Senator Warner Says No Reason to Contradict Intel Community on Russia Meddling; Haley Says Russia Is Behind U.K.  Spy Poisoning; White House Confirms Kudlow As Economic Advisor; Stormy Daniels Tape From 2007 Appears About Affair with Trump.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: This just in, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says there is no evidence to contradict what the intelligence community has been saying all along that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. So, let's go to our CNN senior congressional correspondent, Manu Raju up on The Hill. Manu, you just talked to Senator Warner. What did he share with you?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is in response to what the House Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee concluded in their report. In that conclusion it said that nothing they have seen and none of the underlying intelligence supports the notion that Vladimir Putin and the Russians did anything to favor Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. They contradicted what the intelligence community said and in that January 2017 assessment. I spoke to Mark Warner, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee which is also investigating whether or not that conclusion was accurate, this is what he said.</s>RAJU: Senator, House Republicans concluded that there's not enough evidence to support the notion that Vladimir Putin was trying to help Donald Trump become president. What's your reaction?</s>SEN. MARK WARNER, (D), VIRGINIA: My reaction is that since that whole investigation has broken down on partisan lines, we basically have a group of folks who appears to me will say or do anything to protect this president, I believe in the intelligence community's assessment. They spent months working on across the board, saying that the Russians had a favored candidate. That candidate was Mr. Trump.</s>RAJU: Do you have evidence to substantiate the intelligence community's assessment that Putin tried to help Trump?</s>WARNER: We have been on this now for now about 14 months. We have seen nothing that takes away from the unanimous intelligence community's assessment.</s>RAJU: Now of course there are other big questions as part of this investigation is whether or not there's any conclusion that there was any collusion between Russian officials and Trump officials as part of the 2016 campaign. We know the House Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee believe there's no evidence of collusion. When I spoke to the Senate Republican Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Richard Burr earlier this week, he told me there's no evidence yet of collusion. Now Mark Warner sees it a different way.</s>WARNER: I'm going to continue to reserve my judgment. But I've never seen a political campaign in my life where a candidate or that campaign has had as much contact with a foreign government before the election and immediately after.</s>RAJU: Are you months away from finishing the collusion aspect of this?</s>WARNER: I'm not going to get into a timeline. Unlike some others we're actually going to follow the facts and not try to overtly politicize this. Next week we'll take a very important step. We are going to come out with a series of bipartisan recommendations on election security. One of the great frustrations I have is that we know the Russians intervened in 21 of our states, electoral systems in 2016, they did it with impunity. He didn't change vote totals. But they basically left a lot of digital fingerprints and we're now going -- the primaries already, we're now going into another election season. Every one of Mr. Trump's appointees has acknowledged that our election systems our vulnerable -- yet in open testimony, when asked if whether they've been directed by the White House to make this a priority, none of them have said the White House has directed them. So that I find back to your earlier question, I find that very peculiar that the President of the United States doesn't view election security as a top priority.</s>RAJU: Now Warner also said there are further witnesses they want to interview, beginning next month, including some Trump associates, who the committee wants to bring back for a second round of interviews. People, probably like Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., but Brooke, Republicans have not yet agreed to bring back some of those key officials back for a second round of interviews. Of course, as you see there, a major difference in opinion about whether or not there was collusion, whether or not the intelligence community's assessment is accurate that the Russians actually tried to help Donald Trump become president. So, clear division on Capitol Hill along party lines, certainly on the House side. We'll see the Senate side has any more luck of coming to a bipartisan consensus. Something that has been elusive on Capitol Hill so far.</s>BALDWIN: Manu, thank you. Got to pull away. We want to dip into the United Nations and listen to Nikki Haley speaking.</s>NIKKI HALEY, U.S.  AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Let me make one thing clear. From the very beginning, the United States stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain. The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom, using a military grade nerve agent. Dozens of civilians and first responders were also exposed. Police officer Nick Bailey was the first to arrive on the scene and remains hospitalized in serious condition. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this atrocious crime. No two nations enjoy a stronger bond than that of the United States and the United Kingdom. Ours is truly a special relationship. When our friends in Great Britain face a challenge, the United States will always be there for them. Always. Alone, Russia's crime is worthy of this council's action. But this is not an isolated incident. The assassination attempt in Salisbury is part of an alarming increase in the use of chemical weapons. Last year, the North Korean regime used the nerve agent VX to publicly assassinate Kim Jong-un's brother in a Malaysian airport. In Syria, the Assad regime continues to kill its own people with chemical weapons years after this council passed resolution 2118 to remove the threat from Syria's chemical weapons program. When the Security Council created a mechanism to investigate chemical weapons attacks that mechanism was targeted. When it began to shine a spotlight on Assad's role in killing his own people. A growing concern in all of this dangerous and destabilizing activity is Russia. Russia failed to ensure Syria destroyed its chemical weapons program. Russia killed the joint investigative mechanism when it found Assad liable for chemical attacks. Russia used its veto to shield Assad five times last year. It has also provided cover for Syria in The Hague at the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons. The Russians complained recently that we criticize them too much. If the Russian government stopped using chemical weapons to assassinate its enemies and if the Russian government stopped helping its Syrian ally to use chemical weapons to kill Syrian children and if Russia cooperated with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons by turning over all information related to this nerve agent, we would stop talking about them. We take no pleasure in having to constantly criticize Russia, but we need Russia to stop giving us so many reasons to do so. Russia must fully cooperate with the U.K.'s investigation and come clean about its own chemical weapons program. Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council. It is entrusted in the United Nations charter with upholding international peace and security. It must account for its actions. If we don't take immediate, concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used. They could be used here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this council. This is a defining moment. Time and time again, member states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance. Now, one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member. The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable. Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the representative of the United States --</s>BALDWIN: OK, so strong words from the United States and from Ambassador Nikki Haley. This all in the wake of the attempted assassinations of a former Russia spy in Salisbury, England, and also his daughter, with a specific kind of nerve agent that can only be made in Russia. And so finally from the U.S. you have this condemnation on Putin and on Russia and, of course, the U.S. standing by our ally in the United Kingdom. For more, let's go to CNN contributor Jill Dougherty, she's a global fellow we the Woodrow Wilson Center and she's also our former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief. A and so you had earlier in the week, Rex Tillerson, now outgoing Secretary of State condemning Russia. You had Trump yesterday stopping short of condemning Russia and saying he would condemn if it's proven that it's Russia. Then you just heard Nikki Haley. What did you think?</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: I think they did what they are supposed to do, which is --and this is kind of the pattern that has existed, Brooke, for a while. Forget about what the president said for a second. The structural people, the Nikki Haley, the Secretary of Defense, et cetera, they usually say things that comport with usual U.S. policy. And what the United States would normally do under an extraordinary circumstance like this is say exactly, number one, absolute solidarity with our ally, the U.K. Russia carried it out. In essence what they're saying is that special relationship continues. But then she goes on. I think is broadening this now to really talk about chemical weapons in general. She's accusing Russia not only of using chemical weapons in this particular case, the nerve agent, but also in Syria, and saying this is a more serious problem that could spread. We want to have some accountability for what Russia is doing with its chemical weapons. Knowing, of course, that Russia is a member of the Security Council, if they tried to pass anything, Russia could veto it. But I think what they're doing is they're using our representative, our ambassador to the U.N. to make this public statement, to get it out there. Again, strongly standing by the U.K. and then a warning to Russia about chemical weapons.</s>BALDWIN: That was an extraordinary moment at the U.N. I'm glad we caught it. Jill Dougherty, good to see you. Thank you so much. Back here at home, thousands of students walking out from schools and classrooms all over the country today in protest of gun violence. And on Capitol Hill, the father of one of the victims in Parkland makes an emotional plea to lawmakers. You will hear from them in moments.