that s more dangerous than the psychopathy that we know to be donald trump. james clammer, former director of national intelligence. mr. clapper, thank you so much for joining us. what did you think of tonight s performance by president trump. well, don, it s hard to know where to start. it is so objectionable on so many levels. i toiled in one capacity or another for every president since and including john f. kennedy through president obama and i don t know when i ve listened and watched something like this from a president that i found more disturbing. having somed youing of the levers of power that are available to a president if he chooses to exercise them, i found this down right scary and
if that firewall is breached, that is a problem. and you just mentioned watergate, robert costa, msnbc political bob, the whole issue of watergate, the comparison, well, the form e dni, james clammer, a 50-year intelligence veteran, said to his ears, this is worse than watergate, because the underlying crime or issue is russia attacking our election, which is a lot more serious than a burglary at the watergate with one file cabinet. true. when you think about a country interfering in u.s. elections versus a break-in at the watergate hotel, they are certainly different in scope. what made watergate so important was not the actual crime, but it was the cover-up and it was the president s own team, his counsel, john dean and others,
thank you. so there it is. sean spicer of the white house press secretary wrapping up his daily briefing. lots of questions on the upcoming testimony that we re about to have before senate judiciary sub committee michael flynn right at the center of all this. he s not going to be testifying but the acting attorney general sally yates will be testifying as well as james clammer, former director of national intelligence. gloria, the point that sean spicer was trying to make is if the president of the united states had so much concern about michael flynn becoming the president s the president-elect s national security adviser, why did they renew his clearances in april of 2016? well, i was just talking about or communicating with a former senior obama administration official who said to me that he didn t work for us anymore. this is effectively a courtesy and you know about this, jim, this is a courtesy they extend to people. he wasn t they weren t aware
cuomo and alisyn camerota. intel reaching out to donald trump president-elect. james clapper trying to reassure the president-elect the intel did not leak the story. clapper issuing a rare statement saying he s profoundly dismayed by leaks. president-elect blasting journalists at his first press conference. though mr. trump did finally concede that russia was behind election hacks. all this as senate republicans move a step closer to miss mantling obamacare. we re just eight days from inauguration day. we have it all covered four. let s begin our coverage with adam who is in washington. reporter: good morning. the director of national intelligence james clammer is trying to diffuse a feud between the nation s next president and u.s. intelligence community. clapper said he called president-elect donald trump last night to assure him that the intelligence agencies were
anti-russian. reporter: the team also secures information on the battlefield where the mission is deeply personal. every day, you know, we support this country sorry. it s okay. reporter: in afghanistan, the nsa helped dismantdle a network that killed nine service members in 2013. the looming cyber threat may require bundling fbi, homeland security, and defense department capabilities. for the incoming administration, what recommendations would you give them? i think you need collapse all three into one organization where we can be more responsive. reporter: late today, tension between capitol hill and the intelligence community escalated with the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee sending a letter to the director of national intelligence, james clammer. clapper testified that they lacked strong evidence connecting the russian government cyber attacks to the wikileaks disclosures.