12 Mar 2017 9:13 pm
FROM TODAY'S FOX NEWS SUNDAY
WALLACE: All right, we have to take a break here panel.
When we come back, and new headache for team Trump over former national security advisor Michael Flynn. What did they know about Flynn’s work for the Turkish government during the campaign?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: General Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You’re disappointed by the story?
PENCE: The first I heard of it and I think it is a -- it is an affirmation of the president's decision to ask General Flynn to resign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: The Trump administration's tone towards former national security advisor Michael Flynn changing sharply after revelations he was paid to work on behalf of the Turkish government during the presidential campaign.
And we’re back now with the panel.
WALLACE: Well, let me reset for all of you, Michael Flynn was perhaps Donald Trump's top foreign policy advisor during the campaign, but he registered this week as a foreign agent for work he did at that same time, during the campaign, for the government of Turkey.
And it turns out the Trump transition, after the election, was told about this other job.
Julie, the White House says that the president, at any point in this process, as a candidate, as a president-elect and as president was never told that Michael Flynn was moonlighting, that he had another job.
Do you find that as hard to believe as I do?
PACE: I do because there were public reports about what Michael Flynn was doing.
Even after the election you had Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, sending a letter to Mike Pence asking the White House to look into this, raising questions about this.
And even if we do take the White House’s word on this and accept that no one passed this information on to Donald Trump, I'm not sure that makes it better because then you’re in a situation where you have the person was is now the White House counsel receiving word from Flynn’s lawyer that he may have to register as a foreign agent and not feeling as though that raised red flags about his participation at a high level in the White House, not raising that issue to the White House.
So I think either way the president was aware and didn't think it was concerning, or if top staffers didn't bring this to the White House, I don't think the Trump administration comes out looking very good here.
WALLACE: Do you think this fades away, I mean Flynn is gone, or do you think it stays?
PACE: Well, it is gone, but I think that this opens up a whole new avenue in terms of looking at Flynn and -- and what he was doing during the campaign and then during the transition and his brief time of the White House. We’ve been focused a lot on his conversations with the Russian ambassador, but now I think that we’re going to start to dig in more on what he was doing for this company that could have benefited the Turkish government.
WALLACE: Jason, maybe I'm old-fashioned -- I’m, in fact, I am old-fashioned, but I’ve got to say, I find it shocking that here is the top national security advisor to the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, one of the two people who's going to be president, who was participating in top secret, classified briefings and it turns out that he was working for another country at the same time.
RILEY: And not just another country, I mean Turkey isn't France or Britain. Turkey has taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent years. And so it's doubly disturbing, I think, that it -- that we’re talking about Turkey here. And we can only hope that the administration does a better job of vetting its other top officials.
The other thing that disturbed me about this episode was just the lack of communication among the administration. Here you had Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, out there still defending Flynn, saying his credentials are impeccable. Then you had the vice president telling Bret Baier, you know, what -- now you know why we fired him. I mean there -- there needs to be better communication in terms of messaging coming out of this administration. We've seen this on other issues before. I think they really need to get their act together.
WALLACE: To make the point, though, Flynn is saying that his lawyers notified -- during the transition, not during the campaign, but during the transition -- notified Don McGahn, who ended up as the White House counsel, about the fact that he had done this work and that he might -- and asking whether he needed to register as a foreign agent, which he ended up doing just this last week.
Is it conceivable to you that that information would not be passed on to the president-elect before he decides to make this man his national security advisor?
RILEY: No, it isn't. And either -- either -- I don’t -- either Trump did not appreciate the seriousness of this, or he didn't know about it.
PACE: And it’s --
RILEY: And I think it may be the former.
PACE: It’s important to note there was a second conversation also that happened after the inauguration when Flynn was already in the White House as national security advisor, where his lawyers told the White House Counsel’s office they were going to have to move forward with the foreign agent registration.
WALLACE: All right, we have to take a break here panel.
When we come back, and new headache for team Trump over former national security advisor Michael Flynn. What did they know about Flynn’s work for the Turkish government during the campaign?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: General Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You’re disappointed by the story?
PENCE: The first I heard of it and I think it is a -- it is an affirmation of the president's decision to ask General Flynn to resign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: The Trump administration's tone towards former national security advisor Michael Flynn changing sharply after revelations he was paid to work on behalf of the Turkish government during the presidential campaign.
And we’re back now with the panel.
WALLACE: Well, let me reset for all of you, Michael Flynn was perhaps Donald Trump's top foreign policy advisor during the campaign, but he registered this week as a foreign agent for work he did at that same time, during the campaign, for the government of Turkey.
And it turns out the Trump transition, after the election, was told about this other job.
Julie, the White House says that the president, at any point in this process, as a candidate, as a president-elect and as president was never told that Michael Flynn was moonlighting, that he had another job.
Do you find that as hard to believe as I do?
PACE: I do because there were public reports about what Michael Flynn was doing.
Even after the election you had Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, sending a letter to Mike Pence asking the White House to look into this, raising questions about this.
And even if we do take the White House’s word on this and accept that no one passed this information on to Donald Trump, I'm not sure that makes it better because then you’re in a situation where you have the person was is now the White House counsel receiving word from Flynn’s lawyer that he may have to register as a foreign agent and not feeling as though that raised red flags about his participation at a high level in the White House, not raising that issue to the White House.
So I think either way the president was aware and didn't think it was concerning, or if top staffers didn't bring this to the White House, I don't think the Trump administration comes out looking very good here.
WALLACE: Do you think this fades away, I mean Flynn is gone, or do you think it stays?
PACE: Well, it is gone, but I think that this opens up a whole new avenue in terms of looking at Flynn and -- and what he was doing during the campaign and then during the transition and his brief time of the White House. We’ve been focused a lot on his conversations with the Russian ambassador, but now I think that we’re going to start to dig in more on what he was doing for this company that could have benefited the Turkish government.
WALLACE: Jason, maybe I'm old-fashioned -- I’m, in fact, I am old-fashioned, but I’ve got to say, I find it shocking that here is the top national security advisor to the presidential nominee of the Republican Party, one of the two people who's going to be president, who was participating in top secret, classified briefings and it turns out that he was working for another country at the same time.
RILEY: And not just another country, I mean Turkey isn't France or Britain. Turkey has taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent years. And so it's doubly disturbing, I think, that it -- that we’re talking about Turkey here. And we can only hope that the administration does a better job of vetting its other top officials.
The other thing that disturbed me about this episode was just the lack of communication among the administration. Here you had Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, out there still defending Flynn, saying his credentials are impeccable. Then you had the vice president telling Bret Baier, you know, what -- now you know why we fired him. I mean there -- there needs to be better communication in terms of messaging coming out of this administration. We've seen this on other issues before. I think they really need to get their act together.
WALLACE: To make the point, though, Flynn is saying that his lawyers notified -- during the transition, not during the campaign, but during the transition -- notified Don McGahn, who ended up as the White House counsel, about the fact that he had done this work and that he might -- and asking whether he needed to register as a foreign agent, which he ended up doing just this last week.
Is it conceivable to you that that information would not be passed on to the president-elect before he decides to make this man his national security advisor?
RILEY: No, it isn't. And either -- either -- I don’t -- either Trump did not appreciate the seriousness of this, or he didn't know about it.
PACE: And it’s --
RILEY: And I think it may be the former.
PACE: It’s important to note there was a second conversation also that happened after the inauguration when Flynn was already in the White House as national security advisor, where his lawyers told the White House Counsel’s office they were going to have to move forward with the foreign agent registration.