that is, i should say controversial. you mentioned in your introduction we don t have a direct response from flynn. but there is more layers to this story. one of the things we tend to hear in defense is, certainly the attempt to cooperate with investigators, to sit for a meeting with the fbi should not itself create a crime if nothing else bad occurred. that was part of what president trump i think was alluding to in the press conference today. that would be the defense. on offense, steve, what we know is prosecutors do charge on this. petraeus reached a plea deal so there was no trial. it s very serious indeed if these reports bear out to be true, that at least in the views of the fbi they were misled. all right. ari melber, chief legal correspondent. ari, probably not the last time we ll hear from you on this today. thank you for taking a minute here. you bet. a very busy hour, a very busy afternoon. we ll have to end it right here, unfortunately. lahni chen and tad divine, th
and his counterparts. so it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasn t doing it. i didn t direct him but i would have because that s his job. all right. that was donald trump, again, at the news conference earlier today. talk more about it. tad divine. former adviser to bernie sanders and ronny chen. senior adviser to marco rubio s campaign. let me start with you, lonnie. the issue of russia. we re playing the clip. it was donald trump essentially explaining his decision to ask for the resignation of michael flynn, his national security adviser. he was asked, did you instruct flynn to make that phone call to the russian ambassador at the end of december where apparently sanctions were raised. his answer, no, i didn t but i would have if i didn t think he would do it on his own. what did you make of the answer? i think the broader point here is going to be the extent
state. that one is a lost cause. the clinton campaign with a week to go, they will try to lockdown the blue states just in case. that s the bottom line for trump. win the toss upstates and he also needs one surprise in a blue state. that could be an awful lot for him to ask. bernie sanders, the primary rival is on the trail for hillary clinton for new hampshire and in maine as well. bringing in tad divine, a senior adviser for the bernie sanders campaign. talked to you a lot in the primary season. let me ask you about that. michigan and colorado and virginia and states that we thought were off the map. what does that say to you that the clinton campaign is on the
she s tougher than him. listen, she s connecting. that s what it s all about in politics. bernie sanders connected with voters. that s why he had the campaign he had in the primary process. elizabeth warren connects. she uses plain language, goes right at it, pushing back on a bully. and i think she s just killing him out there. and this is one of hillary s great advantages. it s not just hillary that s fighting this fight. the obamas, they re incredible, the vice president, bernie s been great, elizabeth warren today, this is a murderous row of surrogates that s being thrown at trump right now and he s paying the price for it. you re talking about the yankees of old, the 20s. the murderous row. thank you, yamiche alcindor of the new york times, hugh hewitt of salem and tad divine of the democratic party. democrats are pushing hard to win control of the u.s. senate. they have a good shot. one of the states they hope to flip from red to blue is pennsylvania. looks like they have