post found the answer to something that had been nagging people ever since the obama administration had expelled those russian diplomats and seized the russian compounds. there had been a nagging question. why didn t moscow retaliate when obama did that. that s how these things are worked out. we kick out a whole buchbl of their guys, they kick out a whole bunch of our guys. but putin didn t respond in kind. obama took over his long held russian compounds in the united states, seized them, kicked out the russian spies and diplomats. putin responded by doing nothing. it was weird. but then here s where the washington post picks up the story. putin s muted response took white house officials by surprise. triggered a search by u.s. spy agencies for clues. one former senior official told the post that something happened
there was an external foreign dynamic at work. beginning with the news last summer that the e-mail servers of the democratic party headquarters had been hacked by russian hackers. and the news that voter registration systems in at least two states or maybe ten states or maybe 20 states had been probed or breached to some level by again, hackers. by october, a month before the election, the united states intelligence agency came out and said while they couldn t agree that it was definitely the russians behind the voter registration hacks, they said they were confident that the russian government had definitely directed the hacking of the dnc and other american political organizations in order to quote interfere with the u.s. election process. so the bizarre story out of all of the weird stuff that s happened in american elections, this story, our story, our
let he say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. i fully support the decision that president trump made to ask for general flynn s resignation. your disappointed by the story? first i heard of it. i think it is an affirmation of the president s decision to ask general flynn to resign. first of all, brett at fox asks the question perfectly. he lays it out accurately. let me get your reaction to this. basically saying is this not a significant scandal. how does mike pence respond to that? play that bit again. let me say hearing that story today was first i heard of it. that was not actually the question you were asked. nobody asked when you heard. twice without being asked when he first of this, twice he volunteer this is is all news to
trump made to ask for general flynn s resignation. you re disappointed by the story. it s the first i heard of it, and i think it is it is an affirmation of the president s decision to ask general flynn to resign. first of all, bret baier at fox i think asks the question perfectly, right? he lays it out, lays it out accurately. let me get your reaction to this, basically saying is this not a significant scandal involving general flynn? how does mike pence respond to that? play that bit again. well, let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. that was not actually the question you were asked. but nobody asked when you heard of it. but twice without being asked when he first heard of this, twice mike pence volunteers that this is all news to him. never heard this before. you re disappointed by the story. it s the first i heard of it. it is impossible that this is
russian compounds in the united states, seized them, kicked out the russian spies and diplomats. putin responded by doing nothing. it was weird. but then here s where the washington post picks up the story. putin s muted response took white house officials by surprise. triggered a search by u.s. spy agencies for clues. one former senior official told the post that something happened in those 24 hours between obama s announcement and putin s response. officials began pouring over intelligence reports, intercepted communications and diplomatic cables. they found evidence that trump national security adviser mike flynn and the russian ambassador to the united states had communicated by text and telephone around the time these sanctions were announced. so we ve got u.s. intelligence and law enforcement agencies bugging the russians, right, listening in on this russian officials calls. and what they hear, according to