Dastardly enemy, and anyone who questions that, is probably a tool of Vladimir Putin and therefore, a traitor to our country. One current member of the House Intelligence Committee put it this way. Why were the russians in the white house . And i mean that seriously. They had just attacked our democracy. They are being there is exactly what we have all feared all along, is that donald trump would Say Something to them that is not really in line with u. S. Policy. They are not our friends. We should share nothing more than pleasantries, certainly not National Security secrets. Tucker congresswoman stephanie murphy, a democrat from florida, went a step further than this. She demanded the u. S. Government stop speaking to russia at all in any way. There is no such thing as appropriate contact with a hostile foreign government. No word on whether she applied that same standard to barack obama recent deal with communist cuba. Nobody is arguing here, even aTrump Administration, that rush is a close ally of ours about the putin government is rooting for america success. Theyre probably not. But when a country goes from being an afterthought, as russia was just recently, to the target of war drums, as it is now, it all changes in a single election cycle, as it has, its fair to ask, what exactly is going on . Almost certainly more than meets the eye, probably a lot more. If you live in washington, you know for a fact that there is a lot happening behind the scenes. The press out to be asking questions about this. But they havent. Instead, theyve attacked anyone who does. Not on this show. With those questions hanging in the air, we are joined by one of the very few people in the country who might credibly answer them. He is Stephen Cohen prayed for decades, he taught and researched russian politics at e joins us tonight. Professor cohen, thanks a lot for coming on. To start with the first of these two stories, the president is accused of passing critical intelligence to the russians in a meeting at the white house. I think two motives have driven this, i think im a false narrative against trump, that he is somehow a kremlin agent. Two forces. One is the clinton wing of the democratic party, which doesnt want to admit she lost the election, wants to say, i, clinton won, but put in and stole it from me. Then, maybe she wants to run again. I think that is the possibility. At the same time, there has long been in washington, a powerful, lets call it, the Fourth Branch of government. The intelligence services, who have opposed any cooperation with russia. Remember, and 2016, president obama worked out a deal with russian president putin for Military Cooperation in syria. He said he was going to share intelligence with russia, just the way trump on the russians were supposed to do the other day. Our department of defense, they wouldnt share intelligence. A few days later, they killed syrian soldiers, violating the agreement, and that was the end
financially, politically, or, ts catering to them . Tucker in other words, people are upset about russia, there must be something there because they are upset and therefore, we should be upset. Mathematicians have finally found the perfect circle and it lies in Nancy Pelosis logic. Joe manchin joins us tonight. Senator, thanks for coming on. You brought into this. What did you make first off, what are Professor Cohen just said. He believes that president trumps Foreign Policy objectives, syria for example, were thwarted by members of his administration, staff working in the agencies, who disagreed with him . I can go back, i was listening to the hole into for you had with him. He goes back basically, we shouldnt be talking to russians, other powers of the world. Russia is the only country that can do any harm to the United States of america. It is foolish not to think that we should try to build a relationship with them. Tucker they are the only country that can do harm . They have basically the
missile capability to do harm to the United States. I have asked that question many times on armed services. Which country is capable of doing harm to us . Russia. Not turning out, not north korea, as much as they are trying and want to. Russia has the ability within Nuclear Weapons to do harm. So, you have to have the report. You have to have some type of communication. Tucker sure, but dont we also have common interests . Most certainly. Pushing the button on both sides. Tucker my question is look, i think there is probably a balanced view of russia, you recognize they are a threat militarily but they also can be an ally in the fight against terror, a Massive Energy producer, we could benefit from a relationship with them. When did we become so evil that talking to them is itself inactive tucker, I Dont Think Tucker has ever been our ally. I dont think they have our best interest. Basically, we know the hacking that has gone on, we know the intensity of the hacking this last election. But there is no proof that anything changed. President trump won by 43 in West Virginia. I can assure you, they couldnt have altered that outcome. Tucker you dont think the russians were involved in a boating in West Virginia at all . I dont think wheat they were involved in the outcome. We have seen no proof that their intention to be involved to change the outcome of the election. With that being said, we know they have attempted more, dunmore, put more effort. The trolls and Everything Else that is going on, the hacking that is going on, all of these things, and basically, something that we should accept or allow whatsoever. Tucker as you know, since you live and work here, this is shoving down our government. I think the Trump Administration is partly to blame. I think his conduct is unflattering. Basically, it has ground everything to a halt because of this Russia Question. I just wonder if voters are in favor of that. Like your voters . Today think this is more important on coal jobs . I dont like it is going to
get to a halt. If you want to see a halt, it was ground to a halt under the Obama Administration basically because of mitch having the power to grounded to a halt. Two wrongs dont make a right. Im the first to tell you that. I didnt like what happened the last eight years, the last four years that i was there. Now, what is happening today. Tucker i for democrats of it they wont vote on fbi director. Until we get an independent investigation of russia. First of all, i think it is important that we have a special prosecutor. Some people dont believe that. I respect that. The bottom line is, we stop in government, give me a good sip, centrist, as far as an fbi director, doesnt have any political ties, we should vote for him. Tucker regardless. Thats mine. I am doing my own thing, which i always am. Tucker im not saying that the Russia Question should be ignored. I dont know what is at the bottom of it. I dont think anybody else. I resent people pretending they do when they dont. Lets look into it. Is it more important than the stated goals of the administration or the Opioid Crisis in your state . Russia seems like the most important by far to the democrats right now. The report that came out this morning, todays a bad day. We have been hearing things hour upon hour. I am on the Intelligence Committee and i have said this. There are 19 people privilege to testify information at that level, supposedly, that is that. We are told early on if you discuss this, you can discuss it with her colleagues and no one else, staff, nobody. So, we dont talk about things, youre not supposed talk about things. If we do, will get thrown out the committee. If its serious enough of what we were veal, then, could be federal charges. I take that very seriously. The president operates under a different set of rules than we do. Tucker Executive Branch employees, everything we are talking about now is the result of leaks presumably by people who work for donald trump, Career Employees i would bet,
who are leaking this stuff and basically making it impossible to govern. My recommendation would be this. I would like to visit all of our intel sites and to meet with all of our intel people, they are the rest of the world by the need to have some type of correlational relationship, a dialogue. The president need to patch this up. We have the best and we have people, basically our allies around the world, tucker, that have gone to battle with us, they have fought with us, they have died tucker are you suggesting that trump is getting leaked on, basically you should create a personal relationship with people who work in the intelligence community. They are professionals. Tucker civilian control of government, they should do what he asks or leave, is another way it works . These are career professionals. Tucker shouldnt they be accountable . They are accountable to the country. Everybody who take that oath is accountable to the country. The country comes first. There is no person, the president , me or anybody else, the country comes first. Tucker of course. Im dressing under my system, their bosses the guy who they elect. They have to obey him because he was elected by voters. They werent. So, when they ignore him they are doing their job day in and day out. Thank got for that. They are basically monitoring and talking with our other allies, gathering information that keeps america safe. Tucker the elected guy gets to set the policies. They dont. Do they . He can set them. He can set the policies but they have to enforce it, they have to follow through. The end policy, i would think im of the policy would be the same. Collect all the information, possible. Prevented from doing us harm. Who are our allies around the world . Because people are trusted afraid we put people in harms way . What came out today put could put in all a lot of people in harms way. We are concerned about that. Tucker senator, thanks. Abu comey memo, could this just be the latest case of a lot of people in washington going too far too fast . Brit hume here to tell us what we know and what we dont and what we can speculate about. Plus, Hillary Clinton has launched a new Political Action committee. What happened to the Clinton Foundation, by the way . We will talk to the author of clinton pac just ahead. I accept i take easier trails than i used to. I even accept i have a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of Irregular Heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. But no matter what path i take, i go for my best. So if theres Something Better than warfarin,
ill go for that too. Eliquis. Eliquis reduced the risk of stroke better than warfarin, plus had less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis had both. Dont Stop Taking Eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an Artificial Heart Valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Im still going for my best. And for eliquis. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Tucker every day seems to bring a new story about brush our dreams call me or the president s ice cream preferences, and the press grabs every single one like its the worst scandal since watergate. But if every single story as watergate but if any story as watergate . If so, what story is watergate. Brit hume covered watergate and he joins us tonight. Brit, i cannot resist replaying the piece of tape that we played in the previous segment, from earlier today on another network. There is a guy on there called carl higbie, a former seal, how to mount here before. He is trying to make the point to the panel that Anonymous Sources are not always right. We should be skeptical about that. Here is how the anchor responded on that show. Watch this. Two former officials knowledgeable of the situation confirmed for cn on the main points of the story. Two former officials, ill tell you what, come on, name those people, then, well have something to talk about. One, we protect sources, two, sinatra cnn,
the Washington Post, new york times, wall street journal, cnn, abc who are the sources . Carl. Who are the sources . They are hiding behind this anonymity. Please you are going to attack sources you are saying mcmaster is lying . Im not saying mcmaster is lying that is his opinion. You cannot attack the stellar reporters on cnn tucker we dont know if she bit him in a commercial break which he was moving into that direction. [laughs] what struck me, whatever you think of carl higbies views, he is raising the possibility that maybe there are questions raining. That is not acceptable. It is always legitimate to question Anonymous Sources. Sometimes, we in journalism have to use them because there is no other way to get the information, and we depend on our own judgment and integrity as to how credible they are. We try if we are professional about it, to be careful that our own biases are not making us
likely to believe things that suit our preferences. But if you are an anchor and somebody is critical of the use of Anonymous Sources, it you dont start shouting and shaking your finger in the persons face. Tucker part of it is, she felt he was attacking their correspondents, but not just their correspondence, the idea that anybody would dare question the received wisdom at the moment, is that trump is a tool of putin, there is some horrifying buried treasure underneath all of us. Questioning that is like a sin. I just wonder where the press all the way saturn became the group enforcing certainty, rather than asking questions. We are in the most poisonous Media Atmosphere i think that any president in my lifetime has ever experienced. This is way beyond what we saw, even with nixon, for much of the time, even though he was cordially hated on the left end and much of the media. Certainly, george w. Bush was detested by the media to a great
extent. But nothing like this. Nothing like barack obama was hated on the right but not to this extent. This is beyond anything i have seen before. Now, the problem for trump is, of course, he is unfamiliar with how to operate in this atmosphere. The people around him dont seem how to do it. The reagan people know they were in a hostile Media Atmosphere because he was so conservative. But they were seasoned that they knew how to compensate for it. Its not fair, its not fair that trump should have to do that. But you do have to do it. As part of the skill of the presidency and part one of the tools you have to have. You have to know how to plan for that, you have to know how things will be received, which is why, if you are in the white house, and there is an investigation of someone close to you, as into the case of general flynn, its a bad idea to say to the fbi director, even though you feel sympathy for the person under investigation, and even all you are really asking the fbi director is, can you
can we see our way clear . The way it was quoted, see our way clear to end that . That is not in order to stop the investigation. And we now have sworn testimony since then from the deputy fbi director that there have been no effort to impede the investigation. So, it appears that comey heard this, responded noncommittally, and the investigation went forward. This was unwise of the president to do this, if, in fact, he did. But its not the biggest thing that ever happened. It is not worthy of the allday firestorm we have the all Evening Firestorm we have been living and now all evening on this. That we have been living through. It is just, we dont know enough about it, we dont have the actual memo, we dont have the full context, we dont know how comey took it except to say that we knew that he said basically he understood that flynn was a pretty good guy, left it at that. He didnt seem to be under a lot of pressure to end the
investigation. Of course, there is a problem when you fire an fbi agent, you better prepare the way. Its a good idea to have a successor, appointee ready to go, someone everybody can trust. For two reasons. One, its the right thing to do, take the focus off the departing person. And if the person is credible, the focus has become the confirmation of that person. This is clumsy. Hamhanded. Its you have to be proved to me that it was corrupt. Tucker why humiliate people on the way out . Almost always . Is just bad judgment. Tucker brit hume, thank you for joining us. New york City Counselor wants to create a new law targeting a trump golf course in an effort to make the president release his tax returns for the Lawmaker Rule be here to explain how the law will work, the next
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