do it. there was a show of unity at the state of the union. kelly, kasie, thanks to both of you. with us to talk about all of this, mika oyang, now vice president for third ways national security program. richard painter is former white house chief ethics lawyer during the george w. bush administration. so a lot to get to. but let s start with the fact that one of the things the turnover from the republicans to the democrats in the house has resulted in is that the special prosecutor now has transcripts of, you know, behind closed doors interviews that were done. and some of the people that those folks have talked to, trump junior, jared, hope, bannon, steve bannon, all of those transcripts now sent to mueller. how do you see this? who is most vulnerable? what are they looking at? what s interesting about these transcripts is they were all taken while the republicans were in charge when devin nunes
nearly halfway through the report following a range of more pressing threats. earlier on this network, the vice chair of the senate intel committee was asked about the disconnect when viewing threats to the u.s. i think we ve got the intelligence community giving virtually a unanimous conclusions on some of these key areas, and we have unfortunately a case where it appears that this president doesn t want to hear the truth or doesn t actually reflect the opinions of the intelligence community, and that puts us in a challenging position. let s bring in our lead-off panel for a tuesday evening. philip rucker, pultser prize-winning white house bureau chief for the washington post. frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for countar intelligence who in the past has worked for robert mueller. and mika oyang, former staffer for the house intel and armed services committees.
see? i think there s that instance of like, thank god he didn t say, let s pull all of the troops out of iraq. we re not sure what he s going to say the next day or what the longer term vision is for iraq coming from the white house. but to put an analytical spin on this, i think there is something different for the president with regards to the fight against isis in iraq. i think he s always been uncomfortable with afghanistan and always been uncomfortable with the syria situation. i think his advisers and him have come to some sort of agreement that, look, you have to have this presence in iraq, not just for dealing with isis, but they are looking east towards iran. and that makes me uncomfortable. but in the end, we need consistency from the white house. so far, we haven t had it. let s see. maybe they ve turned a page at least on iraq here. joining me as well, mika oyang, vice president of national security program for the national think tank, third way. and i wonder what you t
and justice department have been tainted by partisan bias against the president. well, with us to talk about it tonight, chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney, former fbi official, and mika oyang, former staffer for the house intelligence and armed services committee. welcome you both back to the broadcast. mika, because of your experience in the house i d like to begin with you with a very simple question and an honest question.
well, with us to talk about it tonight, chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney, former fbi official, and mika oyang, former staffer for the house intelligence and armed services committee. welcome you both back to the broadcast. mika, because of your experience in the house i d like to begin with you with a very simple question and an honest question. what is to be gained here? yeah, for the republicans what they re trying to do is ask comey questions behind closed doors. remember, a number of republicans on the judiciary committee have announced they are retiring so they are not politically beholden to anyone. the question is are they going to use this opportunity to get to the truth of comey s testimony, including obstruction of justice, or are they going to be continuing to politically posture? because it s behind closed doors, the chance of posturing is much lower. chuck, do you view this as a serious pursuit and another way of asking that question is