do you worry that this is a concerted effort to get rid of mike flynn. we know he has a mixed history with them? >> no, not at all. i think it's clear that russia has been involved here domestically, and we know how they operate. they try to compromise top officials in countries so they can leverage action in a country. that's not unusual for russia to do. we just don't know how widespread this is. i think it's important that we get to the bottom. i am not concerned about how this game public. i am concerned about respecting our intelligence committee, community, the work that they do, and the information we have here requires us to take steps to protect us against russia's activities. >> people want answers, but national security and privacy is also important. should the transcripts of general flynn's calls be made public? >> well, i think that it's important for the american people to understand exactly what russia is up to by releasing the transcripts, that may be helpful. we need to make sure that the american people understand that russia is really

did mike flynn tell something false to the vice president. jeremy bash says it's not inproper. >> -- saying he has not reviewed the report. this is a about the who every morning has a print out about his administration that he goes through careful, this is a president who early in the morning or late at night is watching every cable program problem, he is thinking through the issue. >> he did have a busy day with the japanese prime minister. maybe they is one he missed fran ches ka. >> earlier this evening, the white house said flynn roll would not change. also two separate officials in the trump administration have said the fact that he does not recall having said this but can't be 100% sure. how could the white house be fighting this is the president say i have not heard about it at all. >> she is right that nothing happens to mike flynn but can you imagine the tough conversations that are going to occur. it didn't what aides are saying on the tape you play, how do you forget a conversation about sanctions. it's not something you throw out

he was misleading them and i wonder about pushing mike flynn too far on the way out the door because does he ever talk? is he going to be brought before congress at some point? that could be very interesting. >> so just quickly, you know, picking up his vacancy right, national security adviser we know over the weekend president trump had a couple of these guys down interviewing potential candidates. a couple of them are now out, when did this get filmed. >> one of these things is not like the other, that old saying, he is someone that really has the antithesis of what donald trump said his foreign policy would be. this is someone very pro-iraq war. neo conservative interventionalist. he has a lot of allies inside the administration. we'll see who ends up getting it at the end of the day but that one doesn't make sense to me. >> professor johnson gave you the buying eyes so we'll save them for our next segment. stay with us. the president has made a lot of promises. but has he delivered? even in the first month we've seen a lot of action. is that the same thing as progress? next. what

the russian ambassador, only for mike flynn to come back two days later to say he actually did. paskov is very careful about what he says. he was very embarrassed about that. this morning he made a broad comment. he was asked by one reporter if he was disappointed about the kind of things president trump is saying. he said, we never wore rose-tinted glasses, we never had any illusions so there's nothing to be disappointed with. russia/u.s. ties, he says, are important and we believe they deserve special attention. that's the key thing, ties between russia and the u.s. people here in moscow are looking to donald trump and listening for some hint that he will improve relations with russia and they're beginning to suspect that is not going to happen quickly. a very senior senator here tweeted this morning, there's a high probability that trump won't drain the swamp in washington but that the swamp will drag trump in and that will be the end of the revolution here that hasn't even begun yet. so, there was delight here when donald trump was first elected. that is turning into doubt,

mike mcfaul what went wrong with the way mike flynn handled his interactions with russia? >> well, a lot of things. it depends on the story we're talking about, the specifics of course with the conversation with ambassador kislyak. the if, thing he should have known was that conversation was being recorded and he shouldn't contradict whatever he told the vice president or the american people about that. secondly, he was undercutting the president or so it seems. we should have one president at a time. i don't want to get -- i think we're getting a little too wrapped around the axle with this logan act. americans every day are talking to foreign diplomats, and expressing opinions about policies they don't like, but to do so on the day that the obama administration put in place sanctions for a very serious offense, that is what i think needs attention. that is to say the russians interfered in the most sovereign of acts that we do in the united states of america, our presidential election. the obama administration rightly, in my view, put in place sanctions that day, in my v

if he had his own way, mike flynn would still be his national security advisor. the leaks caused trump to force his hand. when the leaks undermine his ability to deliver on his agenda, then obviously he will take them more seriously than if this is just loose chatter that we're seeing out of every administration. that being said, it's a little unusual to see a sitting president direct the justice department to open a criminal investigation into a party that has hurt him politically. so from that perspective, it has ruffled some feathers. but the precedent for prosecuting leakers is there. president obama went after the leakers more than any president in history, this wouldn't be an unprecedented situation if someone seeks criminal charges for disclosing this kind of information. >> and you suggested the slow pace for which the president can fill his cabinet has something to do with this? >> absolutely. the president is still fighting to get his high level people in the cabinet. he just nominated a replacement secretary of labor because of complications in the sen

flynn, i mean, that's what happened. chris: reince, let me ask you about that timeline, if i might, because the acting attorney general notified the white house on january 26th about discrepancies between what flynn had told vice president pence about the call and what transcripts showed flynn had actually said. but while the president and steve bannon and you all knew, the vice president didn't find out til he read it in the paper on february 9th. question: why didn't you, as chief of staff, tell the vice president over the course of 14 days? >> well, look, here is what happened. yates came in, gave a heads up to the white house counsel. white house counsel looked at the matter. the next day or the day after the investigation was closed and no longer going on, then the issue shifted to whether or not something was done that was wrong. the vice president was then looped in on the situation, and we talked to the vice president about whether or not michael flynn was being honest or not. the vice president knew that there w

flynn's name to the press shortly after the first of the year. these are all against the law, and you can't operate a government like this if you can't even have the president of the united states or his national security advisor able to have conversations in private with foreign leaders. >> dickerson: explain, mike flynn people heard his name so much in this conversation or conversations he had with the russian ambassador. give us a little more detail on why that bothers you. >> well, if this was picked up as incidental collection because perhaps they had a warrant on someone else, typically an american citizen wouldn't be unmasked. somebody decided to unmask that name, somebody within the either the department of justice or others within the administration. if that happened, why did that happen? with what would be the purpose of unmasking an american citizen's name in this case at the time he was a private citizen. so if his name was unmasked somebody made that decision and we need to know who made that decision. did they really use a 1799 law

mike flynn is the guy who has the answers to that. so if the president was kind and embracing of mike flynn today, he may have a reason for that. >> interesting. >> i was going to say, there's also the question of, if this happened -- if the president knew or if he didn't know, either way, why it happened, right? so why would you tell russia this when the sanctions were for interfering in the u.s. election. so why would you suggest to them that you're going to let up on them for doing something that most people agree is unacceptable, right? that they should be punished for, even if you don't like your political opponent. he's basically letting them know, it seems like, that it would be okay -- it's okay what you did, with right? >> and then you have the president tweeting praise of vladimir putin for not reciprocating on actions -- >> yeah, it's pretty unprecedented behavior for a government official to do this. >> we've got to come pack. we'll have more conversation with the panel and pick it up, along with more breaking news. this t

vouch for mike flynn but the president has been a putin apologist. it's the one area where in my conversations over the last 48 hours they don't want to be out right rude but they don't want to give and roll over so he's going to end up against a brick wall here but i think what he needs to do if the administration is going to get itself on proper footing is answer and i think the president might be able to fix this by getting tough with russia who is still provoking us and testing the new president. >> that brings us to you. you have spent considerable time on russia and there's a feeling that now he has used kid gloves when dealing are russia. yesterday his press secretary had a totally different take on president trump's relationship with russia. let me play this for you. >> the irony is that the president has been incredibly tough on russia. he continues to raise the issue of crimea which the previous administration allowed to be seized by russia. >> so if that made impression in russia or europe that he's been incredibly tough on russia. >> well

the one thing i'm sure is, mike flynn does not lie. the fact he was talking to the russian ambassador, whether he was talking about sanctions or not, he is authorized to talk about sanctions. he had been elected, president trump had. his staff and his national security advisor had already been -- david: he was elected but not yet president. that is the key as to whether he violated the law. let me play something i know you're familiar with. go back to 2012. president obama before his re-election was talking to the head of russia, medvedev, about vladmir putin. take a listen. >> my last election. after my election i have more flexibility. yeah. [inaudible] david: that was president obama then, talking about when he was reelected, tell vladmir putin everything will be cool. i will get rid of all okay stab cycles. could it be message donald trump was trying to relay to putin before he was inaugurated? >> i don't know that and that is a course of action, david, you're speculating on it, just like everybody else is. the clear issue is all a

flynn, vice president mike pence and other top officials have denied that. yesterday flynn said, though, that he wasn't sure if he talked to the ambassador about the sanctions. >> that he would mislead the american people about what he discussed with a russian ambassador, that makes him, i think, if true, patently unfit for office. >> some lawmakers are looking at the timing of flint's communication with the russian ambassador just as the white house was disspelling russian diplomats for an election hacking. >>> russia may be returning snow snowden to the united states as a so-called gift. the russians may hand over snowden as a ploy to curry favor with the president. the president called the nsa leaker a spy and a traitor who deserves to be executed. snowden tweeted last night, finally, irrefutable evidence that i never messed with intel. they are next. >>> this morning president trump is looking at options after a federal appeals court held a freeze on his controversial travel ban. just yesterday the president said he is considering signing a new executive

forget what you think of mike flynn one way or the other. but the fact that he picked hip to play this vital role inside the white house and these people were able to kneecap him in three short weeks is staggering. lou: did the president make a mistake in this? the vice president i thought graciously and generously accepted general flynn's apology. and the president had an option here. at that point when you have an option, then you have to wonder about the staff around him. what your thoughts. did the president do the only thing in your judge the available to him? >> he could have stuck by his man and said we are not going to leave anyone behind and resisted the drum beat to drill mike flynn out of the city. but the president needs men he can trust. so ultimately it's his decision. lou: generals like general mike flynn have a high regard for him, as you both know. you get deciding vote on this. >> also a guy who has been a tremendous asset and served his country for his entire life. none of that should be taken away from him. but it's very

let everybody see what mike flynn said to this ambassador. people close to mike flynn, everybody is capable of lying. we see it every day, maybe every second. they insist he broke no law. he made no promise about sanctions. if that's true, one it explains why the fbi is not investigating mike flynn that came out yesterday and that means he must not have lied to them and i broke no law. i made no deal on sanctions. thus they are not investigating. the administration has a lot of explaining to do and that could hold a lot of important noninformation. sources that reveal the transcripts said you can read it both ways. you can read what he said to imply some sort of reevaluation but no hard line on what are we going to do. >> why did they fire him? >> at the same time remember what sean spicer did on tuesday afternoon when he explained the administration's rational is that he took the question of the legality of what michael flynn did off the table. that's not the reason we fired this guy. he mislead the vice president. >> why was he? >> he just

what i think you could be seeing though that we could be headed for mike flynn testifying possibly on capitol hill to set the record straight and to take responsibility for this. i don't know if the republicans are ready to do that. it depends on if the transcript of this conversation gets leaked. it depends on how far did he go? did the ambassador just bring up the issue of sanctions and did flynn just say, hey, let's talk about that later? everything will be okay, or was it a much more serious and detailed conversation? i know that there are democrats on the hill right now that want to find that out. >> that's one congressman who wants flynn fired over this. california democrat adam shiff said he can no longer serve. do you think his job is on the line? >> i don't think his job is objeon the line yet. i don't think it's enough to put his status into question, but as kim alluded to, what's going on in capitol hill is pretty serious and there's a bipartisan drive, not just democrats but republicans who want to put more sanctions on russia. they want to punish russia for interference i

with the news conference out of the way, there was definitive word on mike flynn's future. he did enjoy the president's confidence. yes, generalthen future. he did enjoy the president's confidence. yes, general then does enjoy the confidence of the president and i do find it curious that general flynn, our national security adviser with the full confidence of the president right now, that we are not talking about all the things that got done over the weekend. he flew back to washington last night with the president on air force one, and was at the news conference today. he is still national—security adviser, though with a high degree of insecurity. the government's new head of cyber security has warned of a real and growing threat to the uk's critical national infrastructure. gchq's national cyber security centre will be opened by the queen tomorrow. in a bbc interview, its director has spoken of a number of significant intrusions by hostile states in recent months, and highlighted a new willingness by russia to take part. 0ur security correspondent gordon corera has the

on conversations that he had only with mike flynn. reporters asked president trump about this story this afternoon. as you can see, it's a big story. it's previously been discussed by senior officials who work for the president. and this question we're about to show you was asked 16 hours after the "washington post" story broke. the president's response was to suggest he's out of the loop. >> what do you make of reports that general flynn had conversations with the russians about sanctions before you were sworn in? >> i don't know about it. i haven't seen it. what report is that? >> there have been a number of reports -- >> the "washington post" is reporting that he talked to the ambassador to russia before you were inaugurated about sanctions, maybe trying to -- >> i haven't seen that. i'll look at that. >> the prospect of an american citizen working to covertly undermine u.s. foreign policy is obviously serious, and we can tell you back in congress, the ranking member on the homeland security committee, democratic senator claire mcc

for the first time the president confirmed he fired mike flynn. and also said he doesn't think flynn did anything wrong by talking to the russians about sanctions before trump even took office. now, let's get to cakasie hunt. >> what's the reaction from republicans and democrats to this news conference? >> reporter: i think it's one of surprise. it took the halls of congress aback for the hour and 15 minutes it lasted. the hours sense we've seen members of the congressional black caucus react. the president focused on president elijah cummings, he said he would like to set up a meeting with him. the democrats called it terrifying and embarrassing. republicans, for the most part have had a muted reaction. i talked to a number of them who were as well taken aback. one privately said it was unbelievable what unfolded over the course of the afternoon. but, republicans are trying to focus on making sure that they pass big agenda priorities that the president ran on. things like changing the president's healthcare law, rewriting the tax code to try to s

they are clearly trying to contain the damage to mike flynn and essentially say this was about mike flynn being an unreliable narrater and possibly a dishonest narrater as well, and let's move on. you saw some republican congress folks, chris collins on with chris cuomo this morning, using that very phrase. it's time to move on. what was also interesting in listening to kellyanne conway was that she described the justice department's warning to this white house about mike flynn possibly being the subject of blackmail. she described that as a justice department opinion, not as an assessment or warning, which is an interesting phrase, right, this idea that it was sort of their opinion that it was not a warning. we will see what spicer says. i don't think they can continue to essentially say what kellyanne conway said this morning over and over again, that she was not aware of this, that she doesn't know -- she didn't have enough information in terms of the president or these were sensitive conversations that she couldn't divul divulge. i think this gets back to why the leaks are happening,

these problems with mike flynn. he is not had to deal with a big international crisis yet, a big domestic crisis yet. if your team is fighting amongst themselves and not working in a coordinated fashion, it makes all of those crises and things that can hamper a presidency that much more difficult to deal with. we are in month one and they have an opportunity to have a course correction here but i didn't see a lot in that press conference yesterday that showed that the president is aware that that would even be needed at this point. >> but, katy tur, he doesn't think he needs a course correction. there is one difference between trump now and trump during the campaign. when things started to go very badly for trump during the campaign, that trump would listen to people around him after wisconsin, for instance. he treated. he went back. the last ten days of the campaign. >> he got scared. >> he got scared, exactly. >> the campaign went on a teleprompter. >> he got scared then and he got scared a couple times. right now

mike flynn -- >> bill: you do? if you saw the transcript of his phone conversations in late december at some point before or after that, would that answer all the questions that have been out there about what was said and what was not? >> i think it would. there will be a continuing investigation into overall ties between the trump administration and russia. on the incident of mike flynn, what happened there. first of all he would know that lying to the f.b.i. is a crime and one that senior administration officials could get in criminal jeopardy for violating. so i'm sure he was truthful with the f.b.i. i'm sorry about what happened to him. i think he told the f.b.i. what he said and i don't think he did anything wrong. >> bill: former c.i.a. officer here in the studio. >> shannon: the white house deciding not to fight a federal appeals court on the travel ban. they'll write a new one. what will change and what will stay the same. that's coming up. >> bill: moving forward on the repeal of obamacare or not? the pres

and defending mike flynn, forced out after 24 days on the job. president trump, blaming the media for what happened toep general flynn it reporters at the white house, capitol hill, washington, in tel aviv as well. 1,600 pennsylvania, start with the two-state solution. this is what the president said a few moments ago. >> i am looking at two state and one state. and i like the one that both parties like. i am very happy with the one that both parties like. i can live with either one. iz thought for a while the two-state looks like it may be the easier of the two it honestly, if bibi, and if the palestinians, israel and the malpallima palestinans are happy. >> start with the two state solution. and what the president said about the settlements. >> the bottom line, there it were momentes in the news conference, notably, before the two individuals had the opportunity to meet side by side. of course, the aides have been conversing in advance of the comment. striking, speaking to the israeli media to hear the president of the united states say, one st

they saw mike flynn as someone colourful. they saw mike flynn as someone who champion closer ties between washington and moscow. he attended a gala dinner here a couple of years ago and sat at the same table as vladimir putin, but i protect not only disappointment from moscow but also a little embarrassment, because as late as yesterday the kremlin was continuing to insist that before donald trump stepped into the white house there had been no discussions, no conversations between moscow and washington, about sanctions, and today the kremlin's comment on all of this was "no comment." steve rosenberg from moscow, thank you very much. inflation has risen to its highest level since june 2014. the rate, as measured by the consumer price index, rose from 1.6 in december to 1.8. the office for national statistics says the increase was driven by higher global oil prices and the fall in the value of sterling. our economics correspondent andy verity reports. prices may be up, but it is not yet the consumer who is being squeezed ha rd

mike flynn was not the president-elect. donald trump was the president-elect f donald trump wanted to call foreign leaders, a and introduce himself, that was within his right. barack obama was a us senator when he was elected president. so that was also within his rights. mike flynn did not have any authority to call a russian diplomate and talk about sanctions. it was -- it is on tape. we'll know what he said. so if he discusses sanctions and talk about rolling back the sanctions or said don't worry about it, as soon as we're in office we'll take care of this, that's a problem. >> and do we know if trump asked him to do that? >> that's a great question. >> you know what? okay, the guy is not some casino after boob. all right? he has been appointed to be the national security advisor. this logan act was pass in the 1799. and there is this little thing that really bothers progressive, this pesky thing called the first amendment. and the fact of the mat is her that he had the right, if he spoke to them, had to have been witho

flynn either lied in public or mike pence lied or mike flynn lied to mike pence. if the post is right, someone lied to the american people. it's a tough message to send. >> vice president pence's office says the vice president and his office relied on the representations made to him by the national security adviser about the nature of the call. so he is not exactly standing shoulder to shoulder there. look, we have very rarely, i think either never -- alan d dershowitz said this morning, the risk is credibility. >> let's interrupt you. new reporting just in on what you were saying. senior white house adviser tells cnn that vice president pence did not know that flynn may have spoken about sanctions with the russian ambassador pre inauguration and said this source to cnn, it's a problem. >> the source went on to say that the vice president's office isn't so much wore ride this morning but trying to get to the bottom of it. >> it's interesting. the last time this happened was in the nixon administration when nixon was running against johnson and he tried to sabotage

at the center of the team is mike flynn. charlie: the national security advisor. who runs the security meetings generally? michael: he runs the principles meeting and he would sit to the president's left and mike flynn runs those principals meetings. it is his job not to have an opinion at the meeting. it is his job to lead the discussion in a way that gets everyone's opinions on the table to see if they can find consensus on a policy recommendation to the president, and if so, take that recommendation to the president , to get approval, and if there are differences of opinion, take those differences. tom donlon was exceptional in that. charlie: in that he would? michael: lead the conversation in a way that everyone got an opportunity and not guide the discussion in one direction or another. you don't want a national security adviser who comes into the room and says here is my view, i'm going to drive the discussion. charlie: let's just remember for a moment -- starting with kissinger. bush 41 was brent. michael: tony lake and sandy berger. 43 had condoleezza rice

livid if mike flynn was lying. i think there is another problem here, that some republicans, john mccain, lindsey graham, marco rubio, have introduced legislation to cut back on the president's ability to lessen sanctions on russia. this is an issue that could divide republicans. it is key moving forward here, going to have to straighten out what is going on at home before they can go further. >> lindsey graham said today, if it turns out that mike flynn was talking about using sanctions at a time when president obama was imposing them, it is going to b. >> december after the election, the fact that the top advisor was talking to ambassadors and people in foreign governments, i'm okay with. i think the logan act charges ridiculous. i think they always come at folks on this. and i think mike flynn has a target on his back. and i think he is a good and honorable man and he will weather this storm. >> chris: charles? >> go back to the water kit analogy, classic kate in my case of the cover-up worse than the crime. the

mike flynn was his national security advisor. i basically said who are we going to war with next. maybe trump didn't and it in a way that pleased people. who was our greatest national security threat. what a lot. people didn't hear was the president's answer to my question it was like wow, another conservative reporter got a question. he brought up north korea in his answer. howie: you have said you wanted something of substance. but given the huge controversy surrounding the national security advisor that within hours would lead to his firing, why not work flynn into the question. >> he didn't resign until much later that evening. kellyanne conway went on tv after that press conference and said he enjoyed the full confidence of the president. howie: wasn't that a big story. >> it became a bigger story later on. i think my question was more important to regular american people. the people living outside the beltway care about our national security concerns. no one will remember mike flinls name in three years, but they will remember if we get into a war with north korea. howie: on

then mike flynn gets on the podium and says iran, you are on notice. what's going on inside the white house? do you think things are coordinated? >> it's coordinated within the white house. this is the strategy president trump wants. steve bannon is playing a huge role in foreign affairs. hees behind this. for rex tillerson, he inherits a lot. he inherits a crisis, at the moment, with australia and the iran situation. that doesn't bring up russia, china, north korea and syria. a lot on his plate to deal with. >> are they giving rex tillerson an unfair hand? to take the podium yesterday, that missile was launched on sunday. many say reason to say something. did he need to say it yesterday and make tillerson's first day on the job that much more complicated? >> whether they needed to or not, it was planned. they knew what they were doing when it came to that. it wasn't like the immigration ban or the travel ban. >> i have to interrupt you. president trump shook hands with mark burnett and is taking the podium. he's smiling. he's been waiting an hour. her

i'm not sure we know mike flynn definitively lied. he hasn't been able to reveal the transcripts when the enter fbi interviewed him. these leaks have been going on for many weeks. i think the obama people are part of this. they want to undermine trump. i think some of them have committed federal crimes in doing this. a >> bret: they are big things happening. russia has a ship that's believed to be kind of a spies ship off the coast of delaware and it has been off our coast before but it's happening now. they are making aggressive moves in cruise missile and in buzzing our warships overseas. there's big things happening. >> we have a washington that is obsessed with this, whatever you want to call it, scandal, kerfuffle around mike flynn who is out and therefore there is a vacuum of authority within the white house. jim mattis' in europe trying to have conversations with our allies and i'm sure all i want to know is what's going on back in your capital? it's way too late now in this administration for them to be improvising and trying

mike flynn has some detractors in the west wing. mike flynn has detractors within the trump administration. if there were a vote about whether he stays or goes in the west wing, i think he would go. ultimately, he enjoys the support or has the support of president trump. the president, when asked about the mike flynn controversy on air force one on friday night, somehow said, oh, i have to read up on that story. as you and i both know, he is a consumer. he did not provide a defense or attack the premise of the story. if you are mike flynn, you have to be nervous about that. i think this, if he misled vice president pence, that might have to be a fireable offense if you are president trump. >> that might be the offense more than what he did, talking to the ambassador of russia. i want to move to the imgreat lakes order, obviously another blow for president trump this week. what is the future of this thing? the reporting is he's going to go back and recraft it. >> that's the simplest way. if his words at the time of signing the order

how can the president fire mike flynn but still say the press treated him unfairly. you wouldn't want your painter to quit part way, i think you missed a spot. so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. you want this color over the whole house? new girl, huh? yeah, i'm -- i couldn't help but notice you checking out my name your price tool. yeah, this bad boy gives you coverage options based on your budget. -oh -- -oh, not so fast, tadpole. you have to learn to swim first. claire, here's your name your price tool. -oh, thanks, flo. -mm-hmm. jamie, don't forget to clean the fridge when you're done. she seems nice. she seems nice. [ door closes ] she's actually pretty nice. oh. yeah. howie: after the president fired michael flynn following reports in the "washington post" that he lied to the white house about his pre-inauguration talks. >> they can't pretend they picked on poor michael flynn out of nowhere. >> when you start blaming the leaks and not substance, there is a question. the leaks were wrong it would be

so the crucial question has to be, did donald trump tell mike flynn to make contact with the russians and tell putin, don't overreact to these sanctions, we're going to water them down when i come in. we don't know, but it also fits into a larger pattern here, which has been puzzling. donald trump's world view, as we know it, is the rest of the world has always been trying to screw the united states. our allies try to screw us. the chinese, his words are raping us. the japanese, you know, don't pay for their own defenses. we know what he thinks of all these muslim countries. the one exception has always been russia. he has never said anything nasty about russia or putin. always been conciliatory, always been nice. and then you begin to see these, you know, series of actions and events, and so you do have to ask yourself, what is going on. >> if memory serves me correct, he tweeted, praising vladimir putin for not responding to the u.s. so, again, it raises the question, did he ask flynn or approve in advance him calling up the russian ambassador and having a conversation, which accord

why did the president wait so long to fire mike flynn after the justice department told them he was lying about his contact with the russians and the russians could be blackmailing him. all of these are reasonable questions and none of them have been explained well enough. here's the forest these trees keep falling in. we have multiple reports now, each citing multiple sources saying michael flynn had repeated contacts with the russian government during the campaign before the election. and it's not just him. we now have reporting from the "new york times" last night and cnn later last night again citing multiple sources saying that it was not just flynn, it was several people from the trump campaign. in cnn's words, constant communication with russia, including russian intelligence officials during the campaign. while russian intelligence was interfering with our election to help get donald trump elected. these contacts are concrete and verifiable things, intelligence sources say there are call logs, there are intercepts, there are transcripts of them. and officials at the top levels of

we could find out if mike flynn lied to the fbi. we can know about the details of anything that the russians might have on the president compromising information, if you will, or otherwise. there's no way to get to that information yet. the question is, do you leave it in the committees or do you get a special prosecutor? >> that's right. or in addition to a special prosecutor, another option is to take it out of the intelligence committees and create an independent panel. either a house senate panel or something like a 9-11 commission. what if you had someone like a colon powell, someone with a bipartisan sheen, take this over. the republican leaders want to leave it where it is, you heard the speaker of the house, paul ryan, say that's the appropriate place. they can handle sensitive matters. the more people doing the investigation, the head of house intelligence committee and the senate intelligence committee speaking publicly saying there is no crime found yet, the more they're open to accusations that they prejudged their inves

also learning more details this afternoon on what might replace mike flynn. john roberts is live this afternoon with more. there he is. what are you hearing about any replacement for flynn, johnny? >> first heard about it monday night after the lieutenant general mike flynn, the current national security advisor quit under the cloud of controversy. it's confirmed that vice admiral robert harwood. apparently he's taking the afternoon to discuss it with his wife and decide whether or not to come to washington d.c. we'll give you a background on harwood. he served under general james mat dis. they have a good relationship with the man heading up the pentagon. i was with the national counter terrorism member. he's a part of seal team 3 and had operations in iraq and afghanistan. when he was in buds training to become a seal, he was voted the honor man. for people that don't know about seal training, it's the candidate who shows so much grit and tenacity and physical and mental strength that they're an inspiration to everybody else in the group. through that inspi

with the russian ambassador. >> did you direct mike flynn to talk to russian ambassador -- no, i did. i fired him simply because of he gave to mike pence. it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. i wuf directed him if he wasn't doing it. it came out that way, and in all fairness i watched dr. hammer say the other night he did it because he was doing his job and since then, i didn't direct him but i would have if he wouldn't have been doing it. >> he said nobody he knew of from his campaign talked to russian officials. sara murray is with me from the white house. so much to go through, but first the back story, we were all wondering how this press conference came to be. apparently the president walked this oval this morning and said hey, let's have a press conference. >> that's right. this was the president's idea. he did walk into the oval office and said let's do this. he's been getting hammered for the fact that his first pick for had to pull his name because republicans wouldn't back him. this is him being out there, sparring with reporters, he did that regularly ea

. >> reporter: tonight mounting qio national security advisor mike flynn was forced to resign late last night after misleading the president, vice president and others about discussing sanctions with russia's ambassador before the inauguration. >> this was an act of trust. whether or not he misled the vice president was the issue. that was ultimately what led to the president asking for and accepting be resignation of general flynn. >> reporter: the key questions tonight, what did the president know, when did he know it and why did the president keep flynn on board for nearly three weeks after the president found out he had been mislead? nbc news learned vice president pence was not told for 15 days after the president and white house knew. no one told pence he had been sent out to say something false about flynn. the only reason pence was informed, an impending media report that would cast doubt on pence's own honesty. >> why not immediately act? why wait two and a half weeks? >> i don't understand how that's a due process. >> reporter: this came to a head late last night amid revelati

>>> you're out. 56 twisting in the bind for days, national security adviser mike flynn abruptly resigned under abrupt pressure. will more heads roll three weeks into the trump presidency. >>> a new storm is threatening the nation's tallest dam as a second emergency spillway failed calling a race against time. >>> disgraced cyclist lance armstrong is being slapped with a $100 million lawsuit by the federal government. >>> got back pain? new guidelines for anyone seeking relief from chronic discomfort. >>> what's old is new. play boy bringing back nude pictoria pictorials. >>> good to be with you. i'm frances rivera. >>> resignation. headlines across the country say it all. less than four weeks in office and president trump's national security adviser michael flynn is forced from the west wing. mounting pressure that flynn lied over calls to russia's ambassador. he reportedly discussed lifting sanctions and vice president mike pence and even president trump. flynn's resignation comes hours after the white house said it was evaluating his position. despite counselor kellyanne conway saying

please welcome to the stage general mike flynn! michael flynn was a spear carrier for donald trump during the election making hillary clinton's honesty a central part of the attacks. we do not need a wreckless president who believes that she is above the law. lock her up, that's right. yes, that's right, not corrupt! yes, that's right, lock her up! but now it is michael flynn who, on a question of trust, has been found wanting, and finds himself very much alone. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. and we'll find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:40 this evening in the papers. our guests joining me tonight are ruth lea, economic adviser at arbuthnot banking group and john rentoul, political columnist at the independent. higher oil prices and the fall in the value of the pound have pushed inflation to its highest level since june 2014. the rate rose to 1.8% last month. as our economics correspondent, andy verity reports, the cost of living is likely to rise further as companies pass on the hi

show, he denied that mike flynn had spoken to the russians about sanctions and that turned out to be false. >>> former campaign aides frustrated. telling don lemon overnight that red flags between russia and contacts were raised and ignored. >> it's nothing short of a bombshell. and it collaborates a lot of us what those who worked on the campaign suspected so long where we had a lot of trouble quite frankly getting people to pay attention to it because it seemed so surreal. the more reporting coming up since the election, more and more is being confirmed as true. >> as brian fallon. and mook wrote i'd like the fbi to explain why they spent so much time on clinton and not this. saying that the fbi was investigating e-mails for hillary clinton, 11 days before the election cost her the presidency. >>> moscow has denied again and again that it did anything to influence the u.s. election, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. so what does the creme linl hkro say now? let's go to clare sebastian. what is moscow saying now? >> well, the issue whether there were any contacts with the r

the president is very loyal, he's a very loyal person, and by night's end, mike flynn decided it was best to resign. he'd become a lightning rod and he made that decision. >> so kellyanne conway this morning saying the president flynn's choice to resign. then a few hours ago, sean spicer, he made it clear in his statement, at least, that the president forced the resignation of michael flynn and again, saying that the president over apparently a period of weeks had lost confidence in michael flynn. so some contradictory messages there coming out of the white house. hallie jackson joins me now from that white house. we got a version of events here today that raised as many questions as it answered. you had that report last night that suggested the administration was warned by the justice department about flynn weeks ago, and of course that raised one question about why didn't anything happen publicly in the intervening weeks. >> reporter: right, and this is what the white house is saying, steve, in those intervening weeks as you called them, the president was assessing the matter of wh

flynn to talk to the russian ambassador about the issues of sanctions -- >> let me take a step back for a second. national security is perhaps the most important financial or responsibility a president has. and i think the president made the right decision to ask for his resignation. can you not have a national security adviser misleading the vice president and others. so i think the predent was right to ask for his resignation and i believe it was theight thing to do. let's speak about russia for a second. i've always been a russia skeptic and hawk. new administrations these days try to get better relations with russia. the bush tried to get better relations with russia. the clinton administration -- or hillary clinton and the obama administration did the reset. so i understand it's reasonable and rational to try and improve relations with russia, that's what new administrations inevitably do but i'll leave it up to the administration to describe the circumstances surrounding what brought it to this point. i think the key is this, that as soon as this person lost the president's tr