and nobody has found any collusion. there is no collusion. you know why? because i don t speak to russians. well, let me bring in tonight s panel. josh earnest, white house press secretary for president obama. and anne gearan and lanhee chen, former policy visoc adviser, st. miss gearan, i want to start with you. i want to ask you the same question i asked kristen welker. the reaction from the trump white house was focusing on the collusion issue, not on the interference issue. yeah. do they not see how that is a bad look? i think no. i mean, some they re ignoring certainly they are ignoring a foreign powers interference. many people for trump absolutely do understand that. the question is whether trump himself understands that and who is calling the shots. i think you pointed earlier and
right? thanks. take care. okay, chris. now to this. the nation s top intelligence chiefs trying to sound the alarm on russian election interference they say will happen in the upcoming midterm elections. senator angus king made an appeal to try to convince the president that the threat is real. i just wish you all could persuade the president as a matter of national security to separate these two issues, the collusion issue over here unresolved. we ll get to the bottom of that. but there s no doubt, as you all have testified today, and we cannot confront this threat with the whole of government response when the leader of the government continues to deny that it exists. senator angus king joins us now, member of the senate intelligence committee. good morning, senator. good morning. what was their response when
that there was not a specific directive from the white house about what to do. that same committee, senate intelligence committee does plan to issue an election security report, recommendation of what should be done ahead of the primary season that begins in march as well as what should be done ahead of the november elections. see if states and localities agree to implement them. overarching concern over several of the members of the united states are now prepared even though russia appears to be doing what it did in 2016 and concerns that the president himself has not taken this issue seriously enough because he continues to con flflate it wit associates, russian officials and that s the issue that the same committee, brooke, is still investigating. they ve not made any conclusion on the collusion issue. it s very clear that russia has already begun its meddling. opening it back up to the
i understand the president s sensitivity about whether his campaign was in connection with the russians and that s a separate question, but there is no question we have got before us the entire intelligence community that the russians interfered in the election in 2016, they re continuing to do it and there are real imminent threat to our elections in a matter of eight or nine months. my problem is i talked to people in maine who say the whole thing is a witch-hunt and it is a hoax because the president told me. i just wish you all could persuade the president as a matter of national security to separate these two issues, the collusion issue is over here, unresolved, we ll get to the bottom of that, but there is no doubt as you all have testified today, and we cannot confront this threat, which is a serious one, with a whole of government response, when the leader of the government continues to deny that it exists.
interference in this midterm that is identified clearly today, wolf. the nation s fbi and intelligence chiefs all agree on this. russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election here in the united states and they re already targeting the 2018 midterm election. senator angus king of maine says the panel needs to convince president trump to accept those findings. my problem is i talk to people in maine who say the whole thing is a witch hunt and is it s a hoax because the president told me. i just wish you all could persuade the president as a matter of national security to separate these two issues. the collusion issue is over here unresolved. we ll get to the bottom of that. but there s no doubt, as you all have testified today, and we cannot confront this threat, which is a serious one, with the whole of government response