Have we held in this country. The answer to that is 58. A lot of twotermers and one four termer. We started having them in the 1700s, 1789. In terms of which american president ial election has been the most contentious, that is up for debate and every century has its candidate. Which one was heavily scrutinized after the fact, that is pretty clear that were living it right now. There were hints before the november election that something was off, something was going on in this one that was different. It all seemed almost too big to grasp at the time, in the middle of what was already this incredibly interesting campaign, this incredibly volatile campaign. But in the middle of all of that there was an external foreign dynamic at work. Beginning with the news last summer that the email servers of the Democratic Party headquarters had been hacked by russian hackers. And the news that Voter Registration systems in at least two states or maybe ten states or maybe 20 states had been probed or breached to some level by again, hackers. By october, a month before the election, the United StatesIntelligence Agency came out and said while they couldnt agree that it was definitely the russians behind the Voter Registration hacks, they said they were confident that the russian government had definitely directed the hacking of the dnc and other american political organizations in order to quote interfere with the u. S. Election process. So the bizarre story out of all of the weird stuff thats happened in american elections, this story, our story, our generations story of the bizarre russian hacking of our election, that story was at least starting to emerge in the weeks before the election. But at the same time, you know, as usual, as normal, there was a super contentious fascinating president ial Campaign Going on. And that was very engrossing at the time. And it was not until after the election that the extent of the russian involvement in our president ial election really came to light, and that started with a startling report from the Washington Post that came out the evening of friday, december 9th. A report that kind of blew all other news right out of the water. So we had a whole show planned tonight that had honestly nothing to do with this topic. But then the Washington Post just dropped this astonishing bombshell. If you havent seen this yet im going to put the headline on the screen so you can see it. Im going to quote the lead directly. The cia has concluded that russia intervened in the 2016 election to help donald trump win the presidency. Rather than just to undermine confidence in the u. S. Electoral system. Theyre citing officials briefed on the matter, quote, intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connection to the russian government who provided wikileaks with thousands of hacked emails from the dnc and others including Hillary Clintons campaign chairman. This is stunning stuff. All right. And this has just broken within the last hour in the Washington Post. Theyre reporting that the cia not only concluded that the russians intervened in the election, stole information, publicized stolen information to help donald trump win the presidency, but the cia gave its information about russia to the leadership in the house and the senate. And the white house wanted to make a big public bipartisan stand against it and republicans said no. Mitch mcconnell specifically said no. No. Dont tell the public. And so we held the election with the leadership in congress knowing full well what russia was doing and we all went to vote while they sat on that. Until now. Until the post published this tonight. That was friday night, december 9th, 2016. Breaking news from the Washington Post. The first of many friday nights when i would have to work late. Basically since then, since december 9th we have been in kind of a sustained period of very distracting, very engrossing political crisis. This has felt like a sustained political crisis. As since then weve learned more and more and more after the extent of russian involvement the election and the investigations into the Trump Campaigns contacts with russia. But during and after the campaign. Watch the date stamps on these as they fly by. Just as were coming on the air we got news the former cia director James Woolsey tonight has abruptly quit the Trump Transition Team with no explanation. Tonight after saying for weeks that there would be no senate or house investigation of this matter, the Senate Intelligence committee finally said, yeah, well look into this. All of a sudden this is starting to feel like the most important political story certainly in the world. With one week to go before we are supposed to swear in donald trump as president of the United States. The the New York Times has just published a story titled intercepted Russian Communications part of inquiry into trump associates. This is obviously a very inflammatory, very hot story. These new details coming out the eve of the inauguration is a bombshell. Okay we have major breaking news this evening. We have just been notified within the last minutes while we were in our commercial break that the acting attorney general of the United States has just been fired. Okay weve got breaking news, a National Security story just post bid the Washington Post about National Security adviser Michael Flynn and his contacts with russia. We have breaking news tonight that goes to the question not just of whether or not the National Security adviser is about to be fired, but it also goes to how many people in the new administration knew the kind of trouble that National Security adviser Michael Flynn was in. How many people knew about that and when they knew it. I want to bring you some breaking news that the the New York Times just posted. This has just gone up since we went on the air. Ive been marking it with my trusty highlighter. Let me tell you what theyve reported directly relevant to what we need to talk to congressman schiff about. Trump Campaign Aides has repeated contacts with rux intelligence is the headline. The operative word being campaign. This is during the campaign. This is during the election. Theres brandnew breaking news now from the wall street journal. Can we put this article on the screen please . Did he make a full screen out of this . Yes. Thank you. You see the headline, spies get intelligence from President Trump. Theyre not showing this him that because theyre not sure if he can be trusted with it. Hes the president. The Washington Post breaking news just this evening that will frankly tie your socks in a knot if you were thinking that maybe the whole trump sheriff russia thing was going to be investigated impartially and aggressively by congress. The two republican chairman of the intelligence committees in the house and the senate, they have both admitted to the Washington Post that they have been calling reporters off the record at the request of the white house to tell reporters that theres nothing to these stories. We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast for some breaking news tonight regarding attorney general Jeff Sessions. Weve agreed that Jeff Sessions has agreed to amend his testimony. In his testimony at his confirmation hearing at the senate in january, he failed to disclose meetings that he had with the a russian Government Official when she was asked about Trump Campaign meetings with the officials. He told the senate that he didnt meet with any russians but he did. He will now change his testimony. Were following the breaking news tonight that the fire National Security adviser retired attorney general michael glin was fired from the Trump Administration after 20 days on the job. Tonight hes asking for immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony in the trushrussia scandal. We have to start tonight with breaking news which has just been published by the Washington Post. The Washington Post reports that a fisa warrant was issued last summer to monster carter pages communications. Im never going to get another friday night off in my life. Im telling you. Friday nights are very news heavy in the Trump Administration. According to nights front page scoop in the Washington Post, mike flynn was warned explicitly that his conversations with russian officials was quote undoubtedly being monitored by the fbi and the nsa. There are interesting questions about whats happening with the department of justice and Paul Manafort. Is Jeff Sessions involved in any work at the department of justice concerning Paul Manafort or is he recused. We can report tonight that the Justice Department will not say. We started asking yesterday. We asked throughout the day today. We have asked it five times in five different ways including me making the request myself personally multiple times in as many different ways as i could think of it. They will not say whether or not hes recused. He has recused on flynn they say. He is recused on things related to the Trump Campaign broadly. They wont say about manafort. So we have news to break tonight. Another subpoena has been issued as part of the ongoing investigations into President Trumps associates. Again nbc news reporting exclusively that federal investigators subpoenaed records relating to a 3. 5 million loan taken out by Paul Manafort last year. Weve got much more to come tonight. And because this is our life now, new substantive breaking news has happened in the last couple of minutes. Because no night is complete without breaking news stories about the new administration. Weve gotten this reporting from the times. Quoting from the times, Michael Flynn told President Trumps Transition Team weeks before the election that he was under investigation. All set to do a specific show today, a block, b block, c block, people booked, ready to go, scripts in. We know were reporting. Had it all planned out. New breaking news. Throw everything out the window. This is the new schedule. This is how we work now. You wait long enough into the evening without getting too drunk to Pay Attention to the news and youll find that something breaks and changes your plans. Monday evening it was President Trump passing on classified intelligence to the russians in the oval office. Tuesday night it was the existence of a memo from fired fbi director james comey describing a conversation if which he says the president asked him to back off the fbi investigation of former National Security adviser mike flynn. Last night it was the appointsment of a social counsel to take over the trumprussia investigation. Now its the fourth day of the week and so now weve got a new one. Tonights scoop comes courtesy of Michael Schmitt at the the New York Times, a sorry that hes broken tonight. The front page of the the New York Times website, in addition to the alleged direct pressure on bithe president on director comey, apparently the president called the fbi director and pressured him to put out public word about trump not personally being under investigation. Nbc reports tonight that Jared Kushner is under scrutiny in the trumprussia investigation. Those officials saying that Jared Kushner is a person of interest. Well kochl back to another friday night of what seems like extraordinary news from the trumprussia inquiry beginning with Robert Mueller taking over the grand jury inquiry in the lobbies that flynn did for turkey without registering as an agent of the Foreign Government. Required under law. The a. P. Would report that mueller could expand the probe to including Jeff Sessions and rodrosenstein for their roles in firing. The a. P. Reporting that muller is taking over the probe of the former Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort. Talk about dot connecting. Weve been bush whacking through the forest for a long time and we came out into a clearing and we can see where we are. Its a landmark moment in terms of understanding this investigation, i think. Great to be back. And because we have to begin tonight naturally the universe has welcomed me back with latebreaking trumprussia news, news that has just broke nn the Washington Post with the last hour. According to nights Washington Post yet another senior serving National Security official in the u. S. Government has reportedly now told associates that the president directed him, the president told him to intervene with the fbi to try to stop the trumprussia investigation. The new reporting from the Washington Post just out in the last hour concerns not james comey but the director of national intelligence, appointed by President Trump. Former senate dan coats. Tonight we have this brandnew reporting from the the New York Times about cia director mike pompeo and trump National Security adviser mike flynn. It concerns the question of what happened in the 18 days between the time when the acting attorney general, sally yates, warned the white house that mike flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. What happened in the 18 days between when yates gave that warning and when the white house finally fired him. This is your life, america. This is what your life has been like since december. Do you wonder why youve been a little stressed out over the past few months. Have you been following this news . It has been a long but gratifying seven months for journalism, particularly the nonstop, feels like nonstop breaking news from our Excellent National treasure world class american newspapers like the Washington Post and like the the New York Times. We have as a country weve covered a lot of ground over the last seven months or so on this show, covering these breaking news updates every night as these stories have broken night after night after night. For the rest of this hour tonight, were going to be, not just looking at where weve been and what weve learned over this remarkable sevenmonth period in american history, were going to zero in on the major things to look out for as the investigations into the Current Administration continues. Happy Independence Day. Stay with us tonight. This is going to be fun. On may 17th this year in the evening, 7 04 p. M. , robert these days families want to be connected 24 7. Thats why at comcast were continuing to make our services more reliable than ever. Like technology that can update itself. An advanced fibernetwork infrustructure. New, more Reliable Equipment for your home. And a new culture built around customer service. It all adds up to our most Reliable Network ever. One that keeps you connected to what matters most. On may 17th this year in the evening, 7 04 p. M. , Robert Mueller confirmed that he had been named to be special counsel in the trumprussia investigation. That was confirmed at 7 04 p. M. 34 minutes later, 7 34 p. M. , his law firm confirmed, the law firm that he had just left in order to become special counsel, they confirmed that bob mueller was already staffing up if are the trumprussia investigation. Among the people he would be taking with his from his old law firm is this man. James quarrels. He started out as a special prosecutor in the watergate prosecution. Then we learned about Andrew Wiseman also going to