Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live 20170401

Hey, you bought gasx® unlike antacids, gasx ® relieves pressure and bloating fast. Huh, crisis averted. Im Yasmin Vossoughian back with you. The russia investigation is heating up. Vladimir putin came out and denied any involvement in the 2016 election. Former National Security adviser mike flynn has offered to testify in exchange for immunity, but the senate has reportedly rejected his offer. The president took to twitter accusing fake media of pushing the phony russian story trying to redirect attention to an obama surveillance scandal. Plus this i will never, ever support a Single Payer Health care system for america. Ever. And fired up voters giving senator Lindsey Graham all he could handle during a town hall earlier today. Well start with the white house and misdirection mode. The president today calling the investigations phony. Pointing the fingers at the Obama Administration and the media. This coming after reports that three white house officials helped House Intelligence Committee chairman devin nunes view classified intelligence. The documents related to incidental surveillance of Trump Associates and was initially only given to nunes and not the committee. Nunes responding on friday. You understand were not going to get into sources and methods. If not, who is ever going to come to our committee. But i can tell you those reports are mostly wrong. And the other big headline, Michael Flynn offered to testify in the russia investigation for immunity but two congressional sources tell nbc news that deal has been rejected. The senate could start interviewing people in their russia probe as early as monday. Kelly odonnell is following all of the developments from the white house. Reporter good afternoon. President trump is here at the white house today. Aides say hes hold something meetings, having some phone calls. Hes used his twitter feed earlier today, and he is drawing more attention to the whole russia issue at the same time he is saying its fake news and phony. The president is stirring even more interest in that because of his tweets, and the power of the reach of his twitter feed. There are russian investigations going to about interference during the campaign season. Also about possible ties between associates of donald trump as a candidate. Two figures in russia. Much to still be learned, and this week, the senate Intelligence Committee will begin the first of a series of what they say will be at least 20 interviews they want to meet, talk to and see if there is evidence or information they can share to help shape the investigation Going Forward. Those interviews which will begin early in the week will be behind closed doors. Its preliminary stages. Also Michael Flynn, the former National Security adviser who only lasted a few weeks here, he has also through his attorney suggested the idea of immunity for his participation in testifying. Very early stages for that and the Intelligence Committees say its far too soon. And he is too central a figure for them to even consider Something Like that at this stage. The president also saying the attention should be on surveillance, unrelated to russia, he says, using his twitter feed but without providing any evidence to back up those new tweets from the president. Kelly odonnell for us. Joining me, senior Political Editor beth fouhy. Mike flynns immunity offer seems to be denied. Why do you think . Well, we know its to happened on the senate side and on the house side, adam schiff put out a statement saying it was quite extraordinary that a former National Security adviser would even make this request but they would consider it. It was far too soon to determine whether or not they were going to say yes or no. And then also the fbi. If hes offering to testify in exchange for immunity to the fbi, they, too, have to weigh in. Weve got several different competing and yet collecting investigations going on all at once. So we do know the senate has said no at this point. What happens next is basically flynn has to come forward or his lawyer has to come forward and say we have something so jermaine to this investigation and something you cant get unless i testify about it that they could then make the case for immunity. That doesnt seem to have happened yet. So they could feasibly change their mind. They say denied for now. The senate has said no but theres the house and possibly the federal government, the Justice Department. If he comes forward, if flynn comes forward and has a bombshell that they need, thats the whole point of immunity. I will give you something in exchange for what you are giving me. Its a negotiation. So i want to switch off russia. The fight between the administration and the Freedom Caucus. Its continuing today. The president s social media director calling for justin amash to be primary. How big of a deal is this . Its very unclear what trump is trying to do. The only way hes going to push his agenda through congress is to make friends in congress. You dont just push everybody away to help you make friends. If hes pushed away democrats or theyll not work with him for all sorts of reasons, if hes pushing away the freedom calk urks hes got a very group of people. Its the rest of the republicans and only that group who can get his agenda across. Thats very hard to do to get to 216 electoral votes if youre irritating and alienating a whole lot of the people you need to persuade to your side. Is this part of his strategy in doing this . It was probably his strategy as a celebrity and businessman is to say, bring it on, put up your dukes, lets fight. But hes in a different situation. With me or not with me. He cant get anything done unless he has Congress Working with him to pass what hes looking to pass. If hes push away everybody in congress, hes not going to get anything done. Beth fouhy, thanks for joining us on this saturday. The shadow of russia continues to hang over Donald Trumps white house. As we just spoke about. If it continues to linger, it could become a problem not just for the president but for the president s party as well. Joining us, rick tyler, msnbc political analyst. Good to talk to you. So take a listen to senator Lindsey Graham speaking today in south carolina. I dont know where who invited him to look at the evidence in the white house. All i can say is, why do you show it to the chairman of the Intel Committee if youve got it yourself . That never made sense to me. Schiff and his buddies seem to be prosecutors about every other day on tv. I hope they can get their act together and start interviewing witnesses, whether or not it can be salvaged, i dont know. But opening up the files to schiff, whatever nunes saw, schiff should see and should have been that way in the beginning. So i dont know if theyre going to get their act together. Is it that simple, rick . Can they get their act together . Well, schiff has now seen those miles, but i think for all intents and purposes right now, the House Intelligence Committee is dysfunctional. Lets go over whats usual and unusual. It is not unusual for a congressman to go over to the white house and to visit the skiff and look at classified materials. It is unusual that the white house couldnt release who cleared him in and who logged him in to the scif and who logged him in to the white house server to look at the classified materials. Its extraordinarily unusual for a congressman to brief the president on a Security Matter because the president , after all, controls all the National Security apparatus from the cia to the dia to the fbi to the Justice Department and on and Homeland Security and on and on and on. So the idea that a congressman could offer the president something he didnt have access to is frankly absurd. Wouldnt the president have already known the information that he had that nunes had . Thats the speculation. The speculation is somehow the president look. Theres two competing theories. One is the president wanted a Third Party Validation that his tweet, which started a lot of this, had some credibility that he was being spied on by the Obama Administration. Theres been no credible evidence to prove that other than incidental collection which could mean a person who was under surveillance overseas just simply talked about the president which wouldnt be unusual. The entire planet is talking about the president. The other competing theory is that donald trump is actively trying to undermine the House Committees integrity to conduct an investigation. If thats a strategy, hes being quite successful at it. I want to take a listen to the Russian Ambassador peskov speaking to George Stephanopoulos calling this saying this is basically worse than the cold war. Take a listen. Cold war, well, maybe even worse. Maybe even worse taking into account actions of the president , president ial administration. Worse than the cold war . Well, of course. Of course. What do you make of that, rick . Its completely historically inaccurate. We dont want to return to the days of the cold war. I remember the cold war. But we dont have walls in berlin to keep people in or keep people out. We dont have Occupying Forces all through the eastern bloc by russians. We dont have the wartime some of the wartime atrocities from the russians, i take that back, but it is no, its nowhere near the cold war but we dont want to escalate to getting there. The thing people dont bd is why russia has nukes they dont have the economic might and muscle of the United States. Theyre a very small competitor economically on the world stage. Frankly if the United States had the will to do it, they could cripple russias economy pretty quickly. Im not sure everybody would agree with you, rick tyler, but i appreciate your opinion. Thank you. Amid the russia investigation, the white house is back and forth with the Freedom Caucus continuing after the president s twoday attack for the health care failure. This afternoon, the president s social media director calling for justin amash to be primary. He linked trump to the very establishment he ran against. This coming after from the when he compared trumps attacks on them to a fifth grader. Most people dont take well to being bullied. Its constructive in fifth grade, but it may allow a child to get his way, but thats not how our government works. Thats not how our government works. Joining me, Mary Louise Kelly and also writer and commentator lola. Thank you for joining me. Mary, will President Trumps threats to the Freedom Caucus end up working, or are they going to backfire . So the question here in terms of the Freedom Caucus is they have the ability to block anything that President Trump wants to do. And we see President Trump all but declaring war on the Freedom Caucus. Where will it go next . We dont know and the other big question mark as youve just been discussing is where the russia story, which remains the story that is sucking all of the oxygen out of Everything Else in washington will go. We have President Trump embarking on his 11th week as president. He is deal with his travel ban which is on hold. He is dealing with the implosion of the Health Care Reform that he tried to push through and hes dealing with this russian story which continues to overshadow every other attempt to try to get a narrative in place and to get some traction for this presidency. Do you think sort of an attack on the Freedom Caucus is an attempt to deflect from the russia investigation . If you look at where we were one month ago, you know, with the russia story, march 4th, saturday morning, four weeks ago, the president started tweeting and making these charges that president obama had personally ordered trump tower to be wiretapped and illegal surveillance on then candidate trump. That was if it was an attempt to create a diversion, to create a diversion from the russian story and other things, its been a spectacular success because weve all been diverted and its been a month trying to stand up these charges. At this point, the fbi has dismissed the charges, the National Security agency has dismissed the charges. The Intelligence Committees on the hill so they can find no evidence to stand up these charges. And so what the president has also done is kept the russia story in the news and inserted the white house squarely in the middle of it. Lola, stick with the Freedom Caucus and the president s attack on them, who is likely to retain the support of those ultra conservatives . Is it the president or is the Freedom Caucus members that are saying bring on the fight. We dont care about our seat. Were standing with what we believe in. Freedom caucus members, whats most surprising about this whole thing to me is trump very much aligned himself with the tea party back in the day. Some of these members are tea party members. Now hes turning against them. But he ran on the campaign of antiestablishment and those guys are going to hold him to his word because actually a lot of the things hes putting forward seem to be big government. More spending. Its not really, you know, these are not his policies are not really traditional conservative policies. The Freedom Caucus are traditionally conservative. So they are going to hold him to that and say if you can against the establishment, we want you to be an antiestablishment politician. And thats what were going to make sure that you are. Speaking of the russia investigation, so many moving parts. Roger stone, manafort, flynn. You cant keep track, right . Its like every day theres something new that comes out. Where are we at with things . This week has brought two parallel Big Developments. One is the implosion of the House Intelligence Committees efforts to investigate. I was interviewing adam schiff the ranking democrat on the House Committee this week, n he was talking about what would come next and he said in an ideal situation, this would happen and then he stopped himself and said but we are so far from ideal at this point. It is not clear how that investigation will get back on track. So that has been something of a side show, but an important side show as we wait to see how the investigations on the hill will play out. The other Big Development this week has been this development with former National Security adviser mike flynn saying that his lawyer says he has a story to tell. He would be happy to tell it. He looks forward to it if the conditions are right. By that they mean if he is granted immunity. So far, no takers on that. But this gets again, it puts the focus right back on the white house. President trump has been out tweeting over the last day saying he thinks flynn should testify. That thats the only way to do it in what the president describes as a witch hunt environment. We will wait to see how that plays out because these investigations are still in early stages and no one is likely to grant general flynn an offer of immunity without knowing, a, what hes going to testify and without being much further along in the investigations. And in keeping what mary was talking about, President Trump wants the russia investigation to go away. Calling it a witch hunt. Hes got an agenda, right . Hes got tax reform. Hes got infrastructure, things he wants to push. This is going to cloud that no matter what. No doubt. The thing is they him and the white house keep on inserting themselves back into this debate. It could i dont think its going to go away by itself but the problem is we have an attentionseeking president. So coming up and saying, well, obama was surveilling the trump towers, again, this kind of opens up the whole thing again. Talk about surveillance, interference, which sort of leads back to the russia thing and then flynn and sessions and manafort and all these people where its like, what exactly is going on here. This isnt the media doing this. These issues keep coming up time and time again. Do you think it would have been better off if the president ignored it, stopped talking about it and let it unravel the way throughout his entire campaign he kept bringing russia in. He is elected and russia keeps coming back. Leave russia alone, stop talking about it and perhaps everyone else will. I have a strong doubt thats going to happen. Thank you both for joining me. First daughter ivanka trump is set to become an official member of her fathers white house in the coming days. A look at the ethics issues that that raises. Thats coming up. Earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. With the united mileageplus explorer card, youll get a free checked bag, 2 united club passes. Priority boarding. 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Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. With less pain, i can be more active. Ask your doctor about lyrica. A 401 k is the most sound way to go. Lets talk asset allocation. Sure. You seem knowledgeable, professional. Would you trust me as your Financial Advisor . 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. Kennedy administration, mr. Kennedy . Well, i had nothing has been said to me, and i dont think i would because of the case that its virtually impossible in view of our relationship. Nepotism. Really fascinating to see that footage nearly 60 years after president kennedy picked his brother bobby to be attorney general. Accusations nepotism surrounding the white house yet again. First President Trumps soninlaw Jared Kushner got a key role in the inner circle of advisers. Now daughter ivanka works as a Government Employee in the west wing. Ethics lawyer for george w. Bush joining me more to talk about this. Richard, good to talk to you. What troubles you the most. It is noted shes not taking a salary. There is nepotism issue and there was an antinepotism statute passed after the Bobby Kennedy appointment. Theres some debate about whether that prohibits the president from appointing whoever he wants in the white house and President Trump is taking the position that it allows him to do so with the support of the office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department. We put that aside and need to focus on their interest which there are many. They have Real Estate Holdings and thats going to shut them out of discussion of the Financial Services deregulation proposals because the Real Estate Industry is very dependent on large banks for financing. When you deregulate the banks, the real estate people get money, cheap money and a bubble and that soon bursts. Weve been through all that before. So theyll have to recuse from dodd frank and all that. Recuse from tax reform because there are so many goodies in there for real estate people. And also the clothing import business that ivanka has, bringing clothes in from china and with a huge markup and slap the label on it. Everybody is doing that. Shes not the only one. Nike and all the rest of them. She cannot get involved and neither can he in trade negotiations of textiles part of the mix. Usually they purpose three big areas theyll have to stay out of. Banking, tax and trade. There are some things they can do but broad recusals. Some would argue the president has not divested himself in certain relationships, and so why, in fact, should he be any different than ivanka or Jared Kushner . Well, he shouldnt. But the statute, the criminal conflict of interest statute does not technically apply to the president or the Vice President. So the fact of the matter is that they would be criminally prosecuted for the types of conflicts of interest that he has and that he can legally pursue without violating that statute. He has other legal problems such as the Foreign Government money hes receiving in violation of the emoluments clause of the constitution and other problems. He should recuse for matters in which he has a financial conflict of interest which means selling off his businesses. They should all get rid of that trump hotel on pennsylvania avenue. But he refuses to do that. He says the ethic rules dont apply to the president and some themp do and some of them dont. Jared and ivanka are subject to all the rules so theyll have to avoid a lot of policy matters to stay out of trouble. And i hope they do it. They have a very good lawyer, private lawyer, but they do not have very good counseling in the White House Counsels Office. Up until just a few days ago, the White House Counsels Office tried to pretend that ivanka was not an employee, that she could just sit around as a volunteer performing official functions with a security clearance and an office and communications equipment. That is just flat out wrong. So i dont think they ought to trust the White House Counsels Office to keep them out of trouble. Its not a good situation right now. Well have to see how this all unfolds and what role shell play in the administration. Richard painter, thank you for joining me. Coming up, Lindsey Graham facing tough questions in the heart of trump country. Whats got them fired up. Plus, we dive into the intelligence firestorm. Whats next into the investigation into russia as mike flynn offers to testify in exchange for immunity. Only invisalign® clear aligners are made with smarttrack® material to precisely move your teeth to your best smile. See how invisalign® treatment can shape your smile up to 50 faster today at invisalign. Com. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. I talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. Breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Breo wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Breo is specifically designed to open up airways to improve breathing for a full 24 hours. Breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. Breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a longterm asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. Do not take breo more than prescribed. See your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. Ask your doctor if 24hour breo could be a missing piece for you. Learn more about better breathing at mybreo. Com. Good afternoon. Im Yasmin Vossoughian live in new york. Here are some of the stories were following at the bottom of the hour. Vice president mike pence made a stop in ohio. He touted job growth and his promise to repeal obamacare. Obamacare is a burden on the people of ohio and a burden on ohios job creators. Thats why the president has worked so hard to keep his promise to the American People to repeal and replace obamacare with something that actually works. Three people are now in custody facing charges following a massive fire that engulfed i85 near downtown atlanta and caused the highway to partially collapse. The mayor is calling it a transportation crisis. The governor of georgia has declared it a state of emergency. Nobody was hurt in the fire but repairs are expected to last several months. Voters are speaking out in states that supported donald trump during the election making their voices heard so far about his performance as commander in chief. Senator Lindsey Graham holding a town hall meeting and getting an earful from folks in that state. Vaughn hillier is live with what grahams constituents were all fired up about. Good afternoon. Lindsey graham had his town hall here. Hes become mr. Town hall. Hes one of the few republicans thats held a town hall. Hes held three in this last month. He knows what hes walking into. He addressed right off the top. Okay. Lets talk about health care, russia. He said were going to talk about the epa and went right off the top of it. Well play you one of these bites on the issue of the supreme court. Lindsey graham is far from an ally of trump. He voted for independent ed mcmullan last november. Where he has stood with trump is on neil gorsuch, the judge up for nomination to the supreme court. Much to the ire of this mostly democrat independent crowd here, he said hed be willing to blow up the filibuster in order to approve and confirm judge neil gorsuch. Heres that bite. The democratic members of the senate who want to filibuster this guy, you are taking the senate down a very dangerous path. Dont do it. So i will vote to report him out, and if i have to, i will vote to change the rules because i am not going to allow President Trump to be denied the same opportunity that every president has had for 200 years because youre mad and you cant accept the outcome of an election. Right now there are only two democrat senators that have willingly joined on with republicans to push this confurmation process through. They need eight total. The other issue was russia. Lindsey graham and john mccain have been two of the vocal republicans saying throughout the last couple of months that this investigation needs to be thorough and bipartisan. He said the House Intelligence Committee which weve seen have kind of gone off the rails. Lindsey graham told the crowd, to much of the approval of these democrats and independents here its gone into the ditch. Where his last confidence is is in the senate Intelligence Committee where democrats and republicans have worked together. Michael flynn this week he said it keeps getting weirder and weirder. Paul manafort, his business ties should be further delved into and understood. Lindsey graham here said that to the crowd, he said, listen. May be in a republican state you may not necessarily have voted for me but i can tell you at least were going to legally go through this process and make sure the fbi and at least the senate Intelligence Committee do their full and thorough investigation. It seems as if the people there really fired up and figuring out whats going on within the Trump Administration in the last 100 days or so of the presidency. Vaughn hillyard, thank you for joining us. A new poll shows more than half the nation wants an independent investigation of the Trump Campaigns possible ties to russia and the election. 52 support the outside probe. The fate of Michael Flynns testimony, it remains uncertain. His demand for immunity in exchange for talking was rejected by the senate Intelligence Committee. President trump is backing flynns bid for protection in what he calls a, quote, witch hunt but he refused to elaborate friday when pressed by a reporter. Were you trying to tell the Justice Department to grant immunity to Michael Flynn . Were you trying to do that, mr. President . Was that your intention . With us now from seattle, a former fbi double agent and how to catch a russian spy. And ken, an intelligence and National Security reporter for the nbc news investigative news unit. Hearing the house Intel Committee has rejected flynns offer to testify in exchange for immunity, could they change their minds Going Forward . Its the Senate Intelligence community has rejected initially this offer and their position, yes, they could change their mind. Their position, though is that its way too soon. They need to read through hundreds if not thousands, of documents. They need to understand better the evidence theyre looking at. They also need to know the answer to some key questions. What did mike flynn say on his form that he filled out to get a security clearance for that white house job about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador. Youll recall that he was essentially fired for misleading the Vice President over those conversations. The Senate Investigators want to know, what did he tell the fbi about that and write on his form. Theres a lot of open questions before theyd proceed with the momentous step of granting a witness immunity. Once you do tharkts its widely acknowledged that really stymies any Justice Department prosecution as well. Talking about this earlier in the show as well saying that flynn has to kind of dangle a carrot, right, for the committee. What is the most Important Information that flynn could provide here . That is the milliondollar question. What we dont know right now is, we have a very broad sense of where the fbi is with this. I think they set an investigation. There are so many different avenues that could go on that the first thing here is, and we dont know where the investigation is, at what stage it is. It would seem incredibly premature to bring a special prosecutor, let alone discuss a deal with flynn until we know where the fbi is. They may be right to pursue charges and we dont know. In deciding what we do with flynn or what the what congress does with flynn or what flynns usefulness is, theres two questions. What information can he give up . And what information does the fbi already have . It very well may be possible whatever flynn is willing to give up just isnt needed. Do you think he was too soon to ask for immunity . I think it probably was. We dont know how far along the investigation is. The house investigation really is stalled. The senate just started. It seems very, very premature. If anything else, its just going to potentially cause, if im paul manafort, im probably pretty nervous. Seems like an early shot. The reports the white house staffers showed intelligence documents to house intel chair devin nunes before anyone else on the panel actually got a look at them. What is the impact of all of this on the russia investigation . As Lindsey Graham just said in that clip, its put the house investigation into a ditch. Its basically shattered the any sense the house investigation could be independent because the chairman of the republican the House Intelligence Committee, devin nunes, has sort of exposed himself as acting as an agent of the president. He got this information from the white house and didnt share it with democrats. Held a News Conference. Suggesting theres improper sharing of information. We dont know what it is. Folks are looking to the senate now which has maintained a veneer of bipartisanship and to the fbi to conduct the independent investigations. Naveed, you were saying that manafort should be a little nervous right about now. What about the kremlin . You think theyre nervous . You think they care . I think they care very much. Were seeing all sorts of things coming up. Look, the russians, part of the success of what the russians did was to create chaos here. And, oddly enough, successfully deflect any backlash on them. Were talking about flynn and were talking about manafort. Were not talking about putin or what the russians actually did. In that regard, they have suffered no damages here. For their actions. Naveed, youve been watching the Nunes White House thing unfold and then flynn over here asking for immunity. One thing after another it seems things keep dropping, right . Any connections you see there . That is it just seems, as i said to ken, it seems like there is this dovetail that something has to connect. The question of manafort, the question of flynn, the question of all these things where theres all this smoke and then we know the russians were actively trying to do things. There seems like theres got to be a connection here but so far, the ample evidence that defines all these that links all these things has so far somewhat been flimsy, i have to say. Its kind of its not helping bring a conclusion. What most americans want to know is they want to have credibility we need to have credibility in our core institutions. And thats been frankly threatened. Whats new for the senate and house probes here . What weve seen so far is a lot of smoke and now the investigation is looking to see whether theres any fire. And as part of that, theres a remarkable News Conference last week with richard burr, the republican chairman of the senate Intelligence Committee and mark warner, the ranking democrat. Arm in arm essentially. They were going to call 20 witnesses. Thats their plan. Maybe more. Theyre reviewing hundreds if not thousands of documents. So right now theyre gathering evidence in secret looking for the fire. The fbi is out there doing, were not sure what, with a lot more investigative powers. And also in search of what is the there, there in this investigation. Naveed, ill start this question with you and then ken. Which is a bigger threat to the Trump Administration . Congress or the fbi . Its a not to deflect the answer. We just dont know what the fbi has. And i think that, frankly i think that for the white house, that is exactly the big threat. They dont know what the fbi has. Flynn doesnt know what the fbi has. Neither does manafort. It works as a pro and con in this case. If you are guilty of something and dont know if the fbi knows that youre guilty of that thing, perhaps you may want to cut a deal. Ken . My view has always been that the fbi investigation is more of a threat only because they have the vast powers of the u. S. Intelligence community at their disposal. Congressional investigations are relying on the executive branch to get documents. They have a harder time getting witnesses to compelling witnesses to speak. I think that the fbi is where the action is here. The congressional investigation, though, is important to bring this matter to the public because a counterintelligence investigation is a secret thing and we may never learn the full extent of what the fbi found. Its up to congress to bring this to the public. Circling back to skrajames c. I felt if you two got together, youd be able to figure this out. Well have all the Solutions Coming up for you next. Naveed jamali and ken delaney, thank you. The Trump Administration threatens to take money away from sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants. How cities are fighting back. In its a series of smart choices. Like using glucerna to replace one meal or snack a day. Glucerna products have up to 15 grams of protein to help manage hunger and carbsteady, unique blends of slow release carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes. Every meal every craving. 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Welcome back. Seattle suing to stop the federal government from stripping billions in federal grant money from socalled saun sanctuary cities. Joining us, seattles mayor ed murray. Thank you for joining us. So your lawsuit names President Trump, attorney general Jeff Sessions and john kelly. Why do you think that you can take on the federal government . You know, the Washington Post said it best. Seattle should be called a constitutional city, not a sanctuary city. The constitution clearly says that the federal government cannot tell us how to use our police force. It clearly says in the spending clause, you cannot coerce a local jurisdiction through federal funding. So we think were on strong grounds and, more importantly, we are seeing issues that could make our cities less safe because of the president s executive order. Around the country were seeing a decline in reports of Domestic Violence and rape. Lets talk more about that. How is this executive order affecting your citizens specifically. You know, first, its scaring people who work here. Some who are actually legally here. You know, i go into our schools and see kids who are petrified theyre going to be deported or their parents are going to be deported. It has created a situation where theres lack of trust with law enforcement. We need that trust. We need folks in our immigrant communities to report crimes. And by the way, around the country and in seattle, it is our immigrant neighborhoods that are some of oufr safest neighborhoods. In south seattle, which has the largest concentration of immigrants, crime has dropped about 24 over the last two years. So theres a myth that hes trying to fight crime. Hes actually making the situation worse. There are 116 sanctuary cities here in the United States. You get support from mayors of those cities as well . Absolutely. To the u. S. Conference of mayors weve had numerous press conferences. Weve exchanged ideas. Were coordinating our efforts. This is not just a seattle or San Francisco thing. Its cities in the midwest and east coast and the south. The attorney general said in a statement that the policies of sanctuary cities, quote, cannot continue. They make our nation less safe by putting dangerous criminals back on the streets. Thats actually pretty opposite from what you just said to me here on this show. Yeah. The facts bear it out. If people are afraid of the police, they dont report crimes. Thats makes our cities less safe. We need an Immigration Reform in this country but the way to get at it is not scaring people who are actually obeying the law. The way is to take action in congress and sort out a twodecade problem. If President Trump is able to make good on this executive order, whats going to happen with the citizens in your city . First of all, so the people who live in this city, i think, were prepared if they cut federal funds n we think well win in the courts, by the way. Were prepared well find a way to fund our own programs because were not going to see families torn apart and see kids dragged out of our schools. Its just not who we are as a city. Are you worried the president is going to respond in a big way . Losing federal funding is nothing to, you know, to sneeze at. Yeah, of course were concerned but lets be clear. Our budget is roughly 5 billion a year. 75 million of that is federal money. Weve gone through cities, not just seattle, 3 1 2 decades of federal cuts to things that law enforcement, helping with issues of affordable housing. This idea of cutting money is not new. Cities have been going through this for 3 1 2 decades. Youve also seen the president attack people online that dont necessarily agree with his policies. You worried about that . You know, i am not. He can do what he does. This is not about him as a person. Its about his policies. My career, ive worked with right wing conservative republicans in the legislature. Its not about who they are. Its about how we move forward for this country, for our state and for our city. Ed murray, thank you for joining us. Coming up march madness. Trump administration style. To do the best for your pet, you should know more about the food you choose. With beyond, you have a Natural Pet Food that goes beyond telling ingredients to showing where they come from. Beyond assuming the source is safe. To knowing it is. Beyond asking for trust. To earning it. Because, honestly, our pets deserve it. Beyond. Natural pet food. Is it keeps the food out. For me before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. Just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. Super poligrip is part of my life now. Known by beauty editors olay who know best. 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Liberty mutual insurance. 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. Getting heartburn doesnt mean i means i take rolaids®. Rolaids® goes to work instantly neutralizing 44 more acid than tums® for fast, powerful relief of your worst heartburn. I trust my rolaids®. Rolaids spells relief. He he. It was a month of march madness. Trump was going up against daily scans. A long back at the crazy month that was. Then senator sessions met with russias ambassador when a key adviser. I have now decided to recuse myself. The president accused president obama of wiretapping trump tower during the election. The fbi is investigating russias efforts to interfere in the 2016 president ial election, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russias efforts. Today i briefed the president on the concerns that i had. Bombshell reporting from the new york times. Two white house officials were involved in feeding house chairman devin nunes information. The wall street journal is now reporting, general Michael Flynn offering to testify in and challenge for immunity. Appreciate you joining me. How much do you know the russian probes are impacting this white house . Clearly the example today shows the president is aly bit ratted by having to answer questions, or not answer questions. There was signing of an executive order in which he was sgd flynn. He answered with a nonanswer and left the room without even seige the executive order. Quite unusual particularly for a president who is as media savvy has the one is and generally likes to be in front of the media and work the media on getting out what he wants. So that alone is about how it is trying on find its footing and push out something more proactive and show we understand coming off the Health Care Loss last week. And coming in this week with one of the most former senior advisers, looking to potentially turn your name in or testify against you in front of congress. So lots of challenges in this past month of march madness. And the signing of the executive order was yesterday and we dont quite know what happened in the over office, in what you were talking about. The president is trying to deflect attention away from russia and la the white house main takens is a scandal with claims the Obama Administration spread information. Do they have a fair point, if that was going on . Well, lets go back to the tweet that the president let out about the Obama Administration theoretical wiretaps. This is another example of how a president is able to use his pulpit and his mega phone to detract from what everybody else is saying. Theres no evidence of president obama doing any wiretaps. What there is is strong evidence of russia having interfered in our election. Not necessarily in the voting directly. But certainly in the spreading of information and what we now call hybrid warfare. Lots of testimony in the senate and people testifying even this week. There is a former fbi investigator who talked in quite detail about russian efforts in the United States and were seeing evidence of russia interference in russia and france. So this is a National Security threat that unfortunately this administration is looking at through a partisan lens. Turning to next week. He will host the chinese president and his wife at mar maralago. He said we can no longer have trade deficits and job losses. That americans must be looking at other alternatives. Is this his chance to long more president ial . Certainly it is his chance to deliver on a campaign chance, to take another look at clean. It will be interesting to see how he handles the diplomatic stage. An important partner in diplomacy, but certainly not our friend and ally when it comes to the economy of will. Is there a danger to being tough on china . Danger being tough on china, it could be in rattling clean and having it then work in its other spheres of influence. Clean is competing with the u. S. In europe and south asia. Not just for business but military strength. It has the largest earl in the world. Not saying the most advanced but the heartest in the world. The u. S. Is relying on nfg clean because it is so cheap. Thats part of the challenge we have. Have a great rest of the weekend. That wraps it up for me at this hour. Stay with us for updates and breaking news as it happens. I have asthma. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. I talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. 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You need some help . No, im good. Come on, moe. I have to go. vo we always trusted our Subaru Impreza would be there for him someday. Ok. Thats it. vo we just didnt think someday would come so fast. See ya later, moe. vo introducing the allnew Subaru Impreza. The longestlasting vehicle in its class. More than a car, its a subaru. Good evening from chicago. Im chris hayes. 24 hours after former National Security adviser Michael Flynn offered to testify in exchange for immunity, the white house is in damage control on multiple fronts. The ongoing investigations into potential ties between russia and the Trump Campaign and the monthlong wild goose chase initiated by President Trumps entirely unsupported climb that president obama had had him wiretapped, which is now raising questions about whether this white house is using classified information for political reasons. First following the claim by michael flla