The russia story, trying to figure out if this is a big deal. stuff comes out every day. doesn t come out in a sort of linear chronological way. i promise, this is a big deal. i mean, the fact that that the campaign chairman is meeting with a russian intelligence agent during the campaign, presenting him with apparently confidential polling material, and then after the campaign goes to madrid, which is not exactly a convenient meeting spot, meeting with him again at a time when the russia policy is under review and russia s trying to get sanctions lifted, i mean, this is the definition of contacts between the trump campaign and russia. yeah. that s what we ve been looking for. that s what investigators have been looking for. how far it went, how extensive it was, we don t know, but this contact is very significant.
They re trying to figure out is this a big deal? you know, stuff comes out every day. it doesn t come out in a sort of linear chronological way. i promise, this is a big deal. i mean, the fact that the campaign chairman is meeting with a russian intelligence agent during the campaign, presenting him with apparently confidential polling material, and then after the campaign goes to madrid, which is not exactly a convenient meeting spot, meets with him again at a time when the russia policy is under review and russia s trying to get sanctions lifted, i mean, this is the definition of contacts between the trump campaign and russia. yeah. that s what we ve been looking for. that s what investigators have been looking for. how far it went, how extensive it was, we don t know, but this contact is very significant. jeff toobin, sara murray, thanks very much.
Stepping back from that particular role. most people don t last more than two years in that job anyway. it s a stressful, big job. the chief operating officer of the whole justice department. there s another big headline. paul manafort shared 2016 polling data with a former associate of his with ties to russian intelligence. we don t know when the polling information was shared or if it was proprietary, but betsy, back to you. you ve been working on this. this is a very interesting development. this sort of accidental revelation that this was going on. that s right. the new york times reported, i can t confirm, but this is their reporting that manafort shared this polling material with a man who federal prosecutors allege has connections to russian intelligence slightly before trump became the republican party nominee. while manafort was still in his position as campaign manager. if that reporting is correct, it indicates that the actual trump campaign was in touch with a perso
Now. we have kind of an idea of what is going to happen. tomorrow it is the first stage of polling. one-half of the country will be going to the polls on this constitution. the other half will be voting a week from saturday. the polls will open at 8:00am. we are told that tens of thousands of troops will be mobilized. we are told that the polling material is going to the polling station and the judges will monitor but it is so disorganized that former president carter center which has observed half the elections here decided they are going to sit this one out, it is too disorganized. we will be watching this all for. alisyn: thank you for the update from cairo. gregg: busy day here on a friday edition of america s newsroom. new questions now after u.s. troops are dispatched near the border of turkey and syria. is america now getting even closer to direct involvement in that civil war? alisyn: new information on the massive gas pipeline blast, what investigators say about the conditio