Transcripts for CNN Reliable Sources 20190915 15:43:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
can t change what happened to you, but if you work with us and we publish the truth, we might be able to protect other people. at the time, harvey weinstein was one of the top advertisers in the new york times, is that right? perhaps the leading spender for advertising in the new york times ? i think he used to be. he used to be. there was a long history of advertising there. so he leaned on the company and said, hey, i ve been a prominent advertiser for many years. what are you doing to me? the times did nothing but encourage us. in fact, some of our sources we had a lot of we spent a long time calling hollywood executives who would kind of lecture us and say, jodi, megan, there s in story there. okay, maybe harvey weinstein chased so-and-so around a couch, but, you know, they kind of minimized it. and they said, besides, everybody knows that this is an open secret. if you get this story, nobody will care. and another thing they would say to us is, one day, an edi
administration repeatedly mishanded classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy. now, that is shocking. and many pro-trump allies and commentators tried to tear down that reporting and say it might not be true. do you stand by that reporting now a week later? 100%. we would not have gone there if we didn t trust the source s involvement, information, and level of involvement in that those discussions. this is an important story. any story involving intelligence, particularly the sensitivity of an overseas spy whose safety was of concern, and therefore led to an extraction is going to be particularly difficult. so the way we approached it was, no one question, we talked to multiple people that this extraction of infiltration had taken place. we did speak to someone high-level who said that trump s handling and his administration s handling of informati factored into that decision. the agency disputed that, but the agency s explanation for the ex
editor is, is there a possible way to square the circle here? is it possible, if you strip out the analysis and the context that each news outlet is providing, what have we learned that s actual facts? can they both be true? the new york times reported that in late 2016, an initial decision was made by the cia to think about exfiltrating, bringing out this agent. and then only later, that the agent refused, and only later, as jim reported, did this actually occur. to me, those are both very significant reporting revelations that seemed to not be in dispute. so what are the things that aren t in dispute, as you, the editor, or the reader are trying to understand? i think this is a big story. russia, by the way, responded in its own coverage, it was the russian newspaper that put out the name of this alleged agent. and along with information from russian unnamed russian officials saying he was a
back. and part of that is moderate democrats that were also elected in this freshman class. it s a remarkable story. the process is really interesting in this case. one more story for our panel, and that s john bolton. this week s drama with bolton either being fired or resigning. susan glasser, you have a column about this on newyorker.com. is it fair to suggest that boll tor bollton was more influential when he was a fox news commentator than when he was actually in the white house? it s an extraordinary question to even be asking. it seems like a relevant question, brian. the national security adviser is one of the most powerful positions not only in the united states and in the world. and donald trump is now going to be the only president in history to have a fourth national security adviser in just three years. that s never happened before, since the position was created, given the incredible turnover and turmoil. so you asked about john bolton. clearly, donald trump hired him