GLENN: I want to take you through -- I said last hour that there are three buckets of this story. There are three separate things. And they're all being thrown together as one story. And that's -- that's not true. And it's causing confusion and contention and arguments because everyone is looking at this as one story. It's not. It's many -- but they come down to three basic buckets.

The first one is the 35-page report and Buzzfeed. And that 35-page report that has stories in it of John McCain having the report, turning it over to the FBI. People are split on that. Is that right? That wrong?

That report includes Buzzfeed. They printed it. Should they or shouldn't they have? It includes the people that allegedly are part of the Trump team that were doing things that are absolutely, I believe, we can state false, but they are at least unproven, and the charges are given by Russian operatives to a source that we don't know.

Let's call those untrue. It also goes back to this -- this 35-page report. Was put together -- hired by the Republicans, trying to discredit Donald Trump. They didn't use it, and so they sold it to the Democrats, who also didn't use it, but it's been circulating since August.

There's all kinds of places to go on that bucket. And we're right now going there. But we're also conflating that bucket with this bucket, and that is the bucket of the two-page report that went to the president and the president-elect. And that one was to answer the question, is the -- are the Russians involved in trying to destroy our republic, or are they involved in trying to make America great again?

That bucket involves the two-page report, the Putin stuff, Trump, Clinton, all of the things that they have done and he said/she said, and spies, and, well, it's the war. And we're just trying to, you know, further a war with globalists. Blah, blah, blah.

And the third bucket is the charge that Donald Trump made yesterday, that should at least get serious consideration. And that is that the CIA, the FBI, the DHS, somebody in the spy community that doesn't like Donald Trump took this opportunity to teach Donald Trump a lesson by -- by releasing this information.

You can spend the day arguing in circular, meaningless arguments because people will jump from bucket to bucket. You'll make a good point for or against on the fake news. And then they'll jump over to, "Well, but the Russians aren't really doing this, or the Russians are really doing this." And all of a sudden, you're in the second bucket. And when you make a good point in the second bucket, "But it's the CIA. You know what they're like." That's the third bucket.

You can't argue when the facts are about so many different stories. And they really, truly are not connected. They're just connected because the events happened on the same day. That's the problem.

We can make this about people, and he did/she did, what he did, what they did. We can make this about people, and that's what small minds do. We can make this about events. The release of the report. The briefing with the president. We could make that about events. Or we could make this argument on this program about ideas.

What is the idea behind each of these buckets? Fake news. That's not the idea. We're not searching for fake news. Because that becomes events or people. We're searching for a way to agree on facts. We're searching for the truth.

Everybody is making this about, "See, they caused it." Instead of saying, "What is our goal here? Our goal is the truth." Now, if I have a perception that I am a conservative hack, what do I have to do to lesson that feeling among people so we can have a conversation and get to a place to where we can disagree on facts and we can agree on facts -- I'm sorry. We can disagree on policies, but we can agree on fact and we can continue a conversation?

Well, in my world, I figured the best thing I can do is stop worrying about everyone else and say, "This part of our society, this part of our problems, I own. I take responsibility for these things that I did." I won't take responsibility for all of it, but this is what I did and I own it, in hopes that someone else will finally come on our side or on their side and say, "You know what, I'm going to join him. I'm not going to worry about anybody else right now. I'm just going to look at what I did. Here's what I did. And I own this part."

And I'm not going to make anybody go on an apology tour. Good. Great. Let's talk.

How can we get to the truth now? How can we get more people to use actual critical thinking so we're not screaming over each other and at each other and getting nowhere and, in fact, making things worse?

That's what the fake news idea is. But the fake news stories are now just the people versus the press. That's all that is.

People versus the press. No. The idea is truth.

Let's do the two-page report. People are making this about Putin, Trump, or Clinton. Those are the small minds. The average minds are making it about the two-page report. Here's what it is.

Now, you have to report -- you have to talk about what average -- what the event is. But that's -- that's just to set the table. Here's the event. Now, we can waste our time talking about the event, or we can dive down into small minds talking about the people. Or we can say, "What's the idea behind the report? Why did this event even happen?" Because we're trying to decide whether or not Russia is a friend or a foe. Is that the idea?

No. We're trying to establish -- oh, my gosh, almost like the first bucket -- the truth. We're trying to find a way to discover truth.

And the third bucket: Donald Trump charged -- and this must be seriously investigated. I hope this isn't true. But it is a movie way things happen. Whether it's happening now, I don't know. But we have to dismiss it in a credible way. And if we don't dismiss it in a credible way, then the conspiracy theories will grow. Why don't we want conspiracy theories?

Because they -- they put fog all over the truth. It has to be a credible search for the truth and come what may. If we find that Clapper or anybody else was involved in trying to discredit the president-elect, that's important information. They need to be fired. If they broke the law, they need to be tried and go to jail. Period.

So we can talk about Donald Trump's charge. And it's important. Because if the CIA or Department of Homeland Security could do this to Donald Trump, what the hell chance do you have?

And I won't hear that, "Oh, well, the government would never do that," that's exactly what was said in the last administration about the FBI -- or, I'm sorry, about the IRS.

Yes. Yes. The government will do that.

What is the argument about the CIA and FBI really all about? Can we trust them to tell us the truth?

You see, the left and the right actually are striving in this particular case, for exactly the same idea. We're not going to make it unless we can restore trust, integrity, truth.

Remember when I said to you, everything you thought you could trust would be liquid -- or, would be solid is liquid, and vice-versa.

Is that not true today?

Do you -- do you fully trust our government apparatus, even our military intelligence, our CIA, our NSA? Do you trust that they're on the right side? I don't know. I think so. I hope so. But I don't know.

Do you remember when I said that would happen, and it's here? There was something else that I connected to that, almost every time.

That is why your integrity must be impeachable. Now, I don't know if you can be a person in the -- in the media and have that happen to you. I don't know if that could happen, especially if you're as flawed as I am and you continue to make mistakes.

But I know we have to strive for it. Your integrity must be impeachable because I said, there will come a time when nobody will know what to believe or where to go, and you have to be able to look them in the eye and say, "Have I ever lied to you? Have I ever been -- have I ever been grossly wrong on direction?"

Please, don't go there. Don't go there.

You need to tell your friends, please, don't make this about Trump or Clapper or the -- or the sex romps or the Democrats and the Republicans or John McCain or Putin or Clinton or anybody else. Don't even make this about the 35-page report, the two-page report, or Donald Trump's charge. Let's start with the idea. And the idea is integrity.

What can we do to restore integrity to our leaders and to our media? But that's an interesting exercise for all of us to have.

Perhaps it's more important for us to debate the idea, what is it that I can do to restore integrity to my own life?

With my own circle of influence, what have I done that I need to repair? Who have I alienated, that perhaps -- perhaps can be of aid, not in my cause, but in our cause of the American republic?