requesting the unmasking of names, we know who that is and if it was done properly because as you know, there s a whole bunch of press stories out there about signals intelligence that was picked up on mr. trump and his advisors that ended up in many newspapers around this country. so, clearly either the newspapers are lying or actually they were being surveilled and that was leaked to the newspapers. we live in a very divided country as you know, sir. i just want to make sure you have the opportunity to respond to any democrats, any skeptics out there who say, hey, devin nunes was on the trump transition team. this is all political. your response? yeah, look, there s no good way to do this. the bottom line is that we are all elected and i serve at the pleasure of the republicans in my conference as i char man of the intelligence committee. and it s my job to run these investigations and provide
before the senate for confirmation and they asked you, as director of the fbi, if you were asked by the white house to refute or acknowledge press stories they liked or didn t like, what would you tell the senate in your confirmation hearing? would that be appropriate for your office? i would figure out what was the right thing for the fbi to do and then do that thing. and that right thing would be not to be in the business of confirming or denying stories about classified information? correct. that s what that s what the right thing is for the fbi. let me recognize for the purposes of entering something in the record. thank you, mr. ranking member. hugo black said only a free and unrestrained press. i respectfully ask to enter a march 8th article entitled jeff sessions likely met russian ambassador a third time. now yield. thank you to our ranking member. thank you again to our director
i have been trying for months to get james comey to come in front of an open intelligence hearing, and i think at this point, with all of this information out swirling around in press stories, i think the fbi director ought to at least give a status report on these matters. you probably heard over the weekend the former dni director of national intelligence james clapper saying that when he was in office which was up until about two months ago less than that, there was no evidence of collusion between the russians and the trump campaign. take a listen. this could have unfolded or become available in the time since i left the government. at the time, we had no evidence of such collusion. is that still the case based on what you have seen? do you agree with him, no collusion? what i can tell you, this is
why did you decide not to take the job? this wasn t my time. i needed to make my family a priority. i m glad i made a decision, but still a supporter of the president and do anything to help out. has it made sean spicer s job harder? he s had a hard time. this is a demanding position no matter who is filling the role. sean spicer has done a good job. tough circumstance. and i think you have seen a particular of the past week he s become more comfortable behind the podium and has good command of what the job entails and how to advocate for this administration. you have been staying in touch with spicer and other aids, right b welcome. i catch up with folks and i m still a strong support er. how has that relationship going? it s been all sorts of press
i actually agree with a lot of what judge napolitano just said. we have to distinguish between leaks of classified information, which the fbi looks into, i know, is looking into, and leaks of conversations between staffers at the white house. for me, the biggest problem is, if you can t be sure that your staff is loyal, without going through their phone, then, you have a bigger problem. the trump white house can t blame these leaks on the media, they can t blame them on the obama administration holdovers are career officials like he has tried to do with the fbi or with the cia. these are people working in the trump white house as part of his team. if sean spicer has to resort to this tactic of going through phones or threatening, saying this will look like recess, i think he has a much bigger problem on his hands and a few press stories. sandra: charlie, this is a white house, and a president, who promised to be the most transparent in history. is this not follow up on that promise?