Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Alex Witt 20180224

Teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened. Theres nobody that loves the Second Amendment more than i do. You better elect more republicans, folks. Rallying the base with red meat. This morning fresh perspective on the freewheeling cpac speech of President Trump and what solutions are really possible after the parkland massacre. This morning students speak out. Plus whats the holdup . New reporting that says substantial issues are delaying the security clearance for white house adviser Jared Kushner. But we begin with the two big stories were following out of the white house this morning. A new report from the Washington Post suggesting the white houses problems with security clearances, particularly for one of the president s chief advisers, is far from over. The Justice Department allegedly contacted the white house two weeks ago, and told them Jared Kushners security clearance would be further delayed as a result of additional issues. Now the Washington Post says a week after the warning, chief of staff john kelly initiated an overhaul of the process for staffers with those interim clearances that includes Jared Kushner to view their topsecret information. President trump came to the defense of his soninlaw after being pressed by reporters at the white house yesterday. Jareds done an outstanding job. I think hes been treated very unfairly. Hes a highquality person. He works for nothing. Just so you know nobody ever reports that. But he gets zero. General kelly respects jared a lot. And general kelly will make that call. I wont make that call. I will let the general, who is right here, make that call. But jared is doing some very important things for our country. He gets paid zero. Well the white house also pushing back on the latest charges in the special counsels russia investigation. Which resulted in the third guilty plea of a Trump Campaign official, that being rick gates. And tacking on additional charges against former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort. Now white house lawyer ty cobb released this Statement Last night. The white house as it has said from the outset, will not be commenting on matters involving mr. Manafort or mr. Gates, as the matters between them and the office of the special counsel are dated and have nothing to do with their service to the campaign. Nbc White House Correspondent Kelly Odonnell has all details on this. A good saturday morning to you, my friend. What more can you tell us . Well we have seen from the white house an emphasis on the fact that this indictment against manafort and the one that involved gates, who has now pled guilty. Is more on their business life. The white house wants to position that to make a less attention about what their activities were during the time they were serving thencandidate donald trump. That is an argument that they repeatedly make, its one that has to be seen in the larger political context, we dont know where this investigation will ultimately go. One of the things thats notable is last fall when both manafort and gates were indicted, the focus of those allegations was moneylaundering and a failure to sign up as a foreign agent. Doing lobbying work on behalf of foreign entities. Thats what was in that indictment. And this time with the cooperation now of gates, who is now working with the special counsel after pleading guilty, there were new alleged crimes against manafort. The special counsel squeeze. Late friday, new charges leveled against Paul Manafort, Trumps Campaign chairman in summer 2016. Hes accused of making secret payments to former european politicians to get them to take positions favorable to ukraine. While manafort worked for a russianbacked ukrainian leader in 2012 and 13. The new charges following big break friday. Manaforts top aide, rick gates, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators, gates is now cooperating with the special counsel. Manafort responded that he had hoped gates would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. President trump was not asked about the russia investigation. During his News Conference with australias prime minister. But did respond to the White House Security clearance controversy. Saying he would not overrule the chief of staff. On whether soninlaw Jared Kushner should keep access to secrets with only interim clearance. That will be up to general kelly. General kelly respects jared a lot and general kelly will make that call. In a raucous and freewheeling speech before conservatives, earlier friday Second Amendment. The president talked gun policy. Pushing for teachers with gun skills to carry weapons at school. Even though an armed deputy at the Florida High School did not confront the gunman. He decided not to go in. That was not his finest moment. That i can tell you. President trump says he will take action. We want to be very powerful. Very strong on background checks and especially as it pertains to the mentally ill. The president has thanked the secret service on twitter for their action friday. You may have seen how there was a lockdown here at the white house complex when a woman from tennessee rammed a van into a gate along the perimeter here at the white house. And she was according to the charging documents, had possession of some kind of a pistol. She was pulled from that van. Additional checking that the secret Service Officers did, she was known to them, having tried to breach the white house grounds before. Fencejumping type of allegations. She has been taken into custody. Alex . Thank you for the update on all of that, Kelly Odonnell at the white house. Joining me, jill colvin, White House Reporter for the Associated Press and john harwood, cnbcs editor at large. Jill ill start with you, what are you hearing about how the white house is handling having yet another extrump aide cooperating with the fbi investigation . Do they have anything to worry about . They definitely have something to worry about. And what youve seen here is a pattern. Where the fbi has been working with extrump kpaen aides, been able to get one guilty plea after the next. Been able to convince people they want to cooperate. And if it turns out that indeed their target is the president , and people close to him, the more leverage they have over these people, the more dangerous it becomes for the president and for the white house. The president is deeply concerned about the investigation. He does believe and he continues to tell his friends and people around him that he believes that hes the last round of indictments against manafort. Somehow proves that there was no, his campaign was not involved in any kind of collusion with russia. But theres definitely still cause for concern here. So its a big if, john, the indictments look, they dont still answer the central question on whether the Trump Campaign coordinated with russia to disrupt the election. What do the recent developments tell you about how mueller is putting all the pieces together in this puzzle . Well alex, we dont know as a legal matter about collusion but what we do know is that you had a Campaign Chairman who had been indirectly on russias payroll through his work for yanukovych in ukraine. We know that the Trump Organization itself has said it was dependant on russian money itself before the campaign started. Weve got the National Security adviser to the president having pled guilty and cooperating and we have a president who has declined to implement sanctions that Congress Passed against russia. Who has consistently declined to criticize russia. And we know that russian hacking helped him win the election. So the pieces are pretty clear that the russians helped donald trump. Donald trump is pursuing policies favorable to russia. Again, you dont know what that amounts to as a matter of law. But theres a steadily increasing amount of pressure as jill was just saying, that renders what the white house is saying as nonsense. It is not that it has nothing to do with the white house. The president is pursuing pro russia policies at a time when weve got a series of aides having pled guilty and we know that the russians helped him win. To your point, legally still romaine as question. I think what we can all see, in incontrovertible evidence, the president says he has hired the best people. Some of whom are clearly ethically compromised best people. I want to get to Jared Kushners security clearance with you. Jill, the president saying the president s chief of staff john kelly will make the final call to whether kushner has the topsecret clearance. Is there any insight on how kelly is going to go about this . Does he have a choice but to clear jared . Didnt what the president said at the cpac speech . Keep in mind so everyone is clear about this the reason the president was asked that question is because kelly had released this memo last week saying within a week the deadline was yesterday, friday, and by that date, everyone who had interim topsecret clearance would be downgraded. So they could see only lesssensitive information. Our understanding is that that likely includes jared. Hes had his security clearance pending for over a year. Still been working, still been asking to see things like the president s daily briefing. But sources tell us that telly had intended to or the white house had intended to inform everyone who was affected by a security downgrade by the end of yesterday. This is a process that people have to go through where theyre formally informed that the downgrade is happening and then theres something called a readout thats done where an official sits down with the white house aide and explains to them once again, everything youve seen up until this point is classified and reminds them of the consequences of breaking that type of confidentiality. So at this point our understanding is that folks have been informed. The white house and Jared Kushners lawyer will not say whether or not he has personally been informed at this point. But our understanding is everyone affected has been. Alex i want to say that the Common Thread here that relates to the previous conversation is financial distress. Jared kushner and his Family Company have a tremendous liability for building in new york. And financial distress makes you vulnerable to pressure from people abroad. We know that you mean blackmail . Yes. Thats what theyre worried about . Exactly so. We know that jared curb nerks along with Paul Manafort, along with donald trump jr. Was among the participants in that meeting in june of 2016, that occurred after russians reached out via Rob Goldstone and said, weve got information, the russian government wants to help donald trump. Weve got information about Hillary Clinton and they said, bring it. And they had that meeting. So Jared Kushner also had the conversations about a backchannel means of communication with the russians. After the campaign. So his situation is very problematic, not just as a matter of security clearance for working in the white house. Bibut we dont know where robert mule certificate going to go with respect to Jared Kushner and his finances. Jill, john, you guys, thank you so much. Happening right now, preparations are under way for the start of the renowned evangelist Billy Grahams funeral procession. Grahams casket will be transported from asheville, north carolina, to charlotte, the location of the billy graham library. Nbcs Morgan Radford is joining us. I know this is the first day of a procession that is so grand it highlights the influence of this preacher. So tell us what we can expect. Thats right. Alex in fact theres a weeklong set of activities. Starting today is the processional. Right here were standing in front of the boyhood home of billy graham and this is where his casket will come today. With that processional begins in asheville, south carolina, about 11 30 a. M. And asheville is where he spent the last 16 years of his life. Living in a Tiny Mountain town, about 20 miles east of the city. There the casket is going to visit some of the places that were important to him throughout his life. For example, the drug store that he frequented on horse back. The train station he used to get to new york and washington, d. C. Before taking International Flights for his crusades. And then the casket will move here towards charlotte where they will come to his childhood church, as well as his boyhood home. This is where he grew up, the son of a dairy farmer with dreams of becoming a famous baseball player. And here people have been discussing his legacy. Not only what he means to this particular area, but also to the country. Take a listen to what his family had to say. You know what he would say . Because i asked him many times. Even when he couldnt speak as well. Daddy, thank you for all that youve done and he would say no. No. No. Its him. Daddy, but thank you for being available to him. No, no, its all him. Well thank you, daddy, that you were willing to give up your life no, its all him. Thats what he would say today. I was in dallas, texas yesterday when i got word that my father had passed away. And of course the news came out a few minutes later that billy graham had died. I kind of chuckled. Because my father said years ago he said when you hear that billy graham is dead, dont you believe it for a second. He said ill be more alive than ever before. People have been coming by to lay flowers and say prayers and many of them talk about that personal impact. One person said look, when he spoke to you, you not only heard it, but you felt it another man told me he had the power to make a pauper feel like a president and then you remember president bill clinton saying back in the day. When he parade with the president , he made him feel like a person. Thats the type of legacy were hearing from people coming here to pay their respects. It is extraordinary listening to his family, they speak about their father with such joy in their heart. Despite the sadness they must feel. Morgan radford thank you so much. Parkland teachers return to school. What they faced and what awaits students going there on sunday. Also ahead following the money appearing to be paying off for special counsel Robert Mueller. Is it leading the investigation to any evidence of collusion with russia . Essential to the hh of our communities. Which is why were helping to replenish the mighty rio grande as well as over 30 watersheds across the country. Were also leading water projects in more than 100 communities. And for every drop we use. Were working to give one back. Because our products rely on the same thing as we all do. Clean water. And we care about it like our business depends on it. Gentlemen, i have just received word the louisiana purchase, is complete instant purchase notifications from capital one. Technology this helpful. Could make history. Whats in your wallet . Its ok that everyone ignores its fine. Drive. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. And i dont share it with mom right, mom . Righttt. Safe driving bonus checks. Only from allstate. Switching to allstate is worth it. Rick gates, former Trump Campaign deputy chairman pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to the fbi. Joining me is staff writer for the atlantic magazine. What is gates pleading guilty to and what might he be able to offer as a corroborating witness . Hes essentially pleading guilty to much lesser charges than the ones that he was actually indicted for. Which indicates hes pleading guilty to lying to the fbi and one count of conspiracy. The fact that mueller has charged him with this instead of the multitude of other charges that he was vulnerable to, suggests that he has a lot to say potentially about Paul Manafort. The fact that he is essentially getting away with just two counts, one lying to the fbi and one conspiracy, really indicates that he proved to mueller and muellers team that he has information that could be extremely valuable, not only about Paul Manafort. But also potentially about the Trump Campaign. I want to take a listen to how former watergate prosecutor nick acreman thinks this all went down. This could have been an allnighter for all we know. Where they just hammered away at him, impressed upon him the importance of having to tell the truth and that the only way he could get into trouble was to lie. And to impress that point, they must have come out with all kinds of other information. And that is why this is so remarkable. That this was turned around in 24 hours. Yeah it was pretty gutsy. The fbi knew right away that he had lied. Within 24 hours they charged him. Do you get a sense that gates was perhaps listening to the president who says no collusion, no collusion, no collusion all the time and was not taking the investigation seriously . Its possible. I mean there seems to be a lot of hubris surrounding the people that have been charged in this investigation that they thought maybe they got away with it for so long that potentially they would get away with it now. Theres also the question of whether or not Paul Manafort in particular would be pardoned by the president. Thats definitely something that according to some of his aides and allies he has thought about. You know he wonders whether or not the president will issue a pardon for him. Because ultimately the president has himself to look out for, too. And manafort knows so much about what went on during the campaign. That if he flipped and if he decided to talk to mueller and to cooperate, it could be really damaging for the Trump Campaign. Because he was the chairman during the most critical period of the campaign during the summer of 2016. What about the unsealed records yesterday which revealed there were payments to european politicians, mostly former politicians, lobbying here in the United States, thats what it was all about. How significant is this . Its completely illegal not to register with the Justice Department if you are paying foreigners to lobby for ukrainian interests or the interests of any country in the United States. Now the foreign agents registration act has not traditionally been taken very seriously by many lobbying groups in the United States. There has been kind of an understanding broadly that its not something that you need to register for. And that its not something that you will necessarily get charged with, if you avoid. And thats kind of the way that lobbying firms have gotten around having to register their activities with the Justice Department. Now that obviously the buck has stopped with Paul Manafort and rick gates. Now mueller is sending a signal to lobbying firms in washington, d. C. And elsewhere that hey, you need to register with the Justice Department. Because if not, you could be in a whole lot of trouble. This also goes back to the follow the money approach that mule certificate taking with this investigation. Its really important for him to determine whether or not Paul Manafort was in the position of essentially being in debt to all of these pro russian interests and ukrainian interests when he came on to the Trump Campaign and whether or not that provided an incentive for him to collude with the russians. Natasha bertrand, good to talk with you as always. Coming up next, demanding change, students from parkland and beyond plead with the nations leaders to help stop the carnage. Lets never let this happen again. Please, please. Im going to speak with one surviving student who is leading the charge for change and ask him about the president s call for arming teachers. And a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened. Some new numbers on this issue to show you. Americans are split on the issue of whether to arm teachers, 44 in favor, while 50 oppose the idea. A quinnipiac poll finds 66 of americans support stricter gun laws overall. Thats the highest level of support ever measured in that poll. 97 of americans support requiring background checks for all gun buyers, currently 91 of Florida State representatives and senators have a rating of aminus or higher from the nra. Its easy to think that all Money Managers are pretty much the same. But while some push High Commission investment products, Fisher Investments avoids them. Some advisers have hidden and layered fees. Fisher investments never does. And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other Money Managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. There are seven continents. Seven seas. But at at Celebrity Cruises, wed argue. More than seven wonders. For a limited time enjoy two free perks, like complimentary wifi and drinks. A savings for everyone in your stateroom when you book now, during the Celebrity Cruises sail beyond event. Heres what were monitoring for you. This weekend students will be allowed into Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School for the First Time Since the Deadly School shooting that left 17 dead and 14 injured. Nbcs Maya Rodriguez is joining us from parkland, florida, with details on how students and teachers are prepping to get back inside that school. Whats the latest on that, maya . Tomorrow afternoon students and their parents will be able to go into Stoneman Douglas high for the First Time Since the shooting for an orientation to basically feel their way around the school since the shooting. All of this happening as the investigation is now uncovering new details. This morning new details about a tip called into the fbi last month. A person the agency describes as close to 19yearold shooting suspect nikolas cruz warned authorities that cruz was quote going to explode and feared he would be getting into a school and just shooting the place up. The fbi did not follow up on that tip. All this, while on friday teachers at Stoneman Douglas returned to a campus shaken by tragedy. The school is my home. And im very angry. The shooting that killed 17 prompted Florida Governor rick scott to announce new measures. Raising the age limit for buying a firearm to 21. I know theres some who are advocating a mass takeaway of Second Amendment rights for all americans. That is not the answer. The governor also calling for a Law Enforcement officer to be assigned to every public school. But the Broward Sheriffs Office says Surveillance Footage reveals scott peterson, the armed resource officer at Stoneman Douglas, did not confront the shooter, nor enter the building. He had one job to serve and to protect and he did not do that. Peterson resigned. He has not responded to requests for comment from nbc news. But other officer did respond to the shooting. Including Sergeant Jeff hinrich. Who was off duty. His wife works at the school. His son, a student there. By the grace of god, when they walked down the hallway, they found each other. The school preparing to take on a lesson in learning and healing. Well take it one day at a time. One class at a time. One minute at a time. As for those injured in the shooting, three remain in the hospital, alex, all are in fair condition. Okay. Well were glad to know theyre in fair condition. Joining me now, tansle phillip, a sophomore at Stoneman Douglas high school. The organizer of the never again movement. Tansa, with a big welcome to you, are you planning to go to the School Tomorrow to get a feel for things . What do you expect if youre going to go there . I am planning on going back tomorrow. I dont really know how im going to feel until i step foot back into school and step foot back into the classroom and into that closet where 60 to 65 of my friends were. So its really hard to describe. But im playing it as it comes. I dont know how im going to feel. I know my mom said shes going to have a hard time walking back in there with me. So thats where im at. I can about imagine. So look, you have what you look forward to to tomorrow. Beyond that, it is extraordinary what you and your peers have done. Youve taken on a gargantuan mission, you plan to converge on the capital, march 20th, for what youre calling the march for our lives. How did you get this together so quickly. My hats off to you guys, this thing has taken off. Its just, it was determination and anger, we were tired of this happening over and over again. And parkland is a different kind of community were all built in a different way. We werent going to let this stand. So thats why we took so fast. Thats why we went to tallahassee. Thats why all of this is happening. Because were just angry and were determined to make change happen. . A number of the students have made the point that your generation, tanzil, has never known safety and peace, this is during a town hall on wednesday, take a listen to this. When ways in fifth grade i had to hide in a bathroom for three hours and just waiting with my teacher and nearly 20 other kids. To see that just because a shooter has come to our town. Now seven years later im in a closet with 19 other kids, waiting, fearing for my own life. Why do we have to be the ones to do this . Why do we have to speak out to the capital . Why do we have to march on washington . Just to save innocent lives . [ applause ] so the followup question to that to you is, do you and your peers feel like the grownups have failed you on this . Unfortunately, this is not something that was planned. Its not something that we knew was going to happen. It just happened. And we, we felt like we had to take action. We do have a lot of grownups in our corner. We have our wonderful teachers, we have our parents. If no one does it, nothing will change. So i feel thats why we decided to go out and speak out about this. Because if no one says anything, things like this will just keep happening. Youve heard the president say that he thinks among the answers to the problem is arming teachers. Do you agree with that . Not at all. I think its a horrible idea. I dont think President Trump has actually spoken to a teacher about this. Because every teacher ive spoken to thinks its just a horrible idea. So many things can go wrong. First off, my mom is a teacher at the middle school next to us. And all teachers are humans and have their bad days, i know for a fact my mom doesnt want a gun lying around with her. Second of all its easier for a student to get the gun. Now all they have to do is break into a lock at school. They dont have to go out and buy a gun. Third, when the s. W. A. T. Team comes into the school, who are they looking for . Theyre looking for someone with a gun. So while theyre dealing with a teacher, theyre not looking for the right shooter. Theres so many things that can can go wrong. And my mom and all the other teachers that are committed to us, they dont get paid enough to do this. I understand that hes proposing bonuses for people that do this. I dont think its just a really bad idea. Theres so many things that can go wrong with it. Well tanzil phillip, i applaud all of your efforts and thank you so much for speaking with us. Were going to be following you and really put our hopes in you guys in getting this done. So thank you so much. Good luck. Thank you for having me. Coming up, the Russian Investigation into the key legal questions about the guilty pleas from former Trump Campaign aide rick gates, how does it help investigators look for collusion . Trails are covered. Paths arent what they used to be. 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Well big developments in what has been an unprecedented week in the russia investigation. New charges against former Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort came just hours after his former business partner, rick gates, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators. Gates has an agreement now with mueller to cooperate on all matters prosecutors deem relevant. Here to explain more, former federal prosecutors joyce vance and barbara mcquaid. Barbara is also an msnbc contributor. Good morning to you both. Barbara, do these changes signal to you, these charges, do they signal where the investigation is going . We saw new charges come in against Paul Manafort. Not in terms of new counts, but new narrative about some of his lobbying activity with further extensive relationships with european politicians, which is sort of some interesting intrigue. Other thing thats new is in the virginia indictment, talked about how paul mrt seemed to be sort of desperately trying to generate cash by getting false mortgages and loans on some of his properties. When you will couple that with some of the reporting weve seen already about offering a free briefing to a Russian Oligarch about the Trump Campaign and perhaps owing a large debt to a Russian Oligarch, it does suggest that all of these financial crimes might be related to links to russia as well. Okay. So joyce, manafort released a statement. Heres what it said, not with standing that rick gates pled guilty, i continue to maintain my innocence. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue to battle to prove our innocence for reasons yet to surface, he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piledup charges contained in the indictments against me. Well then heres what house intelligence commit pty member adam schiff had to say about the underlying message overall there. They have an audience of one in their message and i think the audience of one for that manafort Statement Today was the president of the United States. It was basically a love letter saying please give me a pardon. Im not going to do what rick gates did. Im standing by you. Legally speaking, can the president save Paul Manafort at this point . The president absolutely has the power to issue a pardon for Paul Manafort. The only real question is, is one of can he get away with it politically. The constitution does provide that absolute power for him to pardon anyone other than himself on an impeachment matter. But increasingly, there seems to be sentiment on the hill that that would be the proverbial red line that could not be crossed. And when you think about it, alex, that makes a lot of sense. This would be the president essentially issuing a pardon to cut off an investigation that is reaching now into his own inner circle. It would be a violation of the fundamental rule of law that we talk about, the principle that no man, including the president , is above the law. Youve got to assume, barbara, that the new charges are putting added pressure on manafort to cooperate with the investigation we know in recent weeks muellers team, hes met with former white house chief strategist steve bannon, attorney general sessions, former fbi director comey. Do you think this investigation is inching closer to an interview with the president . Yeah i think ultimately there will be an effort to interview the president. Ordinarily in lots of cases, a case concludes without ever interviewing the ultimate target. But theres a policy in the u. S. Attorneys manual. If it is essential to a full understanding of the case, then you should seek first voluntarily appearance by the target. And if you cant get it that way, then you can subpoena that person to testify. And i think in a case like this, where the knowledge and intent and President Trump is such the central player of all of this, it does seem essential to get that information before you can decide one way or another what happened here. So i think well see first an effort to voluntarily secure his presence for an interview. If that cannot be obtained, i think well see a subpoena. Under the precedent of u. S. Versus nixon, i think ultimately Robert Mueller will prevail. Given this president and we know his, the way he communicate and the way he feels about this investigation, were you to be advising him, would you say, set this interview up. You need to do it . Putting this president up for an interview is a risky proposition for his lawyers, i agree with barb, i think shes dead on the money. One way or the other, bob mueller will get this interview if he wants it. The real question for the president s lawyers is will trump be interviewed in a setting where the lawyers can sit alongside him and do a little bit of management of the conversation . Or will he be testifying in front of a grand jury under oath where the lawyers cant follow him into the room and it will be just the president and a prosecutor testifying in front of the members of the grand jury . Thats what i would avoid at all costs if i was the president s lawyer. I could do this from the white house in a closed circuit television, he could do this anywhere in the white house, right . It doesnt have to be in court . Absolutely. It depends on what they negotiate. With bill clinton there was a lot of back and forth and ultimately his lawyers negotiated for an interview that was not a grand jury questioning session. It will be up to the lawyers to work it out with bob muellers team. Before i let you go, Bloomberg Politics is reporting that the white house is considering the idea of using restraining orders to take firearms away from people that are considered dangerous as part of its response to the shooting there in florida. What can you tell us about the legality behind that move, barbara . Well i think you would have to explore it and whether people are entitled to due process. Who is getting the restraining order and on what basis . You know, its useful to i think explore all options but before you could get a restraining order on someone to take away a gun, i think they would be entitled to some due process. Certainly we see this from time to time in domest being violence settings. It depends on the scope of people that were talking about. Does it relate to mental health. You know i think its absolutely worthwhile to consider all options. Joyce what about the restraining order being in place and then saying youve got a restraining order, your gun gets taken away. The problem that were seeing now in this National Conversation about gun safety, is that what we really need is a holistic approach. Theres not going to be one magic bullet, pardon the bad analogy there that will fix the entire problem. And so while its worth looking at restraining orders, we need to look at rational limitations on who can buy guns. We need to make sure we have good registration policies. We can come up with Safety Measures that dont unduly infringe on peoples Second Amendment rights. I live in the deep south. People down here tend to have guns, we tend to hunt. But at the same time, we recognize that we have to love our children more than we love our guns at the end of the day. And theres good policy measures we can take to do that. Ladies, thank you so much. Coming up, the president and the snake. How he unleashed it at cpac to make a point about immigration. And up next, why the winds of farright conservatism sweep through cpac. When you combine ancestrys dna test with its historical records. You could learn youre from ireland. Donegal, ireland. And your ancestor was a fisherman. With blue eyes. Just like you. Begin your journey at ancestry. Com this indictment has nothing to do with the white house or the president. As you know, we have been cooperative with the special counselle. And as we continue to see theres no evidence of collusion, no evidence of wrongdoing. The White House Strategic Communications director brushing off the latest charges in the russia investigation. Lets bring in robert trainon, former bush cheney adviser. And msnbc political analyst jonathan alter. And chris whipple, author of the gatekeepers the gatekeep good morning to all three of you. Robert, we have the white house clearly trying to distance itself from the players that mueller is targeting, including rick gates and Paul Manafort. How far will that strategy get them given the history of those two . Not far at all. Paul manafort was close to the Trump Campaign for many months and same with gates. Its probably technically accurate, this has nothing to do with the president , but from a political standpoint this has everything to do with the president for all the items i mentioned a moment ago. Jonathan, including gates, five people have pleaded guilty in muellers investigation. How do you interpret these developments . I dont agree that this is not necessarily going to reach the president. Can i ask you, did you want to say yet, add that to what you were saying earlier . So the word yet. Yet. Potentially it could. Now continue. Every criminal case needs a narrator. We have to the had one in this. Its important for juries, even for a jury of senators in an impeachment trial in the senate that there be a john dean almost, somebody who is testifying against the higherups. Theres a decent chance that rick gates will be that person. Reluctantly, but nonetheless hes facing a lot of jail time if he doesnt cooperate fully. If he tries to hold anything back, he will go to jail. He knows a lot. These are about events now that took place in 2016. Not old financial entanglements. This goes to the heart of the apparent quid pro quo, the conspiracy between that seems to be coming into view where in exchange for lifting sanctions and putting prorussia plank in the Republican Party platform, the russians interfered in this election, and provided money for rick gates and Paul Manafort. Okay. I want to look at yesterday, the president s speech. Wide ranging. Critics would say some was off the rails. But lets listen to what he said yesterday. No president has ever cut so many regulations in their entire term. I try like hell to hide that bald spot. I work hard at it. People want tax cuts. They dont know what reform means. Except one senator who came into a room at 3 00 in the morning and went like that, we would have had healthcare, too. We had a crooked candidate, too, by the way. Lock her up lock her up lock her up theres nobody that loves the second administratimendment mor did. Dont worry, youre getting the wall. Dont worry. Build that wall build that wall i saved you, cried the woman. And youve bitten me, heavens why . Oh, shut up, silly woman said the reptile with a grin. You knew damn well, i was a snake before you took me in. Sounds like campaignstyle trump there. You know, weve seen him give scripted speeches, and ones like these are clearly off script. What does he gain by doing this . Does it tell you what hes thinking when he speaks like this . You know, he gains nothing. Hes got a lot to lose here. Look, donald trump is who he is. He knows how to do one thing, one thing only, thats to divide, demonize and disrupt. This was tone deaf and counterproductive. Wrong for the moment. This really solemn moment after the school shootings. One of the things it shows is theres nobody in this white house who has an ounce of political savvy. Certainly not john kelly who is really out of his depth politically. Theres no karl rove. Theres no david axlerod. Theres no Reince Priebus who had more zf savvy than the curr white house chief of staff. It was tone deaf, wrong for the moment and i think it will hurt him. Robert, what stood out to you from the speech or reply there. Let me just say, what we saw was 75 minutes, a spectacle. It was a personal display who clearly was feeding off the crowd. What was even more chilling is the crowd was feeding off him. What was said before is right. In the context of people hurting down in florida, in the context of people being homeless in puerto rico, in the wake of the hurricane. With everything going so wrong in this country, to have our president perform like that for 70 minutes was a spectacle. Theres nothing politically to gain from this. Also from a Public Policy standpoint. It was an embarrassment. What was he doing, jonathan . Giving his crowd, his base red meat. The story of the snake, what was that, a veiled message . The snake story was a message to the immigrants, theyll bite you if you let them in. As people know, immigrants commit fewer crimes than nativeborn americans. So the whole premise of that ridiculous story was wrong. But this is rank demagoguery. This is the most demagoguery weve ever seen in an american president going back more than 200 years. Weve never seen a president of the United States who used his office to tell lies and whip up fear and hatred the way this man does. So i dont think we want to say, oh, its just more Campaign Rhetoric like he used to use. Its one thing to do it during the campaign. Thats bad enough. To do it with the seal of president underneath you, its reprehensible. Also so disgusting what he said about john mccain. Yeah. A man with brain cancer. That was extraordinary. This is a truly disgusting president of the United States. All right. Robert, jonathan, chris, im out of times. Chris, ill make this up to you, i promise. Thank you. Ahead on am joy, hes accused of being fake news, a crisis actor in the parkland shootings. David hogg will talk to joy reid. Ahh. The new guy. Whoa, he looks he looks exactly like me. No. Separated at birth much . We should switch name tags, and no one would know who was who. Jamie, you seriously think you look like him . Uh, im pretty good with comparisons. Like how progressive helps people save money by comparing rates, even if were not the lowest. Even if were not the lowest. Whoa wow. 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Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. That is a wrap of this hour. Ill see you at noon eastern. Stay right where you are, its time for am joy with my good friend, joy reid. When we declare our schools to be