cycle to pass, potentially. Kasie hunt go ahead. U. N. Swaen spicer did say, maybe it was an inartful use of language actually said, we didnt want to cover it up, but he said this will help us, quote, cover it up. He actually said that from the woed yum. The white house has one side of the story. They are certainly calling this a trust issue not a legal issue. The democrats on the hill are seeing it another way. Lets play some of their reaction today. If there was any emergency at this moment in the history this country, this is the moment. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in a fight for the soul of our democracy. We are not going to back down. We are going to press this issue again and again until we get answers. Democrats are not going to remain silent. Casey hunt, democrats say they are not going to remain silent. Do they have enough republican support to get an investigation in place to find out what exactly was going on inside that white house . In a word, katie, no. They dont. We have been talking to republicans throughout the course of today as weve been trying to figure out how they would respond to what has gone on with flynn over the course of the last 24 to 48 hours. But the reality here, as i talked to Jason Chaffetz the chairman of the Oversight Committee this morning, he said you know what, i think this issue is resolving itself leading us to believe he will not be opening additional inquiry. What we do have going on on capitol hill are two investigations in the Intelligence Committees in the house and the senate respectively. This is how they decided to proceed with investigating russian meddling in the election. Those are the investigations that are going on now. The question is, how much do they dive into what Michael Flynn was doing during the course of the campaign and then later on in the transition . And that has been kind of the question we have also been putting to a lot of these members is for example, flynn going to testify in front of the Senate Intelligence or house Intelligence Committees . Remember, that kind of testimony wouldnt debate even if he did testify, it wouldnt be what you normally think of as a Public Committee hearing where you have somebody sitting behind a desk. This would take place behind closed doors. Thats a feature of these Intelligence Committee investigations. They take place behind closed doors. They traffic in information that is not otherwise public. That can be an advantage. But question is what do you release to the public. What the democrats are demanding is some kind of Public Accounting of what went on. There is simply no guarantee there will be any Public Accounting out of the Intelligence Committees once their investigations are concluded. There will be pressure from democrats but at the end of the day it is not clear that we would have that. Those are the pressures that you are seeing coming to the surface today on citol hill. The white house found out out this becau the acting attorney general sally yates went to the white house and said hey listen we have got these transcripts of these conversations between general flynn and the Russian Ambassador. We want to give them to you to show you that general flynn was not telling the truth. A few days later, sally yates was fired by the administration for not upholding his executive order on immigration. My question to you Jonathan Swan, is this sally yates revenge . Well, she certainly sent the signal. And she was certainly someone who wasnt prepared to stay quiet within the confines of the administration. There is a lot of other people like her. They are doing it silently. She is the public face of this resistan resistance. But we are seeing it and the trump people are very aware of it. I was having lunch with someone over the weekend. They are really trying to find these people. She just happens to be the public face of the uprising. It feels a liblt like there almost a what could be called soft coup going on. The Intelligence Community is finding a way to get back at folks in the white house for perceived slooieights during th campaign, during the transition. There has been a target on general flynns back for a time now. Is this someone they were looking to take down from the beginning . When you talk to people who are in the Intelligence Community the level of animosity towards flynn is hard the overstate. This is someone who made lot of enemies in the Intelligence Community, been a disrupte force. In some ways this kind of collision was inevitable. There is also anpportunity now to reset that relationship. Pompeo has been working towards that quietly behind the scenes. I think this decision of who donald trump appoints to take over from flynn is crucial and could reset that relationship. Casey hunt, glen thrush, eli stokelses, Jonathan Swan as well. Thanks. Up next, how far will congress go to investigate mike flynn and his communications with russia . First heres our microsoft pulse question of the day. In the wake of general flynns resignation President Trump says the real story is illegal leaks. Do you agree . The pulse is open, cast your vote. Why do people put milk on cereal . Why does your tummy go grumbily, grumbily, grumbily . No more questions for you ooph, that milk in your cereal was messing with you, wasnt it . Try lactaid, its real milk, without that annoying lactose. Good, right . Mmm, yeah. Lactaid. The milk that doesnt mess with you. General flynn was directed by somebody to contact the russians that you know dont overreact here, we may change policy, thats not a crime. I think thats bad form. Its probably inappropriate and violates traditionings but there is no use lying about it. I mean, what will get you in trouble if you begin to mislead people about what you actually did. The cover up could be far worse than what they actually did. The cover up could be worse. That was senator Lindsey Graham with frank thorpe earlier today. Donald trump doesnt really believe that is the issue. He believes the real issue and the real story is why there are so many illegal leaks coming out of washington. He wants to know will these leaks be happening as i deal with north korea. A lot of folks say the real story is whether or not the administration knew about this conflict between general Michael Flynns statements to the public at least and his statements behind the scenes. Now we know they did know. Joining me is angus king of maine. He sits on the Senate Select committee on intelligence and the Senate Armed Services committee. Senator, thank you so much. Going off of that, we do know that the Trump Administration found out over two weeks ago that there was a conflict between what general flynn said publicly and privately to the ambassador to russia. But they did not come out and tell the public about it. They did not ask for general flynns resignation for another two and a half weeks. Can you understand why it might have taken that long . No, i can really. That was a bombshell news. I cant imane that the white House Counsel didnt immediately communicate it throughout the white house all the way up the chain and why it took two and a half weeks when they knew that those statements, the categorical statements, i did not discuss the sanctions, were out there. Its hard to understand why it took so long. I would add, though, katey, that the issue of the leaks is also a serious issue. You have really got two separate issues here that need to be discussed and frankly gotten to the bottom of. But because there were leaks that doesnt necessarily invalidate the significance of the National Security adviser being untruthful with his commander in chief and also with the American People. I would argue that the leaks are what allowed the public to find out about something they otherwise might not have found out about. It didnt seem that the administration was going to tell anybody. Michael flynn did talk about sanctions with the Russian Ambassador before trump was inaugurated, which would be a violation of the logan act. The Trump Administration argues it is a trust issue. Others might argue it is a legal issue. Can an investigation take place in congress if it doesnt have gop support . Not only can it. It will. Im on the Intelligence Committee. Im going to a meeting in 20 minutes where we are going to be discussing this very issue. We have subpoena power. And our mandate is to get to the bottom of not only the whole russian hacking and messing around with our election, but also were there contacts between one or the other of the campaigns and the russians during the period of the campaign and right afterwards . We know now for a fact there was a conversation between general flynn and the russians after the election and there is still an open question of whether there were contacts before and thats exactly where our investigation is going to go. I think it is bipartisan. A number of members of the committee, marco rubio, roy blunt, republicans, have said quite publicly, john cornan, who is also on the committee and is the second in command in terms of republican leadership, they have all said we have got to got to the bottom this we are going to go where the facts take us. Yes the answer is will it be bipartisan . Yes, will it be thorough . Yes. If it is not, you will hear about it from me. Do you have any information that the Trump Administration did not know that mike flynn was talking with the ambassador, that it was freelancing. Its hard to believe it was a random conversation, particularly when you get into what happened next. The sanctions were imposed. The conversation took place the next day. We now know it involved other than Christmas Greetings which is the way it was represented before. And then putin said we e not going to react to the sanctions. President trump said good for putin for not reacting. I knew he was smart. You putting those things together its hard to believe that mike flynn was actsing on his own. Angus king, thank you for joining us. For the audience we have a bit of breaking news. The office of government ethics sent a letter to the white house in response to Elijah Cummings called to investigate Kellyanne Conways comments about ivanka trumps brand. You remember she touted her brand and her clothing on a fox news segment from the white house Briefing Room. The letter states there is strong reason to believe that miss conway violated the standards of conduct and that disciplinary is warranted. It continues to say i recommend the white house investigate miss conways actions and consider taking disciplinary action against her. A lot going on at the white house today. We will be right back. To truly feel healthy on the outside you have to feel healthy at your core. Trubiotics a probiotic from one a day. Naturally helps support both your digestive and immune health. Feel a difference in two weeks or your money back. Take the trubiotics 2 week challenge. Its your tv, take it with you. With directv and at t, stream live tv anywhere datafree. Join directv today starting at 35 a month. No extra monthly fees. Mobility is very important to me. Thats why i use e trade mobile. Its on all my mobile devices, so it suits my mobile lifestyle. And it keeps my investments fully mobile. Even when im on the move. Sign up at etrade. Com and get up to six hundred dollars. The Intelligence Committee is already looking at russian involvement in our election. And they have broad jurisdiction over the intend tell communi Intel Community at large and they can look at whatever they choose to. With regards to white house personnel decisions i dont its the president s call. Everybody at the white house serves at the pleasure. He can speak for himself on that. I think its obvious why he decided to make the decision he did. You talked a moment ago about the state of nominations here. Puzder seems to be the most controversial from the democratic side. There are four republicans senators on the fence here. Are you confident that one will get lieu. I know thats not even in your cue yet. Look. Its hard to tell who is controversial and who isnt since they are throwing up opposition to everyone, including holding hostage those senator Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell talking to reporters addressing russian hacking also saying that all questions regarding mike flynn be directed to the white house. Joining me, rick tyler, political analyst and former spokesman for ted cruz. Also with us harold ford jr. , former Congress Moon and professor at university of mir mishs gerald ford Public School of policy. You need to get shorter titles. Happy valentines day . Does this white house have any credibility left . The white house is in crisis. It is inconceivable to me that general flynn could have called the ambassador without the president s knowledge. If he was going the call him he would have needed to be prepared about sanctions. He doesnt have the authority to tell the russians anything about sanctions unless the president approved it. It seems to me the president knew about this conversation before it happened. The president knew about it . Did the Vice President know about it . Either two things happened. Either general flynn and the president knew about it and didnt tell the Vice President and left him out or the president and the Vice President lied. You seem to be calli that a conspiracy or a cover up . It looks clear to me. Its inconceivable to me that general flynn would have been freelancing on russians sanctions without the knowledge of the president. Maxine waters keeps saying donald trump is going to get himself impeached. Do you see a circumstance where that could happen . Clearly if the state of play is parallel or mirror what is rick shared you could certainly see a playing of events where republicans may decide enough is enough. Certainly the Lindsay Graham john mccain wing of the party is not fond this president s policies. The fact that russia is the key core substantive value here, we could see that. Lets take the other side and say that the president did not know. I think its equally troubling and shows there is a wandering and a lone wolf policy there in the white house that allows aides to do whatever he or she may want to do. They have got to professionalize the white house, professionalize the defense department, professionalize the nsa staff and the state department for a start. If that doesnt happen in the next few weeks. If you are advisinge ining xi i or china, which im not. Lets test this president. There seems to be disarray. Whether you believe what rick is saying is true or the opposite side its not good. You obviously have conversations with people still working up there on capitol hill. What is the feeling behind the scenes privately about how this admistration is going . A crisis of incompetentent tense. Harold is right. The reason you have leaks from the white house is disloyalty to the president. Anyone who leaks is not being loyal to the president. The president said this is a big problem. It is. But the problem stms stems with him. People are not loyal to him. What about russia . This is a bad analogy but if somebody accuses you of cheating on your husband or wife with someone else you make every effort to keep yourself away from that person on valentines days . I know, terrible. To try and separate yourself from that person. Thats kinds of what we see going on with donald trump and russia. There are so many questions surrounding his relationship with russia. Why do they add to them by allowing these sorts of issues to come up, be leaked, become controversial, get so loud that he has to ask for the resignation of his National Security adviser or be given it, one way or the other. Thats the other thing. Why wouldnt he have allowed Reince Priebus to force resignation . At least there would have been a chain of command. As i understand it as spicer said today the president demand it. Where is the chief of staff . The chief of staff sends moral authority. With regard to russia, the president has made the moral equivalence between russia and the United States. Thats never been our stand. I understand he wants to have better relationships with russia but there is no moral equivalenty between the United States and russia. The white house was aware of this two and a half weeks. The white House Counsel. Donald trump was aware of it two and a half weeks. The counsel went immediately to President Trump and told him about this. My question, if the Washington Post didnt come out and report this news on friday and then on monday, would the public have ever found out about it . Because they new for two and a half weeks, they said it was an issue of trust between general flynn and the president. When is it an issue of trust between the white house and those that donald trump has around him and the general public . You answered the question. I dont think there is any doubt. We probably would have learned at some point because sally yates may have shared this at some point but the fact that the white house, the president was aware for two and a half weeks and all of a sudden he didnt find it acceptable or found mr. Flynns presence unacceptable, why didnt that happen two and a half weeks ago. The reality is we will get answers in the next few weeks. We have tape playback, thats what we call it in the news industry, of basically this happening moments ago. Donald trump signing hj resolution 41, which null fiz a Dodd Frank Scc rule requiring oil and Gas Companies to pay factions and fees. Representative bill highesinger and all of my friends, peter, all of my friends are up here. We really appreciate it of this is one of many that weve signed and we have many more left. And we are bringing back jobs big league. We are bringing them back at the plant level, at the mine level. The energy jobs with coming back. And you see whats going on with the stock market. They know they know that we know what we are doing. So its going up at record clips. So i think what im going to do, if i might, can i ask you to say a few words . My pleasure, mr. President. Bill highesinger. Yeah. So this is the first cra that has been signed by the president , very pleased to be the author of house joint resolution 41. Over 20 years there has been 56,000 rules that have been put in place with very little legislative input or oversight. And its time that changed. And im very thankful to the president , the speaker, our chairman, for being able to make this happen. We think this is a good first step. Very pleased. Thank you, mr. President. Let me have that. Ill sign it. We may have to give him the pen. I dont know. Someone going to have to fight me for it. When i get rid of the pen congratulations. Great job. Thank you. You have done a fantastic job. All right. A lot of people going back to work now. [ applause ] thanks mr. President. Appreciate it. Thank you. Great job, everybody. Mr. President. Easy working on obamacare. Its going to be very soon, right . Yes. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Donald trump signing house joint resolution 41. Lets go over to capitol hill where senator Chuck Schumer is addressing reporters saying that the American Public deserves to know the trump. Every single employee of the Trump Administration from assistants sitting in cramped cubicles to the man occupying the oval office, i hope our republican colleagues will join us in this call, because the crisis here rises above party. Was general flynn directed or authorized to do what he did . What was the extent of his conversations and contacts with russia . Who else from the Trump Administration, transition, or campaign had contact with the russians . And why wasnt general flynn fired as soon as the administration found out . Why did they act only when they were caught misleading the media. These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered. And these questions shouldnt just apply to general flynn, but to senior official in the trump campaign, transition, and administration. Every one of these questions should be applied to all them as well. There needs to be an independent and transparent investigation because the white house knew for weeks that general flynn misled the Vice President. [ loss of audio ] present at and participating in the highest level of National Security discussions until those reports were made public. If an investigation is not independent, nonpartisan, and most of all transparent, there is no guarantee this administration will take the decisive and immediate actions necessary to keep our country safe. The white House Counsel cannot lead this investigation. And the new attorney general cannot be je Jeff Sessions cannot be the approximate earn to lead that investigation. Department of justice regulations specifically prohibit individuals from political ties to the subjects of the investigation from leading that investigation. I want to read you the regulations from doj website. Quote, no department of justice employee may participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation or prosecution or who would be directly affected by the outcome. The regulations continue, political relationship means a close identification with an elected official, candidate, political party, or Campaign Organization arising 23r service as a principal, adviser, or official. Personal relationship means a close and substantial connection of the type normally viewed as likely to induce partiality. Jeff sessions was chrman of the national secity Advisory Committee alongside general Michael Flynn. He was a Senior Adviser in the trump campaign, the first senator who endorsed the president s campaign, and nominated him at the Republican Convention in cleveland. Those facts and the department of justices own rules disqualify attorney general sessions from onie i running th investigation. Because the rules are so clear, i expect attorney general sessions will recuse himself and make sure that an independent and thorough investigation proceeds. The American People deserve a full investigation. We need a transparent investigation. And we need an impartial investigation. Senator Chuck Schumer saying an investigation cannot be conducted by the white House Counsel. It also cannot be conducted by attorney general Jeff Sessions. Both of them are political, he says. They need an independent investigator. Back to my panel, rick tyler, harold ford jr. , the democrats are going to take this and run with it. If this was susan rice who had a conversation with the Russian Ambassador, a taped conversation, and she had to resign, imagine the kind of calls we would get from the hill. Put the partisanship aside, i think rick described this as well as i have heard anyone describe it. We have to understand how and why this matter was not brought to anyones attention for two and a half weeks, your point about the press and why we didnt know, too. What is going on the in the white house that would allow this . Is it because of the allegations that were made during the campaign about a coziness about us and the russians or this president and president putin. These are the questions. The president has picked the wrong subject mart to go after congress on confront the congress on. Paul ryan, Lindsey Graham, Mitch Mcconnell have all made clear they dont align themselves with President Trump with how he talks about the coziness he seems to project and embrace vladimir putin. The subject matter is bothersome to many people in congress and i would imagine some republicans feel the same way Chuck Schumer is this afternoon. Here is what we are not talking about. Trump voters dont hear this on the whole. They dont seem to care. They want their jobs back. They believe donald trump is going to bring those jobs back. Is there a point where trump voters start to care about the excesses of this white house, or the missteps of this white house . You have Jason Chaffetz. He might not be probing flynn, but he is probing the white houses handling of sensitive information, talking about donald trump essentially having a situation room at mara lago during dinner in florida. The white house says he wasnt handling top secret information there. That they went off to a secure bunker. But you can see from the photos that there are aides flying back and forth for both Prime Minister abe and for donald trump. And there are now questions surrounding what sort of information and how sensitive was it . He was talking about it in an open door setting where the general public, if you pay 200,000 is allowed to go. Among Trump Supporters there is a high tolerance because there is a mistruss of the media and a mistrust of washington. Over time, if so conservatives may be conflicted because you saw trump signing an order that repeals a portion of dodd frank and harold and i were talking it may be marginal but our we like that, we like that. We want them to unravel, want them to unravel obamacare which he told the speaker to do in that very meeting. And for as botched and mishandled and ill executed as it was people like the executive order on immigration. And so they will give him a lot of leeway. All of that will unravel when over time their rages are not coming, about. Unemployment is fairly low. Its going to be hard to create new jobs. About you the reality is are people making more money . Mang ends meet . Thats the big problem and thats what led to trumps rise. A reminder, we are only gosh we are on the you are toth week. 23 days. This is russia that we are talking about. Democrat and republican alike there is a mistrust there across partisan lines. Thank you so much. Going to have to leave it there. Whats the suffrage Anna Howard Shaw day. If you are a 30 rock viewer you know when im talking about. We have been asking in the wake of Michael Flynns resignation President Trump says the real story is illegal leaks out of wash sh with a. So far only 6 of you agree, 94 of you think the real reason is something else. You can weigh in and let your voice be heard. Its looking up not down. Its feeling up thinking up living up. Its being in motion. In body in spirit in the now. Boost. Its not just nutrition. Its intelligent nutrition. With 26 vitamins and minerals and 10 grams of protein. All in 3 delicious flavors. Its choosing to go in one direction. Up. Boost. Be up for it. Befi was a doer. Gia, i was active. Then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. My doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. She also prescribed lyrica. 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Nonrollment window. No waiting to apply. That means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Medicare doesnt cover everything. And like all standardized Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. So dont wait. Call now to request your free decision guide. It could help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan that works for you. These types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Rates are competitive, and theyre the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. Remember these plans let you apply all year round. So call today. Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. Staying on that fall out surrounding the resignation of Michael Flynn from the trump white house. Just hours before that resignation was announced our own Chris Jansing travelled to georgia. She spoke with round table of state and Community Leaders and their conversation turned to flynn and u. S. National securi. Correct . No surprise, right . I mean these are the folks who are in the trenches, these are the people who have been in the march, who have led the march, who lead the organizations that have been part of the trumped a opposition. We started by asking the simple question, should Michael Flynn be fired . It seems like there is a fireable offense every day. Ultimately democrats and republicans agree, none of them want to see the president playing games with National Security. None of them want to see the credibility of the office demeaned to the point that it has been now. Alternative facts that dont exist. Its either its fact or its not a fact. I kind of reject that language because i think it minimizes the severity of those actions. Its really about the character of a nation. Now that the election is over, it seems that the campaign is still continuing with the kind of alternative facts. Whats your level of concern when you hear that potentially very sensitive matters were discussed at mara lago in a public place where people were having dinner. I think thats how he is going to roll. He has been rolling like that. Nobody is. Is toing im. There is so much happening so quickly that its very difficult for people to push back on some of that because its happening so fast. How do we keep up with that . I feel like every time there is a tweet im jumping. One of the things that donald trump has done is he has activated a lot of people and they have shown themselves in protests. They have shown themselves here in georgia. I think that people are seeing just four weeks into this administration that election has consequences and i think its up to us now to leverage that understanding and to try to get people organized. Im really heartened by the way in which women are leading in this moment. Janelle, you helped to organize the womens protest. Helped us to channel that fear and that anxiety into action. I have been very grateful for it. I think as i sit on the couch watching the news for four hours, i think well what you are doing . If you are feeling this kind of despair, how do we translate that into action . I would say its important to harness this movement thats beginning to develop. We have to start winning elections. City council, to state house races to congressional races i dont know how many reached out to me, you won, you did it, you had a grassroots campaign, he want to win, too. How many of you are hopeful by the reaction to the things that are concerning you six out of six . You have got to be hopeful because i see democracy as a muscle. If you work it up a little bit it gets stronger. My big takeaway from that, chris, it seems like people are on edge. You dont have to be in washington to be reeling. What i found doing these panels people dont know which way to look. Their challenge they acknowledge is to come together and figure out how to channel that energy and not get distracted by everythinglse thats going on. People trying to figure out where the new normal is. We look forward to the panels that you have coming down the pike. Coming up here, was President Trump kept out of the loop or did he turn a blind eye to Michael Flynns communications with russia . A former cia analyst joins me next. Ow, 90 of the Worlds Largest supercomputers run on intel . That means you can take a universe of data in your case literally and turn it into medical discoveries, diagnostic breakthroughs. Proof that black holes collapse into one singularity. I dont know what that is. But yes. Innovation runs on supercomputers. And supercomputers run on intel. You are super smart. And super busy. 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Talk to your doctor about brilinta. Im doing all i can. That includes brilinta. If you cant afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. Is caringing because covering heals faster. For a bandage that moves with you and stays on all day, cover with a bandaid brand flexible fabric adhesive bandage. We now know that donald trump knew three weeks ago just about that general mike flynn was misleading the Vice President when he said he did not talk sanctions with the Russian Ambassador. What we still dont know is whether donald trump knew before that. During the transition, whether general mike flynn was acting as a freelancer, essentially, in having those sanctions conversation, or at least one conversation, or whether he was doing it with the blessing from the transition. Joining me now is admiral james sevrettis. And also tara maller, a spokesperson and senior policy advisory for counterterrorism extremism project. She is also a former cia military analyst. Thank you so much. Tara, i want to start with you. How important is it for the public to know whether the transition was involved with these conversations that general flynn had with the Russian Ambassador, whether the transition knew that he was talking about sanctions . Its very important for the public to know. I watched the press conference that sean spicer gave earlier. Its very important to know exactly what was going on here. We are talking about matters of National Security. At the crux of getting a clearance for National Security. At the crux of serving in an intelligence position, let alone National Security adviser is the promise, the guarantee you are going to be honest and truthful in terms of your conduct with National Security matters. In this case Michael Flynn was not being truthful not only to to the American Public in interviews, but internally to Vice President mike pence and potentially others. There is an investigation and they have the transcripts. This nature of these conversations will be revealed. The truth will always be revealed. As we say in the Intelligence Community always speak truth to power. Michael flynn didnt seem to be doing that. Admiral, so far we have Keith Kellogg taking over general flynns place in the nsa for now. He is a name being considered r the permanent replacement. Petraeus and harwood are also in the running. What can you the me about these three men . Its telling that they dipped down and skipped over the deputy. We are going the see a potential firing of both the National Security adviser and the deputy National Security adviser. Petraeus, convicted for lying to the fbi under oath. Seams to be going to be impossible to replace one convicted of lying for another. Harwood is absolutely terrific. I think he would be a good choice. They said they might be making their decision by the end of the week. How important is it for them to do this in a quick manner . Its vital. I thought tara did a nice job pointing out the effect domestically on the American Public. There is a Huge International audience that is watching this, judging it. Looking at that in conjunction with that dinner with Prime Minister abe where they are going over intelligence. Kind of eyan roic that the administration would be saying that the pig problem in washington is the leaks while they are doing the nations business at a table in a crowded restaurant. I think weve really got a problem on both kounts. James and tara, i promise well get another question in to you next time when we are not so tight on time. Thank you for being here. Before we go one last look at our microsoft pulse question of the day. We are asking in the wake of michael flips resignation President Trump says the real story is illegal lesion out of washington. Do you agree . So far wait for it only 6 of you say yes. Overwhelming there. Hauchg for voting. That wraps things up for me this hour. Im katy tur. Kate snow picks things up rht now. Kate, happy up aa howard shaw day. Happy valentines days. 30 rock. Nobody watches 30 rock. Okay. But happy valentines days to you. Good afternoon, everyone. Here is what we are following. We heard from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer about general Michael Flynn resigning as National Security adviser