house cannot weaken the obamacare mandate. and serious security questions after a passenger with a gun was allowed to fly. good morning. welcome to early start. happy monday, 4:00 a.m. in the east. day 24 of the government shutdown. we start with two extraordinary stories. the washington post reporting that the president went to extraordinary lengths to conceal details evof his conversations with vladimir putin. among the unusual steps he took, con physicfis among the unusual steps he took, con physicficating his own interpretser s notes after a meeting. and that following another shocker in the new york times that law enforcement officials were so concerned by the firing of then fbi director james comey, they began investigating whether the president was working on behalf of russia. trump was asked about that report on fox news and did not
trump firing james xoem thcomey they started that investigation, that apparently the counterintelligence investigation and the criminal investigation overlapped for a while because of course if in fact president trump had fired james comey to obstruct the investigation into possible election meddling, that is something that is a criminal case and of course a counterintelligence concern as well. now as far as those meetings and notes are concerned, so far also no comments from the russians yet. of course we have heard from the sources in the washington post that this is not a common practice and there are some who want to subpoena the notes especially the one from the helsinki summit that was held in summer. should be aen interesti nan confrontati confrontation. not knew if the president knew of the proposals to strike. why would the nfc make this request? reporter: well, it is something that we have seen with the trump administration, where they are really cracking down on the ir
of course that was the one-on-one meeting between president trump and president putin where after that meeting president trump came out and essentially sided depends his o against his own intelligence services saying he did not know why president putin would have wanted to meddle in the u.s. elections. certainly a lot of people would like to see those notes. absolutely. all right. fred, on this iran reporting, it isn t clear if mr. trump knew of the requests for proposals to strike iran or whether serious plan cass together. you have reported from tehran many times. why would the nsc make this request? reporter: well, first of all, the relations between iran and the u.s. are hitting one low point to the next. if you look at the national security council, they are tasked with providing the president with coordinating policy and then of course
exactly deny it. are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. president? i think it is the most insulting thing i ve ever been asked. i think it is the most insulting article i ve ever had written. and if you read the article, you d see that they found absolutely nothing. also this weekend, the wall street journal reporting that president trump s national al security council asked the pentagon for military options to strike iran. the request came last year after militants fired three more are tars into baghdad s diplomatic quarter, home to the u.s. embassy. and the president threatened to defense investigation staves t devastate turkey s economy in it does attack syria. a lot to talk about here. let s bring in fred plooeitgen
asked. i think it is the most insulting article i ve ever had written. and if you read the article, you see that they found absolutely nothing. the word no was missing there. also this weekend, the wall street journal reporting that president trump s national security council asked the pentagon for military options to strike iran. the request came last year after militants aligned with tehran fired three mortars into the diplomatic quarter, home to the u.s. embassy. and last night, the president tweeting sharp words for turkey threatening to devastate its economy if it attacks kurds in sear skra. but t syria. but also he seemed to give some cover to turkey if it does attack the kurds. a lot to get to with fred pleitgen live in moscow. fred, good morning. reporter: good morning. certainly those two bombshell articles that came out over the weekend in the new york times and the washington post very