MTP EXCLUSIVE: RANKING DEM INTEL MEMBER REP. SCHIFF: ‘THERE WAS CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION’ BETWEEN TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA

PLUS: OMB Director Mick Mulvaney: “We won’t be able to balance the budget this year”

SUNDAY EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.): Trump wiretapping claims are “just patently false”

SUNDAY EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine): Trump “owes us that explanation” on wiretapping claims

MARCH 19, 2017 — Ahead of tomorrow’s House Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told “Meet the Press” moderator exclusively that “at the outset of the investigation, there was circumstantial evidence of collusion” between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Rep. Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, called Trump’s wiretapping claims “patently false” and said he expects FBI Director Comey to say that definitely in tomorrow’s hearing. Watch the full, exclusive interview.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also joined the program exclusively, telling Todd that she doesn’t “know the basis for President Trump’s assertion” about being wiretapped. “I wish he would explain to us on the Intelligence Committee and to the American people. And I do believe he owes us that explanation,” she added. Watch the full, exclusive interview.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told Todd that he thought “the thing with Angela Merkel” was “sort of tongue in cheek.”

Mulvaney addressed the administration’s proposed budget and said that “we won’t be able to balance the budget this year.” He also addressed the debt ceiling and noted a timeline of possibly mid-May for a proposed balanced budget with the administration’s next focuses on tax reform (following health care reform) and infrastructure “around summer or early fall.” Watch the full interview.

Yamiche Alcindor of The New York Times, Robert Costa of The Washington Post, Katty Kay of the BBC and syndicated columnist George F. Will joined this morning’s roundtable for insight and analysis.

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 the “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.

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