Obamas fight on the campaign. And Sarah Huckabee sanders only an hour ago briefing for the First Time Since monday. The president knows that there was no collusion in the campaign. And he has been quite clear about this. Its gone on for over a year. They have found no evidence of collusion, and still strongly believe that it is a witchhunt. So this you have trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani marking this anniversary with yet another round of media tours, this time the blitz is centering on this question. Can special Counsel Robert Mueller actually indict a sitting president . Well, according to giuliani, muellers own team told him the answer is no. Lets start this hour at white house with msnbc hans nichols. There is a lot of Foreign PolicyThe Middle East news we will get to in a little bit about what the president had to say today. But here we go again. You have those major events, a north korea summit, china, all the things the president talked
about today. And yet hes tweeting, his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani is talking about Robert Mueller. I know that Halle Jackson has spoken with Rudy Giuliani. Yeah. What did he have to say . When hallee jackson spoke to giuliani, it was the intent of giuliani to make this case that they have been communicated from the mueller shop that they cannot indict a sitting president. Giuliani said it is a closer call whether you can subpoena a sitting president. I think we have to be clear. This is the white house in this case, Giuliani Filtering through and translating for Robert Mueller. Until we hear those words from Robert Mueller and what they think their prerogatives are in terms of potentially indicting a president i think we have to look at this as spin there the white house or i should say spin
from the legal side, the president s legal team, because the white house itself doesnt weigh in. Several times today trying to get the white house to weigh in on this, Sarah Huckabee sanders simply would not take the bait and said look that has to do with the president s personal legal team. Hans, we will get back to you in a minute. You have arguably the key player for President Trumps defense other than the president himself, Rudy Giuliani back at it, both making the rounds and potentially making more trouble for his employer. Because on multiple outlets not only did giuliani say last night and today that special Counsel Robert Muellers team says that he cannot indict him, but he had some other interesting positions about the russia probe. Worth noting, the last time we had a Giuliani Media blitz he revealed that President Trump reimbursed his Attorney Michael Cohen for that 130,000
settlement with Stormy Daniels. Now we know why giuliani was on that head scratching media campaign. Was this done a couple of weeks back on the network because you knew this was coming out. Sure. Absolutely. And the president was fully aware of it. The president endorsed a strategy. We wouldnt do it without him. He is the client and has tremendous judgment about things like this. That brings us to the big question now. What is motivating Rudy Giuliani in this latest reveal . Let me bring in my panel. Nischelle penner, who spoke with giuliani recently. Liz holtzman is a counsel and a former congresswoman who voted to impeach nixon. Mad of a pewso. And stephanie douglas. I want to start with stephanie. We have team trump clearly continuing to push this witchhunt narrative. But giuliani take it a step
farther. He suggests instead of an indictment hes concern there had could be a report. And they are prepared to attack this report. Let me play for you what he said about it. Theres no reason for this investigation. There never was a good reason from the first place. This was engineered by comey. Im still hopeful when it comes down to it they are not going to impair their reputations with a bogus report. If you are going to write a fair report, fine, write it. If you are going the write an unfair report, write and it we will combat it. We are ready to rip it apart and we are ready to rip them apart. I dont think there is anybody who dose that they have a plan in place that they are going to go after whatever said report would be. Under what circumstances would Robert Mueller issue a report . He is the Special Counsel. As part of the his duties as the Special Counsel it is to issue a confidential report. You know, the American Public is waiting to see what the findings of his investigation are. And those will be documented in a report. You know, i would assume, given the nature of the investigation and with a significant amount of Security Equities involved in t the, parts of the report will be classified. You know, mr. Giuliani is playing a different role other than trusted counsel. You can guarantee that the Special Counsels team, in any conversation that they will have with him, will anticipate it leaking to the media. Trusted counsel would be an interesting way to describe Rudy Giuliani. You also talked to him last night. Tell us a little bit about what he said to you and put it in the context of everything weve learned today. He basically reaffirmed to me that President Trump said he believes that Robert Muellers team told President Trumps team that a sitting president could not be indicted. And that means that they had
that information for two weeks, that they feel as though the president will not be indicted by Robert Mueller because they want to follow what he described as these rules and this press did be and this culture at the department of justice. The issue is that Rudy Giuliani is way more someone who was hired to talk to the media. He was somebody who was meant to be put on the offense and hes somebody who is making the case and getting people ready for whether or not this report comes out. I think why Rudy Giuliani is out there talking about this is because once this report comes out there are two things that are going to happen. People are going to start saying what are republicans going to do . And Rudy Giuliani wants to say look it is a report, who cares . It is not a real thing. Its not a real indictment. Thats why i think he is over there talking to everybody. Liz holtzman on one hand you have Rudy Giuliani saying there cant be an indictment, there wont be an indictment. On the other hand, he also said this is what raised a
lot of eyebrows as people look at him as potentially getting the president in even more trouble he saimd seem to indicate that it is okay to get dirt on your opponents from other cups. Let me play that. The headlines today, cnn don jr. Admits he was looking for dirt on Hillary Clinton oh, wow. And they Werent Looking For Dirt On Donald Trump . Only the dossier. When i ran against them, they were looking for dirt on me every day. I mean, thats what you do. Maybe you shun, but you do it. Nothing illegal about that. And even if it comes from a russian or a german or an american. It doesnt matter. And they never used it is the main thing. They never used i. They rejected i. If there was collusion with the russians they would have used it. So he seems to be suggesting that if they took in information from the russians but didnt use it, it was okay, and that there is no differentiation between
opposition research, which does happen all the time and getting together with a Foreign Government. Listen, donald trump himself said that giuliani needed some time to get up to speed on the facts. Well, he need a lot more time to get up to speed on the law because he is completely wrong. Information is valuable. If the russians contributed dirt, whatever you want to call it, information, negative research, to the Trump Campaign, there is no question they were looking for it, and the Trump Campaign wanted it and clued with them. First of all its i will for the russians to do it. And its illegal for the campaign to receive anything of value from a Foreign Government or from a foreigner. Period. Absolutely no ifs, ands or buts about it. I dont know what giuliani is talking about. I also dont think he is right we he says that the president can be indicted. I pulled out this of the aboutered copy of the constitution i carry around with
me. Let me get that on the other side. Richard blumenthal who was a prosecutor and is now a senator from connecticut was making your point. I want to see if your point is the same as his. Lets play it from earlier this morning here on this network. We dont have that . Okay. Well, basically, he did argue he argued that this absolutely could happen. That and he also made the argument that the reason not to indict is based to an precedent thats 45 years old and could perhaps be looked at differently. There is no precedent. The only thing you have is two opinions from the Legal Counsels Office and the Justice Department. And they really kneel at the feet of the president. There has never been any precedent in terms of prosecution. In fact, what we have is the constitution itself, which never says one word about you cant prosecute a president. Interestingly, the framers. Constitution gave immunity from prosecution to members of congress. So we know they cant be prosecuted for anything they say on floor of the house or the floor of the senate in debate. We know the framers knew how to give immunity when they wanted to. They gave it to congress. They didnt give to it the president. Also, there was no statute of limitations, no term limits on a president at that time. So how could you have ever prosecuted a president . A president could have been served three or four or five terms, the statute of limitations would never run out. They never anticipated that the president would be immune from the rule of law. Your Justice Department some believe the fbi agents could have been more aggressive right at the beginning of this investigation. And now you have this constant repetition, witchhunt had, witchhunt had, witchhunt. Tell bus your reporting. To close the loop on the last
point, i think its important to keep something in mind about bob mueller on this issue of indicting the president. I have covered the fbi. I have covered bob mueller. And stephanie can weigh in on this. There is almost 50 years of kind of established policy at the office of legal counsel. Bob mueller is not the kind of guy who just goes in and breaks that for the sake of breaking it. So hes not somebody who is inclined to tip over that table, you know, that 50 years is going to mean something to him. And the question of witchhunt, we spend a great amount of time studying the origins of this investigation. What we found was this case, which was code named crossfire hurricane, really, the agents at every turn deferred to secrecy and keeping it quiet, and even keeping information from senior political officials at the Justice Department because they
were so concerned this was going to leak. Thats not evidence of anything other than how closely held and compartmentalized this investigation was. But if the goal was to try to harm donald trump, they had a million opportunities to along the way and chose the exact opposite. So you make an interesting point, matt, i will go back to stephanie on this. Stephanie, does Robert Mueller seem like the kind of person to you who would set aside that 45, 50 years that this has been in place and say you know what, lets see, maybe we can indict a president . I would say not the point that Richard Blumenthal was making was that he could indict him now and then hold off on the actual trial. I agree with matt. I mean, Director Mueller has Great Respect for the institution of the presidency. He is going to be very respectful of that office. You know, if something comes to light in the course of the
investigation that is so extraordinary and so overwhelming, you know, he may change his mind. I mean we would be speculating as to what he might do because we dont know the full evidence that he acquired during the course of this investigation. But i do not think that he would do it lightly. I dont think that he is looking to change the rule of law orr the press departmentsetting law thats happened in the past. I think he will be very, very careful about how he proceeds and try to keep the scope of his Special Counsel investigation within the confines of the expectation of the department. Now, on hatch, who of course is a republican senator, was asked about this this morning. Heres what he had to say. Do you think a sitting president can be indicted . No. Maybe afterwards. My personal belief is is that there should not even been an attempt to try to indict whoever is president. Why is that . Why . Well, because they are in the
middle of major major problems for the country that they need to be able to pursue. Maybe afterwards. Whats the buzz on capitol hill about all of this . Im more so talking to people from in the white house. And the white house officials that i talked to said that not only do they feel like its precedent that President Trump cant be indicted but they also say that james comey repeatedly told the president this and basically gave him the feeling as though whatever happened with whatever investigation the department would not seek to break precedent and look over the 50 years of law or culture that matt was talking about. To be continued. Thanks to all of you. Much appreciated. I want to bring back nbc news hans nichols at the white house. Because, again, when we werent talking about robert mutual, when he wasnt tweeting, when
giuliani wasnt talking on tv or making phone calls there was aet mooing with the Secretary General of nato. We heard from the president twice at length. There a lot to unpack. Start off with the president defending his comments on referring to ms 13 members as animals. They are clearly doubling down on that. You heard that from the president at several points. You heard his criticism of the iran deal yet again talking about what an awful deal this was, even suggesting that there could be peace in syria. It will be more likely now that the iran deal has been skufred. Then more Trade Deal Criticism of germany. I think its really the north korea part that is perhaps the most interesting and also the most confusing. I say that because the president seemed to be going in several directions when he was speaking about it. Have a listen to how he said where the current state in the negotiations are. Nothing is changed on north
korea that we know of. We have not been told anything. And if it does, thats fine. If it doesnt, i think we will probably have a very successful meeting but we have to the been told anything. We are just reading we are just reading stories like you are. Is this just a typical thing that north korea does . Did you expect that . I really dont note. I want to give everybody the benefit of the. Do you i think that i can only say our people are literally dealing with them right now in terms of Making Arrangements for the meeting. For the most part, that was the president trying to get negotiations back on track. At several points suggesting what he might offer kim jongun saying there would be great economic benefit. Also suggesting that he would remain in power, that they would bolster his position. He is trying to get away from this idea of the Gadhafi Model, the libya model. Its confusing because when we talk about libya there are two dels. One in the early 2000s under the Bush Administration where they agreed, gadhafi to give up his
Nuclear Weapons. They did that quick dplee and swiftly. Later on the Obama Administration that was a air campaign that was join by other nato members in 2011 that ultimately led to a Civil War In Libya and the dekplin and the fall and the death of gadhafi. What the president is trying to do is clarify and send a signal to kim jongun that they dont have the Gadhafi Model in mind in term of the end of the regime. Now, i will say at one point the president issued quite a threat. And he said if these Negotiations Dont Work Out that may be the deal he ends up getting, meaning the deal that befell gadhafi, which was death in a drain ang pipe. Never a dull moment at the white house. Thank you for that. Meantime, hawaiis Kilauea Volcano is throwing a plume of ash 30,000 feet into the air. Geologists say the eruption could intensify even more. We will take you there live next. And the senate has just started
a series of two votes that will conclude with final confirmation for gina haspels nomination to be cia director. We will monitor that for you here on msnbc. I love my grandma. Anncr as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. When i can keep up anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Your Digestive System has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. Try align, the 1 doctor recommended probiotic. With a unique strain that realigns your system. Realign yourself, with align. Geologists say the eruption at ally, we offer low rates on home loans. But if thats not enough, we offer our Price Match Guarantee too. And if thats not enough. We should move. Our home team will help you every step of the way. Still not enough . Its smaller than id like. Well help you finance your dream home. Its perfect. Oh, was this built on an ancient Burial Ground . Okay. Then well have her cleanse your house of evil spirits. Well do anything, spiritual chatter seriously anything to help you get your home. Ally. Do it right. Really unbelievable video coming in right now of the eruption of hawaiis Kilauea Volcano. Residents of the big island facing an ongoing threat some saying they felt a huge explosion this morning followed by an eruption of ash that shot 30,000 feet, nearly six miles, into the air. An ash fall advisory is in effect until friday morning. The volcano sent lava into some neighborhoods and destroyed dozens of homes. No. Is in hawaii. I know when i saw you this will morning you could feel the trembling beneath your feet. Is there any sign this letting up anytime soon . Geologists say they simply dont know. Its possible this could have been the last big explosion weve had or its possible it is the first of many more still to come. They are not confident at this hour. That explosion that happen this morning happened not far from
where we are standing here at Volcanos National park. It happened at the crater itself. A plume rose 30,000 feet, nearly six miles into the air. Those massive fissures that are opening up are actually happening about 12 to 15 to 20 miles away from where we are standing now. Thats down by estates in the city of pahoa. Residents are seeing lava literally oozing out of the ground. They are concerned about venting. Sulfur dioxide is pouring out of the ground there. We had there this morning whenwide we had geysers shooting up behind us. We could feel the earth trembling and as we were leaving we could smul Sulfur Dioxide in the air. Now we are 15 or 20 miles away. Here they are concerned about ash fall from the massive situation. As you might be able to tell
here we have light rain and its very overcast here. We cant see the gigantic plume. Just a few days ago when it was also pluming from this location we could see a plume that was going about 15,000 feet into the air. We cant see it right now because of the rain. Im seeing the sign behind you saying cracks in driveway. Be careful. Coming up, Robert Muellers Russia Probe Hitting the oneyear mark today. Now the big question Going Forward. Whats in store for year two . Well dive into that when we come back. Into retirement. And a little nervous. But not so much about what Market Volatility may do to their retirement savings. Thats because they have a Shield Annuity from Brighthouse Financial, which allows them to take advantage of Growth Opportunities in up markets, while maintaining a level of protection in down markets. So they can focus on new things like exotic snacks. Talk with your advisor about Shield Annuities from Brighthouse Financial established by metlife. Pepsoriasis does that. It was tough getting out there on stage. I wanted to be clear. I wanted it to last. So i kept on fighting. I found something that worked. And keeps on working. Now . They see me. See me. See if cosentyx could make a difference for you cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Find clear skin that can last. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting cosentyx, you should be checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms. Or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. If you have inflammatory bowel disease, tell your doctor if symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Never give up. See me. See me. Clear skin can last. Dont hold back. Ask your dermatologist if cosentyx can help you find clear skin that lasts. Breaking news on the hill. What you are watching is the senate voting. We expect, to confirm gina haspel to lead the Central Intelligence agency. With me is garrett haake, kennedy lanian. And as we have said often, garrett, this is historic. She will be the first woman the lead the agency. This is historic. Gina haspel will become the first female cia director. Having grown up at the cia. Spending her entire career there. She was the inside pick for this job and made it flew what a lot of people thought was going to be a much more contention confirmation process. They are reading through the last round on names on the floor
right now. We expect the vote total will match what we saw in the procedural vote here, a 5444 vote getting sick democrats, mostly folks who are up for reexelection, but also mark warner, the top ranking democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee. Thats a good endorse men for gina haspel, Many Democrats were going to vote against her as they have voted against all of President Trumps nominees largely. But getting warner is a big coup for her. It was obviously in some ways smoother than i think a lot of people might have expected, ken. It was potentially a very bruising process. And certainly it wasnt exactly smooth sailing but she is getting through, and it wasnt by the skin of their teeth. Nevertheless, who obstacles does
she face Going Forward. Look, now that shes gotten through this controversy over her past with cia torture and made that statement that won over a lot of democrats saying essentially it was a bad idea and shouldnt have happened, now we are looking forward. You know, what is interesting about gina haspel she has a background in russia. She led Spying Efforts against russia. And she operated overseas spying on russians. She said pointedly during this confirmation process that she accepts the u. S. Intelligence Community Conclusion that Russia Meddled in the election that she would stand up to donald trump on issues like that. Its going to be interesting to see. Trump obviously has no patients for the Intelligence Community assessment that russia interfered in the election. He hasnt done much the deter future russian interference. Another question is what her
rapport with President Trump will be. Mike pompeo had a guys guy rapport with the president. He was there every day. President trump likes oral briefings. Its going to be interesting to see what gina haspel, a reserved person, who has been in the shadows most of her career is going to develop a rapport over time. We have heard from people who supported her about the concerns Going Forward given the fact that the president often has harsh thing to say to the Intelligence Community. We have seen this in the past, i think about the reporting of kiersten nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security who became the secretary when john kelly moved over to the white house who did not have the same relationship with the president that her predecessor had. By some reporting that has made her job harder. The reporting is that he ripped her apart in an internal
meeting over border security. Thats not the relationship you want to have with your boss. What we have heard from democrats who have chose Tony Support Haspel is as ken pointed out that they believe she might be willing to stand up to this president when they disagree. Thats not something this president likes to hear from those close to him. It will be interesting to see which jersey she wears the institutional cia jersey she has worn her whole career or whether she chooses to wear a jersey when there is conflict more in line with the president for perhaps job security in that role. We have talked a lot about the fact that the president s Constan Attacks Particular Loo on Robert Mueller and on higgs his investigation have had on the Rank And File in the fbi. What kind of cia is walking into . Early on, donald trump went to the cia and gave a self serving and rambling speech in
front of those stars that honor fallen officers. It rubbed many people at the cia the wrong way. He made some comments comparing intelligence officials to nazi because he grouped the Intelligence Community in with the people doing the russia investigation, wrongly in many cases. But look the cia is a microcosm of ebb america. There are many conservative republicans, many trump sort supporters. They tend to keep their heads down and do their work, which is foreign focused. Its gathering intelligence overseas. They try to stay out of politics. Gina haspel has to be the gobetween between them and the president. We will keep our eye on this obviously. Gina haspel becoming the first cia director who also a woman. We will have the final vote coming. Today also brings us into year two of Robert Muellers Special Counsel probe. The question from everyone, including the president is where does this go next . Will the president be stated . Could he be . Would he ultimately talk to Robert Mueller . If he doesnt will he face a grand jury subpoena. No surprise the president tweeted his disgust already today. Also Worth Remembering so far 19 people and three Russian Companies have either been indicted or pled guilty to criminal charges, including four people who worked for team trump. The investigation has also helped Reveal Information we may never have known like that payment to Stormy Daniels and potentially other women as well. We heard about that today. What exactly happened at the Trump Tower Meeting and just how deeply involved the russians were in wanting President Trump in the white house. To talk more about all of it im joined by jennifer ruben, who is also on Msnbc Contrbor and wrote recently about this. Mimi rocha from the Southern District of new york. And a legal analyst. We have new reporting at nbc
that Rudy Giuliani said the Special Counsel is quote engage us on several points. So the lines of communication are still open. And he reiterated again what donald trump has apparently told a lot of people, he want to talk. Take a listen. You have to understand, the president wants to testify, he wants to give his side of the case which he believe is the truthful one. About obstruction of justice what he says is simply im expressing my opinion. I cant say that comey is doing a bad job . I am obstructing just if i decide that the director of the fbi is doing a bad job . Thats ridiculous. He wants to express that. On muellers side, everything he says they believe they can examine his motives. So if they had an open mind, we would be inclined to maybe let our client do what he want to do. You have a situation, mimi, where we are now in a position where it seems like, again, new things are coming out every
single day. One of the thing that Michael Avenatti said this morning for example, there are at least a couple of other women who he thinks that they may have legit documents that suggest they were also paid off for alleged affairs with the president of the United States. Take us inside. If they are still engaged. If they are talking, what does that negotiation look like to get donald trump to sit with Robert Mueller . In this case obviously it is a little bit different than your ordinary, you know, white collar criminal investigation. But the things that are similar are that, look, mueller has the threat, full, if you will, of a subpoena. Giuliani i know even has conceded that he thinks well maybe mueller maybe does have the power to subpoena him. I think he does. I think ultimately that would be upheld by a court, that that goes back to the nixon cases. But really, you know, Whats Going On here is i think that trump is trying to hide behind this idea of, you know, his
lawyers are telling him not to talk because the Special Counsel doesnt have an open mind and cant be fair. You know, people dont get to pick their prosecutors. Whether you are the president or anyone else. Your prosecutor is your prosecutor. And the Investigative Team you know, you have to trust the process. And this idea that the president of the United States doesnt trust our criminal Justice System enough to sit down for an interview and just tell the truth if thats what he says he wants to do is preposterous. And this claim that they havent found collusion yet they havent found anything yet but mueller doesnt give status reports. He doesnt give updates. He will talk when the investigation is done. Yeah. This has been an absolute steel closed drum, this investigation. Jennifer you wrote about what mimi was talking about. T im going the read from your column. I have zero doubt that had the roles been reversed republicans
would be drafting articles of impeach men. As things stand both sides where wait for the full report from special Counsel Robert Mueller by the way, the report Rudy Giuliani says they are prepared to attack. Mueller sees himself obviously as above politics. Hes just staying in there doing his job. But with these kinds of implications, with people talking about indicting a president , talking about impeaching a president , is to say that you can keep it separate from politics naive . No. I dont think it is. I think Robert Mueller operates in a realm that donald trump is entire unfamiliar with. That is fact and law. Donald trump has operated his entire life with bluster, with people around him like Rudy Giuliani who is telling him what he wants to say, who is making up facts and the law as he goes around. Thats not going to work with Robert Mueller. Robert mueller is conducting a
completely buttoned down investigation. As you aptly outlined. He has indictments. He has plea deals. This fall we will see the trial of Paul Manafort who was the mans campaign manager. I think what giuliani says may be for an audience of one. The reality is that i think its pretty much beyond doubt based not only on u. S. V nixon but also the paula jones case that a sitting president will be subpoenaed and required to testify. This notion that he has some choice to testify or not is nonsense. He can do it the easy way with his lawyer present in an interview or he can do it the hard way is get a subpoena from a grand jury. It is a lot of nonsenses that he wishes he could but he cant do it. He could sit down. I take exception to this notion that no collusion has been found. Collusion is not a legal term at all. It is sort of a made up word
that we have all boughten into. Secondly if what we are talking about is efforts to solicit help or receive help from a Foreign Government which is illegal under u. S. Campaign law, we already have that. That is that Tower Meeting in trump tower on june 9 where we clearly have donald trump jr. Very interested in getting dirt, asking at the onset of the meeting for dirt on Hillary Clinton. If the facts bear that out thats arguably a violation of law and not an insignificant one. There are a lot of conflicting stories, and we are seeing them pile up even more from what was released yesterday about what exactly happen in that meeting how people interpret that meeting. Then this mrn on morning joe Michael Avenatti comes on, every day there is something new. He said yeah, Stormy Daniels. But he has been talking about other women who have come to him. Now hes suggesting there may be at least two more hes considering representing who
also got money in addition to that 130,000 we know about. Let me play that exchange. They are not fully vetted but theres at least two that i think are on solid ground. And i think as the evidence rolls out over the months disclosures will be made that my client was not alone when it relates to these payments, that Michael Cohen was not a 24 7 sole fixer for the purpose of Stormy Daniels. Who women who allege that they have agreements with Michael Cohen or donald trump . Correct. And women who claim to have had affairs or s. E. C. With donald trump . Correct. And these women, are they part of a larger payments . Im sorry . Did they have larger payments paid to them, larger than 130,000 . Yes. Mimi, reports of affairs havent touched the president , havent seemed to politically. But legally could it hurt him . The payments to these women,
i think, are important now in the framework of the Southern District case against Michael Cohen. Because first of all, especially if there are more payments that we find out about. Where did that money come from . I do not take at face value what now seems to be a cover story made up by giuliani and trump that cohen paid out the money and then trump paid him back. That seems to me to be an after the fact cover story. Well see. The facts will play out. Well find that out. But where did the money come from for all of these payments . Where did cohen get the money . Did it come from the russianlinked company . That would bring russian into another aspect of a Campaign Finance possible violation. Getting money from russia used to influence the results of the election. We tonight know yet. It brings more scrutiny on Michael Cohen and backs him more into a corn near exactly. And hes going to want to tell his story. He already said he doesnt agree with what giuliani is going on tv and saying. The more he gets backed into a corner and the more he wants to tell his version of what happened i think the more a prosecutor comes to him and says you are looking at ten, 15 years that, too. There is probably pressure there to not want to leave his family and spend time in prison potentially. Moo me, jennifer thanks to both of you. We want to keep or eye on the live picture of the senate floor where the final votes are being cast for gina haspels nomination to lead the cia. We will have the count for you when the rote is official. President trump striking a different tone on nato from Candidate Trump after meeting with Secretary General stoltenberg. What it could mean for the Foreign Policy agenda. And a former Whistle Blower says steve bannon tried to suppress the black vote during the 2016 election. Wraek. We will be right back. And of course, price. Tripadvisor helps you book a. Hotel without breaking a sweat. Because we now instantly. Search over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Dont sweat your booking. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Camping with my daughters was more than just a weekend. It was our time to unplug and be together. With my bladder leakage, im not doing that anymore. When i went hiking with the other product, it just didnt fit right and i was always readjusting it. So, now our Camping Trips are their Camping Trips. But with the new sizes of depend fitflex, it feels like it was made for me. Im ready to get back our time together. Introducing more sizes for better comfort. New depend fitflex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. Get a free sample at depend. Com new depend fitflex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. And i am a senior Public SafetyMy Namspecialist for pg e. My job is to help educate our first responders
on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. Everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. I live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. Once i moved here i didnt want to live anywhere else. I love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other peoples lives. Together, were building a better california. Well, we saw a major about face from President Trump today who had good things to say about nato after his meeting with secretarygeneral stoltenborg. The strong Working Partnership we forged has helped to produce significant increases in member state contribution. We are delighted to report that last year as a result of our joint efforts, we witnessed the single large of the increase in Defense Spending among european Member States and canada in a quarter of a century. That is a different tone than we heard on the campaign trail. Its 68 years old. It was formed to look over the soviet union, which doesnt even exist any more. And i know what happens. It gets big and bureaucratic. I said, its obsolete and we pay too much money. Were paying a truly i mean, just the numbers are staggering. Were paying a disproportionate share and its obsolete. Weve got 28 countries and most of them are free loading over us. And they get a big benefit, yeah, whatever. I mean, we wont mention individual countries. Some of them are fine countries. Some of them are very smart countries. Why shouldnt they free load if they can . Joining us now to take a closer look at all of this, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former u. S. Ambassador to nato. Its great to see you. So, obviously this was a president who had a lot of negative things to say about nato, sounded much more positive today. Do you take this as some sort of shift that this administration
now is looking at nato in a more traditional way . Well, clearly the president has decided that the time has come for him to be more positive about the alliance that started already last year and is continuing this year, in part because moral eyes are paying more for their own defense. And that is a good thing, and i think the president , having pushed very hard for this, deserves some of the credit for that happening. What really is the question, though, is whether not only nato is a good thing, but whether allies in general are a good thing. Something you didnt show was criticism, again, of germany over issues like trade. We have Trade Tariffs Being imposed on some of our allies and being threatened to be imposed at the end of the month. We, of course, had a major disagreement with our european allies over iran. And the question isnt just whether we can have a couple of days of nice words about nato. Thats important, but whether, in fact, allies still count in
washington when it comes to major issues of the day. One of the major issues obviously north korea, the president says that hes still planning to meet with kim jongun next month despite north korea threatening to cancel the meeting. But there is this disconnect we heard just over the last couple of days between john bolton today and the president about what north korea must do. Take a listen. I think thats what denuclearization means, and we have very much in mind the libya model from 20032004. There are obviously differences, the libyan program is much smaller. The full, complete total disclosure of everything related to their Nuclear Weapons program with full international verification, and i think following libya, verification by american and other inspectors is could be very important here. And then i think we have the sound today from President Trump. The libyan model was a much different model. We decimated that country. We never said to gaddafi, oh, were going to give you protection. Were going to give you military strength. Were going to give you all of these things. We went in and decimated him. So, conflicting views, it seems, about what the message is for north korea. Sarah sanders then suggested at the briefing this morning that maybe john bolton was freelancing. How do nato allies listen to what this president has to say . How does the secretarygeneral listen to what he has to say, and know what u. S. Policy is . Well, its hard. Its the unpredictability of this administration. I had a senior european diplomat tell me the other day when i was in washington that the indispensable nation has become the unpredictable nation. And in some ways its that unpredictability which the president has used as a means to get better deals out of the
negotiations, but it leaves allies in particular worried about the direction of u. S. Policy. Evo dahl ter, thank you, we appreciate your time today. Meantime charges of Voter Suppression in the 2016 election are back in the news today. New blame focusing on former white house chief strategist steve bannon from his time at the now defunct Political Consulting firm at the heart of the facebook privacy data scandal. Former Cambridge Analytical Christopher Wiley made the Explosive Charge before senators yesterday. Was one of his goals to suppress voting or discourage certain individuals in the United States from voting . That was my understanding, yes. Was Voter Suppression a service that u. S. Clients could request in their contracts with Cambridge Analytica while bannon was vicepresident . Yes. One of the one of the things that did provoke me to leave was the beginnings of discussions about voter disengagement. I have seen documents that reference voter disengagement
and i recall conversations that that it was intended to focus on africanamerican voters. Joining us now to talk about this, director of Progressive Political programming for sirius xm and an msnbc political analyst. All throughout the campaign there were comments, there were arguments about Voter Suppression. New laws that went into effect. Right. Clearly intended to suppress the vote. Having said that, were you surprised at all to hear that Voter Suppression was a service that could be bought . Im surprised to hear that its a service that could be bought and that the Trump Campaign allegedly bought into that service. I think that im not surprised by the fact that this is validating what i thought anecdotally on the campaign. My job was very much in the social media space. I saw many pretend bernie supporters saying terrible things about Hillary Clinton in the context of that she said Super Predator or she doesnt care about black people. And that was meant to make black voters disengage from a
political process, basically turn away from the and say were not going to go out and make our voices heard because of the negativity that they saw in social media about Hillary Clinton. And i think thats an important thing we should be looking a at. But as you said, we should be looking at the voter i. D. Laws, because just for example, in a state like wisconsin that was decided by 22,748 votes, 200,000 black voters were impacted by that states voter i. D. Law based on the expert studies that were done after the fact. So, that was the margin of difference in that particular state. So, its important to make sure that black voters are able to go to the polls. People died and protested we have the midterms. I am very concerned about this issue because the white house has done nothing to prevent cyberattacks from russia. They have done nothing to ensure that black people have more access to the ballot box. 2016 was the first election where the Voting Rights act was essentially stripped away