Transcripts For MSNBCW Hardball With Chris Matthews 20180524

Steps to yield to his demands. In two separate meetings, Top Justice Department and intelligence officials met with trumps congressional allies and other lawmakers to go over confidential materials about the use of an fbi informant in the russia probe. Afterwards, speaking on behalf of the democrats, congressman adam schiff said there was nothing in the briefings to support the president s Conspiracy Theory. Nothing we heard today has changed our view that there is no evidence to support any allegation that the fbi or any Intelligence Agency placed a spy in the Trump Campaign or otherwise failed to follow appropriate procedures and protocols. Thank you. In another stunning it development, we learned one of the president s Defense Attorneys in the russia probe, emmet flood, was present for part of both meetings. Though he left before any classified information was discussed. He was there along with trumps chief of staff john kelly even though Sarah Sanders specifically said on tuesday that no one from the white house would participate. In a statement today, the white house said that neither chief kelly nor mr. Flood attended the meetings but made brief remarks before the meeting started to relay the president s desire for as much openness as possible under the law. However, that explanation didnt senator democratic senator mark warner who said on twitter, for the record, the president s chief of staff and his attorney in an ongoing criminal investigation into the president s campaign have no business showing up to a classified intelligence briefing. Despite all there, Rudy Giuliani appeared to suggest the president would ultimately learn what came out of the meeting anyway speaking of his negotiations whether the president will testify, he said we want to see how much we learned from the briefing today. If we learned a good deal, it will shorten that process considerably. Wow. Im joined by david corn, mother jones and msnbc political analyst, heidi priz ba la, and seth waxman, a former federal prosecutor. David, this is a rabbit holy think. I think the Justice Department has been drawn down into the rabbit hole. I dont know why they agreed to this meeting or talking about their evidence. The president is the defendant in this case in all effects. Why are they giving his lawyer access to the meeting, his chief of staff access to the meeting, and why are they even meeting with these people . Theyre investigating them. Ive never heard of investigators meeting with the people theyre investigating to go over their evidence to see if its okay that they use it. Its extraordinary. Its a continuation of what weve seen for over a year now. First they said unmasking was the real scandal. It wasnt. Then they said obama bugging trump was the scandal. No, it wasnt. Fisa warrant, uranium one and now its this phony baloney story about a spy on the campaign. This is donald trump and all his minions creating alternative realities. Just fake facts to get out there to distract from the core issue, russia attacked this country and while russia was attacking this country during the 2016 campaign, the Trump Campaign was sending out positive signals to russia and denying to the public that this attack was under way. Every moment they throw up one of these confusing narratives, it distracts and keeps us from talking about the real thing itself. Now its degrading the Justice Department. Heidi, how do you as a reporter keep the focus away from this reality trump keeps creating . He is running a fake presidency. This whole thing doesnt exist any more than the birther thing existed. Its madeup stuff, all the stuff david just mentioned is fabricated, fake. Yet, its covered because the president of the United States deserves daily press coverage. How do you stop covering what is fake itself . No one is stopping in his own party. That is why is this is continues to happen. Rosenstein is doing his best, making a calculation here that hes going to try and in the end save this investigation by mollifying this president in terms of even agreeing to this meeting in the first place. But what happened . As soon as he agreed to the meeting, chris, a day later is when the president began this whole spy gate tweeting conspiracy. So the president , what hes doing is taking any and every advantage when that sliver opens in the door to throw up the fog like david said. This is round three. We saw the wiretapping allegations, we saw the unmasking allegations. All of it bogus. Today no one coming out of that meeting and saying there was any credibility to these accusatio s there was a spy in his campaign. On the contrary, James Clapper confirmed an informant was needed because of evidence based n investigation showing that there was a need for someone to go into the campaign and find out what the heck was going on with the russians trying to communicate with the potential future president of the United States. Again, i go back to the reverse universe where you say suppose we had an fbi that did not check out evidence that the russians were messing with our president ial election including one of the campaigns that they were taking one of the sides. If they were not doing that, what would we make of the fbi in terms of Counter Intelligence . Were they doing their job . Of course, not. Well the president continued to purposefully misrepresent the fact on twitter this morning, falsely saying that the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper has now admitted that there was spying in my campaign. However, clap ker very clearly said just the opposite on tuesday. Lets watch him. Was the fbi spying on Trumps Campaign . No, no, they were not. They were spying on a term i dont particularly like on what the russians were doing trying to understand were the russians trying to access and leverage and influence which is what they do. Seth what, do we do about our 0 judicial system to keep it whole where you have a president who has been able to push his way into the actual investigation itself, bringing his attorney, private sector attorney emmet flood into a meeting to sort of make it clear who the boss is, bring his chief of staff into the meeting for the same purpose, all the time demanding what he calls transparency . In other words, he wants to know everything he can about whats coming his way in terms of the investigation so that he can throw it over, pull it apart, pull the plug on it or what. I never heard of a situation where the defendant gets to call the shots in the investigation. Yeah, its entirely unprecedented. Maybe except for the nixon administration. We know how that turned out. The idea that a subject gets to send his surrogates into the prosecutors office, demand to see documents, demand to know the identity of a confidential informant, learn how that informant was run and operated doesnt happen. Then you sends mr. Flood, the attorney to wait outside and shake hands of people walking in saying lets keep it transparent. Theres a threat with that. He works for the boss. Hes going to report back to the boss. What the boss wants is the result that you all know. Lets go in there and make sure the right result comes out as trump has said and what you know he wants. Its troubling and as for the judicial system, we all have to hope that the wheels of justice will the continue to grind the way theyre supposed to and ultimately the right result will come out. Unlike business where sometimes the ends, the capitalization, the winning of a deal is the goal, the Justice Department works differently. It is the process that counts. Ewussed to talk when we were prosecutors, it doesnt mat fer its guilt or innocence at the end of the day, as long as the process was followed. That is the right result. A not guilty verdict is justice if the process was followed. Thats what were losing here, the process. David, lets go back to something weve been through together. Thats the ability of a president to create treat create something because he is president that people begin to believe must it be sort of real. So had you bush getting us into the war in iraq basedmon upon whoever r whoever where he never admitted his own motive and came up with a motive for the country, something called wmd and how they had it and blah, blah, and there were meetings in prague and all kinds of stuff and cheney lied. They created a reality. Heres a president who uses words like spy and spy gate and people out there in the talk shows, i just know theyre eating it up. Eating it up the columnists on the right buying into a total hallucinati hallucination. What are begoing to do in our democracy as we move forward to prevent president s from creating something out of nothing just for their political survival . Trump is doing something new here. You and i have been through a bunch of scandals whether it was watergate, iran con traction even the Monica Lewinsky stuff and Campaign Finance scandals of the clinton years and wmd stuff. There never was a dispute over some basic realities. There was a breakin at watergate. Arms were sold to iran and money given to the con traz and people accepted these things once they emerged. People tried to keep them hidden. The question was who knew what, was there a violation of law. There time around, donald trump has i guess learned the lesson of marketing that the truth doesnt matter. So he gets out there and says there was no attack. Its all a hoax. Its all a witch hunt. He knows 30 of his people, the people who he said would stick with him even if he shot someone on fifth avenue will accept his reality. And i heard this frustration in heidis voice when she spoke a few minutes ago. How had do you break through that, how do you have a set of facts you can talk about and deal with them and have a True National discourse. Trump is doing Everything Possible to make sure we cant have an honest debate because he cant survive one. This morning came after a former top intelligence official, five officials expressed concern how is the investigation is becoming politicized. When congressional oversight is focused on Counter Intelligence investigations we worry about inappropriate political influence on the investigators and the erosion of a bipartisan approach to intelligence and National Security. Heidi, back to you. How do we cover we have people like paul ryan, i always think has been overstipulated in his ability and his character. Im serious about this. Why is he going over this . This is like boehner before him saying i dont want to tell people what to think about birtherism. Theyre so spineless in the republican party, theyre puppets for trump and will say anything or avoid saying anything against trump for fear of their base kicking them out. Of course, this is a big legacy question for paul ryan, chris, because unlike mitch mcconnell, hes got devin nunes and hes not been rairning in announce. A lot of this goes back to in terms of throwing up the fog and speaking about unmasking and wiretapping and this whole meeting that was arranged to nunes. Why this is different, what nixon did not have was a far right Media Echo Chamber that is allowing this to happen. Chris, i was in the heartland this past week in cadillac, michigan, and every place that i walked into had those chirons up at the bottom of fox news talking about spies infiltrating the Trump Campaign. No matter what they say, 30 of the people are going to believe it. And this is why its working, chris, because at the end of the day, no matter what muellers recommendations are, its not up to him to take action. Who is up to . Its up to congress. Congress will have to look at those findings and decide whether or not to impeach. You have that question out there still about whether you can indict a sitting president. That leaves it to congress. If they can throw up enough of a fog and just exhaust people about what the truth is, theyve succeeded. When the findings come out, 30 at least will not believe them. Well, the question arises what is the party of lincoln going to be represented by someone like lincoln . And loyal to that tradition. Asked whether the meeting today was appropriate, paul ryan backed calls to investigate the investigators and defended ruchs actions in the name of transparency. Lets watch. We know russia med ded in our election. We know there was were going to get to the bottom of that and well find how all that took place. A lot of this is classified. Well have more briefings on this today. I dont know the answer to that question. Do you think that the president has done any lasting damage to the fbi and doj . No, i do not believe that that is the case. I think, first of all, its important we have good thorough oversight accountability and transparent sit heals all wounds that are committed by a government. Seth, sooner or later i hope this comes to a reckoning. Most americans do want the facts. Somehow even in the report by mr. Mueller himself that would go to the country and perhaps, as well to the congress, utley perhaps to congress if its a Democratic Congress or republican congress, this very to rule on there. Is there impeachable grounds. Thats a good point. Can you do that where facts themselveses are questioned, where one side can say those are facts as Rudy Giuliani said yesterday, there are different versions of the truth. What does that mean exactly . What do you mean different versions of the truth . I mean, thats very troubling. What you have to believe is when the process is carried out that there will be a fair, open and honest hearing whether thats a trial oral impeachment proceeding. Its my opinion that trump and his team have the long game in mind that a sitting president will not be indicted. There are constitution hurdles for that. That might be the correct result. So in an impeachment proceeding, there needs to be twothirds of the senate to remove a sitting president. So there needs all trump is looking for is 34 republican senators that despite what the evidence is, despite how overwhelming it might be, to davids point earlier, he could go on fifth avenue and shoot someone and the people will stand by him. If those 34 republican senators will vote not to remove him in il peachment proceedings, he wins. He may tear the country part in the process. That may it be his end game. Donald trump cares about one thing only. Its himself. I dont know that he has a perspective on the institution of the presidency. I wish some reporters would go out and go door 0 door of the zunts senate and ask all the senators if donald trump or any president shot someone on fifth avenue point blank in broad daylight, would you vote to remove him from office or not. Im telling you, youre going to have a hard time getting dozens of those republicans to say even then would they move to take this guy out of office. No comment. Theyre all scared to death. They would just send their thoughts and prayers, chris. Thank you, sir. David corn, of course, heidi pryzbilla and seth waxman, thank you for your various contributions to thisyearold discussion. The other big story of the day, President Trump called off his summit with north korea. What have now . Well find out whether kim jongun is really wanting to make a deal with us or whether they want to play with us. Plus, the nfl caves to trump vowing to find teams whose players kneel during Data National anthem. For some players and former players its a decision that hits them as unamerican. Well talk to one of them tonight. And trumps tribalism. Hes willing to tear down the institutions of this country and stir it up distractions as his way of shielding himself from justice. Hes using this, taking issue on that front. Its all about the rule of trump, not the rule of law. He wants people taking sides. Tribally preferably. Finally let me finish tonight with trump watch. This is hardball. Or plan for tomorrow . At kpmg, we believe success requires both. With our broad range of services and industry expertise, kpmg can help you anticipate tomorrow and deliver today. Kpmg. With my bladder leakage, the products ive tried just didnt fit right. They were very saggy. Its getting in the way of our camping trips. But with new sizes, depend fitflex is made for me. Introducing more sizes for better comfort. 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He was only there to spy for political reasons and to help crooked hillary win. Yes, follow trump down account rabbit hole here, okay . They embedded a spy early on and paid him massive sums of money to sabotage the Trump Campaign with false claims of russian collusion in the press to help Hillary Clinton win and then, and heres the insidious part, they didnt tell the press. And Hillary Clinton lost so when trump reveal this had plot, he would seem like a desperate criminal spinning con spir sill theories to stop the walls from closing in. Nice try, deep state. Nice try. Thats not satire nip. Thats america. Well be right back. Looking for advantages. The smart ones look to fidelity to find them. We give you research and datavisualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. So, you can do it this way. Or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. Fidelity. 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Ive spoken to general mattis and the joint chiefs of staff and our military which is by far the most powerful anywhere in the world that has been greatly enhanced recently as you all know is ready if necessary. Hopefully positive things will be taking place with respect to the future of north korea. But if they dont, we are more ready than we have ever been before. We, the decision to cancel the summit came hours after north korea threatened to call it off themselves. The north korean envoy warned among yang could make the u. S. Taste an appalling tragedy it has neither experienced nor imagined if american officials continue to threaten their leadership. They took issue with recent comments by Vice President mike pence. We really hope that kim jongun will seize the opportunity to dismantle his Nuclear Weapons program and do so by peaceable means. You know, there was some talk about the libyan model last week. And you know, as the president made clear, you know, this this will only end like the libyan model ended if kim jongun doesnt make a deal. Well, the north korean envoy called the comments by the Vice President ignorant and stupid and called the Vice President himself a political dummy. The move caught our allies in the region off guard. The south korean president said he was perplexed and called an emergency midnight meeting with his top aides to figure out what they do next. Im joined by andrea mitchell. Joel scirrhous yoen nia msnbc Nuclear Security analyst and gordon chang from the daily beast and author of the coming collapse of china. Andrea, i know you know more than i know. Whats behind all this . Is it our fault, their fault . Why is this breaking down . Certainly theres a lot of the criticism na the president leaped into this had too quickly, did not wait to be fully briefed by the south koreans and go through what would be a normal National Security Council Process of hearing from au sides. Once it was engaged a lot of people thought maybe this could work. He then persisted to have very High Expectations talking about complete denuclearization. It wasnt ever clear the two sides agreed what this really meant and according to my reporting and to a lot of experts weve spoken to today, china intervened in the last couple of weeks, we saw a definite hardening of north koreas stance. The president alluded to this himself after kim jonguns second visit to china in the last two months. It was only the second time he had been to china in six years, he had never been there. The fact that after this second visit certainly the analysis seems to be that china was telling him to chlo down. They felt sidelined by it. The last thing they want to see is reunification of north and south with china opt sidelines and with the u. S. Such a dominant player, a u. S. north korea summit with south korea marginally involved and china left out of the whole discussion. So china was going to be the biggest loser here and took action. Now the biggest loser is certainly president moon of north korea who ran heavily his whole Political Campaign was based on reconciliation north and south. He was heavily invested in and he was in the oval office two days ago and still talking about this summit taking place. How can we cut a deal with north korea quhout chips support. I think well have to because theres been a lot of chinese mischief make. Since the middle of february, beginning of march, weve seen chinas sanctions enforcement markedly deteriorate. I think thats one of the reasons were in the predicament we are now. President trump should have called the chinese out on this earlier. He only called them out on it on monday and basically beijing felt it could do a lot and the United States wouldnt oppose hill. So thats why weve got a very bad dynamic going at this particular moment. Joe, any hope for a deal . Is this perhaps business dealing by trump where you walk away from the table so the other side has to come back with a better offer . Its possible you could back this up and start to do it the way you would normally do Something Like this. A lot of preparation, months of discussion, mid level, then more senior officials and a summit that caps off the agreement. Were trapped in a wup man National Security policy from hell. He blind sides allies. He doesnt consult with congress. As far as we know, he didnt consult with his own National Security council. He dick tas this bizarre actually embarrassing letter. Could this be a negotiating strategy . Possibly. We have no idea whats about to happen with this president either on domestic or here on interNational Security policy. Were back to playing a game of Nuclear Chicken in the korean peninsula. Lets go back to andrea. Why do you think the president allowed his National Security adviser, john bolton and why does he allow his Vice President to do this trash talk . I think thats the right word for it, talking about regime change, talking about the kind of language you can almost guarantee will start a fight rather than bring people to the table . I think initially with john bolton, this was not something that the president allowed because he rebuked bolton for it afterwards and said thats not really what were talking about here. The president was so forward leaning and praising kim jongun as being honorable and for releasing the three american prisoners he never should have had in the first place. What mike pence did was clearly doubling down on bolton last night after he already knew this thing was going off the rails. Let me go back to gordon on this other question which is does is it possible to imagine that kim jongun has some rational sense of his countrys interests southwest his own and to the extent theyre identified, is there anything he really needs from us in the next 20 years of his life that we can give him if he plays ball with us . Is there anything he really wants from us . There are three things. I think he wants sanctions relief. He doesnt want the United States to take out his missile and nuke facilities as some people in the administration threatened. Also, he wants a counter balance to china. North korea, hes a korean. And the koreans and chinese have been at each others throats literally for two millennia. The United States is a country that has no territorial designs on korea unlike china. It would be really good for kim if he could have a Good Relationship with the United States because that would sort of put china back. So those three things are things i think that critically he wants at this particular moment. Theres still a game to be played here then. Thank you, andrea, gordon and joe. Up next, President Trump praises the nfls new policy about the National Anthem even suggesting players who take a knee shouldnt be in the country. Were going to talk to a former nfl player next. Youre watching hardball where the action is. And this is lauras mobile dog grooming palace. Laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but shes not much on articles of organization. Articles of what . So, she turned to legalzoom. They helped me out. She means we helped with her llc, trademark, and a lot of other legal stuff thats a part of running a business. So laura can get back to the dogs. Would you sit still . This is lauras mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. That skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and Customer Service are critical to business success. Like the ones we teach here, every day. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. And Customer Service are critical to business success. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. electronic dance music hello. Give me an hour in tanning room 3. Cheers thats confident. But its not kayak confident. Kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to help me plan the best trip. So im more than confident. Forgot me goggles. Kayak. Search one and done. Wouldnt you love to see one of these nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag, to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, hes fired . Welcome back to hardball. That was President Trump last fall lashing out at players who chose to kneel during the National Anthem in protest of police brutality. Trumps words set off a firestorm, of course, and the nfl reknighted that controversy yesterday outlining a new policy to address players taking a knee. Thats the term for it. Under the policy, players on the field are required now to stand during the National Anthem or the team will face a fine. It gives players the choice to stay off the field in the locker room during the anthem without facing a penalty. This morning on fox friends, President Trump praised that decision. Well, i think thats good. I dont think people should be staying in locker rooms. Still you have to stand proudly for the National Anthem or you shouldnt be there. Maybe you shouldnt be in the country. For more im joined by donte stallwor stallworth, 11year veteran of the nfl. I dont know how you make somebody stand in respect without showing some sign of anger or contempt for being forced to do so. Your thoughts about how players will react if in this does go into effect . I think the players and theyve a lot of them have expressed their feelings through twitter. Theyre not going to just sit down and take this from the president. Theyre not going to sit down and take this from the nfl. I think the president has attacked nfl players consistently since last season. Even before that when colin first decided to take a knee in 2016. The players know that the president you know, has been attacking them and will at all costs. I think the interesting part to me is that you look at this issue as the height of hypocrisy from folks on the other side of this argue who profess to love the constitution and profess to be freedom loving patriots. Theyll go to the ends of the earth to defend and find all types of i couldnt have indication for the Second Amendment even when our babies are in cloops being murdered. When it comes to the first anticipate, theyre silent. The first amendments not for popular speech. We dont need to protect people say popular things about our country. Its when you Say Something that rubs people the wrong way is when you need the freedom. Yeah you do. Thats the founding principles of this country. You look at obviously the constitution, its the very first amendment. Obviously, the Founding Fathers thought that was probably the most important thing that they could institute in our country going forward. From being from countrys inception. But again, you know, the players know what the nfl has is doing here. Theyre cow 2000ing to the president. The president has a beef with the nfl for decades now because they wouldnt let him buy an nfl team. Hes done as much as he can to attack nfl players. But again, you see sterling brown, what happened to him, the Milwaukee Bucks rookie where he was tased by police officers. That is precisely why nfl players have chosen to kneel. You know, ive been watching at nba playoffs like a lot of people. Theyve been fabulous. I dont know who end up on top or the two teams. Earring team will make it to the favorites. Ive heard nfl players dont have the leverage nba players have. One guy like lebron or steph or dwayne could say im not playing here and the coach is gone. Potentially. They get along with their coaches. Do nfl players have the kind of leverage where they can say damn it to the openers, we want to do this and were going to do it . I this i they do. The thing about the nfl versus the nba in that regard, chris, is that theres 11, 12, maybe 13 or 14 guys on an nba roster. And in an nfl roster there are 60 guys. Youve got to get a lot of guys on the same page to be able to pull something off like that, but it can be done. If it does happen in the nfl, the owners will have to take account because the players africanamericans make up more than twothirds of the nfl. So theyve definitely got a voice. Lets talk about how it could have been done. The Nfl Players Association said they were not consulted by League Owners making a decision but some players expressed disagreement with the new policy. Malcolm jenkins generally said in a statement what nfl owners did today was thwart the players constitutional right to express themselves. His teammate chris long writing this is a fear of diminished bottom line about economics. One owner the new york jets Christopher Johnson said he would pay any fines and would not discipline the players what do you think of that owner of the giants . What do you make of this guy . Hes one of the 31 who voted for this for this thing you have to keep it in the locker room then he says but ill pay the fine. There was such fear here it seems. It is. Again, it goes back obviously to the president and how hes used the oval office you know, to kind of attack any of his perceived adversaries. Even our own institutions the fbi, doj, its just im more concerned honestly about how the president and this administration has been flirting with author tearnism. The president is buddies with duterte out of the philippines, hes buddies and said very complimentary things about vladimir putin. He said the same things about kim jongun. And hes obviously good friends with erdogan who we all know is another head of state thats an authoritarian. I dont know how any fan white or black or hispanic, and i know they love the nfl teams, i grew up in an nfl town, i live in one now, washington. The people white and black love theireams like you cant maj. They wear the players names on their backs, the kids do. They get war paint and everything on in d. C. How can you root for a player carrying your heart in an nfl sunday afternoon game . How do you care about that guy as a champion at the same time know youve gagged the guy, humiliated the guy and told him he cant express his first anticipate rights . This is disquieting, dahntay. Its disquieting morally to me. I dont know how anybody can like an apart hide world where people are told what to do and not to do in that way please come back. I dont think this is the last word thanks to guys like you. Up next, trumps tribalism. Hes rallying his base around the culture wars and running a Distraction Campaign to sheed himself from justice. He wants to change the topicing fromming what do we know to whose side are you on . Its so trumpian this whole thing about taking a knee is so trump. Thats ahead. Youre watching hardball. Up c. If you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. Ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. Humira can help stop the clock. 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Used to be an insider, to be honest with you, okay . I know the inside and i know the outside. And thats why im the only one that can fix this mess, folks. Nobody is going to be able to do the kind of things i can do. I think i shake things up. The country had to be shaken up. Welcome back to hardball. Donald trump promised his base ed shake things up. You just heard him. This week hes done just that on multiple fronts. His message was essentially youre either with him or against him. The president attacked the Justice Department and the fbi trying to persuade americans to believe him and not our governmental institutions. Watch him here. I want from rod, from the fbi, from everybody, we want transparency. You know what . I think in their own way, they are obstructionists but even the democrats i believe on this issue i think they want transparency, too. In the culture front, also the racial front he waded back into the debate on the nfl. He told fox news that players who kneeled during the National Anthem should maybe not be in this country. Hes going to deport them. Lets watch. I dont think people should be staying in lacquer rooms. You have to stand proudly for the National Anthem. Or you shouldnt be playing. You shouldnt be there. Maybe you shouldnt be in the country. Lets bring in tonights roundtable ginger gibson from Reuters News Service and Jason Johnson politics editor for the root. Com and contributor. I want you starting with aisha, put this together the way trump is trashing our institutions, the by, from and for the people institutions like the fbi, our u. S. Government, our democratic form of government and at the same time accusing everything of it being a deep state. At the same time taking the side of the owners against the players in this issue of taking a knee. I think its part of one thing. What do you think, aisha . I think when it comes to the nfl, President Trump feels like hes honed in on an issue where he can rile up his base. He feels like this really connects to them. Its a very divisive issue. If he paints it as people being unpatriotic, he feels like thats a winner for him. I think hes seeing how far can he take it. Hes saying these people should be put out of the country. These people are protesting police brutality. And racial inequality and not protesting the flag. That is what trump has focusd on. I think he feels thats a winner for him. Ginger. President trump is trying to just throw all he can at the wall and hope that people listen to what they want to hear. Hes talking to segments of his base by talking about nfl. Hes talking to segments of his base by threatening tariffs on autos. Talking to segments of his base when talking about north korea and the way that he did today. This is a hope that People Choose their onus that they hear what they want to hear and they take away what he thinks they want to hear. This is an effort to sort of toss it all out there, muddy the channels and hope people walk away only with a piece that they think resonates with them. Jason, is this fox news nation . Is it basically taking the 40 some that voted him and back him still and say, lets remember what side were on . Dont look at evidence, dont think about black white relations in this country, how we can get along with each other, think about how much we hate each other. Lets fight. Thats exactly what it is. This is dictator in training 101. Everybody hates you. Im the one who loves you. The media hates you and the department of justice is out to get you. Those black people are out to get you. Theyre terrible. This is Trumps Campaign all along from the white nationalals he brought into his administration. I will say, a lot of these openers agree with trump. They didnt have to do this out of fear. You look at some of the comments from the owner of the panthers, the Houston Texans they were just and angry and has tile for their black working staff as trump is in the white house. Why didnt he negotiate with them . There is a common way to do this right. People, express themselves without disrupting things. The roundtable is sticking with us. Up next, these three will tell me something i dont know. Be right back. But behr premium stain can weather any weather. Behr premium semitransparent stain and sealer, overall 1 rated, weathers it all. Right now, get incredible savings on behr paints and stains. Exclusively at the home depot. One picky customer shouldnt take all your time. Need something printed . The Business Advisors at office depot can assist with exactly what your Business Needs to grow. Get your coupon for 20 off services, technology and more at office depot and officedepot. Com. Technology and more heartburn and gas . Now fight both fast new tums chewy bites with gas relief all in one relief of heartburn and gas tum tum tum tums new tums chewy bites with gas relief well, it was a big day for our family today. Caroline Elizabeth Matthews our daughter was awarded a graduate degree from Harvard Universitys john f. Kennedys school of government. She continues to impress kathleen and i with her high academic achievements. We could not have been more proud today any more than the weather this boston today could not have been more perfect. Well be right back. From capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy. Everything. And that 2 cash back adds up to thousands of dollars each year. So i can keep growing my business in big leaps whats in your wallet . The kayak explore tool shows you the places you can fly on your budget. So you can be confident youre getting the most bang for your buck. Aloha. Kayak. Search one and done. Because no mattergineer what life brings,rgent . Our commitment to clean remains the same. Now with 10x the cleaning power. Tide, americas 1 detergent were back with the hardball roundtable. Ayesha, tell me something i dont know. The fbi had been telling it the public and congress that nearly, there were nearly 8,000 phones that were encrypted and they couldnt access potential evidence in criminal investigations due to this. It turns out the number of phones theyre dealing with that have encryptions are a fraction of that and theyve been double counting or counting duplicates and so that information the fbi just released that information this week. Okay. Thank you. Ginger . Midterm to watch, amy mcgrath retired marine pilot who won the primary in kentucky this week has got internal polling that has her 15 points ahead of the republican incumbent andy barr. And new numbers, her fund raising in her first 24 hours of being the nominee, she had 544 online donors that donated over 46,000. Shes going to be one to watch. If women want women to vote and men want women to vote and win, weve all got to vote. Jason. As you know, stacey abe raps won a huge primary to be georgias possible next governor. 70 some . 76 to 24 . She won 152 out of 159 keep thes that includes essentially all white counties in the northern and southern part of the state. Not only is this race important for the historic level but you have president ial level candidates including joe biden slipping into atlanta and trying to find information how she did it. Shes teaching us. Ayesha ras co, ginger gibson. Let me finish tonight with trump watch. Youre watching hardball. Once there was an organism so small no one thought much of it at all. People said it just made a mess until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. They thought someday it could become fuel and power our cars wouldnt that be cool . And thats why exxonmobil scientists think its not small at all. Energy lives here. A hilton getaway means you get more because. 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And lets go do it all right here. Ready to go . Peloton. Today, 97 of employers agree that skills like teamwork, attention to detail, and Customer Service are critical to business success. Like the ones we teach here, every day. 2018. Let me underline the words i spoke in wednesdays program. Until watching him on the white house lawn yesterday, i wasnt sure how far donald trump would go in destroying this countrys most precious assets in order to protect himself from justice. Well now we know. His willing to use the oval office, the historic pulpit of the presidency to trash the very institutions that have made this an exceptional country. A government of, by and for the people, a history of open and reasonable and generally respectful political debate, a free press. His personal assaults on a former fbi director and his raging nonsense about a spy ring are fresh proof of his readiness to destroy any faith in Government Integrity in order to save some reasonable doubt among son about his own integrity. He reverts to the division that haunted this country since its origins, racism and the lingering cause of white supremacy. Yes, telling the Football Players we watch on sunday to behave as they are told is something we expect of apartheid regime, not a democratic one. Our rights to free speech fought for all this countrys life is not to defend popular speech but what many even a majority of the country doesnt want to hear. You dont need right foz say what is popular. Its been clear from his entrance into the political arena that trump is willing to state what he knows is not the truth in order to divide this country. He did that early on with his claim that barack obama was a legal immigrant ineligible to be listed among our president s and up through today he badgers our institutions of press freedom and government while dredging up the worst of our history in the order to advance himself. If you believe that the ends, his political survival, justifies such means tonight on all in. When they look at the documents, i think people are going to see a lot of bad things happen. The president s Conspiracy Theory goes boom. There is no evidence to support any allegation that the fbi or any Intelligence Agency placed a spy in the Trump Campaign. And tonights new formal word from the mueller team that the investigation into donald trump and his campaign is much larger than anyone thought. Then i actually have communicated with assange. New evidence that trump associate roger stone was