Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. The politics lead. A u. S. Government official telling me today its like, quote, pulling teeth to get the white house to focus on the very real ongoing threat of continued Russian Election interference. Quote, in general, senior white house staff felt it wasnt a good idea to bring up issues related to russia in front of the president , the official told me. You might recall senior officials told Robert Mueller and his team that President Trump worries that russias 2016 interference undermines the legitimacy of his electoral win. Now this Government Official told me the department of Homeland Security tried repeatedly over the last year or so to set up more cabinet level meetings leading up to the midterms and after the midterms, but that department, quote, kept getting the heisman from National Security adviser john bolton and others in the white house. Director of National Intelligence dan coats shared these concerns, the official tells me, and fel
Big distraction for the country. You look at what russia did, buying some facebook ads to sew dissent. I think the investigations and speculation thats happened for the last two years had a much harsher impact on democracy than a couple of facebook ads. A couple facebook ads. Thats a senior white house official, reducing russias interference in the u. S. Elections in 2016 to a couple of facebook ads. In fact, thats just not true. Just a note. Special counsel Robert Muellers redacted report says russian Facebook Accounts made over 80,000 posts and reached at least 29 million people, but may have reached an estimated 126 million people. It ignores muellers line in the introduction of the report that reads the russian government interfered in the 2016 president ial elections in sweeping and systemic fashion. In addition to the extensive detail on the aggressive cyber tactics that russia used, and still uses to interfere in our democracy, as our very own intelligence and National Security
Republican. Steve you are not Brian Kilmeade you are in for him today. Ed no. He will be back tomorrow. Not red. Yankees have won five games in a row. Im just putting it out there. Steve ed is such a yankees fan. His house key is a yankee key. Ainsley you grew up in new york . Ed grew up in new york. I love the yankees. We have a lot of injuries but we are coming back. Steve you picked a great day to join us on fox friends. We start with this a socalled mother of all caravans made up of, perhaps, 10,000 migrants is inching towards our southern border. Ainsley this as Border Patrol releases disturbing new video of mugger. S. Dressed in gear as well. Right side of the video. They are helping the immigrants cross into the United States. Ed disturbing story. Griff jenkins live from washington. Good morning. Good morning, ed, ainsley and steve. This video is nothing short of troubling. Heavily armed smugglers escorting a family unit in this case a guatemalan woman and her son along the mexi
Fight all subpoenas issued by House Democrats pursuing obstruction of justice accusations following the release of the Mueller Report. Chief White House Correspondent john roberts starts us off from the north lawn. Good evening. The administration has already begun that fight so far refusing to comply with two subpoenas. The big one and one that could end up in the courts involves testimony from a former white house official with a treasure trove of information. Leaving the white house for an opioid summit in atlanta today President Trump said democrats can forget the idea of hearing testimony from former white House Counsel don mcgahn. President trump were fighting all the subpoenas. These arent impartial people. The democrats are trying to win 2020. The chairman of the White House Judiciary Committee says the white house has no grouds to refuse the subpoena. He wants to talk to mcgahn about what the white house already allowed in the Public Domain saying the moment for the white hous
Effort. But we also now know that just as being afraid or changing your lifestyle after 9 11 was seen as letting the terrorists win, is not accepting the Mueller Reports findings in a way letting the russians win if their goal was to sow chaos in american politics they seem to still be winning on that front. Economist paul krugman said the day after the election the markets would never recover from trumps win. Here is what happened as you can see the sky did not fall. Now says that the report confirms that republicans, quote, no longer believe in american values. It is very much up in the air, he writes, whether america as we know it will survive. And he is not alone. Hillary clinton writing tonight the Mueller Report isnt just about a reckoning of our recent history, it is a warning about the future. This is an urgent threat. Unless he is held accountable the president may show even more disregard for the laws of the land and the obligations of his office. Hogan gidley, dan bongino is