JAKE TAPPER (HOST): Some stunning news from the White House just minutes ago about why it took the Trump administration 18 days from the moment they were warned about their national security adviser possibly having been compromised by the Russians until the moment that President Trump finally requested the resignation of former Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. White House press secretary Sean Spicer revealing this afternoon that the White House did not know how to take the warning from then Acting Attorney General Sally Yates because they did not think she was a Trump supporter. It's a stunning admission when you consider the high stakes of what Yates was alerting the White House to, and the petty partisan politics the administration apparently allowed to cloud their judgment.
Yesterday was the first time that the public heard the story directly from Yates on her surprise upon hearing that Vice President Pence and other senior White House officials denying that Flynn, in his December conversations with Russian ambassador Kislyak, had discussed anything of substance such as, say, sanctions. Now, why was Yates surprised? Because she, as acting attorney general, knew the actual contents of those conversations. So, Yates reached out to the White House Counsel Don McGahn, and told him that Flynn had apparently lied to Vice President Pence and others. She was worried because she suspected she was not the only one who knew that Flynn had lied.
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Could be blackmailed by the Russians. That's the acting attorney general of the United States, and the White House did nothing. Not until a few days after The Washington Post broke the story on February 9th that Flynn had lied to everyone about the contents of his conversation with the Russian ambassador, then the president acted. Why did the White House not act while this man, potentially compromised by the Russians, roamed around the Situation Room with access to the most top secret information for all those days? Here's Sean Spicer trying to explain it today.
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A heads up? She was warning that you your national security adviser might be compromised by the Russians.
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“An utterance from a political opponent”? That's how the White House viewed this warning. Now, another possible reason why the White House did not take Yates seriously came from President Trump himself on February 16th when he said that “other than lying to lying to Pence, Flynn did nothing wrong.”
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This is all part of President Trump and his team trying to discredit or anyone that calls him or them into question, including, now, the FBI and Congressional investigations into Russian interference in the election. In a tweet the president called them, quote, “a total hoax,” and a, quote, “taxpayer-funded charade.” But, have you to ask yourself, is President Trump a reliable source of information on the Russia story?
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“No person that I deal with does,” except, of course, for General Flynn, and Attorney General Sessions, and former adviser Carter Page, all of whom had contacts with the Russians during the campaign, not to mention former trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, who has admitted that he communicated with Guccifer 2.0 which claims to have hacked the DNC and, who U.S. officials believe, with high confidence to be a front for Russian military intelligence. Fake news, total hoax, taxpayer-funded charade. It doesn't matter the words or tweets that the president throws up. The investigations are going to continue and we will be here here to bring you the facts about them wherever they may lead.
