strongly about just what we were talking about, the president s reluctance to call out dime out the russians and putin specifically that they saw fit to expose it to the media. so it s regrettable, and even the you know, his congratulating putin in and of itself, in isolation, is not a particularly bad thing. i certainly don t agree with it. it s kind of ironic after his complaints about rigged elections during the campaign. but it s the context in light of everything s that s happened since he s become president and, again, his disregard for the threat posed by russia, which in that context and, you know, recent events in the uk, i thought made it particularly inappropriate. general clapper, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. coming up next, breaking news on what robert mueller wants to zero in on with the president. possible new reporting on his
vladimir putin. just yesterday, for example, with the phone call congratulating him, sarah sanders was asked after if he brought up the poisoning in the uk as his advisers had reportedly told him to do. he didn t bring that up, and he also didn t bring up russian election meddling. so it certainly raises questions why the president is reluctant to go after vladimir putin himself, anderson. has there been any fallout since the leak last night of the warning the president reportedly got in writing from government officials to not congratulate putin? reporter: well, there has here at the white house. i can tell you many white house aides, officials are rattled by this leak, and the president himself has been seething. only a select number of people, very few people would actually have been privy to that fox information in his briefing materials, advising the president to not congratulate in bold letters vladimir putin, which the president did anyway as we know. one white house officia
which are, you know, for various motivations, don t get to that. they don t they detract from what the focus should be, which is the threat posed by russia. what do you make of the white house house s focus apparently on the actual leak of this memo to the washington post, the moment in which he was told by briefers, don t congratulate putin and do speak out about the poisoning on nato soil? a, i mean what s worse to you, the leak or the substance itself of the call? well, something that we have learned in the intelligence community the hard way, that one man s leaker is another man s whistle-blower. and i do think that a president, this one or any other, is entitled to confidentiality, particularly with respect to dialogue between him and his advisers. but apparently someone or some people in the white house felt
was captured. i like people that weren t captured, okay? rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. jb jeb bush is a low energy person. for him to get things done is hard. maxine waters, a very low iq individual. we have a representative in congress who they say was here a long time ago. they call her pocahontas. vladimir putin gets no nickname even though, as you know, those clips barely scratch the surface all the people president or candidate trump has slammed over the years nor all the disparaging twitter nicknames. there s some of them, just a partial list. nothing for putin, not bad vlad, or poisoning putin or botox boris. according to our friends on the lead with jake tapper, the president has written more about the musical hamilton than he hasn t putin. it s not like his top advisers aren t speaking out.
he could not have been nicer. he was so nice. if putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks. that s calls an asset, not a liability. i hope we have a fantastic relationship. i don t love, i don t hate. we ll see how it works. we ll see. i like him because he called me a genius. putin did call me a genius, and he said i m the future of the republican party so he s off to a good start. that s the president on vladimir putin, some of which he said after he became president, meaning after he was briefed on the extent of russian interference in the election, but perhaps his reluctance to speak ill of putin is just a function of his natural reticence, his reserve, a certain inability to speak ill of anyone. and, yes, i m kidding. crooked hillary clinton. little marco. lion ted cruz. i don t know what i said. i don t remember. rosie o donnell is disgusting both inside and out. you take a look at her, she s a slob. he s a war hero. he s a war hero because he