Transcripts For MSNBCW Deadline White House 20180330

Contrast to the public statements from other american elected officials, congratulated Vladimir Putin on his election victory. Nbc news reports that President Trump also said to putin, quote, if you want to have an arms race, we can do that. Now, while americans have debated whether to take trump literally or not, putin wasted no such time with that kind of foolishness, testing a new Ballistic Missile earlier today to help unpack the increase little bizarre relationship between donald trump and russia we brought in some of our best experts and reporters. Nbc News National Security Military reporter courtney cube, one of the by lines of the report we started with. Jill colvin, White House Reporter for the a. P. Chuck rosenberg, former u. S. Attorney, former senior fbi official, now lucky for us an msnbc contributor. And Steve Schmidt is back with us today. Courtney, let me start with you on your reporting, and i think this is a Development Since your story broke. Im sure prompted by the incredible detail in this account. But i understand that the much now expulsion of Russian Diplomats didnt have anything to do with the number of Russian Diplomats in this country at all. The head count could very much remain the same. It seems like another data point in the picture you paste you paint of a very conflicted donald trump when it comes to russia policy and russia p. R. Thats right. So, he was presented last week with President Trump was presented with three different options and he ended up going with the middle one, the one that was in the middle of a lighter option against Vladimir Putin and the one that was the harsh est and that included expelling the diplomats from the United States. What we found here was President Trump has to be really pushed along when it comes to doing things when it comes to any kind of response to Vladimir Putin and russias continued provocations. One of the specific cases that we looked into was arms sales to ukraine. The proposal to send javelin antitank missiles to ukraine in their fight against russia sat on the president s desk from august until december. Now outgoing secretary of state Rex Tillerson along with other Administration Officials had to really continue to press President Trump to approve this deal and to send the weapons to ukraine. Courtney, do you get any sense from being in the building that you cover that, you know, these military relationships, some of the intelligence relationships have been described to me as almost existing in a parallel reality with Donald Trumps public pronouncements and twitter feed. Do you get any sense that this clash, that the fact that this sat on his desk for a good and important ally that has relied on the United States of america in previous administrations, that this is starting to strain the relationship between some of our important allies, at least from the pentagons perspective . No, i mean you were spot on that they have a very different relationship, that it exists in a whole parallel universe. We often hear about general dunford, having discussions with his counterpart. There is this continuing no matter all the diplomatic problems that happen, there is this continuing deconfliction line. What that is, its a way for the Russian Military and the u. S. Military to talk on the phone directly to make sure that theres no altercations or any kind of problems in the air overseer i cant where theyre operating in really increasingly close space all the time. While there are sort of the incidents here and there, they continue no matter what happens on the diplomatic side, no matter what happens on the provocations from Vladimir Putin or conversations the u. S. Military and the Russian Military continue to operate in a pretty professional way, nicolle. Jill colvin, you cover that building. Im guessing there is nothing on background here from white house officials that surprised you. But its pretty stunning to read in sort of the public sphere, courtney and our colleague kristen and carols reporting, that aides said we cant go there, we cant talk about it. He doesnt want to tout his policy decisions. Is this consistent with sort of the what you hear from being in the building you cover, the one behind you . You know, whats so interesting about that is that kind of really provided the internal script of what we all see play out every single day, which is we see weve seen the press conferences, the president s twitter feed he wont go after putin, after the nerve gas attack in london. The two issues he doesnt want to talk about Stormy Daniels and Vladimir Putin, the two people folks say again and again he doesnt want to criticize. There was Something Interesting in that story, that was his concerns about the potential arms war, the new Nuclear Weapons that putin claims to have created here. I thought it was really interesting that was the one area the president really seemed to get up there and be willing to confrontational with putin, telling him, you know what, if youre going to go and build these, were going to build them even bigger. The president is someone who likes to project this strength and this air of power about him. And if youve got putin who is kind of trying to play that same game with him, thats one area you might see the president potentially step up. Steve schmidt, do you think that might have anything to do with any nuanced understanding of the cold war . Do you think it would have to do with having bigger and better missiles . I think for sure hes making it up as hes going along. Theres been no articulation, certainly not of a coherent strategy with regard to whats arising geopolitical adversary russia. A country with thousands of Nuclear Weapons, though its economy is smaller than the state of californias, it poses significant risk. And Vladimir Putins number one objective is to undermine faith and trust in democracy across the western world. And in donald trump, he has a faithful ally because it is the president of the United States and his administration with their constant attacks on the rule of law on the intelligence community, on the justice department, and other vital institutions that are doing Vladimir Putins dirty work. Vladimir putin looked at the country and he saw how easy it would be for the United States, in this election process for us to be turned against each other, for us to turn at each others throats. I think hes enjoying every second of it and he has to take particular pleasure in the great divider who sits in the oval office. Chuck rosenberg, im so glad youre here today because the fact that what courtney wrote about was a decision to arm the ukrainians is so interesting on a day when the latest developments in the Mueller Probe is that bob mueller and his Investigative Team want know exactly what went down at the Republican Convention in cleveland when, for the first time in the history of the Republican Party conventions, the platform was changed to allison rosa articulate a far more russia friendly policy, and its not worth reading the two different versions, but essentially what it was altered to was precisely what Vladimir Putin would have wanted u. S. Policy to reflect. Can you speak to, you know, as a former colleague of bob muellers, can you speak to why that would be of interest to him and what sorts of crimes he could be possibly investigating if this change in the platform and all of the context and communications between Trump Campaign officials and russians that we now know about are on bob muellers radar, too . Sure, nicolle. Thanks for having me. Some acts appear on their face to be benign, some appear to be ambiguous, some can appear to be nefarious. Some can be benign. Let me give you an example. If you and i went out and bought ski masks that would be benign. Particularly if we went skiing. If we bought ski mask ands robbed a bank, that purchase looks quite nefarious. The mueller team is collecting all this data, asking tons of questions, trying to understand motives because what may appear ambiguous can in retrospect turnout to be quite nefarious. What theyre going to look at of course is not just what happened at the convention, but a whole pattern of conduct. Only with a pattern can you begin to divine intent and only with intent can you begin to successfully prosecute an obstruction of justice or a conspiracy to interfere in the election. All right, chuck, were going to take our viewers into the weeds on this. They can be interns on this Mueller Probe they know so much about it. I want to get specific here because Paul Manafort said to George Stephanopolous during the campaign that there were no ties between the Trump Campaign and putin, and we know that hes been charged with all sorts of crimes. But we know that that on its face is a crime and i want to watch it and ask you about it on the other side. Are there any ties between mr. Trump, you or your campaign, and putin and his regime . No, there are not. Thats absurd, you know, theres no base to it. So, sunday im going to bring a cake to the Graphics Department and put next to that all the people that were meeting possibly at the same time he was on gma with russians during the convention, and then the obvious output, this change in the platform. I have to say even at the time it didnt look as innocent as it would look if two skiers went and bought ski masks. During the convention we know that jeff sessions, sitting attorney general now, carter page, someone who four different judges approved fisa surveillance of him, and j. R. Gordon, all of them were in contact with russians in and around the convention. So, just press this one more time. Theres an oped in the paper today suggesting that mueller could be looking at whether bribes were paid. You know, we talk about Foreign Policy crimes like collusion. It could be something oldfashioned like just good old bribery. It could be good old bribery, nicolle, and for instance by the way, the platform thing lends itself well to a bribery analysis, right . If done for completely innocent reasons, if the Republican Party decided their platform was better without these planks than with them, then thats fine. Thats the product of discussion and contemplation and negotiation. If they did it in return for something, something of value, either money or some other consideration, that could well be bribery. And so whats mueller looking at . Bribery and obstruction of justice and interfering in the election. In several different manifestations, maybe to steal data and use it to the advantage of the campaign, or perhaps to just keep the russian government from releasing compromising information on the president. I dont know what the answer is yet, but i know that this pattern of conduct will help elucidate that. Steve schmidt, one of the most searing memories of the 2018 campaign which we both served on mccain, he started most days by talking to one of his dear est friend, the leader of georgia, and i remember i was on the road with him and you called me. He talked every morning on his cell phone, on a colleagues cell phone. The reason for that was he was reassuring him at this time of russian aggression and incursion that america would stand with the people of georgia. I remember a day it was a critical juncture in the campaign, ways on the road with senator mccain, joe lieberman, lindsey graham, he started a political rally in a Battle Ground state by saying today we were all georgians. You were furious. Not that americans are dumb, but in the middle of a president ial campaign, theyre not thinking of who he is and theyre not thinking about the country of georgia. I wonder what you think about the fact that that was the man that the Republican Party nominated in 2008, and in 2016 the gop platform was changed to articulate precisely, in full view, in public, Vladimir Putins desired policy visavis ukraine. One of the things thats fundamentally changed, nicolle, it used to be not so long ago that the American People would look at the american system of government and view it as superior to the russian system. They would have faith and trust and belief in the virtues and ideals of the american republic. But thats all been undermined both domestically and globally. If youre looking at the United States at the dysfunction of this administration from abroad, how can you possibly make the argument that this is a superior political system . And this is at the core of putinism. Hes doing everything he can to draw no distinctions between the democracies of the west and the ought kar autocratic system that he favors. Typically the american president would represent american ideals on the world stage. The american president would be hostile to autocrats. The american president would celebrate freedom and liberty and the concept of the dignity of the freedom of the human being. This president has no interest in it. What weve seen is Vladimir Putin act with impunity, with very little push back. Hes seeing what he can get away with. Hes getting away with a lot. And i think the danger that lies ahead, what happens if Vladimir Putin incity gates an article 5 nato crisis, for example, in one of the baltic republics . What will the response be . Is it possible that putin could break nato over the next couple of years . We dont know the answer to any of it, but we have seen an american president who is, for whatever reason it is, absolutely timid for the First Time Since harry truman confronted the rise of the cold war, for the first time an american president will not confront an adversary, and specifically the leader of russia. It is bizarre. Jill, let me let you jump in and pickup this thread based on the breaking news just before we came on the air. We reported that bob mueller and his investigators detained a trump ally at the airport, at the logan airport. His name is ted mallock. He said he was told it was a felony to lie to the fbi. He would gladly cooperate with them. The agents produced a document allowing him to search his cell phone. I guess it was some sort of search washt. Chuck will correct me if im wrong. And mallock said the questions got more detailed about my involvement with the Trump Campaign which was informal and unpaid. Whom i communicated with, whom i knew and how well. They had a long list of names. He said they asked him about former Trump Campaign advisor roger stone, author jerome coursy and wikileaks. He said he met stone a total of three times and always with groups of people. He was asked if he visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in london where Julian Assange has been and he said no. How does this land, not the substance, everyone on the campaign is being pressed about ties to russia and potential conspiracy to commit crimes around the collusion investigation. But just the tactics. I remember hearing from white house sources that after the noknock warrant was issued for Paul Manaforts home, after all the computers were seized, that people were more on edge. Do these stories land with a thud in the west wing . At this point its less of a thud than youve got a boxer who has been punched and punched and punched again and its one more hit coming at them. This lands, this is the first time im hearing about this report. This lands as the president , as you know, is in maralago right now. He just got back from the golf course. The west wing is not particularly full today. People have chosen to take the day off or work from home right now. Whats really interesting about this one is you see and weve heard this a little bit especially when sam nunberg was on your air after he wound up being interviewed by muellers team. They seem to be really highlighting roger stone and his potential interaction with Julian Assange and seeing that as a potential, you know, point of interest here clearly by these investigators. But every time the white house thinks that it moves on, every time they try to move to a policy issue, they try to break any new ground, its again, russia, russia, russia. They just cant escape it. Let me give you the last word, chuck rosenberg, in terms of helping us understand what this tells us about bob muellers investigation and their interest in contacts with wikileaks. Sure. First, i think thats right. They continue to poke and probe and prod at all connections russia. You are right, by the way, nicolle, they probably used the search warrant although at the border of federal Law Enforcement has a lot more leeway and may not need it. Good prosecutors would have gotten one anyway to avoid litigating the issue. Not all witnesses are crucial. This gentleman, i believe, is a british citizen so they have jurisdiction over him while hes in the United States. Why not hand him a grand jury subpoena while hes here and find out what he knows. Thats what they did. Why not indeed. Courtney kube, congratulations on your unbelievable reporting. It kept me up last night. I read it right before i went to bed. Congrats. Jill colvin, thank you for your extraordinary reporting every day from that place. Cant be easy. When we come back, fox news is having a bad week over Laura Ingraham losing supporters. He claims he was blocked from discussing how the russians might have ensnared our president. Also ahead, the Washington Post pulls back the curtain on one of the most important white house offices, in details how the effort to hire the very best people may have been doomed before the president even took office. And his friends and family mourn the death of Stephon Clark an unarmed black man fatally shot by sacramento police. Well talk to our friend rev al sharpton about the message he delivered at the funeral and his advice for this grieving and divided community. Ways have bee. When i found out i had agerelated macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. My doctor and i came up with a plan. It includes preservision. Only Preservision Areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the National Eye Institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. Thats why i fight. Because its my vision. Preservision. Try areds 2 multivitamin. I accept i dont i even accept i i used thave a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. But no matter where i ride, i go for my best. So if theres Something Better than warfarin, ill go for that too. Eliquis. Eliquis reduced the risk of stroke better than warfarin, plus had less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis had both. Dont stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Im still going for my best. And for eliquis. Ask your doctor about eliquis. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Committing some controversy. Russia today is to Vladimir Putin what fox news is to donald trump. No doubt. Why is it controversial . It is a support network that is will always react positively to everything that he does. Its not journalism. It is propaganda. Our friend, that was our friend rick stengel on this program yesterday talking about where fox news fits into the white house. Former Fox News Contributor the network worked to silence his concerns about the Trump Campaign in russia. Ralph pete writing in the Washington Post, i was increasingly blocked from speaking on the issues about which i could offer real expertise. Russian affairs and our intelligence community. I did not hide my views at fox and as word spread that i believed an investigation into russian interference was essential to our national security, i was excluded from segments that touched on Vladimir Putins possible influence on an american president. His campaign or his administration. Joining our panel today, evan mcmullen, former cia operative who recently ran for president as an independent. The rev al sharpton, host of politics nation here on msnbc. And president of the National Action network. Lydia, editor in chief, and brett stevens, oped columnist. Steve schmidt is still here. Let me start with you, evan. This was not some squishy moderate that fox news kept around from the old days. This was a highly regarded, i think former served in the army. Uhhuh. And his expertise, hed been face to face with russian Intelligence Officers in his military career. And when he wanted to articulate his concerns, not simply about donald trump, but on behalf of america, he was shut down on fox news. What does that tell you . Its not a surprise. You used to have all kinds of conservative thinkers who refused to get on board with trump but would still be allowed on fox. That changed after the election and, you know, you dont see them any more. Like george wells, theyre all here right now. Id like to say brett stevens, exactly. Ralph peters was suspended by fox for being too critical or disrespectful to president obama. This guy has the sort of fox credentials and he also has intelligence credentials and he is saying that, as you said, they wouldnt let him speak, use his expertise to tell the truth to the American People. Thats a problem. But this is, this is how fox has become a propaganda mouth piece for the president , addressing a segmented audience, not with truth, not with facts, but with its own fake news, even as it calls out other reputable reporting thats not positive for the president , fake news. Thats the what. What is the why . Ratings. It is popular to offer political cover to Vladimir Putin . Its political audience. I can tell you when it happened, march of 2016, when it became clear that donald trump was going to be the nominee of the party and suddenly some of us who maintained our consistent opposition to trumps candidacy found ourselves being invited less and less often to the point of being never invited onto the network. Now, whose decision that was your experience . That was my experience. Bhoz decision it was i dont know. It would be foolish to consider the possibility that a Network Owner who treasures his proximity to power, his proximity to the candidate and now his proximity to the president might be averse to having someone like ralph peters with impeccable conservative credentials attacking him for the right, precisely on this hypersensitive issue of russia because, of course, on this subject peters is absolutely right. I have to just say also, its a business decision, right . If your audience is aligned with trump because of rote extreme partisanship, you have to keep that audience there. If you lose that audience, if they realize there is a problem with trump, they go to other competitors we put together, we wanted to show people who he was. He is such a right winger that fox is the only place he could find a tv home, i would guess. And so to the point but thats the point. This is someone who is 99 youre talking about it as a business. In the interest of disclosure i have to say working for republicans it was sometimes nice to have fox cut the republican side some slack. But ive never seen Steve Schmidt what we see now day in, day out, the attack on bob mueller who was the republican pick to run the fbi after 9 11 and kept this country safe from terrorism. The attacks on the republicanrun justice department, the attacks on the republicantrump appointed run fbi. This seems with the departure and whistle blowing, if you will, Television Version from this former contributor, this seems like a new layer of the conspiracy to cover up not just for donald trump, but for the russians. There was an extraordinary documentary, nicolle, that was unveiled in my hometown park city, utah, this past sun dance film festival. It was called our president. It was a look at all of the Russian Television coverage of donald trump during the election in the first months of the presidency. On russia state tv, he is routinely referred to as our, meaning, russias president , russias guy in the white house. And if you look at the themes that are spewed forth to the russian people on statecontrolled propaganda tv about the conspiracy in the intelligence communities, the conspiracy in the justice department, the russia today coverage thematically is a very, very close to the type of stuff the American People are subjected to through fox newss misinformation campaign. In fact, i wouldnt fall out of my chair given the close coordination of stories whether by coincidence or design if there was a morning meeting to coordinate what were going to talk about on the news of the day. But for sure, with the same exact intensity that russia today undermines americas institutions, fox news undermines americas institutions with salacious and false attacks impugning the credibility and motives of american patriots with nonsensical conspiracy informations, fake news, and misinformation. And we have never, ever seen an American Television network so subordinate itself for profit to fake alternate reality news at the service of a political figure. Its positively frightening to see it developing in the United States of america. Let me steve is talking about america, not homeland. Lydia, let me show you something that our colleague Richard Engel is reporting tonight. It is in line with this Fox News Contributors concern. The russians are up to no good. Lets watch and talk about it on the other side. This is your kgb card. He says just last month he got a call from a friend still on the inside. He told me, look, be careful. Look around. His source told him he was one of eight on a hit list. It includes skripal and christopher steele, author of the Infamous Trump russia dossier. Do you think that the fact that there are i mean, america its so surreal. Americas allies are responding to russias actions in the u. K. Against russians living there. Do you think that there is a danger in not just people not seeing these stories, but being misinformed about the nature of Vladimir Putins russia . There is no question that this is probably the grave est danger that faces our country right now. In that report which i watched earlier, you have the conclusion that the nerve toxin was likely smeared on the doorknob of this mans home. I mean thats something out of the americans. Whats next . Are we back into cold war duck and cover . So, i think its a huge problem. And what is most worrying for me is i saw recently a chart that was done based on some facebook data where they were asking people about trusted news sources and sorting them by selfidentified conservative or liberal. Liberals, of course, had a significant amount of trust with a wide range of mainstream news organizations. But on the conservative side you had one outlier and that one outlier was fox news. I think its extremely worrying that we have this very polarized News Consumption audience. And television is so powerful, so if you have a whole segment of the population that is essentially getting all of its news and information from fox news, i mean, nobody on this chart, nobody trusted breitbart, nobody trusted newsmax even though weve been extremely worried about those factors. Its not even about facebook. But fox news, i think, as its become more and more heat and had more and more conspiracy minded and is ignoring the core stories, the things that are really a threat to our democracy, i think has in some ways emerged as enemy number one to our democracy. I dont think its only the that they are trying to project something that is different. Its outright demonizing those that will not go along with the narrative. Its one thing to be right leaning or left leaning. Its another thing where you are now reinterpreting what the right is about. And i think what is unfair to a lot of people, including schmidt and present company at the table is that we are seeing the redefining of what it means to be on the right by whether or not youre loyal to donald trump. Thats where thats exactly the point. Thats where the danger is. Fox news used to represent conservative opinion. Now it represents a cultive personality. Thats my point. Thats dangerous. And we never did that i mean, on this station, a lot of us were progressive, liked president obama, but there were people on the far left would come on this station and attack obama. He didnt define progressive politics. They are allowing trump to define the parameters of what it is to be a right winger. If youre antitrump, youre no longer a legitimate right winger. Thats dangerous. You come on over here. Up next the shocker, the people in charge of hiring the very best people to work for donald trump do not appear to be the very best people based on an extraordinary piece of investigative reporting from the Washington Post. You were persecuted, and forced to flee the country of your birth. But you started a new life in a brand new world. When i built my ancestry family tree, i found your story. Then, my dna test helped me reclaim the portuguese citizenship you lost. Im joshua berry, and this is my ancestry story. Combine the most detailed dna test with Historical Records for a deeper family story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com Historical Records for a deeper family story. And back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. Then i found aleve pm. 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. Were going to use our smartest and our best. Were not using political hacks any more. Thats the people that do these deals. Theyre political hacks. We want experts, our finest people. We dont want people b level c level d level. We have to get our absolute best. I dont think so, mr. President. Even your people in charge of hiring the best people arent the best people. The Washington Post investigated the office responsible for hiring. We used to call it ppo or president ial Personnel Office and writes, quote, since the inauguration most of the staffers in ppo have been in their 20s, little professional experience apart from trumps campaign. Even as demands mounted the ppo became something of of a social hub. For young staffers stopped by to hang out on couches and smoke electronic cigarettes. The panel picking their jaws up off the table. Theyre still here. This is vodka. I mean, i love my mommy water. I worked in the white house for six years and never played a drinking game there. Look, is it any surprise that the best and the brightest arent exactly rushing to this white house . I would say in their defense, if you were working in this white house, nicolle, wouldnt you have already been drinking heavily . I mean, lets not be glib on that point because, one, i would have never worked in the white house. People called me as im sure they called you and sure they called you and asked if they should go in there and ive said, no, run. I dont have any sympathy for people that go in there. They choose to be in there. When they get savaged in the press i heard from a couple today who were in the middle of a couple fights themselves, im happy to listen but i feel no sympathy. They brought this own. And to me one of the biggest scams donald trump perpetrated on his voters was what we saw. Hiring the best people wasnt some random thing he said. That was as central as building the wall. He made that central to his campaign implying that the president that was in at that time and those that preceded him didnt have the best people. But again, as someone that knows him, look at his management style im going to say bushs bag person had a greater intellect and is more character than most of the people running around Donald Trumps west wing. I mean, the fact that they dont care who goes and works it makes me crazy. Thats what tells you about whether they really care about the country. Exactly. If you look at his management style, who did he have in the Trump Organization . His kids, michael cohen, and they paid homage to roy cohn. Did he have the best and the brightest in the real estate business and in private industry . Hes always operated that hes the smartest guy in the room, which means he by definition is going to have to have not so smart people in the room. Lets think about the backgrounds of some of the people who have had trouble getting hired at this white house. Never mind some very incompetent people working there. But youve had, you know, Domestic Violence issues that have caused issues with security clearances, youve got dwis, allegations of assault, financial double dealing, all this kind of stuff. So, best and brightest i dont think so. Evan . I would say it used to be in the conservative movement that was before trump and thats a whole other topic we would call for Accountable Government, right . And trump comes in with bannon and says, look, were going to dee construct the administrative state. Were going to drain the swamp, all this stuff. That sort of call for Accountable Government has now become an antigovernment approach and argument such to the effect that theyre unwilling to conduct effective governance. And i think its really going to create problems. Weve been so lucky with the exception of puerto rico and what happened in texas, weve been lucky that we havent had additional crises in this country during this presidency. That will not last. We will face challenges and were going to be unprepared for them. Let me just yes. On a serious note, i remember in 2001 or 2000 when george w. Bush was campaigning really against bill clinton more than al gore. He kept talking about restoring honor and integrity to the white house. And central to that sort of conservative view was that the white house was a sacred space, that it had to be treated with let me tell you how that manifested. We had to wear business if you went into the white house on the weekend, you didnt wear jeans and a sweater. I come into this building were casually dressed, we were permitted to walk on the white house complex under george w. Bush. There were disagreement was his policy administration. There is something thats been lost about what you said, the sacredness. Steve, i want to read you something. I want to give you two facts and have you respond to them for us. Let me read you one more chunk from the story because i think it will blow your mind this story triggered me today. Made me crazy. Then i want to tell you who retweeted it. Someone i follow on twitter. So, ppo leader hosted happy hours in their offices that included beer, wine and snacks for dozens of ppo employees and white house liaisons federal agencies. White house officials confirmed in january they played a drinking game in the office called icing to celebrate the deputy directors 30th birthday. Icing involves hiding a bottle of smirnoff ice and the person who discovered it guzzle it. This article was retweeted by Kellyanne Conways husband on twitter who has been spending some time deleting some of his tweets of late. What do you make of the story and of the fact that even the husband of one of the president s i think most people would argue supporters retweeted an article pretty critical of them . Yeah, its not cute. Its disgusting. The comportment of these people is shameful. And none of these people who are working in the white house are hostages. In fact, were the hostages and theyre complicit with the hostage takers when we look at the assaults on these vital institutions and their work to degrade the office of president of the United States. Its just really a tragedy that we have tens of thousands of kids look at the president of the United States and they see a joke. You cant watch the evening news with your children because any different moment the newest porn star will be on explaining the relationship. And from a personnel perspective, weve never quite seen the assemblage of crooks, just outright weirdos, wife beaters, complete and total incompetence thats been assembled. If you took the ten greatest hr managers in the world and put them together and said we want to form a 1927 yankees of incompetence, its not possible they would have done a better job than assembling this team and its not possible that this team could have let loose more k chaos than they already have. As we get closer to the tragedy that will inevitably come to this type of people in an office where life and death decisions are made. Just real quick. Lets not forget that the place where trump has been most limited in terms of his choices of who to hire and getting people to come work for him is in Foreign Policy. Right. None of the republican Foreign Policy establishment is willing to work for this guy at any level. And that should terrify all of us. And it is ridiculous, but its also tragic the rev was in sacramento yesterday at the scene of another tragedy promising justice for the family and friends of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man shot and killed by police. The rev also called out this white house for suggesting Police Violence is a local issue. Well show you the remarks and talk to rev about the law and order president s silence on Stephon Clark. Im not a bigwig. Or a canythingo. But ive got an idea sir. Get domo. Itll connect us to everything thats going on in the company. Get it for jean whos always cold. For the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. Give us the data we need. In one place, anywhere we need it. Help us do our jobs better. With domo we can run this place together. Well thats thats your job i guess. The dual adjustability of the sleep number bed allows each of you to adjust to your ideal level of firmness, comfort and support. Your sleep number setting. For your best. Sleep. Ever. In the morning, youll discover the amazing effects the bed is having on your sleep quality. Your sleepiq score. And snoring . Does your bed do that . Only at a sleep number store where queen mattresses start at just 899. 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Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com. This is humira at work. And we are here to say that were going to stand with Stephon Clark and the leaders of his family. We are putting aside our differences. Its time for preachers to come out the pulpit. Its time for politicians to come out the office. Its time for us to go down and stop this madness. That was our friend and colleague the rev al sharpton speaking yesterday at the funeral for 22yearold Stephon Clark, he was killed by police in his grandmothers sacramento backyard. Nearly two weeks ago. The officers thought he had a gun but he was unarmed. He was just holding his cell phone. The part that upset so many in the community, officers arrived on the scene, they muted their body cameras. An independent autopsy ordered by the family revealed clark was shot eight times from behind or the side. It is unbelievable when you think about chilling. You have an overhead camera well, not camera, helicopter. Thats videoing this guiding the police. So, why are you coming with deadly force when the most he could have done is go into a house that they would have found was his grandmother, called for back up, and apprehend him . The tape shows they immediately shot after saying show your hands. And its 20 shots, nicolle, one black cop, one white cop. The protests have been all nonviolent. Many whites marching because this is not about white and wrong. And Law Enforcement we began to move towards some progress, i thought, in this area, under the last administration with president obamas commission and calling for cameras on police, but when you have policemen on tape saying mute the sound, then you are engaging in the most frightening of all and that is were not going to be transparent at all. Let me just say this very quickly. George bush senior dealt with rodney king and when the tape came out, rodney king didnt die. And through clinton and george bush jr. Met with us even if we disagreed about Police Brutality and on and on. This president has the spoke say that is a local issue. Can we watch that. Certainly a terrible incident. This is something that is a local matter and that is something we feel should be left up to the local authorities at this point. Certainly we want to make sure that all Law Enforcement is carrying out the letter of the law. The president is very supportive of Law Enforcement. But at the same time, in the specific cases and these specific instances, those are left up to local authorities to make the determination and not for the federal government to weigh into. First of all, every major civil rights case and every Civil Rights Movement had to go to the federal government. Because deal with local prosecutors and you deal with the politics of the intrinsic relationship between police and prosecutors. But secondly, what do you mean it is a terrible incident but for local authorities. What about dealing with the National Issue of policing. One that you knew when you came into office. One this attorney general has to deal with. And i think it was absolutely frightening to many of us to hear her say that. And i wanted to address that at the funeral. And i think that struck a cord we spent a lot of us spend the fall talking about this idea it is too small for the white house to get involved in. He trolled the nfl every weekend over the participation i want to show you how i lived in sacramento and was proud to see this the owner of the sacramento kings, here is his response. We at the kings recognize your peoples ability to protest peacefully and we respect that. We hear at the kings recognize that we have a big platform. It is a privilege but it is also a responsibility. It is a responsibility that we take very seriously. And we stand here before you, old young, black, white, brown and were all united in our commitment i find that so important and significant because you take coach kerr for the warriors and coach pop and you take the owner of the kings and you talk about the vacuum of morality and leadership on racial relations in this country are a tinder box and the white house left the vacuum in place. Are you heartened by the way you see some figures from other walks of life step into the vacuum . What he did, i was very heartened by and i think the family was. Serv servante, the brother, said he wanted to see people work with them. And you have to remember, all of the protests, dramatic and drawing attention and so did all of us, and so did dr. King. But all nonviolent. The only violence weve seen in this whole situation was when the police shot and killed Stephon Clark. And i think that this president had the obligation to be the head of state to address this. He tweets on people talking on television. He tweets on athletes taking a knee. You dont have anything to say when the whole country is looking at a tape but there is more than that. Because this is a president who encouraged the police to roughly handle suspects when they remember, put them in the car and you dont need to rough them up. Rough them up. And hes just came out saying we should have the Death Penalty for drug dealers. They didnt say leave that to the local police. What is the standard. I would challenge you to name a single time when donald trump showed any kind of moral leadership. Can you think of one . Anyone. No. And just jumping in on this local issue. Because i dont think it is just it is not just the president is shirking responsibility on an important topic. Going back to the civil war, people who were racist or less sympathetic to the plight of africanamericans would talk about federalism and state rights. This is part of that. This is a local issue, not for the federal government. Listen, our founders decided that the right to life was a federal issue when they put it in our declaration of independence. And so i dont want to hear that any more. And as somebody who comes from the conservative right, i believe that federalism is important. You by dont want that mantle to be carried by racist and bigots. Ive had enough of it. So i just its just i hate to hear that argument. But i feel like im were going backwards. Were making America Great again as though were trying to go back to the civil war. And if you talk to the Effective Police commissions of the last 15 years theyll tell you the key to reducing crime is the trust in the community. It cant be the police against the community. It has to be with it and that is what the president consistently failed to understand. Steve schmidt, you have a minute. It is a young man who was shot down and shot eight times in his backyard while he is unarmed in a city that both you and i know well that we both lived in for many years. It is a tragedy. But it also speaks to a reality in the country where there is not justice for many people. And that is prevalent in the africanamerican community. And so this is an issue that ne needs attention and moral authority from the leaders of the country which we dont have right now. And on that note well sneak in our last break. Well be right back. 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Before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if youve ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. Tell your doctor if youve ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. Taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. Common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. Ready to let go of hep c . Ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. My thanks to steve, evan and the rev and lydia and dont miss politics this season as we approach the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther king and Robert Kennedy and joined by Martin Luther king the third and Kerry Kennedy to discuss the legacies. That does it for our hour. Mtp daily starts now with katy tur in for check. Happy friday. Happy friday . If it is friday, were taking the temperature on cold war talk. Tonight does the recent tough action on russia speak louder than the president s silence . In some ways it is as bad as the worst moment in the cold war or close. Plus rent to own influence. How a d. C. Apartment rental deal has epa chief scott pruitt facing heat from the white house. And the growing fury over Police Shootings as sacramento braces for more protests. This is not a local matter. Theyve been killing young black men all over the country. This is mtp daily and it starts