Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20180601

For what shes done, they should lockler up. Then how the president s series of pardons lays the groundwork for pardoning his own campaign. Ive got this thing and its gold. And the president s attorney caught on tape. So im warning you, tread very [ bleep ] lightly. Ill talk to the reporter Michael Cohen threatened to destroy when all in starts right now. What im going to do to you is going to be [ bleep ] disgusting. Do you understand me . Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. A major scoop today that adds to the overwhelming evidence of potential obstruction of justice by the president of the United States. Tonight it, axios is breaking news the president s private campaign to pressure attorney general Jeff Sessions was much larger and more intense than we first knew. Axios reports on at least four separate occasions the president personally appealed to sessions to reclaim control of the russia investigation. At one point reportedly telling sessions he would be a hero if he unrecused and if he investigated hillary clinton. Sessions who was a part of the Trump Campaign recused himself from the investigation of the Trump Campaign last march after revelations had he met with the Russian Ambassador during the campaign, something sessions did not disclose somewhat infamously during his confirmation hearing. That meant the number two at the Justice Department Rod Rosenstein took over the russia investigation and eventually oversight of special counsel robert muler. The decision by sessions to recuse himself reported by enraged trump. Sessions should have never recused himself. And if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and i would have picked somebody else. If he would have recused himself before the job, i would have said thanks, jeff, but im not going to take you. Its extremely unfair and thats a mild word to the president. The times reported this week that trump pressured sessions to unrecuse himself last march at maralago after giving him the silent treatment for two days. Trump reportedly berating sessions and telling him he should reverse his decision over dinner. Now axios reports that trump made that request at least four separate times and told sessions that he would be a hero to conservatives if he did the right thing and took back control over the investigation. Trump also reportedly told sessions he would be a hero if he investigated hillary clinton. A direct appeal to prosecute fundamentally a political enemy thats both a threat to the independence of the Justice Department and an echo of the type of behavior we see all the time from corrupt and authoritarian regimes the world over. Joining me to respond to trumps pressuring session, the top democrat on House Intelligence Committee congressman adam schiff. Democrat from california. The president pressuring the attorney general to retake crow of the russia investigation behind the scenes. Is that appropriate . No, of course not. Theres so much to be distressed about what we learned today. Here you have the president who is effectively telling the attorney general you should ignore what the ethics lawyers at the Justice Department are saying. I want you to reinstate yourself in an investigation that implicates either me or my campaign because youre my attorney general. Its my Justice Department and whats more, you can be a hero to conservatives if youll investigate my vanquished rival. When we meet with parliamentarians from emerging democracies we always urge them when you win an election, you dote seek to jail the losing side. Here our own president of the United States is trying to do exactly that. How big a deal is it fundamentally . Well, its a big deal in this respect. Its further evidence of a corrupt intent on the president s part. Further evidence that he may have violated the law by obstructing justice in the firing of comey. But in other efforts, as well. One of the other disturbing signs we saw just today is the president s announcement that hes going to pardon someone who had violated Campaign Finance laws by surreptitiously exceeding limits. It looks a lot like a message to Michael Cohen who may also be implicated in exceeding campaign limits with that Stormy Daniels payment. And then you have the further announcement by the president that he may pardon Martha Stewart. Another tv permanent who was convicted of guess what, obstruction of justice and lying to authorities. So hes nothing if not transparent. The problem is the fact that this is out in the open that these actions to obstruct justice dont make it any less problematic for the country or for the rule of law. The president tweeted this today. That not that it matters but i never fired james comey because of russia. The corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative but they know its not true. Of course, the president said he was thinking of russia whether he decided to fire james comey in that infamous lester holt interview. Why do you think hes saying that now. He realized hes in some legal jeopardy that much of what mueller is looking at involves the issue of obstruction. That goes to his intent. He laid out his intent for millions of viewers on nbc. N that same Mainstream Media he is now bashing, he told the American People that he had russia on his mind when he did it. Of course, the pretext he would now like to us believe that he fired comey over comeys handling of the clinton email investigation doesnt square at all with the fact he had been praising comey for exactly that previously. So it really makes no sense from a logical perspective. Hes contradicting himself. But from a legal perspective, he knows hes in jeopardy and i guess i thinks if he can muddy the waters further it will be that much more difficult for mueller to establish intent. One of the colleagues said on the complete you work on, trey gowdy, he had this to say about the president s claims about conspiracy, a spy implanted in his campaign. Take a listen to what he said. So when the president says spygate, thats there was no spy inserted into the campaign. Have you seen any evidence of that . I have not. Thats an espionage term, not a Law Enforcement term. You believe the fbi acted properly in this matter . Based on what i have seen, i dont know what the fbi could have done or should have done other than run out a lead that someone loosely connected with the campaign was making assertions about russia. Rudy giuliani also saying that trey gowdy has drunk the cool aide, hes drinking the koolaid when he decided to say that. Have you been feeding trey gowdy the koolaid . What do you think of his fairly definitive pronouncement on this . I dont think hes drinking the koolaid but also not running for reelection. We have seen among a great many members of the house and senate not running for the election they feel more free to be truthful and straightforward about the false statements of the president , short comings of the administration, potential corruption problems in the administration, even so, there are very few republican members at all even those leaving office that are willing to speak out and im glad he is here. Do you have in your mind a kind of threshold break glass moment . The president is clearly increaing pressure on the Justice Department. I dont think theres any question about that. Were getting more and more reporting about that pressure. What he toggles over into crisis in your mind . Whats the break glass moment. I think if he affirmatively fires people at the Justice Department. That to me i think is goes well across the line and prompts a national crisis. And its a constitutional crisis because the constitution gives us no clear direction about what should happen under those circumstances. But look what, were seeing i think in small steps sometimes in the so small steps is the slow undoing of our system of checks and balances. That is not quite as visible as a saturday night massacre but its this abuse of the pardon power, its this brow beating of the Justice Department, Rudy Giuliani is now saying if we dont get access to materials that should not be provided to the defense but if we dont get access, were not going to make the president available and essentially trying to brow beat the Justice Department into giving Congress Materials that can be then surreptitiously shared with the president s defense team. All of that ought to concern us in the aggregate as much as any particular firing. Congressman adam schiff, thanks for being with me. Thanks. For more on the russia investigation, the president s campaign to up end it, Barbara Boxer of california and former state Department Official Jake Sullivan who is deputy chief of staff to of hillary clinton. Jake, your reaction to hearing in private the president has been doing what he has done publicly, urging his own attorney generalton investigate hillary clinton. You alluded to there at the top of the program. This is a tin pot dictator mentality. The president basically believes the Justice Department is his peschell playground for him to direct the Law Enforcement apparatus of the United States to go after his political enemies and that is a deeply dangerous proposition. But its consistent with his broader world view. He thinks that if the president criticizes him he should yank their licenses. He thinks the u. S. Foreign policy is there to advance the business interests of himself and his family. So all of this adds up to a particularly deeply held view of donald trump about the presidency of the United States being above the law and about him not being helped in by institutions of democracy. And it really falls to the rest of us to push back hard against that because if he gets his way ultimately, theres going to be a lot of harm done to our country. Senator, you served in the United States senate through a variety of president ial administrations. Have you ever seen anything like whats the president has done public by but whats been described of him essentially twisting the ample his attorney general . No, ive never seen it. I started my career whether he Ronald Reagan was president. I left after barack obama finished his second term. Not one of them ever tried to use the attorney general as a fixer. All you need to do is just go back and look at what the job of the attorney general is. It was stated in 1789. And its been the same ever since. The attorney general, thats the peoples lawyer. Not the president s lawyer. And this is using, this is what he wants to have is a fixer ala Michael Cohen. He acts yes, you could say a dictator, yes in a third world country or you could say a mob boss. Ive never seen anything like it, and it continues to play out day by day. Theres this tweet to the senators point, jake, about the role of the attorney general, joe digenova, briefly considered to be as the president s lawyer. Hes on cable news a lot. He said the recusal of sessions was and you forced betrayal of the president of the United States and the president tweeting back clearly as an endorsement. Recusal in the guidelines of the doj ethics office. What do you make of that. You have to follow the logic train. Senator laid it out very well. The logic train is Jeff Sessions let the president down because he didnt maintain control of the russia investigation and cut it off. And close out the russia investigation. So basically, what the president and dijen nova and all of his allies are saying is, Jeff Sessions made an error here because i didnt take an ongoing criminal investigation that has already produced more than a dozen indictments and several convictions and shut it down. And thats pretty scary stuff. Senator, the president today is saying i never fired. James comey about russia. Its worth replaying what he said to lester holt in the last interview he gave to last Television Interview he gave to a sort of not explicitly friendly outliers let. Take a lis. And regardless of recommendation, givesing to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said you know this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. What do you think why do you think hes backtracking . Hes scared to death because he knows he said in plain sight that he fired comey because of russia. He even told the russians, remember they were in the oval which was so shocking at the time. The next day. He said i had to take the pressure off myself. I mean, he is caught just right there, but i do want to say that i served with sessions for a long time. We never agreed on a thing. But sessions knows what it is to obstruct justice. And hes not going to be a part of it. We know he met with the russians during the campaign. That came out. It was a little hard to get the truth out but it came out. Hes smart enough to know that he needs to walk away. And good for him. And now trump is trying to insult him every which way. To get him to quit. I hope he hangs in there. Jake, theres this question about the institutions, the independence of the department of justice. News broke tonight that after the Inspector General at the department of justice recommended review of the actions of andrew mccabe, the number two at the fbi who has been a huge has a target painted on by the president both in the campaign and subsequently, that he was not candid with fbi investigators. That was referred to prosecutes to look into and prosecutors have now interviewed people looking into whether he should be actually criminally charged. I guess my question for you is, given everything thats gone on, do you feel like we can trust the integrity of anything thats coming out of the Justice Department as pertains to these kinds of investigations . Well, this is exactly the kind of trap that trump is trying to catch the entire country in. Because hes trying to so discredit the basic institutions of our democracy, whether it be the fbi or the department of justice or the press for that matter. And he wants us to question whether any of this is real. So that if it ever lands at his door, he can say this is all just political. So i believe that at the end of the day, that we currently have a department of justice. At the moment. Well see how long this lasts that is capable of making credible, serious decisions about prosecution. And thats exactly what will happen in the mccabe case and its exactly what will happen with bob muellers continued investigation of the russia matter. I just really hope that we dont fall for Donald Trumps trap that we dont start saying you know what . Hes right actually. Doj and all of this is just a bunch of political hogwash because if that happens, then were in real trouble. Barbara boxer and Jake Sullivan, illuminating. Thank you for being with me. Next the president now floating a pardon for a man found guilty of some of the crimes that could be facing some of his closest inner circle. The unmistakable signals donald trump is sending with his pardons in two minutes. The president of the United States has once again used the power of the pardon to send a message about who is accountable to the rule of law and who is above accountability. Signalling to his confederates currently in legal jeopardy and there are quite a few whether intentionally or not, theyre all going to be taken care of. You see, out of nowhere this morning, the president just tweeted that he had issued a pardon to Dinesh Dsouza, a right wing demagogue whose twitter feed makes roseannes look tame whose politics are so toxic he was banned from this years cpac after he ridiculed the children who just survived is the shooting in parkland, florida. Hes also a convicted felon who pleaded guilty in 2014 to purposefully making Illegal Campaign donations, the same type of crime for which the president s long time henchman Michael Cohen is reportedly under investigation. Hmm. He has claimed to be the victim of persecution by politically motivated government instigators, the deep state, if you will, the judge in his case laughed that off telling dsouza in court the claim of selective prosecution legally speaking is all hat no, cattle. But the president shockingly found the argument persuasive telling reporters ive always felt he was very unfairly treated. A lot of people did. What should have been a quick minor fine and what they did to him was horrible. Its the same argument he made about two of his previously high profile pardons both granted to political allies. There was scooter libby, the former dick cheney aide found guilty of lying to investigators and obstructing justice. The president said i dont know mr. Libby. For years ive heard he has been treated unfairly. There was, of course, joe arpaio, the antiimmigrant former sheriff from arizona convicted of willfully defying a federal court order in order to continually racially profiling latinos in his jurisdiction. Sheriff joe is a patriot. Sheriff joe loves our country. Sheriff joe protected our boarders. And sheriff joe was very unfairly treated by the Obama Administration. Especially right before an election. And an election that he would have won. President says hes not done jet after pardoning dsouza this morning. Hes considering do the same for Martha Stewart found guilty of obstructing justice, again, familiar and lying to investigators, hmm, rings a bell about a stock sale and former illinois governor rob blagojovich who is currently in prison after being convicted on 18 counts of corruption including trying to profit off obamas Vacant Senate seat in 2008 an effort famously picked up on a wiretap. Ive got this thing and its a [ bleep ] golden. And im just not giving it up for [ bleep ] nothing. Im not going to do it and i could always use it and [ bleep ] parachute me there. Ive got this thing and its iffing golden. You can imagine Michael Cohen saying the exact same thing after the election as he said about trying to monetize his relationship to the new president. And according to president , theres nothing wrong with that saying of blagojovich, there was a lot of bravado but plenty of other politicians said worse. He shouldnt have been put in jail. For more on the message, im joined by paul butler who worked in the Justice Departments Public Corruption Department and dan gold man which prosecuted Dinesh Dsouza. It was your office. As someone who worked in that office watching this pardon today, your reaction . Well, its its hard to react to this. The guy pled guilty and admitted in court that he violated Campaign Finance laws. So this was not a situation where he was tried and he maintained his innocence and there was anything unfair in the verdict or in any way he was charged with a crime. And he admitted to that crime. He also didnt do sometimes people get parreds when theres an incredible disproportionality between the thing theyre convicted of and the sentence. You hear the case of the woman Kim Kardashian was advocating for, nonviolent. He spent eight months of home confinement, five years of probation. It was on the scale of public corruption prosecutions in the southern district. It was relatively minor which makes it all the more remarkable in some way that donald trump has never met the guy, he apparently called him last night and spoke to him for the first time. He didnt go through the normal procedures. And so this is just aside from the message that well talk about in a minute im sure, this is also just another effort of donald trump to undermine the general practices, policies, and regulations of the department of justice it is trying to cut the legs out of the department of justice. As a former corruption prosecutor, you see what hes doing here. You see what happened with blagojovich. What is your take away . The president ial from pardon power is one of the few parts of the constitution that comes from the english divine right of kings. Its perfect for donald trump because its consistent with the way that he views his president ial authority. There is a procedure in the Justice Department five years after you served your time, you express remorse, you make it clear that youre note going to commit another crime, you accept responsibility. And then very, very rarely they give you a pardon. The first two years of the trump, the bush administration, Obama Administration, clinton administration, nobody got pardoned. And so this is expressive. This is a message to people like Michael Cohen, roger stone, paul manafort, hey, hold on, guys. Hang tight. Santa might just have something in his gift bag for you. I mean, two ta point, let me just say that Michael Flynn junior whose father has already like Dinesh Dsouza admitted of lying to prosecutor, Michael Flynn junior saying the political hit job on dsouza was a disgrace. Thats what the Obama Administration was good at. Man, this sounds familiar. That sounds a lot like message received from the son of one of the people cooperating with federal investigators. Theres a view of this where donald trump is somewhat crazy like a fox which is he is sending these obvious messages someone who committed Campaign Finance fraud, false statements, you know. Obstruction of justice. Obstruction of justice, public corruption. These are all things being investigated right now in connection to him and his associates. But he also likely recognizes that if he were to actually go down that road, there may be some Serious Problems because i think that its never been tested because the president has never been under investigation other than nixon quite like this and nixon didnt pardon anyone as part of an investigation. But just like you cannot fire james comey for a corrupt purpose, you cannot use a president ial pardon for a corrupt purpose. Its never been tested. You say that now sitting here in my studio. I would like to think thats the case. Well, its never been tested. It will be interesting to see it. I dont think donald trump wants it to be tested. Theres one view of this which is he is end is standing these messages to hold on to hang tight, Michael Flynn hasnt. Thats a bit of an issue. Maybe its just an unfulfilled promise so he doesnt have to carry out the deed but he is hes leading them to pasture. Heres on the other side. This is a former white house official who says its not threedimensional chess telling buzzfeed trump is playing the threedimensional chess. More often than not, hes just eating the pieces. Hes also paying back. This is not only a signal, its about payback. If you look at the people who are floated now, Martha Stewart, she was prosecuted by james comey. Dinesh dsouza was prosecuted by preet bharara, and blagojovich was prosecuted by patrick fitzgerald. Guess who he is representing right now . James comey. Let me also say this as a possible i think this is an absolute honest expression of the president s view of law and law and order which is that the law is forly people. Its for other people and not for him and not for people like me. Martha stewart is a person like me. These are powerful famous people. These are not the thugs of ms3, not the thugs of the central park jogger case. Those are the people that deserve to be in prison. Those are the people the law should be used against and the people that go to my parties and buy my condos and occupy my offices the law Means Nothing to them. He is using that philosophy to govern the country right now in front of all of us and using the pardon power. Its going to get worse before it gets better. Paul and dan. Dont forget the apprentice. Blagojovich was on there. Thats right. Coming up, recordings of the president s lawyer threatening a journalist during the campaign. My interview with the reporter who took the abuse. Im warning you, tread [ bleep ] lightly. What im going to do to you is going to be disgust package. A blank is growing tonight against the Trump Administrations inhumane policy of tearing immigrant families apart at the border taking away 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. Ithe race for governort. Has turned into a scam. Gavin newsoms trying to elect a republican who was endorsed by trump. And villaraigosas being bankrolled by a handful of billionaires. Its everything thats wrong with politics. And none of it is helping struggling families. Heres my pledge to you. Ill keep our budget balanced. Invest in affordable housing. Fight for universal healthcare. And stand up to donald trump. As governor, you can trust me to do whats right because i always have. A blank is growing tonight against the Trump Administrations inhumane policy of tearing immigrant families apart at the border taking away children as young as 1 year old from their parents separation sometimes lasting months with little or no contact. Today senator Dianne Feinstein of california announced she will introduce legislationings to stop this practice. Across the country, people are organizing rallies protests tonight and tomorrow. One of the people organizing protests director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the director of the National Immigration rights project of the aclu. Tell me about what youre organizing for tomorrow . So i think the Trump Administrations policy of separating parents and children senior creating a real moral crisis and choicepoint for thus in country. Fact that in the span of 13 days 658 children were separated from their parents is absolutely outrageous. And i think every parent can identify with this experience of having been in a Grocery Store and suddenly your child ducks behind an aisle and you cant find them and that feeling of panic. Imagine what these parents are experiencing as theyre leaving their home countries escaping violence to try to bring their children to safety. The trauma of having to venture into the unknown to find safety, then to arrive at our border and have your child torn from your arms, babies, toddlers and not knowing when or if you will see your child ever again. And that is what is happen an average of 66 children being taken from their parents every day. I think parents started to awaken to that this weekend and almost broke the internet with outliers rage. What youre going to see tomorrow at our national day of action for children is that thousands of people, parents, mothers, fathers, people of conscience will take to the streets in cities all over the country. There are over 130 events being planned for the day of action tomorrow. And i think what youre going to see is people of conscience all over this Country Demand agend to this practice of separating children from their families and asserting that families belong together. Lee, you were on the program i believe on friday night. There has been this huge crescendo of angeles attention. Youve got members of congress of both parties saying this outrageous. You were out in el paso. How have things progressed . Things are bad. Thats a Resilient Community at the border. Things are bad. I was meeting with one of our plaintiffs. She spent 8 1 2 months and still hasnt gotten her kid back. Every day, thats on her mind. Shes from brazil and she crossed the border fleeing domestic violence. She was she was taken and tell me what happened with her. So she was prosecute fords illegal entry. A misdemeanor even though shes asylum seeker. That shouldnt happen. Lets assume theyre going to prosecute. They put her in jail for a few days, she comes out expecting to get her kid. No. Month goes by. Two months. Its now 8 1 2 months. She hasnt gotten her kid back. Where is her kid. Her kid is in chicago. Shes in texas. So they took her kid away, sent a 14yearold son by himself away from the mother to chicago. Right. And so secretary. And they havent returned him. Exactly. Its closing in on nine months. Secretary nielsen keeps saying well when theyre in jail, theres no place for the jail. Okay burks shes been out of jail eight months now. Where is the kid . Is there aigen, is there leverage on politicians on this issue . Absolutely. We have a real chance at creating a moral crisis for their administration. The amount of outliers rage out there and the latent power behind it, i think well see some of it tomorrow. This is just the beginning. There are marches planned for june 14th in 57 cities as well as the next step. People are calling their members of congress. Republicans and democrats alike are hearing from their constituents that this is absolutely outrageous. I think this is going to be an issue in the 2018 elections. And i think a lot of people who are in if their seats are vulnerable need to think twice whether they want to be associated with a policy of separating babies from their parents. You know, it was striking to me that the reaction to the issue getting more attention was the president trying to blame it on democrats, mark meadows. People didnt want to own the policy. No one wants to own the policy. Exactly. I think the administration wasnt prepared for this kind of backlash. When we filed the suit and let everyone know about the congolese mom coming with her 6yearold daughter fleeing, presenting herself at a border still being separated people went berserk. The administration wasnt prepared. When they stepped in court, they backed off and said its not for deterrence but they had been talking tough about that. We know theyre trying to deter by taking babies away. Now all of a sudden, i dont think they were prepared. You know, its not just the left right thing. This goes beyond the normal divide on immigration as youve pointed out. Yeah, and aijen, ive got be a lot of feedback from viewers of the show, people reaching out to me who are just ive gotten emails from parents just in distress over conceiving of this and premium interested in going out and sort of exercising their civic duty, where can they go . The families belong together. Org website has a list of all of the events happening tomorrow that you can attend. Families belong together. Org. Aijen and lee, thank you both for your work on there. You have got a case before a federal judge. Right. And youre asking the government to stop that and that may hatch. Any day potentially. Hopefully the judge will rule in our favor. The decision will come downy day we expect. You and i also had a conversation why is this happening out on tuesday for a further indepth look at this bish. The trajectory of Immigration Enforcement in the Trump Administration. Up next, a ringing endorsement in tonights thing 1 and thing 2. And hear the tape of trumps attorney threatening a reporter in the campaign. Ill talk to the report esh on the other end of this phone call ahead. I will make sure that i will take you for everything you still dont have and i will come after your daily beast and everybody else that you possibly know. Ahh. Summer is coming. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. Thing 1 tonight, new yorks 11th Congressional District is in the midst of a tough primary fight on the republican side. Michael grimm you may remember is the congressman who threatened to break a reporter in half and throw him off a balcony like a little boy is trying to win back his old seat from dan donovan. Donovan succeeded grimm after he was convicted of felony tax fraud and resigned. Now grimm served out his sentence and wants back in the game. Both men have positioned themselves as trump allies in a district that went for trump by ten points. Yesterday the president back aid candidate. There is no one better to represent the people of ny and Staten Island than dan donovan who loves our captain and military and vote ford tax cuts and helping to make America Great again. Dan has my full endorsement. Theres just one little problem with that part about donovans vote for tax cuts. Thats thing 2 in 60 seconds. President trump gave new york congressman dan donovan a ringing endorsement yesterday President Trump gave new york congressman dan donovan a ringing endorsement yesterday pointing to his vote for tax cuts as one of the reasons new yorkers should choose donovan in that primary. It turns out the koong gres man voted against the president s signature tax cut bill. Not once, not twice, but three times. Its the sort of thing you probably remember if you were paying attention like we were here because he didnt just vote against trumps tax bill. He went on tv all the time all day longing to rail against trumps tax bill perhaps the president missed his shows that week. This is a tax cut for the rest of america on the backs of four states, new york, california, new jersey and maryland. This is unfair to new york persons the one thing we have to do is make sure all americans receive a tax cut. I represent 725,000, 740 through new yorkers who deserve the same break that the rest of america is going to get. And not pay for the tax cut that the rest of the nation is going to see. The people that i represent and the people of our city will be paying more money in their taxes at the end of the day. Trumps personal attorney and his fixer. And now we have a firsthand look , and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . The three ps of Life Insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. A price you can afford, a price that cant increase, and a price that fits your budget. Im 54. Alex, whats my price . You can get coverage for 9. 95 a month. Im 65 and take medications. Whats my price . Also 9. 95 a month. I just turned 80. Whats my price . 9. 95 a month for you too. If youre age 50 to 85, call now about the 1 most popular whole Life Insurance plan, available through the Colonial Penn program. It has an affordable rate starting at 9. 95 a month. No medical exam, no health questions. Your acceptance is guaranteed. And this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. So call now for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner. And its yours just for calling. So call now. Dray, when he was younger, he loved to smile; and we knew he would need braces because his teeth were coming in funny. This is the picture that was on the front page of the newspaper. All you can notice is the braces then, once he got to michigan state, he broke the retainer my bottom teeth, they were really crooked, and i just wasnt getting braces again. Then i discovered smiledirectclub. Its easy to just grab it and go and i can change it on the road. I did photoshoots with my aligners in and you cant see them. A smile is a first impression, thats why i think having a great smile is so important. Trumps personal attorney and his fixer. And now we have a firsthand look at one of his tactics. Soon after trump began running for president a reporter for the daily beast called for comment about an allegation about trumps first wife. During Divorce Proceedings she had claimed that trump had raped her. She had later clarified she didnt mean it in the criminal sense and trump had said the claim was fools. The rorter didnt get a call back from the campaign. Instead from trumps fixer Michael Cohen. Youre talking about donald trump, youre talking about the frontrunner for the gop, president ial candidate, as well as private individual who never raped anybody and, of course, understand that by the very definition you cant rape your spouse. Now. Thats not true. Sorry. Mark my words, for it, i will make sure that you and i meet one day over in the courthouse and i will take you for every penny you still dont have and i will come after your daily beast and everybody else that you possibly know. Do not think about going to where i know youre planning ongoing. Thats my warning for the day. You write whatever you for the day. You write whatever you want but rest assured like i told univision and like i told everybody else and you can certainly look it up online, i swear on god as my children, i will find you and serve you personally and i will be nothing but happy when i turn around and i get judgment for defamation against you and [ bleep ] everyone you work for. So im warning you tread very [ bleep ] lightly because what im going to do to you is going to be [ bleep ] disgusting. Do you understand me . Dont think youre going to hide behind your pen because its not going to happen. Im more than happy to discuss it with your attorney and with your Legal Counsel because [ bleep ] youre going to need it. You write a story that has mr. Trumps name in it with the word rape and im going to mess your life up for as long as youre on this frigging planet. Im going to turn around. Youre going to have judgments against you for so much money youll never know how to get out from underneath it. I think you should do the story. And i think you should go ahead and you should write the story that you plan on writing. I think you should do it because i think youre an idiot. All right. And i think your paper is a joke. And its going to be my absolute pleasure to serve you with a 500 million lawsuit like i told i did to univision. Good news and a little bit of a spoiler alert. The reporter on the other end of that phone call is alive and well and joins me next. It was the last song of the night. It felt like my heart was skipping beats. I went to the er. They said i had afib. Afib . Whats afib . I knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. I needed answers. Once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®. Xarelto®. To help keep me protected from a stroke. Oncedaily xarelto®, a latestgeneration blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. In a clinical study, over 96 of people taking xarelto® remained strokefree. Xarelto® works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your bodys natural bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. For afib patients well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® compares in reducing the risk of stroke. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of stroke. While taking, you may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. Learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. Do not even think about going to where i know youre planning on going. And thats my warning for the day. Michael, besides the warning, do you have a substantive comment that i can include in my piece that reflects your views on this . I have no views because theres no story. Okay. I mean i mean, you have expressed your views over the last 10 minutes or so. You write whatever you want. I dont think this is a particularly productive way to discuss this matter. Okay . Im just saying, i would like if theres some way in which you would like to discuss this involving if you think that im misinterpreting whats happening. If you think that im misinterpreting some of the facts here. You know you are. Listen, my friend, dont be a smartass with me. Do you understand . Im not being a smartass. Im giving you an opportunity i know you i dont need your opportunity, you little [ bleep ]. I know exactly who you are and i know exactly what you do and i know exactly the story you plan on writing. That was trumps attorney Michael Cohen repeatedly threatening reporter tim mak back in 2015 trying to persuade him i guess if thats the word you use not to run his story in the daily beast. Titled exwife donald trump made me feel violated during sex. Reporter tim mak currently with npr, formerly of the daily beast, joins me now. Well, you kept your cool admirably. Let me just say that. That story that you wrote about that encounter is the first i ever heard of Michael Cohen actually back in 2015. And partly because he said theres no such thing as spousal rape, which is of course untrue. What was going through your head during that phone call . Well, i was just surprised that a lawyer would conduct himself in this manner. If you go to npr. Org and you listen to the entire exchange, weve got seven minutes online. You can kind of get a sense that im trying to as a daily beast reporter, trying to get a substantive comment out of him. Putting aside whether or not he wants to bring a lawsuit forward, what i was trying to do was reach out to the Trump Campaign and the Trump Organization for comment for a story i was working on. Ive got to say, he keeps saying hes going to sue, luke putatively in the words hes saying the threat is legal. But the tone is not the tone of someone threatening legal action. Like what im going to do to you is going to be fing disgusting. Like the fing disgusting doesnt really read as file a lawsuit. Well, i think what it illustrates is kind of the way that Michael Cohen has conducted himself not just in this instance but also in many other instances revolving around perceived problems for mr. Trump during the campaign and after the end of the campaign. What we now see is an allegation by Stormy Danielss lawyer Michael Avenatti telling npr that hey, Michael Cohen, when he approached Stormy Daniels to sign this nda they now acknowledge he actually threatened Stormy Daniels to try to get it done in october of 2016. Hes saying that cohen threatened Stormy Daniels as part of persuading her to sign the nda . Yeah. Thats what Michael Cohen or sorry, thats what Michael Avenatti told npr as part of our reporting on the broader pattern of threats that were issued by Michael Cohen over the last few years. What does that pattern look like . That pattern looks like what you heard just on that awed two yeo tape a few minutes ago. It looks like threatening everyone from megyn kelly, who if youll recall after the campaign after a very tough Republican Debate Michael Cohen retweeted a tweet that said we can gut her, referring to megyn kelly. He would go after people like that. But also smaller targets. People like tom wattic. A person we spoke to. He was a student at harvard who pulled a prank on mr. Trump during the campaign, and he got a phone call from mr. Cohen saying essentially that hey, im going to try to get you expelled. Im going to sue you as well. So there was no target too big or too small for mr. Cohen. And what we really get a sense of, right . Is it was Michael Cohens job more as a lawyer for donald trump or more as a fixer. Someone who was willing to do almost anything in terms of legal threats to solve problems for mr. Trump. Theres also a little bit of new news. My understanding of the timing of when he sort of threatened Stormy Daniels or when he reached out to her or when that nda got signed. In the story what we report is that Michael Avenatti is making this allegation that Michael Cohen used threats, not physical threats but coerced in some way Stormy Daniels to sign this nda. But we werent able to get more details out of Michael Avenatti, who declined to kind of comment any further. One wonders if theres any tapes or phone calls hes had with other people. Obviously as a journalist you record it. But any other tapes out there would be kind of interesting. Michael avenatti has suggested there are tapes and has called for any tapes that might exist to be released. . Tim mak, thanks for joining us. I mentioned i recorded a truly illuminating conversation with my earlier guest for the next episode of our podcast why is this happening . Lee is the one to talk to about what is happening with immigration in our country. You do not want to miss that. That episode comes out on tuesday. Make sure youre subscribed now. Check out the other episodes that are up right now while youre there. That is all in for this evening. Tonight a wild days worth of news even by Trump Administration standards, including a president ial pardon for a man who pleaded guilty to a federal crime and word that a federal crime and word that two members of the apprentice kwiegs family may be pardoned next. Theres also the looming questions are these pardons meant as a message to people like cohen and manafort. Also the president reportedly pressured Jeff Sessions to take control of the russia investigation not once, not twice, but at least four times. The reporter who broke that story standing by. All that plus some actual perspective tonight from doris kerns good win, on a thursday night as the 11th hour gets under way