But first, new questions and changing explanations from companies now finding themselves smack in the middle of a controversy over big payments to Donald Trumps personal attorney Michael Cohen. Im crushing it, reads the headline in the Washington Post, quoting cohen, touting how he leveraged his access to President Trump. Those promised brought millions of dollars into cohens business essential consulting. Among the companies putting cash in cohens coffers, drug giant novartis and at t. Msn Msnbcs Ali Velshi taking a look at all this. Let me start with the basic. Some people might say this happens all the time. People were surprised. They got a president they werent expecting. They wanted to go and find out anything they could about him. So they paid 1. 2 million to a guy named Michael Cohen. Its weird on a lot of levels. Theres some part of this thats a bit swampy. Novartis ceo put out a statement saying we made a mistake entering into this agreement and were being criticized by a world that expects more for us. This is the interesting part, as unfounded stories spread throughout the u. S. News. I went to sleep 1. 2 million. Now, in america, if an American Company pays money to influence a foreign elected official, we dont know whether this influenced a foreign elected official or not. So what the mope was for is important. In front of a president who said he was going to do away with obamacare. Didnt novartis now have like four different statements . They keep changing their story. At t changed it a couple times. They had a merger deal with time warner in front of a president just coincidentally at the same time. Said hes not going to do this deal. Korean airlines. This one its a small amount of money, 150,000 but its for legal consult iing concerning accounting. Hes an accountant . Hes not an ektaccountant. And by the way, Legal Consulting if theres legal work involved that might get him out. There has to be separate places for clients money. Then the big question is this is about 2. 5 million. Where did it go . Where did this money go . Did donald trump know this was happening . Was Michael Cohen a lone ranger who said i got access to the president . If Michael Cohen is crushing it and taking in all this money for his company, why does he have to borrow against his inlaws condo mortgage thats a very good question. Ironically, as this story becomes more interesting, the Stormy Daniels payment becomes the least interesting part of it. Its what were these companies doing . Were they trying to influence them. Securities and Exchange Commission and others in the federal trade commission are going to have to look into whether Companies Like at t, an American Company what is this . Was this influence, was it bribery . Ive heard a lot of lawyers saying this is how business works. Donald trump is an unpredictable guy. These companies have business to do. And they wanted to pay somebody who really knew donald trump. All right, lets just talk about on a practical matter. Lets take the ftc and any of the regulators out of it and just say if im on the board of one of these companies, i would like to know does not pass the smell test. I want to know, a, does this guy really have the access . Right. Or the expertise we are looking for. Right. And two, who signs a contract that says even if you dont give you still get the money us what were paying you for . The koreans said they had no idea who was behind essential consultants. Theres some reports that Michael Cohen reached out to these companies. Maybe he was on the take on this stuff. How does at t with corporate lawyers all over the stuff, how does an intern not do the Due Diligence to say this company was found a few weeks ago and its a buddy, possibly fixer, possibly personal lawyer of the president . The board, the legal department, these people would be very uncomfortable with that. The people negotiating the deal with time warner have got to be very, very uncomfortable with it because they were already in the midst of a lawsuit with the government over this. But its unclear whats illegal here. Its unclear whats even unethical. It just feels a little bit gross. I would say thats the starting point. Ali velshi, thank you so much for that. Now, these disclosures do bring pay to play to the forefront, exactly the kind of thing candidate trump condemned on the campaign trail. Theyre also conducting a second criminal investigation into hillarys pay for play corruption at the state department. She created an illegal email server to shield her criminal activity and corrupt pay for play. She engaged in corrupt pay for play at the state department for personal enrichment. She tried to get 12 million from the king of morocco for an appearance, one appearance, more pay for play. Thats why im proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again. Its time to drain the swamp in washington, d. C. Well, lets bring in former federal prosecutor amimi rocco. Charlie syke, contributing eder to to the Weekly Standard and an msnbc contributor. Charlie, does this sound like the swamp the president railed about . This is the swampiest swamp weve ever seen. He didnt drain about the swamp. Whos scenario. Heres the question, bob mueller knows more about this than we do and we dont know whether there was actual pay for play, but why would at t and novartis give money to a shady, lowrent, mobbedup hack like Michael Cohen who runs this s secretive slush fund that pays off porn stars . You couldnt even make up this scenario. How ironic that donald trump would make this an issue. I think its another example of trumpian projection. To answer his question, is the answer something that should come legally from prosecutors or is it just something for the boards of directors . Well, it could be both. I think theres definitely potential criminal charges here against Michael Cohen. I think the harder question is going to be whether there are charges against donald trump or against anybody else. But as for Michael Cohen, i mean, theres a lot of potential different charges going on here, depending upon which pot of money were talking about. If youre talking about the russian money, i think in some ways the Stormy Daniels payment is not irrelevant really. Because the timing of the russian money and when it comes in shortly after the payment to Stormy Daniels and whatever other women might have been paid hush money, you know, we could it seemed like a year ago, but a week ago, about cohen making that payment. What if the russians were reimbursing for that . And that was something to influence the campaign . As we discussed about the Stormy Daniels payment. You know, does that then become russian money influencing the campaign and, you know, thats a whole different kind of Campaign Finance violation. Its a lot of questions. And you have at t and novartis saying guess what, we were in touch with mueller investigators before the disclosures. In fact, at t says they provided, quote, all information requested in november and december of 2017. So if youre cohen or youre any potential target of this investigation, you cannot possibly at this point think, can you, that, a, muellers obviously way ahead of the news cycle, and as we thought, theres a lot more with a lot more tentacles than even we heard about. I want to take a step back for a second and play devils advoca advocate, perhaps. There is absolutely nothing wrong. And its incredibly common. Its a cottage industry. I would even say its more than a cottage industry. Its an industry in washington to hire former aides to politicians to gain insight into how they think and how they make their decisions. Except i argue this back, one that is exactly the swamp that the president said he wanted to drain. And two, where did this money go. And to mimis point, if this was money that went to provide hush money to people, then it becomes Something Different altogether, right. Id say the other stuff may indeed be largely something for their pr department, boards of directors. Whether they were smart to hire this guy. Are you arguing this is not important in terms of the Mueller Investigation . Im not arguing that at all. What im saying is the swamp element is a political argument. Sure. Its a political argument that nancy pelosi made in 2006. That barack obama made in 2008. And neither of them were successful in cleaning out the lobbying industry in washington. They had measures of success. Neither of them were successful. Now, the legal argument is not something i can answer. Im not an attorney. But i will say that at t probably pays well i dont know for a fact, but ill say many fortune 500 Companies Pay well more than 1. 2 million in many instances to get insight into how politicians think. And the real criminal act here, not criminal, i dont want to use that lightly, but the real thing here is that companies would believe that Michael Cohen who has spent his career kind of fixing minor issues for a rich Real Estate Television guy, would have any insight into his views on Telecom Policy or health care policy. So really the boards of directors set aside the legal issues which are obviously serious potentially, but the real questions, the board of directors, the board of trustees should be asking, is why did we hire this guy who has seemingly no experience in an area we are trying to Gain Knowledge . I would go a step further. If you did a tiny bit of homework, you would learn this is a guy who thought he was going to washington with trump. He fancied himself potentially as a chief of staff. He gets closed out. He doesnt get invited to washington. Where did the Companies Even get information . Heres a guy, Michael Cohen, somebody you should know, he can help you . Thats the great that is the great question. And jakes absolutely right, this is kind of business as usual here. Again, Michael Cohen is not a consultant. Hes not a lobbyist. Hes not a particularly good lawyer. Who actually went around and said, hey, if you want to get in on this action, you need to give some money to Michael Cohen and the wait you do this is write out this check to this organization that, you know, this company that nobodys ever heard of. That is, you know, completely, again, shady. So those are the interesting questions. Who told at t this was the way to go . What was the pitch they made . Because obviously theyre not really getting information, theyre getting access. Jake is right, maybe this was the way washington works. But a lot of the 2016 campaign was specifically saying were not going to do this again, and then what do you do, you have Michael Cohen that looks like he came out of central casting of the, you know, lowrent ray donovan mobbed up lawyer who runs the slush fund. His attorney said listen, some of the documents released by Michael Avenatti were actually records of a different Michael Cohen. So avenatti was on Rachel Maddow last night and heres what he said. This is really a clear example, rachel, of ignoring the elephants in the room and concentrating on the freeze on the floor. What do i mean by that . In the record we issued, we identified about 3 million worth of financial transactions. Theyve taken issue with a whopping 20,583, okay. So we struck a percentage that appears to be 99. 35 accurate. If this was an election, would be pretty good for the popular vote. Is this a problem for avenatti . Its a small problem. You have at t and novartis have acknowledged the big parts of what he put out there. The prosecutor part of me doesnt want any part of this. Where the relevance of those documents and how accurate they are, those are going to be determined by the prosecutors. If i can just say one thing about at t and novartis. Everybodys right and talking about pay for play and this is how business is done. We dont know all the facts yet. The prosecutors are going to figure out. There are cases where paying money to get access can lead to criminal charges. If theres action taken in response or agreement, even if it doesnt actually get taken. Were sort of making judgments too early because we dont know all the facts. But this looks bad, it smells bad and it may be criminal. We dont know all the facts yet. Theres also this question about the contracts. Everyones saying why would at t, this customer, sign this contract with this ridiculous Consulting Company . I dont know what they were promised. That can be a basic kind of fraud claim or crime. And we dont know whether that was Michael Cohen acting alone or Michael Cohen with the backing of other people. Was there some kind of undo pressure put on companies to sign these contracts . We just dont know all the facts. But theres a lot of potential there for investigators to dig into. You can bet that muellers team is. Thank you so much. Jake, charlie sykes, good to see you, thank you. A highstakes summit ready to go. The logistics now set for the much anticipated meeting between President Trump and kim jongun. Well talk about how it all came together. Whats next and whether the scandals the president faces at home are actually overshadowing his Foreign Policy breakthroughs. Plus, new details in the last hour giving insight into what went wrong when four u. S. 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I cant be your it guy anymore. What . You guys have xfinity. You can do this. Whats a good wifi password, mom . You still have to visit us. I will. No. Make that the password you stillohave toovisit us. Thats a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. One more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. Details of the much talked about summit between President Trump and north koreas kim j g jongun revealed in a tweet by the president now, the highly anticipated meeting between kim jongun and myself will take place in singapore on june 12. We will both try to make it a very special moment for world peace. The news comes after the made for tv moment orchestrated in the wee hours this morning. President trump welcoming home three american prisoners just released from north korea. We want to thank kim jongun who really was excellent to free these people. They are three incredible people. Its very early in the morning. I think you probably broke the alltime in History Television rating for 3 00 in the morning that i would say. Now, critics are questioning trump calling kim a murderous dictator who put those three men in prison excellent and then theres that tv ratings obsession. But the Washington Post focuses on this question. Are the president s Foreign Policy triumphs being overshadowed by the scandals back home . The Washington PostPulitzer Prize winning correspondent Ashley Parker joins me. Bloomberg White House Reporter tolu al awanipo. Good to see both of you. Ashley, let me start with you. Look, this was by any i think calculation, if you have a heart, a wonderful moment, to see people who have been held in prison in a country like north korea coming home. Having said that, the optics of it, as great as they were, politically how important is it for this president . Well, you sort of raise a good question of how much is Foreign Policy achievement or even his decisions like what he did on iran are going to be overshadowed by the sort of chaos and domestic disruption at home and i think the answer is on the one hand, we dont know, but one way to look at this, and this is certainly how aides inside the white house look at it, is between all of these scandals and the Mueller Probe and the chaos is basically whether they like it or not its a backdrop. Were approaching the oneyear anniversary. It is just a constant. Things like last night where 250 reporters showed up to cover this. Things like the summit in just a couple of weeks will still drive coverage because they are actual important Foreign Policy moments. They are real tangible decisions and potentially achievements. I think the world pays attention to that. Even the president s critics or people who are kind of mixed on him are people who are able to put aside the noise and focus on whats happening with north korea or iran for better or worse. Yes, i think agree or disagree, the president has been fulfilling Campaign Promises just within the last week. In addition to pulling out of the iran nuclear deal, you do have the release of the prisoners and the opening of the u. S. Embassy in jerusalem on monday. So tolu, is he focusing on Foreign Policy because that seems to be where hes living, where he feels comfortable, where he feels he can get the things done that he said he would do on the campaign trail . Or, as some critics have suggested, hes just trying to do whatever he can to distract from the person crises that continue to envelop this administration . I think its a little bit of both. This is a president whos highly active. Congress is not really doing very much. Theyre confirming a few judges. But in terms of legislation, the president is not going to be able to get very much done on the congressional democrat mettic policy front. So part of what hes doing is using the executive authority he has to move things through on the Foreign Policy front and with the cloud of the Mueller Investigation overshadowing a lot of the presidency, youre hearing allies from the president basically say the president has so much on his plate, trying to work deals on the international stage, with north korea, with iran, moving the embassy in israel, ha he doesnt have time to have to deal with this Mueller Probe. We heard the Vice President saying its time for mueller to wrap this up for the sake of the country. Basically saying this is something thats distracting the president from all these grand things he wants to do on the global stage. Ill interrupt for just a second because this is the interview Andrea Mitchell did with him, and she asked him about the probe. Take a listen. Its been about a year since this investigation began. Our administrations provided over 1 million documents. We fully cooperated in it. In the interest of the country, i think its time to wrap it up. I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion. Thats a coup for andrea. First time we heard him say that. Comparisons were being made to Richard Nixon when he said the watergate investigation needed to wrap up. Now you have both the sitting president and Vice President making that same call. Is this a case of the more peril the investigation does in reality or is perceived to present the louder the calls to end it by people who might be in trouble because of it . Yes, they definitely realize this is something thats overshadowing much of their policy agenda. Its driving a lot of the news coverage. They havent been able to put it to rest because there are a number of unanswered questions. We got new questions about the president s personal lawyer and why he was receiving so much money from these fortune 500 companies and why he was receiving money from this company thats linked to a russian oligarch. It seems you just peel the onion back more and more and you have questions. Does not seem like this business is going to end any time soon. I think thats part of the reason youre hearing increasing calls from the president s allies, including his personal lawyer, saying this investigation needs to be shut down as quickly as possible. Ashley, your colleague, phil rutger, whos always a great writer, was particularly colorful i thought today. I want to read one line out of his story. For trump, each bold stroke is like a spritz of feebreeze on his narrative of domestic scandal, momentarily masking the probe of his special counsel. I guess maybe the reality for this white house simply is that until Robert Mueller comes out with the results of his investigation, as long as there is this i used to call it a drip, drip, drip. But its this constant wave of new information every day. Is it possible for the president to get out from under it . Well, first, youre right. So is an incredibly evocative writer. The truth is, the way hes getting out from under it and some of it is deliberate and some of it is not is especially when you look at Foreign Policy this is sort of where he is on a gut and visceral level. This is a president who now a year in has gotten rid of a lot of advisers who were sort of the checks on that, who didnt agree with him. Hes carrying out the promises he made on the campaign trail into his base. Anyone who covered him or listened to him should not be surprised about what he announced on iran this week or even that hes eager to get a deal with north korea. So this is an area he really does feel comfortable in. And it is a way that does help him sort of refocus himself on something that is not this domestic distraction. Ashley parker, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Great conversation. We should point out that there are still at least eight other americans being detained around the world. And we also think about them and know that their families are suffering as well. Worth noting. Russia, meantime, trying to divide americans. The new ads that show the specific issues and people russia targeted during a 2016 election. Plus, a longawaited pentagon investigation into the death of four soldiers in africa. And wait until you hear about the mistakes it found. So, hows it going . Well. We had a vacation early in our marriage that kinda put us in a hole. Go someplace exotic . Yeah, bermuda. A hospital in bermuda. A hospital in bermuda. What . What happened . I got a little overconfident on a moped. Even with insurance, we had to dip into our 401 k so it set us back a little bit. Sometimes you dont have a choice. But it doesnt mean you cant get back on track. Great. Yeah, great. Id like to go back to bermuda. I hear its nice. Yeah, id like to see it. No judgment. Just guidance. Td ameritrade. So lets promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels. Com like this. Earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. Allergies. Or, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com or a canythingo. But ive got an idea sir. Get domo. Itll connect us to everything thats going on in the company. Get it for jean whos always cold. For the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. Give us the data we need. In one place, anywhere we need it. Help us do our jobs better. With domo we can run this place together. Well thats thats your job i guess. In the last hour, the pentagon released its much anticipated report on what went wrong during an ambush that killed four american soldiers in niger. It details a series of mistakings that led to the soldiers walking into a wellprepared ambush and falsified paperwork that downplayed how serious the initial mission was. Nbcs hans nichols is at the pentagon. Youve been going over the report. Give us the sense of the highlights, or i guess lowlights, of this investigation. We know they went down fighting. Ladavid johnson, his body was found almost a kilometer away. He went down fighting, took cover underneath a scrub tree, what we do know is that all those bodies that were at least temporarily in custody of isis, eventually french fighters fly low, they do four overpasses, at tree top level, scared the isis fighters away, and ultimately that allows the remaining eight americans to get out their two wounded. Think what were learning in general is we really had three separate missions here. We had the first one where they falsified the paperworks. Two Junior Officers said theyre just going on a key leader engagement when in fact they were going after highvalue target. A terrorist that has an american hostage potentially in custody. Then a second mission, via backup team. The first team they sent out to go after that person ends up being scrubbed because of bad weather. Finally this team goes to this terror site. They find a motorcycle. They destroy that motorcycle. Theyve been out for more than 24 hours, and theyre coming back. They think their mission is over. They stop at a village. They get some supplies for the nigerian forces. Theyre overwhelmed, ambushed by a tactically superior force, three to one ratio is what the nigerians and the u. S. Face. Theyre outnumbered, outgunned, taking mortars and thats when this went wrong. They have the pentagon brief, the families, to try to explain what happened, why their loved ones died. We spoke with one of those families earlier today down in fort bragg, north carolina. Have a listen. From my view, everybody on the team did an incredible job. They all did what they were supposed to. They all fought extremely bravely. And i dont see where somebody would need to be held accountable. You know, each one of them went through something absolutely horrific and im just glad theyre home. There will be recommendations for valor coming out of this for some remaining fighters that were there. There also could potentially be disciplinary action. There were references to the special Operations Command to try to maybe potentially have some disciplinary action on just how this operation went so badly, so quickly. And of course moving forward, theyre all kinds of new standards on new protocols, on new rules, on what u. S. Forces in africa have to do before they go out on a mission. We learned today that over the last year there have been about 10 troops in contact. That means exchanges of live fire with enemy forces in africa over last year. Its more dangerous than Many Americans realize. Chris. A reminder of what a great debt we owe to all of them who are there fighting. Thank you, hans nichols, we appreciate it. You can watch more of hans interview tonight on nbc nightly news. This hour, weve got a very in your face kind of revelation about just how hard russia worked to divide americans during the 2016 campaign. More than 3,000 russialinked facebook and instagram ads that ran during the election released this morning by democrats on the House Intelligence Committee along with specific details about how the russian troll farm targeted users based on their location, age, gender, even personality. I want to bring in tech policy reporter for the Washington Post tony rome. Senior ed toward for the atlantic, host of crazy genius. Love the name of that. Tony, youve been digging through these ads. Most of them, as far as i can see, its not like theyre endorsing a specific candidate. What theyre doing is spreading inflammatory messages on sensitive subjects including immigration, race. Was this largely a campaign to inflame and divide the American Voter . It was absolutely about sewing social and cultural unrest here in the United States at a very important time, right around the 2016 president ial election. Starting at about mid2015, facebook began to notice that online trolls associated with the Internet Research agency, which is a sanctioned arm of the kremlin, were posting these ads and other content on facebook. And then throughout that twoyear period, we see constant examples of ads that play on issues of race, on issues like immigration, on gun control, on lgbt rights. Some did mention donald trump and his candidacy and Hillary Clint and her candidacy. By and large, they were focused on issues and it was about getting americans to fight with each other. Sometimes even in person, there were events that were part of this trove of documents as well. So give us a sense of it. Walk us through ads that really stood out to you. I think by and large, you see a lot of ads in the trove of documents put out by the House Intelligence Committee on the issue of race. Russian agents sought to play up tensions around organizations like black lives matter. You saw a lot of ads around the kneeling protests in the nfl. Folks like the former quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee to protest racism. You saw a lot of ads about police accusations, accusations about Police Brutality and the debate about that. In many instances, you saw russian trolls taking both sides of an issue. They had one page that would say one thing about ration and the other that would take the opposite stance. The same is true with immigration. You see the posts talking about the need for a wall along the u. S. Mexican Border and other ads that talked about how important immigrants are to the United States. Its about getting folks on facebook to fight with each other over these very issues. In some cases, there were even rallies that the Internet Research agency planned to plan around some of these contentious issues about some of that fight and bring it into real life. Ive seen it colorfully called congress dropping the russian trolling mother lode. I mean, was this just incredibly politically savvy or was it more throw a lot of stuff up against the wall and see what stickings . Well, it is called the Internet Research agency. To a certain extent, you think no company with a name that nondescript can be up to any good and indeed this one was not. That said, once they were doing is in many ways akin to research. In many ways, you have researchers all over the world who essentially said facebook is the greatest experimental platform for Human Behavior that weve ever seen and thats why we love looking at it, thats why we love manipulating it, to see how people tick what they click on, what is the root of human affinity. In many ways, you could say thats part of what the ira, the Internet Research agency, was doing. I do think we should conceptualize this. Two prongs. One prong was this misinformation campaign, yes. But the other prong was direct hacking of the dnc and emails belonging to democrats and not republicans. To say that this was nearly a Research Effort and nearly an attempt to see what makes americans tick i think misses a little bit of the fact that in the context of russian efforts to interfere in this election for the purpose, it seems quite clear to elevate donald trump and push down Hillary Clinton, we shouldnt be so quick to say, oh, well, they were just interested in manipulating facebook and looking at the results. And lets not forget the fact that jeff zuckerberg, whos been in the hot seat since all of this came out, has admitted that for everything theyre trying to do, that everything other organizations are trying to do to help people identify when things are put out there by boths for example, he doesnt think that this can be fixed by 2018. It cant be fixed by 2018. This is an unbelievably complex problem. Mark zuckerberg has built Mark Zuckerberg of course. Hes built a persuasion machine. He has built this platform. And he goes around telling advertisers we are the new television. We are the best way to tell people what to buy, how to buy it, how much to spend, where to go, come to us, give us your money, stop giving it to television. That is the reason why this company is worth 400, 500 billion, whatever its market cap today. You cant go around and turn to political organizations and say we cant persuade to anybody dont spend here. You cant turn that off without turning off facebook. Tell us the name of the podcast again. Crazy genius. I love it. Thank you, tony, derek, appreciate it. A change in southern politics. This is really fascinating. Rehema ellis reporting on a Record Number of black women on the ballot. Why are you running now . Theres a need. People are hungry. People are hurting. And theyre desperate for a voice. Plus, were hearing for the first time from Harvey Weinsteins estranged wife looking to put the scandal involving her husband in the past. 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An unprecedented number of black women throwing their hat into the ring. So nbcs rehema ellis went to alabama, a key state to watch. Let me shake your hand. Reporter audrey Scott Williams is a teacher activist and grandmother going door to door in this montgomery neighborhood. In her first bid for elected office, shes running for congress. Youre literally pounding the pavement. Reporter exactly. Shes part of a wave of enthusiasm sweeping across alabama inspired by doug jones stunning victory. The africanamerican community, thank you reporter with 98 of the black female vote, jones defeated a republican in one of the reddest states in the country. Now just months later, a record 71 black women are running for office themselves. On issues like affordable housing, education and equal pay. We did it. Now we can go further. And i think that thats the moment were in. Reporter other newcomers, a lawyer, business woman and mother. Running for the state house of representatives. Clairen mcclure, activist and founder of birminghams black lives matter. Shes in a tough battle for Public Service commission. A statewide office no black person has ever won. Why are you running now . Theres a need. People are hungry. People are hurting. And theyre desperate for a voice. Reporter once, she was among those in desperate need. Me and my son was sleeping on folks floors. Instead asking for a home, i just asked to be a difference maker. Reporter coleman sees an opening. The demographic has changed. Theres much more diversity. I think that montgomery, where we make our laws, needs to look the same. Reporter theyre newcomers but theyre not on their own. Emerge is a political activist group recruiting and training female candidates. We want our elected officials to look like us. To represent us. To have our experiences. And right now that is not the case. Reporter terry sule, alabamas first black congresswoman, is expected to be reelected in a majority black district. Shes confident more democrats have a fighting chance because theyre running on working class issues. Theyre doing a remarkable job of rallying around the issues that matter most to underserved communities and all the candidates are having to address those issues in order to run against them. Im standing strong. Thank you. I appreciate you. Reporter black women standing up and hoping to catch a wave. Rehema ellis, nbc news, montgomery, alabama. Two big stories people are talking about in this me too era. For the first time, Harvey Weinsteins estranged wife talking about the scandal trying to move past it. And Monica Lewinsky calling out a magazine for disinviting her from an event once bill clinton said hed be attending. Planning. Its like when am i gonna beg. Able to sneak out of here and go have a cigarette . I just knew i had to quit, and chantix was the method that actually worked for me. Along with support, Chantix Varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. 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Im gonna tell you that was the best 150 i ever spent in my life. Life line screening. The power of prevention. Call now to learn more. Right smack in the middle of the me too movement, two things have happened that have gotten people really talking. For the First Time Since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke his wife is talking about life, about him and about not going out in public for five months. Monica lewinsky, ticked off after being disinvited to an event after bill clinton decided to go. She tweeted, please dont invite me to an event, especially one about social change, and then after ive accepted, uninvite me because bill clinton then decided to attend, was invited. Its 2018. Emily post would definitely not appro approve. That event was hosted by town and country magazine. They tweeted, we apologize to miss lewinsky and regret the way the situation was handled. With me, former director of progressive media for Hillary Clintons campaign. Currently an msnbc political an analyst. In this me too age, is it at the very least tone deaf to invite Monica Lewinsky, then disinvite her . Yes. It is perfectly acceptable for both of them to attend an event. They are both adults and there are a lot of years between the president and that scandal. I think they both could have attended the event that would have been everywhere. Im juftd sst saying dont disinvite. Or have somebody check your guest list first. The vogue article, the criticism that Georgina Chapman had to be either complicit or clueless. There was a part of me clearly so terribly naive. I had moments of rage, moments of confusion and moments of disbelief and i have moments when i just cry for my children, what are their lives going to be. I guess this is a question for everybody in this me too era. Are we victimizing the victims . Or is it a legitimate question to ask whether the people closest to, whether professional or personally, these folks who clearly were abusers knew something and could have done something. I default to empathy in this instance. I have a lot of empathy for Georgina Chapman and many women in this situation because abusers tend to be very charming in public and they have two different faces. One is likely the face that she saw in her husband, yes, he is a powerful, aggressive man but likely treated her and her children well. And then became a monster in a different context. So shes the anticamille cosby because shes somebody not still defending her husband. Right . It would be different if she was still defending his behavior and saying it was fine in trying to excuse it. But she is saying it is wrong and im working to protect my children and thats my first priority. So i default to empathy. I think that there is a good quote from the article. She was a good person, married to a bad person. And i dont think that we should be blaming women for the actions of their husbands or spouses. It is fascinating in this age where you think nothing can surprise you anymore that before the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, she made friends with huma abdean. Huma abdean doesnt talk a lot publicly. This particular club, ironically, its not such a small one. Women have had to endure it in such a public way. People think youre beautiful, youre thin, youre rich, youre photographed on the red carpet and you get stuck in this category. I have a lot of empathy for huma. My former colleague from the campaign who put on a very brave face through what is essentially horrific circumstances and somebody who was dealing with it with a child. Correct. So both of them have small children. So that becomes the priority of this spouse in this situation and not necessarily dealing with any of the public fallout from the actions of their husband. I think that it is interesting that they found each other. I think it is important that they found each other. It is important that they have each other to support through this because only the only people who understand what it is like to be in that situation are people who have been in that situation. I cant relate to having such a public scandal related to something so private. I think it is great that they found each other and are support system in this context. A friend of mine said this to me once. All of us have gone through bad relationships, found ourselves with a bad guy. We just didnt have to watch the rest of the world watching. Well be right back. baby crying dont juggle your home life and work life without it. And dont forget who youre really working for without it. Funding to help grow your business. Another way we have your back. The powerful backing of american express. Dont do business without it. The powerful backing of american express. Roundup for lawns has arrived to put unwelcome lawn weeds to rest. So draw the line. Roundup for lawns is formulated to kill lawn weeds to the root without harming a single blade of grass. Roundup, trusted for over forty years. Mr. Elliot, whats your wiwifi . Ssword . Wifis ordinary. Basic. Do i look basic . Nope which is why i have xfinity xfi. Its super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey lets basement. And thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. So sophie, i have an xfi password, and its daditude. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Xfinity. The future of awesome. That wraps up this hour of msnbc live. Katy tur joins me now. Hey, katy. Chris jansing, how are you in. Im great. How are you . Im good. You are looking very festive today. Im trying to be springy. It is 11 00 a. M. Out west, 2 00 p. M. In washington and in one month, President Trump will meet with north Koreas Kim Jongun in singapore. First to d. C. Where were wondering how far is too far when it comes to promising access to a president. Yesterday during this hour we learned that it was Michael Cohen who reached out to the drug giant novartis after the election promising access to the new administration. The company paid cohen 100,000 a month for a year, totaling a whopping 1. 2 million for what it says was no work. Today were learning that was