Specialite alerted their superiors as early as january to a suspected plot to pay bounties to the tally ban to kill troops in afghanistan. This according to officials in the matterment they believe one troop death was a result of the boupties. They go on this say the crucial information that led the spies and commandos to focus on the bounties included the recovery of a large amount of American Cash from a raid on a tell ban outpost that tromented suspicions. Interrogations have captured militants. Played an essential role in making the Intelligence Community confident that the russians offered and paid bounties in 2019. Another official has said. Thats in the New York Times this morning. President trump you have probably heard is denying this bounty report. Heres the headline in usa today. Nobodys been tougher on russia than the trump administration, said the president. He said that in this piece that facing strong criticism from democrats, trump said on twitter that neither he nor the Vice President had been briefed on the classified assessment. Trump also tried to cast doubt on the New York Times report saying he had been told about the matter. Early in the day sunday the president tweeted this. Nobody, he wrote, briefed or told me, Vice President pens, or chief of staff mark meadows about the called attacks on our troops by russians as reported by an anonymous source as the fake news New York Times. Everybody is denying it and there have not been many attacks on us. Said the president. Host those are two distinct tweets from the president at opposite ends of the day yesterday. Reaction has been swift to this story. Here is joe biden, the former senator, former Vice President , and presumed democratic nominee for president this year. Its truly shocking revelation that if the times report is true. I emphasize again, is that President Trump, the commander in chief of american troops serving in the dangerous theater of war has known about this for months, according to the times and done worse than nothing, not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on russia for egregious violation of international law, donald trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before putin. He had had this information, according to the times yet he offered the host, putin, in the United States and sought to invite russia to rejoin the g7. His entire presidency has been a gift to putin. But if this is beyond the pail its betrayal of the most sacred beauty we bear as a nation, to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harms way. Betrayed, betrayal of every single American Family for the loved ones serving in afghanistan or anywhere overseas. Im quite frankly outraged by the report. Film elected president , make no mistake about it, putin will be confronted and well impose serious costs on russia. But i dont just think about this as a candidate for president , i think about this as a dad, father who sent his son to serve in harms way for a year in the middle east and iraq. And im disgusted on behalf of those families whose loofed loved ones are serving today. When your child volunteers to serve, putting their life on the line for the country, they take risks known and unknown for this nation. But they should never, never, never ever finish a threat like this with their commander in chief trying to blind eye to a foreign power putting a bounty on their heads. Host joe biden from yesterday. Before we get to calls a little more on the times story. Though the White House Press secretary claimed on saturday that mr. Hum trump administrationp had not been briefed with the intelligence report, one american official had told the times that the report was briefed to the highest levels of the white house. Another said it was included in the president s daily brief, a come pend yum of Foreign Policy and National Security intelligence compiled for mr. Trump to read. She did not challenge the times reporting on the existence of the assessment. National Security Council interagency meeting in late march and white houses inaction. Multiple other news organizations also subsequently reported on this assessment. They also say that the officials briefed on the matter said the assessment had been treated as a closely held secret but that administration expanded briefings about it over the last week, including sharing information about it with the British Government whose forces were among those said to have been targeted. That is the upstate dated New York Times reporting this morning on the story. Lots of calls now. Greg in farmington, michigan. Democratic line. Good morning. Welcome. Caller good morning. Its important for the American People to not give up on the Mueller Report. Read the Mueller Report trump operatives met with the russians in the Mueller Report over 100 times. 13 russians were indicted. Of course they are in russia, they havent been convicted of anything. But they were indicted. 1100 past u. S. Federal osecutors suggested that President Trump obstructed justice. That was in 2016. Since then theres zero evidence that President Trump has gone after putin. Hell never saying anything negative about him. He always takes the side of putin over our own u. S. Intelligence. Somethings not adding up. Something is rotten in denmark, im sorry to tell the public. We have got to come to grips with this. This is wrong whats going on. And how long is it going to go on before we get to the truth . Host go ahead and fish finish up. Caller the rumors are Deutsche Bank and russia in together financing the president earlier. Now that should come out eventually. The Supreme Court has a case now over the taxes of the president and things like that. Host thanks. Carl, your thoughts this morning, in oxford, mass marks again the democrats line. Hello. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I cant believe this. This whole thing smells of a false flag. Believe me i cant donald trump turns my stomach, coy never stand him. This is just a distraction to take away something new they came up with to cause trouble so that well be distracted from the problems going on. We have enough problems right here in this country with the race situation and the socalled pandemic or whatever. Its a distraction. Im soarry, im too upset, i cant really be coherent right now. Host what do you think the next step should be if any, carl, in terms of congress or anywhere else . Caller congress, i have been a registered democrat all my life. I think its the democrats that are pushing for this. Like bidens pushing. The democrats want war now. For i know it sounds crazy, but theyll do anything to smear trump and i cant stand it. He really turns my stomach, but they are trying to they are being hawkish. They are just trying to distract the nation, our country, from focus ning on whats on our own focusing on our own problems. We should pull out of there. Should have pulled out of there, never gone in, actually, thats what i feel. Host thanks. Go to the republican line where william is in orange park, florida. William, your reaction to this story and the reaction to all of this by official folks here in washington. Caller you know, i think why would you have biden on there, somebody thats going to tell you the truth when he said we have 123 Million People already die from the virus . As far as that guy wanting to talk about that one thing that they brought up for all them charges, theyll never get that guy could go under oath and talk about how he spent 35 million of our dollars. Host rich, rich on the independent line. Rich, welcome to the program. Hickory hill, illinois. Whats your reaction . Caller when you read Something Like this in the newspaper, its almost like a treasonous act. If you were to be given knowledge of this and you didnt act upon this. His denial of that him never receiving this kind of information. To me this should be verified. If its proved to be true, it should be considered an act of treason that he didnt act upon it. To me this is the kind of stuff that has been with Donald Trumps presidency, the reason he was impeached and the reason a lot of this stuff comes from his own mouth. Says saying that the russia should investigate hillary clinton. Hack her emails. That was a treasonous statement from a person running for the presidency. So this is why that these issues, if they are true and verified, the charges should be like i say, this is the stuff that hes done and said. Why its gone on for as long as its gone on. Anybody that would be complicit in not charging and prosecuting this man is in the same boat with him as far as im concerned. Host rich. Thank you for calling. More reaction in congress to all of this. Expected today, the senate today continues work on the Defense Authorization bill. Its a 740 billionplus bill on defense programs and policy. You can bet that theyll be talking about this this week on the senate floor in addition to in the house and briefings and elsewhere. Some of the reaction that has come in from lawmakers include lindsey graham. He wrote yesterday, over the book end, its imperative congress get to the bottom of recent media reports that russian g. R. U. Units in afghanistan have offered to pay the taliban to kill american soldiers about the goal of pushing america out of the region. Liz cheney, wyoming, member of the house. Its reporting, she wrote yesterday morning, if reporting about russian bounties on u. S. Forces is true, the white house must explain a couple things. One, why werent the president or Vice President briefed . Was the info in the president sention Daily Briefing . Two, who did know and when . And three, what has been done in response to protect our forces and hold putin accountable . Just a little bit of the reaction there. That tweet was retweeted by Many Republican members of congress yesterday. Katherine calling from ohio. Democratic caller. Your reaction. Caller paul, i called my congressman about three or four times a week. His name is steve chabot. I ask him all the time, i want to go by constitutional law. I want to go by rule of law. And high moral authority. Of which the Republican Party have given away to this administration. Because we dont go by constitutional law. The man that sits at 1600 pennsylvania avenue is the most corrupt person that this old woman has ever seen in her life. And they tolerate it. If it was being done by a woman, a black man, or a person of color, the republicans wouldnt stand for it. But because hes old, white, and says he has money, which i dont think he does, and thats the reason why he doesnt want us to see his taxes. Because hes totally corrupt. And he should be removed from office by the Republican Party, today if possible. Because my bad fault in world war ii, my husband was in the vietnam war, my former soninlaw did three tours in iraq. And this is what we have to deal with . Corruption at every level . And his answer is, i wasnt briefed . Who believes that . Host katherine, in ohio. Well stay in ohio. Westchester, ohio, republican line. Deborah, your thoughts to what you have been hearing this morning and reading about. Caller i just want to go over the actual factual information regarding the United States approach to russia during the biden can and obama and what trump has done. At the end of bushs presidency russia invated georgia. Russia said, hey, thats just a peacekeeping measure. And gorge bush put sanctions on gorge bush put sanctions on russia. Jorn bush put sanctions on russia. Hilltry clinton gave russia the red reset button, remember that big button . She said but bush overreacted. Then later on what very soon into the presidency, we stopped Missile Defense that we had in poland. That was a bush that was a bidenobama strategy in europe to stop the Missile Defense going in poland. Obviously that was a green light for russia to be able to take more latitude. Owe bam was caught on a hot mike saying to russia prior to the second election just wait until after the election, ill have more leeway. In 2014, russia invades ukraine. We dont give Russia Military lethal aid like they want. We give them humanitarian aid. There is no doubt so then trump is elected. When trump is elected he starts Missile Defense again in poland, vigorously. Its continuing now. We put tremendous sanctions on russia. And then the other thing we do s we give ukraine lethal military aid. People have got to look at factual information. We are in the worst political theater i have ever seen in my life. Im 68. And the news media can report anything but those historical they are not historical, but those are the actual facts. Biden was a part of being soft. Of course russia doesnt want trump. Our adversaries do not want trump. Hes been tough on them. I am perplexed as to how people can be so against policies in the administration. And be just so overwhelmed with this mans personality, which i dont particularly care for myself, rather than looking atpolicy. Host thanks for your participation in the program. More reaction from congress from either side of the aisle. Adam kinzinger tweeted, yesterday, russia is not a partner. Mr. Kinzinger is a republican from illinois. Russia is not a partner and not to be norkted with. Negotiated with. Donald trump needs to immediately expose and handle this and stop russias shadow war. Heres Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the house on one of the talk shows yesterday. This is as bad as it gets. And yet the president will not confront the russians on this score. Denies being briefed. Whether he is or not his administration knows. And our allies who were will work with us in afghanistan have been briefed and accept this report. Just as i have said to the president with him all roads lead to putin. I dont know what the russians have on the president politically, personally, financially, or whatever it is. But he wants to ignore bring them back into the g8 despite the annexation of crimea and invasion of ukraine. Despite what they yielded to him in syria. Despite his intervention into our election which is well documented by our Intelligence Community. And despite now possibly this allegation which we should have been briefed on. Do you believe the president has been briefed on this . Secondly, how would you explain the New York Times saying it was the president s daily brief, perhaps you didnt read it. How would you explain if the president werent briefed on this . Because the president wants to ignore any allegation against russia. That said to him in that meeting when im pointing to him in the blue suit, with you, mr. President , all roads lead to putin. Russias never gotten over the humiliation they suffered in afghanistan. Now they are taking it out on us. Our troops. This is totally outrageous. You would think as a of the minute the president heard it he would want to know more instead of denying. Host more of your input by social media. In a than rights, probably not true to make trump look weak. Jim from buffalo rights the New York Times as usual printed a story antitrum with no factual backup. They should be forced to provide definitive proof, no unnamed sources. Biden, too, should shut up or provide proof, says jim in buffalo. Then twitter, someone calling themselves Border Collie mom writes, if true, people including trump, need to quit. Needs to be investigated asap. Jeff calling from oklahoma now. Democratic line. Your thoughts. Your reaction to this story . Aller thanks for my call. I just had a simple comment. Its pretty, you know, explanatory, you know. President trump and putin are working together . What if they are part of a group . We know the group. You know the ill lume natty, the panama papers. We know where the money s we know the group they are all working with. We know all our president s are just in line with them all. The republicans are all bought and paid for. Every one of them. You might think that, oh, well, these lobbyist. Who is that lobbyist working for . They are all part of the mafia. Think about who they are. Host thank you for calling. David is on the line now from madison heights, michigan. Another democratic caller. Caller hi. Thank you very much for taking my call. I really cant believe that you let these republicans spew the lies that they do like that woman from ohio. Her whole spiel was nothing but lies. Typical republican. Bringing up brief administrations. Brief people. President obama was harder on russia than any president in our history. So please, you know, you ought to push the button when those kind of lies are spewing out of someones mouth. But i want to say about this story, im sure its true. All president s are briefed. Its just more proof that traitor trump will not go against his boss, putin. You know what i say . Lock him up. Lock him up. Lock him up. Thank you. Host david from michigan there. Washington post doing its own reporting on this lead story. Deaths linked to russian bounties. They write russian bounties offered to taliban linked militias to kill forces in office believed to have resulted in the death of several u. S. Service members. According from intel. Several people familiar with the matter said it was unclear exactly how Many America