PLUS: Reince Priebus: Learned We Were Misled by Gen. Flynn “Sometime After January 27th”
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): “More Hope Than Belief” That Congress Can Investigate Trump If Necessary
EXCLUSIVE: McCain: Dictators “Get Started by Suppressing a Free Press”
EXCLUSIVE: Former Defense Sec. & Former CIA Director Leon Panetta: Fireable Offense “Any Time an Intelligence Agency Withholds Vital Information to the President”
FEB. 19, 2017 — In an interview this morning on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Reince Priebus, chief of staff to President Trump, responded to recent reports of Trump’s campaign aides having repeated contact with Russian intelligence agents, telling moderator Chuck Todd: “We don’t know of any contacts with Russian agents.”
When asked about a potential problem with leaks in the White House, Priebus replied, “We don’t have problems in the West Wing.”
Priebus also said he did not know he had been misled by National Security Advisor Michael Flynn until “sometime after January 27th.” Flynn “maintained the fact that he never talked to the Russian ambassador about sanctions,” said Priebus. “It turned more or less into a conversation about whether or not he was being honest with us and the vice president.” Watch the full interview.
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) exclusively joined the show from Germany, where he is attending the Munich Security Conference. McCain told Todd that he has “more hope than belief” when it comes to the ability of Congress to investigate the president thoroughly if necessary.
He also reacted to President Trump’s tweet on Friday calling the news media “the enemy of the American people”: Dictators “get started by suppressing free press. In other words, a consolidation of power when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press.”
“I’m not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I’m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history,” the senator added. Watch the full interview.
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who has also served as a director of the Central Intelligence Agency, exclusively addressed the president’s relationship with the intelligence community: “The last thing they need is to have a president who questions their patriotism to this country and to him.”
He told Todd that “any time an intelligence agency withholds vital information to the president or withholds any key information to the president, that’s a violation of their oath.” Watch the full interview.
The New York Times’ David Brooks, former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt and The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter joined the “Meet the Press” roundtable for insight this morning.
Read the full transcript of this morning’s “Meet the Press.”
For more from moderator Chuck Todd throughout the week, watch MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” weekdays at 5 p.m., and subscribe to “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.
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