Airline drag someone from a plane like a hefty bag of passenger trash . And the true story of who did or did not drink the koolaid in the largest murdersuicide in american history. First, whats with trump on the russian front . Despite sending mixed signals over the weekend, its clear today that the administration is now unified in their message on syria, and theyre taking a confrontational approach to both Bashar Al Assad and his chief ally over in russia, Vladimir Putin. And that new tone was most evident in the rhetoric that press Secretary Sean Spicer used today to make the point that theres no justification for the use of chemical weapons and that russia has no business supporting the assad regime. In so doing, spicer equated chemical weapons with Nuclear Weapons and invoked the name of adolf hitler. Lets watch. We cant condemn every act, but i think to literally see someone use gas, and it was pointed out, you know, you think about that. It is in the same category as Nuclear Weapons for a reason. It is that lethal. It is that deadly. It is that horrific. Use of chemical weapons is put in the same category of weapons of mass destruction and so many other things because of what it does to an individual. We didnt use chemical weapons in world war ii. You kn, you had a you know, someone as despicable as hitler, who didnt even sink to using chemical weapons. So you have to, if youre russia, ask yourself is this a country that you and regime that you want to align yourself with . At what point do they recognize that they are now getting on the wrong side of history in a really bad way really quickly . Again, look at the countries that are standing with them. Iran, syria, north korea. This is not this is not a team you want to be on. Well, sean spicer meant to say that chemical weapons were not used in combat during world war ii. He was quick to clarify when asked in the briefing, and he later released this statement saying, quote, in no way was i trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the holocaust. However, i was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using earns to drop chemical weapons on innocent people. Anyway, and moments ago, spicer apologized for that. Lets watch. To draw any kind of comparison to the holocaust was inappropriate and insensitive, and obviously, especially during a week like this, regret that. It was a distinction that didnt need to get made. They both did heinous thing to innocent people and to make any comparison is regrettable and a mistake. Im absolutely sorry especially during a week like this to make a comparison that is inappropriate and inexcusable. Nancy pelosi says you should be fired. Is your job safe . I i you know what, i made a mistake. Im owning up to it. And, you know, this is obviously i would expect or i would hope that everyone understas that we all make mistakes and ask for forgiveness. Ll, despite spicers mistake, its clear the white house is taking a more aggressive posture on syria right now, indicating that the stakes of last week or the strikes of last week are not a oneoff move but part of a broader policy on the use of chemical weapons. Its a point that secretary of defense james mattis, thats mad dog mattis, hit home with a stern warning to syria late today. If they use chemical weapons, they are going to pay a very, very stiff price. Im joined now by democratic senator from delaware, chris coons. He sits on the Senate Foreign relations committee. Senator, give us a sense of what do you think the trump policy is now toward assads regime in syria and their ally, russia, Vladimir Putin especially. Whats our policy as this administration . Well, chris, we dont really know, and i think President Trump owes the United States a clear policy on how were going to be behaving moving forward towards Bashar Al Assad and his murderous regime in syria. Were in the sixth year of assads war against his own people. Hes killed more than 400,000 syrians and turned millions into refugees. I am hopeful that secretary tillersons visit to moscow, his meeting with their minister, lavrov, and pozssibly putin is n opportunity to make it clearer exactly what position they intend to take. Obviously sean spicer didnt have a good day. I think it was wise of him to correct his comments, and my hope is tha we c now focus on working with President Trump and his adniration, those of us in congress on the Foreign Relations committees, and help them focus and sharpen what their policy and strategy is going to be because theyve made such contradictory statements just in the last two weeks. Well, the secretary of state tillerson said were not going to be able to live with an assad regime, and the press secretary, sean spicer, no matter how badly he said it, basically compared assad and his use of chemical weapons with adolf hitler. So its pretty clear they see them both certainly as menacing in terms of our Foreign Policy. What more would you like to hear . Well, im encouraged that frankly that President Trump and secretary tillerson and Ambassador Haley have moved from a position two weeks ago of saying that were just going to have to live with assad and we need to focus on isis to recognizing that assad is a brutal murderer. But i think we need to have clarity. How much farther are we willing to go . The white house was saying today that russia almost certainly knew that syria was about to carry out a chemical weapons attack. Are we going to ratchet up sanctions against russia for their ongoing support for assad . Are we willing to use force against assad if he uses barrel bombs or other conventional weapons against his civilian population as hes been doing for years . And how are we going to engage our vital allies across nato and western europe in the fight against assad if thats the direction President Trump chooses to go . Hes the president , and its important that he develops and clarifies for the American People what policy hes going to be pursuing Going Forward against Bashar Al Assad. Here are my questions, senator. Maybe you have the answers. First of all, trump hasnt said anything. Hes let everybody else talk. A guy who talks an awful lot hasnt said anything when what he thinks now about assad, whether he thinks this is a oneoff, attacking that airfield once or is he going to go at them again . Also, not only is there silence from trump, but youre also g getting putin saying there was no nerve gas used. So you really dont have a meeting of the minds yet at all in terms of communication. Are you worried were not going to get a trump statement or that putin is going to continue to lie about this or both . Well, i think my first piece of advice to the president would be dont make major statements on this in a tweet. Take your time. Consult with your secretary of defense and secretary of state and National Security adviser and produce a more thorough and thoughtful statement in the next couple of days about what President Trump intends in terms of our direction. This is a very dangerous moment. This is no longer reality tv. This is reality. We have american troops on the Ground Fighting in syria against isis, in iraq against isis. We have hundreds in syria, thousands in iraq, and theyre quite exposed if russias ally, iran, chooses to take action against them. Theyre at some risk if assad turns against american or coalition airplanes conducting missions against isis in syria. Its a complex and difficult situation, and i think the president needs to be clear with us what his intended next steps are. What did you make of this spicer well, ill call it a faux pas because i think he was thinking, you know, i remember growing up hearing from my father and others that world wawar 1, the gas was used. I remember all the horrible pictures coming out of world war i and the gas masks and what it did to people. And even when hitler, the worst person ever perhaps, was surrounded, they didnt resort to that in the battlefield. I think clearly thats what i think spicer was talking about. What do you make of his message sending today . To be generous, chris, i do think that what he was trying to do was to say that the use of chemical weapons air dropped against civilians is a horrible thing and that it deserves to be confronted in the way that trump did with an attack against the air base that launched the chemical weapons use against syrian civilians. Its never a good idea to bring hitler in as an example, and obviously spicer tripped up quite a bit. And this is a particularly inappropriate week to be overlooking the horrors of the holocaust. So i do think the larger point here, chris, is that the administration, its spokesman, mr. Spicer, is trying to say that Bashar Al Assad is an absolutely horrible person and that putin and putins regime is going to rue the day that they stood by as assad carried out terrible attacks against his own people year in and year out. And theyre trying to increase pressure on putin to make a choice here, to decide whether to rejoin the west. Remember, putin was kicked out of the g 8. The g7 is just meeting this week in italy. There are sanctions against putins regime for his aggressive actions in the ukraine and in syria. So to be generous, what i think spicer was trying to do today was to raise the level of rhetorical pressure on putin to make a choice about whether to keep backing assad. Right. I agree wu. We dont have to have passover occurring at this time, which it is, and we should show reference toward that. But i think we should know that hitlers use of the gas chambers, we should never forget. Thank you, senator. Joining me now is robert acosta, an msnbc political analyst, and ann garen, who covers Diplomatic Affairs for the Washington Post. Robert, youre pretty good at reading trump. I was wondering why has he been so quiet on this russian front of late personally . He doesnt seem to want to say anything. Is it to avoid a personal feud with putin . Not so much to avoid a feud with putin, but based on my reporting, chris, this is a president who didnt run as part of an ideological project on Foreign Policy, has this noninterventionist streak, and now he finds himself surrounded by military figures in his cabinet, hawks, some of them inside of the white house, and hes been more favorable to the idea of intervention in spite of his positive views toward russia. So its somewhat of a muddled Foreign Policy based more on the president s instincts and his changing outlook. Do you think it might be to cover his tracks for what happened during the campaign, and if there was any action in cahoots with the russians over that year which is now being investigated by the fbi and two houses of congress, do you think this new fight or tiff with russia serves the purposes of covering tracks perhaps . I dont like to guess. I havent seen anything like that in my reporting so far. So you think these are unrelated . This concern about the investigation and his actions with regard to putin right now . I think that some correlation about the strikes in syria as a means of covering up a connection with russia, i have not seen that in my reporting so far. I think russia remains somewhat of a cloud, a major cloud over this administration about its connections, their ongoing federal probes and congressional investigations about just what was done from the russia side in influencing the campaign. Lets go to ann on this question. Ann, it seems to me theres always an element of almost romanov absurdity with the trumps. Its one thing to have Jared Kushner sitting in on all meetings, representing the president as some sort of viceroy. Eric trump, the son of the president , said that his sister ivanka may have played a role in the president s decision to respond to syrias chemical attack. Quote, ivanka is a mother of three kids, and she has influence. Im sure she said, listen, this is horrible stuff. My father will act in times like that. Referring more broadly to the advice the trump family gives to the president , it gives you a sounding board a little more unconventional than the 37 people that might be standing around that table at one time that just want to appease. Heres what spicer said. Theres no question that ivanka and others weighed in to him as was asked earlier. I think there was a widespread acknowledgement that the images and the actions that have been taken were horrific and required action. You know, ann, some of this takes your breath away. First of all, the son, who is the son of the president of the United States, says his father, certainly the family looks upon all the people around the president , the cabinet members, the top aides, the National Security advisers, the joint chiefs as a bunch of appeasers, a bunch of yes men and the only people that the president can rely on are his son, his daughterinlaw i mean his soninlaw and his daughter. I mean its like it is the roman jov romanoffs. The real advisers to the president are the family. Yeah, his remarks about appeasers were certainly eyeopening. But i think the rest of what we learned from trump jr. s remarks here isnt necessarily that surprising. This is a guy who ran a Family Business, is comfortable in the role of running a Family Business with a very small group of people around him, many of them related to him. And hes translating that to the white house. I mean as robert said a few minutes ago, hes also surrounded by a ring of Foreign Policy hawks, and thats new to him. And we now have those two circles sometimes competing with one another, and in the case of whether or not to launch a strike in syria, apparently agreeing. Ivanka, according to her brother, for perhaps different reasons, but agreeing noneeless that american credibility was on the line, that the United States had to do something. And trump clearly listened to his daughter and to the hawks and their argument as well. Your thoughts on this, robert . The family role compared to the official people around the president. Whos got the upper hand . I think when you think about the family, we so often talk about jared kushr, Senior Adviser to the president and his soninlaw, but ivanka trump, his daughter, remains someone who may not be a Foreign Policy expert, but shes part of these highlevel discussions inside of the west wing. Sometimes informally, but she is now a federal employee. Shes working on her fathers staff, and she has weighed in with a broad portfolio. When you think about Jared Kushner, when i think about them in the course of my reporting, kushner, his wife ivanka, even the sons, don and eric, they have the ability, though they dont always do it, to weigh in on major decisions, domestic and foreign. And they werent elected. Anyway, it is a royal family. Thank you, robert costa, ann garen. Were seeing this we know what happened to the romanovs. Coming up, three house races that should be easy republican wins right now in this Spring Season could be tight as heck as gop members face angry town halls out there for even meeting the public let alone running for reelection because of what theyre up to with obamacare. Thats ahe. Plus the outrage over that unit Airlines Passenger who was thrown off that plane. At first uniteds ceo defended his employees for how they dealt with the situation. But today he issued an apology that was coming. And what really happens to jonestown where more than 900 people died in the worse mass suicide in american history, which gave life to that phrase, drinking the koolaid. Finally let me finish tonight with trump watch. This is hardball, where the action is. This is the new new york. We are building new airports all across the state. New roads and bridges. New mass transit. New busissriendly environment. New lower taxes. And new University Partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. Learn more at esd. Ny. Gov bp uses flir cameras a new thermal imagining technology to inspect difficulttoreach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans can see them. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. A 401 k is the most sound way to go. Lets talk asset allocation. Sure. You seem knowledgeable, professional. Im actually a deejay. [ laughing ] no way that really is you . If theyre not a cfp pro, you just dont know. Cfp. Work with the highest standard. Barack obama is set to make his reentry on the international stage. The former president will head to germany next month to talk about democracy with german chancellor angela merkel. The two will be part of a Panel Discussion marking the 5 hundredth anniversary of the protestant reformation. It will coincide with the beginning of President Trumps trip to europe. Hes scheduled for a nato summit in brussels the same day. Well be right back. Times up, insufficient prenatal care. And administrative paperwork. Your days of drowning people are numbered. Same goes for you, budget overruns. And rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. Were coming for you, too. For those who wont rest until the world is healthier, neither will we. Optum. How well gets done. When this bellings. It starts a chain reaction. Thats heard throughout the connected business world. At t Network Security helps protect business, from the largest Financial Markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyberattacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. Keeping the world of business connected and protected. Thats the power of and. Welcome back to hardball. While congress is in recess right now or what they call district work period, some republican members are getting an earful from angry constituents back home. Heres Florida Republican congressman ted yoho holding a town hall last night in his district. I dont believe the federal government should have a role in providing health care for everybody. [ booing ] i understand that. My job is to defend the second amendment. I am not going to support planned parenthood [ booing ] this is not about womens health. [ booing ] no. Remember this guy, South Carolina republican congressman joe wilson. He was the guy who yelled you lie to president obama in the middle of a joint session to congress. Well, last night congressman wilson faced constituents back in his district, and heres what he well, it looked like. All efforts to make sure that violence against women is [ crowd yelling ] some very positive issues. [ crowd yelling ] [ crowd chanting you lie ] its rough out there, isnt it . You can y byhe way what goes around comes round. But some moderate republicans are avoiding town halls altogether because based what theyre seeing in these town halls held in solid districts. High dri briz ba la said the lack of town Hall Meetings in key swing districts during a spring break that lasts until april 23rd underscores the partys precarious political the migration away from Public Forums has been going on now for months despite complaints from constituents and local media. Heidi priz bow la is atical rep today. Michael steele. Let me go to heidi. Your piece is that who are the people that are Holding Meetings and letting people come in and really hit them hard over obamacare because theyre trying to get rid of it and they voted on it, and who are the ones who are not even dont even have the guts to face the public right now . Chris, like you saw, theres a number of safe republicans who are going out there and facing their constituents, and then theres this whole other category of more moderate republicans. Id seen a number of editorials across the country basically calling out members for not holding town halls. I thought, well, there must be something to this. So i looked at some of those moderate republicans who actually cast a vote on health care. There were three different committees that voted on Health Care Even though the full house didnt. And i totaled them up and looked the at the town hall aggregator of whats going on around the country and found not many of them were actually willing to hold a Traditional Town hall. There are some but theyre not the usual format. Theyre with radio stations, facebook live, other formats, but not where constituents can directly hold them accountable. When i reached out to some of these moderate republicans, you can understand. Some of them were honest with me and said, look, i dont think its productive for these meetings, these encounters to devolve into shouting matches. But on the other hand, you know, some of the analysts i talked to said one of the worst things you can do in politics, whats worse than being on the wrong side of an issue is look like youre running away from it with your tail between your legs. That is what they risk now because you have these activists now going out, holding empty town hall forums, putting up billboards, putting up missing signs around town. So the thought is that eventually this could come back and t be so helpful. Michael, what would you ratherave if you were running for reelection in a Congressional District . Would you rather have pictures of you being boo asked yelled at, everything short of tomatoes coming at you, or would you rather have nothing on television . Id take the booing and the tomatoes. Yeah. You go into the teeth of the argument you go in. You make the case. Look, the other side and heidis done some great reporting on this in sort of digging behind the numbers and taking a closer look at t. But the fact of it is for a lot of these folks is that theyre in strong red districts. They dont theyre not that concerned about reelection. What they are concerned about is exactly what some of the members have said to heidi, and that is i dont want to subject myself to a roomful of progressive democrats who have come to yell at me. If you look at the political makeup and the argument and the reaction to some of the things that certainly these conservatives were saying, thats not a typical republican conservative response. So theyre balancing. Theyre balancing the imagery that you suggest, chris, of having the boos and the yelling versus the crickets over whether or not at the end of the day, thats a commercial they want played against them in the fall of next year. And a lot of them are sort of opting out of making that commercial in the first instance. Heidi, who is in the audience . Everybody has a right to show up at a public meeting. The question if what message do different people get to send . If theyre progressives from that congressmans district, thats fair game. If theyre being trucked in from outside, is that the kind of thing going on . Are they just activists from the center left or the left who say, i dont like this guy trump, and im going to say so. Who are they . Nonof this is scientific, right. Every town hall is different. What i can tell you is that what were seeing is that this activism is taking place organically across districts. Its not just in bluerleaning districts. Its in red districts. Ill give you an example. Out in carson city, nevada, dean heller has been refusing to do a town hall while theyve been really pressuring. They formed a local working parties family, local chapter, all local people, and just today dean heller announced hes going to go ahead and do that town hall. So anybody who thinks this isnt real is making the same mistake that the democrats made in 2009 with the tea party. Do you think the democrats request and im not knocking it one bit. But parties tend to imitate each other when the other party wins you learn from the other side. Hardthosed, ideological, cohesive argument against your opponent does work. The republicans and the tea part people blasted away at barack obama for eight years. Theyre still doing it. Against hillary theyre still doing it. Is that kind of hardthosnosed approach going to work on both sides because it didnt work for your party. It k but keep in mind, we didnt focus on barack obama in 2010. We focused on nancy pelosi. And the idea was, you know, creating because she was most representative of the government. She was the speaker of the house. She had control of the congress, and the democrats had control of the senate. So youre absolutely right about making that ideological argument. But you have to anchor it to something. The question for the progressives right now is what is this anchored to . Are you mad at trump . Okay. About what . And how do you then galvanize independent voters and some potentially likeminded republicans to cross that aisle and come over to your side to make the case next november . So all of the shouting and screaming right now has to mean something on the back end, and thats going to be the challenge for chairman perez and the Democratic Party is to galvanize it in a way that you can get that crossover appeal as we saw in 2010. Michael, did you vote for trump . Did i vote for trump . No, i did not. Not at the time, no. Thank you. Did you vote for hillary . Oh, heck no. Okay. Thank you. I just want to know. Heidi, i wont ask you. Youre just a rular journalist. Thank you, heidi. Great piece. Thank you, michael steele. Up next, a story thats i voted for hillary. A story that outraged the flying public. How can United Airlines forcibly remove i mean they dragged him out of that plane like he was a hefty bag of passenger trash. Were going to talk about that. What a why are they doing overbooked flights . Uniteds ceo is apologizing. Whats become of the p. R. Nightmare for this company . Nothing. This is hardball, where the action is. My business was built with passion. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Hei dont want one thats haded a big wreck just say, show me cars with no accidents reported find the cars you want, avoid the ones you dont plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing i like it start your used car search at carfax. Com my insurance rates are but dad, youve got. Allstate. With accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. Indeed. Its good to be in, good hands. Theres nothing more than my vacation. Me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. They offer free cancellation, in case i decide to go from kidfriendly to kidfree. Now i can start relaxing even before the vacation begins. Your vacation is very important. Thats why booking. Com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. Visit booking. Com now to find out why were booking. Yeah you had a long, stressful day, and now you need a little help falling asleep. Time for unisom sleepminis. The little capsules work fast so you get a good nights sleep and wake recharged. Unisom sleepminis. A stressful day deserves a restful night. Were on the move. Unisom sleepminis. Hey rick, all good . Oh yeah, were good. Were good. Terminix. Defenders of home. [ screaming ] no oh, my god. Welcome back to hardball. That was the video of united Airlines Passenger dr. David dao being forcibly removed from a plane in chicago on sunday night because four crew members of the company needed to be on that flight to louisville. Well, the Chicago Department of aviation placed one of the officers involved on leave. When first United AirlinesCeo Oscar Munoz apologized, quite, for having to reaccommodate. I love that word these customers. But his letter to employees yesterday did not admit any wrongdoing. Munoz said, this situation was unfortunately compounded when one of the passengers we politely asked to deplane refused, and it became necessary to contact chicago Aviation Security officers to help our employees. By the way, our employees, followed establish the procedures for dealing with situations like this. Well, airlines can legally overbook flights of course and require passengers to give up seats for crew members, im told, as long as they ask for volunteers first. But the video quickly went viral, and united stock took a plunge today. Munoz wrote another letter today, this time with a humble undertone, stating, i deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way. I want you to know that we take full responsibility, and we will work to make it right. Joining me right now is seth kaplan, managing partner of airline weekly. Seth, thank you for joining us. You understand this stuff. Cut through the malarkey if you will. What are they saying they should have done when they found out they wanted four of their crew people to get to louisville and they h nobody was buying the offer to be paid out of their seats . What should she have done . Well, they should have figured it all out before the guy is given a boarding pass and is sitting in a seat ready to push back. I think theyve made a big mistake for themselves, for the airline industry, by, you know, just kind of making it sound like, hey, this is something that happened. Flights are oversold. We have some involuntary united boardings because, yeah, that stuff happens. I dont know how as the ceo you cant look at that and how your first reaction cant be, i just cant believe how we treated a cuomer. Whats his answer . I know thats your job. You said they shouldnt do that. But hes not saying they shouldnt do that. Hes just coming out with these phony apologies they do when the plane takes off late. They dont mean anything. My question is what does he think, under his rules, they would have done otherwise . Let the guy stay in his seat . What would they normally what is he saying the right way for them to have treated him was . Well, right. Well, hes saying, look, you know, it was oversold. We couldnt get enough volunteers. You got to get somebody off as an involuntary united boarding. The thing is once that guy is sitting in the seat, this is different from how it usually is. Usually this goes on out in the gate area. Its not pleasant, but its kind of like you found out your flight was canceled or you showed up late and there goes the flight. The doors close. This isnt like that. I think someone needs to figure out that, look, we have to offer whatever it takes to get somebody off. We need to consider not letting those crew members fly. Look, i know that theyre thinking, look, id rather inconvenience this one person than the hundreds of people on the flight that that crew is supposed to work later. I get it. But in this case, chris, you just cant let this happen. Obviously it would have been worth it for them to do something more. You know, the history in the airline history, chris, is that either you solve the problem, or somebody else is going to solve it for you, and you as an Airline Might not like how they do it. So theyd be a lot better served getting out in front of this and saying, look, this cant happen. I got two words, seth. Two words, the friendly skies. Thats what they call themselves. Thank you, seth. New reporting by wa the way from the Washington Post about connections between an adviser to the Trump Campaign and the russians. Thats coming up in just a second. Youre watching hardball, where the action is. You do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Due to your first accident. Customer service d. Maam. This isnt a computer. Wait. Youre real . With discover card, you can talk to a real person in the u. S. , like me, anytime. Wow. This is a recording. Really . No, im kidding. 100 u. S. Based customer service. Here to help, not to sell. Welcome back to hardball. The Washington Post is reporting tonight that the fbi obtained a secret fisa court order last summer to monitor the communications of carter page, a Foreign Policy adviser to the Trump Campaign. According to Law Enforcement officials, it was part of an investigation into possible connections between russia and the Trump Campaign. The post reports, quote, the fbi and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting carter pages communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe page was acting as an agent of a foreign power. In this case, russia according to the officials. Page told the post, this confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically motivated government surveillance. I have nothing to hide. Well, tadam entis joins us now. Adam, does this tell us the fbi thought there might be something in cahoots between the Trump Campaign and the russians in trying to swing the election . Well, what i think it really shows us is that over the last over the last few months and certainly over the summer, when the intelligence was coming in about russias effort to try to intervene in the election, that they were actively trying to figure out the nature of these relationships. And as im sure you know, the hurdle is pretty high for getting a fisa on a u. S. Person. So they had to make the case that carter page in this case was acting as effectively as agent of a foreign power, in this case russia, in order to get that warrant. So what it shows is at least last summer, that there was an active effort on the part of the fbi to try to get Additional Information and better understand the relationships that were developing. So when the director of the fbi, james comey, recently said they were conducting an investigation into possible connections between the Trump Campaign and the russians, Vladimir Putins operation, that wasnt an investigation that was just commencing. That had been going on at least through last summer . Correct. In his testimony to the house intelligence committee, comey specifically said that the counterintelligence investigation was launched in late july. We believe that based on our conversations with our sources that this fisa warrant was one of the first actions that were taken as part of that investigation in order to try to better understand, you know, where carter page in particular fit in connection to trump and what his contacts were on the russian side. And as has been revealed by buzzfeed and others in recent weeks, mr. Page had communications with a russian official who was later determined to be a member of the russian intelligence service. Does this relate to what happened in the seychelles . At this point, you know, frankly we dont i have no reason to believe that theres any connection between those things. I cant rule it out at this point. The meeting in the seychelles, of course, that youre referring to was on january 11th, long after the Trump Campaign and the transition distances itself from page. And that was a meeting between erik prince, who was the founder of blackwater. Another associate. And his sister is in the cabinet with trump, meeting with a russian some proxy for putin at the behest of the uae. At this point i do not have anything to connect these two events. So many tentacles to this story so far. Adam, congratulations on that scoop. For more, im joined by our round table, ken vogel, Kareem John PierreSenior Adviser for move on. Org, and john perry. Republican strategist. What do you make of this . It could be cut either way. You could say this proves well, it doesnt really prove, but you could argue that it somehow covers trumps tweet a couple weeks ago that he said president obama had him wiretapped during the campaign. How are you looking at it. I would like to get more information. Id like to know what the president knew about this. Id like to know if they were listening in at trump tower. Id like to know all of the ramifications of this. Id like to know how much carter page actually had to do with the campaign. And id like to know how much more the fbi kind of knew about the russian influence. Id like to know all of this stuff and figure out, you know, what to make of it. I think the story is a big story. But i think we need to make more get more information before we make the determination of where this goes. Ken, what have you got . I think its possibly more significant not for the carter page aspect of it because carter page, in fact, was only nominally involved in the campaign. He was involved early on, and he kind of fell out of favor with them and wasnt really like a fulltime adviser, wasnt part of their meetings on the Foreign Policy committee. But it does suggest that the fbi was looking seriously at some of this stuff during the campaign, and there are other people who potentially were more involved with the Trump Campaign and also had deeper ties to more serious players in russia, including paul manafort, who became essentially the campaign manager, as well as michael flynn, who became the National Security adviser. And i think this suggests that if theyre looking at carter page, it stands to reason that theyre probably also looking at maybe not a fisa, but also looking at these more serious players. Well, jean pierre, is this a tentacle coming from moscow or from our country on behalf of trump. Somebody is trying to connect with somebody. I agree. I think all of these loose dots are actually more of a connection that leads to concrete evidence that there was potentially something happening, a collusion with russia. I think at the end of the day, we really need a bipartisan independent commission. I think that would be the way to go here. You have a president in his first hundred days, he has an fbi investigation and also two other investigations going on, and we need to get to the bottom of this. I know. Thank you all. Ken vogel, kri next, and john. Were coming back with a fascinating new look at one of the darkest moments in u. S. History in the past 40 years. Remember dont drink the koolaid. Youre watching hardball, where the action is. Ncial advis . I would. I would indeed. Well, lets be clear, here. Im actually a deejay. [ laughing ] no way i have no Financial Experience at all. That really is you . If theyre not a cfp pro, you just dont know. Find a certified Financial Planner professional whos thoroughly vetted at letsmakeaplan. Org. Cfp. Work with the highest standard. Itthat can make a worldces, of difference. Expedia, everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia for many americans, the images of jonestown are seared into their memory. The site of more than 900 people lying dead in the jungle of guyana, a place they were lured to by a preacher named jim jones. Heres how nbc reported the shocking news nearly four decades ago. Just a warning. Some of these images are extremely graphic. The americans lay rotting in the sun just where they died. The guyana government wanted the world to see the most incredible mass suicide in history. The majority apparently died willingly at the urging of jim jones, the religious zealot who was their leader. Today American Military pathologists came to examine and direct the removal of the decomposing bodies. It was the most macabre sight any of the doctors, soldiers, and reporters had seen. Entire families took the poison together, laid down, some embracing, Others Holding hands, and died. In the hours before their deaths, residents of jonestown were visited by u. S. Congressman leo ryan. He was on a mission to determine whether people were being mistreated and held against their will. Ryan was accompanied by journalists including a camera crew from nbc news. Jones, who was rapidly becoming unhinged, lashed out when confronted with the information that some of his followers wanted to leave with the congressman. Lets watch. Does it concern you, though, that this man for whatever reason, one of the people in your group they lie. They lie. What can i do about liars . Leave us, i just beg you. Please leave us. We will bother nobody. Anybody who wants to get out of here can get outer here. 15 defectors chose to go with ryan and his cr. The scene in jonestown then grew tense. You bring those back here you bring them back dont you touch my kids jones never had any intention of anybody leave guyana. Members of jones temple followed them and opened fire. Congressman ryan was killed. So was a defeck for, and three journalists including camera man bob brown and reporter dorn harris. Back in jonestown, the macabre finale was already under way as jones gathered his followers and told them their deaths would be a revolutionary act. Then they were served punch spiked with cyanide. More than 900 died, including 300 children. Author jeff guinn chronicles this all in his amazing new book, the road to jonestown, which is out today. He joins me right now. Jeff, thank you. Was it koolaid . Just to get that product straight. Was that what they were drinking when they took the suicide the poison . No, they werent. At jonestown, everything was bare bones, and the flavor was flavor flavorade, a cheap koolaid knockoff. They couldnt afford the real thing. How many of these people, while they were hypnotizes, but how many of their own volition chose to end their lives . We certainly know that the 300 children didnt, and we cant be certain about the old people who probably made up another third. But of the rest of the people, certainly some believed in jim jones, would do anything he wanted them to do and voluntarily committed suicide. Others had bought into what jones bieved and had told them that enemies were approaching any minute and who destroy them. But there were certainly a large contingent who didnt want to do that, but there were guards holding them at gunpoint, and those who wouldnt take the poison voluntarily were held down and forcibly injected. We know this because their bodies had abscesses, and when they were discovered later, a couple days later, this proved that many of them did not die voluntarily. What are White Knights . White knights were something that jones declared when hed call everybody in jonestown just under a thousand people to the main pavilion, claiming that there was some new emergency. Usually it would be that there were enemies approaching and they had to get ready to defend themselves. At a white night a few months before november 18th, 1978, he actually told his followers that he had poison drink that they must take because their enemies were closing in. Only after they drank, did he tell them there was no poison, that this proved that they were dedicated socialists and his followers. That told jones that when the time finally came when he thought that this grand final gesture should be enacted, that at least a majority of the people in jonestown would probably cooperate. Thats when he ordered the cyanide to be brought in. Why do i keep thinking of john brown when i read this story . I mean theres some theres something there of good intentions or idealism bent wrong. How would you describe his jim jones was a demagogue in . Many typical ways. He would tell his followers theres us and then theres the enemy. He identified himself as the only one who can save you. These are things that if we hear them, they should scare the hell out of us. But jones also was a dedicated civil rights activist. He helped integrate the segregated city of indianapolis long before civil rights laws. He led peoples temple with social programs for drug addicts and the poor. They accomplished some tremendous things. Most of all, he appealed to his followers through their better nature. Your job, if you join me, is to Work Together to create a socialist example that will create a world where there is no racial prejudice or economic inequality. People followed him through the best of their natures. Thank you. This book is called the road to jonestown, jim jones and the peoples temple. If youre not fascinated with this story, youre not like me. When we return, let me finish tonight with trump watch. Hes not going to like it. Youre watching hardball. Think again. This is the new new york. We are building new airports all across the state. New roads and bridges. New mass transit. New business friendly environment. New lower taxes. And new University Partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. Learn more at esd. Ny. Gov the uncertainties of hep c. Wondering, what if . I let go of all those feelings. Because i am cured with harvoni. Harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. Its been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. And is proven to cure up to 99 of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. Certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. 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. Stay with me, mr. Parker. When a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. Stay with me, mr. Parker. The at t network is helping First Responders connect with medical teams in near real time. Stay with me, mr. Parker. Saving time when it matters most. Stay with me, mrs. Parker. Thats the power of and. Trump watch, tuesday, april 11th, 2017. Ive said for some time the Trump Presidency resembles a royal favor with special favor to the russian royal family before the communists grabbed power. Just watch the way these latter day romanovs set policy. Jared kushner is given reign over pretty much everything. He heads off to iraq to meet with the u. S. Military commander as if he were a viceroy, a standin for the president himself. And then theres the president s son, eric, who says that the key to understanding trumps decision to fire away at syria lies with his sister, ivanka. He says watch her and her children, donalds grandchildren, and you see the power behind the throne. If she didnt like those pictures coming from syria, that explains why trump acted, why he sent those cruise missiles there. Again, its about the family. Young trump said something more disturbing. If you want to list things to worry about, he said his father the president is surrounded by 37 appeasers. Yes, he means people who just tell trump what they think he wants to hear, where the family gives him the right direction. What a perfect definition of a country run by a royal family, again, on the russian model, the romanovs, a bad example of having it all and blowing it. And thats hardball for now. Thanks for being with us. All in with chris hayes starts right now. Tonight on all in. You had a, you know, someone as despicable as hitler, who didnt even sink to the to using chemical weapons. Communication breakdown. To draw any comparison to the hol oh cost was inappropriate. From Foreign Policy to the basics of governing, new signs of confusion and chaos in an understaffed white house