Chris Cuomo asks the tough questions to newsmakers in Washington and around the world. Rosenstein look, Jeff Sessions he recused himself. Had to have recused himself because theres a regulation in place that says if you work on a campaign and theres a criminal investigation relating to that campaign the president says it was a bum move and he should have told him about it and it was a total hoodwink. Wrong, wrong, wrong. As far as it being a hoodwink, sessions would have had to have had the gift of prophecy along with the president in order to believe at the time he was ainterest poed, there was was going to be to an investigation thats why i was confused by your initial writings on this one because of my respect for your mind and that rosenstein the only thing he could do is get a prophylactic in play, get somebody who had one layer away from the president , which technically a Special Counsel does, because otherwise he could have been fired like that if he were running it. The question is Whether Mueller was whether the mandate that was given to him
was an appropriate mandate. The initial mandate was to investigate what jim comey testified to before the House Committee. What jim comey testified to before the House Committee was not a criminal investigation. It was a National Security investigation. You dont need a Special Prosecutor to conduct a National Security investigation. He corrected that, i think, later on although we dont know what the complete order looks like because its all been redacted. A lot of people make the argument that we havent seen anything yet. So, therefore, this wasnt worth it. But just in a Straight Line of duration, this has been we have a graphic of it, which will be completely familiar to you. But for the audiences sake, this has not been going on a long time at all as special probes go, let alone what weve seen recently on a political side with benghazi. Why make that argument . Not you necessarily but i keep hearing it, so i want your take on it of, its been going on so long. We would have known by now. Do you buy that . Depends what the evidence is that they have. Take a look at who they have as
defendants. Right. Manafort has a codefendant. Right. Named gates, who is cooperating with the government. Right. The theory was that theyre bringing a case against manafort to put pressure on him to testify against the president. Right. They dont need that. They have gates, who knows everything that manafort knows because he was in there to the full extent that manafort was, and hes already cooperating with the government. My take on that was always different. I hear what youre saying, an. I my theory about why he kept the case is about the theory of the. I know better minds that mine argued look what they did with him when they were dealing with his bail restrictions. If they have proof that he was playing with witnesses, i understand why they got punitive with him and changed his conditions. Wow have done the same thing if you were sitting on the bench. There are ways to do that without putting him in. Right. But if you told him before its done with child pornographers. Right. But if youve warned him before and its happened again, now you got a different picture, right . Yeah. But you can still do it without putting him in. Understood. This is the 21st century. I hear you. But at the end of the day, do you believe that the bar for the necessity for this probe must be charges against somebody from the Trump Campaign and maybe some connection to the president himself . In retrospect, i dont judge the bar as being charges against certainly against the president himself. Cant have that. You believe in that. You dont indict a sitting president . You cant. Thats the doj guidance. And i believe its correct for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the Executive Power thats what the constitution says. The Executive Power is lodged in the president. Everybody who exercises Executive Power exercises it based on its derivation from the president. In essence it would be the
president prosecuting himself, number one. Number two, hes got the power to dismiss the case. So the case is a futility at the start. So thats why you cant indict a sitting president. It doesnt have anything to do with being above the law. If hes impeached, he can certainly be indicted. Its about process. Your mind makes things better for us. Thank you very much. Its just the truth. Former Attorney General, appreciate you being here. We saw Something Different from the government on russian interference and something painfully the same. Were going to lay it out for you on the magic wall next. Fruits and veggies are essential to your health, but its tough to get enough of their nutrients. New one a day with natures medley is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies try new one a day with natures medley. So you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. Dates, deals, done tripadvisor. Visit tripadvisor. Com today we saw something extraordinary, at least for this white house. It was a show of force from top government officials speaking loudly, forcefully against russias continued efforts to attack our elections. The russians did it before. They are still doing it, and we need to stop it. That was their message. This follows a letter by National Security adviser bolton to the senate saying the same and including in the letter that the government is all about investigating anyone who may have helped the russians and bringing them to justice. What an irony in that given what the president keeps saying. Now, listen to what director of National Intelligence dan coats and Homeland Security secretary
kirstjen nielsen said today. In regards to russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the United States. Its not just risk to our prosperity, privacy, and infrastructure we have to worry about, and thats why were here today. Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Do you know how long many of us have been waiting to hear this acknowledgement of recognized fact . Russia trying to weaken and divide the United States. Very tough stuff and very real. But then came the president. The situation was perfectly teed up for him. He could have said, stop saying i dont care about russian interference. Look at what my people just said. But instead he said this. In helsinki, i had a great meeting with putin. We discussed everything. I had a great meeting. I had a great meeting. [ cheers and applause ] we got along really well. By the way, thats a good thing, not a bad thing. Thats a really good thing. Now were being hindered by the russian hoax. Its a hoax. On the same day that all of his chiefs are out there laying the case to fight back against russia, he says this. Not a word about the attack on our election by russia. He plays the tired hoax card. Instead of attacking the attackers, he attacks the defenders, the media. Still worse, who did he do it for . The base at a rally. The people who need to hear what the Intelligence Community believes the most. And then there was this baffling nugget. You just heard him talk about the meeting with putin, how it was really good and they talked about everything, and that thats a good thing. Did you know that he still hasnt informed his intelligence chief about what happened
between the two men . Dont take it from me. Listen to the man himself. Youre saying today that the president has directed you to make the issue of election meddling a priority. How do you explain the disconnect between what you are saying, his advisers, and what the president has said about this issue . Im not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened at helsinki. Helsinki was the last word. How can he not be in a position to understand and discuss with full cogenesee what happened in helsinki . Hes the director of National Intelligence. Helsinki, still stinky when it comes to what happened between these two men. And at least dan coats needs to know. Now, if this is all an accurate reflection of what they want us to believe, yet the president keeps telling us something very different, we get the play. Whats happening . Trump is putting the me before
the we, and that works for an adoring crowd. But he was elected for the we. In this case that would mean owning the facts of what happened with russia and doing what he must to keep the country safe. Bottom line, he needs to be on the same page with his people. Thats what being president demands. So lets take a quick break. When we come back, we have governor john kasich. Hes following what russian attacks on the democracy meant. He has ideas for what needs to happen. He has ideas for what he has to see his party and the country writ large do on major issues. So were going to talk to him next. Behr presents ordinary versus overachiever. Behr premium plus, behr through it all with a toprated paint at a great price. Find it exclusively at the home depot. Our new, hot, fresh breakfast will get you the readiest. buzzer sound holiday inn express. Be the readiest. Now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller transitions™ light under control™ does your Business Internet provider promise a lot . Lets see who delivers more. Comcast business gives you gigspeed in more places. The others dont. We offer up to 6 hours of 4g Wireless Network backup. Everyone else, no way. We let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. Them, not so much. We let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. The others . Nope get internet on our gigspeed network and add voice and tv for 34. 90 more per month. Call or go online today. A group of intel chiefs walked out today to say russia is still trying to hack our elections, and we have to stop it. Potus doesnt seem to be on the same page. Theres a disconnect between him and then, his party and him, his daughter and him. Where is Common Ground on election safety, the continuing crisis on the border . One man whos thinking about
this problem is the governor and former republican president ial candidate john kasich of ohio. Good to have you back on the show, sir. Good to be with you again, chris. So it was all youre doing very well. Youve got a good show going. Thank you. I know you were waiting out to see how it would go before you would accept the invite, so i take your presence as approval. All right. Lets get to what matters. So it was all teed up for trump today, for the president. Big issue, Russian Election attacks and continuing interference. His chiefs all said we have to stop it. He could have come out and said, to kasich, to cuomo, and everybody else, stop saying, i dont care. I just showed everybody here were going to have the biggest plan ever. Were going to make it safer than ever. But he didnt. He didnt even mentioned it. He doubled down on the dumb arguments that the media is the problem, not russia, that its all a hoax. Where do we find Common Ground and progress . Well, you know, i didnt agree with the earlier the former Attorney General saying,
well, theyre just going to go and do their thing, and they dont really need approval from the president. Of course they do. I mean hes the leader. He needs to publicly talk about this. I guess he has charged his people to go up and draft plans. We do know that theres some money being sent across this country for local Election Officials to be able to and secretaries of state to make sure the election is going to be sacrosanct. We do know that the russians are engaging in trying to divide us. You know, they put these things up online, picking on our divisions. They try to accentuate them to drive us farther apart. Theres also the real possibility and concern about Voter Registration. Thats where they can really get at things. So if all of a sudden they disrupt and remove names from the Voter Registration lists, which most of them or many of them are online. They can create tremendous confusion. And, look, chris, theres a lot of things that are at stake. The press is a critical
institution in our country. The Justice Department is a Critical Institution in our country. The election if we cant have a situation where people are wondering if the elections were fair. Now, im glad to see that whole cadre of people up talking about the fact theyre going to take more action. But we have a bigger issue than what weve even discussed so far, and that is the possibility of cyberattacks on our country from the big four, from russia, from china, from north korea, and you noticed that iran was just threatening us on cyberattacks. We do not have a Central Place to coordinate all the different pieces of our government and to make sure that we have a policy that even regards our private Sector Companies that can be hacked, that can be cyberattacked. I dont know what theyre waiting for on this because you have too much division. And when you have too much division, you dont have the kind of common goal, the offense and the defense. And frankly, offense and defense
are so related in cyber. So weve got the russian interference in terms of using places like facebook. Weve got their ability to begin to see if they can hack and disrupt our Voter Registration. And then we dont have a cyber policy. And it just didnt start here. It didnt go on in the last administration. This is a desperate need. They could target our infrastructure, and you saw how iran was threatening us by using this asymmetrical threat in warfare. So weve got to deal with so many issues here, and we need the president. And hes got a block on this one because he thinks its bad for him on some level. So even when all of his chiefs are out there, he takes it in a different direction. But this isnt the only issue where were dealing with this contagion. We see it in the crisis on the border also. Everybody knows its wrong. Everybody knows the system doesnt work. Everybody knows that we need rules and recommendations and policies, but its not happening. Why and whats the remedy . Politics. People are worried about primaries, about offending, quote, the base. And if you spend your time, you know, in these elected jobs trying to satisfy your base, chris, let me tell you. You know, you know a lot about politics. You had a father, you got a brother. I mean these are people that have given their lives to politics. If you put your finger up in the wind, today the public loves you, and tomorrow they dislike you intensely, and then the next day they like you. If youre a leader, you have to be willing to have good people around you and to walk a lonely road. You cant just you just cant ignore things. So the congress i cant understand what they are doing. Of course we want to make sure that our border is secure, but i think we need a bigger policy, chris. I think that we need to have a policy that looks at the region, to stop the drugs from coming in, to get rid of the drug cartels, the gangs. You know, thats what we tried to do in colombia. We should do it in the whole region, and were not taking care of business in our
neighborhood. And thats why were experiencing so many problems at the border. But, look, chris, ive got to say to you that ive watched this stuff for so long. I just had dinner the other night with a former governor here in the state. We just shake our heads. I become convinced that the solutions to so many of the problems that we have in this country have to be solved where we live. Stop waiting for somebody to come in on a Big White Horse and solve the problems. Take control of them where you live. Try to address whatever it is, poverty, whether its the issue of human trafficking, whether its the issue of drug abuse. It doesnt matter. We have to drive america with a value system where we come together regardless of party, regardless of philosophy, to have a common purpose and a common goal and then send that up the stream. Dont wait for the people at the top to fix our problems. And just to tell you one perfect example of it is the civil rights movement. Martin luther king came out of the church. Thats true. He came out of the civil rights movement. He didnt make it. Most of these thats what weve got to do m this country, take our country back. Most major social movements percolate. They are grassroots movements. The problem were dealing with here, though, just to put a finer point on it, is inertia, right, governor . You have people who have become so disaffected, so nonbelieving in the institutions stoked largely by the successful candidate in the last president ial election, who played on that disaffection and said, i will be effectively the virus to the body, the corpus that you hate of government. Ill go in there. Ill make them all sick for what theyve done to you people. And thats largely what hes been doing. Hes been largely disruptive and thats why many are happy with him and how he behaves. But once you lose your faith in the institutions thats exactly why its hard to get things done is what im saying. Look, thats exactly why i
didnt support him because negative populism doesnt work. Positive populism can. If you sit with a hundred people who have difficulty and you blame somebody else, youll get nothing done. But if you look at them and say, why dont we together build a bridge to a better tomorrow, you can have optimism. And the fact is rather than people venting so much anger at those up top, why dont we make a commitment to the problems that exist where we live . People think they dont matter enough. Guess what . They