a coincidence that we re not going to enforce our russia sanctions, that devin nunes was investigated by the ethics committee for mishandling fisa intel and now he wants to have a vote on fisa intel without letting the director of the fbi, who sort of stewards and shep d shepards fisa intel i suppose they could all be coincidences. the stakes are nothing less than understanding the extent and degree of the russia question. the greatest foreign policy, national security scandal, of our lifetimes, maybe the history of the country. look, i raised this question this morning, i was not, perhaps, as precise in raising it as i might have been. you don t have to think devin nunes is a russian agent to think there s a possibility he s been compromised by the russians. talk to people in national security circles, intelligence circles, former fbi agents, they don t much suggest he s on the payroll of the kremlin as the possibility that he s a useful idiot and a dupe who is doing the kremlin s
director chris wray, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein trekked to capitol hill in a last-ditch effort to avoid giving republican lawmakers access to intelligence they considered so sensitive that it could not leave their control. house intel committee chairman devin nunes has been agitating for information, which included investigative documents, interviews with top fbi officials, and texts between fbi employees. the post reporting ryan, however, was unmoved. nu in nunes committee, he argued, deals with sensitive, raw intelligence and this case was no different. it s worth reminding our viewers nunes stepped aside from his committee s work last april while house investigators looked into ethics charges against him. the washington post writing last april that nunes has come under fire in recent weeks for speaking publicly about classified foreign surveillance reports he viewed on white house grounds. but that gave speaker paul ryan no pause. the washington post reports
that wray was also rebuffed by the committee when he asked to brief house intel committee members before they voted last night. the post reporting today, quote, wray, the fbi director, has seen the memo, but it s unclear whether the justice department remained opposed to its release. schiff said that wray raised concerns about the memo after viewing it and asked the committee to allow him to brief the members before voting on its release. they did not do so, he said. to help us better understand how these developments create a relatively unprecedented backdrop for tonight s state of the union address, we re joined by favorite reporters and guests for the hour. with us from the washington post, white house bureau chief phil rucker. from the new york times, chief white house correspondent peter baker. with us on set, republican strategist and msnbc contributor steve schmidt. kimberly atkins, chief washington reporter for the boston herald and msnbc contributor. and john heilemann