the democrats, by ben cardin on the sfwintelligence committee saying donald trump is just not taking the threat of russian interference seriously. they laid out a number of ways that he could take it seriously. what is the reaction from republicans on the hill, no republicans were part of this report. reporter: i think that for the most part, republicans don t necessarily want to touch this because it is so radioactive as regards the president of the united states, who is clearly hypersensitive to this. any republican that were to sign on to something like this is potentially putting themselves in the crosshairs and this clearly was an effort by one side, not the other. one thing, one trend i do think that is kind of winding its way through all of what we have been talking about today and all the stories we have been covering here is you have to remember when these investigations started in the house and senate intelligence committees, there was very real bipartisan concern about the
reporter for the washington post. so far, what has been the reaction within the white house to these reports? reporter: well, i think if we look to the president s own words on twitter, you get a sense of what he obliquely is saying, and the president often is implicit in his criticism even when he doesn t spell it out exactly. but he gave the senior senator from california and one of the longest serving in the intelligence area on capitol hill, dianne feinstein, a nickname. if we look to the president s tweet, here s the nickname, sneaky dianne feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between trump russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way. totally without authorization is a disgrace. we must have a tough primary. the president looking ahead to dianne feinstein, who announced she will seek another term. then we also had the president s talking about the witch hunt, which we know is his euphemism for all
to stay is in many instances, properties with donald trump s name on them which is ironic. how many coincidences can stack up? i don t know. it s interesting because people go hold it, how can this be. russian women coming here, giving birth to american babies, babies who are then entitled to all the services and privileges of american citizenship. yet it is completely and 100% legal. it s in the constitution. if you are born here you are an american citizen. you know, they advertise in russia, when little pictures of american passports and say go to america, have your baby you have a package. you have a prepared story on this. let s watch it. we will talk about it when it s done. these russian women all came to miami to give birth. as a result, their babies are american citizens. that s right. russian mothers, american babies. i m such type of mom who want
of erode the bipartisan basis. i think ken dilanian was on earlier saying the senate committee investigation is the last one left and it s hanging by a thread. i think that s an accurate representation of where things are. i think the democrats put out this report to help underscore that point. there are republicans who are very concerned about they are russia hawks, worried about russia s role in the world, worried about what might happen in the 2018 elections. marco rubio was very vocal about this during the campaign itself, looking to republicans saying don t think just because ligrig now they are going after hillary clinton, next time they won t go after you. we have seen that quiet down quite a bit. guys, thank you very much. joining me now is former u.s. ambassador to the russian federation and msnbc russian affairs contributor, michael mcfaul. really good to see you. let s talk about the point kasie just made that no republicans want to touch this.
we can build a bipartisan consensus. let me let you know what was in that democrat report on russian interference, and the ways they believe they can try to stop it in the future. here are their thoughts. declare that it is a u.s. policy to counter and deter all forms of russian hybrid threats. launch a series of offensive and defensive measures. call special meetings with nato, heads of state to revive russian cyberattacks or to stop russian cyberattacks. develop formal guidelines on how the alliance will consider such attacks in the context of nato s article v and embarrass putin personally by making public any intelligence related to mr. putin s personal corruption. do you think that would be effective? well, some people think that that s what happened with the panama papers already. but whether effective or not, but most certainly it puts people on notice and most