Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20180614 : co

Foundation. Good afternoon, welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. We begin with the highly anticipated report from the Justice Departments Inspector General examining how top officials handled the investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. It just dropped like a bomb in the j. Edgar hoover building, assailing the decisions made by former attorney general Loretta Lynch, former fbi director james comey, fbi agents whosed biased antitrump texts the Inspector General finds deeply troubling. Repeatedly independentor general Michael Horowitz says he found explanations from the aforementioned to be unpersuasive and yet the top line here in this 568 page report, the ig found no evidence that political bias impacted the decisions leading up to the decision to not prosecute Hillary Clinton. Which is not to say the Inspector General didnt find a lot to criticize, concluding that former fbi director james comey deviated from the bureaus norms in giving that july, 2016, press conference about the clinton case and deviated from the norms in the october, 2016, letter to congress reopening the matter. Also revealed in this report were more Text Messages exchanged between former fbi lawyer lisa page and fbi official peter strzok where page questions trumps not ever going to become president , right . Right . And strong replies no, no, hes not. Well stop it. The Inspector General writing in response to those messages, although we found no documentary or testimonial evidence directly connecting the political views these employees expressed in their messages to decisions made about the clinton investigation through july, 2016, the messages cast a cloud over the fbi investigations to which these employees were assigned. You might recall, i asked former fbi director comey about the previously released messages between strzok and page and he admitted he underthe concern. Put yourself in Donald Trumps concern for one second. Youre donald trump and you feel this investigation is unfair. You find out that peter strzok, the lead fbi agent, is texting somebody disparaging things about you and then you find out hes the one that helped conduct the Hillary Clinton interviente and he called you an idiot, wouldnt you think this was unfair . Sure. Thats the reason bob mueller removed peter strzok from that investigation. Its poor judgment and shouldnt happen so i get the concern about it. Jessica, this report says comey should not have given the july, 2016 press conference in which he announced they would not prosecute Hillary Clinton. Thats right. In fact, the ig calling that decision to call that press conference extraordinary and insubordinate. Comey said he cut attorney general Loretta Lynch out of the process in part because of her tarmac meeting with former president bill clinton but the ig concluding that none of his reasons justified withholding his decisions from the attorney general and other Top Justice Department officials so this is directly from the ig report that says while we did not find these decisions were the result of political bias we concluded that by departing so clearly and dramatically from Fbi Department norms the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the fbi and the department as fair administrators of justice. The ig even continued on to criticize more saying we found it extraordinary that in advance of two such consequential decisions the fbi director decided that the best course of conduct was to not speak directly and substantively with the attorney general about how best to that gait those decisions and comey has defended his actions in his recent book a higher loyalty but the ig not finding these explanations are sufficient. Unpersuasive is the word he uses repeatedly. What does he had to say about october, 2016, when comey wrote a letter to Congress Announcing to the world a week and a half before the election that the clinton case had been reopened . Comey, hes faced a lot of criticism for alerting Congress Just 11 days before the election especially when the bureau doesnt comment on pending investigations. Hes defending his actions saying he felt he had an obligation to Alert Congress to correct that prior testimony he gave but, again, the ig finding fault in all of it saying we found no evidence that comeys decision to send the october, 28 letter was influenced by political preferences but he continued to say we found unpersuasive comeys explanation as to why transparency was more important than department policy. So, again, a scathing criticism there of james comey, but, jake, comey has said in a Statement Today that he respects these conclusions that he doesnt thessaly agree. Jake . Jessica schneider, thanks so much. Lets go to the white house where we find pamela proubrown. Today is the president s birthday, we havent heard from him yet directly on twitter. Is the white house indicating that he is the gift he wanted . Well, the white house is certainly seizing on the findings in this Inspector General report, no surprise there, jake, with Sarah Sanders, the press secretary, coming out during the press briefing today saying that the findings reaffirm the president s suspicions about comey, the former fbi director whom he fired and tweeted about saying he should be thanked for firing him so the white house using this report to further justify the president s actions in firing james comey. Sarah sanders also saying it reaffirms what the president has been saying, that theres political bias within the fbi. Heres what she told reporters. There are a lot of things in this report that not only worry those of us in the administration but should worry a lot of americans that people played this political bias and injected that into a department that shouldnt have any of that. Its worth reiterating while this report was a shark rebuke of james comey as well as the fbi, the report said as you pointed out that james comey was not politically motivated in the decisions he made and it also said there was no evidence political views affected the specific investigative decisions in regards to the Text Exchange between peter strzok and lisa page where peter strzok texted that we will stop donald trump from winning the election. Sarah sanders said while she hasnt asked the president about whether peter strzok should be fired from the fbi she believes the answer would be. Pamela brown at the white house. Here for more, Jeffrey Toobin and former fbi supervisory agent Josh Campbell who working for comey in 2015 and 2017. Lets start with this extraordinary exchange, josh, between they were lovers and fbi colleagues, peter strzok and lisa page in august, 2016, this is after the Hillary Clinton investigation ended. Page writes trumps not ever going to become president , right . And strzok replies no, hes not. Well stop it. The Inspector General writes its not only indicative of a biased state of mind but applies a willingness to take official action to impact the president ial candidates electoral prospects. This is antithetical to the core values of the fbi and the Justice Department of justice. This is a damning report. No question. It was done thoroughly by an independent body whose job is to police those who have these powers. That said and im the first to admit that lisa page and peter strzok i think have caused more damage to the fbis reputation than anyone that i can remember by this bad judgment. That said, within the fbi i dont think that theres any single point of failure so you look at these abhorrent texts, these exchanges in which we have to make sense of what they mean, if youre in the fbi and in a position of authority that strzok or page were in, if you were to attempt to influence an investigation for personal political reasons it wouldnt stand because you would have people up and down the chain of command who would say thats not the investigation we conducted. Thats not the facts that we found. So it looks terrible. Something they need to continue to investigate to determine whether there was influence. The bottom line in reading this report is the Inspector General said there wasnt political influence that impacted the investigation but its not a good look for the fbi. Im not sure thats right, josh. Let me tell you why. The Inspector General is very specific about he doesnt think theres evidence political bias played a role in everything in chapter 5. Chapter 5 has to do with the Hillary Clinton investigation up to the decision to announce in july, 2016, that its over but he guz say that he suspects strzok did have a bias or at least bias played a role when it came to the decision to sit on the weiner laptop. Comey told the office of the Inspector General had he known about the laptop in the beginning of october and thought the email review could have been completed before the election it may have affected his decision to notify congress. So heres what happened. Peter strzok, according to the Inspector General, sat on the laptop, they find no Persuasive Evidence as to why they didnt go into the weiner happen develop. I want to get you to play in this. The only way they look into it is because people in the u. S. S Attorneys Office start asking about it, thats what the Inspector General says, then they do the warrant, then comey notifies congress, then history is changed. So strzok may have his bias for hillary might have cost hillary the election. Thats why i mean, you know, real life is so complicated. That he could have if he had simply come forward at the beginning and with a reasonable amount of time before the election so comey wouldnt have had to go to congress. As you point out, this is one of the incredible ironies and it was news to me in reading the report that strzok actually wound up helping trump even though he said these now notorious things in these texts, his behavior actually contributed to comeys still frankly to me unbelievable and clearly criticized here decision to make that announcements ten days before the election. Let me ask you and then obviously whatever you want to say. Do you find it plausible that if comey had found out about the laptop, the warrant had been executed at the end of september that he would not have felt the need to go to congress and notify them . Thats a good question. What his mindset was and he said this publicly is he told congress before the investigation was closed and now he felt compelled to tell them thats no longer the truth because we have reopened this investigation. Im the first one to look at what transpired and look with hindsight. We cant change the past but wonder had that laptop been investigated, had that search warrant been obtained Hillary Clinton might have been president , probably would have been president because if you look at what happened investigatively, the fbi in a matter of days was able to look at those emails and determine they were duplicates and no longer applicable to the investigation. Let me say one last thing to what you just said because jake your question was did Peter Strzoks political motivation cost Hillary Clinton the election . Ironically and inadvertently but thats the suggestion being made. I still believe there is no single point of failure in the fbi. I think theres a lot of incompetence here that we need to look into. Well hear from chris wray about what he is doing to right these wrongs but i think this is probably more incompetence than politics playing a role in their decisions. But the paradox of this report is that there are mistakes galore. Oh, yeah. But they dont point in one direction. There are a ton of them. They dont all show that they were helping trump. They dont all show they were helping Hillary Clinton. They go in different daexs so you see in the politically polarized environment in which he we live, we see democrats focusing on how the Inspector General criticizes comey for holding that News Conference for announcing that news ten days before the election. Theres enough in both of these for both camps to find things to criticize. And in fact the report suggests again im reading Inspector General doesnt think comey was politically motivated in any decision but he does lean into the idea that i think he uses the phrase comey alone believed he could preserve the reputation of the fbi. He alone believed which gets to the criticism that james comey gets a lot, including on this show, that he has an infatuation with his own sense of integrity. Its been called sanctimonious by some. But his decisions are fair game. You dont step into the position of fbi director with all the responsibility that comes with that and not understand youre going to be criticized for decisions you make. Its been my fate to cover these in all sorts of situations and it seems the mistake that is made is that people make special rules for special cases instead of just following the rules. When the fbi doesnt prosecute someone they shut up, thats the rule. But instead, comey invent this is convoluted justification for holding this News Conference and it was, as the Inspector General concludes and i agree, a bad idea. If he had simply followed fbi policy i think everybody would have been better off. Jeffrey toobin and Josh Campbell, appreciate it. Does the Inspector General report benefit President Trump or democrats or does it depend on who you ask and what channel you watch . Stay with us. So, we took your shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] passenger what are you doing . driver i cant believe that worked. I dropped the keys. burke and we covered it. Talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum im trying to manage my a1c, then i learn type 2 diabetes puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. Can one medicine help treat both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk . I asked my doctor. She told me about noninsulin victoza®. Victoza® is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza® is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. While not for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. announcer victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take victoza® if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. Stop taking victoza® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck or symptoms of a serious allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, difficulty breathing, or swallowing. Serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis. So stop taking victoza® and call your doctor right away if you have severe pain in your stomach area. Tell your doctor your medical history. Gallbladder problems have happened in some people. Tell your doctor right away if you get symptoms. Taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, indigestion, and constipation. Side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. Change the course of your treatment. Ask your doctor about victoza®. Until her laptop her sacrashed this morning. Eks, having it problems . Ask a business advisor how to get on demand tech support for as little as 15 a month. This week get boise case paper for only 29. 99 at office depot office max. Over. Hey, want to try it . Ok here you go. Over. Under. Hey whoa, pop, pop. Your shoes untied. Ensure hes well taken care of, even as you build your own plans for retirement. See how lincoln can help protect your savings from the impact of longterm care expenses at lincolnfinancial. Com. The first survivor of ais out there. Sease and the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Visit alz. Org to join the fight. A new Inspector General report faulting several fbi officials over how they conducted the Hillary Clinton investigation and to a lesser degree donald trump. Let me start with my political panel. Ultimately, do you see this report and its criticisms as helpful to President Trump in his battle against the Mueller Investigation and the fbi or hurtful or a little of both . I think it helps a bit because there are two sort of battling narratives here. One, as this sort of comey story that the fbi and all of its employees are perfect upstanding citizens and can never do wrong or lie or mislead anyone and to suggest otherwise is insane. Then theres Justice Department<\/a>s Inspector General<\/a> examining how top officials handled the investigation into Hillary Clintons<\/a> use of a private email server. It just dropped like a bomb in the j. Edgar hoover building, assailing the decisions made by former attorney general Loretta Lynch<\/a>, former fbi director james comey, fbi agents whosed biased antitrump texts the Inspector General<\/a> finds deeply troubling. Repeatedly independentor general Michael Horowitz<\/a> says he found explanations from the aforementioned to be unpersuasive and yet the top line here in this 568 page report, the ig found no evidence that political bias impacted the decisions leading up to the decision to not prosecute Hillary Clinton<\/a>. Which is not to say the Inspector General<\/a> didnt find a lot to criticize, concluding that former fbi director james comey deviated from the bureaus norms in giving that july, 2016, press conference about the clinton case and deviated from the norms in the october, 2016, letter to congress reopening the matter. Also revealed in this report were more Text Messages<\/a> exchanged between former fbi lawyer lisa page and fbi official peter strzok where page questions trumps not ever going to become president , right . Right . And strong replies no, no, hes not. Well stop it. The Inspector General<\/a> writing in response to those messages, although we found no documentary or testimonial evidence directly connecting the political views these employees expressed in their messages to decisions made about the clinton investigation through july, 2016, the messages cast a cloud over the fbi investigations to which these employees were assigned. You might recall, i asked former fbi director comey about the previously released messages between strzok and page and he admitted he underthe concern. Put yourself in Donald Trumps<\/a> concern for one second. Youre donald trump and you feel this investigation is unfair. You find out that peter strzok, the lead fbi agent, is texting somebody disparaging things about you and then you find out hes the one that helped conduct the Hillary Clinton<\/a> interviente and he called you an idiot, wouldnt you think this was unfair . Sure. Thats the reason bob mueller removed peter strzok from that investigation. Its poor judgment and shouldnt happen so i get the concern about it. Jessica, this report says comey should not have given the july, 2016 press conference in which he announced they would not prosecute Hillary Clinton<\/a>. Thats right. In fact, the ig calling that decision to call that press conference extraordinary and insubordinate. Comey said he cut attorney general Loretta Lynch<\/a> out of the process in part because of her tarmac meeting with former president bill clinton but the ig concluding that none of his reasons justified withholding his decisions from the attorney general and other Top Justice Department<\/a> officials so this is directly from the ig report that says while we did not find these decisions were the result of political bias we concluded that by departing so clearly and dramatically from Fbi Department<\/a> norms the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the fbi and the department as fair administrators of justice. The ig even continued on to criticize more saying we found it extraordinary that in advance of two such consequential decisions the fbi director decided that the best course of conduct was to not speak directly and substantively with the attorney general about how best to that gait those decisions and comey has defended his actions in his recent book a higher loyalty but the ig not finding these explanations are sufficient. Unpersuasive is the word he uses repeatedly. What does he had to say about october, 2016, when comey wrote a letter to Congress Announcing<\/a> to the world a week and a half before the election that the clinton case had been reopened . Comey, hes faced a lot of criticism for alerting Congress Just<\/a> 11 days before the election especially when the bureau doesnt comment on pending investigations. Hes defending his actions saying he felt he had an obligation to Alert Congress<\/a> to correct that prior testimony he gave but, again, the ig finding fault in all of it saying we found no evidence that comeys decision to send the october, 28 letter was influenced by political preferences but he continued to say we found unpersuasive comeys explanation as to why transparency was more important than department policy. So, again, a scathing criticism there of james comey, but, jake, comey has said in a Statement Today<\/a> that he respects these conclusions that he doesnt thessaly agree. Jake . Jessica schneider, thanks so much. Lets go to the white house where we find pamela proubrown. Today is the president s birthday, we havent heard from him yet directly on twitter. Is the white house indicating that he is the gift he wanted . Well, the white house is certainly seizing on the findings in this Inspector General<\/a> report, no surprise there, jake, with Sarah Sanders<\/a>, the press secretary, coming out during the press briefing today saying that the findings reaffirm the president s suspicions about comey, the former fbi director whom he fired and tweeted about saying he should be thanked for firing him so the white house using this report to further justify the president s actions in firing james comey. Sarah sanders also saying it reaffirms what the president has been saying, that theres political bias within the fbi. Heres what she told reporters. There are a lot of things in this report that not only worry those of us in the administration but should worry a lot of americans that people played this political bias and injected that into a department that shouldnt have any of that. Its worth reiterating while this report was a shark rebuke of james comey as well as the fbi, the report said as you pointed out that james comey was not politically motivated in the decisions he made and it also said there was no evidence political views affected the specific investigative decisions in regards to the Text Exchange<\/a> between peter strzok and lisa page where peter strzok texted that we will stop donald trump from winning the election. Sarah sanders said while she hasnt asked the president about whether peter strzok should be fired from the fbi she believes the answer would be. Pamela brown at the white house. Here for more, Jeffrey Toobin<\/a> and former fbi supervisory agent Josh Campbell<\/a> who working for comey in 2015 and 2017. Lets start with this extraordinary exchange, josh, between they were lovers and fbi colleagues, peter strzok and lisa page in august, 2016, this is after the Hillary Clinton<\/a> investigation ended. Page writes trumps not ever going to become president , right . And strzok replies no, hes not. Well stop it. The Inspector General<\/a> writes its not only indicative of a biased state of mind but applies a willingness to take official action to impact the president ial candidates electoral prospects. This is antithetical to the core values of the fbi and the Justice Department<\/a> of justice. This is a damning report. No question. It was done thoroughly by an independent body whose job is to police those who have these powers. That said and im the first to admit that lisa page and peter strzok i think have caused more damage to the fbis reputation than anyone that i can remember by this bad judgment. That said, within the fbi i dont think that theres any single point of failure so you look at these abhorrent texts, these exchanges in which we have to make sense of what they mean, if youre in the fbi and in a position of authority that strzok or page were in, if you were to attempt to influence an investigation for personal political reasons it wouldnt stand because you would have people up and down the chain of command who would say thats not the investigation we conducted. Thats not the facts that we found. So it looks terrible. Something they need to continue to investigate to determine whether there was influence. The bottom line in reading this report is the Inspector General<\/a> said there wasnt political influence that impacted the investigation but its not a good look for the fbi. Im not sure thats right, josh. Let me tell you why. The Inspector General<\/a> is very specific about he doesnt think theres evidence political bias played a role in everything in chapter 5. Chapter 5 has to do with the Hillary Clinton<\/a> investigation up to the decision to announce in july, 2016, that its over but he guz say that he suspects strzok did have a bias or at least bias played a role when it came to the decision to sit on the weiner laptop. Comey told the office of the Inspector General<\/a> had he known about the laptop in the beginning of october and thought the email review could have been completed before the election it may have affected his decision to notify congress. So heres what happened. Peter strzok, according to the Inspector General<\/a>, sat on the laptop, they find no Persuasive Evidence<\/a> as to why they didnt go into the weiner happen develop. I want to get you to play in this. The only way they look into it is because people in the u. S. S Attorneys Office<\/a> start asking about it, thats what the Inspector General<\/a> says, then they do the warrant, then comey notifies congress, then history is changed. So strzok may have his bias for hillary might have cost hillary the election. Thats why i mean, you know, real life is so complicated. That he could have if he had simply come forward at the beginning and with a reasonable amount of time before the election so comey wouldnt have had to go to congress. As you point out, this is one of the incredible ironies and it was news to me in reading the report that strzok actually wound up helping trump even though he said these now notorious things in these texts, his behavior actually contributed to comeys still frankly to me unbelievable and clearly criticized here decision to make that announcements ten days before the election. Let me ask you and then obviously whatever you want to say. Do you find it plausible that if comey had found out about the laptop, the warrant had been executed at the end of september that he would not have felt the need to go to congress and notify them . Thats a good question. What his mindset was and he said this publicly is he told congress before the investigation was closed and now he felt compelled to tell them thats no longer the truth because we have reopened this investigation. Im the first one to look at what transpired and look with hindsight. We cant change the past but wonder had that laptop been investigated, had that search warrant been obtained Hillary Clinton<\/a> might have been president , probably would have been president because if you look at what happened investigatively, the fbi in a matter of days was able to look at those emails and determine they were duplicates and no longer applicable to the investigation. Let me say one last thing to what you just said because jake your question was did Peter Strzoks<\/a> political motivation cost Hillary Clinton<\/a> the election . Ironically and inadvertently but thats the suggestion being made. I still believe there is no single point of failure in the fbi. I think theres a lot of incompetence here that we need to look into. Well hear from chris wray about what he is doing to right these wrongs but i think this is probably more incompetence than politics playing a role in their decisions. But the paradox of this report is that there are mistakes galore. Oh, yeah. But they dont point in one direction. There are a ton of them. They dont all show that they were helping trump. They dont all show they were helping Hillary Clinton<\/a>. They go in different daexs so you see in the politically polarized environment in which he we live, we see democrats focusing on how the Inspector General<\/a> criticizes comey for holding that News Conference<\/a> for announcing that news ten days before the election. Theres enough in both of these for both camps to find things to criticize. And in fact the report suggests again im reading Inspector General<\/a> doesnt think comey was politically motivated in any decision but he does lean into the idea that i think he uses the phrase comey alone believed he could preserve the reputation of the fbi. He alone believed which gets to the criticism that james comey gets a lot, including on this show, that he has an infatuation with his own sense of integrity. Its been called sanctimonious by some. But his decisions are fair game. You dont step into the position of fbi director with all the responsibility that comes with that and not understand youre going to be criticized for decisions you make. Its been my fate to cover these in all sorts of situations and it seems the mistake that is made is that people make special rules for special cases instead of just following the rules. When the fbi doesnt prosecute someone they shut up, thats the rule. But instead, comey invent this is convoluted justification for holding this News Conference<\/a> and it was, as the Inspector General<\/a> concludes and i agree, a bad idea. If he had simply followed fbi policy i think everybody would have been better off. Jeffrey toobin and Josh Campbell<\/a>, appreciate it. Does the Inspector General<\/a> report benefit President Trump<\/a> or democrats or does it depend on who you ask and what channel you watch . Stay with us. So, we took your shortcut, which was a bad idea. [cougar growling] passenger what are you doing . driver i cant believe that worked. I dropped the keys. burke and we covered it. Talk to farmers, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum im trying to manage my a1c, then i learn type 2 diabetes puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. Can one medicine help treat both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk . I asked my doctor. She told me about noninsulin victoza\u00ae. Victoza\u00ae is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza\u00ae is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. While not for weight loss, victoza\u00ae may help you lose some weight. announcer victoza\u00ae is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take victoza\u00ae if you have a personal or Family History<\/a> of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza\u00ae or any of its ingredients. Stop taking victoza\u00ae and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck or symptoms of a serious allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, difficulty breathing, or swallowing. Serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis. So stop taking victoza\u00ae and call your doctor right away if you have severe pain in your stomach area. Tell your doctor your medical history. Gallbladder problems have happened in some people. Tell your doctor right away if you get symptoms. Taking victoza\u00ae with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, indigestion, and constipation. Side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. Change the course of your treatment. Ask your doctor about victoza\u00ae. Until her laptop her sacrashed this morning. Eks, having it problems . Ask a business advisor how to get on demand tech support for as little as 15 a month. This week get boise case paper for only 29. 99 at office depot office max. Over. Hey, want to try it . Ok here you go. Over. Under. Hey whoa, pop, pop. Your shoes untied. Ensure hes well taken care of, even as you build your own plans for retirement. See how lincoln can help protect your savings from the impact of longterm care expenses at lincolnfinancial. Com. The first survivor of ais out there. Sease and the Alzheimers Association<\/a> is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Visit alz. Org to join the fight. A new Inspector General<\/a> report faulting several fbi officials over how they conducted the Hillary Clinton<\/a> investigation and to a lesser degree donald trump. Let me start with my political panel. Ultimately, do you see this report and its criticisms as helpful to President Trump<\/a> in his battle against the Mueller Investigation<\/a> and the fbi or hurtful or a little of both . I think it helps a bit because there are two sort of battling narratives here. One, as this sort of comey story that the fbi and all of its employees are perfect upstanding citizens and can never do wrong or lie or mislead anyone and to suggest otherwise is insane. Then theres President Trump<\/a>s story which is just that there is a whole cavalcade of bad actors and no one is doing the right thing. The truth is somewhere in the middle. It wont surprise you to find out i think that but i do think the idea that these texts are going back and forth between strzok and page who are not in low levels of two different very important politically charged investigations and dumb in the way theyre communicating their political biases, thats not a good story and its not a republicans pounce story. Just a bad story for the fbi. I was at pandora and i was asked about a cnn commentator whose views i respected even though i frequently disagree and thats Mary Catherine<\/a> hamm and this is why. When we have a situation where the fbi has demonstrated a challenge in treating people with power fairly, whether were talking about Martin Luther<\/a> king or were talking about a situation involving Hillary Clinton<\/a>, james comeys justification being Something Like<\/a> shes going to win anyway, its ridiculous. Rules have to be the rules across the board. Jeffrey toobin made that point, i think its a profound point and at some point governmental agencies are going to have to apply the rules the same to every actor regardless of the power in which they hold. I think thats a great point, Mary Catherine<\/a>, i agree. Niamalika, do you agree . Does this help trump in his argument against the fbi . I think it does. Those very easy to read easy to understand Text Messages<\/a> between lisa page and peter strzok, this idea that shes nervous about a Trump Presidency<\/a> and he says we wont let it happen, well stop it. So we havent heard from the president yet, i think people are wondering what hes going to tweet. But you can imagine, its his 72nd birthday. This is a good gift for him we heard Sarah Sanders<\/a> saying this reaffirms some of their concerns and i think this is a good day. I also think theres something for everyone here. If youre a democrat you look at this and you say james comey did act inappropriately and you can also perhaps argue that his actions cost Hillary Clinton<\/a> the election. Shes argued that in the last days, that october 28 memo to congress saying that the investigation was going to be reopened into the weiner emails, you can argue that cost her some of her support cratered in those last days, at least according to some of the pollsters. So i think no one there wont be a lot of agreement here. If you look at what happens out of the mueller probe, you imagine theres never going to be a real consensus about this and that people are going to be arguing about this for decades. The one thing that is clear and the Inspector General<\/a> finds fault with the decisions of a lot of people is the former attorney general Loretta Lynch<\/a> and her politeness when former president s bill clinton on a tarmac in arizona walked over to her airplane and got on the plane even though doj was investigating his wife Hillary Clinton<\/a> at the time. I asked Loretta Lynch<\/a> about that. Looking back, do you wish that when hi came over you said we really shouldnt talk, it would be inappropriate and hello and goodbye . So as ive said at the time, i think days after that meeting i regretted not seeing that issues and not seeing around that corner. I wish i had seen around that corner and not had that discussion with the former president as innocuous as it was it made people wonder if its going affect the investigation. Thats not something that was an unreasonable question. The Inspector General<\/a> concluded they couldnt find any evidence that they talked about the case but the Inspector General<\/a> said attorney general lynchs failure to recognize the appearance problem created by former president clintons visit and to take action to cut the visit short was an error in judgment. Her efforts to exrespond to the meeting by explaining her role in the investigation Going Forward<\/a> created public confusion and did not adequately address the situation. Angela rye, bill clinton and Loretta Lynch<\/a> in some ways set this in motion . I think the optics are problematic but were revisiting this so many months after the election and the Inspector General<\/a> has concluded the same thing that highlevel Campaign Officials<\/a> concluded. I dont know what this does to advance the narrative or change the culture of the fbi or department of justice overall. And in this regard using their power to influence the outcome of something its not much different from donald trump and for all of the hillary supporters out there, im not saying there the same, but im saying the way in which power has used too late, twitter is going crazy. The way power is use it can get hazy and it confuses people who dont have access to that same power. Stick around. Well talk about the trumps next. Donald trump and his kids sued by the new York Attorney<\/a> general accused of using the Trump Foundation<\/a> as their own personal piggy bank. Stay with us. Ot dog suit. What . Wheres that coming from . I dont know. I started my 401k early, i diversified. Im not a big spender. Sounds like youre doing a lot. But i still feel like im not gonna have enough for retirement. Like theres Something Else<\/a> i should be doing. With the right conversation, you might find youre doing okay. So, no hot dog suit . Not unless you want to. No. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session<\/a> today with td ameritrade\u00ae. Touch shows how we really feel. But does psoriasis ever get in the way . Embrace the chance of 100 clear skin with taltz. Up to 90 of those with moderate to severe psoriasis had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. Most people were still clearer after one year. With taltz, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. Dont use if youre allergic to taltz. Before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. Taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. Inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Ready for a chance at 100 clear skin . Ask your doctor about taltz. You shouldnt be rushed into booking a hotel. With expedias addon advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. Addon advantage. Only when you book with expedia. Addon advantage. Hey, im curious about your Social Security<\/a> alerts. Oh well alert you if we find your Social Security<\/a> number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so youll be in the know. Ewww being in the know is very good. Dont shake ahhh sign up online for free. Discover Social Security<\/a> alerts. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. And with twice the detail of other tests. It can show dad where hes from. And strengthen the bonds you share. Give dad ancestrydna for just 69 our lowest fathers day price ever. For just 69 i need a new phone. Aww. You two should get the new iphone. And you deserve to get it on the best network, verizon. And i deserve to be the ring bearer. Oh, sorry. vo switch now. Buy the latest iphone and get iphone 8 on us. Only on verizon. Almost 800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey oh, thats my robe. Is it . When you switch to liberty mutual, you could save 782 on auto and home insurance. And still get great coverage for you and your family. Call for a free quote today. You could save 782 when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. The first survivor of ais out there. Sease and the Alzheimers Association<\/a> is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Visit alz. Org to join the fight. President trump is coming out swinging, attacking new york prosecutors who dropped a new lawsuit on him today. Happy birthday. Many president. The states attorney general is suing donald trump and his three oldest children, don jr. , ivanka and eric trump claim thing they repeatedly and illegally used the Trump Foundation<\/a> charity to benefit their father, his businesses and his 2016 campaign. The new York Attorney<\/a> general says the Trump Foundation<\/a> was little more than a checkbook for payments for mr. Trump. Among the many complaints the Trump Foundation<\/a> used tax deductible donations to settle legal claims against his maralago resort. It alleges before the Iowa Caucuses<\/a> in 2016 then candidate donald trump skipped the last republican primary debate and made a big show of putting together a fundraiser to benefit veterans organizations. The new york ag claims that event was set up and run by the Trump Campaign<\/a> although theoretically the foundation was supposed to be doing it. The foundation called the lawsuit politics at its worst and President Trump<\/a> tweeted the sleazy new york democrats and their disgraced attorney general er Eric Schneiderman<\/a> are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in 18 million and gave out more money than it took in. I wont settle this case. Lets bring back the panel. This is a civil case not criminal meaning the president might be forced to fight this in court. Niamalika, i think its clear these charges are ugly but confusing. And some of this about the Charitable Foundation<\/a> and its giving, there was reporting done during the campaign. If youre the president you are worried there will be a discovery phase and everything but i think it underline what is we knew about the campaign, about fishiness with his campaign, his foundation. If the charitable money was mixed with his business so this is something well find out. One of the things thats clear in the complaint is that Political Activities<\/a> are not supposed to be part of a Foundation Like<\/a> this and without question President Trump<\/a> used the Trump Foundation<\/a> for Political Activities<\/a> when he was running around in iowa giving out these big checks at campaign events. I mean, its i dont think its any serious joil time or anything but he was violating the law. Yes if what is in this is true then this is a problem and its unseemly at best and then you have in the black and white from lewandowski in emails requesting funds to be dispersed so thats a problem. The issue is whether in the grand scheme of trumpdom it sticks, right . Even if any of it is true, what does that come to in the end because because of this was much of it was reported on during the campaign and is sort of unsurprising even though im not excited about it. Angela, what do you make of it small the truth of the matter is that people might hear about this case and they might hear some of it or think, oh, he gave this much to charity, gave that much to charity, who cares if it came out of this foundation or that foundation . I think that there are some other folks who will ask questions in this case and it will cause doubt in the minds of those people because they know donald trump never released his tax returns to so to niamalikas point about whats discover bkovcoverable for the this civil suit, will they have to prove hes charitable and well finally get to see the tax returns . If you are dirty money donald trump then this just reeks of the similar ways in which youve handled money. You filed bankruptcy to enrich yourself, youve had deals for your daughter while youre serving as commanderinchief perhaps violating ethics rules, you have a pattern and practice of being greedy and using things around you, including your campaign, to enrich your business. Those are things that have been discussed, asked, answered, and argued and yet again were seeing they may have also used their foundation designed by nature to benefit people are less than to enrich themselves again. One of the other things, niamalika, that is in this lawsuit is that President Trump<\/a>s maralago resort in a settlement with palm beach agreed to give money to charity but maralago didnt give money to charity, the Trump Foundation<\/a> gave money to charity. If the facts are as they are presented, he did things he wasnt supposed to do. We knew there was a comingling of campaign of businesses so well see so we dont know where this is going to go. We dont know what the stance of this white house is going to be. This is a political witchhunt by people out to undermine and get the president. The president said he will never settle this but he also said that about the Trump University<\/a> case which he did settle to more than 20 million. Tense moments during the White House Briefing<\/a> after the attorney general invokes the bible to defend the separation of children from their parents as they cross the border illegally. Stay with us. Let someone else do the heavy lifting. Tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. So you barely have to lift a finger. Or a wing. Tripadvisor. Im a small business, but i have. Big dreams. And big plans. So how do i make the efforts of 8 employees. Feel like 50 . How can i share new plans virtually . How can i download an efile . Virtual tours . Zipfile . Really big files . In seconds, not minutes. Just like that. Like everything. The answer is simple. Ill do what ive always done. Dream more, dream faster, and above all. Now, ill dream gig. Now more businesses, in more places, can afford to dream gig. Comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. A Fiery Exchange<\/a> at the White House Briefing<\/a> room over immigration. When pressed by cnns jim acosta, Sarah Sanders<\/a> defended the policy separating children from their parents as they cross the board eer illegally. The policy to take children away from their parents. Its a policy to follow and enforce the law. Jim theyre with their parents and then theyre pulled away from their parents. Why is the government doing this . Because its the law and thats what the law states. You dont have to do that. Youre right, it doesnt have to be the law and the president has called on democrats in congress to fix those loopholes. The democrats have failed to come to the table. Many immigrant boys were taken from their parents and are being housed in a walmart superstore in brownsville, texas. Ed lavandera explains what its like inside the facility. Reporter the shelter is clean, equipped with recreation yards, televisions and games, a long line of boys age 10 to 17 were waiting to eat dinner. The bare bedrooms with no doors sleep up to five children. This is the first glimpse inside the more than 100 Detention Centers<\/a> that houses undocumented children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a highly controversial Trump Administration<\/a> policy. Bob ortega was part of a small group of journalists allowed to tour the center. There wasnt anything about it that strikes you as unsafe or as dirty or as horrible at the same time. But these kids dont have a choice about being there. Theyre detained. Theres a strangeness to the facility, the facility used to be a walmart. Its sparsely decorated. There are murals featuring president s like jimmy carter, euleulysses grant and barack ob. But the first is donald trump that has a quote that says sometimes by losing the battle, you win the war. In more than 100 shelters across the states there are more than 11,000 undocumented immigrant children living in Detention Centers<\/a> according to the office of refugee resettlement. Twice a day, nearly 2400 undocumented immigrants are bussed into the federal courthouse in the texas border town of mcallen. Since the zero tolerance policy went into effect last month, a public defender says more than 500 families have been separated. Its really hard to look in the eye of a mother or father who will plead for you help me get my child back. Reporter activists and attorneys say they spoke to people who were misled by authorities before being separated and one activist told the story of one immigrant that has sparked sharp anger across the country. One of the women that i interviewed today told me she was breastfeeding her daughter when the government took her daughter from her and when she resisted she said that was when they put handcuffs on her. Reporter a Customs Border<\/a> official says nothing could be further from the truth and the allegations are unsubstantiated. The zero tolerance policy has been celebrated by the Trump Administration<\/a> as necessary to discourage illegal immigration. Earlier today. Republican House Speaker<\/a> paul ryan says changes are needed. Are you comfortable with the current zero tolerance policy leading to parents and children being separated at the border . No, im not. This is because of a court ruling and so this i do think ought to be addressed. We believe it should be addressed in immigration legislation. And jake, the Trump Administration<\/a> has been under criticism for the Catholic Church<\/a> and just a short while ago attorney general Jeff Sessions<\/a> issued a biblical defense of the administrations immigration policy referencing the apostle paul in a speech and said that though his wise commands taught to obey the laws of the government because god has ordain it had government for his purposes. He went on to say criticism of his policy is not fair and not logical. Jake . Ed lavandera live near the border. Thank you so much. Republicans and conservatives were outraged when president obama bowed to the saudi king. Now theyre condemning President Trump<\/a> saluting a north korea general. Just kidding. Stay with us. Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. Until her laptop her sacrashed this morning. Eks, having it problems . Ask a business advisor how to get on demand tech support for as little as 15 a month. This week get boise case paper for only 29. 99 at office depot office max. Metastatic Breast Cancer<\/a> is relentless, but im relentless too. Mbc doesnt take a day off, and neither will i. And i treat my mbc with new everyday verzenio the only one of its kind that can be taken every day. In fact, verzenio is a cdk4 6 inhibitor for postmenopausal women with hr , her2 mbc, approved, with hormonal therapy, as an everyday treatment for a relentless disease. Verzenio an ai is proven to help women have significantly more time without disease progression, and more than half of women saw their tumors shrink vs an ai. Diarrhea is common, may be severe, and may cause dehydration or infection. Before taking verzenio, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection. Verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. Serious liver problems can occur. Symptoms may include tiredness, loss of appetite, stomach pain, and bleeding or bruising more easily than normal. Blood clots that can lead to death have also occurred. Talk to your doctor right away if you notice pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain or rapid breathing or heart rate. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. Common side effects include nausea, infections, low red and white blood cells and platelets, decreased appetite, headache, abdominal pain, tiredness, vomiting, and hair thinning or loss. Im relentless. And my doctor and i choose to treat my mbc with verzenio. Be relentless. Ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. Be relentless. When i first came to ocean bay, what i saw was despair. I knew something had to be done. Hurricane sandy really woke people up, to showing that we need to invest in this community. I knew having the right partner we could turn this place around. It was only one bank that could finance a project this difficult and this large, and that was citi. Preserving Affordable Housing<\/a> preserves communities. So we are doing their kitchens and their flooring and their lobbies and the grounds. And the beautification of their homes, giving them pride in where they live, will make this a Thriving Community<\/a> once again. He is a killer. Hes a smart guy. Hes a great negotiator. But i think we understand each other. But hes done some really bad things. Yeah. But so have a lot of other people done some really bad things. Kim jongun. A very smart guy. Today the white house defended the president s praise of north Korean Leader<\/a> kim jongun, the leader whos ordered the executions of members of his own family, who starves his own people, who puts tens of thousands of political dissidents into camps, who essentially killed a young american, otto warmbier. Hes a tough guy, the president says, a very smart guy. Angela rye, i want to start with you. This week President Trump<\/a> called kim funny, smart, a great negotiator, talented. Why do you think he is saying these things and not calling out the atrocities publicly . Is it because he wants the denuclearization deal . I think he may not know, jake. Just as we saw him salute the general like he just i think he may not know protocol, he may not be reading briefing documents and unfortunately he makes for a very embarrassing commanderinchief. I think our reality is donald trump calls things tough that many of us including kids we might mentor or who may be our own call bullies. I think of people who are resilient and have overcome tremendous oppression and struggle and for whatever reason that doesnt resonate with donald trump. What resonates are people who make it impossible and hard. I think he may admire the fact this person is a dictator and thats a platform he doesnt have in this country thanks to democracy. Heres the white house on the president s praise today. Thats a factual statement. A lot of people have done some bad things however the president hasnt ignored the bad things that have been done by the north korean regime. Hes called it out on a number of occasions and he brought it up at the summit. Mary katherine, what do you make of the praise that the president is lavishing kim jongun with as well as the salute when he saw the north korean general salute him, he saluted back. I think its two things. I think he does want the deal and he likes people who like him and as angela was referencing he has a moral blind spot for guys who are strong men so that combines to give you this behavior. On the salute, he was returning the salute not initiating it but the people mad about obama saluting with a coffee cup in his hand or bowing to so and so would 100 be mad about this if it were obama doing that and thats important to note but i think the bigger issue is at the state of the union when he had a defector from north korea there and spoke about him it was a moment of moral clarity. It was very nice to see and hes had those along the way but then theyre all out the window when hes negotiating. Whether that gets you anything, im willing to give him leeway because this is a generationslong problem that we havent tackled doing what weve been doing but youre giving north korea a ton of propaganda fodder here. And niamalika there is decades of quotes from President Trump<\/a> praising horrific oppressing dictators. Ren when he said at the time he referred to the chinese leaders putting down the Tiananmen Square<\/a> protests, the massacre, he called them strong. And even more recently the leader of the philippines, hes praised him and hes someone whos basically had extrajudicial killings of drug dealers and the president on the phone call with him said sort of congratulated him far approach. This is a pattern. If youre kim jongun, you know this about this president , you know he responds to flattering. You are probably a bit surprised at how effusive the praise was but you expected that it would be used in propaganda. Thats why they invited him. They knew based on his history, based on the things hes said and hes sort of a cheap date in some ways. If you flatter him, you get good things. Thanks one and all. Chickfila franchises, used mattresses, 24 7 security, expensive hand lotion sought out by security, a special phone booth, i could keep going. Have Scott Pruitts<\/a> scandals reached a Tipping Point<\/a> . Stay with us. Whats Critical Thinking<\/a> like . A basketball costs 14. Whats team spirit worth . cheers whats it worth to talk to your mom . Whats the value of a walk in the woods . The value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. Morgan stanley the first survivor of ais out there. Sease and the Alzheimers Association<\/a> is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Visit alz. Org to join the fight. I think, keep going, and make a difference. At some point, we are going to be able to beat als. Because life is amazing. So i am hoping for a cure. I want this, to uh, to be a reality. Um, yeah. In our politics lead, et tu, in hin hin hinge ingraham . Long under fire from environmentalist, scott pruitt face faces people getting fed up with the scandals. If that doesnt stop, ill be forced to be in a position where i say scott, youre not doing your job. That criticism from oklahoma senator jim inhofe came on Laura Ingrahams<\/a> show. She also went after pruitt. Hes hurting the president because he has im sorry, bad judgment after bad judgment after bad judgment. Reporter ingraham tweeted pruitts got to go. His list of controversies is long, including questions about his pricey travel, unprecedented security, controversial raises to aides and overall questionable spending. The latest allegation, reports the Government Employees<\/a> job hunted for his wife and among the jobs they tried to help her get a chickfila franchise. Using his staff to find a job for his wife is something outover order but i wont draw conclusions on that but i have a different feeling today than i had yesterday on that part of it. Reporter republican senator Chuck Grassley<\/a> from iowa is already upset over pruitts decision that favor oil over cornbased ethanol. An issue that drew protesters when pruitt made what should have been a friendly visit to a farm in south dakota this week. We welcome if hes ready to give us e15 year round otherwise hes not welcome. Hes undermined our industry. Reporter but amidst all of pruitts bad news, President Trump<\/a> still has his back. Scott pruitt is doing a great job within the walls of the epa. Were setting records. Outside hes being attacked viciously by the press and im not saying hes blameless but well see what happens. Reporter a bit of a shift in the language coming from the white house today, jake. When press secretary Sarah Sanders<\/a> was asked at her Daily Briefing<\/a> she said this about pruitt there are areas of concern. Jake . Sara ganim, thanks so much. Be sure to follow me on facebook jaketapper. You can tweet the show thelead cnn. Thats it. I turn you over to mr. Wolf blitzer in the situation room. Thanks for watching. Happening now, breakig news. Blame but no biegas. A blistering report by a department of justice watchdog says former fbi director james comey deviated from Department Norms<\/a> at handling the clinton email probe but was not acting out of bias. Why does the report say key officials cast a cloud over the bureau . The director responds, were standing by for a live News Conference<\/a> by christopher wray. Will he announce stepped to repair the bureaus damaged reputation . Suing the president. New yorks attorney general sues President Trump<\/a> and three of his children alleging illegal conduct by the Trump Foundation<\/a> and saying the president used the charity to settle legal claims that promote his businesses. And north korean spin. Kim jonguns regime puts its own spin","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia600202.us.archive.org\/33\/items\/CNNW_20180614_200000_The_Lead_With_Jake_Tapper\/CNNW_20180614_200000_The_Lead_With_Jake_Tapper.thumbs\/CNNW_20180614_200000_The_Lead_With_Jake_Tapper_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240617T12:35:10+00:00"}