Camerota and john berman. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is new day. John berman is off. Chris cuomo joins me. Good to be here. Great to have you. Its a very important day again. Indeed. As we digest all of this and try to analyze what weve seen and read in the 400 pages. It can be dizzying. The headlines this morning on the Mueller Report reveal the gravity of its findings. Wall street journal said Mueller Report lays out trumps attempts to curtail inquiry. The Washington Post reads, Mueller Report paints a damning portrait of the trump presidency. The Mueller Report also shows President Trump repeatedly lying to the public and trying to get his aides to lie and to obstruct. The mueller team was unable to conclude that criminal conduct occurred on obstruction. But the report does not exx exonerate the president on that front. In fact, it lays out multiple examples of potential obstruction. And there was a lot of effort taken to direct congress to take up the question. What will they do . What do you want them to do . Thats going to be a big component here. Impeachment is political. Politics is about your will. Cnns Jessica Schneider live in washington with more. Jessica . Good morning, chris. Democrats are calling on Robert Mueller to testify publicly. Theyve set a may 23rd deadline. They want the special counsel, of course, not said a word beyond whats in his report to elaborate on the damaging details revealed in his 448 pages. This report paints a portrait of a presidency in chaos and now democrats have to decide what to do next. Robert mule ear he is 448page report outlines the efforts to thwart the special counsels investigation. Noting that the efforts were mostly unsuccessful. Largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. Upon learning that the special counsel was appointed after he fired fbi director james comey, mueller writing that President Trump declared, oh, my god, this is terrible, this is the end of my presidency. Im fd. Mueller writes the president pressed Rod Rosenstein to get a News Conference suggesting firing comey was his idea. Rosenstein telling the president that a News Conference was a bad idea because if the press asked him, he would tell the truth. According to the report, President Trump proceeded to take a series of actions to curtail the probe. Including directing White House Counsel Don Mcgahn to instruct acting Deputy Attorney general rosenstein to have mueller removed. The special counsel writing that mcgahn did not, deciding instead that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential saturday night massacre. President trump saying this. When the New York Times reported on that story last year. Fake news, folks. Fake news. Whats your message today . Typical new york tiemts fake story. The special counsel detailing a number of different instances where the president tried to sabotage the investigation, asking Corey Lewandowski to tell attorney general sessions to curtail the investigation directing the deletion of a line in the press release saying the trump tower meeting with russians had to do with information helpful to the campaign, urging attorney general Jeff Sessions to unrecuse himself and sending veiled or direct messages either personally or through intermediaries to Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn encouraging them not to cooperate. Mueller noting that he ultimately did not bring charges of obstruction of justice against mr. Trump due in part to a Justice Department guideline that a sitting president cannot be indicted. The special counsel writing, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Mueller suggesting that congress not the Justice Department should decide whether to prosecute the president. Attorney general barr defending the president s conduct. There is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency. Within minutes, House Democrats were calling for muellers testimony and slamming barr. Barrs words and actions suggest hes been disingenuous and misleading in saying the president is clear of wrongdoing. The report offering new details about the efforts bit russian government to interfere in the 2016 election to help elect trump, including attempting to hack Hillary Clintons emails five hours after mr. Trump said this. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Mueller ultimately determining that, while the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen, he could not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with russian government. President trump remaining defiant. Im having a good day, too. Its called no collusion, no obstruction. Notably, President Trumps lawyers kept him from sitting down for an interview with the special counsel. Mueller disclosed in the report that his team considered issuing a subpoena for the president s testimony since they found his written responses inadequate. But ultimately, muellers team decided that pursuing that path would lead to lengthy litigation. Curiously, trumps team has not issued any written rebuttal despite getting the early access to the Mueller Report about a week before it was released to the public yesterday. Well see if we ever see that rebuttal. Jessica, thank you so much very much for all the reporting. Rudy said, they have it, they want to see how this plays out and theyll put it out if they need it. That makes perfect sense. If you were gaming the system, then thats the way do you it. If you want full transparency, what they promised the people, you should put it out now. We have jeffrey cnn chief analyst, David Gregory. Michael smerconish and jeffrey tubin, im anxious to hear your thoughts. Now that youve had 24 hours to let this sink in, what in these 400plus pages surprised you . Well, the extent and detail of the evidence of obstruction of justice. Its hard to draw parallel to an ordinary defendant. An ordinary defendant cant fire the director of the fbi for example. If you had an ordinary defendant with 11 separate examples of obstruction of justice, each one of them pretty persuasive. But together, i cannot imagine that person wouldnt be indicted. In fact, mueller said that in the report, right . If the aides had done what the president asked hem to do, they might have been charged. Right. Its important to remember that the crime of obstruction of justice includes the endeavoring, thats the word endeavoring to obstruct justice. You dont have to succeed. Most people who obstruct justice dont succeed because they get caught. The someone else would have been indicted. The president for all the reasons we know, was not indicted. But the scale of evidence was clearly enormous and it just underlined how much good the attorney general did for the president by creating the impression almost a month ago that there was essentially nothing here. I mean, elie agreed with Jeffrey Toobin that the evidence for any other defendant would have been an open and shut case. Right. Thats one of the frustrations. Theres something for everybody. Open and shut case except you cant make a case. Put up the tweet for michael smerconish. The president s tweet of game over. Now, the reason the i like this, it speaks to the president s truth on a number of levels, michael smerconish. The president tweeted out game over, no collusion, no obstruction and then something about for the haters in the media and those on the left or whatever. They have been playing this as a game. Its been tactical. It was about avoiding any disclosure of reality they didnt like. How did it wind up for them . I hope you dont mind if i disregard your question because im i want to Say Something. Im going to try and Say Something simply referenced by many in the conversation today and yesterday. Its this. Stunning as it sounds, the president was never at any risk of a finding by mueller that he broke the law. In 400 pages, theres one line that tells you everything you need to know. We determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the president committed crimes. If Robert Mueller thought that he had not committed obstruction of justice, he would have told us so. He believes he did. Theres no way, based on framework that utilized, he was ever going to say so. Thats my take away. Because of the department of justice rules . Correct. And this belief. I dont know where he draws upon this. That there would not have been an adversarial system provided, therefore, it would have been fundamentally unfair to make those allegations against the president. Thats not the job he was hired to do. He was hired to do a job of determining whether there was criminal conduct and from the getgo, apparently for 22 months, hes been operating through a framework where that was never going to even be for consideration. That is mindboggling to me. I actually i view that a little bit differently. I mean, if there was evidence of a criminal conspiracy, he would have charged that in any number of different areas that he would have found. What he couldnt do not the president. Right. But right. That part we knew. If there was evidence, you cant indict a sitting president based on guidelines bit Justice Department. But that doesnt mean there isnt a pressure release valve. That is what is now available to congress and what the what mueller outlined as a case of obstruction. I want to go back to chris question, though, which is a good one on the political front. The president had a sense early on, which was the the question was, did we clued . Right. Was there a conspiracy with troish interfere in the elections and to throw the election, in effect. He knew if he could keep the focus on that. That if its yes or no to that, that i can win because i didnt do anything wrong. That everything elsie could explain away. Thats whats on the table right now. What comes out to me, im not surprised because the biggest thing that trump told us in the last two years is was truth, which is he fired the fbi director because he didnt like the investigation into russia. Right. And the way they defined jeffly to lrey toobin and i d discussions about collusion and the meaning of it. Jeffrey, please feel free to bat the reason they like the word collusion is because no collusion is actually exactly the opposite of the reality. No conspiracy. We werent a russian agent. We didnt criminally help interference into the election. Yes, yes, yes. Mueller vindicates those positions. But they colluded like crazy. Sneaky clever things that they lied about trying to reach out, trying to get benefit. Trying to make contact that they knew they shouldnt be make and they lied about the same actions. Thats collusion. Its not a crime. Well, i think thats right. What the president has done since the very beginning is define the issue. Yes. In such a way that he knew he was going to win. Yes. But in fairness also to the president , there were lots of suspicions that the president and his allies actively assisted in the hacking and the social media conspiracy and that was we never saw proof of that. Thats why criminality seemed remo remote. Right. People who were careful always pointed out that there was never any proof of that precise connection. Right. But was the Trump Campaign delighted that wikileaks was doing what it was doing. Yes. Were they happy to take any help they were getting from russia . Yes. Did they seek it out at trump tower and elsewhere . Yes. Absolutely. They didnt succeed in making the full connection, but collusion in the colloquial not legal sense, youre right. They went further than we knew. When President Trump says russia, if youre listening, i hope you find Hillary Clintons emails. He then triez s to tell in his written answers to Robert Mueller. I made the statement in jest and sarcastically as was apparent to any objective observer. Not so fast. What we find out in the 400 pages that inside the white house hes telling basically anyone who will listen, go find Hillary Clintons emails. With do whatever you can to fine them. Michael flynn takes it so seriously, he begins hiring people. He goes to different gop operatives, he goes to people he knows on the outside. Eric prince gives money to help find it, betsy devoss brother. And it goes on for months and months. They are actively trying to find it. Quickly. The extraordinary detail that famous quote, russia if youre listening find the 30,000 emails, that day. That very day the russians begin an effort to find the emails. Yeah. Using their illegal hacking ability and that leads to the disclosure of emails. Not those emails but other emails that maybe swung the election. So i mean, the connections between the Trump Campaign and russia, while not legally criminal are pretty extensive. It doesnt paint a flattering picture of what was going on inside the white house and it gives a lot of details and description of how, you know, corrupt things looked. Yeah. I mean, i think it definitely paints the picture of a white house and april campaign really populated by people willing to do anything to gain the upper hand, willing to do anything up until the line almost of criminality to basically to persevere through the campaign and then, when theyre faced with the prospect of the public finding out, they lie about it. I think thats kind of this is the gray line where the Mueller Report stops being a legal document and starts being a question of what people value, what voters value, whether theres a moral element to all of this. Its about whether or not this matters to the American Public and i still think that that could very well be a factor as we go into the next phase of this all. People are going to read this document and going to see lie after lie after lie. I think thats going to start to have an impact in the overall perception that this is a president who continuously employs people willing to do anything and who encourages his aides to lie for him. Two things. How can abby be impressive. First shes attacked by a lizard. Now shes caught in a gale force winds. She makes a completely cogent point. I know. Not even fazing her. I was going to complain about the air conditioning in here. I dont think its right in the studio. Abby philip in the gusty winds of political scrutiny. Its truly the shes in florida. This is the weather i get. Abby, our hats are flying off to you. Thank you, friend, very much. That was miraculous. So the report is out. As you will see over the next five to seven days, theres going to be news every day with respect to this investigation and we have some right after the break. There are people out there who see things others cant. Theyre the ones who see a city that can make those who live in it feel a little safer. Who see cars that can talk to each other and share their best shortcuts. Who see the efficient shape and design of the oceans wonders as the future of aerodynamics. Why . Because they can see the Infinite Possibilities of the power of data flowing through our world. At Dell Technologies, we see it too. And we can help make your Digital Future real so you can move the world forward in beautiful, unimaginable ways. If youd like to transform your business, talk to us. And together well show the world what impossible looks like. When its made real. 98 of us dont get enough omega3s. Which is why megared advanced 4in1 packs more omega3 power into one small softgel. It supports your heart. Brain. Eyes. And joints. Megared. Still fresh. Unstopables inwash scent booster downy unstopables we have breaking news. House judiciary chair jerry nadler is making another move to get the full Mueller Report. Listen to what he just said to abc. In order to make informed decisions, and we will subpoena that entire report today. That subpoena is coming today . That subpoena will come in the next all right. Including the grand jury evidence, yes. Because we have to see the entire report. By the way little choppy there. But hes saying i want it all, including grand jury. We have Jeffrey Toobin, David Gregory somewhere. Michael smerconish. To remind people, mr. Barr said that certain members of congress would get everything except grand jury testimony. Nadler saying not good enough. Implication . There are two ways that this may work. One is they may get it through the subpoena. The other way is they could go to the District Court and get whats called an order which would allow the grand jury material to be turned over to congress. I have to say, certainly on the obstruction of justice part, there was relatively little redacted. I mean, weve belabored attorney general barr and he dee severs a lot of belaboring. In terms of obstruction of justice, there was not much covered up. The part dealing with russia, there was a good deal covered up. I can see why Congress Wants to see that. There you go, michael. Those the conundrum for congress. Do they really think that these 36 pages redacted, theres going to be a bombshell, something that changes the equation . No. But, of course, it is their job, oversight is what theyre tasked with. That is their Job Description. So now i assume well see for the next month this dance of how far theyre going to go, how aggressive they want to be in the investigating. I think youre right that theres a balancing act that democrats need to employ as they look at their next step. I think they could very easily overplay their hand. In part, because of the conclusions of the report and in large part because i think that the president was very successful in inoculating himself in all of the runup to the release of the report. And id like to think that most americans will invest the time to read the 400 pages. Thats not likely. Theres a lot in there that will be fodder for the 2020 campaign. But let me say it straight out, i think that to pursue an impeachment path based on these facts would politically speaking, be a terrible mistake for democrats. Can i just say how much i disagree with a lot of what michael said there . The idea that the choice here is impeachment or nothing is just wrong. If you read that report and you are a serious member of congress doing an investigation, how can you not call don mcgahn the former white house counsel, as a witness to testify in public . It doesnt have to be an impeachment proceeding. Democrats are so, like, afraid of seeming too aggressive. Theyve hardly had any hearings so far. I mean, the idea that the democrats have to do nothing because that will somehow offend the electorate seems crazy to me. Theres extreme evidence of tremendous misconduct in the white house. And democrats are supposed to never talk about it because someone might be offended . Im not saying never talk about it. But heres the Political Risk that i see. The risk that i see is that democrats could very easily be perceived the way that republicans were perceived pertaining to benghazi. They just pushed it too far. Politically speaking in the middle of the country, why are they still harping on that. Thats the risk they run here. By the way, Hillary Clinton the target of the hearings, she lost the election. So the idea that benghazi was a political failure for the republicans, i think, is a dubious assertion. The fact that democrats are somehow paralyzed by fear of, like, oh, maybe well push too hard, even if jeffrey, im making a political point. I see that youre making a political point. Its not going to be determined by issue. Its going to be determined by health care, jobs and opioids. Every breath that the democrats spend speaking about this going to 2020 is one less breath about those issues more important in the minds of the electorate. Thats my point. The idea that if jerry nadler holds hearings about this case that somehow they cant talk about opioids and health care, i mean, thats i didnt say that. But i mean, obviously they will. The president ial candidate, as far as im aware hardly spend any time at all talking about this. I saw Elizabeth Warren release a statement where she said she was asked 340 questions at town halls and three of them had been about mueller. I mean, its not a big issue. Thats my point. Thats exactly my point. I see that point. But you know what, congress has a job to do. Yeah. Their job is to be investigators and to do oversight. The idea that somehow that will paralyze their president ial campaign, it didnt hurt their congressional campaigns during 2018. They were in charge of the jeffrey, i hear you. Its about what they want to prioritize. Obviously, they have to theres only 24 hours in a day. They have to figure out in congress if they want to do what people say is most important to them or if they want to do their Job Description of oversight. There are 435 members of congress. You know, the idea that, you know, you get this report and you say, oh, no no, we can only talk about opioids, it makes no sense. But also you guys you guys are speaking to the same point. Thats not what i said. Listen, this is what youre giving a nod to without fully recognizing it. Its not a monolith. There are democrats that are going to be pissed off if they dont look down the road of impeachment or some type of accountability. Thats why you see the Young Warriors who just got brought in signing on toe to this pledge theyre going to impeach. As we learned from the harvard study, the main democrats are not the theyre center left people who will be focusing on what michael said. Michael and i agree that impeachment is going nowhere. I dont want to give the impression that impeachment is at all on table. Its simply not happening. My only point is that there is still plenty more to discover. True. Regarding the mueller investigation. I get it. It might be a bitter it might be a bitter pill for democrats to swallow today. But they didnt get what they were looking for from Robert Mueller and the real story here is that by muellers design, they were never going to get it because he was never going to make a finding of legal wrongdoing by the president. Thats what i think is the take away. Thats a great point. He suggests that congress do it. Were back full circle to where our debate began. Gentlemen, michael smerconish, Jeffrey Toobin thank. Smerconish at 9 00 a. M. Eastern tomorrow. What action will Congress Take now that theyve read the Mueller Report . Senator angus king, his cooler head always prevails. Well ask him. Thunder rumbles ] omar, check this out. Uh, yeah, i was calling to see if you do laser hair removal. For men. Notice that my hips are off the ground. [ engine revving ] and then, im gonna pike my hips back into downward dog. [ rhythmic tapping ] hey, the rain stopped. A bad day on the road still beats a good one off it. 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If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. After nearly two years of investigating russian interference and potential ties to the Trump Campaign, the Mueller Report paints a picture of a president who repeatedly tried to remove the special counsel, discouraged witnesses from cooperating with investigators and pushed aides to lie to the public as well as investigators who were trying to investigate the russia probe. Joining us now is angus king, a member of the senate intel committee. Good morning, senator. Good morning, alison. Have you had a chance to read all of the 400 pages . Ill be honest with you, i read about last night until 210. I havent read the obstruction part. I read the entire collusion part, if you will. There are lots of interesting redactions. I got to be honest, im halfway through. Okay. But im going to make it. You got to read every page, i think. Theres a lot there. Yeah. For sure. Its not as much of a page turner as the starr report, frankly. What are your thought this morning as you digest it all . Well, i think the first is you wont be surprised because i probably said this five times on your program over the last couple of years. The big story is what the russians did. Were obsessed with whether the Trump Campaign colluded and whether theres obstruction of justice. We can certainly talk about that. Thats important. What comes through in the important is the incredible detail down to the names of the russian agents that they hacked into the emails, they stole the emails, they disseminated the emails in order to influence our election. They hacked in and went into state election systems and they had a very sophisticated disinformation campaign. Heres the problem, alison. The president has never acknowledged that. Heres why thats important. I met with a group of people from eastern europe. I said how do you deal with this russian interference. They said the best defense is if the people understand whats being done to them by the russians. For the president to fail to say and acknowledge what the russians did is impairing our ability to resist what theyre going to do the next time. Hes not just senator, im sorry to interrupt you. He doesnt believe it. He thinks its a hoax. He believes Vladimir Putins words as he said in helsinki to the whole world. He believes he doesnt see why it would be russia. He believes Vladimir Putin. Has no reason not to. So you are i dont think youre going to get the right audience with him. Hes about the only person in the country that believes that. The point im trying to make is, its hurting our country. Because if he acknowledged that, a third of country will follow what he says. If he made a speech today and acknowledged, saying no collusion and no obstruction of justice but the russians attacked us, it was a serious thing, we need to respond and cant let this happen again, that would help our country. I think thats one of the big points of the report. Now, we can talk about in the collusion part, full, the first volume of the report, theres a lot of things redacted and i think i remember in law School Learning about a concept called conscious parallelism. That means theres no agreement, but two sides operating in a way they know is going to benefit each other. That seems to come through in the report. I think you read a sentence or john read a sentence that indicated that. They were playing foots footsie. They may not have had an agreement. I want to ask you about attorney general bill barr. Do you have confidence in him . Well, it was diminished yesterday. There was no reason for him to have that press conference and try to explain away why the president did what he did. I think he misrepresented the report in giving a partial sentence about some of these issues. It was just it was unnecessary and i think he embarrassed himself and i really think thats unfortunate. Again, i think the more important issue is whats in the report. But he went out of his way to try to give the president what he wanted to hear. And then the report komts ocome and doesnt say what he said. A lot of people last week were saying mueller punted on the obstruction question. I think the football analogy is mueller passed the obstruction question to the congress and barr intercepted the pass. Right. Tried to take it over himself. It seems like it now that we read the report. The question is, what does congress do about that . What do you do about somebody, rt attorney general of the United States who is intercepting your responsibility and do you think that he is serving the department of justice an the country in the best fashion . Well, of course, hes appointed by the president. Hes a member of the president s cabinet. There is a tradition in the country that attorneys general tend to be institutionally independent and thats been observed more than sometimes. Sometimes more than others. What hes hurt is his own credibility with the congress. I dont think theres any action that Congress Needs to take. But i think the next time he appears before a committee and makes these declarative statements, hes going to have a credibility problem. You dont think he should somehow, congress should work to remove him . I dont think so. You know, you havent asked the question. But i think the other question you talked about all morning is the kwquestion of impeachment. As all of your commentators have been saying, essentially impeachment is a political process. In my view, theres an even better political process coming right down the road on almost the same time frame and thats the elections of 2020. I think thats where this decision should be made about the president s conduct with all this information out in the public. And it strikes me as not a terribly effectively political motto to say hey, i wasnt indicted. Thats not a big plus. But thats where i think the decision should be made. For congress to go through an impeachment process would be it would take probably 18 months, which would lead up to the election. And it would be divisive. Many people in the country, probably a third of them, would feel it was the democrats were from 2016. I think it would strengthen the president if we went through that process. I think its better to have the facts out there, for people to talk about them, what the president did. Let the people decide in 2020. Thats the political process i believe in. Senator angus king, we appreciate your perspective. Thank for being on new day. Thanks, alison. Up next, what attorney general william barr said and did not say is igniting a lot of critici criticism. Reality check, next. Living well do you often wake up with chest congestion . Or suffer excess mucus . Try mucinex 12 hour. The bio layer tablet immediately releases to thin and loosen excess mucus. And lasts for 12 hours. Mucinex 12 hour. At a comfort inn with a glow taround them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. Xfinity watchathon week has sadly come to an end. What, what, what no but dont let that stop you from watching the best shows and movies from showtime, hbo, epix. Jesus, what happened . And more. Its just the tip of the iceberg. Upgrade now to get more into what youre into. Thanks just say watchathon into your x1 voice remote to upgrade and keep getting more of what you love. All right. Our attorney general william barr facing criticism for acting less like the top Law Enforcement officer of the United States, more like president s attorney. John avlon, reality check. Hey, guys. Quote, about the only thing transparent about his performance is how politically motivated he was. That was this assessment of the press conference yesterday before releasing the Mueller Report. After three weeks in which barr controlled the terms of the debate allowing team trump to declare victory, once the report was released, it became apparent that he had misled the American People and he did it in an attempt to put the report in the most positive light possible for the president. Here are a few key examples. Barr, quoted 101 words in the report. Miss favorite line was this. Investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities. Its a big line. He really wanted to highlight it. Referencing it three times in the fourpage letter and multiple times yesterday in the presser. Barr left out the first half of that sentence. Its a doozy. Although the investigation established that the russian government and worked to secure that outcome and the campaign expected it would benefit electoral live from information stolen and release through russian efforts. This isnt conspiracy or coordination but its an unusual and many would say unethical arrange kind of a friends with benefits of a hostile power. In the same vein, he concluded that it was not sufficient to charge him with obstruction. It sets out a dozen specific examples of that, dictating false statements, pushing senior staff to lie, dangling pardons. Barr wrote the letter, quote for each of the relevant actions investigated, the Mueller Report sets out evidence on both side of the equation. It does not do that. There is no concrete evidence on the other side. Just questions about the ability to truly define the president s intent. That didnt stop barr. Frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks. As you know prosecutors are famous for caring about feelings. Barr was asked by cnns lawyer whether the Justice Department policy that the president s cant be indicted influenced his decision not to charge him with obstruction. He says it didnt. Against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought. Barr also said there was no indication that mueller punted on obstruction because he felt this was a job for Congress Rather than the attorney general. The Mueller Report spends nine pages detailing how congress can take up the question of obstruction. Because of the doj policy against indicting a sitting president. It says that the conclusion that congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president s corrupt exercise of pous of the office of accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law. Finally, barr shared the redacted report with trumps legal team stating standard practice. When bill clintons lawyer asked for a look at his report, starr refused. The Mueller Report presents a picture of a president with little regard for the houle of law. But its President Trumps good fortune that he came up a special counsel with such respect for the rule of law that trump dodged a bullet on the key question of obstruction. Thats your reality check. John, how does a. G. Barr know the president s sincere feelings . Proximity, affection. It is one of the obvious tells in yesterdays presser that hes operating as part of the president s defense rear than with the independence of an attorney general. For sure. That one jumped out. Thank you very much for that great reality check. The Mueller Report leaves no doubt russia interfered in the 2016 election as we all know. So whats being done ahead of 2020 . We skis that next. We discuss that next. Care in. By taking the same Predictive Analytics powered by Dell Technologies to diagnose their race cars. And applying it to the human body. Mclaren can help Healthcare Professionals provide more personalized solutions, which could in turn support even speedier recoveries. It comes to the investigation into this president . Do you really believe attorney general barr read a nearly 400page report in one day . And that his 4page summary is the whole truth . Im tom steyer, and im organizing an effort to to release the full Mueller Report now and let the American People decide. If you think we have a right to read the report for ourselves, you can call the attorney general at this number. Our tax dollars paid for the report. Dont let him cover up the truth. Super emma just about sleeps in her cape. But when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide pods free gentle. Its gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. Tide free and gentle. Safe for skin with psoriasis, and eczema. Hed be proud of us. Protect your family, your business and everyone who counts on you. See how lincoln can help. Russia interfered in the 2016 u. S. Election in a, quote, sweeping and systematic fashion. Wall street journal headline now reads putin has won. So what is being done to prevent this from happening again . Joining us now, jane harman, former democratic congressman from california, and director, president and ceo of the wilson center, and lisa monaco, she was once Robert Muellers chief of staff at the fbi and is a cnn Senior National security analyst and has one of the best remote shots that i have ever seen in television right now. Looks like it looks like a set for a movie or Something Like that. Somewhere on a far away beach. Its good to have both of you. Jane, thank you for joining us this morning for this. I think its one of the most ignored aspects of what were all dealing with collectively. Russia did it, they did it big time, they can do it again, weve done nothing to stop them. Fair assessment . Yes and no. First of all, Vladimir Putin can fly the Mission Accomplished sign on his whatever carrier squadron or whatever he has or whatever hes building, thats one. And, yes, he interfered big time in 2016. Hes trying to interfere now in 2018, not just here but particular rumors that he is supporting one of the candidates in the ukraine election, thats in the press today. But what we have done since 2016 is declare election infrastructure, critical infrastructure, in the department of Homeland Security although it doesnt have any leaders at the top is focused on election interference. Our constitution says that states regulate the time and manner of elections. So each state leads here. Some of them resent the federal government, quote, interfering. On the other hand, if they want to have fair and free elections, theyve got to play and i think resources have been made available, the Tech Companies understand that social media is a prime tool along with hacking and they are cracking down on this. So i think were in better shape, not perfect, for 2020 than we were in 2016 or 2018. Do you agree, lisa, we are in better shape . I think we are in better shape, alisyn. One of the things that has been done is the department of Homeland Security has built a greater infrastructure, frankly, for dealing with and communicating with and coordinating with the states who, after all, are the ones who administer, own, operate and handle all the elections in this country. Its not a federal responsibility, it is, in fact, a state and municipal responsibility. So the department of Homeland Security, i think, has made Good Progress in the last few years of building out a coordinating infrastructure with the states. Its also elevated the agency been the department of Homeland Security that deals with cybersecurity issues and increase the visibility and responsibility of that part of the department of Homeland Security, but i will tell you one of the things we have not done is as a federal government and as a congress funded state cybersecurity efforts. We still do not have the secure elections act and it is kind of unbelievable after all of this that we do not have a regular sustained source of funding for state cybersecurity efforts in light of everything that weve learned, and the Mueller Report adds to the detail of that. Jane, if you look at what happened in florida, i mean, it seems like when people make a play theyre pretty effective. We dont have any proof that any tabulation of any vote was affected in 2016 or 2018, but, you know, i mean, the florida example of them trying to mess with infrastructure during an election works, it seems, whenever they try it in earnest. Yeah, its not just the mechanical effort, though, chris, its also the disinformation campaign. Yes. Which splits voters, drives many not to vote because it is all so negative. I will add one more thing, the white house did have a Homeland Security czar his name is tom bossert. He was canned a year or so ago not and replaced. The whole function has been downgraded. It was critical all these years to have a Homeland Security person since 9 11 looking out over the whole u. S. Homeland. Let me make one more point and that is that while we are so consumed with the Mueller Report, our enemies or our frenemies, whatever you want to call them, but china, north korea, russia, are gaming around us as we all know kim jongun is going to meet with Vladimir Putin next week, hes starting to talk about tactical missile tests again and i dont think we have enough brain cells on any other targets and its a real scary thing to think that isis is now although it doesnt have a caliphate, it certainly has an idea and theres not enough attention at the top of our government about things like that. Lisa, just help us understand this in the minute that we have left and that is the president likes Vladimir Putin, hes said it a million times, he wants to be friends with him, in fact, he believes Vladimir Putins word over his own intel guys. However, the Trump Administration as a whole has imposed lots of sanctions on russia, more, they say, than the obama administration. So which one is it . Are we punishing russia or rewarding russia . Well, were not doing enough of the punishment from my perspective. I think that there has been a massive disconnect between the messaging going out from the president s team and what is coming out from the president and from the white house directly. What we do know about Vladimir Putin is that theres one voice that counts and thats the man at the top. So as long as President Trump does not actually agree with or undercuts the intelligence community, as we have seen him do so many times, including standing with putin in helsinki, taking the word of putin over the intelligence community, then it will not be a strong message to russia that we mean business, and thats what we need for putin to take any of the punishment or sanctions that we do seriously. Jane harman, lisa monaco, thank you both very much for all of the expertise. Up next, we have two of the president s biggest defenders making their case. What do you say . Lets get after it. The facts established by this report are damning. The report really displays that it is over. They just dont know it yet. The nature of trumps actions, his obstruction is making nixon look good. There were guardrails inside the white house, that wouldnt do stuff that the president wanted them to do. I acknowledge a slip of the tongue when i used the word countless but its not untrue. It is an active attempt by the white house to create a false narrative for why joems comey was fired. Id like to impeach the Senate Republicans that are mostly without spine that dont have conviction. Announcer this is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Welcome our viewers in the United States and around the wo