Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20170607

Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. With just 38 hours to go until former fbi director james comey appears before the Senate Intelligence committee, details are coming from multiple news outlets about what we may hear tomorrow and on thursday, including this report tonight from the New York Times with the headline james comey told attorney general sessions, dont leave me alone with trump. The president is preparing to go it alone on what could be the most consequential day of his presidency. All the tv networks are airing that hearing live starting thursday at 10 00 a. M. , and the whole country will be watching as the fbi director the president fired speaks publicly for the first time about being dismissed abruptly last month and about the president s alleged efforts to interfere in that russia investigation. The president was asked about comeys testimony today during a meeting with congressional leaders. I want to thank everybody very much for being here, and lets get to work. Were going to get it work and get it done. Thank you all very much. Mr. President , what message do you have to jim comey ahead of his testimony . I wish him luck. I wish him luck. Just recently the Trump Administration launched efforts to push back on comey and the russia probe, moving to set up a socalled war room at the white house to handle Rapid Response. But now just hours before comeys big moment, a source close to the white house tells nbc news theres no war room, zero. According to axios, Top Republicans say the white house has been unable to lure some of the legal and Rapid Response talent they had been counting on. Without t internal infrastructure in place to rebut comeys testimony, that duty will fall instead to the president s outside counsel, attorney marc kasowitz. And of course to the president himself. According to the Washington Posts robert kos tarcosta, th president may use his favorite medium to react in realtime. Im told by two white house sources that President Trump does not plan to put down twitter on thursday. May live tweet if he feels the need to respond. You recall his apparent threats in the days after the firing. James comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts laeb leaking to the press. Asked today when the plans, the white house says he has a quote, busy day. That includes a speech midday to the faith and freedom coalition, a friendly crowd that could embode embolden the respond more candidly. That instinct to act out as only increased the president s isolation. Allies including republican lawmakers have been expressing their discomfort with the president s social media response to the terror attack in london, tweeting about his travel ban and attacking the citys mayor repeatedly. Meanwhile, yahoo news reports that four top law firms have turned down requests to represent the president in the russia investigation. A consistent theme, sources said, was the concern about whether the president would accept the advice of his lawyers and refrain from public statements and tweets that have consistently undercut his position. Quote, the concerns were the guy wont pay, and he wont listen. The president seemingly eager to blame anyone but himself for the predicament he finds himself in, the New York Times reports hes now zeroed in on his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions. According to the times, the president has intermitt interestly fumed for months offer sessions decision to recuse himself, believing it was that recusal that led to the appointment of a special counsel. According to nbc news, sessions may have even offered at one point to resign. Asked about sessions today, the white house refused to say the president stands by his attorney general. How would you describe the president s level of confidence in the attorney general, Jeff Sessions . I have not had a discussion with him about that. The last time you said that, there was a development. Im answering a question, which is i have not had that discussion with him. So you cant say his confidence in his attorney general . I said i have not had a discussion with him on the question. I dont if i hadnt had a discussion with him about a subject, i tend not to speak about it. Even as the president grows more frustrated and isolated amidst the burgeoning russia crisis, he might not be without allies in that hearing room. Tonight hes dining at the white house with two republican members of the Senate Intelligence committee, men who will be asking comey the questions on thursday. Senators tom cotton and marco rubio. Im joined now by robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post, and bob, i think youve been doing some reporting on all the stuff weve been hearing on sessions. Maybe we start with that. What have you learned . What ive learned tonight is that the president has been frustrated ever since earlier this year when the attorney general decided to recuse himself from the russia probe inside of the federal government. The president believes that decision by sessions ultimately led to bob mueller being appointed special counsel and putting the administration in the situation its presented with today. This is a ed relatiohip that goesack to the campaign. Sessions has been an ideological guide for the president , but trump well, sessions has offered to step away if the president was so angry, but the president has refused that. Weve seen reports of that. Youre confirming that sessions has even gotten to the point of offering to step down, and the president dismissed that. But youre confirming thats the case . Heres how i was told it by two people close to the white house. Sessions had a conversation with the president where frustrations were expressed, particularly from the president s side. Sessions said he was trying to do his job. When he stepped away and recused himself in the russia investigation and said if the president desired, hed be willing to step away, but it was more out of respect to the president , a friend of sessions told me, than anything else. And that has since passed, but the frustrations continue. Well, that is interesting and in some ways it dovetails a little bit with the picture weve learned from those close to comey. I mean what it sounds to me like is this is a president who does not like the notion of the department of justice, the fbi acting independently on this particular topic, which is the russia investigation. There are these ongoing probes that really befuddle the white house. They see the investigations on capitol hill, mueller, what the fbi has been doing for months, and they really believe its going to come to a head on thursday with comeys testimony. Theres been talk of having the president even use twitter to directly engage with comey in whatever he ends up saying. Theres been tal of war room even at the white house, but that has been scuttled. Yeah, theres theres this other reporting saying the war room may be on hold. Trump forces mobilizing for Rapid Response on a thursday effort led in part by trump camps glassener. Youre reporting about the sort of Rapid Response on twitter. I guess my question is what advise is the president being given about how to deal with this testimony on thursday . The president wants to be his own messenger. We were talking to newt gingrich. We have a story coming out soon. They say the president is defiant. He wants to punch back any kind of attempt to frame trump as out of bounds by former director comey. So this is going to be a brawl perhaps from the president ial side. All right. Robert costa, thank you as always. Thank you. Joining me, amy jeffers, former counselor to then attorney general eric holder. I want to talk first about this New York Times story that just crossed in which its reported that after the president had basically urged comey to stop the investigation of flynn, he then went to sessions and said, dont leave me alone with trump. What do you make of that as someone who has been a lawyer to the attorney general . Well, assuming that report is accurate, i understand why director comey would have felt that way if he was put in situations where he thought that he was being asked queions that were inappropriate or asked questions that were awkward. Then i can understand he would have wanted not to be alone in those situations but to be accompanied by the attorney general or someone else. Is it traditionally part of the attorney generals job that he vouchsaves the independence of the doj as an enity frtity fe white house . Actually it is and it has been on occasions in the past. The department of justice has, i think, a different role in the administration than other agencies because of the need for independence, especially with respect to ongoing investigations. To the point on this recusal question, i mean ultimately the decision by the attorney general was a sort of monumental decision. Its led us to where we are right now in many respects. That decision to recuse, do you think it was the proper and appropriate decision by Jeff Sessions . I do think that that was the right decision given the controversy over his testimony about his own contacts. But he did have a choice, i guess, ultimately, right . There is no one that can tell an attorney general to investigate, though i imagine theres internal doj procedure. Yes, there are. There are very good ethics lawyers who advise the attorney general and others about their ethical obligations, and there are bar rules that all attorneys are subject to. So those ethics attorneys probably did give him advice, and he may have made his decision based on their advice. It seems to me a broader theme here is sort of the president versus the lawyers, right . That even someone like Jeff Sessions, who is obviously ideologically committed to the president s agenda, an early supporter of his vision, he is a lawyer. Hes working in the department of justice, and the sort of protocols of the law seem kind of wholly an asthma thee ma to president of the United States. You also have the white House Counsel, which is really the president s institutional lawyer. The attorney general is not so much the president s institutional lawyer as the attorney general is the head of the department of justice, which is supposed to be independent. The white House Counsel also has obligations not just to the president personally but to the white house institutionally. So thats also not a completely you know, not a personal counsel like the president has now gone out and hired. But that would be a role more like what youre describing. Right. Can you imagine, though i mean i guess the question here is all of this is being navigated by the parties in this drama. This is the president of the United States, the attorney general Jeff Sessions, who is an ally, an Early Campaign supporter, and james comey, formerly now, Rod Rosenstein, who is the deputy. They are all of these people except for the president are lawyers, and theyre people steeped in the law and steeped in essentially functioning along these sort of procedures of norms and also guidelines. The president doesnt seem to function along those lines. No, and with respect to particularly to the Deputy Attorney general, Rod Rosenstein and director comey, they have both spent, i think in Rod Rosenstein a case, all of his career and in director comeys case, nearly all of his career at the department of justice. So they will personally have a lot of loyalty to the department, and they will want to ensure its independence in situations like this. Amy jeffress, thank you for making some time tonight. Appreciate it. Joining me now republican strategist stevechmidt and mckay smith. A very interesting piece. What trump really fears. The president faces an openended investigation that may uncover their excesses. The reporting tonight about his frustration with sessions recusing himself dovetails to my theory of things which is whatever happened visavis russia the president is not particularly excited about bob mueller digging through his records and those of his associates in an openended way. That has to be scary to him. Absolutely. In fact, im told by sources close to the president that that is one of the growing fears inside the trump white house, that, you know, trump has always even before he entered politics, kind of surrounded himself with a certain type of character, people who frankly are a lot like donald trump. Theyre hardcharging. Theyre brass, brazen, and he often kind of infuses his team with an eigat what you kill eth where he encourages them to compete for his respect and attention. And a couple sources told me now, i want to be clear they have not accused directly people in trumps orbit of doing anything that hasnt been reported already. But what they say is it would not surprise them if some of these people crossed lines or did kind of unsavory things in an effort to get trumps attention and respect, even if he didnt know about it. And i think theres a fear that, you know, trump doesnt know whats out there. Right. He knows some of whats out there, but there could be other skeletons that come out that hes not even aware of. Thats one of the big theories fears in the white house right now. Its not just the president. He said its insane that the Congressional Republicans are abetting a kind of coverup or what appears to be a coverup, without knowing what the underlying crime may be, right . They have committed to sort of backing him and covering for him and are on the hook for whatever is underneath there, and they dont themselves know. Lets look at the politics of it. We have a special election in the georgia 6 seat. Yep. Mitt romney got 67 of the vote. Donald trump, 49 to Hillary Clintons 48 . It could be that the dreamt candidate wins in this affluent suburban, republican, collegejacollege collegeeducated, you know, demographic type district. There are three times in the last 118 years where the incumbent president s parties picked up seats in the first midterm. Theres a 24seat majority. 23 seats are districts that Hillary Clinton carried. The president s approval numbers are now mired in the mid30s before james comeys testimony. In the middle of this spasm of erratic behavior on the part of the president in this miasma of incompetence that we see at the policymaking level, the National Security level. So republicans, if theyre not panicking about their majority in the house of representatives, they should be. And the investment of were going to stand with donald trump without knowing the facts and abet a coverup really a sin of omission rather than commission. Its just extraordinarily politically malfeasance. You have cotton and rubio dining with the president tonight. It strikes me that again, the president is very good at weve seen the handshake. Hes very good at pulling people in. It just strikes me as dangerous for them to go to that dinner tonight knowing whats happening on thursday and to anyone in the orbit who is getting sucked into appearing to bend over to cover up what may or may not be there in the case seems politically dangerous. We live in an era of trust collapsing in every institution. You think about tom cotton, eay 40s, combat veteran, harvardeducated attorney, brilliant. W, is he going to throw his political career on the flames at the exact moment where he has the opportunity to demonstrate a capacity for National Leadership . And i dont think that any of these senators, democrats or republican, should go into investigative hearings with politicized, precooked outcomes. They should follow the evidence to get to facts for the american people. That is what their duty requires. And mckaye, so far weve not seen the jumping off point, and i have to remind people this is very early. Were four or five months into this administration. Things in politics sometimes take a long time. But you do wonder, you know, how republicans are preparing themselves for thursday and how theyre going to play that you know, if comey comes out and basically says, yeah, the president tried to get me to stop investigating his campaign. Yeah, look, i think that the senators you mentioned rubio and cotton. I think republican senators on that committee are going to theyre going to be aware that this is nationally televised. Its going to be wall to wall coverage. The country is watching them. I tend to think that republicans are going to try to walk the line. I dont think theyre going for the most part, i dont know for sure. I would be surprised if they tried to come to his defense in a brazenly partisan way. I also would be surprised if they, you know, go off script and start really grilling him. I think theyre going to try to show some kind of level of detachment, some kind of level of objectivity but without going too far. And i think probably the Trump Administration is going to tolerate that without trying to visit them with any kind of reibution. The question is, you know, part of this is they dont know what coy is going toay necessarily. So a lot of this is probably going to depend on what actually comes out in the hearing. So well all be finding out along with them. Steve schmidt and mckay coppins, thanks to you both. Up next, the Russian Election Cyber Attacks were much broader than had been reported. So says the top democrat on senate intel. Tonight, new evidence to support the claim in the wake of last nights leaked nsa report after this twominute break. You wish to see. What i have seen . You will. [ dramatic pause ] when i kill you. [ gasping ] im scared. Ahhh [ drums beating ] you saw that, right . You have no idea. What you have unleashed. Go go go [ growling ] whoa thats my face thats my face run [ dramatic music ] the mummy. Rated pg13. Experience it in imax. Did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back . Say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. Comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet thats over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. Say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. And add phone and tv for only 34. 90 more a month. Call today. Comcast business. Built for business. All right. We got some breaking news as we seem to every night from the Washington Post. This on dan coates. Whos the director of national intelligence, former senator of indiana. Hes one of the individuals that in previous reporting has been identified as a person the president reached out to to attempt to get coates to intervene to shut down the fbis investigation particularly into michael flynn, his former National Security adviser. New details tonight on this. On march 22nd, less than a week after being confirmed by the senate, dni Daniel Coates attended a briefing at the white house. Im quoting the Washington Post here, together with officials from several gocht agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, trump asked everyone to leave the room except for coates and cia director mike pompeo. The president then started complaining about the fbi investigation and comeys handling it. This reporting indicates this is something that dan coates mself rayed to associates. It would seem to confirmrior reporting that the president had specifically asked various intelligence officials to quash the investigation into michael flynn. Two days earlier, comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing the bureau was probing whether Trumps Campaign coordinated with russia during the 2016 race. Let me just highlight one other detail here. Again, this is just posted. The detail here of a postmeeting, everyone leave the room but for cia director mike pompeo and dan coates is identical to the m. O. That is in the reporting about when the president asked comey himself to let flynn go, to take it easy on him. That was also after a meeting in which he told everyone to go. Reportedly Jeff Sessions wanted to stay behind. The president told him to leave and then reportedly said this to james comey. So similar sort of pattern of behavior, it would appear, from the reporting if the reports accurate. Joining me now, congressman ted lieu of california, a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee. Congressman, i know this report has just broken, but it does line up with some of the information weve had from reports about the president seeking various channels by which to stop the fbi investigation of flynn. Your response . Thank you, chris. As a former prosecutor, there is a concept known as consciousness of guilt, an action that a person takes that an innocent person would not. And why would the president ask people to leave the room . Because he knows what hes about to do is illegal. This is obstruction of justice, endeavoring to influence an investigation. Weve seen so much evidence of this, and were going to see comey talk about it as well on thursday. So you think this is, as a former prosecutor and theres been debate about what the actual statute and the criminal threshold is, the consciousness of the party involved. But you think this is another this is an example of something that you think is on its face obstruction of justice by the president of the United States . Yes. And the most damning evidence are the president s own actions and words. No dispute he fired comey. No dispute that he told the russians that he did it to releave tr relieve the pressure on him. The white house does not dispute that account. That is obstruction of justice. I dont know why peep tiptoe around it. It is obstruction of justice. The statute is very broad. You just have to endeavor to influence, impede or obstruct, and the president has already done that. Do you trust that this congress will take that seriously if that basic set of facts are reconfirmed in open hearing on thursday . I dont, but i do trust robert mueller. And i am very pleased a special counselor has been appointed. The appointment letter gives him vast jurisdiction not just to investigate trump russia collusion but anything arising from that, and obstruction of justice would be a crime arising from that investigation. Do you have confidence in the people around the president . I mean one of the things thats striking to me is reporting the president is apparently mad at Jeff Sessions because he recused himself. It would appear, and again he we dont know, that dan coates and mike pompeo did not act on the request of the president to try to interfere in an active fbi investigation. That theres a sense of the basic norms of the people at least around him in these positions hng at this point at least bas on what we know. Were not even talking abo norms. Were just talking about the basic rule of law. There is an incredible disrespect for the rule of law by this administration. Weve got the president committing obstruction of justice. Youve got the attorney general lying before congress. Thats perjury. Youve got Jared Kushner omitting deliberately information on his security clearance form. Thats making a false official statement, also a felony. So we are seeing something that we havent seen before, which is not just breaking norms. Its people breaking the law. And what is the sort of whats the accountability for that if thats the case . Let me just say that sessions maintains that was an omission on his part, essentially not intentional deception. He had not thought of it in the context of the question. Jared kushner doesnt really have a particularly coherent story about why he put that on the sf86. But where is the accountability here . The accountability would rest with the special counsel because if theres enough evidence for an indictment, what the special counsel would do is indict the individuals, and then Jeff Sessions can come up with his defense and try to convince people that in fact what he did was not perjury. But theres definitely enough for an indictment. Thats how i view the evidence, and i do trust special counsel mueller, and i hope he does the right thing. Do you worry about pardons . Perhaps. But keep in mind the president has to be in place to make the pardon. So well see what happens. All right. Congressman ted lieu, thank you very much. Next, much more on what were now learning about the scope and scale of the russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. Stay with us. The classes, the friends, the independence. And since we planned for it, that student debt is the one experience, im glad shell miss when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. Ameriprise tonight were learning more about the extent of russian attempts to hack into Election Software systems following yesterdays report in the intercept that Russian Military intelligence executed a cyber attack on at least one u. S. Voting Software Supplier and sent spearfishing emails to more than 100 local officials just days before last novembers president ial election. That is according to an nsa report and their attribution. The federal government has arrested the person they say is responsible for the leak of that nsa report, nsa contractor reality winner, an air force veteran. Now, today at least three florida counties are reporting they got malicious emails days before the election but did not open them. And mark warner, senator of virginia, the ranking democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee Also saying today that the extent of thettacks is much broader than haseen reported so far. He said he was pushing intelligence agencies to declassify the names and number of states hit. Joining me now, Claire Finkel stein, a law professor at university of pennsylvania. Professor, you studied asymmetric warfare. Youre quoted talking about the scope of this as a revelation, that the ten tackles of this operation beyond Just Campaign emails that were leaked, which again was a pretty intense incursion. How should we think about what kind of scale this is in terms of the International Implications . I think this is a very significant revelation because what were talking about is not just cyber interference or even hacking of emails. This is potentially on a very different scale. I assume this is the first of a number of reports that were going to hear about or that mueller knows about and that will come out eventually. But what we do know because of this report and a few others like it is that the russians did want to influence the outcome of the election by hacking into our voting software, in this case registration software. But we know that that was there intent. I just want to be clear here because theres been a lot of confusion about this. Theres no evidence whatsoever that any vote tallies or Voting Machines were compromised, that the election outcome in terms of the vote totals. The software were talking about are electoral registration systems and vendors for that. You have mike quigley today from illinois indicating he believes illinois may have been compromised. But i also thought about the reports we had of th white house that they didnt know just what the russians were planning in the runup to this thing even as they were attributing the attacks on podesta and the dnc to them. You wonder about what their calculation was of the chaos russia might have been able to pull off if indeed these reports are accurate. Thats right. This is a whole new scope. Were used to the covert operations. They did it. We did it. The old sort of cold war rules that obtained. The fake news was a new variant on this. But now we have an expansion of the potential scope of russian interference. This started to become apparent particularly in the french elections with the attempt to interfere in the macron campaign. And now we see whats really coming out here, and i think that it moves us potentially from cyber interference to Cyber Attacks. And that has a whole different status. Yeah, i should note that theres been some reporting in france indicating that theres been no definitive finding of the origins of the macron attack that was initially reported. I just want to be clear about what we know. Fair enough. Part of the issue here i only say that because part of the issue of course is attribution. I mean this has been the thing that hangs over all of this. You know, attribution is difficult. Attributions coming from Something Like the nsa or someone else even in this report that was leaked, its hard to make the public case. And that sort of bedevils the International Response as well, it would seem to me. And we know that from our own experience, stucks net. We engage in our own cyber interference and then blame it on the chinese. So attribution is a very difficult issue. But more and more evidence is coming in. We will see what evolves over the next several months. But we certainly do understand what the russian intent is here. All right. Claire finkelstein, thank you. Ahead, could we see a new Trumpcare Bill in the next month . Senator Sherrod Brown on what his republican colleagues are up and what he says is the active sabotage of obamacare, coming up. 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Just this afternoon, we learned the last statewide insurer in the great state of ohio is leaving. So they dont have any insurers. That means another 20 counties in the state of ohio will have no health care plan. If congress doesnt act to save americans from this democratinflicted catastrophe, next year is only going to get worse. Its going to get a lot worse. In the meeting today with republican lawmakers at the white house, which included Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, the president insinuated that the Affordable Care act is collapsing in on itself. To make his point, he cited as you just heard, anthems decision to pull out entirely from the individual market, not all of it, just the individual market in ohio. The president failed to fully explain why the nations second Largest Health insurer is doing so. According to their own statement, anthem is pulling out partly because and i quote here the individual market remains volatile, and the lack of certainty of funding for costsharing reduction subsidies. In other words, anthem cant be sure the president and the Republican Led Congress will continue paying reimbursements to insurers to help offset the cost of obamacare funding that donald trump has threatened to cut off on multiple occasions, which is why ohio democrat Sherrod Brown says he knows exactly whos to blame for his states predicament. This is exactly what happens when trump and the Congressional Republicans continue to play games on repealing the Affordable Care act. The trump move on whether hes going to follow the law and fund and continue the subsidies for health insurance, and anthem finally said, we got to two choi choices. We either raise premiums dramatically or pull out. This is 70,000 people. They can play their political games. A bunch of politicians with government subsidized insurance can play their political games, but this affects 70,000 lives in my state. People getting cancer treatment, people getting opioid addiction, and it matters to these families. I ask people to weigh in at sherrodbrown. Com. Sign my petition to say to the Trump Administration, quit playing games with Peoples Health care. Its just simply wrong. Lets say Hillary Clinton was the president of the United States. There was a Senate Majority, and lets say that anthem is doing this, you say, because of the sort of playing hamlet with these subsidies. But theres other places where they have had real pullouts in those markets. What should democrats be doing to fix the problem . Well, you start first of all, if you roll back to january, when the administration did its executive order, when they stopped the marketing to people to sign up for health insurance, so we know hundreds of thousands i mean the statistics show hundreds of thousands of people did not sign up that would have otherwise. And we focus on first stabilizing the insurance markets. There are things we can do there so that insurance premiums dont spike and Insurance Companies dont pull out. And then you use both carrot and stick to get more young people, Young Healthy people in those plans. Theyre doing none of that because they want to sabotage this. They hate the Affordable Care act. They cant figure out how you repeal it, so theyre sabotaging it, and theyre doing it in the most insidious kind of way. Your republican colleagues, a lot of them have been on the record saying i dont know if were going to pass something on health care. Its going to be tough. Then today there was some sense that Mitch Mcconnell is going to get something scored by the cbo and have a vote before july 4th, and that will be that. What do you make of that . Well, i think mcconnell doesnt know what to do. How you get ted cruz and Susan Collins in the same place to cobble together 50 votes is sounds pretty remote to me, but mcconnell i want to stop you there because theres two theories on the divisions there. One is theyre down playing expectations so they can do what the house gop did, which is essentially spring something on everyone. And the other is that the divisions are real. Youre saying its the former. The divisions are real . I think the divisions are real, but i also think the way theyre going about it is just like they did it in the house where they meet behind closed doors week after week. They make deals. They try to buy off members. The speaker and the president , now its the majority leader and the president trying to buy enough votes. Then they spring it on the american public. Is it going to be the same as in the house where people almost nobody read the bill . If they did, it was too complicated and too long to really understand it. They didnt do a cbo score and they moved on it. It looks to be the same construct. Maybe theyll do the cbo score so they can at least check that box, but its not going to be debated. You remember when we passed the Affordable Care act, we accepted 150 republican amendments in the help committee, senator kennedys committee that i sat on. We did weeks and weeks, months of hearings and discussions. People had a chance to thoroughly understand it. Then we moved. This is t exact opposite of this, and theyre going to jam the american public. And in my state as i said before to you, chris, 200,000 people right now in ohio are getting opioid treatment, and they are getting it because they have insurance from the Affordable Care act. A bunch of elected officials with Government Insurance are going to take that away from those families. Really . I guess the question is how do you stop it because i think it appears their announced intention is to do that. Well, i think you stop it because ive heard john kasich, my republican governor, admonish his colleagues, and im hearing a lot of concern from republican senators that theyre going to have that they are concerned maybe in a humanitarian way, maybe in a political way, i dont know, are concerned about taking away insurance from that many people. At the same time, the same cbo report said the average 60yearold in ohio will see her insurance premiums go up 1,600. Do they want to live with that too with this kind of immoral action by taking insurance away from people . I dont know. All right. We are going to find out. Senator Sherrod Brown of ohio, i appreciate it. Still ahead, the trump family making money off the presidency, now looking to cash in on their Middle America supporters with a budgetfriendly hotel chain. That and the unbelievable new reporting about the charity ahead. Plus tonights thing 1, thing 2 starts after the break. S yet but in fifteen hundred miles, youll see what youre really made of. After five hours of spinning and one unfortunate ride on the gravitron, your grandkids spot a 6 foot banana that you need to win. In that moment, youll be happy you partnered with a humana care manager and got your health back on track. Because that banana isnt coming home with you until that bell sings. Great things are ahead of you when your health is ready for them. At humana, we can help you with a personalized plan for your health for years to come. A cockroach can survive submergede guy. Underwater for 30 minutes. Wow. Yeah, wow. Not getting in today. Not on my watch. Pests never stop trying to get in. 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If you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis. Thing 1 tonight, President Trumps curious relationship with time. Bloom berg news writes today that in trumps white house, everything is coming in, quote, two weeks. And, yeah, weve noticed that. Were going to be announcing something, i would say, over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax. Well be reporting back sometime over the next to weeks as to nafta and what were going to do about it. Ill be making a big decision on the paris accord over the nextwo weeks. Whether or not any of those things actually happened in two weeks varies. He decided on paris a month later, on nafta a week later, on the tax bill, well, the white house produced a onepage summary 11 weeks later. Other times, nothing ever happens. Oh, and by the way, they said my wife melania might have come in illegally. Let me tell you one thing, she has got it so documented. Shes going to have a little News Conference over the next couple of weeks. That was 43 weeks ago or 21 1 2 couples of weeks. Melania trump still hasnt held that News Conference, but here at all in, weve noticed another measurement of unit the president uses constantly, especially when two weeks is too precise. Thats thing 2, and its coming in the next short period of time. Dear son, i know you worry i cant keep up with our weekly tee times. But ive been taking osteo biflex ease. Its 80 smaller but just as effective. Which means youre in big trouble, son. Improved joint comfort in seven days. Osteo biflex ease. Made to move. The president so often says things are coming in two weeks, youd think the fort night was his favorite time frame. But here at all in, were paying much closer attention. Weve noticed theres another unit of time measurement he prefers above all others. Big announcements are going to be made over the next short period of time. Were not going to go back to what we were doing for the last long period of time. Theyve gone through hell over the last long period of time. Over a fairly short period of time. Over the past long period of time. A lot of bad things have been taking place over a long period of time. A lot of things have happened over the last short period of time. Long period of time. Short period of time. They gave me a standing ovation for a long period of time. A long period of time. Long period of years. Its really a much longer period of time than people would understand. Looking sharp len. Whos the lucky lady . Im going to the bank, to discuss a mortgage. Ugh, see, you need a loan, you put on a suit, you go crawling to the bank. This is how i dress to get a mortgage. I just go to lendingtree. I calculate how much home i can afford. I get multiple offers to compare side by side. And the best part is. 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And he also has run a yearly Charity Golf Tournament through the nonprofit Eric Trump Foundation. And that Golf Tournament is at the Trump National golf club in West Chester County new york and its to benefit Childrens Cancer research. Now the tournament has laudibly raised millions for the cause thanks to eric trumps claim that nearly all the money contributed goes directly to st. Judes Childrens Research Hospital and that is possible, he long maintained because theres virtually no overhead. Entertainment and drinks were donated, as was crucially the use of the golf club itself which happens to be owned by erics father, the president of the United States. At least that was eric trumps story. But as forbes reports, it isnt true. Now i should note here that for the first four years of the tournament, things looked good from 2007 to 2010. Annual costs were only about 50,000 per year. In 2011, costs shot up to 142,000. And with the exception of 2012, they kept growing. By 2015, costs for the tournament were all the way up to 322,000. So what happened . Well, the former membership and marketing director at the Trump Golf Club told issue forbes t when donald trump found out about the tournaments finances, he flipped. He was like, were donating all of this stuff . Theres no paper trail . No credit . And he went nut s. He got billed. Via the charity turn to argets the Trump Organization, the family forprofit business, received more than 1. 2 million that has no documented recipients past the trump org. Additionally, the donald j. Trump foundation used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel 100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization. And while donors to the Eric Trump Foundation were told their money was going to help sick kids, more than 500,000 was redonated to other charities, many of which were connected to trump family members or interests. Joining me now, olivia, washington correspondent for new York Magazine and daily beast columnist david k. Johnson. Let me start with you, as an expert on tax law. I imagine theres possibly an explanation for this that could be provided by the foundation, but on its face, this looks to violate the law . Yes. This is whats known as selfdealing. Good as it is that the Eric Trump Foundation provided this money to st. Jude, they would have gotten about 15 more, but for the money that went to the Trump Organization and we dont know if it went beyond there. And it went to other charities that seem to have business ties and help develop business for the Trump Organization. And im floored that one year the costs were over 300,000. I have been involved as a trustee of a charity, and board member of a charity with a number of entities where ive had to oversee or examine the finances, and i just cant understand how you can spend 300,000 on the costs of a Golf Tournament. And to be clear, thats money thats being paid to the golf club, which is the trump org right. And also, one more thing, david. I want to continue on this because the forbes reporting suggests when theres a change in the board, originally its eric trump and his friends and the costs are low. Then it becomes Trump Organization members on the Nonprofit Foundation board who appear to be kind of representing both interests simultaneously. Right. The Board Members had a majority of the board had clear conflicts of interest in what was going on which forbes lays out quite well here. Theres a reason we have what are called public charities. The idea of a Public Charity is that no individual or family is in control, and, therefore, we ease up on the restrictions on them. When you clearly have someone in control you have a private foundation with tougher rules because we know people and the trumps in particular, tend to put their hand in the Charity Cookie jar. So thats one place where you see money flowing in. And this is before he became president. Olivia, this is the saudis spent 270,000 at the trump hotel in a lobbying against the 9 11 bill which is about whether theyd have financial exposure through civil litigation. Youve been reporting a lot from that hotel which has become essentially this kind of like favor trading mecca in trumps d. C. I was there, i think the night that donald trump fired james comey. And Rudy Giuliani was there. He smelled like a cigar, and he was there very late at night when the bar was closing. And he was just hanging out. Ive seen lots of people who are close to the president or associated with the president hanging out there. It is a place clearly where people are trying to trade favors and trying to exert influence over the Trump Administration. And any claims to the contrary seem completely absurd. Id also point to the earlier story about eric trumps foundation. Theres a great irony in donald trump saying that people need to get paid when he is someone who is known historically for stiffing contractors who have worked on projects for him. And the idea that he basically the sort of between the lines image you get from that forbes piece say reck ni recknition like, we can extract some money out of this. You also have the brothers running the Trump Organization who are walled off in some completely impossible to tell way from the actual president. Doing a lot of publicity. And now floating a budget friendly america idea hotel chain which again seems like frankly profiting off their father being president. It just seems like there is something not right about it. Even if it would be technically legal, and i cant speak to that. It just seems like theres something not right about it. You have to ask, is the trump family are they trying to make america better, are they working for the country or for themselves and for their own brand . I think increasingly, it looks like the latter. I should note the plan here essenti essentially, trump Branded Hotels in the areas the president did well on. Manifestly a conflict, we continue to be in the terrain the president asserts. The president cannot have a conflict of interest. Trump inc. And the white house seem to be the same thing. Im not the least bit surprised the trumps dont see any bright lines or any lines at all between their financial interests and duty to country. Its simply not how the trumps think. Fiduciary duty, a duty of loyalty say oneway street in the Trump Organization. You have to give absolute loyalty to trump. He owes no loyalty to anyone else and the evidence is showing increasingly, not even to his bosses, the american voters. Olivia nuzzi and david k. Johnson. Now i get to Say Something ive been waiting awhile to say is the Rachel Maddow show starts right now with Rachel Maddow. Welcome back. Weve been sending you good thoughts and eagerly anticipating your return. I have been away for a very long time in cable news time. But even in normal human time it has felt like a very long time. I have missed this crossover with you every night. Ive missed being here. Great to have you back. Thanks for doing that. Thanks to you at home for joining us. I am back. I want to say a big thank you to ari mel ber and to joy reid for filling in for me while i was out sick this last week and a half, almost two weeks. Thank you to everybody here on the racl