Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20171219

Job, plain and simple. Congressman Eric Swalwell on protecting the investigation. Bernie sanders on the tax bill. And the new tax cuts for specific republicans. What we tried to do is cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Tonight we know that the president of the United States was warned in the summer of 2016 that russia would try to infiltrate his campaign. And despite multiple confirmed contacts between Campaign Aides and russian agents, he never informed the fbi. According to exclusive reporting from msnbc news. Then candidate trump received the warning in a briefing from senior counterlngs officiintell officials who urged him to alert the bureau about any suspicious overtures of the campaign. We dont know when that briefing took place, just that it happened after july 19th which is when trump officially became the republican nominee and some time around august 17th when he received his first intelligence briefing. And yet despite being breefnd russias role on the dnc hack, despite being warned that russia was actively trying to infiltrate his campaign, the president kept on denying russia did anything wrong. I dont think anybody knows it was russia that broke into the dnc. She is saying russia, russia, russia. Maybe it was. I mean it could be russia. But it could also be china. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay . Ah, yes, the 400pound bed hacker. A similar briefing on the risk of russia infiltration was given to Hillary Clinton around the same time. But unlike her campaign, trumps investigation was already under investigation for its ties to russia. That probe which began in july 2016 according to former fbi director james comey. By the time the president sat down with those fbi counterintelligence agents, seven of his Campaign Aides had been in contact with russian nationals or russian agents. One of them, carter page, was already being sur veiled under a fisa warrant. Three of them including the candidates own son had already taken a meeting with russians at least a month earlier, hoping to obtain, and i quote here, official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary Clinton, part of russia and its Government Support for mr. Trump. The man who sent that email to donald trump jr. Rod goldstone was spotted on capitol hill today heading into an interview with the House Intelligence Committee. And the president maintains he was unaware of hi aids russia contacts, including the trump tower meeting. But we know he wasnt totalfully the dark. Remember, in march 2016, he attended a meeting with that guy right there, george papadopoulos, who of course now is cooperating with the special counsel. We know that papadopoulos talked about using his connections in that meeting to arrange a meeting between trump and vladimir putin. Its not clear if then candidate trump shared the fbis warning december 2016 with any other campaign officials. But we do know the russia contacts didnt stop there. Jeff session meeting with the Russian Ambassador in september. Later that month don jr. s condolence with wikileaks which u. S. Intelligence officials regard as a russian cutout. After the full extent of the russian sabotage was becoming clear, the contacts between russia and trump world only seem to have accelerated. They included multiple conversations between Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about new u. S. Sanctions. Of course, flynn lied about those conversations to investigators. And after pleading guilty to a felony, flynn is now cooperating with the special counsel. We just learned that mueller has obtained tens of thousands of emails from the trump transition, which could help piece together what exactly was going on during that key period. Already, the president and his allies attempting to discredit mueller are claiming those emails with their dot gov addresses were somehow improperly obtained. Its not looking good. Its not looking good. Its quite sad to see that. So my people were very upset about it. I cant imagine there is anything on them, frankly. Because as we said, there is no collusion. There is no collusion whatsoever. But a lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad. We already know there is something in those emails. According to the New York Times that. Include correspondence among top trump transition advisers, planning flynns outreach to the Russian Ambassador. Julia ainsley is a reporter for nbc news who broke the story today on trumps warning from the fbi. First, give us the context for this warning. So its important to remember that when someone becomes a major party candidate, its pretty much pro forma for them to be given counterintelligence briefings by the fbi and other members of the intelligence community. So we know that this briefing was given to the Clinton Campaign as well as the Trump Campaign after the two had become the nominees, in part because when you become the nominee, you are privy to intelligence communication that can make you a target for foreign adversaries. We know that russia was a specific part of this warning. They know that he was brief and warned. And what this does it is sort of changes the prism through which we see the Trump Campaigns relations with russians during this time. Clinton, of course, was someone who had been through briefings like this in the past. And trump has always said he was somewhat of a political novice, that he didnt really know all of these rules. They wouldnt have known not to take some of these meetings. Now that becomes a little harder for him to stand behind when he was given the specific warning. Now, one of the items in your story is that they specifically said, you know, let us know essentially if any of this is happening. You know, you would imagine that that would also apply retroactively. So if the president were particularly affirmative, if he did know that this was happening, that maybe he would put two and two together. But we have no evidence as of now that at any point the president , the now president reached back out to the fbi to talk about any of this. Thats true, chris there have been no public records of and the white house has never said it did approach the fbi to report on anything, either before that briefing or afterwards. Really, what this does it is kind of gives them a consciousness of guilt. If for example trump or someone else in that briefing had known than june meeting that you just cited with trump jr. And the russian lawyer to get that dirt on Hillary Clinton, they then would have been in a position where they needed to report that to the fbi. And the same goes forward. That would be trump jr. Donald trump jr. s interaction was wikileaks in september. That was just a month after the briefing. Also that september was attorney general Jeff Sessions and a senator meeting with Sergey Kislyak in his office. Those things were not reported. And now that we know that they were given the specific briefing, it definitely places them in a different prism in the way we look at whether or not this was just a campaign that didnt know any better, when it maybe looks like they did know better and should have reported it. Do we know who other than then candidate trump was in that briefing . All we know is it would have been a very small circle. Okay. This is not something where they want to spread it widely. They dont want to go to a middle man. They go to the candidate, himself or herself and just a small number of very senior advisers. All right. Nbcs Julia Ainsley with great reporting. Great to have you. Thank you. Thanks. For more on this latest twist on the russia investigation, lets bring in Byron Mcquaid and nick akerman, special assistant watergate prosecutor. Its always struck me as odd that at no point during the course of this year in which this was a front page top of line story that russias possible responsibility for dnc hacks, that anyone from the Trump Campaign if i cans up the phone and says wait a second, whats going on here. How does this information add to your picture of what they were up to . Yeah, i think its a very significant piece of reporting because, you know, its not illegal per se to fail to tell the fbi about these overtures. But its certainly a threat to our National Security. And its a failure to be vigilant in protecting our National Security. But as julia said, it also is this concept known by prosecutors as consciousness of guilt. Why would you not share this information with the fbi when they specifically asked you to . Well, one reason might be that they had something to hide. And so that is a kind of category of evidence that is very significant to prosecutors. Yeah, this is something done i want to play what don jr. Said to hannity after that tower meeting. A similar question keeps pop up. I keep imagining in my mind the sort of movie version of this where after the trump tower meeting they start reporting publicly that russia is behind the dnc hacks. I wonder if they had no idea they werent colluding with russia, what light bulb is going off in don jr. s head at that point. He is watching this. Here is what he had to say to hannity. Take a listen. At any point in your mind, did don jr. Have a siren say okay, theyre talking again, guy back to the first email about russia. Russian government, meeting with this person. Youre going talk on the phone. Did you ever think maybe this might not be listen, like i said, in retrospect, i probably would have done things a little differently. Again, this is before the russia mania. This is before they were building it up in the press. For me this was opposition research. Maybe they had something that were probably underreported for years, not just during the campaign. So i think i wanted to hear it out. Thinking wasnt just opposition research. I mean, this was an email that said the government of russia is backing your father for president , number one. Which let me just say, stop right there. Lets say he didnt realize then at some point down the road, it always has bugged me. Doesnt someone say wow, that was kind of weird that we took that meeting when they offered us the russian governments help. Not only offered the russian government help, but they were going to give them all these documents and dirt on Hillary Clinton, that they were going to give to it trumps secretary. But then they decided better to bring it in person. And these are the same probably the stolen emails from the Democratic National committee that the campaign knew about in april through papadopoulos. The theory of the case. It is true. But i tell you, this is all making sense because its all coming together this way. If there is one surety here is that there was a criminal act breaking into the Democratic National committee. Yes. And to podestas email. Thats right. And the only real question was the campaign and conspiracy with the russians with respect to the ultimate goal to help the Trump Campaign . Barbara, i want to ask about this email issue which was a very strange thing. The trumps lawyers write an email complaining about how Robert Mueller acquired the transition emails, which are government emails, how he did it. But they dont write to it mueller and they dont write to it a judge. They write it to congress. Do they have any case here . No, i dont think so at all. And i think the fact that they wrote it to Congress Indicates that they even know they dont have any case. Right. As you said, its on a government computer. When you fire up a government computer, it says right at the first part you get a ban theyre says warning, this computer is owned by the United States government. Users have no expectation of privacy. Pretty clear. And muellers spokesman said we obtained the emails through the consent of the user or through Legal Process there is a number of ways you can get them through Legal Process. You can get them with a search warrant, with a court order, a subpoena, or because this is a counterintelligence investigation, with a National Security letter. So i take peter carr, the spokesman at his word when he said they used Legal Process to get these. And i think this argument is nonsense. This line jumped out at me. Mueller issued a statement, which is extremely rare. We basically never hear anything from him. From his office. Right. As far as the reporters and his office, theyre not even leaking. It caught my eye. When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owners consent or appropriate criminal process. Really got that adjective criminal in there twice. Thats what this is all about. This is a criminal investigation. If you look at this sevenpage letter which is a bunch of hooie. This is unbelievable. They threw around all these legal terms. This is privilege, that is privilege. What they dont acknowledge is there is no executive privilege because trump is not the president and there is no attorneyclient privilege because they dont even explain how attorneys had anything to do with these emails. Why are lawyers that i know across the political and ideological spectrum seem to not be particularly enthusiastic about the job that the president s lawyers are doing. Do you share that assessment . I tell you, i wouldnt hire them to get an ant out of my house. I really would not rely on them for anything. Is that your assessment as well, barbara . I dont know than. I think the things that theyve been saying publicly is we encourage cooperation and suggesting an era of confidence that the president and others will be exonerated. I think that strategy is probably sound. It is in the shortterm at least. Well see whether where it ends up in the longterm. Barbara mcquade and nick akerman, thank you for being here. Thank you. Are they planning on ending the investigations into russian and ill talk to Eric Swalwell who says doing so would be an abdication of duty. He joins me in just two minutes. Its great. We come into this world needing others. Then we are told its braver to go it alone. That independence is the way to accomplish. But there is another way to live. A way that sees the only path to fulfillment is through others. That our time here can be deep beyond measure. No one who chose interdependence ever found despair. Because what the world taught as weakness, is in fact our greatest virtue. As the talk of protecting the Robert Mueller investigation continues, democrats are warning that the investigation by the House Intelligence Committee appears to be in danger of being shut down by the republican majority. Congressman trey gowdy, a republican on that Committee Told nbc news that it is in the publics interest to finish this as quickly as possible so they can issue a final report. He accused democrats of wanting to prolong their work for political reasons. Quote, there is not a single soul with an open mind who is waiting on the house of representatives russia investigation to unlock the mist travel office world for them. There are people who have already made up their minds waiting to see whether or not the previously held conviction will be validated. But i think most people are waiting on mueller. The chairman of the House Select Committee on benghazi, chairman gowdy preside over one of the longest running special c committees in the history of the United States congress. It was longer than investigations into pearl harbor, the kennedy assassination, watergate, and the 9 11 attacks. And his Committee Also followed several other congressional committees on benghazi. Congressman Eric Swalwell of Southern California a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence. One thing did jump out to me about what gowdy said, which is people are really keyed in on muellers findings ultimately. If thats the case, why does it matter when your investigation wraps up . Good evening, chris. Im more optimistic than my colleague, mr. Gowdy about the role congress can play and the impact we can have, because first, mr. Mueller, hes not charged with making political reforms so that this never happens again. For example, i think one reform thats going have to be put in place is a law that if you are approached by a Foreign National offering information about your political opponent, there should be a duty to report. Right now there is no duty to report. And we saw there was no report the big trump family or the Trump Campaign. And then also what role does social media play Going Forward if they see attacks happening on their platforms, or if coordination is occurring with campai campaigns. There is a lot we could learn if we were to run a thorough investigation. Im more optimistic what we could do if we actually were curious and wanted to make a difference. Your colleague adam schiff, who is the Ranking Member on that committee, has shared his concerns that essentially the fix is in, that the republican majority is going to wrap this up. He has also become a real lightning rod for criticism, particularly from the president s allies over at trump tv. Take a listen to this. The fact that allies of President Trump are now turning up the heat on schiff may help explain why today the top democrat on the House Intel Committee tried to point the finger elsewhere. Theyre demanding the Justice Department investigate whether it was adam schiff himself or other Top Democrats that did the leaking. And they think thats why schiff came out today, laura, and started trying to shift the blame and say the republicans are trying to shut down this investigation. Do you think thats right . No. Its because he is effective. He has led us in a quite a unified way on the committee. And, chris, if you just think back to march, that Opening Statement that he gave before james comey testified about just what we believe wed knew the russians had done, how much of that has proved to be true and how much more weve learned. We didnt know about the june 9th emails when mr. Schiff gave that Opening Statement. We didnt know that felix sater and Michael Cohen were talking about how they could engineer a victory for the president. We didnt know about all the outreach that wikileaks had done with don jr. Or with Alexander Nix from Cambridge Analytica as reported by julian assange. We have learned so much and there are so many more witnesses we should hear from if my republican colleagues want to hear what happened. Can you solve a mystery for me. What exactly is the role of devin nunes . I remain confused on this. At one level he is recused from the investigation and he maybe pops in to mess around with it a little bit. Is he recuse order isnt he . He state head is recused, but he still signs the subpoena as they relate to this investigation, which i believe defies, you know, being recused. But this isnt this is an investigation bigger than one person. Our at least on our side, we try and just focus on the witnesses. I think when the public transcripts are made available, youll see the deep interest and the thoroughness that our side has put into this. And quite an objective way. And if we were given subpoena power to corroborate or repudiate these stories that are being told us to, i believe we would learn a lot more. Thankfully, Robert Muellers investigation will go on. Because he has access to the records, he has been able to get guilty pleas because he has confronted people who at first wanted to tell lies and then told a different story once they were confronted with outside research and records. Quickly, do you in the minority, the Democratic Party in this committee have recourse, any recourse the majority just wants to shut this down at some artificial deadline . The public sentiment, chris. The public deeply cares where this investigation goes and we protect our freedom to choose. I still hope we pass legislation to have an independent commission harkening back to september 11th. Thats what he did after that. And i hope that the public sentiment stays with us. Because this is about our freedom at the polls. All right. Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you. My pleasure. Still ahead, the president s response to questions about firing Robert Mueller. Plus, new reporting about who the president sees as a threat to his administration. That story coming up. I couldntp and get up in time. Then i found aleve pm. Aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Im back. Aleve pm for a better am. Run, jthe power of in to tempurpedic sleep with our 90day trial and being the highest ranked mattress in Customer Satisfaction by jd power, its easy to love. Find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic. Com there is perhaps nothing we take more for granted in our modern life than access to electricity. This weekend an underground fire led to a nearly 11hour power outage atlantas Hartsfield Jackson international airport, prompting more than 1500 flight cancellations, and countless headaches across the country as the entire flight patterns were disrelative humiditied. It was a reminder of how much we depend on power, on having access to power, and how acutely we feel its absence when its gone. Now imagine that instead of 11 hours, you had to go without power for three months with no end in sight. And that is the situation for many of the more than 3 million american citizens in puerto rico, which still, still has less than 70 of its power back a full three months after hurricane maria. As youre watching this hundreds of neighborhoods remain in the dark. This has ramifications for every aspect of life. Generators help. But the staggering impact is coming into stark relief. Today puerto rico governor ricardo recillo ordered a death review from the hurricane which currently stands at 64 people. The move comes after Media Outlets compared year to year death rates and found in the New York Times that 1,052 more people than usual had died across the island in the 42 days after maria struck. We dont know exactly how many deaths are a result of the extended lack of power, but its impact is clear. Its contributed to spread of disease with lack of access to clean water. Hospitals have been severely limited in the care they can provide. Its made the day to day tasks of life in puerto rico fraught and exhausting. President trump boesd about the low death toll saying that, quote, maria was not a real catastrophe. Between 1 and 10, how would you create the white house respond so far . Id say it was 10. There has never been anything like that. Id give ourselves a 10. Because my body can still make its own insulin. And i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like its supposed to. Trulicity is not insulin. It comes in a onceweekly, truly easytouse pen. The pen where you dont have to see or handle a needle. And it works 24 7. Trulicity is a onceweekly injectable medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. It should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not take trulicity if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, if you have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if youre allergic to trulicity. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or symptoms like itching, rash, or trouble breathing. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and indigestion. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. To help lower my a1c i choose trulicity to activate my within. Ask your doctor if onceweekly trulicity is right for you. Lets get the one with the candy canes. Well, you know, the wrapping paper doesnt make the holidays. Its whats inside that counts. Its a phone for mom. Okay, well, its also whats inside the phone that counts, too. Circuits . No, the network. So the network is inside the phone . Well, no, the networks around the phone. And verizon is the most awarded network ever. Thats why more people count on it. Here you go. announcer a gift is only as good as the network its on. So give any google pixel 2 and get 300 off with no tradein required. Are you considering firing no im not. No what else . What . Are you surprised . The question everyone has been asking is whether President Trump will fire the man investigating him, special counsel Robert Mueller, a move that would almost certainly precipitate a fullblown constitutional crisis and pretty much cause all hell to be break loose in washington. But the president doesnt necessarily need to fire mueller in order to contain him. The president s allies are working overtime to delegitimize the special counsel with trump tv going into overdrive to characterize mueller and his team as biased, corrupt and even plotting, quote, a coup in america. The investigation into Donald Trumps campaign has been crooked from the jump. But the scary part is we may now have proof the investigation was weaponized to destroy his presidency for partisan political purposes. And to disenfranchise million of american voters. Now if thats true we have a coup on our hands in america. If thats true. And then there is a question. Coup in america . Not saying it. Just asking a question. At the same time, trump may move to box mueller in by firing his boss and replacing him with someone more pliable. The man who oversees mueller is Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein whos that that role because attorney general jeff session had to recuse himself from the investigation. Now trump has long cast aspersions on rosenstein, and now advisers tell the Washington Post that on recent discussion trump has complained that rosenstein has showed insufficient accountability on the special counsels work. Trump reportedly also mocked rosensteins recent testimony on capitol hill, and characterized him as a threat to his presidency. With me now michael steele, former chair of the republican National Committee and sam seder, host of the majority report. Its not to notice the kind of crescendo building in the president s favored Media Outlets about mueller. Right. There is one theory they thought was interesting, and josh barro and a bunch of other people said its not a move to fire him. Its an attempt to delegitimize whatever he comes up with. Yep, thats right. Because they still learned the lesson from firing comey from exploding in their face. Do you buy that . I do. And that is very much a part of the effort here at this stage, because they know the political consequences of firing him, mueller, is the nuclear option. And they dont want to do that. So lets just do sort of a landbased attack here. Right. And well just go after him every day through the various Media Outlets that toot our particular horn, and we will just create this narrative and keep saying it over and over and over again. And so now weve sort of layered on top of that sort of some kind of icing around this idea of coup that mueller is about a coup. And keep in mind, folks, this is the same mueller that just a few years ago republicans were patting on the back and lauding as a great american, you know, Public Servant and war hero. And, you know, a straight arrow. And someone that we could trust. Right. Just in a matter of a few weeks now, we cant seem to do that anymore. Right. And she none of those things. So, yeah, this is a concerted ongoing effort to delegitimize the special prosecutor. So i thought the Washington Post reporting on rosenstein was fascinating particularly for this reason. First of all, they would have to go through rosenstein, a. And b, firing mule worry be the nuclear option. Rosenstein is a more interesting figure how. Would you game out what the reaction would be if rosenstein were fired . If rosenstein was fired and then theoretically someone was brought in to replace him . Yeah, exactly. Thing would be a lot of suspicion as to why rosenstein was fired. Let me just go back for a moment. I dont think theyre mutually exclusive. Youre saying like the delegitimize versus firing . Yes. I think its quite possible what we saw was some and i dont want to overstate the calculation involved here. Because i think its quite possible that donald trump wakes up in the morning and is like im going do it today. And then other people say no, dont do it today. And so its quite possible that what we see is some form of a trial balloon. And maybe as soon as there is this pushback like weve seen over the past week, it causes people to cause him to calm down. Right. I dont think incompetence and complete whim cannot be underestimated as a plan here. Broadly speaking, though, the idea is delegitimize him, create this alternate narrative that goes on through the right wing media so when something comes up, if something comes up, it is already doa in their minds. Right. We should also note that the president there is some idea when you think the trump tv is doing the president s bidding. But the sort of flow of information goes the other way too. Like he is just watching it all the time. And theyre planting ideas in his head. And this is why i think the rosenstein piece of this is significant, michael. Because mueller has allies on capitol hill. He has an outsized reputation for all the reasons you note. He served in all these different investigations. He is the one running the special investigation. Rosenstein is an anonymous figure. He is somewhat compromised for the role he played in the comey firing. He clearly has skepticism among republicans. I worry about him not having a necessary Political Base to be protected should the president move against him first. And i wonder what you think republicans would do. I think thats very good question. But i also say that he has a little bit more juice among some base members, meaning the senate and the House Republicans than you would think. I mean, he, again, is not someone who is a gadfly, a sort of we dont know who he is. He was also lauded and hailed in his appointments to justice and even being elevated here. He was considered someone who was a safe bet despite all the other Politics Around session. Right. But here is the other thing i find very interesting about this whole idea that the president wants to fire mueller. For what . Because here is here is the reality. Youve got at least four people now, two of whom have actually plead guilty. Right. To, you know, to crimes. So clearly this investigation is not a whole lot of noise about nothing. There is a something here. And so this idea whether its mueller or rosenstein, either one of them going away does not solve your underlying problem. Right. Well, i think i happened to catch a little bit of Rush Limbaugh today. And as far as Rush Limbaugh was concerned, its 50 of the country already thinks that mueller is completely crooked and this is going nowhere and this is a joke. Its almost as if they shouldnt even fire mueller because what he is doing is such a joke anyways, its not going to make a difference. And i think that is sort of where theyre mutating into. But if they fire rosenstein, theyre going to have to go down. Theyre going have to find some u. S. Attorney who stlout in the country who is going to be brought in. And there is going to be theyre going to have to get very lucky that they get the right one the first time or there is just going to be this trail of people. See, thats the problem. Brought in. Will you fire mueller . No. And then to the next person. Slow motion. And i think you have people whispering in the president s ear, remember what happened when you fired comey. Remember what happened, remember what happened. Michael steele and sam seder, thank you both. All right. Still to come, a new provision in the tax bill that could mean cash back in the pocket of the president. Bob corker just went from a no vote to a yes. Ill talk to the reporter who broke the story, ahead. The truth is out there specifically. Its in tonights thing 1, thing 2 next. If yor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. Thing 1 tonight. The u. S. Military has been investigating ufos, unidentified flying objects, and weirdly, no one seems to be too worked up about it. The remarkable admission by the pentagon came as a result of report big the New York Times. A pretty august publication which published the story of the mysterious ufo program over the weekend. In response to questions from the times, pentagon officials this month acknowledged the existence of the program, ins t insisting that the effort had ended after five years in 2012. But the former head of the program, Luis Elizondo told the times the ufo Program Never shut down. So what did they find . Quote, the Program Collected video and audio reportings of ufo incidents including video from a superhornet showing an aircraft surrounded by a glowing aura traveling at high speeds and rotating as it moves. The navy pilots can be heard trying to understand what theyre seeing there is a whole fleet of them, one exclaims. So if you think its nuts that we held the news of an official ufo investigation all the way to thing 1, youre going to love that we have the official video of a ufo in thing 2 in 60 seconds. { sneezing ] shut down cold symptoms fast [ coughing ] with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. So no big deal, but the pentagon has confirmed the existence of the Aerospace Threat identification program, a 22 Million Initiative that study ufos for at least five years beginning in 2007. And they released video, including a 2004 encounter when two fighter jets chased an ovalshaped white object near san diego. They also released a second video with cockpit audio as pilots describe what theyre seeing. The pentagon declined to give a date or location. There is a whole fleet of them. Look on the asa. My gosh. Theyre going against the wind. The wind is 120 knots to the west. Look at that thing, dude. Thats not an sos, is it . Well look at this thing. Its rotating. He thinks it st his mom smells this. Luckily for all your hardtowash fabrics. Theres febreze fabric refresher. Febreze doesnt just mask, it eliminates odors youve. Gone noseblind to. And try Febreze Unstopables for fabric. With up to twice the fresh scent power, youll want to try it. 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Last week senator bob corker flipped to a yes vote on the republican tax bill, puzzling a lot of people. Because he was the only republican senator to vote no the first time around citing concerns about the deficit. The bill that ultimately came back out of conference did nothing to allay those concerns. Yet still, there he was, he switched to a yes. Over the weekend the International Business times dug up a provision in the bill that would seem to have a direct bearing on corkers own finances. Quote, republican congressional leaders and real estate moguls could be personally enriched by a real estaterelated provision gop lawmakers slipped into the final tax bill that inserted tax provision could help investors with large Real Estate Holdings much like corker himself. So the phrase Corker Kickback entered the lexicon. You may have seen it trending on twitter. But we should say republicans pushed back very hard on this. Senator orrin hatch, the head of the senates tax Running Committee wrote in a letter today the provision had already been in the house bill and that corker had not pushed for it. Corker himself said he didnt know about the provision because he didnt even read the bill. Obviously, i didnt finish reading the bill until this weekend. Its a 503page bill. And obviously was never aware of it. Certainly it had nothing to do with me deciding on wanting to vote for the bill. And when i dont even know the provision existed. Well, the process that led to corkers flip is still unclear. What isnt in dispute is the gop tax bill will benefit directly and handsomely many of the same people vote on it. The ivt times senior adviser, the one who first spotted the tax break in the final bill. David, my understanding is this was not in either the house or the senate, but it was some kind of version blending of two ideas that had been in both the bills. Thats right. The house bill included a broad sweeping tax cut for the socalled passthrough entities. And in the senate had restrictions on the kinds of tax cuts that could go to these entities, basically trying to target the tax cuts to llcs that actually hire people and create jobs. The Conference Committee goes in. Corker hasnt voted against the senate bill that included the restrictions, against the bill that would include restrictions to basically prevent enriching the kind of llcs he owns. They go into conference. They come out of conference. And what do you know, a provision that wasnt in either of the bills basically looks like there is restrictions on the kinds of tax cuts that go to these llcs. But there is one special provision inserted in there which tax experts say are designed specifically primarily for llcs that have depreciatable property. Thats like buildings and real estate. And llcs that dont have workers. So its a provision as tax experts say for basically people who put their Real Estate Holdings in llcs, namely, a good example bob corker, but not only bob corker. We have a new report up at ibt tonight, ibtimes. Com that shows all 14 republican senators on the republican side that have the kinds of llc shell holdings. One of the things youre reporting over the course of this has really illustrated for me is just in general, senators and members of congress have weird finances. They dont have finances that look like the rest of americas because, a, theyre almost all wealthy enough that they were able to run in the first place. And b, that wealth doesnt come from mostly their wage income. We know what they make every year from their sal rich. Its a good amount, but it doesnt make them super rich. So you have all these weird provisions knocking around this tax bill that do seem to directly benefit a lot of people in congress that they dont your average wage earner. Thats absolutely, absolutely true. Look at corker. This is a person who his federal Financial Filings show he made up to 7 million in outside passive income last year alone. So thats the kind of tax cut that we were talking about that would benefit him. John cornyn slipped a midnight amendment into the bill that benefits people who invest in Master Limited partnerships, a somewhat obscure kind of investment in the oil and gas pipeline sector. Guess what . A number of congressional lawmakers on the republican side own those, people like ted cruz. They would be enriched by the provision that cornyn slipped into the bill. So youre absolutely right. A lot of these different provisions would absolutely enrich the very members of congress who are voting on them. Thing is a part of this tax bill is going to come back to haunt a lot of members who voted for this when all is said and done in 2018. David sirota has been doing great reporting on this. Thanks for joining me. Thank you. After the break, whether he still think theres is a chance to stop the gop tax bill. Stick around. I just finished months of chemo. But i dont want to talk about months. I want to talk about years. Treatments have gotten better, so. Im hoping for good years ahead. Thats thanks to Research Funded by the american cancer society. The same folks giving me free rides to treatments, insurance advice, and a place to stay during chemo. I need that stuff like you dont know. And now that you do, please give at cancer. Org. A trip back to the dthe doctors office, mean just for a shot. But why go back there, when you can stay home with Neulasta Onpro . Strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. Neulasta helps reduce infection risk by boosting your white blood cell count, which strengthens your immune system. In a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 , a 94 decrease. Applied the day of chemo, Neulasta Onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day. Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta if youre allergic to neulasta or Neupogen Filgrastim . Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. So why go back there . If youd rather be home, ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. Rerch rerchlt. Republicans look close to passing the tax bill. Senator mike lee of utah tweeted today kwequote i will probably e for it and Susan Collins said she will probably vote yes, as well. I will cast my vote in support of the conference agreement on the tax cuts and jobs. While it is by no means perfect, unbalanced this reform bill will provide muchneeded tax relief. Senator Bernie Sanders of vermont calls the tax bill a gift to wealthy republican donors and joins me now. Senator, there is one thing thats clear, the messaging. Monomoth reported 26 , basically unheard of. Here is interesting poll data. Half of people, 50 of people think their taxes will rise and thats true in 2027 but next year the majority of filers might see a tax cut, maybe small but a tax cut. Do democrats run the risk of people getting to next year and saying oh, it wasnt as bad as they told us . No, i dont think so. There is a new report by the tax policy center, chris, that says by the end of ten years, 83 of the tax benefits go to the top 1 , 60 go to the top onetenth of 1 . Everybody would like to get a few hundred dollars in tax breaks and by the way, next year there will be millions of people that will see an increase in taxes but your point is here, there are a lot of people who will see a tax break but people arent stupid. They understand when the deficit goes up by 1. 4 trillion. When the lion share of the benefits go to the people that need it the least, no, they wont be sympathetic to this very disastrous and unfair tax plan. You know, it occurred to me i was going through a lot of provisions, we talked about some of the provisions that bob corker might be implicated in in terms of Real Estate Holdings, your callings in the senate arent typical filers. Most of people youre in the senate with have a lot of money, wealth and income from nonwaged sources, not just the paycheck they get in the senate. Do you think that ultimately affects the way a tax bill like this is written and passed . You want the short answer to that question . Yes. It is yes. Look, i just saw a list a few minutes ago of members of congress who have, who are in the real estate business and many of them have real estate l. L. Cs and they are going to benefit very substantially from this legislation. But of course, its not just that. So to answer your question, i think what we have seen in the last couple of months cuthis we is incredible greed on the part of multinational corporations that will get huge tax reductions and on the part of many wealthy people including members of the congress who have written legislation, which will benefit them personally. Is there any way to stop this train at this point . Very difficult. I mean, they got 52 votes. We have 48 votes. I dont think there is anybody in the Democratic Caucus who will be voting for this piece of legislation but i think at the end of the day, the republicans will pay a very, very heavy price for having passed this. Not only is this enormously unpopular, but with a 1. 4 trillion deficit, there is no question in my mind because this is what was in the budget they already passed. No question in my mind. They will come back and ask for cuts to social security, medicare, medicaid education and other programs of vital importance to the middle class. I want to ask you about one aspect that has not got as much attention as it should, which is the individual mandate appeal. The constitutionality went to the supreme court. It wasnt obamacare or medicaid. That was the lead top story in the country, and when it was found to be constitutional, you have among other things, the individual mandate being repealed in front of everyone. What does that mean . Are the stakes of that part of this tax bill . Well, what it means, chris, getting to the question you first asked me how people will respond to this bill, one of the ways they will be responding is if is they will be finding in many cases that their premiums are going to significantly increase. Now i happen to believe, as you know, the United States should join the rest of the industrialized world and do medicare. The individual mandate, though, said that if you are young and healthy, you have to be part of the overall pool. If 13 Million People drop out of that pool, there is no question that the pool will be older and sicker, premiums will go up. People will not be happy about that. One of the promises, also, of this in the beginning was this would simplify the tax code. There is lots of props with the postcardsized, you know, tax filing and they did double standard deductions to make things easier for folks but have they made good on that promise . Not that i understand. As i understand it, this bill is going to add a lot of complicated provisions. I think the tax preparers of america are probably feeling pretty good or they are going to be making a lot of money, so, no, i do not think this bill ends the complexity of the current system. Do you have a real estate llc, senator . Have you looked over or emailed how this will hit . No, i do not have a real estate llc. Well, youre one of the unlucky ones and senator Bernie Sanders, thanks for your time. Thank you. Before we go, there is now an all in with chris hayes pod cast if you have traveling to do. Coming up, you can listen to the entire show for free wherever you get your pod cast. That is all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show now. Much appreciated. Thank you for joining us this hour. The day started today with an unimaginable, terrible Train Derailment in washington state. Were continuing to follow the on going response now. The derailment happened at 7 3 many 3 a. M. Local time. 10 33 a. M. Our time this morning. Came off the track and nose dived on to interstate five. 80 passengers and five crew members were on board. All but one of the 14 cars on the train, all but one, 13 of the 14 cars jumped the track. Now, this is a train that was bound from seattle south to portland, oregon. The derailment happened south of tacoma, washington. As of tonight, officials are confirming three passengers on the train were killed and at least another three passengers suffered critical