now, mike flynn, russia looming large in this. the unknown about the connections between that country, the kremlin, and what ever is going inside our white house now. we have information, next. you do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. and if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24/7. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. mattress firmness? enter sleep number... she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. right now, save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed. go to sleepnumber.com for a store near you. >>> all right, headline national security but that's just the headline. the story is who knew what flynn was doing and how deep does this appeasement of russia go within ou

mike flynn and the russian ambassador. nor questi another question now as we look ahead is how sitting members of congress will find out more on the information about the circumstances surrounding mike flynn. we have a little glimmer of an answer here. we are being told by our producers here on capitol hill that top senate democrat mark warner is asking that mike flynn appear before his committee to testify and answer these question. there is a lot happening on capitol hill. kasie hunt was in that conference with paul ryan. we don't have her just yet. we're going to quickly go to a commercial break. when we come back, we'll talk to kasie about what we just heard and press ahead on the still-developing story. stick around. fun in art class. come close, come close. i like that. [ all sounds come to a crashing halt ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. awww. try this. for minor arthritis pain, only aleve is fda approved to work for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. thank you. come on eve

mike flynn is out. president trump's national security adviser resigning, following a new report that the white use was warned general flynn could be blackmailed over those russia calls. just hours after this -- >> yes, general flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president. >>> at the same time, a breach of protocol. these images sparking controversy. did president trump deal with the emergency in full view of guests at mar-a-lago. >> plus, the oprah effect. i'm not talking free cars. how an episode of her old tv show is making the rounds in the senate. it may derail a cabinet nominee. >>> you know who we have to start with today, the trump white house reeling the the resignation of general mike flynn. president trump's closest confidant 24 days after being sworn in. he's on the hunt for a successor. a move on congress to open an official investigation. we have the best team in the business to break this down. i want to go to kristen welker, live at the white house. kristen, how did this go on?

one of them general mike flynn. the other one russia and whether his team or anybody that he knew during the campaign had contacts with the russians. what was his answer, peter? >> i was going to say in simple terms this is a guy who was the author of the art of the deal. what he proved again today is he may as well authored the art of the deflection, focusing on so many other topics other than the ones about which americans are focused on right now. i think that's the takeaway. please continue with your thought. >> i mean, i think the art. deflection is a good title that could come out at any point. peter, also talk to me about daca, the dreamers. does he make any news there? did he definitely say he's going to get rid of it or are they considering keeping it in place? >> reporter: specifically on the issue of immigration, most broadly, first referring to the temporary travel ban what he said was news is next week he will sign the new executive order as i've told is being retooled, recrafted right now by steven mil

or mike flynn didn't think he was doing anything wrong. mike flynn wasn't hiding. mike flynn had one of these communications while on vacation in the dominican republic with his wife. he knew he wasn't hiding. is he being thrown under the bus. we know they had weeks to figure it out. why didn't they do anything about it. >> these are all the questions. and at least he really knows the answer too. he knows how it all works. did he make some, probably not very likely. >> still no proof that mike flynn said or did anything to compromise the u.s. position on sanctions. and thank you as always. >> the president says the real story behind michael flynn's departure is the white house leaks to the press. what does he plan to do about them? our media experts tackle that, next. ♪ ♪ only at&t offers you all your live channels and dvr on your devices. data-free. entertainment. your way. only from at&t. so i use excedrin.ments from my life. it starts to relieve migraine pain in just 30 minutes. and it works on my symptoms, too. now moments lost to migraines are moments gain

i asked about the attitude currently of mike flynn. sort of in the idea of is this somebody who is going to come out and maybe speak publicly against the president? i'm told as of today, at least, he seemed rather upbeat, rather stoic about this. you may have seemed yesterday morning there was an interview that came out with "the daily caller" which was an outlet founded by fox news tucker carlson in which flynn vigorously defended himself, said he had the confidence of the president, that he crossed no lines in that conversation with the russian ambassador, and was particularly perturbed about leaks coming from inside the white house. i am told that at that point, flynn felt the ambiguity around his status had been lifted, which is interesting given that not 12 hours later, we were already hearing that the president was evaluating flynn's position and then, of course, the ultimate resignation. chris? >> thanks so much, hallie jackson from the white house for that scoop. let me go back to david. he put the dates together january 26 whe

flynn. >> mike flynn is a fine person and i asked for his resignation. when he respectfully gave it. he is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence >> mike flynn is a fine person and i asked for his resignation. when he respectfully gave it. he is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence who is with us today and i was not happy with the way that information was given. he didn't have to do that because what he did want wrong. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador prior to your nougs inauguration. >> no i didn't. >> did you fire because of information leaked out. >> no, i fired him because what -- it would have been okay if he did it. i would have directed him to do it. i didn't direct him but i would have directed him because that's his job. >> during your campaign did anyone from your communicate with russian government or russian government if so what were the nature of the conversation. >> the "new york times" work a store yesterday

mike pence was going on television on january 15th, asked mike flynn if he, in fact, had conversations about sanctions, critical sanctions the obama administration put on russia because of allegations of meddling in the u.s. elections. and he was told no. that's what mike pence reported on television. then fast forward about two weeks ago, the justice department warned the white house that because of these conversations, mike flynn could be compromised and be in a position of being blackmailed, according to a source. and then things got even more complicated, if you see the february 8th, 9th, 10th and so forth it was mike flynn's story changing. did he actually talk about sanctions with the russians? did he not? he told reporters and people in the white house, yes, and then said, oops, maybe i'm misremembering that. that really is what all culminated in what happened last night in the fact that that discussion that he had with mike pence, the vice president of the united states told him he didn't talk about sanctions and later throughout the several weeks after that said, oh, maybe i d

he is expressing his anger to mike flynn. flynn was saying this could have been a mistake in my recollection that's what wush pushed pence. he slow to anger anthat's what pushed him. that in addition to the headline that came out yesterday about the fbi investigation i think trump you're reporting is right, trump is totally willing to wait this out. he was in no rush to get rid of flynn. the main reason is because it looked bad getting rid of security advise r three weeks in the game. >> the big question, you write front page story, the is the big story here that flynn blew it. is the big story there's are going to be nice or something we can figure out. this possibility that trump people were in ka hoots with putin. if there's a -- there was collusion at some level because between the trump people and the guy helping them to w in m moscow is the big story. >> to have this remarkable deference to russia. i think the cause and affect is the reverse. i think the president wasn't going to act. as that's going to be a signature o

flynn or the firing as we have now heard of mike flynn as being kind of a blow against russia so you have a bunch of senior political figures here seeing this -- interpreting this as a threatening move and essentially defending mike flynn. the kremlin itself last week when asked about reports of sanctions being discussed between mike flynn and the russian ambassador to russia, this week when asked, he refused to answer on this and started calling this a domestic u.s. matter. but then top lawmakers heads of foreign relations committees and upper and lower house of parliament calling this an example of paranoia and a witch hunt. perhaps one of the reasons that many of these officials think that mike flynn is somebody they can do business with is because he came here in 2015, attended a celebration for the kremlin funded network russia today and sat at the right hand of the russian president himself vladimir putin perhaps that's why people here thought mike flynn would be a pro-russian figure. they have been work -- routinely denied any allegations that any russian intelligence agencies

that's more than we knew a couple of hours ago. >> mike flynn talking to vice president mike pence and saying he had not talked about sanction. vice president mike pence going on national television and repeating that. halle, what role did the vice president play in debting this resignation? did he play a role? >> it is our understanding katie based on a source close to the president yes there was pressure from mike pence to take this action given that the vice president felt misled and publicly as youered from sean spicer at the podium the rest of the administration, other members of the administration, includingpicer said himself, sean spicer apparently not told the entire truth by mike flynn or at least not told the relevant part that talks about sanctions katie. >> eli, the talking point they seem to be moving to is that the reason they weren't able to get the resignation faster is partially because jeff sessions wasn't confirmed at the doj, right? >> yeah, but that doesn't make any sense given they needed jeff sessions to remain unconfirmed and in the senate in order to confirm th

flynn did not discuss sanctions was from mike flynn himself. the only reason that the vice president went on television and did several interviews in which he said flynn had not discussed sanctions with the russians was because, according to a source, is what michael flynn told the vice president. that's the new detail that we're getting here. this was its comments that were made by the vice president were based on conversation that he had with michael flynn himself. let me bring in nbc news national security analyst jeremy bash. he's former chief of staff at the cia and the department of defense under president obama. jeremy, we may need to walk the audience through why this is significant. again, this is the vice president went out on a limb and said in several interviews no, that never happened. today we learned it did happen and now we're hearing the reason the vice president said what he said is because he was told that by michael flynn himself. >> let's break this down. there are three issues athe heart of this. first, did the national se

this is the room where we are told the topic of mike flynn did not come up at all. they were instead focused on talking about that president's health care -- the former president's health care law, how to repeal and replace it. and so far the reaction that you've seen from members of congress, republican members of congress, has been exactly that, to try to keep powering through this without really engaging in it. i spoke to jason chaffetz, the chairman of the oversight committee in the house about this. take a look to what he had to say. >> reporter: should there be a broug broader independent investigation into the situation with russia? >> i think that situation has taken care of itself. >> reporter: i'm getting the general sense here -- go ahead. >> i know you've been talking to other members of congress as well. but you were starting to answer moo question, it does seem to be right now the republicans are on thsame page with tt, right? >> reporter: i think that's right. you are not seeing renewed calls to a bipartisan, broader independent investigation. we shou

for flynn and mike was on my show vouching for flynn. >> reince is trying to do this, he trying to bring control to what's going on here and maybe that's why he was going to stick around a little longer. >> maybe mike pence is more powerless than people thought. mike pce handling half of the cabinet, maybe not. >> one thing we can conclude after this crazy few days, there's one person whose opinion matters, that's trump. if you're done on his list, then your down. if you're up, you're up. he will tolerate, a fair amount, of side way shooting among the very people advising him. >> he has a high tolerance for political pain. >> republicans would be astonish that -- he is not the adult in the room, he is supposed to be the adult in the room. >> they heed need to reestablish it. thank you, guys. >>> after the break, can trump team beat the vegas odds. she'll share with you. stay tuned. tech: at safelite, we know how busy your life can be. mom: oh no... tech: this mom didn't have time to worry about a cracked windshield. so she scheduled at safelite.com and with safelite's exclusive "on my wa

if i was mike flynn that report would make me uneasy. mike flynn -- >> there's no fake news. none of that. >> mike flynn's greatest asset is he was the first and loyal trump supporter. at some point, i think trump looks at this and says this guys has been nothing but trouble since i picked him. trump is loyal isn't help isn't any more. >> he is loyal until he heres something about -- i think about chris chris stee and out stead from the circle. he is almigh-- >> he does hang longer than most politicians when it come to most. >> george bush was criticized for taking too long to fire people. trump it seems to me has no problem no returning loyalty or rewarding royalty. >> let's go to what this is really about, potentially about the relationship with the vice president. the vice president made not care as such about the chief of staff as sitting vice president. >> you know, flynn has now impar raled and put two other important people in trump's close circle on the line and caused them public embarrassment. it's been embarrassment to rein priebus and it puts him in a peculiar sit

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

did he know mike flynn, did he instruct mike flynn to have conversations with the russian ambassador about sanctions and if he did not. was flynn really acting on his own? it's hard to believe, but it's possible. you have a loner out there who's going way beyond his brief with the president. but then the question becomes okay, when they were told a month ago, they clearly decided to ride this out, if it didn't become public they could bury it, now that it's become public they have this problem on their hands. why didn't they act a month ago on this, why didn't the president act? why did the vice president not act? why did they let this drag out in this way? it's very curious. one could say it's even more than curious, i do think it's become a different story now, and it's a very important story. >> ryan liz saturday posed, you mentioned maybe -- possibly the president knew about it, isn't it possible that trump told flynn to talk to the russian ambassador about sanctions and knew flynn lied to pence. >> those are questions that deserve answers, you begin to wobder whether pence has b

even if mike flynn is likely to continue being an investigation as well. it's a continuing conversation about policy going forward. at the are making it clear that they want some attention from u us. i think it's going to be in the conversation and it's going to make congressional republicans very nervous. >> jon: michael, i know how you feel about it because you had a piece in the "weekly standard" saying this is not going away. >> there's so many different issues in this and it's not just about mike flynn. at the reason is this not a personal scandal, it involves so many different aspects. the senate republicans, who really do differ with donald trump and mike flynn on policy toward russia are having to get into this now and are going to be getting into it. the fact that the fbi is investigating suggests that there is more to this story. we don't know entirely what that is, but as all the reporting is done about investigations into trump's campaign, there's a lot more that we don't know. it now that mike flynn is gone, that doesn't mean that we are going

. >> did you fire mike flynn? >> mike flynn is person -- and i asked for his resignation. he respectfully gave it. he is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence who is with us today and i was not happy with the way that information was given. he didn't have to do that because what he did wasn't wrong, what he did in terms of the information he saw -- what was wrong wa the way that other people including yourselves in this room were given this information. it was classified information and given illegally. that was the problem. >> did you direct mike flynn -- >> no i didn't. >> excuse me. >> no i didn't. >> i fired him because of ha he said to mike pence simple. mike was doing his job. >> we have all angles covered. let go first to you kent, and the report that "the washington post" says about general flynn. >> well greta, nbc news pete william is reporting that fbi agent who conducting interview said he did not lie to them. i wen back to the interview that he gave a few da

flynn, that's what mike flynn told him. if, indeed, mike flynn lied to him or misled the vice president, how can they continue to work together, if there's already some trust issues, there's been some, you know, we know there's a lot of angst with the team he's put together in the national security circle. so if you've lost that confidence with the vice president, how can the president keep sticking by. that's what i think is going to be flynn's biggest problem. >> some reporting in the "new york times" that, when flynn wrote the memo of who should sit at the table at the principals committee meeting, the cabinet secretaries who make key recommendations to the president. in putting steve bannon as a permanent member, a voting member, someone at the table talking, not just an adviser sitting on the sidelines, that he didn't fully explain to the president what that meant, this this was a precedent, that it hadn't happened before and also he was held responsible for the way the rollout of the executive order was done without a

quinn, or mike flynn, general flynn, certainly has that tie with the president. so i think other people are making something that i don't frankly sign on to. i think he has the full confidence of the president. >> to be clear, you think the loyalty should, for lack of a better word, trump the idea that he potentially lied or misled the vice president of the united states? >> well, i don't accept as a given and again, it's a hypothetical, i think it's clear that he as the national security advisor elect if you will getting ready to come in, had conversations with numerous people as a jump start to his new position. i don't think there's anything wrong with that. it would be expected. and he's certainly a professional. i don't know the details of any conversations, but -- >> understanding all of those things. >> right. >> so let me just -- >> i don't -- >> so in the simplest of temples. i'm sorry to interrupt you. if one of your staffers misled you would you let them go? >> well, you're using a definitive statement that he was misled -- >> no, i'm just asking as a

flynn to always tell the truth to mike pence. i really hope that people start focusing on the bigger issue, which is what was he doing or why was he targeted. >> i'm sorry, i have to respectfully disagree with my esteemed colleague, james freeman. [laughter] vice president pence went on national television and told the nation that the issue of sanctions was not discussed between general flynn and the russian ambassador, and it's embarrassing to the vice president. he was misled. that in and of itself is reason to fire him. now, there's been other news that, you know, the vice president might have been willing to forgive him. that's great, he's a nice man, but when you go on national television and mislead the american public unknowingly, that is a firing offense. paul: all right. now then let's unpack this a little more and get to the other issue which is what about the ties between mike flynn and other trump officials and russians in the campaign. that seems to be the big issue here that could dog the administration going forwar

greg to you first, all these sources telling you mike flynn absolutely had discussions with the russian ambassador so you have mike flynn going from no, i didn't have discussions with the ambassador to walking back and saying no, i can't recall. >> reporter: yeah, one of my colleagues interviewing him at the white house wednesday evening raised the subject with him, we've been working on the story, again issues of categorical denial, did you ever have discussions with the russian ambassador, the answer was no, we still feel very confident from our sources, then the next day we got that flynn could not recall when it came up. >> dana, let's take flynn out of it -- >> ice cold. >> ice cold. mike pence has his reputation on credibility and honesty. either he was lied to or there was some misspeak happening, but bottom line what do you think is happening behind closed doors and do you think flynn is going to have a job? >> let me answer that, but first let me play for our viewers why i think this is a issue between the two of them the vice president elect went out on television and was aske

as of wednesday this week, mike flynn was confirming that he did not speak about those sanctions with russia. when the post went back with him all about quoting what we know transcripts of the u.s. intelligence interaccepts of that phone call. last night he changed his mine. now, i don't remember if i talked about sanctions. so bottom line, how big is this? is this just a little marginal development in this story that we have been watching. either the white house spokesperson, when chief of staff all lied bluntly or they lied invertly or unknowingly because they thought it was true because mike flynn told them a lie. that's seems like a big deal for a top people in the brand-new administration. you're going to lie to me and make it look like i'm lying. and i get nailed for it. .1, the lying. the second point is senior national security adviser in this interfered -- in terms of a assessing the size of this that's what i want to put adam chaffetz in a moment, buried in the 7th paragraph is the news that this discussion between mike flynn and the russian government undermining u.s. polic

what about mike flynn? do you think if he misled the vice president of the united states as we have been reporting based on very good information, if he misled the vice president and sean spicer, is that a firable offense? >> well, i'm not a lawyer. i'm not a national security policy person. >> in political context. >> i know donald trump and if he thinks he did something wrong or inappropriate, this is a guy -- all his businesses i've had a lot of interaction with them through the years, every one of them runs almost flawlessly, he's always asking for feedback about those businesses, and when he hears there's a problem, he's like white on rice trying to fix it and changing it, so i think you're going to see that, and he's new to a lot of these people because he wasn't in the political world. he's getting known, he's realizing who the really strong persons are. his cabinet, everybody agrees i think is an a-plus team. you might disagree with their politics, a-plus team, just settling into office. the media h

. >>> first, the pick to replace mike flynn turned down the offer. vice admiral robert harwood telling the associated press, it's purely a personal issue. it's after he tapped alexander acosta to serve as nominee for the labor department. it came during the first solo of his administration. a joist with the media showing shades of his campaign freestyle. >> reporter: it wauz news conference like no other. >> i turn on the tv and see stories of chaos, chaos. yet, it is the exact opposite. this administration like a fine tuned machine. >> reporter: in a firy 1:17, the president telling his accomplishments and lashing out, trying to reset after a chaotic start to his presidency. >> i inherited a mess. it's a mess. the tone is such hatred. i'm really not a bad person, by the way. no, but the tone is such, i do get good ratings, you have to admit that. the tone is such hate red. >> reporter: for the first time, addressing why he fired mike flynn, who misled the vice president about the sanctions with russia. >> mike flynn is a fine person. i asking for hi

flynn and steve bannon. >> tonight mike flynn's future as national security adviser is up to one man, the president of the united states. one friend who spent time with mr. trump in florida this weekend telling me, don't look for a sudden shakeup, the president is in a fact-gathering mode right now. tonight sean spicer telling reporters that mike flynn has not submitted his resignation. lester? >> andrea mitchell, thank you. >>> meantime, the president hosted canadian prime minister justin trudeau at the white house today. a meeting obviously with important u.s. ally, but it comes on a day that much of the focus still remained on flynn. and another storm that started on social media over what happened at the president's private club in the hours after that international crisis involving a north korean missile. we get it all from nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. >> reporter: president trump aiming to fortify his relationship with key ally canadian prime minister justin trudeau. the two leaders meeting for the first time today. it comes as the president faces a major

mike flynn and his job, it was the lie that has cost mike flynn and hisjob, it is being found out. it is the 11th commandment that moses carried down on the stone ta blets, moses carried down on the stone tablets, thou shalt not get caught. there are so many angles we need to get to. let's bring in olga ivshina from the bbc‘s russian service. yesterday, the spokesman for president putin denied that michael flynn and the russian ambassador had spoken about sanctions. and now we have michael flynn's resignation because he has spoken about sanctions. so the russians were not telling the whole truth? welcome to the club. they have quite a long record of that. one of the most famous examples is back in 2014 when the russian president first said there is no russian service personnel in crimea and then he said, yes, of course there were. they were helping conduct the referendum. i guess that moscow's lesson is that if you are lying, remember what you are lying about exactly remember what you are lying about exa ctly a nd remember what you are lying about exactly and keep going. he refus

there's been this unease about mike flynn, the russian investigation. never mind the failure of the first labor nominee. a lot of unease. that press conference did nothing to somehow cause those members to be less uneasy. that's the issue he's dealing with. i think he had a goal today which is to fire up his base and to try to stop the russia bleeding a little bit and make the enemy the press corps, but did it help him accomplish his agenda on capitol hill? i don't think so. >> thank you. >>> another topic the president discussed today, the threat from isis. tonight we're learning the pentagon is readying options for the president that could escalate action on the ground in syria by possibly sending more american troops to take otter ror group. hans nichols has details. >> reporter: tonight two senior defense officials telling nbc news this month president trump is expected to be presented with the option of more u.s. troops in syria. a possible answer to his request to accelerate the fight against isis. they will join special forces already there. poss

they found evidence that trump national security adviser mike flynn and the russian ambassador to the united states had communicated by text and telephone around the time these sanctions were announced. now, one of the nice things about this reporting is we get this kind of blunt admission that "u.s. intelligence and law enforcement agencies routinely monitor communications with russian diplomats." okay. i mean, i guess we guessed that, but that's good to have bluntly in black and white. one of the other nice things about this reporting is this blunt force take it to the bank assertion by the "washington post" that their sources on this store "nine rrent and former officials." nine. nine. were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls. the "new york times" similarly cites multiple federal officials who "have read transcripts of the call." so we've got u.s. intelligence and law enforcement agencies bugging the russians, right? listening in on this russian official's calls and what they hear, according to these multiple and multily corroborated reports is the man

they got their information from mike flynn. now the president of the united states is dealing with an internal problem here. his national security advi misled his vice president. did he do so intentionally? donald trump is pretty loyal to people who are loyal to him. mike flynn was loyal to him, but this is a test i think of his relationship with mike pence. >> the big story yesterday, president trump's travel ban still on hold. what happens next with that? >> the president himself, he and the first lady went back and visits the press cab inon air force one going down. he went even further than what he said is they may have a replacement executive order. it's what his aides have been pushing him to do for a few days now. it's the politically expedient way to go. the ninth circuit in their denial of lifting the stay, gave a road map of how they can do this. they said, look, there's a legal way to do this, here, go do it. if he's as worried about these people mi as he says he is, then you don't have a court fight. you redo the or

vice president pence clearly had been told this by mike flynn. what we don't know is whether he was just communicating what he'd been told. there's ivanka trump and jared kushner, taking an increasingly large foreign policy role, steve bannon and you saw earlier that shot that you spotted of mike flynn, the general, retired general mike flynn who is the national security adviser also in that front row now next to jared kushner. if you see it, there's the economic adviser steve kohn, there's right now standing up mike flynn, jared curb mer, ivanka trump, quite a line-up there of the top officials. and this is a white house that has been under fire. reince priebus and of course the vice president. first of all, for having so many different power centers that it is not always clear who isn charge other than of course the president of t united states but also some missed signals. flynn was already in some difficulty with some of his peers for the rollout of the executive order for not completely informing the president of the implications of a memo t

you need to leverage that with a mike flynn. he needs to be subpoenaed by multiple different agencies and multiple different panels within congress. and then start to drive that up the line and say, okay, who knew what, when did they know it, i hate to get trite about it, but you work your way up to see just how high this goes. by the way, it's fascinating that when trump actually says, i don't know anybody who talks to the russians, my response would be, mike flynn did that. >> the one you fired, remember that? it is true there is a lot of leaking going on. donald trump has been obviously selective in what he doesn't like and has been irresponsible in his factual claims, but we want to be clear and factual here. it is true there are a bunch of things that are being leaked that would be classified or unauthorized leaks. that's big frustration in agencies particularly if it undermines statecraft or things that should be private like calls between him and heads of ate. is this more than the ordinary do you think that's a problemat

switching gears to national security adviser mike flynn. talking with ken delanny, under fire over reports he discussed american sanctions against russia with russia's ambassador during that transition period where the obama administration put forward new sanctions despite both himself and vice president mike pence saying otherwise. the exact opposite. how much trouble do you think lieutenant general mike flynn is in here? >> in a lot of trouble. he had five phone calls december 29th with the russian ambassador and denied he had the calls, denied he discussed sanctions and now there's evidence that that's not the case. i imagine somewhere there are transcripts or they wouldn't know that. as those transcripts make their way finally to the president of the united states we'll see what happens. this weakens mike flynn enormously with the inf infrastructure of this administration and knocks him down a few notches allowing others to rise, i would think. the bigger thing that allies, whether someone lied. someone either lied to mike pence or mike

sanctions with russia. >> mike flynn is a fine person. i asked for his resignation. he respectfully gave it. there was a certain amount of information given to vice president pence who are is with us today, i was not happy with the way the information was given. >> did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador prior your inauguration? >> no i didn't. >> would you had fired him if it hadn't leaked out. >> i fired him because of mike pence. that's his job. >> reporter: the president repeatedly pressed on whether anyone from his campaign had contact with the russians. >> we had a good talk. i have nothing to do with russia. no person i deal with does. >> reporter: blaming flynn's outster on leakers. >> i've called the justice department to look into the leaks. those are criminal leaks. they're put out by people in agencies. i think you'll see it's stopping because now we have our people. >> reporter: after touting leaks against hillary clinton as a candidate. >> i love reading those wikileaks. >> reporter: today

mike flynn's resignation. the president expected to meet with candidates to fill the national security slot today, and he will be making a decision we believe very soon. joining me now former president of the george w. bush adviser. paul. sir, thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you, cheryl. cheryl: who's the best choice now? especially in the wake of mike flynn's resignation? >> well, the choices so far that we've seen before are really good ones. you cannot beat the level of experience, not only in government but dealing with the kinds of thought about this presidency is going to have to deal with. and then you've got authors of books that are read by everybody in the defense industry. you have john bolton, who is a household word for anybody that cares about a strong foreign policy that wants to defeat our enemies. so they're all really good. and my thoughts are above all, military people usually can command a lot of respect in that role. so of course it's the president's choice, but he has some

and would mike flynn not even think about it? it's possible. >> sandy berger was prosecuted as well. >> why did he answer the question two different ways? this isn't just reliant on sources, this is reliant on what he said. i mean how can you not remember that? >> the other thing that's surprising, there are written transcripts of these conversations. >> we assume that he knew he was being recorded. he was fired for talking to the press and saying things. he's a guy who should have known better. >> conversations president president obama. >> people do make mistakes, even seasoned professionals, but we don't know what he really said. they're asserting that he said, we're going to drop those sanctions and that's a different question. >> is it a mistake or is it a violation of law? we're going to come back with the whole team, stick around for the conversation, we're going to talk about the name that donald trump had with elizabeth warren, stick around, it will surprise you. i have the worst cold with this runny nose. i better take

the administration about mike flynn that flynn had discussed sanctions. he vouched for the original version on this. and apparently it turns out that mike pence according to his spokesman only found out the truth when he read it in the newspaper. bill, as somebody whose been inside these administrations, what do you think is playing out there right now in terms of mike pence? the conversations he's having, what this does for his trust with him and the president? >> if you look at those stories, mike pence's communications team and senior advisors aggressively telling the story about how mike pence is so out of the loop, there's no way he could know anything about this potentially criminal affair that was happening in the west wing. i think -- i was talking to paul about that, he said, you know, he's so calculating that the secret service has changed his code name to frank underwood. mike pence and his team know exactly what they're doing. they're trying to make him look as good as possible and in an environment where president trump is not good at the pie

did mike flynn help them with that? did mike flynn or anybody else from the trump campaign collude with the russian government and their efforts to undermine the u.s. election? it's a very, very, very serious charge. right now it's an absolutely unanswered one at this point. will that charge be investigated? if it turns out to be true, will it be prosecuted? for head of the house oversight committee today was asked whether he might open an investigation into michael flynn and his contacts with russia. jason chaffetz answered "i think the situation has taken care of itself." so no then. the top republican in the house and the top republican in the senate have both insist there had's no reason for any sort of independent or special investigation into these allegations because the intelligence committees can handle it. well, okay, this contact with the russian government that mike flynn lied about, that has led to him being fired from this administration, that contact with the russian government, that happened during the p

mike flynn is just a small casualty of that bigger plan. the left is trying to make this into the next watergate, news or the same liberals who fiercely defended hillary clinton, ignored and defended the massive private server scandal. in the closet of a mom and pop shop bathroom. the corruption, the pay to play at the clinton foundation. hillary clinton's endless lies. the left was also noticeably silent back in 2012 and president obama was caught on a hot make saying this to the russian prime minister -- to send a message to vladimir. remember this? >> after my election... >> sean: tell vladimir, more flexibility. don't tell the american people. moral outrage and hypocrisy of the worst kind. all we're saying playing out is what eli lake who will be on next, the political assassination of michael flynn. in it, lake points out that it is so extremely rare for reporters to be told about government monitored communications of private citizens which is what was leaked to the press about flynn's calls with the russian ambassador. some of the mo

flynn about that conversation, that they then knew they had a real problem. they had already gone back after the 29th of december and were aware of that one conversation in particular which was focused almost entirely on the sanctions. it was not parenthetical, it had nothing to do with christmas, it had nod to do with anything else but sanctions. so that became the time where after the 15th, they then decided to actively deciding with sally yates, and brendan clapper still in office, what to do on the 19th, which was the day before inauguration. brandon clapper, yates and the president-elect wanted to act on it before the inauguration. it was comey, the fbi director, who said, no, he thought it would compromise the investigation. after january 23rd when sean spicer had his first press briefing and repeated the misinformation that he had been told by mike flynn and said that he had just gone back to flynn the night before that briefing and that flynn had repeated to him that that conversation was all about airplanes and setting up the phone call and christmas

mike flynn was wrong, he misled the president and vice president. but so far, there is zero evidence that flynn broke any law in any way. fox news is reporting that there is zero indication that flynn misled the fbi when they interviewed him. this is the beginning. take a look at what this winding liberal from "the new york times" a sub. >> the issue is what did he tell trump, that he and trump actually cook up this whole thing? after the russians did not respond harshly to the eviction of their spies and diplomats, trump tweeted out some positive encouragement of this. did the two of them cook this u up? the first is we have never taken seriously from the very beginning russia packed our election. that was a 9/11 scale event. they attacked the core of our varied democracy. >> sean: you will compare this to 9/11 and pearl harbor? if he ever bothered to do some research, and read the joint report, it found russia did not interfere in the election vote in any way. then there is this former news anchor, kind of laughable, dan rather. watergate is the b