Transcript for Trump denies working for Russia after report

So apparently we're not the only ones concerned with the guy in the white house's relationship with Russia. According to "The New York Times," the FBI was so worried that he could be working as some kind of agent for them, that they opened up an investigation into it. He even physically took the translator's notes of his talk with Putin in Hamburg, which is why I think my new nickname for him might be the hamburglar. You got to have a little levity in there, just a lit I got one too. Should I tell you mine? Sure. Benedict Donald. What did you think when you first heard just that this was going on? I thought Duh. Really? I was surprised, um, that there was a counter intelligence investigation going on because I think we all knew that there was an investigation going on into collusion and an investigation going on into obstruction, but the fact that the FBI opened up a counter intelligence investigation into the president of the United States -- Explain what that mes. A counter intelligence investigation is basically an investigation by the FBI to determine whether or not the acting sitting president of the United States is a foreign spy for a foreign power. That floored me. In fact, I was driving into work this morning with my mom and my mom said -- she's never floored about anything and she said, is it possible that the sitting United States president is a Russian spy? And I just said, I don't know. That's the thing though, I don't think anyone has the answers right now. I was just as shocked by it. And frankly, of all the things we've talked about at this table, this is by far -- I don't even have a word for it. The craziest. Are going to have a president trump who wins another four years or he gets ousted from office for potentially -- or for being an agent for the Russians. Like, we're just in this really strange place as a country. Look, full disclosure, I'm sitting here and my dad's the ambassador to Russia. I think he would be more shocked than anybody if this were true, so there's still a lot that we don't know. He might not know though. Your father is an ambassador. This is covert operations. He may not know what's going on. Is trump capable though of covert operations? I just don't -- That's funny. I've never pressed it before. That is a good point. I mean, you know, he can barely run our country, let alone -- it's hard for me to think he would be this brilliant espionage spy but I put nothing off the table anymore in 2019 because I think on Earth too and there's some parallel universe where like Jeb Bush is president and I'm happy and it's different. I will say "The New York Times" reported that there's no evidence that has emerged publicly that Mr. Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian government officials. The problem with the political optics of this administration is when you go to Helsinki and look like you'raling around with one of the worst dictators of my generation -- And it's in secret. This is how people could believe it. The simplest solution is almost always the likeliest one. He's pulling out of Syria. That helps the Russians. They changed the whole policy at the Republican convention -- maybe you do but it helps Assad, doesn't it? Yes, it does. It's a -- sorry, it's in the benefit of the extermination of the west which is what Putin's number one issue is by far. Also at the Republican convention, they changed the platform so that they now -- they basically -- they're helping the Russians. When they invaded the Ukraine, we are now -- They an exed crimea. Stop selling weaponry. That sounds odd. You and I are really -- we're all simpatico in this. If you're offended by that, you should be offended by tulsy gabbard running for president. She came back and spewed his propaganda. It is embarrassing for the democratic party. We should be on the same page about murderous dictators. But he's the president of the United States. I'm saying you should be equally offended. I'm offended by everybody. I'm just offended. You-know-who reacted to the report when he emerged from the white house before we went on air this morning, and this is what he said. I never worked for Russia, and you know that answer better than anybody. I never worked for Russia. Not only did I never work for Russia, I think it's a disgrace that you even ask that question because it's a whole big, fat hoax. It's just a hoax. Excuse me. Well, we're still -- Oh my goodness. Sorry, we had a little -- Welcome. Good to be here. So, you know, we're -- I know you see Jon Karl sitting here. So we called him because we want some help understanding what the hell is going on. He is the ABC -- okay, I was just -- Chief white house correspondent. Yeah. Everybody can do my job. Why am I here? Jon, can you just break all this Russia down. Explain to us what exactly is going on. First of all, this is an extraordinary story in "The new York Times." This was the FBI in the days after Comey was fired, the FBI led by then acting director Andrew Mccabe that opened a counter intelligence operation into whether or not the president either wittingly or unwittingly was effectively an agent of the Russian government. It's an amazing story. There are a couple important things to say about it. One, it reflects the deep distrust, total breakdown in trust I would say between the president of the United States and the federal bureau of investigation. Right. That they would actually be investigating the president's actions not during the campaign, not the question of collusion, but whether or not he was acting as president as an agent of the Russian Federation. That said, there's another very important thing which is eventually we got the appointment of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and there has been zero indication that that has been part of the Mueller investigation. There was enough evidence to make that part of the Russia investigation. So, it says a lot about how suspicious the president's behavior was, his meeting with the Russians, with the Russian ambassador, the Russian foreign minister in the oval office, but it also says a lot about the way the FBI leadership at that time, all of whom have been are -- are gone, viewed the president of the United States. Right. So let's talk about the meeting in Helsinki. Yeah. Because that's glaring. I mean, he basically took Putin -- oh the Russians' side against the CIA. Rememberthat? Yeah. Nobody kn what went on there eept the intereter and en hook the notes away from the interpreter. Are we ever going to get those notes? That was T meeting in Hamburg. At was a different ING, but -- Oh, in Helsinki, I saw that. Nobody was there except the two of them. Right. This president does something that I have never heard of any other president do. He meets with foreign leaders one-on-one with translators. We know he's done it with Putin several times. With no national adviser. No national security adviser, no secretary of state, nobody else from his team. But it's important to point out, it's a total break with precedence and there's a reason you don't do that. First of all, the president doesn't know everything about the country, but secondly, if you have to follow up, you need your national security apparatus to do that. It's also important to point out, he just didn't do it with Putin. He met one-on-one with several other leaders. He met one-on-one with Kim Jong-un for an hour and a half in Singapore. He met one-on-one with president XI at mar-a-lago. He takes phone calls in the residence, just him. Normally you have your whole team there. It's important context, it's not just the way he behaves with

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