The question is who he can get confirmed into any of these jobs. Or recess appointed. Never a boring moment. My thanks to the squajeremy bas. Ill see you back here monday for deadline white house at 4 00 p. M. Weird night in the west wing. Lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews in washington tonight. The american presidency is grim and chaotic. The New York Times is reporting the Chief Of Staff is offering to resign. The communication chief is in danger, and the white house secretary is gone altogether. President trump publicly addressed the growing west wing scandal for the first time today defending the former aide whos been accused of two exwives of
violent behavior. We certainly wish him well. Its obviously a tough time for him. He did a very good job when he was in the white house. And we hope he has a wonderful career, and hopefully he will have a great career ahead of him. But it was very sad when we heard about it, and certainly hes also very sad now. And as you probably know he said hes innocent. And i think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that hes innocent. So youll have to talk to him about that, but we absolutely wish him well. He did a very good job when he was at the white house. Notice what President Trump didnt mention. Theres not one single mention of the either of it Women Accusing Rob Porter of abuse. And one of the exwives was on this morning. She recounted one episode. Lets watch. We had been fighting and rob
in an interview today Reince Priebus denied that, saying the president has never complained to me about General Kelly. Nbc reporting hes also frustrated over communication director hope hicks role in the controversy. Hicks is reportedly in a relationship with. Sources telling nbc news he has not made a formal offer to resign. Im joined by chief correspondent hally jackson, the Washington Post bureau chief phil rucker. Hes the White House Bureau chief. And jason. Is there a sense with the Chief Offering to resign, the Communications Chief in danger, the secretary gone. What is the feeling and whats the noise and chatter level and the mood over there now . Yeah, a lot of slammed doors and a lot of serious faces,
chris, is what we saw over the afternoon. Let me tell you what Kelly Odonald just heard from the Chief Of Staff, and this is from the horses mouth, john kelly himself saying, no, he did not offer to resign. So that is an the record saying hes not going to resign. And he served at the pleasure of the president , and a second source saying if the president were to say, hey, i dont want you to serve anymore, john kelly has been in the military, he knows how the command structure works. That is something he would obviously listen to. Im told he feels irritated right now. As burn person put it to me, hey, hes answered a lot of questions about this, why does he keep getting questions about
how he handled this, looking to move past this. You talked about the vibe. Its been an interesting few hours here. Because remember, yes, the Press Secretary is on a preplanned day off. We saw a huddling of aides behind closed doors. At whats points you had aides who sit outside these offices turning up the volume on the tv screens outside to perhaps it seemed to mask private conversations that were happening inside those offices. So clearly there was some crisis control, some Damage Control happening. As we have seen john kelly in and out of an area where reporters can go inside the west wing called upper press. And that is where nbc news had the opportunity to talk to him a couple of times. And he clarified the time line of when he found out. He said he was fist aware of investigations that something was up in november. But he said literally all he heard, and im paraphrasing here, that there was something being looked intotouch he said
he didnt fiend out the allegations were true until tuesday night, and then rob porter was gone. That raises some questions. Tuesday night, remember, is when the white house put out a statement saying from john kelly that rob porter was a man of integrity. The bottom line seems to be, chris, people at this white house knew what going on. And we have one source saying don megan knew about a year ago. Definitely one of those friday nights where lets talk about if he were a president and normal white house staff. I know thats a hell of a leap, but lets try that. A president kwekts his kpeexpecf staff to deal with this and know what their reporting and come through with. They go back doortodoor, every place they ever lived. Its thorough investigation by the fbi. According to all the reporting im seeing the fbi was doing its job. As long as a year ago they happen getting indications there was violence in these exmarriages, former marriages. And wasnt that information enough to be brought to the attention of the Chief Of Staff . I assume youre directing that question to me, chris. What i can tell you is that there are indications this came to light in the fall, that there was word this was happening, that these allegations had been out there it took nine months to get the information to the Chief Of Staff. That is what john kelly told us tonight himself. In november he was told and briefed he said about the investigation, but did not get briefed on specifics. Now, is it possible that the counsel don megan, his office knew about that earlier, yes. And our reports indicate last year he was being told about
this. Theres an open question whether that trickled up to the top levels. Ive been reading these reports of the time line, and im getting back to last january. Lets go to phil rucker on this, White House Bureau chief for the post. Is there a problem here for the white house being incapable intellectually or emotionally of accepting fact from the fbi . Thats their job to do background checks. John kelly doesnt go knocking on doors to see how a guy treated previous spouses. The fbi does. You have to rely on the fbi. Are they accepting the truth of the fbi at this white house, sir . Well, the problem, chris, is theres no clear accountability here. We have shifting statements, evolving time lines. This morning john kelly was at a private meeting at the white house where he told the aides he wanted them to go tell their colleague, to tell the lower level staffers at the white house he had taken decisive
action within 40 minutes of learning of these allegations of rob porter. That does not match the Public Record or the statements we have seen coming out of this white house where there was a conservative strategic attempt to try to protect rob porter, the staff secretary up until that came out. Is General Kelly trying to cover up . I dont know. I think he would serve himself if he would come out and answer these questions deliberately and be trance parent about what he and others knew about when they knew it, when they notified the president , what were the conversations with porter. We have conflicting accounts from the white house on that point. Again, jason, you put the shoe on the other foot and you go suppose barack obama had something i constantly go back and check this. Suppose hed been involved in any of this stuff . Imagine some somebody in his top staff had been accused of this with records and Police Records and top orders and the person in charge of controlling all the paperwork and everything, and then it looked like his people covered up for it. It would be inexcusable. People wld ould be screaming fo his impeachment. This is smart man. This is the guy who has cleaned up a lault ot of things in the house, for us us to believe he didnt know for nine months and then suddenly decide he believed with the pictures it is a cover up. You know the culture there, is it so much a he culture that they cant deal with a her question . Because i thought katy turr was excellent this afternoon. So i think theres a couple of pieces to that, chris. I think number one when you look
at the president s statement today, and you know i stick to the realm of the facts on hand. The president did not bring up the women who have accused rob porter of Domestic Violence. Even with pronouns. I would contrast to what the president said with lester holt today with that sit down with north korea. Because the president said Domestic Violence should not be tolerated in this country. He didnt know about the allegations against rob porter until he about the allegations, lets watch. I was appalled when i learned of the allegations against rob porter. The time he resigned is when i first became aware of the allegations of Domestic Abuse. And theres no tolerance in this white house and no place in america for Domestic Abuse. That being said i think the white house hass acknowledged they could have handled it better. Lester, when i return to washington, d. C. Im going to look into the matter and ill share my accounts with the president directly. Halle said how come the president is always about a foot outside the loop . He keeps this wonderful little respectful difference from the bad stuff going on, but always comes in a couple of days later and says ill look into this. His office is really two doors down from the president s oval office. How does he do this . And he obviously spends a lot of time over the executive office, too. Mike pence is the number two guy in the administration. Hes the person the president cant fire when you look at all of this. And i think its illume negative to look at the Vice President s response to what has happen. You mention ashley saying
directly to him, why do you always seem to be out of the loop with these issues . And do think when he says im going to go back to give his account on all of this, he is somebody that talks and has allies on the hill, the Donor Community as well. And the mr. President , this illustrates his comments about porter today. Youve seen critics seize on this in particular. The president has repeatedly now shown a pattern to side with his allies. With roy moore, the president saying roy moore denied it, siding with him. Roger ales as well. Bill oreilly is another one. Let me thank you for that. And by the way, i know you went up to the Eagles Parade yesterday. And im so happy you represented
us. 700,000 people there. Thank you so much giving up your day. I want to go to phil rucker of the post. What about this question, how come youre always about a foot about the loop . She does it better than anybody else, but shes out there in south korea trying to keep the Vice President accountable. Thank you. What a great colleague you are. Meanwhile the white house staff drama played out n reality game show. Omrosa, she once said this about her former boss, trump. Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump. Its everyone whos ever doubted donald, who ever disagreed,
whoever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe. In a world anyway, that was her then. Here she is now. Should we be worried . Dont say that because we are worried, but i need you to say no its going to be okay. Its not going to be okay. Its not. Would you vote for him again . God, no. Never. In a million years, never. From biblical epic down to soap opera. She had now turning a 180 on this guy. Just a year ago he was the greatest guy on the planet. Omrosa, nice person and shes just trying to sell books. If youre really concerned about what donald trump might do as president you can go find Robert Mueller. Im sure hed like to have a conversation. Its something. Anyway, we had it in that segment as sort of a comic relief. Anyway, it is a grim night at the white house. Thanks. We heard from halle jackson, and what a night its been at the white house. Coming up donald trump tries launching yet another smoke bomb on the russia probe even as democrats cause another smoke bomb to fizzle. It comes as wood ward and bernstein write were on the precipice of another saturday night massacre. Plus, is the Republican Party now hitting a values deficit . The gop has long sold itself as the party of fiscal discipline, Family Values and law and order. But recent issues call into
question their commitment on all three counts. And steve bannon says his base is starting to question the president s commitment to building the famous wall along the reelo grand. And once trump promised mexico would pay for it. Its friday night and this is hardball where the action is. We may be one of the worlds most familiar companies, but we make more than our name suggests. Were an organic tea company. A premium juice company. A Coconut Water company. Weve got drinks for long days. For birthdays. For turning over new leaves. And we make them for every moment in every corner of the country. We are the cocacola company, and were proud to offer so much more. I had a very Minor Fender Bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow Fast Food Drive thru lane. But what a powerful life lesson. And dont worry i have everything handled. I already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have Accident Forgiveness. Which is so smart on your guys part. Like fact that theyll just. Forgive you. Four weeks without the car. Okay, yup. Good night. With Accident Forgiveness your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Switching to allstate is worth it. According to a new report President Trump has abandoned a practice followed by past u. S. President. A report says the president rarely reads the brief. Instead the president relies on an oral briefing. One source says reading the dense document does not fit in with trumps style of learning. Experts on former cia director leon pinetta warned by not reading the formal briefing the
president could miss the context. In the past trump has downplayed the importance of an intelligence briefing. He he goes. I dont have to be told the same thing in the same way for the next eight years. Could be eight years. I dont need that. I like the look on his face when the president says im a smart person. Well be right back. Mpany. With new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car plus depreciation. Liberty mutual insurance. When it comes to travel, i sweat the details. Late checkout. Downalternative pillows. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Wild thing applebees handcrafted burgers. Any burger just 7. 99. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. His are republican colleague richard burr. It began last night when fox news reported that he had communicated with an Russian Oligarch lobbyist to make contact with Christopher Steele. The Report Faced Immediate Push back from republican senator mar marco rubio who tweeted senator warner fully disclosed this to the committee four months ago and this had zero impact on our work. Despite that President Trump seized on that writing this last night. Wow, senator mark warner got caught having expensive contact with a lobbyist for a Russian Oligarch. Warner did not want a paper trail on a private meeting in london he requested with Steele Of Fraudulent Dossier fame. All tied into Kroocrooked Hilla the president has until tomorrow night to agree or reject it. Meanwhile the number three official at the Justice Department is stepping down. Rachel brand had been a key figure in the russia probe because she was next in line of secession after Deputy Attorney rosenstein. Let me start with david on this because you are an efish nodo of this stuff of wacky ideological behavior on it right. The president every single day seems to get up to find a smoke bomb. To confuse his supporters and actually muddle everything up. And they fizzle in a couple of hours. But he keeps throwing those smoke bombs. I would even call them a stink bomb, but they do work to a certain agree. For the last ethree weeks weve been not talk about the Russia Investigation but the nunes memo. And they just move from thing to thing. Its one plate of spaghetti to the next. Weve seen the head of the cia meeting with russian intelligence chiefs. Theres a lot going on there that were not talking about as much because were following all the craziness. Ive tried to keep my eye on the scope. Because theres still a question what did the russians do . What did the trump crowd do in helping him, and whats happening right now in 2018 . Lets remember whats really curious about the substance of mark warner. The president criticized him of being in communication with potentially Christopher Steele. And meanwhile two staffers of nunes actually went to london to search for Christopher Steele. My colleague and i were the first to break the news one of those staffers was patel who was controversial in writing the nunes memo. Who has close ties to the west wing. L everybody thought it was important today, i heard she was getting a job with walmart. The important thing is shes not going to be there, i suppose, rachel brand, if the president fires or pushes out rosenstein. Your thoughts on this. I think we have to be careful about reading too much into it too quickly. Shes only been in the ag position for nine months. People leave the government for private sector jobs. Is it possible this got sort of expedited because she wasnt looking forward to being in this extremely political controversial role, definitely. And that would be a sad
consequence of what trump is doing the Department Of Justice. What are his rights to replace her . Well, i think he could appoint someone in acting for a while, but eventually that person would have to be confirmed, which would probably be tough for him. Who would take over if he didnt get someone confirmed from the senate . I think i mean i think theres a lot of debate about this right now, about what kicks in. But my understanding is there is sort of a line of secession thats written in the regulations right now or by order of previous who becomes in charge . Whos going to be the boss of Robert Mueller when he comes through reporting late this year or early next year, whos going to be the one who receives it . Its not going to be rachel brand. Its going to be rosenstein unless he gets fired or pushed out. We called the justice
department this afternoon and they say he goes to the solicited memo. But there are reports that show the attorneys might we dont know who it goes to in terms of being in charge of this investigation. Okay, he could fire sessions tomorrow. He could fire sessions, rosenstein, anybody who comes in to replace brand, and he could ultimately find a way to fire mueller. Its possible the president could appoint someone to step into rachels spot and that could give the president significant power. A u. S. Attorney confirmed or an hhs secretary. And the other part of this is its long been known in Conservative Washington Legal Circles is rachel is someone who could be a strong contender for a federal judgeship or even mentioned her as a potential
Supreme Court nominee. Shes a highly intelligent lawyer. And you dont have to be highly sophisticated to understand that people in the Trump Administration get their reputations torched. The nunes memo, that sort of died, sort of a boring thing. I think it was cooked up by the white house, anyways, like Anything Nunes does. Is trump going to prove it like midnight tonight . That would be the normal way to do the garbage dump. I can tell you what ive learned is the democrats memo actually quotes the fisa Warrant Application that fbi agents put together. Its really unusual to see text from one of those fisa applications. Thats some of the most classified material in the gurmgurm government. The big question is if it comes out is will those lines be redacted or wont they . Whats the importance of that . Well, if theyre there, then well know a lot more about how exactly the fbi asked for
information to surveil carter page. Its the latest of a series of institutions, each charge has been quickly debunked than the last. The socalled nunes memo we mentioned alleged wrongful surveillance of carter page, however subsequent reporting revealed serious flaws in their memo. Anyway, on wednesday senator ron johnson incorrectly claimed that a text message showed that President Obama was involved in Hillary Clinton email, however, the time line debunked that in hours. And now senator feinstein also in which the republican members claim the former fbi
officer lied with contacts with journalists. It also fails fto explain any circumstance that would require mr. Steele to speak to the press. I think the whole strategy of the white house, and its been good. If you get people in enough crazy charges against this probe, youll get Something Like an equilibrium. Do you believe it or not . And yet none of the charges holds up. They just keep shooting them out there. And thats the point. They dont need to win. They dont need to get these referrals. They just need to muddy up the waters and make it seem like this is all about politics. Today the House Intelligence Committee released the transcript of the meeting they had earlier in the week about the democratic memo. The most important thing to me in that is you have democratic saying, you know, to the
republicans, you havent subpoenaed one piece of information. You have witnesses coming in. Youre taking them at their word. Youre not taking follow up interviews or subpoenaing them for information. So these House Investigations at least are really bogus at this point in time. And were getting drawn into one mini fake scandal a day. Miriam, its good to have you on because youre a prosecutor. My belief is if you have a criminal defendant whod guilty and youre a Defense Attorney and you know the man or woman is guilty, you know it, its obvious, you throw up a lot of nonsensical stuff in defense of the person. You suggest possible theories, suggest alibis, just hoping youll find one juror that will say, yeah, i guess theres something to that, i guess thats reasonable. It seems to me thats the game that the president s followers are defending. Weve got a guilty defend so
weve got to throw up a lot of flack in the air so someone will say that sounds vaguely clear. What is the defense . The defense is that he did not do anything, but the defense is whatever he can throw up. And prosecutors when they bring cases to juries in federal court oo say keep your eye on the ball to the jury, use your common sense, you dont throw that out the door. And i think if we could say that it American People now, we would say theyre just trying to distract from whats really going on here. And he is fighting this like hes a private citizen whos being sued or being put on a criminal trial. And so what hes doing to defend that my throwing all this stuff up is doing damage to these institutions in a way because hes not a private citizen. Hes the president. And so when he puts on this defense this way, hes doing damage in a way that other people, you know, cant do. And its very dangerous. You mean obstructing justice . I mean hes damaging the institutions of the credibility of the Department Of Justice and the fbi, institutions we need to rely on every day to keep our country safe. And he doesnt care the consequence of the accusations he makes. Thank you so much for coming. Youre a great person to have on this show. And it is a National Security question with the situation we face right now. The russians got involved in our elections. Wed like to know if any americans played ball with them. Thats a simple question. We should get the answer to it. And those who dont want to get the answer to it are not friends of this country. Republicans used to back fiscal responsibility, Family Values and of course law and order. The party seems to have turned all on those Guiding Principles lately. Is President Trump to blame . This is hardball, where the action is. Oh theres one. Manatees in novelty ts . Surprising. Whats come at me bro . Its something you say to a friend. Whats not surprising . How much money matt saved by switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. You know how painful heartburn can be. For fastacting, longlasting relief, try doctor recommended gaviscon. It quickly neutralizes stomach acid and helps keep acid down for hours. Relieve heartburn with fast acting, longlasting gaviscon. And helps keep acid down for hours. Mom anits not theirs. Car. Its mine. Mine. Mine. And it always will be, forever and forever. The new rx 350l with three rows for seven passengers. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. The mountain like i used to. I even accept i have a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of Irregular Heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. But whatever trail i take, i go for my best. So if theres Something Better than warfarin, ill go for that too. Eliquis. Eliquis reduced the risk of stroke better than warfarin, plus had less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis had both. Dont Stop Taking Eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an Artificial Heart Valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Im still going for my best. And for eliquis ask your doctor about eliquis. After roughly a year of President Trump now, its been a year, the Republican Partys met morsis is nearly complete. Small government, less taxes, less spend wg the party of the evangelicals, traditionally Family Values, of course, has been a great marriage for them. Lets watch. We republicans have been blessed with grass roots supporters who are committed to ideals of individual freedom. Family values, Free Enterprise and a strong america. Let the other side lidcule Family Values. Im talking about work, responsibility, loving thigh neighbor. We discovered who we are is more important than what we have and we must renew our values to restore our country. We are physical conservers. Wow, back in 1998 newt
gingrich slammed president clinton, writing, quote, the institution of the presidency has been degrated to the quote, it is roughly the equivalent of the Jerry Springer show. 30 years later that same party has given up on all those values, instead choosing to give President Trump a pass. Lets listen to them do it. The evangelicals did not vote for donald trump based on his moral qualifications but based upon he said he was going to do and who he was surrounding himself with. We kind of gave him you get a mulligan, you get a do over here. Anyway, the party includes people like roy moore and a Nazi Sympathizer Running for congressman in illinois. Stay tuned. If you spit blood when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. Help stop the journey of gum disease. Try parodontax toothpaste. Why create something this extravagant . Or make a back seat that feels nothing like a back seat . Why give it every feature you could want, along with a few you didnt know you needed . Its simple. You can build a car,
or you can build a cadillac. Come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac ct6. Get this lowmileage lease on this 2018 cadillac ct6 from around 549 per month. Visit your local cadillac dealer. Lets team up to get the lady of the house from around 549 per month. Back on her feet. And help her feel more strength and energy in just two weeks yaaay the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. Ensure. Always be you. Did you know theres a world of miracles inside our bodies . For example, your eyes can see ten million shades of color. Sometimes, all you need to do is look up. We can hear thousands of sounds from 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz. Our bodies can withstand temperatures around 60 degrees centigrade. Our tongues can differentiate 100,000 different tastes. Nice our noses can distinguish more than a trillion scents. Knowing each one of them thats the tough part. Get out there. Explore. See. Smell. Hear. Taste. Touch. Widen your world. I ran for office because i was very critical of President Obamas trillion dollar deficits. Now we have republicans hand in hand with democrats offering us trillion dollar deficits. I cant in all good honestly, in all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits. Welcome back to hardball. That was of course kentucky senator rand paul last night blasting his own partys flipflop on deficit spending. Its just part of the Republican Partys evolution away of what wuss once its core values. Writing today, the core mission of the gop is now to defend abusers, noting that the gop at every turn had encouraged trump by refusing to exercise oversight, declining to centur
him and or attacking the media. Just as white house Chief Of Staff john kelly says rob porter is a man of integrity, the Republican Party praises trump as a successful president , and an adimable leader of the their party. And anne gearrin is White House Correspondent for the Washington Post. What do you make the of the Republican Partys fickleness. Oh, were going to give him a mulligan on his behavior. Well, clinton never got a mulligan, at least on his misbehavior. Your thoughts. Theyre always for tax cuts and theyre always for paying for them by cutting domestic programs. Theyre own fiscally responsible
when the democrats are in power. So theres consistency there. They never say deficit unless they have a democratic president. Well, take rand paul for a minute. I thought he made a great speech there, but he also just voted it the tax cut. Thats where most of the money went. What they did on spending is nothing compared to the tax cut. On the family value weve got some Breaking News here from the Washington Post. The second white house aide has now resigned amid past Domestic Abuse allegations which he denies. The Washington Post story write the abrupt departure of David Sorrenson comes after allegations he vehemently denied. Rather sorrenson said he was the victim of Domestic Violence. And rob porter departed after two exwives said he physically abused them. Anne, youve covered this. I go back pooto tback to the qu of the fbi. Especially in the west wing of the white house, in canontact physically with the president , physically, you can walk in the door and then you have to be checked out. Why Didnt The White House know about all this stuff of this violent behavior of these two officials . Well, if this current case is like the first one, they did know. They had the fbi material at hand. So the Chief Of Staff and others would have had had that material, the white house Chief Counsel would have had that material. The question is what did they do with it, and did they consider it in any way a disqualifying event that this guy had been accused of beating up his wife . Apparently not. Well, i would think the felonies would qualify. Because assault, battery. We also have more Breaking News from the white house. In a letter to the chairman of
the House Intelligence Committee don megan writes the president will not declassify the memo. Quote, although the president is declined to unclassify the february 5th memorandum, because it contains sensitive passages hes unable to do so that this time. However, he says the committee may submit another draft of the memo to consider. I think its a terrible idea. I mean he decided to make public the republican memo, the nunes memo. You know the American People want to know. We already saw the nunes memo, now we wanted to esee the democratic memo, so the American People can judge for themselves. It looks very partisan. It looks terrible for the white house. What do you make of the Republican Partys 90 in favor for trump . They have really fallen in line for this guy. I mean the top people with him on the tax bill, including rand
paul, including two women who were reasonable people like murkowski and collins who use usually hold back. I think they all voted. I think its hard to be conservative in the era of President Trump. Once i said, look, he is who he is. I dont like his personality or the things he says or his stweets. But for the good of the country i have to look at his policies. And i have to since he became president i support his policies. Does the end justify the means . Look, its washington. Im only asking my question. Whats your answer . Does the end justify the means . Hes the means. No, i think you just said its a fair question. If you think im supporting a policy, it doesnt mean im supporting trump the man. But hes your means to getting your policy, you admit it. Yes, but hes got three years to go. Are you saying i should oppose trump at every turn . Is had a good role model for
people . No, hes done damage to the white house just like bill clinton did damage to the white house. There is a rationale underlying the Family Values part. The only thing about the Family Values part is the abortion issue. So this other stuff doesnt matter as much to them other than that issue and the Supreme Court justice issue. So i think they care about that i think they care about other things. Well, i hope. Many social conservatives dont like the way trump behaves. When you look at his agenda hes been more conservative than other republican president s. Appointing conservative judges, expanding mexico policy. Hes done other things that other republican president s for example, two of my sisters were nones who spent their entire lives in Poverty Teaching kids. I Wouldnt Generalize about people
religious freedom. Certainly there are issues beyond abortion that social conservatives care about intensely. But in many of these things that have come just in the last week should come as no surprise, right . The the bargain that social conservatives made early on in Backing Trump was a bargain made in full knowledge, whether you believed his denial or or not, that he was accused of grabbing women, right, and bragging about it. And a number of other statements he made during the campaign that showed him to be sort of constitutionally out of step with much of what they believed. And they backed him anyway, in fact, have been among his most enduring and loyal core supporters to this day. And there is reason for that. They are getting what they want. Conservatives of all kinds, of all stripes going to give barack obama and his family some credit for having a really excellent role model for the
American People. Everything about him, a good father, a good husband. Maybe he spent two months time with his family, not hanging around with to mean politicians, but he did everything for the good of the country. And no conservative says you know what, hes a liberal, hes africanamerican, maybe i have a different background than him, but, boy hes been a clean representative. I dont know about that. I think there are representatives willing to accept they accept this mulligan president on everything he does. When are they going to be consistent with their values . Weve got three more years to go with this president. For the good of this country we cant just oppose him at every single turn. So we have to think of the future . Weve to accept. Anyway, more Breaking News the president will not declassify the rebuttal of the nunes memo. Cent, this is shocker. Ken dilanian, because youre the
expert on this, why in the world is the president saying im going to keep it secret . As alfonso pointed out, americans dont like secrets. Im not shocked by this, chris. Its very clear democrats included some Sensitive Information in this memo to make the point all the information did not come from the Christopher Steele dossier. And some of it is troubling some Law Enforcement intelligence officials. They want to work with it so they can change it so it can still be released bleeding out some of this more Sensitive Information. Do you think thats the president s reason . Im sure there are some things that are embarrassing for them and theyd like to use the Redaction Process to get rid of that, but the democrats are going to fight that hard. Its all part of the push and pull. But when youre dealing with highly classified information, oftentimes its how it plays out. We saw the Senate Investigation of cia torture, it took two
years to declassify that report we can expect Ranking Member adam schiff from california and the Intelligence Committee to issue a new version of the memo next week, and thatll set the Clock Ticking again. Is that right . Yeah, thats our understanding. Really the Executive Branch holds a lot of cards here. Congress has to dedefer to them when they say, hey, theres some secrets we need to with hold. The republicans need help to force the president s decision on this. Some people have pointed out that the Republican Party even without trump has lost some of its core principles. Republicans have been very concerned as i have been growing up with deficits. I worry about how much the government can borrow, how much before it pushes Interest Rates up and taxes young couples to pay out key bonds for older
owners, and how long can we keep doing that . Theres no interest of the Republican Party about deficits especially under a republican bae president. Its over a trillion dollars now. When are they going to start being worried . Chris, paul ryan has already said the next thing we have to do is get at medicare, medicaid, social security. Hes got a plan. But to a point you care about i didnt like that spending bill. I agree in general with rand paul. But, you know, how do you govern in washington these days when washington is so polarized . And we have the 60 vote in the Senate Perhaps this is the only way to legislate. Congressman, thank you for joining us by phone. What do you make of the fact the president is sitting on this
democratic memo . Good evening, chris. Im reflexively skeptical as one should be with the president around this investigation. It looks obstructive, but im willing to give the Department Of Justice the benefit of the doubt and hear from them if they are going to come in on tuesday and explain to us what their concerns are and that those concerns are not from any pressure that the president has put on them. And if they are legitimate, then we should still release the memo that correct the record but is free from any political omigs r omissions that the president may want to have. What do you think of the timing . Here he is pulling it after the nightly news, probably going to miss a lot of Press Coverage by the way they timed this. This is the old garbage dump time of the week. Midnight, heading towards midnight on a friday night, thats when you tell people what you dont want them to hear. What do you make of that, congressman . In congress we are now in the
position where we must demand that be displayed to public. Devin nunes is the one who moved for this to become public. Devin nunes should stand on the House Floor On Tuesday and say to his colleagues to release it. Its now back in our court. We should hear from the department first, but i do suspect knowing this president he may have tried to put political pressure on the Department Of Justice. Can i trick you into telling me what the most important thing we should read or expect to come from this memo, or you cant tell us . I can tell you it shows the arsenal of evidence that went into Surveilling Carter page nptd of the steele investigation. I think it puts a very accurate time line and it shows or elevates the seriousness of what russia was doing and why we should have been so concerned about who they were working. I think that is what people want to know, that this whole thing that was trumped up, literally trumped up, that somehow the only reason they
looked into the russia situation is because of what Christopher Steele did for the democrats. As congressman swalwell said, the democratic memo was supposed to give a longer time line, showed the interest in carter page that predated that episode, and why he in particular was of concern. And he was of concern before this whole thing happened. Yeah, 2013. Yeah, exactly. So why was that . And the thing that the Trump Campaign and now Trump Administration has never liked is the obvious question that comes next, which is what were they doing hang out with this guy . Like why was he a Foreign Policy advisor if he had these known problems . And why once carter page himself knew that there was a problem afoot and potentially knew that he was under investigation or surveillance, why did he himself not come forward . Grzmcongressman, let me ask about that. The fact this memo responding to the nunes memo would clarify the reason that the fbi looked and surveilled basically, carter page anything we expect to hear as the final version comes out next week, the revised version of the democratic memo, what else can we expect to learn . It was mostly to restore, fairly restore the credibility of the fbi. Because they sought to really poison the investigation. This memo of theirs needed an ant dote. The fbis credibility needed an anticipate dote. And so thats what it did. But, chris, we did something they werent willing to do. We asked the department to review our memo before it went out. So if this is the department saying they have concerns, then we should be open to addressing them. But i really knowing this president , i have a lot of questions about what his role was in making this decision. Theres a big story that
broke later today which is youre going to separate the two staffs of the senate and House Intelligence Committee by a wall. Is that because you dont trust the republican Staff Members on the committee, that theyre working with the white house . No, we think that would be a terrible decision. This committee has always worked in an open manner. Its been a bipartisan committee. This is something that we understand is being done at the urging of the chairman. And we hope thats not the case. And hell, chris, if we take back the white house you can expect us having to teardown that wall party so we can go back to bipartisanship. So you think theyre up to something, that theyre hiding from you . No, i think its their consistent nature of wanting to not bring us in on this investigation and continue to pursue their own i think obstructive behavior and actions. And so its unfortunate, but its not how our committee has ever worked in the past and, you know, hopefully this is only for