Any better. Craig, thank you. Thank you. And thanks very much to all of you for joining us, dont forget, you can watch out front any time, anywhere. Just go to cnngo, a. C. 360 s. T. A. R. T. Starts right now. And good evening, thank you for joining us. Were waiting to hear from fbi director james comey whos going to speak at a dinner for the Intelligence Community. Well bring you those answers to questions live when they happen. Earlier today, the top two members, the Senate Intelligence committee spoke to reporters in advance of their first public hearing tomorrow into all things russia. And while its obviously too soon to draw any conclusions as to the shape of their investigations, the shape its going to take, its hard to miss the sharp contrast between todays rollout between straight
forward, devoid of policy, a train wreck over on the house side. Both the house and the Senate Intelligence committees are supposed to investigate russian meddling in the last election as well as poli
acquaintance or a friendship is not enough to disqualify a prosecutor. so, there are hundreds of times, thousands of occasions on which this issue has been addressed, it s not bothersome, contrary to donald trump. then why do you think he s bringing it up? well, i think that the president is a lot of having a sore tooth in his mouth. he s bothered by the investigation, and so he s constantly casting asperngss one way or the other. he s going so far as to fire james comey. i think more of the probing may be troubling him, so far that s been shot down, not just by me, but also the bush ethics czar and i, we wrote together, richard painter and i that this is just not a valid concern. jeffrey, other guests have suggested he is setting the
positive step, a white house in ethics crisis. no wonder they re under investigation for russia affair. ambassador, you are a former white house czar. in terms of the nepotism law, does it apply? because the white house cleary seems to thing it doesn t. the question of whether ivanka was an employee was a clear one. she was. i m glad they conceded it. my view it s a bipartisan view. the bush ethics czar agrees with me. the nepotism statute does apply. in both the bush and obama administration for decades the justice department held, yes, the nepotism statute does apply to the white house office. now, it s a murky area, reasonable minds can disagree. president trump got an opinion from the justice department that the nepotism statute doesn t
step leaves so much else undone in this white house. there is an ethics crisis in the white house. and it starts at the top with the president. who claims that the law does not apply to him, even the constitution, which prohibits many of the foreign government benefits he is getting, for example. until the president gets it right, the white house is not going to get it right. we do have, despite this positive step, a white house in ethics crisis. no wonder they re under investigation for russia affair. ambassador, you are a former white house czar. in terms of the nepotism law, does it apply? the question of whether ivanka was an employee was a clear one. she was. i m glad they conceded it. my view it s a bipartisan view. the bush ethics czar agrees with me. nepotism statute does apply.
and what the republican chairman of the house oversight committee, mr. chaffetz, is doing is wrong. he wants to have a secret star chamber style tribunal to hear privately from schaub. the democrats are saying, why can t we have a public hearing, which would be the normal way to do these things. we re not in the middle ages here where we haul people in that way. and he s prejudged. he hasn t heard what schaub s reasoning is. and mr. chaffetz is blessing the trump plan. john, it s not just me saying this, but the republican bush ethics czar, mr. painter, a distinguished american scholar, says the same thing. it s outrageous. i should say, elijah cummings, the democrat who sits on the house oversight committee, contacted me over the break to say he is calling for this hearing to be