territory integrity of the ussr. hate to push you on this, but i didn t hear a clear yes, i do trust the president to represent the best interests of america, that he is able to or no. are you basically saying i don t think you need to have a strategy, and i don t think he should be doing one-on-one meetings with heads of state because too much is at stake. congressman hurd, i appreciate your time. thank you. thank you, anderson. in all the verbal gymnastics today over would and wouldn t, another word really hangs over all of it, same as it always has. congressman hurd said it himself. why? why does the president say what he says? what motives him to focus on certain aspects of the russia story, the ones affecting himself at the expense of others which affect all of us? we saw two examples at the white house today in the form of notes he apparently made to himself on his prepared remarks. take a look. no collusion it reads, and yes, there should be two ls. that s a minor
just shows how extraordinarily bad this statement was. but the question you asked congressman hurd is the one that i think haunts all of us about this, which is why. why is donald trump still doing this? why is he failing to acknowledge russia s role in the 2016 election? why won t he acknowledge that russia is a bad actor? full stop, period. why? because, you know, is there kompromat on him? do they have something on him? why is he meeting only one-on-one with vladimir putin? why isn t it a normal summit meeting with other people present? you know, i m not a conspiracy theorist. i m not someone who generally believes that the world is controlled by shadowy figures, but his behavior is so pervasively bizarre and against the national interests that it certainly raises the possibility that something untoward is going on here. i m sorry, gloria, go ahead. anderson, look, i think that members of congress, not only democrats, but also republicans
attack the media right back. i think it s a real mistake, anderson. max, the do you agree with that? again, i m not sure where i stand on this, frankly, but john brennan brought this up. is it too far? i mean, i m not prepared to sit here, anderson, and say that donald trump is guilty of treason, but i think it is something that we have to discuss because of his behavior. and what i am prepared to sit here and say is he is guilty of violating his oath of office to protect and defend the constitution, because that is not what he is doing when he is siding with a despot and an enemy of america against the u.s. intelligence community. and when he is not taking the steps he needs to take to protect us from future russian attacks, even though his own director of national intelligence says that the warning systems are blinking red right now. ian, do you asked congressman hurd earlier, do you trust the president to meet one-on-one with vladimir putin or anybody one-on-one and accura
political analyst and author and investigative reporter carl bernstein and our chief political analyst gloria borger. to hear congressman hurd essentially saying the president shouldn t be in one-on-one meetings. that was an astonishing exchange with you. a republican congressman said the president of the united states cannot be trusted to meet alone with a foreign leader, and then we have for the first time a wave of republicans, including mitch mcconnell, including speaker ryan saying in essence that the president of the united states, whether because he is not capable or whether he has colluded in some way or whether he is incoherent in his approach to policy cannot be entrusted with the national security of the united states. that s really what we have heard today. we ve never seen anything like this in our modern history. we are having serious people, both publicly and privately, republicans and democrats
failed to today. and changing would to wouldn t doesn t change that. reaction from former cia officer, one of many members of congress who expressed reservations. congressman hurd, do you buy that he was misspeaking? i think only time is going to tell. ultimately he needs to make surer there is a consistent message in his support for the intelligence community and his understanding that the russians did indeed attempt to manipulate our elections. this also brings up question of was there other times he misspoke in the one-on-one meeting. that s a question, and was there any confusion from there. and this is an indication that when it comes to two important countries like the united states and a global spoiler like russia, language is important, and being precise is important.