Did not make even the most cursory public show of respect on sunday for mr. Mccain against whom he had continued to indulge a personal grievance. Even as it was apparent that the Republican Arizona republican was losing his battle with brain cancer. The president spent much of his day golfing and attacking his usual enemies on twitter. Its telling that john mccain chose two of his former political rivals to eulogize him. George w. Bush with whom he duked it out in the gop primary in 2000 and barack obama who he faced in the 2008 president ial campaign. Mccains choice creates a contrast so stark it takes ones breath away. Donald trump was never even a political rival of mccains. Trump simply trolled the onetime prisoner of war claiming he didnt like p. O. W. S who didnt get captured. That pettiness is ongoing. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders, chief of staff john kelly and other white house aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated vietnam war p. O. W. Plaud it for his military and Senate Service and called him a hero. But trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead. And the statement praising mccains life was never released. The condemnation has been swift. Former trump Legal Advisor mark corallo is saying its atrocious at a time like this you would expect more of an american president when youre talking about the passing of a true American Hero. Gop strategist Stewart Stevens tweeted, if you were the staffers who drafted this and your boss stops it, how do you live with yourself if you dont resign . Do you not realize who he is becomes who you are . Senator mccains longtime advisor rick davis today read a statement from senator mccain with an unsubtle observation about the political moment in which senator mccain passed. We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rival risk that have sewn resentment, hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down. When we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been. We are 325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our rockus public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do. We had a better chance of that with him here. Joining us to discuss todays extraordinary developments, general david petraeus, former director of the cia and former head of u. S. Central command who led our forces in iraq and afghanistan. He knew john mccain well. John mccain said of you the greatest general of your generation. I dont want to make you cry yet. Also joining us eddie glaude, princeton professor and msnbc contributor. Alicia menendez for bustle and cohost of pbss amanpour and company. Rick wilson, veteran republican strategist and author of the book everything trump touches dies. Also joining us Stewart Stevens, veteran republican strategist we already kwoeftquoted and daily columnist. And ashley parker. Just before we came on the air, donald trump, bending to pressure not just in this country, but from around the world, to honor an American Hero. Yeah, and not just from this country and around the world, but even from his own staff. You know, theres people in the white house who wanted him, as my colleague josh reported, to put out a statement which i have to stress is a fairly routine statement, pradsing the life of the late senator, calling him a hero, acknowledging his military service. This was going on when it became clear that senator mccain was not going to win that final battle with cancer. The president s response, there were a number of people in the white house who were disgusted and upset and dismayed. And so i think in addition to all that public pressure there was also some private pressure as well. I talked to a friend of the president s who said the actions of the president over the weekend from saturday night through this morning were very small, very, very small. And general petraeus, that is perhaps the starkest contrast between the current president and the man that weve all spent most of the last 48 hours honoring. Well, first of all, its reassuring, heartening, i think, that this action has taken place. There are times to rise above differences and needless to say this is one of those. But, no, were talking about a man who really was a giant in so many respects who spoke with such moral authority on a number of different topics. Twice, of course, a candidate for the presidency who famously said he would rather lose an election than lose a war. He lost that election, but his support for the surge enabled it to succeed and it actually put his opponent, when he became the president , in a much better position as a result of that campaign. We were talking about that before. In 2012, president obama was able to essentially run on the su successes in iraq in large part because of policies you and senator mccain advocated. Let me read this white house statement that you referenced. From a statement from the president we got just as we came on the air, despite our differences on policy and politics, i respect senator john mccain and will fly the flag at half staff till the day of his internment. At the United States capital this friday, at the request of the mccain family, i have also authorized military transportation of senator mccains remains from arizona to washington d. C. , military paul bearers and band support and horse and cash and transport during the service at the United States naval academy. Finally ive asked general john kelly, secretary james mattis and ambassador john bolton to represent my administration and the service of rick wilson. I wish this had been delivered the first moment we had the news. This is papering over something that is going to be a wound that mccain family will have to face for a long time. Its a shame that we had to have a public outcry just short of pitch forks and torches in front of the white house to get donald trump to grudgingly slowly, you know, fighting like a toddler every step of the way to do the right thing here. Im reading this and its a fair fairly anodine statement. This is not from Donald Trumps heart. This is not a man who felt any sense of regret. He wanted the pain of the public censure and outcry to end. Stewart stevens, there is not a lot of example of staff prevailing. This is a rare one. I read your tweet in the lead. This is the thing that haunts me about the trumps presidency. He laid himself bare in the charlottesville tape. After charlottesville nobody quit, after [ bleep ] hole countries nop quit. After upon disgrace upon disgrace, after an aide call you made reference to the fact john mccain would die soon, nobody was fired. This seems as rick wilson says, like a band aid on a stab wound. Yeah, its absolutely perplexing to me why staffers dont realize that it reflects on them. Moo fa my father was an fbi agent when they rounded up Asian Americans he did it for a day and he resigned. One of his lessons to me is you can always say no. And i think that is an important lesson for the staff. You dont have to do this. Youre going to look back on it and youre either going to be proud of it or youre going to regret it. I think the soul of america resonates with john mccain and not where donald trump is now. And its i think something that really is a stark choice that the country has to make and individual has to make and certainly the Republican Party has to make. Alicia, weve had this conversation. Youve been here on some of these breaking news days. If we have a focus as a show, its where the conduct is so the departure from the norm is so dramatic, so grave, that its worth stopping for a minute. Jennifer rubin writes this. No one in the white house feels compelled to leave after a grotesque display of uncivility and heartlessness. And you wonder why nobody has respect for white house staff nor should they get a pass when their time in the white house ends. I agree with general petraeus. We applaud them for doing the right thing in the end, but the process really does justify examination. It does, because on one hand im loathed to talk about this because i think these Actions Prove that our president wanted to make himself the center piece of a story that was not about him at all. On the other hand, im glad that you bring it up because otherwise the type of behavior becomes increasingly normalized. And i think its why that beautiful tribute that senator mccain wrote before he passed resonated with so many people, which is at the core of his work was service, and he came back to that idea. Service, however imperfect, was what drove him. And that is not what is driving this white housing. It is not what is driving this president. And it is also hard to believe it is what is driving the staff. General petraeus, i want to get to you in one more point and were going to take a peek and listen to senator mcconnell who is on the floor now honoring senator mccain, his colleague. The extraordinary thing about being . Senator mccains orbit was that he had your back. He had my back when i was attacked by his own running mate. He had your back at some of the lowest points in your career, and highest. He had on Chris Christies back. He said on abc news, after his troubles mccain was the first person on the phone. Mccain had the countrys back when he selected you to speak at annapolis. And mccain had the countrys back when he declared before his death that he did not want mr. Trump to take part in his funeral, a decision that many render the president as a virtual pariah as he is eulogized by other president s and luminaries like yourself, a dedicated public servant. He didnt leave anything unsaid. No, he didnt. He was a man who had the full range of emotions, in fact. And i think you and i and others saw all of those. At the end of the day, the motivation there was always the greater good. But no one had the backs of americas new greatest generation, those who fought the wars of the post th9 11 era tha he did. No one did more to make sure they had what was needed to prevail on the battle field. No one did more than he did at the outset of the surge and even my own confirmation hearing, the very, very tough six or eight months until the results were very, very clear, just to keep the senate together. I think there was a point at which the support was literally one vote and he and the other members of the three amigos as i coin them, senators lieberman and graham who were out there always. He didnt just have our back figuratively, he had it literally. He was out there with us on every single congressional recess, all three of them were. And we experienced some very wonderful moments and some pretty low moments as well. You know, there is a saying in washington, if you want a friend, get a dog. I think i used to say if you want a real friend, get john mccain. By the way, he also brings the dog. He brings the dogs, he brings the bats. If you visit sedona, there are all sorts of critters there. I want to know, i want to understand from you if the surge would have happened which sort of indisputable now, that that turned the oura round. It wasnt a sure thing. I want to talk to you about that more. I want to play senator mcconnell who is on the floor and eddie glaude, i want to hear your thoughts. The passion john brought to his work was unsurpassed in this body. In more than 30 years as a senator, he never failed to marshal a razor sharp wit, a big heart, and, of course, a fiery spirit. When john saw an issue the same way you did, you knew you had just found your most stalwart ally. You would thank your lucky stars. Because when you found yourself on the other side of that table, as i think all of us learned, you were in for a different kind of unforgettable experience. Either way, serving alongside john was never a dull affair. I will add that working for john mccain was never dull. And the treat in that was that you always knew where you stood. You were never going to walk out of his suite and worry he was going to roll his eyes to some other staffer and say, oh, she said he gave it to you straight. He gave it to you right away. Usually called you right on your cell phone before you had a minute to and he was on all of our cell phones. He was so present. He was so in touch. There was such an intimacy when you were in john mccains inner circle. You know, ive been thinking about this for a while, since the announcement of his death. I disagreed with almost every bit of john mccains politics, but i found him a principled politician, a principled statesman. And i think a lot of the grief in the country today around senator mccains death stands as a proxy of what we actually want and desire. So john mccains career over and against the reality of the petty small man who occupies the white house, so the grief is actually layered with a longing that something has disappeared, that something we need, that were losing giants and were replacing them with small men and women, selfish, greedy, selfabsorbed people. So even though i disagree with him on probably everything, i recognize something thats lost, something that has been irrevokably lost. In emmerson representative men, he gives them up as who they are and what they contributed. What was important about them is they reveal something in us. Great men and women make even greater men and women possible. So as we long for as we long and we grieve, were actually wondering whether or not the kind of man that senator mccain was is possible now in the age of trump. That is such a good point. He was also the kind of man who could admit when he crude up. Let me tell you, that is a rare that is a unicorn in american politics. It makes what happened today with lowering flags again all the more extraordinary. Lets listen to john mccain with Chris Wallace talking about a mistake he made. When i do things for politically expediency, which i have from time to time, its always turned out poorly. Give me an example since you bring it up. What have you done for political expediency . I went to South Carolina and said the flag flying over the state capital which was a confederate flag, that i shouldnt be involved in it, it was a state issue, it was an act of cowardice. This will alienate a certain voting block and i lost anyway. Ashley parker, let me ask you, there must be something recognizable about john mccain about donald trump. They spar. The patriotism that john mccain practiced is unrecognizable in donald trump in trumpism. Thats exactly right. Its not just this ongoing feud between the two men that is sort of led to this point of bad blood, but its twofold. One is that President Trump cant stand not being the center of attention, cant stand not being, you know, the center of adulation. Another is that many of these traits being lauded and celebrated and touted in senator john mccain are traits that President Trump notably often does not exhibit. And so even in that silence, it is a very pointed contrast and one that is not particularly flattering to this president. And so this whole week is going to be very difficult for him, frankly. Weve seen it in his behavior so far. And if i were a betting person in covering President Trump, i am not a betting person, but i would bet we would see a bit of it Going Forward overall all o these funerals and celebrations of senator mccains life. If you bet, im going to bet with you. Youre as good of a trump watch eras anybody. General petraeus, i want to ask you to pull the thread ashley raises. The reason it is difficult for him is that donald trump doesnt recognize what animates john mccain because theres no capacity to relate to it. I mean, john mccain is someone, as you said at the top of the show, who would rather lose an election than lose a war. Donald trump is someone who is at open war with the intelligence community. He just stripped the security clearance from john brennan. You signed a letter in defense of john brennan. How dangerous is the treading on National Security nor an american president right now . Well, its concerning, but i would point out, i think, that the institutions are very strong and very robust. Really . Rod rosenstein doesnt know if he has a job from day to day. You may look at the department of justice differently, but the institutions with which i have experience, the military and the intelligence community, very professional. And there are obviously no political appointees in the military ranks. Obviously there are in the secretary of Defense Office and so forth. But in the intelligence community, in the cia, there is only one political appointee, the director of the cia who right now is a professional. These are organizations that keep their head down, that tell truth to power, that are not going to shrink from that. But theyre going to keep on doing their job. And i have enormous confidence in each of those institutions. Again, ill leave it to others when it comes to the department of justice and the challenges that they face right now. Far be it from me to question your assessment, but does it give you any pause to see people who are as familiar as you are with those agencies like general hayden, like john brennan, like george ten en, who also signed that letter really sounding the alarm and feeling it is almost unamerican to have a president disparage some of those institutions that have always sort of been on the other side of the red line of political discourse . Well, we signed the letter. It should be read very carefully because a number of us, george and i and others have not been ones who have been on domestic issues that we tend to focus on the areas that we know. And what struck us in this case and what galvanized all of us was that a seeming attempt to, number one, to stifle the freedom of speech right. I was criticized very, very many times in uniform and so forth. And after one particular case where a fullpage ad was taken out against me, and the biggest day of testimony ever, the sixmo mark of the surge, the next day i was asked how i felt when that. I feel very proud to have defended the right of others to exercise free speech even if it means criticizing me. I obviously didnt applaud it. Again, is thats the way i feel about it in general. Someone would seem to want to impede that or to intimidate others, that was what bothered us and thats what led us to do that. Again, whether or not all the signers agreed with what john brennan has said or profile or what have you in fact, it said dashdash and not all do. We all were united in that particular issue. And thats, i think, what mattered there. Again, i have 37 years in one of them and the head of the other. I think these institutions are very strong and i think they will very much endure. I want to tell our viewers i remember that day. There was an ad, i believe it was paid for by move on. Org. They called you general betray us. That was 2006 . 2007. It was the sixmonth mark of the surge. Ambassador crofton and i were going to testify before the house and Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. I guess the distinction i would draw between that which was inexcusable, i believe i was in the white house at the time. I remember that. That at the time crossed a red line. The attacks are now coming from an american president. Is there anything in the attacks on the justice general hayden calls them the evidencebased sciences, the media, the justice department, the intelligence community, and science. Is there anything, as someone who has served our country and has worked in the has run these agencies that gives you pause about his skepticism about evidencebased practice s . Oh, this gives me pause without question. I mean, fagts are facts. They are. Rudy doesnt think so. Again, so theres some degree of difference here obviously. But you were asking me about the strength of the institutions. And again, i think these are very, very strong institutions. With centuries of history and tradition and so forth. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and so forth and, therefore, stand very tall. And by the way, many will say that about the Senate Standing on the shoulders of john mccain. You know, i might want to point out here, a lot of people i think are already saying he is the irreplaceable man and so on. And there is much to this. I mean, you cant look out there and see another senator mccain right now. But i think he would be the first to say that there will be others. And it may be the crop of, again, americas new greatest generation members, these young men and women who volunteered at a time of war and served our country, whether or not the country agreed with the policies, these individuals are extraordinary. And now they are seeking to continue their service, many of them now looking at politics for the first time. Do you agree with john mccains assessment the helsinki was a tragic mistake . There are a lot of descriptions for it. That was john mccains. There were others. Do you agree with that one . Sure. Stewart stevens, let me bring you in on this. John mccain didnt mince words, he didnt parse, he didnt dance. When donald trump stood shoulder to shoulder with Vladimir Putin and in response to a question from Jonathan Lemire from the associated press, he basically sided with the assessment, not from the American Intelligence Community which i hope survives as well as general petraeus predicts it will, but it was a blow. Senator coats didnt know he was going to say that. D. N. I. Coats didnt know he was going to say that he since said he didnt think the one on one meeting that went down in helsinki went down he wouldnt have recommended it. Are you in agreement these constitutions will endure . General petraeus is in a good position its not. There is another man right above you right now. The record of those we can be less optimistic of all thats available to you and me. I will say this. I am terribly unoptimistic about the Republican Partys future at the moment. I find that the party that we joined, the party that believed in certain principles character counts, strong on russia, national debt, personal responsibility it wasnt like we had some sort of unique grasp of these issues, but its what we aspire to, its what we wanted to be. I just see those like in that moment in helsinki being completely turned on its head. And i dont really know how you unsee these things or unsay these things. But i hope im wrong. All right. Let me reset on the breaking news for our viewers. A stunning release from the white house just as we were coming on the air, president releasing a statement that reads, quote, despite our differences on policy and politics, i respect senator john mccains service to our country and, in his honor, i have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at halfstaff until the day of his interment. Ashley parker, are you getting any reporting from where youre sitting, your perch how this ticktock went down . He was in front of reporters, i watched the incredibly awkward call with the mexican president where they renamed nafta. Not sure whats behind that. He had opportunities to make this reversal at different points of the day. He did so just before 4 00 p. M. Thats right. I think well find out or ill find out a little more later when i get off set. He had all these opportunities, it was not just nafta. He was stone facing, ignoring calls about john mccain to walk any of his previous statements back. The only thing i can add is he was under a lot of pressure from people in his white house. The president is also someone who is swayed by news coverage, who watches cable news, who is taking in all these images we know, was not happy about the way senator mccain was being lionized. The mood in the white house was described as one of therapy, of aides not quite nothing, some aides not quite nothing what to do. So i do imagine there was some internal pressure with the combination of the public pressure that he values most, which is cable news, that eventually made him to make this fairly small concession. I did watch some fox news on saturday night and even his Favorite Network fox news celebrated American Hero john mccain. That must have driven him mad, mad, mad. General david petraeus, thank you so much. Its a pleasure to have you here. Please come back. Pleasure to be here. Ashley packer and steven, thank you soar spending some of the hour with us. After the break bridget nasoing f bracing forbad news. Tough love for the president from one of his favorite tv lawyers. Get ready for the investigations, one certainly coming for the white house if democrats regain control of the house in november. All those stories coming up. Attention homeowners age sixtytwo and older. One reverse mortgage has a great way for you to live a better retirement. Its called a reverse mortgage. 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If all of last weeks hectic developments surrounding the russia investigation amounted to a fastpaced plot heavy Season Finale in the donald trump reality show, then today today we start a new season, and it seems cracks are starting to show in the foundation. The sheer number of legal challenges this administration is dealing with threatens a barrier of personal and professional secrecy. Donald trump has long enjoyed. And according to the Washington Post, quote, the result has been a moment in which trump seems politically wounded as friends turn embarrassing revelations about affairs and his charity trickle out uncontained. In coming months it could force trumps company to open its books about Foreign Government customers or compel the president to testify about his relationships with women. The myth of trump is now unraveling, said barbara reese, a Trump Organization executive from 1978 to 1996. Hes becoming more obvious and people are starting to know what hes like and what hes doing. Joining us now, harry litman, former uss attorney and former Deputy Assistant attorney general. Hatt eddie, alicia and rick are still here. One of the staunch defenders someone will have to explain to me some day, are worrying about the cases at sdny. Why would that be . Well, s. D. N. Y. In general, the cohen investigation really potentially implicates three separate conspiracies that could come to the president s door and cohen, at least lanny davis has indicated would. First is, of course, the very Serious Fraud and criminal conspiracy to influence the campaign that cohen pleaded to last week. Second is the potential of the russia meeting, the socalled collusion in june and before, and cohen has suggested he knows about that. And then even potentially the hacking conspiracy, cohen is draw in. And one quick final point is the two immunities to the cfo and to david pecker are in connection with the cohen probe, but i think its very likely that the prosecutors will have plumbed the depths of what those two men know and it figures to be quite a lot. When you say plum the depths, i dont know whether to close my eyes, close my ears or just get a sensor. Lets watch Alan Dershowitz along the lines of what youre saying, harry. If i were trumps lawyers, id be focusing all of my defense efforts on the Southern District and let the Mueller Probe go. I think people who support President Trump ought to hope that the businesses were conducted entirely aboveboard. Or if there are minor violations, there are corporate violations, not personal violations, but the president has to be focused on this, concerned about this, and the legal strategy has to be looking at the Southern District more than looking at the Mueller Investigation because the defenses to the Mueller Investigation are constitutional in nature and the president cant be indicted. But the investigations in new york dont have the same kind of constitutional defenses. All right. Weve been talking, rick, about betting. I would bet just about anything there is zero chance that everything in the businesses were done aboveboard. Imagine that, a guy in the casino business, in the real estate business with the russian ands before that, the real estate business with the mob when they built his buildings. I cant imagine, surely all on the up and up. How could i man with Donald Trumps sterling moral character just be engaged in anything shady at all . It would be shocking, or not at all if anybody dershowitz is someone donald trump listens to and dershowitz is basically saying in the Southern District of new york, which donald trump has never called a witchhunt, youre screwed. Right. And, look, the stuff in the Southern District and the stuff in new york state with the foundation, those come to the very, very heart of Donald Trumps kryptonite, which is his taxes and his finances. And when those things start to roll out, people are going to learn the reality tv character they thought they saw on the apprentice for 14 years, rich, successful, good negotiator, good judge of people, management. All that, theyre going to realize that reality tv character is built on a pyramid of b. S. And lies and bad bank loans. This guy is the flop sweat rolling off of donald trump right now in the Southern District is tee nor must. Go ahead. I think one of the challenges of getting him to focus on the Southern District aside from the general challenges which is he built the message on the mueller case a witchhunt and where is collusion. I dont know there is a parallel message in the case of whats happening in the Southern District. Its a great point, harry. I want you to pick sks up up on. I also want to ask you, the plays they havent rolled out yet that i understand to be coming in the Mueller Probe are to continue to smear robert mueller, a war hero and a 13year veteran as fbi director who served democratic and republican president s, to continue to smear his investigators who are all lifelong career prosecutors and investigators, and to at some point possibly exert executive privilege when they now that theyve shifted legal strategies, the old lawyers ty cobb and john dowd are out, emmet flood and Rudy Giuliani say, no, no, no, no more cooperation. Youre getting too close to something. What is the likelihood that any of those tools that they get to deploy will do them any good in the Southern District of new york . Right. Well, the first two, of course, as you say are continuations, old hat and really basically just rhetorical. And i think there is a real feeling that, in fact, their effectiveness is waning especially in the wake of the manafort conviction, the cohen plea, the weisselberg and pecker immunity. So, those two, i think it and there is some polling to suggest are beginning to wane. Executive privilege, very tough. First of all, theyve already waived quite a bit. But that would essentially be the nixon case. That was technically about executive privilege. And i think its going to be a hard row to hoe. Theyve been behind the curve and many of the things they might have done earlier are potentially foreclosed. The big question will be if mueller subpoenas, will they be able to launch a vigorous defense. My best guess is no. If he does subpoena him, it will succeed. Harry, let me hit you with one more. I dont often quote roger stone as an expert, but this might be something he nodes a little bit about. Hes kboeted as saying, based on excellent sourcing, he predicts the special counsel is going to charge donald trump, jr. , with lying to the fbi. Notice theyre not charging him for having an illegal meeting with the russian at trump tower because theres nothing illegal about that meeting, blah, blah, blah. Thats the old collusion aint illegal excuse until it is. But what do you make of the fact that roger stone is foreshadowing an indictment of donald trump, jr. , for lying to the fbi . Well, not a lot specifically that is coming from stone, but its a really important point. Trump junior has been a silent figure for a long time. Yet hes obviously implicated. My best guess, in fact, is hes a target and his lawyer has told mueller that he would take the 5th amendment and mueller could indict him and probably will, but mueller knows when that happens, they are really at a real declaration of war, and trump will pull out all stops, including firings, et cetera. So trump junior seems to have been implicated especially in the russia meeting and before this is all over, i think he will be indicted, but it will be near the end of muellers moves because it will occasion so much, so much desperate response from trump personally. Thats a good analysis. Harry, thank you so much for spending time with us. When we come back, its a heck of a way to acknowledge you havent been degree your job. New reporting republicans themselves are keeping track of all the scandals surrounding the trump administration. Scandals democrats will certainly start looking into if they win the house. Oh, look. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. Republicans stomach are churning over a new report by axios, the document making its way around house gop circles lists investigation requests that Congressional Democrats have already made and will likely launch if they flip the house. Jonathan swan reports, quote, the spreadsheet which im told originated in a senior House Republican office catalogs more than 100 formal requests from House Democrats spanning nearly every committee. It includes requests for Administration Officials to be grilled by committee staff, requests for hearings to obtain sworn testimony, efforts to seize communications about controversial policies and personnel decisions, and subpoena threats. These demands would turn the Trump White House into a 24 7 Legal Defense operation. And these are just some of those investigations which run the gamut from the president s tax returns, dealings with russia, jim comeys firing to the discussion of classified information at maralago, the travel ban, the family separation policy, and the response to Hurricane Maria that hit puerto rico last year. Eddie glaude, i worked in a white house when congressman waxman had this power. I turned over my emails, once around the enron scandal, once around the energy task force, once around valerie plame. That was waxmans committee. It is life changing for the most button down white house with norms and procedures and controls. It seems like it could be the true unraveling of the trump circus. Especially combined with whats happening in the courts already. Correct. Right . And so these people already have lawyers. Thats a great point. They already have lawyers. But whats interesting here is that what theyve just laid out is, is congress doing its job . The democrats. Not just the democrats, the body, the institution doing its job. Weve been many of us have been longing for congress to exercise its power, right . And so in this instance we have although they may be scared about the politics and what it might mean for the white house and how it might function, for some of us, the actual execution of what theyre supposed to be doing when it comes to Hurricane Maria, when it comes to family separation, when it comes to trumps tax policies, when it comes to russia, it seems to me that if the House Republicans took their constitutional duties seriously, many of them would already be doing this. And you know, rick, whats so crazy is everything eddie just listed, lives were at stake. Sure. The hurricane in puerto rico, people died. The family separation policy, childrens lives and their parents lives ruined forever. So these arent investigations these arent gotcha investigations. These arent going to be witch hunts. These are life and death matters where the republicans were awol. They abandoned and abrogated their entire constitutional responsibility as aiko equal branch of government. Theyre not junior managers at a donald trump golf club. They have chosen not to uphold the constitution. Why . I spoke to a leadership staff this morning. Theyre freaking out because this story got out. Theyre afraid the president is going to see this story and understand how much they know about what happens going on and it will set off another layer of trumps paranoia and his loyalty checking and all this stuff. These things are coming. These investigations will come. And if they dont understand that their silence on these things, their inaction on them and their deliberate move to allow this president to run roughshod over the law brought on the electoral problems theyre about to have, i cant help them any more. They dont have a grip on reality at that point. I also just wonder, though, the choice it sets out for democrats, which is if they win back the house and they are able to actually initiate these investigations, what do they prioritize . There are 14u7b things you c there are 100 things you can prioritize. Go with the ones where people died. Go after hurricane response, or the salacious things. That will be a real choice. If you gave trey gowdy truth serum hed tell you to go after the ones where people died. What do you think . If republicans if the democrats do a good and ernest effort to understand the response to and i have to say, i worked in the Bush White House for katrina. There were a lot of investigations into a lot of unraveling for what went wrong and people did die. Its deadly serious. It is not suited for the political shenanigans that seem to be the infection that has sickened the entire republican caucus. I think part of it for the democrats when they do this, they need to have a professional steady tone about it. Yeah. It cant be, ahahaha, were in power. It needs to be methodical. This is an administration that put itself above the law and does things that directly harm the lives of americans. Right. If they can do that in a way thats methodical, it doesnt just look like a circus, it doesnt look like hillary email panic. And it doesnt look like revenge. It looks like theyre actually governing which right now the Republican Party does not look like theyre governing. Mr. Trump, can we wash your car . Theyre green lighting attacks on the justice department. Real quick. They dont look like theyre governing. Were so far away how cynical. Sad republicans. We settled for something that looked better. At the end of the day, really quickly, the Washington Post piece that you opened up with, there is nothing to be revealed about who donald trump is that we dont already know. Right. To quote the late denny great, we no who they are, we know who he is. The people already supporting donald trump will continue to support donald trump and the people whoer resisting him will continue to resist him. Thats the place were in right now. Thats where we are. When we come back, the president s latest attempt at distraction and why it didnt exactly go as planned. Operator . Dear foremothers, your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands. Commanded armies. Yielded to no one. When i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. My name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. Now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com mom okay we need to get all your School Supplies today. School. Grade. Done. Done. Hit the Snooze Button and get low prices on School Supplies all summer long. Like this case of paper for only 29. 99 at office depot officemax. We look very much forward to it. And i believe the president is on the phone. Enrique . You can hook him up. Tell me when. Its a big thing. The internet is an amazing place, i spend too much time there. That was said to the veep closing credits music. That was real announcing a new trade deal with mexico which ended up being an announcement about nothing. A perfect microcosm of how this bhous white house operates. I like to call this the United States mexico trade agreement. I think nafta has a lot of bad connotations for the United States because it was a ripoff. So, rick, i watched this to see what we were doing to nafta. He didnt do anything to nafta. We just gave it a new name. If canada joins, i think the white houses line is we need a new name. He fettishized nafta as this horrible weird thing in his head. And voters bought it. It worked. Even though every economist is like this is an awesome trilateral agreement. It has done an amazing thing for all three economies. He hates it with the fire of a million suns because hes an economic idiot and hes backward in this. This is from what i read so far a rebrand with no substantive changes to speak of. He didnt change nafta, dont worry. But it may convince his followers that hes fundamentally torn it up and now were doing great and the wall is stopping everyone from coming. And pena nieto wanted to get this out before november. When i work in the white house, but our greatest political fear was to be sort of tainted as incompetent. Again, full disclosure, there were plenty of opportunities to do that. This was incompetence and idiocy as a stage press event and that ive never seen. And were laughing about it because were trying to maintain our sanity in these times. We all recognize that the same dysfunction that went into that call went into something as critical as the 235family separation policy, still hundreds separated. When we talk about this, the reason that it matters is because its actually impacting peoples lives. The phone call is a funny example of it. Its like a gumbo of ignorance, malice and stupidity all at once. What can go wrong . But so much has gone wrong. There are now lives at stake. I wonder this is important because the first week of the Trump Presidency there was a story i think in the Washington Post about how they couldnt turn the lights on. They still cant use the phones. Why does that matter . Because i believe in any white house if you cant get the small things right, its very, very rare that youre getting the big things right. And it projects out to the world and particularly to our children that are growing up that mediocrity can lead to you occupying the thats a terrifying point at the mommies at the table and the daddies. We have to sneak in our last break. Well be right back. K. Well be right back. The line between work and life hasnt just blurred. Its gone. Thats why you need someone behind you. Not just a card. An entire support system. Whether visiting the airport lounge to catch up on whats really important. Or even using those hardearned points to squeeze in a Little Family time. No one has your back like american express. So no matter where youre going. Were right there with you. The powerful backing of american express. Dont do business without it. Dont live life without it. Todays Senior Living communities have never been better, with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. And theres never been an easier way to get great advice. A place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. A place for mom. You know your family we know Senior Living. Together well make the right choice. I can do more to lower my a1c. Because my body can still make its own insulin. I take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release its own insulin, like its supposed to. Trulicity is not insulin. It works 24 7. It comes in an easytouse pen. And i may even lose a little weight. Trulicity is an injection to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. Dont use it as the first medicine to treat diabetes, or if you have type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Dont take trulicity if you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, youre allergic to trulicity, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of a serious allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck or severe stomach pain. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your low blood sugar risk. Common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and decreased appetite. These can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. To help lower my a1c i choose trulicity to activate my within. Ask your doctor about onceweekly trulicity. My thanks to eddie, alicia, and rick. Ricks new book is awesome. Whatever youre doing, stop, download or get in a car and go buy it. Its called everything trump touches dies. That does it for our hour. Mtp daily starts right now with katy tur in for chuck todd. I know its been a hard day for you, but the show has been really heartfelt. If its monday, as senator mccain said, what you fight for is the real test. Good evening, im katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. Welcome to mtp daily. We begin tonights show with a little straight talk, as the nation mourns the loss of senator john mccain. The bipartisan truthseeking Country First principled brand of republican politics that john mccain embodied