Breaking news. A deadly attack in germany after a vehicle crashes into a crowd there. An accident or an act of terror . The answer is still unclear. Well get to it for you. And big bombshell. Stormy daniels lawyer promising a major announcement. It was not some minor thing. And that threat could have only come from a handful of places. And were pretty certain that we know where it came from. How Michael Avenatti is using the tools of trump against the president. Still on the job but for how much longer . Scott pruitt reportedly meets with the president to make the case to keep his job. The firing line. A new report says the chief of staff urged the president to give pruitt the boot. While the fate of john kelly seems murkier and murkier. He does seem to be the incredible shrinking white house chief of staff. Hello, everyone, im alex witt at msnbc World Headquarters in new york. Happening right now, attorney Michael Avenatti says a, quote, major announcement could expose who reportedly threatened Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with President Trump. Nbc News White House correspondent Geoff Bennett has more on this for us from the white house. Geoff, a good saturday to you. What more can you tell us . Reporter hey there, alex. It all has to do with Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, who told 60 minutes in that interview that a man approached her and her infant daughter 11 years ago in a las vegas parking lot around the time that she was trying to sell her story, her version of the alleged affair with donald trump, to a tabloid magazine. She says the guy approached her and said, leave trump alone, forget the story. And she says she never saw the man again. Today, daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, posted a tweet about this. Avenatti says this. Expect a major announcement in the coming days regarding our efforts to identify the thug who threatened ms. Clifford in las vegas in 2011 to leave trump alone while making reference to her little girl. You can run but you cant hide. Thugsearch, serious consequences. Avenatti said trumps comments this week were a boon to his case. Remember, trump answered questions on the record about this scandal for the first time. He said he didnt know where the 130,000 that his Attorney Michael Cohen paid to daniels, this alleged hush money to keep her quiet about the alleged affair just days before the 2016 election. Avenatti spoke about this with our friend and colleague joy reid earlier this morning. Take a look at what he had to say. Donald trumps comments on air force one created huge liability for Michael Cohen. He threw him under the bus. He put him in the crosshairs. Whatever metaphor you want to use. This situation got far more complicated for Michael Cohen and donald trump on thursday. Reporter now, avenatti has said the president s comments make it more likely that the president will be forced to sit for a deposition. Remember, their earlier request was denied by a federal judge who said it was premature. And as we talk about this story, we always have to say the white house has denied that President Trump had any involvement with Stormy Daniels or Stephanie Clifford at all, alex. Im glad you did that because i would have done it had you not. Geoff bennett from the white house, thank you for that. Lets bring in peter emerson, a veteran of three democratic administrations, and conservative commentator carrie sheffield. Always good to see the two of you. Ladies first here, carrie. Why do you think the president took the questions and answered them about Stormy Daniels this week . Hes held back for so long. Sure, reporters have tossed questions his way, but hes always ignored them. Not this time. Whats the strategy, if any, behind this . I think hes seeing that you have to get ahead of a story, especially one thats grounded in so many rumors. And i hope that, again, as i said repeatedly to you and others, that we can focus on substance here. And i think that thats what hes hoping to pivot and say, this case is really a distraction from the reason that President Trump won. And so the fact that the National Media is so obsessed with this, its clear that hes doing some really great things on the policy front and so people seem to be trying to find whatever they can cling to, whatever mud they can throw to distract from the fact that this president is bringing tax reform, hes bringing economic so carrie, do you think that i know you said the president maybe wanted to get ahead of the story, except for the fact that weve been talking about it for three months. Would you have advised him a lot sooner to start responding . No. I mean, as i said before, this story really is a distraction from things that matter. And i think that he realized that the National Media is going to you know, the president Just Announced this week or the white house did that he wont be attending the press corps dinner because in my opinion, this is me saying, i think he deservedly should say, yall are not focusing on things that matter, things that actually affect well issues of this country and he didnt attend last year either. I would put money on the fact that he will not attend all four years. I just dont think theres not a lot of love lost, put it that way. Over 90 of mainstream large Media Publications have negative coverage of the president. Why do you think that is, peter . Why is there 90 coverage negative of this president . Theres not, number one. I looked at the study, i was just up at the kennedy school. Carrie is making up numbers, unfortunately. So in fact i would recommend what we should really be discussing is why is it every held of the National Intelligence agencies are saying nothing has been done to protect the electoral system of this country in an election thats coming up in eight months . That to me is the main issue we should be discussing. And that is something that we do discuss on this broadcast for sure. I know you do. Let me just talk about Stormy Daniels lawyer, because weve seen him this week, he was on joys program just prior to this one. He says, Michael Avenatti of course im talking about, hes going to renew his motion to depose the president and trumps lawyer Michael Cohen. Peter, could this be a publicity stunt . Does anybody expect the president to be deposed in this matter . I think he could. The real challenge trump has, and to carries point, the only reason this story keeps coming up all the time is the president keeps bringing it up as well. Want president has no mouth muzzle. He has no internal governor. So he is basically painting himself into a box with his own words. So i think there is a chance that he could be ordered to provide a deposition. You know, i want to talk about the nbc reporting, carrie, with you about this potential meeting, i think its set for june at the Trump International hotel in d. C. , at least the planning stages here, a meter between evangelical leaders and potentially the president. Unclear whether Stormy Daniels will be a topic of discussion on a platform, maybe a sidebar. But npr is reporting unnamed evangelical leaders are concerned about all of these allegations. Why do you think evangelical leaders are not going on record with their concerns, but leaders, including tony perkins, they are are willing to voice their support for the president . Well, i cant speak for the people who are convening this event. But i can speak as a person of faith. You know, to look at the results of what this president is delivering as it relates to conservative values. So for example jerusalem, there were multiple president s before this one who said they would recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel, in fact Congress Passed a bill saying i get all that. Dont evangelicals, dont conservatives, dont those with faith in their life, dont they believe in respecting the vows of marriage . Absolutely. And the thing is, i was very unspoken in the 2016 campaign about concerns i had about this president and i know other evangelicals had concerns as well. But i think, again, you have to i love the conversation you had previously about chappaquiddick and saying, you know, ted kennedy, you have to look at the full measure of a man and what did he do in his political career . Im from utah and one of your guests mentioned senator orrin hatch and the close bond he formed with senator kennedy, someone from the conservative state where im from, utah. The full measure of ted kennedy is not his sin that he did in chappaquiddick. The full measure is this individual who was able to have a life in public service. I feel the same way. I disagree with his policies, with ted kennedys policies, but i know that the full measure of a human being is not just focusing on things that i may disagree with in their personal life. Thats how i feel about this president. You know what, i will grant you, i 100 agree with you in that regard. But peter, with regard to evangelicals, what is your explanation for their relative silence . Well, we need to, having just come back from memphis and being honored to be a part of the civil rights memorial to dr. King, we have to say there are white evangelicals and there are black evangelicals. From all the reporting ive seen and the white evangelicals ive spoken to, and the black evangelicals, first of all, most of the white evangelicals are talking about coming to washington to celebrate the president. I think its quite ironic theyll do it at a hotel where hell actually make money on it. But i think what troubles me most of all is the statements that several of the white evangelicals super pastors have made, that theyre worried about the value voters not coming out in the midterms. So to me this is not about morals. Its not about ethics, unfortunately, which it should be. Its about politics. And we have a Midterm Election coming up, and probably thats why were going to see National Guard people on the border of mexico. Again, because this president and this Republican Party are very concerned about the outcome of the 2018 elections. President obama and president bush also put National Guard troops to the border as well so lets not say hes an aberration. Hes done some really excellent things that people did as well. But they didnt really work. I mean, i think we can say both the bush and obama effort there didnt really work. Is that a pretty good assessment, peter . I want to make one clear point. Im happy to discuss the path in a historical context. Im concerned about the present. Im concerned about people right now because of this trade war who got 7, 800 extra from the tax bill, who are now going to have to pay more for their everyday goods than they ever had to pay before. Its like robbing them of what youre claiming was a gift to them. Staying in the present both in my own life and in this context is very important to me and not worrying so much about the past. I have a feeling well be able to reconvene, the three of us, and talk about trade and the financial effects on peoples wallets coming up for sure, but not today. Good to see you both. Breaking news to share out of muenster, germany. Police say a driver plowed with a vehicle into a crowd killing several people, leaving at least 30 people injured. Lets go back to london and nbcs Tammy Leitner is standing by with the latest. Its quite a horror story, what do you have, tammy . Reporter thats right remember alex, and were hearing reports that as many as four people could be dead. Police are confirming there are fatalities. We have confirmation that dozens are injured. At this point police are not calling it a terrorist attack, but also not ruling that out. This happened at 3 27 p. M. Local time in muenster, germany. The suspect, we know, drove a vehicle into a crowd of people in a crowded area of town. Police have closed down the streets in and out of that area. Locals are being advised to stay out of the area. The suspect is dead. We dont know the identity of the person yet. Police say theyre not looking for any other suspects. The pictures initially coming out of the area obviously show a chaotic scene, people trying to give aid to the injured, calling for help, panicked. We know that people were outside today in that area enjoying a warm day. One of the first warm days in quite a while in that area. Muenster is a cosmopolitan city in the western part of germany, an historic town, a university town. About 50,000 students. And alex, we were initially hearing reports of a suspicious item in the vehicle. We know the bomb squad was on the scene. We have not heard if theyve been able to get into the vehicle to disarm it if there was anything in there. Also we have not heard anything at this point about whether there is any type of motive or not. And nothing about whether people were riding in the car with the suspect or the kind of car, do we know if its a truck or sedan . Reporter nothing on the description of the car. And also we do know no other suspects are they looking for. At this point we believe there was nobody else in the vehicle with the person. Okay, nbcs Tammy Leitner with the very latest, thank you, tammy. Coming up next, trade war in the offing . President trump seems unconcerned. Should we feel the same . Congressman ted lieu of california joins us next. It only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. Tide pods childguard pac. Helps keep your laundry pacs safe, and your child safer. To close, twist until it clicks. Tide pods childguard packaging. From only the thickest, juiciest heinz tomatoes. No one grows ketchup like heinz™. Oh hi sweetie, i just want to show you something. Xfinity mobile find my phone. [ phone rings ] look at you. This tech stuff is easy. [ whirring sound ] you want a cookie . Its a drone i know. Find your phone easily with the xfinity voice remote. One more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. New this afternoon, former white house chief of staff Reince Priebus defending embattled epa chief scott pruitt. I think people make mistakes and mistakes dont put people in a swamp. If you look at the preponderance of the evidence, i think scott pruitt is doing a great job. The Associated Press reports scott pruitt visited the white house yesterday to discuss the epas recent steps to roll back obamaera fuel efficiency standards for cars. But according to two officials, pruitt also fought for his job in his meeting with the president. Joining me now, democratic congressman ted lieu of california, among a group of 60 who wrote a letter to the the this week urging him to fire secretary pruitt. Hes a member of the Judiciary Committee and a frequent guest, good to see you again, sir. Your reaction to what Reince Priebus said there, that people make mistakes. If pruitt just made one mistake, i could understand. He actually made multiple mistakes. He flew on first class on taxpayer funds. He also got a below market rate lease from lobbyists. Just today were learning that he spent millions of dollars on a massive security detail to go to disney land and the rose bowl. Any one of those mistakes should result in a firing. When he had this many, theres no reason pruitt should be at the epa. That security detail is extraordinary, 20 fulltime attaches and security for him. How did that even happen . Scott pruitt is a deeply paranoid person. In addition to having a massive security detail, he also spent 43,000 of taxpayers money putting together an office that was soundproof. He also wanted a bulletproof suv. He wanted Law Enforcement to drive him with sirens to make it to a luxury french restaurant in washington, d. C. This is a person that is the epitome of fraud, waste, and abuse, a symbol of the pattern of corruption in the trump cabinet. Theres no reason he should remain at the epa. Why do you think the president seems so reluctant to fire scott pruitt . I have no idea. There are many people who dont believe in Climate Change and can dismantle epa regulations. You dont need scott pruitt to do that. You can find lots of republicans who would do exactly what hes doing right now. So i dont understand why the president still keeps him in. And it is baffling to me that he is still at the epa. We were checking your twitter feed, and just a few minutes ago you tweeted at the president saying, democrat wave continues to get stronger so now im thinking please dont fire scott pruitt, hes such a great symbol of the corruption and fraud, waste and abuse in your administration. I tried to read that dripping with sarcasm which im sure was your intent. The president s base doesnt seem to care. Why is this an issue that could help democrats . One reason i wrote that tweet is i realized the president tends to do the opposite of what rational people tell him to do. So i thought i would do some reverse psychology and see if that would work. Keep in mind, his base will do what the president tells them. He could tell them, look, wednesday is not even a day of the week, and they would say okay. Its not the base were worried, its everybody else. We just need rational, decent people in america to realize that our president has a corrupt administration and people get to vote this november to see if they want to have a new makeup of congress. What about the new report from the hill which says House Oversight chair trey gowdy is looking into pruitts 50 a night home rental deal . Most republicans have been pretty quiet on the pruitt issues. Are you encouraged by this . Im very encouraged. Trey gowdy and i dont always agree. But in terms of oversight he has definitely stepped up. In addition to investigate pruitt, hes also investigating ben carsons 31,000 dining table and other officials wasting the taxpayers money. I encourage trey gowdy to keep doing what hes doing, hes being a check and balance on the administration and thats a good thing. I want to get your take on what we learned about the russia investigation, that President Trump is a subject and not a target of muellers investigation. What do you think of that distinction . Im a former prosecutor. There are three categories of people. There are witnesses, there are subjects, and then there are targets. If youre a subject, it means that youve committed conduct that could be misconduct. Its within the scope of the grand jurys investigation. So we dont know if the president did commit misconduct. Hes not yet a target. A target means that the prosecu prosecutors have enough evidence to say that he actually committed a crime. Were somewhere in the middle. As Robert Muellers investigation continues, well find out more, if he continues as a subject or moves to become a target. You were tweeting yesterday why Jared Kushner has a job after he reportedly handed classified information to the saudi crown principlee. Nbc has not confirmed this report. Do you have a sense of how high this is on muellers list . Disclosing classified information to a foreign power is a serious crime. The president of the United States can do that. But nobody below him can do that. Its really suspicious that the Saudi Crown Prince knew exactly who his enemies were. The public reporting is that Jared Kushner told him based on intelligence he received. If that is in fact true, Jared Kushner should be investigated for committing a crime. I think its a pretty serious charge. I want to ask you about the trade war concerns, the mounting trade wars. I know theres different vernacular being used to describe it coming out of the administration. Politico says trump is worried that the trade war will blot out the tax cut message. How damaging could this be to the republicans agenda . It could be very damaging. Ill be visiting Central California today where there are a lot of agricultural interests. This trade war has a disproportionate affect on agriculture. China says theyre going to put tariffs on foods grown in california and it will result in an even bigger democratic wave in september. Have a good trip to california, thank you very much, congressman ted lieu. Coming up, a front page parody thats turning out to be true. Hands go here. Feet go here. You know what goes here. And your approval rating. Goes here. Test drive the ztrak z540r at your john deere dealer and learn why its not how fast you mow, its how well you mow fast. Nothing runs like a deere. Save 250 dollars when you test drive and buy a john deere residential z540r ztrak mower. Applebees to go. Order online and get 10 off 30. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. 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. But how do i know if im im getting a good deal . I tell truecar my zip and which car i want and truecar shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car so i know if im getting a great price. This is how car buying was always meant to be. This is truecar. At a comfort inn with a glow taround them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. Are finding themselves morin a chevroletple for the first time. Trying something new can be exciting. Empowering. Downright exhilarating. See for yourself why chevrolet is the most awarded and Fastest Growing brand, the last four years overall. Switch into a new chevy now. Current competitive owners can get five thousand dollars below msrp on this 2018 equinox when you finance with gm financial. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. That threat could have only come from a handful of places. And were pretty certain that we know where it came from. And again, were going to get to the bottom of that. Well be making an announcement in a couple of days relating to that. Michael avenatti this morning teasing an announcement that could expose the man who threatened his client Stormy Daniels while she was with her daughter back in 2011. Joining me now, aaron mcpike and alex seitzwald. Aaron, why do you think this story has such staying power . We started talking fairly intently about Stormy Daniels three months ago. Alex, whats most interesting is what we find out. Obviously the president has tried to stay far away from this. This speaks to people who are doing nefarious things on behalf of the president. And look, this is a pattern for him. There are some parallels here, go with me on this, to the russia investigation, with the president saying i had no idea anything was going on, theres no collusion, theres no collusion. Yet people were acting on his behalf. The same is true here. Once we found out about who this was and if that person has direct connections to trump, obviously that will be very interesting. The president spoke about this for the first time, on Board Air Force one, denying any knowledge of that 130,000 payment to daniels. Alex, trump has displayed great discipline until now. Why come out after all this time to deny it . Alex, he was going to have to at some point, inevitably. Hes stayed quiet much longer than i expected, to be honest. Not surprising that he denied it. But its important that he denied it legally, because Stormy Daniels and her attorney avenattis claim is that this nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for 130,000 is null and void because trump never signed it. If trump didnt even know that the contract existed, then he cant be party to it. You cant be party to a contract that you didnt even know about. And the contract clearly stipulates that trump is or only trump could bring relevant charges here. Theyre going to argue his denial basically frees them up to speak their mind freely without worrying about recourse. And erin, i know youll recall avenattis tweet ahead of the Stormy Daniels 60 minutes interview, its a picture of a dvd, we have yet to learn the contents of it, if anything. If nothing substantial comes out of his upcoming announcement that he was talking about, does avenatti risk losing credibility . Oh, yeah, of course this is going to discredit him. We dont have all the details yet and avenatti has been teasing these things for a long time. If theres no there there, he wont get the same kind of tv time hes been having. Talks over trade wars and Border Security capturing the headlines. The boston globe made that mock newspaper front page two years ago in 2016, envisioning a day in the trump presidency. The headlines talk about the president ramping up deportations, the market sinking as a trade war looms. Theres also a shot at the media. It seems very current, alex. What do you think it says about trump that this could have been predicted two years ago . Well, its interesting not only that some things he campaigned on are actually coming to pass, you would expect that in his administration. But also that the reaction was so predictable. It shows these fake headline writers in 2016 were able to predict the reaction to these Trump Administration policies when the Trump Administration itself seemed caught off guard by chinas reaction to the trade war, by the response to some of these immigration moves. So it makes you question how much theyre really anticipating and how much rigor and vetting theyre putting into these decisions that get made or whether theyre just coming off the top of trumps head and onto his twitter feet. Whats interesting, erin, if these policies were so predictable via parody, why are people shocked when the president makes a policy announcement and you recoil and say, what . Why does that happen . Thats a great question because hes actually done everything he said he was going to do, almost, except for drain the swamp, as we know right now with scott pruitt in the headlines, which is an interesting story, of course, because people steam to forget what tom price and David Shulkin went through, and David Shulkin obviously just left his post. But what scott pruitt has done is even worse, really, than what tom price had done with those chartered flights, and yet the parking l president unceremoniously kicked out price and shulkin and seems to want to keep pruitt around because hes done everything trump wanted him to do. In terms of draining the swamp, thats the one thing he hasnt done, and that will come back to bite him, certainly. Alex, why has the president been reluctant to fire scott pruitt . Erin makes a good point, people can be fired from one day to the next. A big part of it may be because so many cabinet officials have already been fired and theres a big backlog in the senate right now, which is not happy about the number of cabinet posts they have to confirm. The Trump Administration doesnt want to set up another contentious confirmation fight on capitol hill. At the same time, pruitt has been one of the more effective trump cabinet secretaries. Some of these other secretaries who were fired were not necessarily acting the way that trump wanted them to do, not following through on the policies trump wanted. Pruitt has been very effective, to the chagrin of environmentalists and a lot of liberals, so trump may be trying to keep him around for that reason. Theres always the loyalty factor, the longer trump keeps him, the more loyal pruitt is to him. Theres been rumors that pruitt could replace sessions as attorney general. It could be valuable to the president to have a loyal cabinet member. Always good to see you, thank you, guys. Coming up next, a Rolling Stone expose on russias effort to infiltrate the nra and how that could have helped get President Trump elected. Whoa. This looks worse than i thought. Mike and jen doyle . Yeah. Time for medicare, huh. I have no idea how were going to get through this. Follow me. Choosing a plan can be supercomplicated. But it doesnt have to be. Unitedhealthcare can guide you through the confusion, with helpful people, tools and plans. Including the only plans with the aarp name. Well that wasnt so bad at all. Thats how we like it. Aarp medicare plans, from unitedhealthcare. You may be at increased risk for pneumococcal pneumonia, that can take you out of the game for weeks, even if youre healthy. Pneumococcal pneumonia is a potentially serious bacterial lung disease that in severe cases can lead to hospitalization. It may hit quickly, without warning, causing you to miss out on the things you enjoy most. Prevnar 13® is not a treatment for pneumococcal pneumonia. Its a vaccine you can get to help protect against it. Prevnar 13® is approved for adults to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumococcal pneumonia. You should not receive prevnar 13® if you have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. If you have a weakened immune system, you may have a lower response to the vaccine. The most common side effects were pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, limited arm movement, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, less appetite, vomiting, fever, chills, and rash. Help protect yourself against pneumococcal pneumonia. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about prevnar 13®. A new call to action at town halls across the country today. Organizers hope to capitalize on the momentum from the march for our lives, the studentled fight for gun control. At one of those town halls in sterling, virginia, is where we find msnbcs mike viqueira. Reporter alex, forgive me if i talk in a golf announcers voice here. Theres an overflow crowd behind me that have turned out to listen to what has essentially become a democratic Candidate Forum for the right to challenge the republican, Barbara Comstock, a twoterm republican from a very swing district here in loudoun county, virginia, in the suburbs of washington, turning bluer by the year. No fewer than seven democrats will be running in a primary against each other. Theyve shown up at this town hall to talk about their bona fides and their support for gun control. Many young people, older people as well. One individual who did not show up is Barbara Comstock, the republican who has represented this district since she was elected in 2014. This is a district that went for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 10 over donald trump. However, comstock managed to get 53 of the vote. Many people here figure its going to be a different story this time around. So very political overtones. This crowd is very excited to come out, an activist crowd here. One of the individuals here happens to be a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in parkland, florida. Shes also a Mental Health professional. She came to show her support and opposition to republicans in congress. I took marching orders that we needed to take action. We needed to let our elected officials know what our voice was in this country, which was a demand for change. That doesnt happen by staying at home. Reporter so the National Rifle association, many people here, in their estimation, think Barbara Comstock is in their pocket. Weve heard that many times before. The figures according to the washington post, shes accepted 15,000 in her two congressional raises, a relatively small amount when you consider the money politicians have to raise. But 15,000 in two raises from the National Rifle association. So a firedup crowd here. Were seeing this across the country. Very few republicans have shown up at these some 90 town hall meetings. Theyre called the town hall for our lives, an offshoot of the march for our lives rallies and marches weve seen. Very few republicans, specifically republican Barbara Comstock, republican from this district, a noshow today. Certainly 19 of the people showing up at rallies and marches across the country are first timers. Thank you so much for that, mike viqueir viqueira. A new report says there has been a russian effort to infiltrate the nra. Joining me is Rolling Stones tim dickerson. Tell us about Aleksander Torshin and the role he plays in all this. As you just described it, its been a longstanding campaign. Aleksander torshin was a top ranking senator, at one point rising to be the chairman of the russian senate, sort of its mitch mcconnell. He began attending Nra Conventions back in 2011, befriended david keene and succeeded in opening up the nra as a conduit to reach out to republican politicians, to topranking social movement conservatives. And ultimately to try and broker a meeting between candidate trump and Vladimir Putin in the runup to the 2016 election. I want to ask you about the significance of the Russian Group right to bear arms and their founder, marina butina. Aleksander torshin hired marina butina, who won a political contest put on by the kremlin. She comes from a hunting background, very comfortable with guns. She won a regional political competition, sort of caught the eye of Aleksander Torshin. She founded the group right to bear arms which turned into a russian clone in moscow of the nra, so promoting a sort of Second Amendment in russia, all kinds of advances in gun rights, which theyve had very sort of modest success. But this effort was part of the you know, influence operation, essentially, to capture the attention of the nra. And this interchange between her group, and she and torshin and the nra sending delegations back and forth between the nra consequenti convention and the right to bear arms conventions in moscow is parts of the sophisticated back and forth that led to the nra becoming a back channel between kremlin supported politician torshin and top ranking brass of the nra and ultimately the president and his son at the time when the candidacy was going on. And to take it a step further, i want to ask you about the president s picket for National Security adviser, john bolton, and his involvement in the nra. Are there those who believe that the nras 20 million donation to President Trumps campaign influenced his decision to appoint bolton . Im not sure we can make that connection. But lets back up to the news from yesterday, torshin is under sanctions by the treasury department, his assets are frozen. This sort of strips away any sort of rational, above board explanation for what was going on here. I think it speaks to the depth and the sophistication of this campaign, that a guy like john bolton, an active nra member, got roped into this. Their tentacles are going this far, that we now have the second National Security adviser to have these mysterious ties to this to these russians. This speaks to the depth of this campaign. And we should also talk about the money angle, which is that the fbi, according to mcclatchy, is investigating whether torshin funneled money illegally through the nra to support the trump campaign. You know, we see the rampup of this from 2010, 2012, torshin shows up, watches the president ial campaign, by 2016 hes met the president , he says, hes trying to coordinate or broker a meeting between trump and putin, he meets with donald trump jr. At the Nra Convention in louisville in 2016, and a few months later he gets a medal from the fsb, the successor to the kgb. Maybe its a Lifetime Achievement award or maybe it had something to do with more contemporary events. A fascinating article by you, tim dickinson, thanks for joining us. Coming up next, the power of no. And why chief of staff john kelly could be in big trouble with the president. And oklahomas teacher rebellion. A teachers inside account of the struggle to educate. Vo theyre getting more out of life by starting with miraclegro potting mix and plant food. Together, guaranteed to produce three times the harvest. More to enjoy. To share. Three times the harvest. One powerful guarantee. Miraclegro. New questions this afternoon about chief of staff john kellys role in the white house. According to the Associated Press, a source says President Trump is tired of being told no by kelly and is choosing not to even tell him certain things, most recently innorring his ignoring his advice to fire epa chief scott pruitt. President trump is so focused on keeping power that hes moussed about doing away mused about doing away with the chief of staff post entirely. The confidence code for girls, is out by my friend katty kay. Im so excited for you, my friend. I want to talk about this report first, though, about the departure for the change here. I mean, extent of kellys influence has certainly waned over this president. You remember we were all talking about this man, he was a general. He was going to be able to take charge and shore up this white house and stop all manners of leaks and malfeasance. What has happened . Yeah. There have been three big incidents where kelly has been absent from major decisions that the president has made recently hiring john bolton, congratulating Vladimir Putin that easter weekend where he sent out the tweets about immigration. And it does seem that john kellys access or influence over donald trump is shrinking. It would fit with the pattern of donald trump feeling that after a year and a bit in was hes more emboldened, that perhaps he doesnt need the traditional roles bike Communications Director and chief of staff roles like Communications Director and chief of staff. The message hes getting from friends. The downside is that trying to run the west wing without a chief of staff at all would be almost impossible, right. I mean, look, that was done for brief periods during gerald ford, during jimmy carter, did not work. How plausible do you think it is that this president would say im going to do this myself . This is a president who likes to do things by chaos. This is government by chaos. And do things that are different from other people. There is no indication at the moment that hes decided not to replace the Communications Director or do away with the chief of staff altogether. You know, donald trump has insisted in the past he wasnt going to do away with mcmaster. A week later, he was gone. What the president says is not always what he does. Okay. Let me put it to you this way. Why do you think the president has not fired john kelly . What do you think is holding him back . He still seems to have this respect for generals. Did take him a while even after he realized he didnt get on well with mac mast with mcmas get rid of mcmaster. He brought john kelly in after he had previously run the white house. He must be weighing up the pros and cons altogether. Who else is going to take the job . This is not an easy job, as john kelly has already said. You know, god must have been disgruntled with him to have given him that job and taken him away from homeland security. This isnt an easy job for anyone to do. Okay. You know what else is not an easy job is to write a great book. I want to get to it now. And youre an extraordinary journalist and mom and author now. This new book is called the confidence code for girls, where you empower girls between 8 and 12, essentially the we know it the tween years, to try to find confidence. Is that because youre a mom, part of what inspired you to do this book . You know, i have two daughters and two sons and see the difference between them. This came out of research we did on confidence for our book for adults in 2014. It was clear that the confidence gap between men and women starts much younger than adulthood. We did a poll for this beak to get research on this. And the data shows that girls confidence starts declining at the age of 8, that young. It declines by about 30 . And alex, it never really recovers. Girls start feeling they need to be perfect, they dont want to take risks. They need to be people pleasers. All of that feeds into a lack of confidence between girls and boys. If were going to have confident women in this era of times up and me too, we need to start with girls and raise confident girls. Ive got a daughter, too. Im going to blame a lot of this on social media, just this picture of perfection thats put out there. How much do you think thats responsible for i mean, 8 years old, that is awfully young to start having lack of confidence. And we see them. We see them all on social media. And social media tends to make everything more extreme. It does tend to prompt girls to feel they have to be the sexiest girl or the prettiest, the most popular girl. Theyre posting all of these photos on line that project a perfect image of themselves. What weve found with confidence is the way you grow your confidence is by doing things that are tough and new and hard. By taking risks, getting outside your comfort zone. Some of that means failing sometimes. If youre always obsessed with being perfect, youre never prepared to fail. Thats what the data and research is showing us, that girls are terrified of failing because they want to be perfect. Youre never going to get confident that way. I think social media is contributing. We launched actually with instagram, we paid up and launched a campaign, capture confidence. I think 700,000 girls now have posted pictures doing things, not being perfect, not being sexy, not being photo shopped, but doing things that make them feel confident. I am so proud of you for this book. Thank you. That is awesome. Thank you very much, katty kay. It is the confidence code this time for girls. Appreciate it. Feeling heat and fighting for his job. What happened during Scott Pruitts Oval Office Meeting . You bought a house. Okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. Quiet. Im blasting my quads. Janice, look. Im in a meeting. Janice, look. [ chuckles ] look, look. Im looking. Its easy. You just answer some simple questions online, and you get Coverage Options to choose from. Youre ruining my workout. Cycling is my passion. Youre ruining my workout. From only the thickest, juiciest heinz tomatoes. No one grows ketchup like heinz™. Is the fact that its very, very tough on bacteria, yet its very gentle on the denture itself. Polident consists of 4 powerful ingredients that Work Together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. That Work Together im allbusiness when i, travel. Even when i travel. For leisure. So i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle without starting any conversations or paying any upcharges. What can i say . Control suits me. Go national. Go like a pro. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. 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. Capdynamic lightingrs elevated comfort powerfully efficient and one more thing the world comes with it you can go your own way. The 2019 Jeep Cherokee thats a wrap for me this hour. Im alex witt. I look forward to seeing you all at 9 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning. Ill hand things off here at the headquarters, and thank you for doing o. T. Glad to have you here. Glad to be here. Hello, everyone, im at msnbc headquarters in new york. A stormy spring. Stormy daniels lawyer says to expect a major announcement in the coming days. Less than 48 hours after President Trump acknowledged for
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.