EXCLUSIVE: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Intel Committee’s Russia Investigation: “I have some doubts about Chairman Burr”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on the president’s wiretapping claims: “I’ve never heard that allegation made before by anybody”
MARCH 5, 2017 — In an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper addressed recent tweets from President Trump alleging wiretapping by President Obama during the 2016 campaign: “For the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as DNI, there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign.”
“I can deny” the existence of any FISA court order for surveillance of Trump Tower, the former director added.
Clapper told Todd that, in the intelligence report released in January concluding Russian interference in the 2016 election, “we had no evidence of such collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia, but “this could have unfolded or become available in the time since I left the government.”
In another exclusive interview this morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that he has “some doubts about Chairman Burr,” calling for a special prosecutor to look into possible Trump campaign ties with Russia. On the wiretapping allegations, Schumer noted: “President Obama has flatly denied that he has done this. And either way, Chuck, the president’s in trouble.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) reacted to the wiretapping claims as well, telling Todd: “I’ve never heard that allegation made before by anybody. I’ve never seen anything about that anywhere before. But again, the president put that out there, and now the White House will have to answer as to exactly what he was referring to.” The Florida senator was not ready to call for a special prosecutor like Schumer: “ I certainly don’t think we’re at that point at this moment.”
This morning’s roundtable was comprised of Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher, The New York Times’ Tom Friedman, AEI’s Danielle Pletka and The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel, who discussed the allegations of collusion between the president’s campaign and Russia.
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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