president still not signing a new travel ban for visitors from majority muslim countries. he once argued it was urgently needed because a delay would allow the bad dudes to rush in. a new report from the department of homeland security undercuts his goal. finding that most violent extremists are not radicalized when they come to the u.s. but only after living here for several years. jake, as this week ends we do not have a new timetable from the administration when this executive order will be signed. the urgency seems to have gone away, but the reality here is the white house has gotten resistance from inside these agencies as you reported two weeks ago, and this is still coming, we are told, but it may not even be next week. we are told when it is ready they will let us know. jake? all right, jeff zeleny at the white house for us, thank you so much. right now we have more questions than answers about trump officials contact with the russians. evan mcmull in is with us, he ran fo
thank you so much for joining us, evan. always good to see you. thank you, jake. you were a cia officer. cnn s evan perez has reported the intelligence community, u.s. intelligence community russia s ambassador kislyak is not just an ambassador, he is a spy and also a spy recruiter. was that your understanding when you were at the agency? yes, that is my understanding. but why it s significant is that you have somebody with enormous access here in washington as an ambassador engaging with some of our senior-most officials in congress and elsewhere who all has the skills that a spy would have to extract important information and to help run covert operations. and, so, that s the kind of person we re dealing what here. it doesn t mean that all ambassador kislyak apartments activities are related to espionage, but it means he is a skilled practitioner of that of such operation. of spy craft. that s right. can you give me just kind of an understanding of what that means exact
as a democracy when a foreign entity is trying to compromise the election process. so mr. president-elect, it is very important that you show leadership here. republican senator lindsey graham alongside senator john mccain sat down with my colleague, chuck todd, on friday. the day u.s. intelligence chiefs released a report that concluded that russian president vladimir putin directed a, quote, influence campaign targeting the u.s. election. donald trump is promising a good relationship with the kremlin and slammed his critics by tweeting that, quote, only stupid people would think having a good relationship with russia is a bad thing. joining me is e.j. dionne and evan mcmullin. evan, i m going to start with you, you ran for president. the idea of donald trump soon-to-be president of the united states, tweeting that only stupid people would object
on the far right in europe. they are not our friends. and the notion that suddenly so many republicans and republican and conservative media outlets are turning on their heels, flipping around and suddenly saying russia is our friend, i think president obama pointed to it in an interview where he said we re at a moment where people are more inclined to agree with vladimir putin if the other side are democrats. that s really disturbing for the country and nothing trump has done since the election has made anybody feel better about this. his absolute refusal to say anything negative about a thuggish autocrat who leads russia is just very disturbing. and republicans, evan, were very critical of president obama when dmitry medvedev was president and he attempted to reset relations with that country. now you have the new york times saying put aside the republican officials, this is what the base of the party is
republican side. there are many republicans opposed to what they see happen bug many are not, as e.j. pointed out. the point is that hyperpartisanship to the point that we are dividing ourselves to the degree that we are willing to side with a foreign adversary over our fellow americans leaves us vulnerable to authoritarian, that is to authoritarianism and being deprived of our basic rights. on the right and the left we re going to have disagreements but we ve got to be able to agree on basic democracy and defense of our constitution. but evan mcmull in, what it the american people do come together but the president of the united states refuses to agree. are you concerned that the next president of the united states will essentially be an asset of vladimir putin? well, whether he s an asset or a spy, that s a very not a spy but essentially an apparachic in the spy business, the word