This is the game this guy plays all the time. The powerhouse round table takes on this. From abc news, its this week, here now, chief anchor george stephanopoulos. Good morning and welcome to this week. It was a tale of two saturdays. As the number of covid cases in the u. S. Closed in on 1. 5 million, the death toll topped 88,000 and most states took tentative steps to reopen. President trump was out of sight at camp david but not out of mind. Dispatching dozens of messages of followers of his twitter feed. Continuing a stream of attacks on his predecessor, at least 160 tweets from last sunday that trump boils down to a single word obamagate. Earlier this week, president obama tweeted out a single word of his own the vote. But on saturday, the former president in virtual commencement addresses, he delivered a pointed critique of how the Trump Administration has handled the coronavirus crisis. More than anything, this pandemic has fully finally torn back on the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what theyre doing. A lot of them arent even pretending to be in charge. We begin with the response this morning from President Trumps top advisers during this crisis, peter navarro. Mr. Navarro, thank you for joining us this morning. President obama continued this in his second commencement address last night. Suggesting that peopthis things screwed up. Your response. Im glad mr. Obama has a new job as joe bidens press secretary. I note for the record in his speech that i read there was no mention of manufacturing, no mention of china, as far as im concerned, his administration was a kumbaya of incompetence in which we saw millions of manufacturing jobs go off to china. His new normal was a flatline in terms of wage growth. Im happy to report that this president , donald j. Trump, in 3 1 2 years built the most beautiful economy in modern history and the chinese did take that down in about 30 days, but we are in the process right now of rebuilding that and this president , donald j. Trump, is the one who has the skills to do. Because you know what, george, were going to do were going to back to the future. Buy america, innovate. What i do mean by that brings the jobs back home, make it here. You say the chinese took down the american economy, youre saying they deliberately unleashed the covid virus on the united states. Any evidence . The virus. Correct me if im wrong, the virus was spawned in wuhan, china, patient zero was in november. The chinese behind the World Health Organization for two months hid the virus to the world. They they could have kept it in wuhan, instead it became a pandemic. So, thats why i say the chinese did that to americans and they are responsible now george, one other thing i think thats unconsicionable about the chinese behavior. As with speak, they promised not to steal our intellectual property. Guess what, the fbi has now issued warnings that the Chinese Government is hacking the intellectual property so that they can steal vaccines for the world and what would they do with it . It wouldnt be a benign experience. Theyd use that vaccine to profiteer. So, yes, i blame the chinese. Really interesting as to how this election unfolds because you got joe biden, who has been a long friend of china. Versus President Trump, whos the only president whos ever stand up to china. On thursday, Vice President biden spoke out about this and took on President Trump directly. Trump was praising the Chinese Government, downplaying the threat to the American People. As i was warning, the need to get the people into china to see what was actually going on and the Chinese Governments word, you know, we squandered critical time. So i just dont and now hes trying to play this china chard. The Vice President had an oped in the usa today in january, he warned in february, all through month of february, President Trump was praising xi of china. He was saying president xi was being transparent. Thats why Vice President biden said that the president was downplaying the threat from china. Well, joe bidens got 40 years of sucking up to the chinese, including eight years of Vice President. We know about the billion dollars that his son took from the chinese thats not factual, sir. Thats not a fact. He didnt take a billion dollars from china. Be that as it may, i think this election will be a referendum on china. What we do know, the Pew Research Group did a poll which showed over 90 of the American Public think that china is a threat in some way and over 70 have an unfavorable opinion. In my judgment, the behavior of the Chinas Communist Party over the last three months, particularly, unleashing this pandemic, so well have joe biden long friend of china, president donald j. Trump, the only president in modern history to stand up to china. Going into november, what this is about, its not going to be about the pandemic its going to be about jobs. You know, you keep talking about were going to talk about the economy. You keep talking about china. All during the month of february, as i said, the president was continuing to praise china, president xi of china, trying to work out that trade deal with china. Wanted to preserve that, wanted to preserve the gains in the stock market. President trump was praising china all through the month of february and, you know, theres a lot of evidence that those lost weeks made a difference. So, first of all, i think its great that we have a president who can get along with all world leaders. Thats number two. Number two, theres no lost weeks. This starting gun for the china pandemic started on january 30th when President Trump had the courage to pull down the flights from china, that was an enormously courageous decision. He took a lot of heat from that. From that day, we were moving on three vectors of attack in february vaccine development, development of therapeutics like remdesivir and building up the capacity for things like n95 masks, and the work we did throughout february has borne beautiful fruit here in the spring, because what we saw on friday in the rose garden was the announcement of a 14company race to a vaccine, with the goal of december, what we have seen is therapeutics like remdesivir already going into hospitals right now to save american lives and we had a company like honeywell building two factories in five weeks, george, instead of nine months. Five weeks thats trump time, to produce 20 million n95 masks a month. Dont tell me we lost february. Because i was there, im right here, and this president was directing us to move as quickly as possible, even as publicly we were trying to figure out in the fog of war just how serious this pandemic would be. You know, you mentioned what was going on in the month of february, and its true according to all accounts you were working quite hard in the month of february including the accounts of whistleblower richard bright. Talk about several meetings with you in the month of february on all of the issues that you just mentioned. He said you and he were allies on this trying to break through roadblocks coming from hhs and other parts of the government. Now you call him a deserted in the war against the virus, why . Well, lets be clear about this. Im i report directly to the president. Im one of the top five policy advisers to the president. So everything i was doing, with the help of rick bright and others during february, was the trump white house, all transparent with the task force. Heres what happened with rick bright and its an american tragedy, george. This guy is quite talented. But he was asked to be the field commander over at nih, to storm the testing hill, instead of accepting that mission, he deserted. He went into a foxhole, wrote up the complaint and now hes part of a capitol hill partisan circus where hes just become another pawn in the game. The tragedy is, george, this man has talent. Hes a smart man. We could have used him on the battlefield. Hes not there now and its because of the decisions that he made. Its a shame, george. His expertise is in vaccine. Theyre putting him in diagnostic testing. Why shouldnt a vaccine expert be working on vaccines. Heres the thing, george, ive been with the president since the campaign. I came here to do trade policy. What am i now, a conscript in the war on the virus . Do i complain . No, thats my mission for this president , for this country. We do what we have to do for this country. Rick bright made a choice, he could have been making a tremendous contribution over at nih to testing and you and others have been complaining about testing. He could have been the field general and now hes off the battlefield and it was by his own choice, sir. Lets talk about the economic response, we saw some tough numbers at the end of the week on jobs, on manufacturing, on retail sales. The house passed that 3 trillion, the next stimulus package on friday, is that a basis for negotiation . Is the president prepared to sign another relief package . So, nancy pelosi basically lost me with that package when she has 1200 checks for illegal immigrants, and it just goes downhill from there. What we have to do, george, is basically go with the fiscal and monetary stimulus that we have been going through. We have a lot coursing through the system now. We may need more. Ill let others negotiate that. What im focused on chairman powell says we do need more. What im focused on, george, and this is the real key to success is going to be the structural adjustments we have to make. Were going to have replace that with manufacturing jobs, which do have a high multiplier in terms of creating Service Sector jobs again. So what im focused on buy america, deregulate, innovate agenda, which will start bringing our pharma supplies homes, bringing our medical supplies home. Build it here. Both good economics, but also Good National security, and from there, were going to fan out and basically this president going back to him as a candidate promised to bring our jobs home, thats going to be key to the future with innovation. Ib novation is going to be the key. The General Motors plant for ventilators went up in 17 days in kokomo, indiana, through innovation. They not only assembled that factory in 17 days, they took 700 components of the supply chain to make up the ventilator, use their manufacturing might to rep rereplicate that. That was a miracle, george. We can replicate that throughout this economy, repurposing our factories, this is the jobs president , the innovation president , the manufacturing president and this is how were going to get through the other end of this crisis here. Finally, sir, i want to get that firing of the state Department Inspector general on friday night, steve linick. Fourth Inspector General removed by the pseraweeks. What do you say to democratic critics who say what the president is unz mining any of idea of independent oversight . Thats way out of my lane here. The president has the Legal Authority to do that. What i can tell you, george, based on my experience here, theres a bureaucracy out there. A lot of people in that bureaucracy. Tremendous problem with some people call it the deep state. I think thats apt. I dont mourn the loss of people when they leave this bureaucracy. Theres always going to be somebody better to replace them, someone more loyal to the trump agenda, thats whats important. The trump agenda. This president has transformed the Republican Party into the party of the working class. Im here because the president loves creating good jobs for americans. Who work with their hands. Anybody in this bureaucracy, who hates buy america or bring our supply chains home, they dont really belong here. I support whatever this president does in terms of his hiring and firing decisions. Peter navarro, thank you for your time this morning. Up next, the democratic response from senator Bernie Sanders in his first sunday interview since leaving the race for president. For president. This moment. This moment right now. This is our commencement. No, well not get a diploma or a degree of any kind. But we are entering a new chapter in our lives. Our confidence is shaken; our hearts cracked. The kind of a crack that comes from the loss of a job; from life plans falling apart. We didnt ask for it. But we are rising to meet it. And how far weve come isnt even close to how far we can go. We just have to remember how patient we were. How strong we can be. how strong you can be. and remember this; theres a crack in everything for a reason. How else can the light get in . Tomorrow starts today. High protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good. High protein. Low sugar. Mmm, birthday cake. Pure protein. The best combination to help you stay fit. Pure protein. Fifty years ago, humpback whales were nearly extinct. They rebounded because a decision was made to protect them. Making the right decisions today for your longterm financial future can protect you and your family, and preserve your legacy. Ask a Financial Advisor how retirement and Life Insurance solutions from pacific life can help you plan for your future. A lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. Thats the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. Let me state the obvious what nancy pelosi is proposing will never pass the senate. This is nothing more than a messaging exercise by house democrats. They didnt have any input from republicans. Its a parade of absurdities that can hardly be taken seriously. Republican senators there on the stimulus package passed by the house on friday. Were going to get more on all this now from senator Bernie Sanders. Senator sanders, thanks for joining us this morning. And i do want to get to that, but lets begin with, where we just left off with peter navarro, the president s firing on friday of the state Department Inspector general steve linick. Now the fourth Inspector General fired in several weeks. You heard what mr. Navarro said, he said hes worried about the deep state. The president deserves to have people loyal to his agenda. Look, this president thinks hes above the law, hes above criticism, he wants to get away with anything that he can and he does not understand that in the function of government you have a congress, you have Inspector Generals who say, by the way, mr. President , what youre doing is wrong and it may be illegal. This has been his m. O. From day one. Lets talk about the economic stimulus package that was passed by the house on friday, its the basis for negotiations with the senate, weve heard those Senate Republican leaders dont seem to be in any rush to pass anything. If this came to the senate floor would you vote for it . I would vote for a very substantiative piece of legislation. Its amazes me, mr. Navarro has talked about how the Republican Party worried about the working class. In the last two months, 35 Million People have lost their jobs, millions of people today who are hungry in america, there are people today who cannot afford to go to a doctor even when they have coronavirus symptoms. There are elderly people who are sitting home alone, who are scared to death about the future. If youre concerned about the working class of this country, understand the extraordinary suffering, unprecedented, thats now taking place, demand that congress act. Now i think what pelosi did in the house is significant. Its important. I have some disagreements with it. I want to see the senate improve upon it. Among other things, i happen to believe that we should go in the direction of a paycheck security process, similar to what has been done in europe, which says to every worker in america you will continue to receive your paycheck and the other benefits which you had when you were on the job and when this crisis is over, hopefully sooner than later, youre just going to go back to work. I also believe that during this crisis, instead of funding the cobra program, we should make sure that all people in this country, including the 87 million who are uninsured before the pandemic, have access to health care. And you do that by allowing medicare to fill in the gaps. I think pelosi at least, unlike the Republican Leadership said, you know what, we have terrible suffering in this country, we need to get money out to the cities and towns, to the hospitals, we need to protect working people and id hope that the republicans wake up and understand the severity of the crisis that were facing and the suffering. One of the other things that we heard in mr. Navarros response. Theyre going to full bore on Vice President biden and his relationship with china over the years. Theyre saying that President Trump has been tough on china. Democrats led by joe biden have not . Yeah, right. Well, look, you have a president who blames everybody in the world for the problems that we face except himself. This is a guy who, you know, used to talk about president xi as being a great leader, good friend of his, the leader of north korea whos probably the worst dictator in the world, a wonderful human being look, what theyre trying to do now instead of address the pandemic that we have and i should say, george, that the scandal of the moment is that we dont have National Policy. This is the president of the united states, we should have National Policy based on science, we should testing going on all over this country so that when we reopen the economy, workers understand that theyre working in a safe environment. Instead, you got 50 states going it alone because we dont have that National Protocol based on science. But, you know, trump will blame everybody for everything instead of dealing with the crises that we face. The crises that we face is reopening the economy safely based on science not 50 states doing it alone. Crisis we face is that congress has to act now to address the enormous suffering and unemployment thats currently existing and i also think, george, to tell you the truth, that if theres any Silver Lining in this midst of this terrible, terrible, and unprecedented moment in american history, in terms of the economy and in terms of the pandemic, may we start rethinking some fundamental tenets about the way our government and society works. We should ask ourselves, among other things, is health care a human right that all of us deserve . Because were human beings. Or simply a Health Care Benefit that somehow we lose when we lose our jobs . Mr. Navarro talked about the great economy the beautiful economy that existed before the pandemic, well half of people in america were living paycheck to paycheck. I dont think its a beautiful economy that when paychecks stop for two weeks, millions and millions of people dont have enough money to buy the food that they need to feed their families. We need an economy that works for all not just trump and his billionaire friends. We need an economy that says, we shouldnt have three people on top owning more wealth than the bottom half. We need an economy that says health care is a human right like every other country, were not getting ripped off by the pharmaceutical industry. Theres a lot to be done. If theres anything i hope we learn out of this painful experience is that maybe we create an economy and a government that works for all not just the few and wealthy campaign contributors. Lets talk about the campaign. Your former Campaign Manager jeff weaver put out a memo this week, where he warned Vice President biden is falling far short with your supporters, supported you during the campaign that hes going to need in november, is he right about that . And what does the Vice President have to do about that . Look, i think at the end of the day the vast majority of the people who voted for me, who supported me, will understand and do understand that donald trump is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country. Hes a pathological liar. Hes a racist, sexist, et cetera. And i think at the end of day, i think theyll be voting for joe. But i think what joe has to do hes beginning to move in that direction he has to say to those working class people, young people, say, i understand your situation, you know, i understand that youre graduating college with tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. I understand you dont have any health insurance. I understand that youre working at a job thats paying 12 bucks an hour. And you cant get by on that. We ought to raise that minimum wage to a living a wage. I understand that youre concerned about not only the pandemic but climate change. And how we make sure that the world comes together to address the xexistential threat. And create millions of good paying jobs. I understand that youre concerned about the racism within our criminal Justice System and our immigration system. So i think joe and his staff understand that, i think theyre going to reach out to our supporters and come up with an agenda that speaks to the needs of working families, of young families, of minority communities. Senator sanders, thanks for your time this morning. Thank you. Roundtable is up next. Well be right back. Well be right back. I came across sofi and it was the best decision of my life. Were getting a super competitive Interest Rate on our money. Were able to invest through the same exact platform. I got approved for a loan and it was a gamechanger. Truly sofi, thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store. Then you might have a dcondition called dry mouth. . 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After november 3rd, coronavirus will go away, disappear, and everybody will be able to reopen. Ric trump on f ns las night, suggesting that democrats were keeping donald trump off the campaign trail. Roundtable, joined by chris christie, rahm emanuel, the ceo of democracy for america, Yvette Simpson and republican strategist sara fagen. Thank you for joining us this morning. Chris, let me begin with you. That was sort of a new front opened up by eric trump last night, democrats are preventing the president from holding rallies. I think its the cdc that suggested that you cant fill up stadiums right now with people. You know, george, what i think we really need to be focused on, both as a country and for my fellow republicans, is the suffering thats going on for folks who are economically displaced. Were seeing statistics now of increased drug addiction, increased Domestic Violence in a very serious way. An increase of suicides. We need to find a balance between what were doing on the science side, as people are calling it, but also what effect this is having on Peoples Health and wellbeing. We have to balance between the victims of the coronavirus and the victims of the shutdown. And thats what we should be focused on. Well have plenty of time for campaigning i believe in the fall. But right now, what we need to be focused on is getting people back to an american way of life. Doing that in a way that makes sense and is in a balanced way, not overbalanced toward this shutdown which i think is causing enormous damage, not only economically, but enormous damage psychologically to the American People. And physically to them with the Mental Health problems that are being caused by this. Which governors are getting the balance right . Chris, go ahead. I think sure, george, i think a number of them are getting it right. So if you look at the governor in colorado hes done a very good job on the democratic side. On the republican side, governor larry hogan in the state of maryland. Those are two examples of people who i think is getting it right from each party and theyre starting to move in that direction. We have to start to move more quickly in that direction, we have had an overbalanced in my view on the epidemiology side. Than the Mental Health effects is this having on the American People. The longterm impact it will have both on additional deaths and how our country will be able to come back to its way of life. Rahm, do you agree that overall things have been out of balance . Look, heres what i would say on what chris is saying. Hes basically saying the white house is too about conflict and not enough about compassion. On the democratic side, the messaging we look too much about resistance, about reopening, too much about reluctance about reopening and we should go to a message of rebuilding america, if the president wants to talk about reopening, we want to talk about rebuilding america in the relief. Lets take the unemployed. If youre unemployed in the Service Sector, those jobs arent coming back. Well give you a coupon to become a computer coder in six months. Well pay for it. Go and become somebody in cybersecurity in six months, get the certificate. Well pay. When we reemerged after this. Weve rebuilt america. That should become the democratic mantra. Its too much reopening or reluctance and resistance. We have to go, you want reopening we want rebuilding. Rebuild our infrastructure right now. Rebuild the skills of america, that should be the tone thats affirmative and i do think that if you have a national crisis, we need a national response, not 50 different responses, and theres an absence of leadership and that to me is whats happening and whats wrong right now out of the white house. Too much energy on conflict, not enough about what it takes to rebuild this country. Yvette, youre the leader in the progressive wing of the democratic party. Does that sound like the right message . I think thats right. How this is going to impact everyday americans, asking people to go back to work when Daycare Centers arent at full capacity, when kids still arent able to go to school, were talking about reopening america when people are really concerned about health care and if they contract this disease, whether theyre going to be able to get the kind of care they need. Youre asking people to reopen when people are still very concerned about testing, vaccine, people cant get basic ppe. What were hearing people say, lets focus on making sure that were taking care of people and then shifting our economy. People first, then you can talk about the Financial Stability of our country. Sara, there does seem to be a little bit of a disconnect between the way of Many Republican governors are addressing this and what were seeing from the washington. Im thinking particularly Governor Mike Dewine of ohio. Well, look, i think governor dewine has handled this very well. He was very quick to shut down ohio, but hes also been quick to open it and be smart about it. Look, these two things cant be in conflict. We do need to open the economy, we do need to keep people safe, we do need to espouse the value of masks, sanitizers and social distancing. The governors who are doing i think are serving their people very well. One of the things thats concerning me as a republican are these attacks on some of these healthcare professionals, like dr. Fauci, his job is to keep people safe. We should not as conservatives be attacking him or anyone serving in government. Its up to our public leaders, our president , our governors, our mayors, to take all of the information in balance and then make the right decision for for their people. But i agree with governor christie, we do need to get this economy going. Theres immense suffering. Not just on the Immediate Health front but all of these other societal issues. Governor christie, we saw senator rand paul get into that with dr. Fauci at the Senate Hearing this week. The president seemed at odds with dr. Fauci on the issue of schools and how quickly schools can be reopened as well. Is there a danger here for republicans to be seen taking on the scientific experts . Well, george, i think the danger is in how you do it. Listen, i have no complaint and argument with dr. Fauci about what hes saying. Thats what his training tells him, thats what his experience tells him and he should be able to express that openly and inform everyone in the administration and across the country. But he cannot be the final determiner of that. What i think were seeing sometimes in the media and some parts of the democratic party, if dr. Fauci say thats what we must do. My argument is, dr. Fauci and his opinions and all of other medical experts are one part of this equation, but theyre not the only part of the equation. What youre seeing real working class americans struggling with right now, theyre saying, okay, you want to continue to stay locked in but we got to get our lives going, were not putting food on the table. Our children arent being educated. We need to get moving. We dont want to give away a year or more of our lives. I dont think we should be attacking dr. Fauci at all for what hes saying. Hes saying what he believes based on his experience. But the job of leaders governors and the president is to take that as one element of what we need to consider as we factor in all of the other elements and come to a decision thats reasonable and smart for the totality of the country and in the media, george, theres been too much emphasis, if this is what dr. Fauci or dr. Birx say, then this is what we must do. We didnt elect them president , we didnt elect them governor. Their voices are important. Their voices cant be determinative. Yvette, i saw you checking your head. Im in ohio. I want to respond to what sara said. We reopened on friday. Automatically, people started violating social distancing in restaurants. People werent Wearing Masks and we have to remember that nearly 100,000 people have died from this disease. Nearly 100,000 thats with social distancing, with staying in place, what do we expect is going to happen with a fast reopening, right . People who are dead, people who have died are not income producers, theyre not taxpayers, building an economy around a strategy where people are dying doesnt sound like a longterm strategy for me. I dont even believe that certainly people i talk to across the country have the security they believe they want to spend a dollar. Were talking about reopening so people can get haircuts, so people will go to restaurants. I dont know if i can pay rent next month. Im not going feel confident enough to spend money. The balance should be on safety first, if our medical experts are saying, were not ready, were going to see a big spike, were going to see a resurgence, well be back locked down in just a few months. And well lose a lot of people in the process. Rahm . Continue to listen to the experts until we get ppe, nationwide testing and a vaccine on the horizon. What sara and chris have said, attacking a doctor or a scientist or a Public Health theres a lot of different opinions there is a wrong position for republicans. The fact is, and whats absent here is president ial judgment and president ial leadership, and what i mean by that, john kennedy would have had us in a nuclear war, what the joint chiefs of staff. No replacing president ial leadership to take many different views across different areas and come up with a set of plans. President kennedy said to govern is to choose between bad and worse. You need judgment. What were doing by holding up dr. Fauci is a contrast to the fact that president is not exerting the type of judgment, leadership, inquiry, asking tough questions. I have never left the cabinet room where there was a decision that was 100 you knew this was the right decision or this was the wrong decision. Its a series of unknown in a fog and you try to look at data and come up with an idea that looks around the corner and leads america to a better place. Whats absence and why you see dr. Fauci, is the absence of any interest in data, medical information, economic information and coming up with an integrated whole. And sara and chris, by recognizing you shouldnt be attacking dr. Fauci is the fact that theres been a total void of penalty shl leadership and using judgment and inquiry to come up with a set of decisions that arent perfect but are better than what we have. Have to take a quick break. Well be right back. Have to take a quick break. Well be right back. We waste up to 20 gallons of water every time we prerinse lets skip the rinse. New finish quantum with activeblu technology, designed to clean without prerinsing. Switch to finish and skip the rinse to save water. Make it tough to take care of yourself, thats why you can rely on natures bounty. To give you the support you need. To stay motivated keep active and sleep well. Add a little more health to your day. With natures bounty. Unilever, the makers of dove, hellmanns, vaseline, reatg millns of products join us at weareunitedforamerica. Com. What crime exactly are you accusing president obama of committing and do you believe the Justice Department should prosecute him . Obamagate. Its been going on for a long time, before i even got elected. Youll be seeing whats going on over the coming weeks. Y i whats the crime exactly that youre accusing him of . You know what the crime i to newspapers, except yours. President trump in the rose garden this week. Sara, you saw the president there, couldnt specify the crime that hes accusing president obama of committing. But its a clearly a campaign hes committed to, we counted up about 150 more than 150 tweets by the president since last sunday on this issue, he clearly seems to think this is going to work even though he cant specify a crime. Well, i think the focus here should be really on his opponent, on joe biden, we havent seen much evidence from Lindsey Graham or bill barr, any interest of calling the former president in for questioning. Look, its very relevant for his opponent, joe biden. What did he know . What happened in that january 5th meeting . In the oval office about the investigation into the trump and russia collusion issue. Did they pursue aggressively general flynn . You know, we know now based on all of the things that have transpired since the beginning of the Trump Administration to now, that there was some serious, serious prosecutorial mishandling of this whole situation where were leading witnesses and let me ask you about the question, whats the evidence of a crime . You know, you had transcripts of a conversation between an official speaking with a russian official. Authoized to ask for the identity, it was done by the book. Its been done thousands of time during the obama administration, even more during the Trump Administration, where is the crime . So to me, the potential crime, we dont know that well see what these investigations bring forward, including the john durham investigation, whether there are any prosecutions out of that, which has not yet been put out there. But if you go back to the whole interview with Michael Flynn, it should never have happened. He was basically cleared of the preinvestigation of the Mueller Investigation and james comey himself admitted on national television, yeah, you know, i wouldnt have gotten away with this in a different white house, a more experienced administration, so you have fbi agents who have Text Messages saying, can we still do this . Is flynn even open . We know now it wasnt opened. Michael flynn was not involved in any conversation or concern about collusion with russia, none whatsoever, needless to say, though, comey went in and interviewed him and then of course led him into witness i want to bring this to rahm emanuel. Couple of things here, comey admitted to, he should have given a headsup perhaps to the white house. He didnt say there was anything wrong in asking Michael Flynn questions. The investigation had not been closed. The reason they asked the questions because they came across this transcript of his conversation with the ambassador, rahm. Just blow the smokescreen away. Michael flynn had an option to tell the truth and he chose to lie. And the history is if you lie to the fbi, you die. Number two, President Trump when he fired mike flynn said he fired him because he lied to the fbi. Number three, president obama in his first meeting with president elect donald trump warned him not to hire Michael Flynn. Number four, president obama was criticized back then for not being more overt about what russia was trying to do. Not this effort. This is all a smokescreen to actually cover up and in fact deny what happened in the first nine weeks of dealing with the flu and this virus so that president is now trying to create a distraction, and i would remind you, watergate was a crime, looking for a coverup, this is quote unquote, a coverup in search of a crime. President cant even acknowledge nor can sara right here, or anybody, can acknowledge what happened here. I know the former u. S. Attorney if you lied to the fbi he would have prosecuted you. He could have told the truth, he chose to lie, that has consequences in a country based on the law. Mike flynn lied, full stop. Chris christie . Well, let me give rahm a little lesson since he invoked my u. S. Attorneys days. The first thing is you dont do i hope i passed the bar. Conduct the way in the way these folks did the fact of the matter is, that you dont allow you dont allow fbi agents to conduct themselves in this way. You dont allow them to go in there and set a perjury trap which is what they did. Ive said all along that mike flynn is wrong for having to lie to the Vice President. I dont know how he explains that. But what were seeing here and believe me, ive been a victim of it and people in my administration have been a victim of it. This is an obama Justice Department led by eric holder, lorett lynch, that politicized and weaponized the Justice Department. They did it. The Supreme Court just reversed what happened to my administration, 90. Mike flynn now will have this matter dismissed. George, what were looking at here, and rahm, is prosecutorial and investigative misconduct, and that misconduct needs to be investigated with the same measure that mike flynn was investigated. That bob mueller investigated all of the people in russia, that ukraine was investigated. Prosecutorial misconduct is an awful, awful thing because the power of the federal governments chris, i want to bring in yvette in. Chris, prosecutorial misconduct thats your argument. I do have to press you on one point, the president keeps saying that it was president obama who committed a crime, is there any evidence whatsoever anywhere that president obama committed a crime here . Listen, george, at this point we dont know what all the evidence is, we dont know happened in that january 5th meeting. So, you know, everyone wanted to rush to judgment during the russia investigation, everyone wanted to rush to judgment during the ukraine investigation, we shouldnt rush to judgment as to the things that we dont yet know and what the president s involvement was, what the Vice President s involvement. Lets have john durham do the investigation and lets come to a fair conclusion. The American People want a fair investigation. Nobody on either side you couldnt get fair in this administration. I didnt blow either one of them off. Let me bring in yvette in. I want to answer the question that collision and sara didnt answer. Any evidence of any crime . Absolutely not. We know that donald trump is obsessed with obama. He cant stop blaming obama for anything that ever happened in the history of the world, let alone the last three years of the Trump Administration. Lets be clear, the most brazenly corrupt president in a generation should not be coming for the most popular, wellrespected president in the generation. President trump makes Richard Nixon look like a boy scout. So any time hes saying obamas done something wrong we know what it is, distract and project. Hes trying to project the very corruption that his administration is responsible for onto the president. Theres no evidence that he committed a crime. If so, he would have named it. I want to be clear, i want to go back to what sara said, were less than six months away from a president ial campaign, right, for the election, why is this something that hes focused on, i dont know how it serves it. It increasingly looks like the interview with Michael Flynn was really about moving forward with a russia investigation. Im afraid thats all we have time for. But thank you all very much. Well be right back. For. But thank you all very much. Well be right back. But for my mother, it was a very difficult time. She told me, it was just you and me for many months. But she wasnt alone. Everybody tried to do what they could to help. But she was also a very strong person. And then it was over. We came out into a new world, my mother and me. We can get through this. We all have the strength to do it. Im a hundred years old. And you just take care of that little miracle. And their financial wellbeing. Since our beginning, our business has been people. 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Were getting a super competitive Interest Rate on our money. Were able to invest through the same exact platform. I got approved for a loan and it was a gamechanger. Truly sofi, thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store. Thats why i take osteo biflex, to keep me moving the way i was made to. It nourishes and strengthens my joints for the long term. Osteo biflex. Plus vitamin d for immune support. One of the most unsettling signs of americas partisan divide is revealed by how people perceive the tragic death toll of the virus. Both sides doubt the official numbers. But democrats think its likely too low, republicans too high. Coming off the president s suggestion that his political enemies are inflating the mortality rate. We asked fivethirtyeights nate silver to weigh in. Its an important question. I have a simple answer i dont buy that covid deaths are overcounted, in fact, i think the opposite is probably true and that deaths have been undercounted instead. A lot of covid deaths arent occurring in hospitals, 50 in connecticut have been in Nursing Homes for example, and some people may have died before being tested. Remember, theres been a shortage of tests. New york city has about 15,000 confirmed deaths but an additional 5,000 probable deaths, cases where doctors or medical examiners, reported as covid, even though no lab tests. How do we know those probably deaths were covid. We can look at excess mortality. How many more people are dying from any cause. In illinois for example, there were more than 3,000 excess deaths through late april, only 1900 confirmed to be covid. Something that could be too conservative in counting deaths. Human error might be at play. Doctors might enter coronavirus instead of covid19 on a death certificate. Nationwide, in fact, experts think the real number could be closer to 100,000 covid deaths already. One small Silver Lining is that a death that gets confirmed today may actually have occurred a few weeks ago, which could mean the curve has been slipping down a little faster than we thought, but it doesnt change the fact that a lot of americans are dying probably more than the official numbers indicate. Thanks to nate for that. Well be right back. That. Well be right back. Thats all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. Check out world news tonight and ill see you tomorrow on gma. World news tonight and ill see you tomorrow on gma