According to an NBC News exclusive that first aired during the 10 o’clock hour of Tuesday morning’s MSNBC Live, both Republican and Democratic sources on the Senate Intelligence Committee admitted they had not found any direct evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Despite the fact the exclusive was filed by NBC News intelligence and national security reporter Ken Dilanian, NBC Nightly News hid it from viewers. Meanwhile, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News also turned a blind eye.

Instead of reporting on their massive breaking news story that drove a flood of reporting by other outlets, NBC Nightly News and anchor Lester Holt chose to hype DNA tests for dogs.

When the story first broke, a seemingly shocked Hallie Jackson came back from a commercial break to announce their discovery. “NBC News exclusive reporting on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Their investigation into Russian election interference and what they have and have not uncovered,” she said as she introduced Dilanian.

Wasting no time in getting to the heart of what his reporting discovered, Dilanian declared: “Hallie, after two years and after interviewing more than 200 witnesses, the Senate Intelligence Committee has not uncovered any direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.”

Dilanian noted that committee chairman, Senate Richard Burr (R-NC), confirmed that finding to another network the other day, but he wanted to see what Democrats on the committee had to say. “[W]hat I've been doing since then is checking with my sources on the Democratic side to understand the full context of his remarks because that was essentially a partisan comment from one side, but this is a bipartisan investigation and what I found is that the Democrats don't dispute that characterization.”

His Democratic sources confirmed to him that they were near the end of the “fact-gathering process” and were getting ready to start working on a report. A report that would be harsh on Trump but could not find direct evidence of collusion:

My sources are confirming. There aren't that many witnesses left to interview for senate investigators. But after they conclude that, then they're going to sit down and write their report and the Democrats say this report will not be good for Donald Trump. It will question the judgment of many people in the Trump orbit for having the meetings and allowing themselves to be preyed upon by a Russian intelligence operation that sought to interfere in the election and to help Donald Trump. But, again, no direct proof of a conspiracy.

On March 12, 2018, a similar investigation by the House Intelligence Committee was ended because they too could find no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. In that case, ABC and CBS gave a combined total of less than one minute (58 seconds) to those findings. NBC seems opposed to reporting any news on the Russia investigation that could vindicate Trump because they also ignored the House Intel Committee findings.

Back then, NBC Nightly News whined about President Trump’s school safety plan being light on gun control, highlighted a Powerball winner, and marveled at billionaire Warren Buffett’s $1 million March Madness bracket challenge. Add dog DNA tests to the list of things NBC finds more newsworthy than no evidence of collusion.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read: