The House Intelligence Committee oversight report reveals that CIA Director John Brennan overruled senior CIA officers who challenged the intelligence assessment, stating, We don t have direct evidence that Putin and the Russian government conspired to help Donald Trump win the election.
00:15:31.760Director Gabbard, Reagan Reese with The Daily Caller.
00:15:34.240You laid out that the documents revealed that the Obama administration did not publish a December
00:15:39.0402016 presidential daily briefing that demonstrated that Russia did not steal the election.
00:15:44.080Trump was receiving these briefings at the time because he was president-elect.
00:15:48.000Are you of the view that that information was kept out of the briefing because then
00:15:52.480president-elect Donald Trump wouldn't have seen it?
00:15:54.720I don't have any documents that speak to exactly what the new guidance was that was given as the
00:16:01.520reason for pulling that document, which, by the way, still has never been published until we
00:16:06.640released it last week, Friday. One could assume that they didn't want President Trump to see a document
00:16:14.640that came from the intelligence community that would contradict the Russia hoax narrative that began
00:16:20.000through the Hillary Clinton campaign with the Steele dossier.
00:16:24.000One more. Maybe either for you or Caroline. The President said yesterday that Obama committed treason.
00:16:31.680Does — do you or the White House believe that the Supreme Court's immunity decision protects Obama from prosecution?
00:16:38.000Look, I can speak to the President's feelings on this matter. He spoke to all of you yesterday in the Oval Office,
00:16:44.560but I also spoke to him about this this morning. And he wants to see all those who perpetuated this fraud
00:16:51.200against our country, who betrayed our country and the Constitution to be thoroughly investigated and held accountable.
00:16:58.080And it's been, you know, 10 years of this. And I would just add, based on everything the director
00:17:04.080has said and declassified, all of you in this room should go through it and take a look at this report
00:17:09.200and review the intelligence because, unfortunately, that hasn't happened. And many of the people who
00:17:13.760perpetuated this hoax — Clapper, Andy McCabe, James Comey, and many others — have been hired by
00:17:20.640major networks in this room to go on television and continue to spew these lies, knowing that they are
00:17:26.720lies. And if you all recall, just flashback to 2016 and the years after, the entire Trump-won presidency was
00:17:34.720embroiled in this scandal that was perpetuated by the Democrat Party. And you had major Democrat
00:17:40.000Party officials in this city, namely Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, who went on
00:17:45.200television and told the American people Donald Trump is an asset of Russia. It was a lie. They
00:17:50.240always knew it. Hillary Clinton herself said that President Trump would be a puppet for Putin. Senator
00:17:55.520Tim Kaine at the time called President Trump Vladimir Putin's defense lawyer. Adam Schiff stated,
00:18:00.960And one of the worst things a lawmaker can do is to tell the American people,
00:18:04.720I know something you don't know. It's just classified, and I can't tell you. And that's
00:18:08.240what he said. I can tell you that the case is more than that. I can't go into the particulars,
00:18:12.560but there is more than circumstantial evidence now. And not enough people in this room, not enough
00:18:17.840journalists in this country pushed Adam Schiff to say, what are you talking about? What evidence do you
00:18:23.680have? Everybody just ran with the lies. And it led to impeachments. It led to the division of our
00:18:29.760country. Unfortunately, so many Americans from listening to outlets in this room believed in
00:18:34.640these lies. And it's a complete scam. And it's a scandal. And the President wants to see accountability
00:18:40.960for that. Phil. Thank you. A question for Director Gabbard. A spokesperson for former President Obama
00:18:46.400said in a statement earlier this week, quote, Nothing in the documents issued last week undercuts the
00:18:51.280widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 election, but did not successfully
00:18:56.720manipulate any votes. How do you respond to critics like former President Obama and also others on
00:19:02.560the Hill who say that the administration is conflating apples and oranges here, conflating allegations of
00:19:08.480actual hacking of voter machines and allegations of interference generally?
00:19:12.480I think it's a disservice to the American people that former President Obama's office and others who are
00:19:18.960criticizing the transparency that is being delivered by releasing these documents. They are doing a
00:19:24.960disservice to the American people and trying to deflect away from their culpability in what is a historic
00:19:33.440scandal and negative action towards the American people and our Democratic Republic. The answer to
00:19:39.680that statement can very clearly be found throughout all of the documents that we have released. Again,
00:19:46.880showing that Russia has took action to try to sow discord in the election, but showed no preference for or
00:19:54.800against any singular candidate. You've long been an opponent of weaponization in government. How do you
00:20:02.640respond to criticism that referring Obama administration officials and even potentially the former
00:20:07.280president is just more weaponization and this is a potential race to the bottom? I think that's a very
00:20:12.800disrespectful attack on the American people who deserve the truth. They deserve to have faith and trust in the
00:20:20.000integrity of our Democratic Republic, which is under bent, which has been undermined by President Obama
00:20:26.400through his direction of this manufactured fake intelligence document, knowing that it was filled with lies
00:20:33.360and knowing that it would and could then be used for all of the actions that came after.
00:20:39.280And I would just add there needs to be accountability for that weaponization, Phil, that we've seen. And no one has been a victim of the weaponized government more than
00:20:48.000than President Trump, not just because of this political scandal. You all recall his house was raided.
00:20:55.280So I think, you know, it's very disingenuous for people to say, how dare they speak of former President
00:21:00.800Obama about this based on evidence and based on intelligence when the former president of the United
00:21:06.000States, Donald Trump's home was raided, when he was forced to sit in a Manhattan courtroom and many other
00:21:10.880courtrooms across the country for crimes he never committed, when he was when he was impeached and indicted,
00:21:16.400and the entire country witnessed that. That's the weaponization of justice.
00:21:19.840Now the president is back because the American people see the truth. Nearly 80 million Americans
00:21:24.000reelected him back to this office, and he believes that we need to have justice and accountability.
00:21:28.400And I think the nearly 80 million Americans who reelected him agree with that. Caitlin.
00:21:32.880Thank you, Caroline. Two questions for Director Gabbard, just on this.
00:21:36.880Director Gabbard, you referenced the past intelligence reports and assessments on this, including
00:21:41.920that 2017 one that was signed off, as Ed noted, by every Republican on the Senate intelligence
00:21:46.800community, including the acting chair of the time, now Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in a
00:21:51.920statement that they did not find any evidence of Russian collusion, but they did find, however,
00:21:56.640is very troubling and they found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.
00:22:00.560One, are you saying that he's wrong in that statement that he made then? And secondly,
00:22:04.880what would you say to people who believe that you're only releasing these documents now to improve
00:22:08.880your standing with the president after he said that your intelligence assessments were wrong?
00:22:12.960Uh, well, first, I want to correct something that you stated, which was, uh, uh, citing the
00:22:18.960Senate Intelligence Committee's report as being one in the same. I think you said the intelligence
00:22:24.000community. The Senate Intelligence Committee has a very different function than the Office of the
00:22:28.480Director of National Intelligence. Uh, the evidence and the intelligence that has been declassified and
00:22:35.200released is irrefutable. Uh, I'm going to let Caroline speak to, uh, Secretary Rubio.
00:22:40.400I'll speak to both questions first on Secretary Rubio. Uh, he put out a statement in 2020 following
00:22:46.240that Senate Intelligence Committee report, and he said what they found is troubling. We found irrefutable
00:22:51.280evidence of Russia meddling, which the Director of National Intelligence just confirmed for all of you
00:22:55.520that Russia was trying to sow distrust and chaos. But what's the outrage in this that Secretary Rubio did not
00:23:01.680say at the time the Democrats were saying at the time is the fact that the intelligence community
00:23:05.840was concocting this narrative that the president colluded with the Russians, that the president's
00:23:10.800son was holding secret meetings with the Russians, all of these lies, um, that were never true. And he
00:23:16.720also said at that time, we discovered deeply troubling actions taken by the FBI under Comey,
00:23:22.080particularly their acceptance and willingness to rely on the Steele dossier without verifying its
00:23:27.360methodology or sourcing. The Steele dossier that many outlets in this room ran as the gospel truth,
00:23:33.040and it was cooked up and paid for by the Clinton campaign. As for your second question, Caitlin,
00:23:37.760I think who is saying that that that she would release this to try to boost her standing with
00:23:42.000the president? Who has said that? Well, the president has publicly undermined her when it came to Iran.
00:23:46.320He said she was wrong. He told me that she didn't know what she was talking about. That was on Air Force
00:23:50.160One on camera. The only people who are suggesting that the Director of National Intelligence would release
00:23:55.200evidence to try to boost her standing with the president are the people in this room who constantly
00:23:59.760try to sow distrust and chaos amongst the president's cabinet. And it is not working. I am, I will,
00:24:06.640I will just answer your question directly. I am with the president of the United States every day.
00:24:10.720He has the utmost confidence in Director Gabbard. He always has. He continues to. And that is true of his
00:24:16.640entire cabinet, who is all working as one team to deliver on the promises this president made. Does anyone
00:24:22.080else have questions for Director Gabbard? And then we'll turn it over to a couple other questions.
00:24:25.600Christian, go ahead. Yeah, thank you. Director Gabbard, two follow-ups on
00:24:29.840questions that have been asked. You mentioned the previous DNIs during the president's first term.
00:24:36.400One of them reports to you right now, if I'm not mistaken, John Ratcliffe. So have you not spoken to him
00:24:42.400about why this information was not declassified during the first term? He was in that position for a very
00:24:49.040short period of time. The work that began back then, we have picked up and absolutely completed.
00:24:55.520We are continuing to investigate this. Additional whistleblowers are now coming forward because they
00:25:00.800see an opportunity for the truth to come to light. And as Caroline said, for real accountability to be
00:25:06.880brought forward. The accountability is the essential part of this. We can, we can show the truth,
00:25:12.160reveal the truth. The accountability needs to occur to be able to start to restore that trust
00:25:17.760in the integrity of our, of our democracy. And then just quickly, I know you said you
00:25:22.160the charging to DOJ, but the statute of limitations on conspiracy is five years.
00:25:27.600So what else could they possibly pursue besides treason? I think that's a great question for Attorney
00:25:32.640General Pam Bondi. We're providing all of the evidence, all of the intelligence that we have,
00:25:38.320both redacted and unredacted versions, referring it to the Department of Justice and the FBI.
00:25:44.000We'll take one more. Charlie, go ahead. How credible was the information about Hillary Clinton's
00:25:48.720power to me? The report said that it was from DNC, sourced from the DNC. Have you seen
00:25:54.960that information? Or was, do you think that maybe Russia was overemphasizing what they had?
00:26:00.400All I have seen is what, uh, the intelligence, uh, committee have reported through their investigation.
00:26:07.360Uh, I think the, the, the underlying point there is, is that we understand from intelligence what
00:26:14.960Russia said that they had. And the important point here is that if they were trying to influence the
00:26:20.560election, uh, as President Obama and James Clapper and John Brennan, everybody said they were doing in
00:26:27.280order to support Donald Trump's election, they would have released the most damning of that
00:26:32.320information, some of which I detailed here. You'll find the rest in the report prior to the election
00:26:38.000to help Donald Trump win. They specifically withheld what they had on her, the most damning information,
00:26:44.480because they thought that she would win the election. They had plans to release it,
00:26:47.920uh, just prior to her inauguration to, again, sow discord and chaos in America.
00:26:53.280And if I may, uh, on Jeffrey Epstein, can you rule out that he was connected in some way to
00:26:58.960any kind of intelligence, either foreign or domestic? I haven't seen any evidence, uh, or
00:27:04.000information that reflects that. Uh, if anything comes before me, uh, that, that changes that in any way,
00:27:10.880uh, support the President's statement loud and clear. If any credible evidence comes forward,
00:27:16.320he wants the American people to see it. Great. Director Gabbard, we thank you for your time today.
00:27:21.040I know you're a busy woman, so we'll let you get out of here, but thank you so much.
00:27:25.760Okay. I know there's, um, many issues going on today across the world and here at home.
00:27:30.800If you have any other further questions, I'm happy to take them. Ed, why don't you go ahead?
00:27:33.840Yeah, thank you, Caroline. So, um, the Japan trade deal, uh, is that Japan trade deal
00:27:39.280the start of this number of trade deals that the Treasury tax rates were going, says we're going to see
00:27:44.080by August 1st? Uh, I think it is. I mean, as you said, uh, we had Japan yesterday, we also had Indonesia,
00:27:50.720and we had the Philippines as well, the President announcing all three. He came in
00:27:54.880as the closer in all three of those. I've said many times from this podium that, uh, the President's
00:27:59.520trade team has been in active talks and discussions with many countries around the world, and you've all
00:28:04.320been anxiously awaiting what those countries were. Now, you know, uh, three of them, and there's many,
00:28:09.200many more to go. We have now sent 25 letters, um, to countries around the world. But just to reiterate
00:28:14.720this Japan deal, uh, for those at home who may have missed it, Japan will now pay a 15 percent tariff,
00:28:20.800uh, versus the reciprocal rate of 24 percent, um, that they initially had. Auto and auto parts
00:28:27.120tariffs have been reduced to 15 percent. But the centerpiece of this deal now is the President got
00:28:33.120Japan to commit to 550 billion dollars in investments to revitalize American industries.
00:28:39.680And these funds will be spent at President Trump's discretion and direction into key industries
00:28:44.720such as energy, semiconductors, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, and shipbuilding.
00:28:49.120And the U.S. will retain 90 percent of the profits from any investments made
00:28:53.520by this 550 billion dollar fund. This was originally a 400 billion dollar investment that President Trump
00:28:59.520then negotiated, uh, to an increase of 150 billion, making it a 550 billion dollar deal for the American
00:29:06.400people. And I just want to emphasize, Ed, I see you have a follow-up, but it's very important.
00:29:10.960Japan has agreed to open their markets to many very key, um, sectors and American-made products
00:29:17.120that have really faced very strict, um, tariff and non-tariff barriers prior. So, um, thanks to the
00:29:22.720President, Japan's markets will now be open to American-made products and goods. This is big news
00:29:27.440for our tech companies, uh, and our farmers as well. On Monday, the Treasury sector is going to
00:29:32.480Stockholm to talk to the Chinese delegation. What does the President hope to get out
00:29:36.240of that meeting? Are there deliverables?
00:29:37.680Ms. Um, I won't speak to any deliverables or set expectations. I'll let the Secretary
00:29:42.560of Treasury do that. But I did speak to him yesterday about his upcoming trip,
00:29:46.800uh, and he looks forward to continuing discussions with his Chinese counterparts.
00:29:51.200Uh, the President, um, has ensured that we have a good continuing working relationship with China
00:29:57.440that benefits the United States. Uh, and so the Secretary of Treasury will be
00:30:02.000obviously discussing those key matters, but I'll let him set the expectations.
00:30:05.040Ms. One more, if I may, um, given what the DNI
00:30:08.080just said and laid out, does President Trump believe that President Obama should go to jail
00:30:12.400for something? Ms. Look, the President believes that this matter needs to be thoroughly investigated
00:30:16.480and, and anyone, um, convicted of crime should be held accountable in this country. Go ahead.