States ordered wiretapping of his Campaign Last year. I dont know if its true or not, but if it is true, illegally, it would be the biggest political scandal since watergate. Senator graham went on to say if the Obama Administration was able to secure a warrant to wiretap, that would be concerning because it meant there was a reason the court would allow it. Meanwhile, heres what congressman mole ton who sits on the Armed ServicesCommittee Told thomas robertss this morning. I dont want to speculate on this one tweet from a president who is a serial liar. He gets up every day and lie to the American People. If under the Obama Administration they were simply monitoring contacts with russian officials, not trying to wiretap into the Trump Campaign, but looking at who russian officials were talking with and the Trump Campaign officials got ensnared in that net, then its a totals mischaracterization to say that president obama was wiretapping trump. No, we were just protecting our own National Security. President trump also made an attempt to tie president obama to the fallout over meetings attorney general sessions and some of his top aides had with the Russian Ambassador. He tweeted the first meeting sessions had was set up by the Obama Administration under Education Program for 100 ambassadors. And this tweet, just out, the same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times and four times last year alone. Lets go to kasie hunt in west palm beach, florida. I know youve been working all day to find out the baches sis these tweets. What more can you tell us . Reporter at this point there is no evidence that what the president has tweeted this morning, these accusations that you just walked through, have any basis in fact. There has been a Breitbart News summary of a conservative radio show circulating among officials, and that is of course we know the president occasionally reads checks in with right wing media to, as he set about his day to day business. But again, at this point we dont have any evidence that the Obama Administration wiretapped trump tower. Ben rhodes, former white house official with the Obama Administration, National Security official, tweeting this morning no president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. A little bit of a jab there at President Trump. Now, we do know that from nbc news reporting that the Justice Department is investigating trump contacts, Trump Campaign contacts, with russians. We have not reported what the New York Times and some other outlets have reported, that theyre investigating contacts between the Trump Campaign and russian officials. Its a key and important distinction. But what could be generated in an investigation like that are information from fisa warrants. They would be monitors of communication between foreign agents and others. So typically for example that may be how we know about mike flynn and his conversations with the Russian Ambassador because it would be relatively standard procedure to be monitoring the communications that the Russian Ambassador was having and that u. S. Persons could get swept up in Something Like this. Now, fox news also discussed this yesterday. Bret baier the host asked paul ryan what he knew about potential wiretaps. Take a listen. There is a report june 2016, a fisa request by the Obama AdministrationForeign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor communications involving donald trump and several other Campaign Officials, and then they get turned down. And then in october, they renew and they do start a wiretap at trump tower with some computer and russian banks. And it doesnt show up anything by reporting. Have you heard that . Well, again, and like i said, none of us in congress or anybody i know has been presented with evidence to the contrary of what you just said. Reporter so ryan is saying there is nothing contrary to what bret baier said, but again, not confirming it himself. And at this point again nbc news does not have confirmation that these warrants were issued or that wires were tapped. Is there any prospect at any of us finding out . Obviously that sound bite is very intriguing frankly. Reporter yeah, and actually it goes on as well, though, to say the House Speaker says ive not seen any evidence of this. So this is very diffilt to nail down. Remember, this would not be that the president himself would order a wiretap. This is something that the fobi department of justice would ask for. And like i said, weve reported this investigation is happening. The question is what is jim comey telling congress specifically the house and Senate Intelligence committees about whether that investigation does exist, is he confirming it. And then what information about it is he providing. Democrats have gone out in public in recent days to say that they dont think that the fbi director is giving them enough information about what they have learned through the course of any investigation that they may be undergoing. Senator from delaware chris coons oig not on the intelligence committee, but he still raised the issue with Andrea Mitchell in an enter true yesterd interview yesterday where he said there may be transcripts out there that show potential russians talking to campaign associate, i want to see those transcri transcripts. And andrea pressed him does that mean you believe these transcripts exhibit and he said yes. Again, a giant piz he will auzz trying to piece together. So i apologize that were getting in to these detailed nuance ways of looking at this, but when we have these broad assertions that we completely cant back up from the president , looking at all these individual puzzle pieces is really important. Youre right, the details matter. And i picture people up all night working on that puzzle. So thank you. Moments ago, Lindsey Graham addressed hundreds on the campus of clemson university. And yet another contentious town hall meeting. Im going to try to help our president , donald trump, be successful as possible because number one, i agree with him mostly. And id like to get this country moving again. I want to repeal and replace obamacare because i think its broken. Lets go to vaughn hillyard, hes there. I understand the senator was also asked about the president s tweets this morning. What did he say . Reporter this is what its gotten to. Only five republicans to date five republican senators that have actually held these town halls. Lindsey graham just yapp wrappe. And before any questions even came, he addressed the tweets right off the top. Wooel we have the sound. If the former president of the United States was able to obtainawfully to monitor Trumps Campaign for violating the law, that would be the biggest scandal since watergate. Im very worried that our president is suggesting that the former president has done something illegally. I would be very worried if in fact the Obama Administration was able to obtain a warrant lawfully about Trump Campaign activity with foreign governments. Reporter as you saw, this crowd was overwhelmingly democrat or i should say antitrump. Lindsey graham said there is a lot of liberals here in the crowd for South Carolina. But this was a done serconserva direct. It went 3 1 for donald trump. But what they did, people came in and any put their questions into a box and then they were randomly pulled out. Five different questions asked about trumps tax returns. Here is one off of those responses. We can subpoena his tax returns. I will do that when i believe there is a reason to do that. And this when you heard everybody erupt and shouts of russia. He said he will introduce legislation that would require in 2020 any president ial candidate which if donald trump is running for reelection would apply to him that they would have to at that time turnover their tax returns. But the senator from South Carolina got questions ranging from russia to health care. On the health care front, Lindsey Graham from the stage he was asked multiple times about health care and where we got from over the course of last week is the fact of what is it the replacement plan look like. House of representatives put together a draft plan. Is it the replacement plan look like. House of representatives put together a draft plan. Lindsey graham said exactly that, be he said i have not seen it. And over my dead body will i say i didnt do any bill that i have not actually read. He said that was the same thing that we gave the democrats and president barack obama about already time about eight years ago. He said its important as republicans to have a say. And there has been talk that its a take it or leave it approach, that republicans in the house are presenting to those in the senate. And Lindsey Graham said again over hisdead body. He wants to engage in that conversation. So again, a theater of 1,000. People were lined up since 6 30 this morning. And they voiced and Lindsey Graham stood his ground sflp and when they left, what is the energy like now . Does it seem like i guess you cant say satisfied if they disagree, but whow would you describe it . Reporter how do you guys feel after that . Its what they expected. Pretty much what sweefrn evewe every other place. Everybody was shouting back and forth and graham in his genuine South Carolina smile said essentially we had our on chance to have the conversation. So thats what its like here. All right. Vaughn hillyard, great recording. I want to bring in george bebe, special adviser to dick cheney. Good afternoon to you. What a busy day. Where do we start . Lets start with the president s tweets this morning. No evidence of this, but the claims appear to be based on reporting in conservative media of two fisa warrants. One in june that was denied and then another in the fall that may have targeted a server tied to a russian bank. You can talk about how fisa warrants work . Frankly, i think a lot of people its not new, but all the attention is on this this morning. So can just explain whether you think this is even plausible . Well, fisa warrants are meant to be protection of americans civil liberties. Our government has very extensive and very impressive Information Collection capabilities. And the idea behind this is to make sure that theyre not used to collect information on ordinary innocent americans. The idea that our government is somehow eavesdropping on conversations or reading peoples emails without proper presented indication, proper cause is one that can be very disturbing. So the fisa program was put in place to prevent that sort of thing from happening without due cause. So the allegation that the government was actually without justification listening in, eavesdropping on Trump Campaign personnel is extremely serious allegation. And something that deserves a serious investigation. Do you believe it . I dont have a basis for judgment one way or the other on that. Im not privy to any information regarding this. Based on what i understand about the way our Government Systems work, id be surprised if there were some sort of warrantless eavesdropping going on against Trump Campaign officials. But i think its something that is a very serious allegation and it certainly deserves a serious nonpartisan swres investigation competent experts. I thought it was interesting the comments from Lindsey Graham. If they received a fisa warrant, what was going on. Is it too early to speculate . I think it is for a early to speculate. There can be all kinds of reasons why can a fisa warrant was obtained and the object of that sort of collection could certainly be foreign officials who were in contact with Trump Campaign officials at the time and not the trump personnel themselves. I will say that contacts between transition officials and even Campaign Officials with foreign governments, plaurly foreign ambassadors, are entirely normal and natural. That happens all the time. The fact that those contacts occurred should not by themselves be alarming. Go ahead. What about President Trumps claim that nothing was found . Is he restrevealing classified information here . Because if he didnt tweet about it, we wouldnt be talking about it, not right now at least. Yes. Well, i dont know that hes restreeling any classified information and tweeting about this. I will say that the sooner we can take this discussion into a serious nonpartisan investigation, out of the world of twitter and out of the circuslike atmosphere that seems to be gripping our country right now on television and capitol hill, i think that the better off well all be because this is really obscuring some larger questions about our countrys relationship with russia and what kind of course we should chart in the world that we really need to debate in a nonpartisan way. Youre clearly an expert on russia. I want you to listen to a former ambassador on Jeff Sessions. Take a listen and then well talk. Sergey kislyak who i know very well, ive department with him for many year, he would have tried to get information to try to inform his government about a possible future Trump Administration. That is exactly what he was doing. He worked for the russian government. He worked for vladimir putin. He was doing his job in gathering information, including meeting with the opposition. Do you agree with that . What is the play here for russia, what are they after . Absolutely. That is one of the ambassadors jobs is to establish contacts with influential americans, government officials, Campaign Officials, to understand their thinking about issues that affect russia and to help them understand russias perspective on all of these things. That is what diplomats our diplomats do it. The diplomats of other countries do this. None of that is particularly surprising or alarming. So it seems like there is this line here obviously. Do u. S. Intelligence officials consider kislyak a spy . You just said this is what diplomats do. Where is the line here . It seems like huge optic problems at this point with these meetings to be going on in the middle of the controversy about the russian government meddling in the president ial campaign. This morning we named five different people in the Trump Administration who were talking with the ambassador or others before the inauguration. Well, again, when youre in a transition period, its natural to have those sorts of discussions and contacts. Obviously you need to be sensitive in the conduct of those conversations to be sure that youre not doing things that are undermining the policies of the outgoing administration. So if you handle these sorts of discussions with the proper discretion and sensitivity, i dont think there is anything inherently problematic about that. Kislyak as far as i could tell was doing exactly the job that he should have been doing. And im not aware of anybody that regards the ambassador as a spy. I think there is a situation where we have an ambassador doing his job, meeting with officials. Hes an energetic bright very capable dip low on madiplomat w diligently advances the interests of his country. Its a complicated web of the story, so on thank you your time. Still ahead, why now . The timing behind todas tweet storm. Ill ask a member of congress abouthis nex before fibromyalgia, i was active. I was energetic. Then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. My doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. He also prescribed lyrica. Fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. Lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. For some, lyrica can significantly relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve function, so i feel better. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. Or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. Common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. With less pain, i can be more active. Ask your doctor about lyrica. Today you have the march for trump ral lies being held acros the country. On the left side is new york city. And then stroeof course on the is washington. And they