[Berman:] Again our breaking news tonight, President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani tells PBS that is as recently as last night attorney's for the Mueller team were in contact to the presidential lawyers about narrowing questions for possible interview with the President. And as you just heard President Trump acknowledge the one year anniversary of the start of the Mueller investigation by incorrectly calling it "illegal". For more certainly of interest to the ranking Democrat in the Senate Intelligence Committee, Virginia's Mark Warner, the committee's report yesterday left zero doubt that that committee does believe there was Russian meddling in the 2016 election that it was designed to help Donald Trump. I spoke to the senator just before the broadcast. Senator Warner, your committee put out a joint statement saying that you have no reason to question the findings of the intelligence community that the Russians meddled in the 2016 election and they did so with the intent of helping Donald Trump. The House Intelligent Committee put out a report that said the opposite they said they saw no evidence of that. How is it that you guys are at odds?
[Sen. Mark Warner,  Intelligence Committee:] Well John, let's be clear. The House Intelligence represented only the majority, the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee did not agree with their finding. They agreed with our finding. I think any reasonable person following who is been following the story. And we interviewed over 100 individuals many of them that will part of putting together the intelligence community assessment. We interviewed officials from the Obama administration, the Trump administration, and literally every person that is in the intelligence community that has been in effect confirmed by the Senate. One of the first questions we would ask is, do you agree with the Intelligence Committee assessment and every one of them 100% agreed. So, I would argue it's a very small minority of people who are not connected to any kind of factual basis that don't agree with our assessment, which the intelligence community. They put this the report together fairly quickly. But they got it right. They realized the Russians massively intervened in our elections. They touched 21 of our state's electoral systems. They radically used social media in ways that never have been used before and they did it with the intent to help Mr. Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.
[Berman:] Chris Stewart, a congressman Republican congressman from Utah who was on the House Intelligence committee was telling me earlier today, he spent hours overt the CIA looking at things. And he saw no evidence he says that the Russians were trying to help Donald Trump. How is it that he says he's seen no evidence?
[Warner:] I don't have the foggiest idea. I know that we had in Mike Rogers, Jim Clapper, John Brennan, the previous heads of the three of the intelligence agencies, they all reconfirmed that, you know, our conclusion, their conclusion that should be, they also indicated that there was even further proof when Bob Mueller brought a series of indictments against individuals connected to the internet research agency, the group that was doing a lot of the social media posting, that that, those indictments further confirm that the goal of the Russians was to help Trump and hurt Clinton. Now, I can't you know, I frankly have stopped listening to some of the stuff that comes out of the House majority, because it's been so disconnected from any kind of factual basis. And candidly, that's why it's been so important that in the Senate we keep our efforts bipartisan, the chairman and I and our committee, we go from Tom Cotton on one end to Kamala Harris on the other. We've all stayed united on our reports so far.
[Berman:] How much more work or what does your committee need to do to complete its investigation and when will that be?
[Warner:] We've still got three very important pieces to finish. We've finished the election security, we've now done the assessment of the intelligence community. We've got more work to do on what happened well and where there were mistakes made by the Obama administration. We got to make sure that we get a more conclusive report on social media as well as some policy, outlines on where we need to go, because that problem and misuse not just by the Russians but the others in social media is only growing. And then we've got the question that everybody is still waiting for and I'm reserving judgment on, and the question of collusion between individuals connected with the Trump campaign and the Russians.
[Berman:] You say reserving judgment on that, because we are a year into the Mueller investigation right now. And you say you're reserving judgment on that, you talk to Republicans, you talk to the White House. And they say they have seen no evidence of it to date. Have you seen any evidence of it to date?
[Warner:] If there was not more to be investigated, and more facts to come out, I don't think we would have had at this point a year today into the Mueller investigation five guilty pleas, 14 indictments, including the indictment of the President's campaign manager Mr. Manafort, including the indictment of a number of key Russians who were involved in further bolstering the evidence about Russians helping Mr. Trump to hurt Clinton. You know, in terms of the clue, I felt and others are, we're going stay silent until we see all the witnesses.
[Berman:] Well, staying silent is different than reserving judgment. So, are you staying silent or your just refusing to answer whether have you seen evidence?
[Warner:] However, John, you want to ask the question, I'm not going to weigh in until the committee finishes its work. And we've got more work to do. We there is actually one of the things that is a bit frustrating, because I wish we had been further along at this point.
[Berman:] One of the things the President said today is that the Mueller investigation is disgusting. He called it illegal. His personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is out there almost every day saying the same thing on television. Do you worry that their argument is starting to be heard? Particularly among supporters to the President? Do you worry that it's working?
[Warner:] I worry that this President's relentless attacks and his allies attacks on the Mueller investigation, their relentless attacks on the integrity basically on everybody that works at the FBI. Their relentless attacks on, in effect, the whole Department of Justice, really raises to me the concern that some of Mr. Trump's supporters may start thinking well, you know, not only is the Mueller investigation not accurate or not fully credible. But, you know, it also in effect gives a green light to people deciding. Well, I don't want to follow this law or this rule because everybody that's involved in the FBI and Justice Department is somehow corrupt. That gets us into very dangerous territory. And I think those who've made those kind of ad homonym attacks, do so extraordinarily irresponsibly and are not reflective of what our nation is, rule of law.
[Berman:] Senator Warner, thanks so much for being with us.
[Warner:] Thank you John.
[Berman:] So both President Trump and his Republican allies continue to pound away on the theme that the Russian investigation is a witch hunt and a total waste of time. Coming up a detailed look at their game plan and how it has been working.