what is the conversation going to be around syria? we got very little detail from that partially because president trump himself focused so intently on election interference and defending himself. i want to point out senator lindsey graham, republican, key member of the armed services community just tweeted this. a big discrepancy between president trump s statement and dni coats warning. it s imperative we get to the bottom of what is going on so we can be prepared to protect ourselves in advance of the 2018 elections. my personal view, the russians are at it again. and think about that. you have the intelligence community saying this is a big threat. republican leaders finally saying, you know, russians need to know it s not going to happen again. and the president is an apologist for president putin. even in his use of language, it s so imprecise to be reckless. and who on the president s staff, including some very experienced people would allow a
week. he said a big discrepancy between president trump s statement and dni coats warning. it is imperative we be prepared. my personal view, the russians are at it again. you see just about the entire republican party being more hawkish on russia than the president is but this ss hahas a week of mysterious comments coming from the president of the united states on the subject of russia. maybe we can peel a few layers back when sarah sanders comes out in a few moments but my sense is she ll echo what the president s been saying all along, essentially there s nothing to see here, please disperse. jim acosta, thank you. our chief white house correspondent. let s start there. got a number of great people standing by to analyze all of this with me now, cnn chief political analyst golor glia bo,
well as anybody s ever done with russia. there s been no president ever as tough as i have been on russia. all you have to do is look at the numbers, look at what weave s done, look at sanctions, look at ambassadors not there. look, unfortunately, at what happened in syria recently. and i think president putin knows that better than anybody. certainly a lot better than the media. he understands it and he s not happy about it. and he shouldn t be happy about it, because there s nef bever ba president as tough on russia as i have been. let s go straight to our chief white house correspondent standing by. jim acosta there at the white house. jim, to the question posed today to the president when asked if russia s still targeting the u.s., and his response no. which is in direct contrast to what dni coats has said. do you expect more clean-up today from the white house? you know, that s an interesting question. i think sarah sanders is likely
to echo what the president said earlier today when he said he does not believe russia s still targeting the u.s. as you said, that is really a contradiction with what the director of national intelligence, dan coats, said earlier this week when the dni decided to put out that statement not even clearing it through the white house when it talked about ongoing pervasive efforts being conducted by russia to intervene in u.s. democracy. that follows what coats said last week when he was speaking at an event. he said the warning system is blinking red. this is a big contrast, as you said. and lindsey graham, one of the hawks up on capitol hill, disagreeing with the president. put out a tweet just a short time ago as democrats and republicans are disagreeing with this president s assessment once again when he said that russia s not intervening in the elections here in the united states. we can put that tweet up on screen from lindsey graham. he basically echoed what dni coats was saying earl
dan coats said point blank, the threat is still ongoing from russia. does this white house believe that currently this threat is still ongoing? like i just said, we believe that the threat still exists which is why we are taking steps to prevent it. again, you wouldn t go through that lengthy process if you weren t. does the president stand by all of his other public comments from the trip, including his interview criticizing theresa may s handling, about the threat negotiations, that russia controls germany over that pipeline, and other comments he made monday where he continued to cast doubt on the intelligence community regarding russia s meddling. the president sought to clarify the position. he saw how his comments were being interpreted. he looked at the transcript and clarified those comments. does the white house have any response to the arrest and