devin nunes's judgment call. he knew and paul ryan knew that that would be the headline toy, thadevin nunes says it was just a judgment call, sometimes those decisions are right, sometimes they're wrong, clearly suggesting there that his decision was probably wrong. especially since he apologized for that decision to his committee behind closed doors today. what devin nunes did yesterday might have begun as an attempt to help donald trump get out of trouble. but after his press conference in the white house driveway yesterday where he let it slip that he went to paul ryan first, he had a more important mission, to get paul ryan out of trouble. he apologized to his committee today because paul ryan wanted him to. paul ryan needed him to apologize to his committee today, to calm the insurrection against chairman nunes, to quiet the demands that paul ryan fire the chairman. and he needed devin nunes to claim that what happened yesterday was just his judgment call and to imply that it could have been the wrong judgme

as devin nunes is. if devin nunes can lose his chairmanship over it then paul ryan can lose his speaker ship over it. speculation among staffers on the intelligence committee is that michael ellis is the source of the intelligence information nunes saw. this report says that he's a lawyer that works for him on the intelligence panel and who was recently hired to work on national security matters at the white house council's office and spokesman for nunes declined to comment on whether he was involved in providing information to nunes. so now we have a name to ask devin nunes about. was your source michael ellis? >> we're not going to ever talk about any of that. >> former acting director of the cia and jeremy bash, msnbc national security analyst and former chief of staff to leon when he was director and the defense department. john, your reading on where this story stands tonight, what makes sense to you in this story if anything and what doesn't make sense to you? >> well, there are more things that d

committee to devin nunes, was he a source. he would not say, said i'm not going to talk about my sources and methods. i also asked him can you rule out there's anyone at the white house involved at all, in any way either to give you the information oraa lou you on the grounds to review this information. he said, i'm not going to answer that question. i have answered these questions over and over again, i am not going to go there. he has not suggested that. now, the question that adam schiff raised at his press conference is why did the white house apparently allow chairman nunes to come and review this information, apparently from white house staff, and have mr. nunes brief the president the next day, and before even talking to the committee about it. it seemed rather circuitous and as he mention, quote, cloak and dagger. why not have the staff tell the president and leave the investigation out of it? i tried to get adam schiff to say, are you suggesting that the white house is trying to undercut and stall this investigation.

. >> so, devin nunes unmasked them perhaps. >> that's right. i think we have to ask these other questions, and you're better than i am to ask, what else isn't being investigated? this part of routine surveillance that is perhaps taking place in new york at trump tower or whatever, or is there something else that we just don't know about? >> i'll have phil mudd walk us through this foreign intercepts, incidental collection in just a moment. this is a big deal coming at such a sensitive moment, 2 1/2 weeks after the president tweeted against the former president, making those unsubstantiated allegations against president obama. >> wolf, basically adam schiff, the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, just told the american people, you can't trust what's coming out of this committee on this hugely important investigation. that's basically what he just said. they're not going to be able to hold an actual independent real thorough investigation. so, now if you're an american at home watching all this information, watching jim comey tes

devin nunes moments ago tracked down in the halls of the capitol. he says the investigation will move on. listen. >> how does this investigation move forward now that democrats are calling for your recusal? >> move forward just like it was before. >> reporter: and you're not going to recuse yourself? >> the investigation continues. we've had an investigation into russia for many, many years. >> he said the investigation continues. he didn't directly answer the question of whether he will recuse himself. we don't know whether to read into that. so, democrats are calling for nunes to step aside, and this morning, really for the first time, we're starting to hear from republicans, in the senate mostly, but republicans now questioning the chairman's judgment. listen. >> i think you put his objectivity in question at the very least. >> there needs to be a lot of explaining to do. i've been around for quite a while, and i've never heard of any such thing. >> again, we are waiting right now. you're looking at a live picture from inside the capitol where ho

just like devin nunes, and just like donald trump. joining us now, democratic congressman eric swalwell is a member of the house permanent select committee on intelligence. and congressman, i just have to ask you, how long did it take for the shock to wear off? because the traditions of the way your committee operates as you know is a -- it's a very strong bipartisan history of the operations of that committee. >> lawrence, i'm still shocked. this committee for the past three years for me has been the most fulfilling thing i've done in congress. because it's a place you go to find bipartisanship, to make the most important decisions. and today our chairman betrayed the independence that our committee must show during one of the most trying times in american history. he should have shared this with the intelligence committee first. he never should have shared wit a president whose campaign is under federal criminal investigation. and now i think more than ever, the case has been made that we need an independent bipartisan commission to

but devin nunes seemed confused about what he was seeing. he still seems confused about what he saw. he wasn't able to sort of categorize what he said. it had something to do with russia. beyond that it was unclear what he was looking at. where are we with the substance of this? >> yeah, that's a really good point. one of the most puzzling parts about how this was handled devin nunes decided to hold a press conference and briefed the president on incomplete information, information that he himself does not seem to fully understand or be able to contextualize. that is very confusing and puzzling and doesn't seem to help trump if that was even his motive. one of the problems with this whole series of events is also what devin nunes has said publicly. he talked about the political heat the president was taking and feeling that was unfair and he felt he needed to act. as chairman of intelligence committee that's not his main motivation or shouldn't be. it isn't to take off the political heat from the person you're investigating. all of these thi

we'll start with devin nunes. there was this question about where was he the day before, now it turns out he was on the white house grounds the day before he made a statement about maybe the president presiden presidentses a maybe the associates were swept up in some surveillance. you worked in that building. tell us what you make of this new information. >> well, i think what representative nunes was saying is he was on the white house grounds to meet his source. he said, i didn't go into the white house itself. the white house grounds, as you know, is the white house itself and where donald trump is right now and the oval office and the cabinet room and the situation room. and then the executive office building, now called the eisenhower executive building, the eob, which is a pretty office building, a big ornate building, where our staff work. lessertaff, below the top 25 to 35 who have offices in the white house itself. and to get cleared into the white house, in terms of security, it is just like the white ho

nunes. >> clearly devin nunes has accessed information others did not. the fact that ranking member schiff, the democrat on the house intelligence committee, as well as members of the senate committee will have access to the same information is a good development. part of what's been going on is what does devin nunes know and what does he not. we need more transparency, as much as our intelligence sources will allow. the american people need to be reassured our election process is above board and that russian involvement is not kind of too important in terms of our national decision-making. >> absolutely. now that we have reporting this morning that chairman nunes, the source for his information was to white house officials, do you believe that she should stay on as chairman of the house intel committee? >> i have no problem. that's one of the house -- it is a house committee decision as long as he feels he's effective, i think it's okay for him to stay on. and we have found out information from that. we have found out, for example, that the obama admini

there any chance that devin nunes finally steps down? there certainly seems to be pressure for him to do it and steps down as chairman of this committee? >> i'm dumbfounded by what has been going on. and i would not hazard a guess or prediction. i would not be surprised if he did a press conference tomorrow naked. this could go any number of ways. it might be good for ratings. >> no it wouldn't! >> but the thing is that right now we need an investigation of what happened at the nsc in terms of helping trump prove this bogus tweet. and you have sean spicer coming out day after day saying we don't though who let these guys in. today he said i told you i would look into it. but i didn't promise i would share the information with you. you need to investigate what the white house knew, when it knew it and what happened and what the nsc staffers were doing. the senate committee is not going to do that. their hands are busy. so how can nunes investigate himself? i am reminded of that groucho marx routine when he cross-examined himself during a

the chairman devin nunes is joining us now. mr. chairman, thanks very much for joining us. >> great to be with you tonight, wolf. thank you. >> why did you meet with a source on the white house grounds the evening before you came out in that news conference? >> yeah, wolf, it's actually pretty common. probably at least once a week, if not more than that, we have to go to the executive branch in order to read classified intelligence. so that could be the white house grounds, it could be the white house tw house, it could be the pentagon, it could be cia. there's a number of places we go. and so i think jake tapper reported on this morning, i had spoken to him, this is something i had been working on for a very long time. i was concerned about americans' identities being either not masked properly or, in fact, being unmasked in intelligence reports. this actually goes back to before mr. trump's, president trump's famous tweet, as you know, that he talked about putting -- wether or not he was wiretapped at trump tower. so i had been w

the process of how this occurred rather than the substance of what devin nunes has learned. in fact, the process is quite important here. it's very important here, because devin nunes as jeffrey was saying refused to reveal who gave him this information, made it sound like it was some kind of cloek and dagger operation and we need to know whether, in fact, all of these gyrations were to prove in the end that donald trump's tweet on march 4th was even remotely accurate, which is what they may be trying to prove. >> and wolf, if i could just add very quickly, all of this illustrates that when you have a stantive investigation as we do now of russian influence in the election, the risk of a cover-up, the risk of not telling the truth about what ultimately went on is often bigger than the risk of underlying misconduct being discovered and that's the problem here, all this -- no one can get their story straight, either the white house or the republicans who are supposedly investigating the white house. >> let me get back to that brief exchange that i had with devin nunes on monda

in which case the whole question of the use of nunes becomes not just devin nunes stumbling into something, but devin nunes being a pawn of the white house in an attempt to divert attention from the russia connection. >> well, it has been reported at least i've seen in more than one place that cohen-watkins, eliana was just here talking about mcmasters and the president intervened after bannon went to him on behalf of cohen-watkins. but ej, what in the world were these two -- why were they burning the midnight oil these two in the white house combing through all these documents? is that their job to go through this stuff? think the nsa is sorting through this and if they find something they then ship it over there? >> well, trump totally politicized this when he did his tweet about obama groundlessly. it doesn't shock me at all these two guys were probably tasked to find any shred of anything that might remotely justify an unjustifiable tweet. and i think eliana's reporting and the reporting in general that trump saved this guy's job only heightens the belief that he was somehow involved w

devin nunes still trying to explain himself. take a look at what he had to say last night. >> there's a lot of questions that the fbi director has to answer. that was our members, the republican side who really wanted to make sure that those questions were answered before we get to the rest of our witnesses. >> so what nunes is trying to explain is why the entire schedule for the house intelligence committee got blown up this week. i think we can show you what they had planned. they had planned a meeting on monday, an open hearing on tuesday. that was postponed. they had then planned to replace that open hearing, a closed door briefing with jim comey, the fbi director, and admiral rogers, who running the nsa. that has been postponed. and then a thursday committee meeting that they usually have as they're on their way out of town also as of right now not happening. you can contrast that with what's going on on the senate side. i think going into this, everybody expected the senate intelligence committee investigation into russia

on devin nunes? >> gosh, no. it's a bipartisan attack. katie, this is a joke. the house intel committee has ceased to function. why? because of its chairman. this isn't complicated. if a chair nan man of a committ won't tell the members oh of that committee what he knows, he's got to go. i think eventually you're going to see this pressure continue to grow. the intel committee, katie, is not doing its job. it's not functioning right now. and that's all because of devin nunes. >> we have the -- what's going on with the house intel committee. there's what could be going on in the senate intel committee we'll find out more about. but michael steele, there's also this now renewed effort to potentially look at health care again, this after last week when everyone, including the president, said they were just going to let, in the president's word, obamacare explode. can they go back to health care and can they do it at the same time as doing tax reform and potentially infrastructure? >> that remains to be

the chairman, devin nunes, is under fire right now for going public with the material and briefing the president before informing his own committee. democrats accuse him of working with the administration, and the house committee's investigation of russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election remains stalled. the committee's stop democrat, adam schiff, says he is ready to look over the material but says the white house actions raise profound concerns. the senate intelligence committee is charging ahead with its investigation. in a public hearing today the panel heard about russia's efforts to influence the u.s. presidential election. one expert said the interference continues. the house speaker, paul ryan, targeted just this week, and senator marco rubio revealed former members of his presidential campaign were targeted from a location inside russia as recently as yesterday. meanwhile, president trump is threatening war on members of hiswn party. llowing a gop infighting over the failed healthcare bill, the president tweeted today that the right wing freedom caucus will, quote, h

jones has called for devin nunes to step aside. he has joined us on the independent commission bill. a lot of republicans have told myong we need a commission because we have a house investigation under way. they're rethinking that now. so i hope they reconsider it. leader nancy pelosi reminds me often that the september 11th commission was not created on september 12th. that it actually was over a year later. and that's because people doggedly pursued how we could bring republicans and democrats together to have such a commission. and it was the appeals of the families who came to washington that made it happen. so now we're hoping that it's the appeals of our constituents who care about free and fair elections that also get us to that point. >> i want to look at another moment in the press conference today that the senators had talking about their working relationship with each other. >> is there any circumstance with which you wouldn't share with mr. warner one of your sources of intelligence on this investigation? >> he usually

nunes. >> it's been painful for devin nunes. for devon, we have not talked in several months through this whole process the senate and house committee we are each running our own independent investigation. i would encourage devin to make sure he shares at least with the ranking member of the committee that they do that in the days ahead. i can tell you as a person who is a christian i believe in forgiveness and redemption. they have to find a way to be able to bury the hatchet and move on as a committee. the work of the committee is so exceptionally important. >> martha: indeed it is. senator lankford, thank you very much. good to have you here tonight, sir. >> thank you. >> martha: new reaction to a series of fierce denials coming out of kremlin starting with the russian president vladimir putin who said that alleged russian meddling in the 2016 election is purely political. watch this. >> anti-russian is play plagued political forces inside the united states to trade on that and positions inside. >> martha: same was heard from

now, devin nunes doesn't know. so, i guess that means he now doesn't know why he ran to tell paul ryan about the reports, then ran down to the white house to tell the president. on fox news, devin nunes gave yet another reason for running to the white house. >> i felt i had a duty and obligation to tell him because he's been taking a lot of heat in the news media. >> devin nunes thought he could help the president out with the heat he's taking in the news media. there is no governmental reason to go to the white house in what you just heard devin nunes say on fox news last night. absolutely none. on fox news last night, devin nunes is admitting he did it for nothing but public relations reasons to help the sunking credibility of the pathological liar in the white house whose credibility can never be helped because he lied his way through life. devin nunes is in way over his head. he is obviously incompetent. he has no idea how to properly handle intelligence and is now trying to publicly block his own committee's p

. >>> also on the agenda, the nunes intelligence. >> did you help provide devin nunes with information? >> i'm not talking to anything. >> i have no idea. >> current investigation going on by chairman nunes. >> nothing to say. >> the key white house players identified in the devin nunes saga offering no comment today, but as democrat adam schiff views intelligence at the white house, what will he find? >>> rounding out our agenda, democrats onboard with gorsuch, two democrats say they'll vote to send gorsuch to the supreme court but as others consider their move, how much is 2018 weighing on their minds? all that and more still ahead this hour. >>> we begin right now with our top story. president trump saying he wants his former national security adviser michael flynn to testify. flynn's lawyer -- excuse me, i think we have to go to the white house. we are seeing the president. >> during the campaign, i traveled the nation and visited the cities and towns devastated by unfair trade policies. probably one of the major reasons i'm here today. trade. nobo nobody's ever made bad trade deal

neither devin nunes will either. he will not say whether the white house had any role whatsoever when i asked him multiple occasions now. adam schiff yesterday raised concerns, i asked him specifically do you think the white house was involved the effort to under cut your committee? >> what's the best route to doing a credible investigation? if there's been a substantial question about whether we can do that we need to take whatever steps are necessary to restore credibility to the investigation. >> reporter: the question going forward is whether or not the house intelligence committee can produce a bipartisan product in a committee that's really been bogged down in part son politics, while trying to lay the ground work saying they are trying do a very deep dive on the issue of russian meddling between the trump campaign officials and russian officials. who will be the first of the trump associates to testify? we don't know. but do know jared kushner will at least have a private interview with the senate intelligence

it is devin nunes's fault for the break down of bipartisanship in the house. but what is interesting is the senate is following this idea here in washington that it's always a little bit older, little more mature. >> grown up? >> little bit more grown up than the house which tend to be a little bit more rockish and rowdy an partisan and more following that pattern certainly in this investigation. >> what did you make, david, of senator warner's comments about actually obtaining a lot of the documents they want because there could be complications? >> yeah. i think the way it was phrased, he wants to push but at the same time do it in that methodical way. not get ahead of themselves. because this he have this opportunity to do a do-over here, wolf. to do it in a way that speaks confidence not the sort of amateur hour that unfolded the last several dayes with congressman nunes and i think that's the way he wanted it. >> they are saying rebecca they are open to subpoenaing documents, individuals they said internationally, that's different. you can't subpoena some

there is nothing to suggest that devin nunes has done anything improper. but he has certainly acted in a very unusual way over the course of this week. and if you analyze what's happened, he simply disappeared on tuesday evening from the perspective of his staff. and they didn't understand what was happening, even until the last minute before his press conference on wednesday. these are, like i said, folks with a lot of experience. and they could provide a lot of guidance for the chairman that would have led him perhaps not to hold a press conference on wednesday morning. perhaps not to make these kinds of allegations which ultimately he had to walk back or create a lot of confusion. or to kind of destroy whatever hope there was left for bipartisan investigation on the committee. >> eli, did you get a chance to ask devin nunes about his first stop with speaker ryan before going to the white house and what ryan said to him, what he told him to do? >> i did not ask him about speaker ryan. and i have to tell you that it was one of these situations where the c

have we had a response from devin nunes yet? we have a growing list, right now it's all democrats of essentially saying the house intelligence investigation is essentially been corrupted. >> reporter: chuck, i think we're headed in that direction. i think congressman schiff who of course is a former prosecutor chooses his words carefully walked right up to that line. didn't quite step over it here, but i do think, especially considering the lack of clarity on where this information come from, why did chairman nunes have an opportunity to view it but not move it anywhere that could imply it he viewed it in a secure facility, but at the same time we don't know. that has left democrats unable to view the information and make a judgment for themselves. and it really does the house and senate intelligence committee is much more than the others have a tradition of bipartisanship. and they have been working in concert as oversight committees in the course of this investigation. so, i think the sense up here is really that this raised a

republican devin nunes says u.s. investigators picked up conversations potentially associated with president trump during apparently legal surveillance of foreign officials, not related to russia. tonight, the committee's ranking democratic adam schiff said he was blindsided by this information. he has grave doubts about devin nunes's handling of the investigation. and nunes agree there is no evidence to support president trump's claim that he was wiretapped by president obama. tonight mr. trump says he feels, quote, somewhat vindicate. i'll talk about all the news with senator lindsey graham. our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first, let's go to manu raju, he's covering a stunning new cur curveball and the very angry reactions from the top democrats. manu, walk us through the breaking story. >> tonight, devin nunes, the chairman of the committee, creating an uproar by going public with what he learned from a secret source that some of trump's communications with officials were picked up incidental

it seems that devin nunes is carving out a new lane. he indicates that there was information brought from multiple sources that were properly in the chain of command. meaning people with the appropriate security clearance. that i think would distinguish it from not some outside leak, not some wikileak kind of thing but people who have the appropriate access to this information. bringing it to him at the committee. and that he has concerns about what it suggests. there were questions about whether it personally ensnared the president. he would not answer that directly. whether there were political motivations based on what he had seen, meaning motivations for the surveillance in and of itself. he exprocessed some concern about that but didn't address it directly. he indicated that this is a situation where individuals were unmasked. now we learned about that from the flynn, russian ambassador sequence where flynn's name became unmasked and that's how we publicly then knew that he spoken to the russian ambassador in ways that he had not d

and it comes not from devin nunes, it comes from the white house itself, through devin nunes. i mean, just on paper, it does seem -- >> it also hasn't come, because the contents -- >> -- at arm's length -- >> the contents was nothing. >> the left has kept saying all along, why didn't the president just call, pick up the phone and ask the fbi or the justice department if he was being wiretapped. he could have done that. but the minute he did that, if he had done it, then he would have been accused of interfering with the investigation. >> that's not what this is about. >> jack, you should be -- jack, you're the one who should be mad here. someone who comes on tv to defend the administration. you should be mad that they've made your job so difficult over the last week. >> no, no, no. >> look what -- they could have done this so easily, jack. >> i'm outnumbered. >> let me make up with point. they could have easily just given the information to the committee. >> and by the way -- and devon -- devin nunes gave an interview to ely lake who has lied. he said something that was not tr

devin nunes. the white house deny it is coordinated with nunes. >> and the senate intel committee begins its first open hearing on russia tomorrow. this as the president revisits the health care battle predicting it will be easy to get a deal. he is also out touting the u.s. mission in iraq is going very well. he never mentioned the air strike that killed 100 in mosul. it is day 69. let's start with sara murray. >> reporter: good morning, alvaren alisyn. it is clear they are struggling with how to move forward with the russia investigation. the house intelligence chairman and white house are on defense. >> are you going to stay as chairman and run this investigation? >> why would i not? >> reporter: devin nunes defiant among calls for him to step aside from the panel's russia investigation. >> will you recuse yourself? >> reporter: the house russia probe put on hold as democrats accuse the chairman of stalling. >> the investigation certainly has ground to a halt. here is the odd thing. all meeting

do we expect anything with devin nunes to change in a couple of minutes? >> we don't expect it will change. this has been a statement the speaker has put out for the last week or so whenever asked about the house intelligence committee chairman. it's not really something that ryan has been particularly eager to get involved in. the pressure is mounting on him to potentially do or say something. we saw senator john mccain come out this morning and essentially say he has never seen anything like what happened with devin nunes in his career, and he has been around washington a long time. that, of course, though on the senate side. and so far, on the house side, republicans are sticking by devin nunes. i talked to peter king on his way into the gop conference meeting, and he repeated a line from trey gowdy, another member of the house intelligence committee. he says, it doesn't matter if he went to waffle house or the white house, it's all the same. peter king added if it had been the house of pancakes, same deal. i am an ihop girl myself. that's the line of d

but what do fellow republicans want to do with devin nunes? i'll ask congressman mike turner straight ahead. to next-generation fighters... ♪ to landing an unmanned vehicle on a carrier for the first time in history. just wait till you see what's next. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off. bit more about jared kushner, donald trump's senior advisor and son-in-law who is being called in front of the senate intelligence committee to be interviewed about his meetings with russian officials and the leader of a russian bank. back with me, robby mook, the former clinton campaign manager, and michael steele. michael, let's start with you. the white house says there's absolutely nothing wrong here. is there, at the very least, a problem of appearances? >> i think that's exactly the point of this hearing. i

we're standing by to talk to chairman devin nunes who will be joining us live. >>> kushner to testify. the leaders of the senate intelligence committee now say president trump's son-in-law jared kushner, one of the president's closest advisers, will testify about newly disclosed meetings he had with a russian diplomat and a controversial russian banker. he'll answer questions as part of the senate investigation into senate meddling in the presidential election. tonight, new questions about why these meetings were not revealed until now. >>> changing the subject. still smarting from from his defeat on health care president trump gets busy with bill signings, business roundtables and promises of tax reform, but after his stinging loss, who is he willing to work with in washington and what can he really accomplish? >>> and tests and thefts. north korea tests a rocket engine once generation the possibility kim jong-un is making progress on a ballistic missile that could hit the united states. we also have new details pointing to north korea's involvement in a multi-million dollar cyber th

he's been following all of this and following the whereabouts and movements of devin nunes since this all kind of played out. manu, what do we know right now? >> reporter: well, we do know that at least two white house staffers were involved in helping mr. nunes get this information. now, nunes has said privately, at least to speaker paul ryan, that a "whistleblower" was the person who helped provide him this information, and speaker paul ryan's office still says that's their understanding based on what devin nunes told them, saying they are fully support yiven of mr. nunes staying as chairman, even as democrats step up their calls for him to recuse himself from this investigation because of their belief that he's grown too cozy with the white house. now, what the democrats are trying to figure out is this, what did devin nunes know and how exactly did he learn this information. those are questions that adam schiff, the top democrat on the committee, has yet to understand. he responded to the white house's request yesterday, or at least their opening for him to review the information

now, he previously worked for devin nunes. remember, key to point out here, the announcement from nunes set off a firestorm of controversy around him and around his committee's investigation into russian interference. nunes had briefed the president before sharing that material with his democratic colleagues on the intelligence committee. of course, those colleagues supposed to be working hand in hand with him here. that led to accusations that nunes was working with the white house and lending some -- to lend some credibility to trump's claims that he was wiretapped. this new report from "the new york times," if true, could certainly inflame those accusations. we should say this reporting from "the times" based on sources described only as several current american officials. as i mentioned before, nbc has not independently confirmed the report. the report also says that these officials, "played a role in providing the information. that they assisted in the disclosure of the intelligence reports. it is not clear what precisely

there are a lot of ethical questions here. >> and one answer to that may be, if you ask devin nunes why he doesn't want to share, the sources of the white house and then adam schiff looks at that and thinks it's not credible. you have this circle problem here that comes to the chairman of the house intelligence committee and his own committee. that's why i think the real answers, if we can get accepted answers to this, it's going to have to come from the senate because the house process has become so politicized. >> i want to continue this conversation. let me play more sound from the briefing with sean spicer. >> i'm wondering if the white house thinks it's appropriate for national security officials to be conducting what's basically a political task which is trying to find information that then validates something the president said. >> so i've read the report and respectfully i think your question assumes that the reporting is correct. >> it does. >> and so i would just suggest to you that the letter that was submitted earlier to the ranking -- the chairman of the ranking members of

he goes on to say that they have yet to receive a response from devin nunes. so no ingredient yet on process which is one reason why the senate leaders are trying to show they are doing a very deep dive into the issue of russia, any of those connections that occurred between russian officials and trump officials and to answer some questions about their upcoming testimony they're going to hear from jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, something i'm told will be done in a private setting likely under oath. they're going to probably lay out some of their time line for hoping to achieve some of those, get some of that information. so we'll hear from them and just later this afternoon, but in the meantime, not much progress on the house side. as all meetings canceled this week, questions whether they can meet anymore as democrats call for nunes to step aside which he will not do, wolf. >> we'll look forward to that briefing from the leaders of the senate intelligence committee coming up in the next hour. manu raju, and jim acosta, thanks very much. coming up

first, peter, it the white house, is there any explanation for whom devin nunes was talking to? he said in in the white house proper. >> as we understand it from his office, that meeting took place for him to view the information from his source here on the white house grounds. as you know, that doesn't mean it took place in the residence, in the west wing. it could have happened in an office ablg adjacent to here. this is notable. not just anybody has access to the white house grounds. we heard from a long-time former aide who said in effect either the source is a white house staffer, the meeting was coordinated by a white house, or by a white house staffer because members aren't just given access to the white house grounds. this is notable because it raises questions about the independence of this investigation that is being led by the house intelligence committee with its leading member, the airman, in devin nunes, this republican who by this suggestion there now is great circumstantial evidence that it would an library this information came from somebody within the white hou

that's devin nunes, he's significant for a number reasons but first and foremost the chairman of the intelligence committee. it made news as going through some of the intel reports he discovered that the president himself is what he initially said that through surveillance some of the president's personal communications had been picked up and incidental collection and then so manu raju you're up with me now, saying he had just come out of the west wing, just briefed president trump an said the president is concerned. we just heard a lot. can you just tell me what was the headline of all that that jumped out at you? >> that he said some of donald trump's campaign contacts between trump officials after the elections and with foreign officials were picked up incidentally by the u.s. intelligence community. that is the upshot of what devin nunes is saying those conversations, contacts were actually picked up incidentally by the intelligence community. now we don't have a lot of details, devin nunes is not revealing anything more he discussed in a press conference i was at a couple hours

devin nunes willing to have hearings after cancels a tuesday public hearing. but not before the april recess here on capitol hill. perhaps that will happen later in the month. he needs to get an agreement with the ranking member of democrats on his committee, something he does not have quite yet, anderson. >> there's not going to be public hearing until after recess in april? >> reporter: what's that he said. when do you expect to have public hearings? anything before the easter recess? he said, i highly doubt that's going to happen. there's just not enough time. expect anything public would have to wait for a few more weeks at least, anderson. >> yesterday chairman nunes told reporters he invited fbi director comey to testify before house investigators, even though he canceled the public hearing. that was going to be a behind closed doors hearing. the fbi is pushing back, right? >> reporter: right. there was no agreement for james combny to come before the committee. for comey to come and brief them. they needed an agreement with adam schiff, the top democrat

>> reporter: republican devin nunes acknowledges he met with an unnamed source on white house grahams last tuesday one day before taking the information he learned to the president. >> there was no sneaking around. i walked onto the ground and said hello to people. >> reporter: he said he saw agencies under the obama administration intercepted communications involving members of the trump transition team but dismissed president trump's allegations that president obama wiretapped trump tower. other members of the house intelligence committee have not seen the classified intelligence and democrats want devin nunes to recuse himself from the investigation. >> given his role in the transition team and events this past week, it has called into question whether he has the objectivity necessary to oversee the investigation. >> reporter: senator john mccain says devin nunes has more explaining to do and there must be a bipartisan approach. >> this is a serious issue that started with russian interference, attempts to change the outcomes of the election. >> reporter: house speaker paul ryan sa

>> i like devin nunes. in the past i've respected him. >> this has put a shadow on all of this. >> is this an authentic investigation by an independent branch of government or is devin nunes in constant touch with a lot of people in the white house and adjusting the investigation accordingly? >> is it possible to have an independent investigation if you're on the transition team and going around the committee having back door conversations and you're at the white house so you can have a secret location to talk to this source if he's woodward and bernstein as opposed to an elections official. if all of of this is happening it gives the appearance of impropriety and an appearance there's no way to have an impartial investigation. >> can i ask you a big question about health care. stlt happening, is it not happening? you, of course, talk to the president directly about this. now the house republican leadership seemed to open the door that maybe they are working on something but the white house isn't sure about

even devin nunes said so. but now the entire campaign apparatus of the republican party, the rnc sent out an appeal "vindicated. "they're fully behind trump on this because they're desperately trying to muddy the water on those tweets that nobody can defend. >> everybody stand by. we're going to have live coverage of the sean spicer briefing coming up. police say, meanwhile, they've identified the london terrorist as isis claims responsibility. we're also going live to london for the very latest. >>> plus, only moments away from the white house press briefing. looking at live pictures. reporters, camera crews now heading inside. sean spicer will likely field questions on a whole range of issues, including the health care vote upcoming, russia, the house intelligence committee chairman, devin nunes. a lot more. we'll be right back. new aveeno®... ...positively radiant® overnight facial. get the benefits of a spa facial... ...overnight. aveeno®. "naturally beautiful results®" li don't want to pry... grown ma

devin nunes has gone rogue. and not only should he not be engaged in this investigation, he should be -- he should be replaced on the committee. we have very small quarters in the skiff where we do our business. i can't feel confident that he will not be attempting to influence the investigation or hearing about things that he's then going to run to the white house. i actually have a theory that this has all been orchestrated in conjunction with the white house. obviously, it has to be. how does he -- he's not talking to some mole on the white house grass. he is -- he is very engaged with the president in trying to deflect the focus which has been on russian meddling in our elections. now, that hearing last week was a -- a bomb went off. when director comey said not only are we investigating the meddling by russia in our elections but we are investigating those associated with the trump campaign and what relationships they had with russia. that was -- a fire went off. we all looked at each other thinking oh, my