Counsels report, his current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, drops this bombshell about the Trump Campaign and russian collusion. Watch this. I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign. Yes, you have. I have no idea i have not. I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the russians to hack the dnc. Lets be very clear about that. That is a complete aboutface from what the president s attorney has said over and over again. Regardless of whether or not collusion would be a crime, is it still the position of you and your client that there was no collusion with the russians whatsoever on behalf of the Trump Campaign . Correct. That counterintelligence probe yielded no evidence of any collusion on the part of the president or maybe anybody else for that matter. This probe from the nature of the questions and Everything Else we know has again yielded no evidence of collusion. Theres a good reason why. It never took place. We have an allstar panel to break all this down for us. Kelly odonnell is live at the white house, phil rucker is the White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post and an msnbc political analyst. Jake sherman is a Senior Writer with politico and coauthor of the playbook. Me mimi rocah is an msnbc legal analyst and military reporter Courtney Kube is live for us at the pentagon this hour. First lets go to the white house. Kelly, i know that your colleague, kristen welker, just spoke to Rudy Giuliani on the phone. What is he now saying about his response last night about whether or not there was any collusion with the campaign . Sounds like hes flipflopping once again. Hes pushing back that if it appeared he was changing his position that was only subconsciously and he is focused on really trying to cling to the client relationship here. He has also sort of summarized his conversation with our colleague, kristen welker, with a now written statement in just the last several minutes where the former new york mayor and private counsel to the president says i represent only President Trump, not the Trump Campaign. There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form. Likewise, i have no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked for the campaign. And the only knowledge i have in this regard is the collusion of the Clinton Campaign with russia, which has so far been ignored. That is the latest statement from attorney Rudy Giuliani. So this is reframing what has been a longtime narrative. The president , his associates, his legal team saying there was no collusion. As we explained many times, collusion itself is not a crime. Conspiracy would be a crime. But no Improper Conduct between the campaign and any operatives from russia. In the drip, drip, drip of the investigation, weve seen how there have been a number of associates of the president s who have been charged and in many cases pleaded guilty or were convicted for an array of crimes that deal with financial matters, not telling the truth and so forth. Now the focus is giuliani saying he only speaks for the president , which for any attorney would be a pretty standard thing. But it certainly changes the impression that has been left for a very long time. No collusion has been one of the goto mantras of this administration, the president an his outside team. In addition, of course, we know the president had submitted written letters to the special counsel and giuliani telling our colleague, kristen welker, if he had known that there had been a counterintelligence probe opened by the fbi in 2017, and we dont know the product of that because that was swept into the Mueller Investigation, he would not have cooperated at all providing written answers from the president. He says because that would make this an illegitimate investigation. So that is certainly new information from the president s defense, that he would not have provided any info if they had known about the counterintelligence probe. Again, we dont know of anything publicly that suggests that the president was working on behalf of russia. But fbi agents had suspicions for a specific number of reasons. So phil, let me get your thoughts because i know you just spoke to giuliani not too long ago. Give me a sense of what his mood was like and how this bombshell flipflop played out the last couple of hours. More importantly, do you get a sense that hes caught or at least found himself in a situation where he has changed the narrative on the Defense Strategy . Well, i just spoke with him on the phone in the last hour, and he said to me it sounds like very similar things that he said to kristen welker. He is sort of calmly trying to clean this up and create, build some distance between his client, the president , and others who worked on the campaign. He just reiterated the point that he can say definitively on behalf of his client that trump did not, you know, collude or conspire with the russians but that he does not speak for the campaign, he does not speak for others on the campaign. He says hes not aware of any sort of collusion or conspiratorial activity from people who worked on the campaign such as Paul Manafort, who was for a time the Campaign Chairman. But that he could not say so definitively because theyre not his clients. It does seem to be a reframing of this talking point from the trump world and an attempt to create some distance, to separate the president from others who could become ensnared with additional charges or findings in the mueller report. So you teed me up perfectly for mimi because i wanted to get your thoughts legally on this. Are we making too big of a deal in terms of what the attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said last night and what hes saying this morning, or is he in fact trying a new legal strategy that were just perhaps witnessing the beginning of, which is as phil and kristen said, giuliani was trying to do, distance the president from the campaign . So this reminds me of many trials ive seen where and its the point in the trial where you have multiple defendants and they start turning on each other. The defense goes from none of us did it to he did it, no, he did it. That never ends well for any of them. If i were Paul Manafort right now, i would be thinking, wow, i really should not have lied to mueller because this president and his attorney are going throw all of us under the bus if they need to. I dont think that will work, by the way. The strategy here that giuliani is doing of trying to distance now, it just has absolutely no credibility, which is why it wont work. If that were the case, lets assume lets suspend reality for a minute and assume that were the case, that they had been saying all along that other people in the campaign may have colluded but the president didnt, then from day one they would have welcomed this investigation. They would not have called it a witch hunt because it would have been a legitimate investigation, something that the president would have wanted to get to the bottom of. Who in my campaign was colluding with the russians . I didnt have anything to do with it. Lets find out, lets hold them accountable. But of course thats not what they did. They called it a witch hunt, they tried to delegitimatize it because trump knew at a minimum and possibly more. Let me pick up on a point that phil made and that was the need that giuliani had this morning to address the comments he made last night. Why would you think that Rudy Giuliani felt the need to, quote, clean it up . Well, because i think what he said last night was very incriminating for that reason. He almost essentially conceded, okay, people were colluding. It just wasnt the president or he didnt know. And that is that is a big admission in and of itself. I dont think that that is the end of the story. I think, you know, well see how the facts play out, but i think to even assume that hes correct about the president not knowing or the president not being involved is a huge leap right now. But even if you accept that, it is a big admission, yes, to say that people for giuliani to admit that people in the campaign essentially were colluding. Jake, i wanted to get your thoughts on all of this, because this obviously changes a bit of the game for democrats who are probably going to look at this, especially now that you have the house in the control of democrats, youve got adam schiff and others really pushing forward with a lot of oversight. How does what we just witnessed over the last couple of hours with Rudy Giuliani, some of the explanations we just heard here, you know, add more load to the democrats in terms of what theyre going to want out of this investigation and oversight . So lets accept what Rudy Giuliani said they front end, that it wasnt the president and it was his campaign. So democrats on capitol hill could say, great. So were going to call in everybody that might have been on the campaign. It was a relatively small operation. It wasnt a huge 200, 300person campaign, it was a small number of people who could have been in touch with foreign agents of any kind and they can come to capitol hill and they will be in public on television describing or at least being asked about their contacts or whether they had any contacts with anybody that might have been an agent of the russian government or somebody representing the interests of the russian government. Its striking to me because the white house here, if you talk to anybody who is interested in the white houses wellbeing, its in the white houses interests to really clamp down and say very little publicly that they dont want investigated on capitol hill because democrats control the house, which is a huge problem, something the white house hasnt become accustomed to yet. So the less, the better frankly at this point for the white house. Rudy giuliani is not following that rubric at all and set a road map for how investigative committees, not only adam schiff intelligence committee, beelijah cummings, potentially foreign affairs, judiciary, a lot of people have oversight over this sort of thing. I think were going to see this play out over the next couple of weeks and months. I can certainly imagine that. Mimi, let me get your thoughts on one other Significant Development at that. The wall street journal is reporting that Michael Cohen paid a Small Tech Company i believe the amount of 50,000 for that i. T. Company to rig online polls in favor of the president. I think going back to as far as 2015. Michael cohen tweeting out this morning saying what i did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of and he tagged real donald trump and potus. I truly regret my Blind Loyalty to a man who doesnt deserve it. Is this a signal that this investigation has gone into possibly another violation of Campaign Finance laws . Yes. I mean i have never thought that the Southern District was done with its investigation. I think all signs have pointed to theyre going on. This could be information that they were well aware of. It may not be. Maybe this was one of the areas that cohen didnt want to get into. We just dont know. But they know. And whether cohen is telling the truth about this being at the direction of donald trump, it rings true to me and i assume to many people because of what we know about trump and how, you know, things operated. That he would not have let this amount of money be paid without knowing what it was for and what was going on. But, you know, you cant just take cohens word for it. There will be other evidence that prosecutors and investigators either have or will get. You know, theyre not going to just blindly accept what cohen is saying. If what cohen is saying is true, it certainly does raise possible additional criminal Campaign Finance questions. If trump knew, the campaign should have reported this as an expenditure. Im sure that did not happen. Phil, i know you spoke to giuliani. Did he comment at all about that new report, Michael Cohen saying that he was doing this at the behest of the president . You know, we were really focused in our conversation on the Mueller Investigation and sort of the collusion questions there. But clearly the president s legal team is also paying close attention to whats developing in the Southern District of new york and they expect that to go on for some time, sort of recognizing that the Mueller Probe could potentially be nearing an end over the next few months but the separate investigation in new york will go on for a while. It seems like its far from over. Lets switch gears for a moment, guys. I want to talk to you about the 27th day of the Government Shutdown. Our own Garrett Haake just caught up with the speaker, nancy pelosi, moments ago. Watch this. Madam speaker, any response from the white house on your request no. Our request was lets talk about it when we can do it when government is open and the people here to protect us are getting paid. So give us a sense of what nancy pelosi is trying to do with the state of the union. Youve heard a lot of the republicans on the other side of the aisle saying this is a political stunt, political theater. Is there a chance this could backfire against the speaker . Im not entirely sure whether it will back fire but its well within her prerogative. She is the head, and this is something the white house seems to be getting accustomed to in realtime. She is the head of a coequal branch of government. Shes number two in line to the president and has the prerogative to schedule the state of the union when she deems it necessary and fit. It does have the political benefit of kind of a kick in the back to donald trump and a sign that hes not welcome in the capitol when the government is shut down. But her point is this, shes not going to have the state of the union and have people protecting the capitol, the entire government in the capitol when theyre not getting paid. Thats her prerogative. And clearly republicans are sheri chafed and Steve Scalise said he will find a place for the president to speak if nancy pelosi puts off the state of the union. But i think its a position that democrats broadly speaking are very comfortable with. That while the president and House Democrats and Senate Republicans and democrats are not able to keep the government open, theyre not going to have this event that is very ceremonial and a lot of pageantry. By the way, does require a huge commitment from the federal government to protect this building when the entire government, every cabinet official besides one is here. So it doesnt seem on its face ludicrous. The white house says it is indeed ludicrous and dhs and secret service can protect the building at this time. But pelosi does not want to do so when theyre not being paid. Dhs and secret service saying preparations for the state of the Union Happened a long time ago, well beyond the 27 days of the shutdown. Phil, let me get your thoughts on this article that you wrote because you write of Nancy Pelosis strategy here. You say she has been deliberately trying to get under the skin and to talk to him in a way that he understands, referencing President Trump. The president as most of us have watched, he does like political brawling, but hes somewhat refrained from attacking nancy pelosi so far at least personally. How much will these giuliani and cohen developments add to the pressure that hes facing and make him lash out . Some have suggested that perhaps hes refrained from attacking nancy pelosi because shes also the gateway to impeachment should they decide to do that in the house. Thats right. Our reporting shows that the president is convinced that pelosi could potentially be an ally regarding the impeachment question. He sees her as somebody who will prevent impeachment hearings from proceeding or beginning, getting off the ground, rather. And somebody frankly that he hopes to eventually be able to make some deals with. When theyre talking about the shutdown negotiations, the president has also been floating, for example, infrastructure spending. Thats an area where both he and democrats are in agreement and he has an idea, the president does, that she may bowe a partn with him, somebody to come to the table for a bipartisan deal. Some of the president s allies say that is foolish and naive and point out that Speaker Pelosi has no reason to deal with President Trump and faces pressure from the Democratic Caucus to take trump down and hurt him politically. Nonetheless, that explains i think why trump has not gone after pelosi the way he has other foes, including chuck schumer, the Senate Democratic leader who trump calls cryin chuck. Theres no nickname for nancy pelosi right now. I was going to say thats a fair point. With all of this happening, Courtney Kube, the president about to make his way to virginia to speak at the pentagon, preview for us what he is expected to say given what has happened over the past 24 hours in syria, the isis policy and controversy surrounding those comments. What are we hearing the president going to say later today . So, hes expected to talk about the rollout of this Missile Defense review. Its a report that hasnt been released since 2010. Its basically updating and modernizing the Missile Defense infrastructure of the United States all around the world. So defenses here in the United States and defensive and offensive capabilities all around the world. What were not expecting him to say that he might say, hes going to be in the pentagon auditorium with a captive audience of largely uniform and some department of defense civilians, so we have no idea if he might go offscript, talk about the border, talk about anything, the shutdown. But if he talks about if he stays on script, the Missile Defense review, its really looking at the capabilities that the United States needs to have going into the future years. I think that there will be a lot of criticism that its going to lead to a more aggressive Missile Defense posture for the United States around the world. It talks about defending against hypersonic missiles, which russia and china both have perfected and the United States really doesnt have any kind of defense against. It also talks about more assets going up into space, so spacebased radars potentially, even spacebased interceptors that could theoretically take out a Ballistic Missile while its flying through space and protect it before it would hit somewhere in the United States, somewhere down on the ground. But thats what hes expected to talk about is this rollout. What we dont know is what else he might talk about going offscript. Im saying the over under favors he will go off script with everything that is happening right now. Thank you all of you and we will bring you those comments live when the president makes them at the pentagon. Still to come, the lettermen. Senators writing letters asking the president to reopen the government, but will it make a difference . We have the coauthor of one of those letters to help make accepts of this strategy. Plus the president s men. A report about a bag of cash and a boxing glove raise new questions about the company the president keeps. And private eyes. How apple wants to put knowledge about your data back into your hands. Is it for their benefit or theirs . Well tell you about that. Eirs well tell you about that. Since my dvt blood clot i was thinking. Could there be another around the corner . Or could it turn out differently . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fda approved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily. And it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be surprising. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Hey, batter, batter, [ crowd cheers ] like everyone, i lead a busy life. But i know the importance of having time to do what you love. At comcast we know our customers time is valuable. Thats why we have 2hour appointment windows, including nights and weekends. So you can do more of what you love. My name is tito, and im a techhouse manager at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. So as we mentioned right before the break, we are waiting for the president to take the stage at the pentagon. Were going to bring that to you live as soon as it happens. But first, House Speaker nancy pelosi just wrapped up her weekly address focused on the partial Government Shutdown. She says that shes still waiting for a response from the president on her suggestion he postpone the state of the union address. Meantime we are 27 days into the shutdown and there is no end in sight. I am now joined by maryland senator chris van hallen. Thank you very much for your time. I want to start with a letter that you sent to the president. Let me read part of it. Youre asking him to meet withed in r federal workers who are off the job. Im curious what you think its going to take to end the shutdown and why meeting with Government Employees would change the president s position on this . Ayman, its good to be with you at this 27th day shameful Government Shutdown. The president the other day told the country that he could, quote, relate to these federal employees who are not getting paychecks, to other government contract employees who are not getting paid. The reality is he cannot relate. Heres in this bunker at the white house. He flies to maralago. He says people should have yard sales. The reality is the president needs to hear directly from people who, first of all, tell us they want to get back to work to do their jobs for the American People. These are public servants. But also the hardship that theyre enduring because they are missing paychecks and, therefore, missing mortgages. Theres no way the president can relate unless he hears directly. I should say this is not the only thing were doing. Were also pushing Mitch Mcconnell, the republican leader, every day to do his job and allow the senate to vote on the two house bills that the senate on a bipartisan basis has already supported to reopen the government, send them to the president. The president wants to veto it, thats his decision. But we have an independent responsibility to do our job. Do you believe that you have a vetoproof majority in the senate should Mitch Mcconnell take you up on that offer and send the president a budget that comes out of his chamber . I do. And heres why, ayman. The bills that are in the senate today that the house sent, there are two of them. One would open eight of the nine departments. If you look at the senate votes that were taken on the provisions in that bill, we had a vote of 926, clearly a veto majority, on a number of those provisions. On the other ones, we had a vote of 310 in the Senate Appropriations committee and 301 in the appropriations committee. Thats what the house has sent the senate, things that the senate, including Senate Republicans, have already stood for. So if they want to vote against it or they want to help the president on a veto, theyre going to have to explain to the American People why theyre voting no today on something they overwhelmingly supported yesterday. All right. So then what is it that you are asking Mitch Mcconnell to do in terms of what kind of pressure are you putting on him . It seems from what i understand he shares the responsibility with the president for this shutdown and hes bending over backwards to protect this president from sending him those bills. Well, thats absolutely right. He is an accomplice with President Trump in the shutdown by refusing to do the job in the senate and having this vote. So you are hearing from more and more republican senators, who are supporting our view, that first lets reopen the government. Release the hostages. I mean this is a despicable tactic the president is using and Mitch Mcconnell is complicit in. Lets reopen the government, lets have these votes. Then we can have our discussion about the best way to provide Border Security. I will say, i just came before i got here, from prince georges county, maryland, chamber of commerce talking about the loss of economic opportunities, loss of jobs. More and more members of senators from around the country will be hearing that. I will say that 80 of federal employees actually live and work outside the washington metro region, and lots of Small Businesses who contract with the federal government are getting clobbered. They will be also talking to their senators. We need republican senators to step up here. I know, sir, yesterday the president signed your legislation that ensures that those furloughed employees will get back pay once the shutdown is done and theyre back to work. Im curious to get your thoughts, is there anything more that can be done to try to ease the suffering and ease the pain of what these workers and their families are going through right now . Well, there are a couple of things. One, we are asking Utility Companies and others to essentially dont move forward on bill collection. Now, obviously that requires voluntary cooperation, but we hope that those around the country will understand the situation that federal employees are in and others who are losing their livelihood because of the shutdown. We also introduced legislation yesterday, ayman, to help the low wage Service Contractors with the federal government. Think of folks who provide janitorial services, cafeteria services, security services. We want to make sure at the end of the day theyre not the ones who are left holding the bag and that we would compensate them as well. Small businesses are getting clobbered. So this is mushrooming every day. And we know the economy is taking a bigger and bigger hit. It now is estimated to be 5 billion a week. The president needs to step up. But here in the senate, we have to do whats within our control. Whats within our control is for Mitch Mcconnell to bring up the bills. Senator cardin and i have been on the floor of the senate twice asking to bring those bills up, and both times senator mcconnell was there and said no. So lets just keep the pressure going. All right, senator Chris Van Hollen from maryland, thanks for your time. Lets cross back to the pentagon where the president had just started speaking. Thats really nice, thank you. Youre only doing that because i gave you the greatest and biggest budget in our history, and ive now done it two times. And i hate to tell the rest of the world, but im about to do it three times, so thats the only reason you gave me such a nice welcome. Thank you very much. And thank you to Vice President pence for that wonderful introduction. Its an honor to be at the pentagon with so many distinguished military leaders, and i especially want to recognize our acting defense secretary, patrick shanahan. Hes been fantastic. Wherever you may be, patrick, thank you. Thank you. We were talking just as i came on, i said, pallt, i have to go. Were talking defense and were also talking offense. We cant forget offense either. We have the finest weapons in the world and were ordering the finest weapons in the world. That you can be sure of. Were here to present the results of my administrations Missile Defense review. Our goal is simple, to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, any time, any place. As we all know, the best way to keep america safe is to keep america strong, and thats what were doing. Stronger than ever. Joining us for todays presentation are great champions of Missile Defense in congress, senator dan sullivan, my friend. Thank you, dan, very much. And representative mike turner. Thank you, mike. Thank you very much. Also joining us from the department of defense are acting deputy secretary of defense, david norquist. David, thank you. Secretary mark esper, secretary heather wilson. Thank you. Undersecretaries of defense michael griffin, ellen lord and john rude, general paul silva, thank you. Thank you, general. General mark millie. Thank you, mark. Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations, very importantly, congratulations. General joseph lingel and general names mcconville. Thank you very much, everybody, thank you. Before presenting the results of our Missile Defense review, i want to take a moment to express my deepest condolences to the families of the brave american heroes who laid down their lives yesterday in Selfless Service to our nation. These are great people, great, great people. We will never forget their noble and immortal sacrifice. This morning i also would like to briefly address another matter of Critical National security, the humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. Without a Strong Border, americas defenseless, vulnerable and unprotected. I also want to thank the military for helping us out during the big caravan period, but now you have more caravans forming and theyre on their way up. Thousands and thousands of people. We dont know where theyre from, who they are, nothing. We need Strong Borders. We need strong barriers and walls. Nothing else is going to work. Everyone knows it. Everybody is saying it now. Its just a question of time. This should have been done many years ago. It should have been done by really other president s. And it wasnt. Just like many of the other things were doing that could have been done many years ago, whether its our negotiations with north korea, moving the embassy to jerusalem. So many things were supposed to have been done many years ago and they werent, but were doing them. A wall has to be built. We need security at our southern border. Drugs flow in. Tremendous percentages of the drugs coming into our country come from the southern border. Were not going to allow it to happen. And that is why our Homeland Security professionals have asked congress for a steel barrier between the ports of entry to fund more agents, beds, medical supplies and technology and to close the ridiculous and dangerous immigration loopholes that no country in the world has but us. The federal government remains shut down because Congressional Democrats refuse to approve Border Security. Were going to have Border Security. Its going to be tight, its going to be strong. Were going to let people into our country gladly, but theyre going to come in legally. That includes for the farmers who need help and for others. But we are going to have powerful, Strong Border security. While Many Democrats in the house and senate would like to make a deal, Speaker Pelosi will not let them negotiate. The party has been hijacked by the open borders fringe within the party. The radical left becoming the radical democrats. Hopefully democrat lawmakers will step forward to do what is right for our country and whats right for our country is Border Security at the strongest level. Stop human hijacking. Stop drugs. Stop gangs. Stop criminals. Thats what were going to do. That was my pledge and thats what were going to do. Were gathered together to outline the steps that we must take to upgrade and modernize americas Missile Defense, so important. In a time of rapidly evolving threats, we must be certain that our defensive capabilities are unrivaled and unmatched anywhere in the world. All over foreign adversaries, competitors and rogue regimes are steadily enhancing their missile arsenals, all over. Their arsenals are getting bigger and stronger, and were getting bigger and stronger in every way. Theyre increasing their lethal strike capabilities and theyre focused on developing longrange missiles that could reach targets within the United States. As president , my first duty is the defense of our country. First duty. The defense of our country. And defense has many different definitions and covers a lot of territory. I will accept nothing less for our nation than the most effective, cutting edge Missile Defense systems. We have the best anywhere in the world. Its not even close. Our new strategy calls for six major changes in Missile Defense policy. First, we will prioritize the defense of the American People above all else. Our review calls for 20 new groundbased interceptors at ft. Greeley, alaska, and new radars and sensors to immediately detect foreign missiles launched against our great nation. We are committed to establishing a Missile Defense program that can shield every city in the United States, and we will never negotiate away our right to do this. Second, we will focus on developing new technology, not just investing more money into existing systems. The world is hanging and were going to change much faster than the rest of the world. This past tuesday, the Iranian Regime tested a space launched vehicle which failed that will provide iran with critical information if it didnt fail that they could use to pursue intercontinental Ballistic Missile capability so we are continuing to watch that press conference or that speech from the president about the Missile Defense review at the pentagon taking place right now. If he continues to make any news, we will jump back into it, but we want to peel away and bring in our conversation to have a conversation about it. With us is nbc White House Correspondent kelly odonnell, court ney kube is at the pentagn where the president is talking anded in price. Courtney, let me start with you. He was outlining the six points or so of this new missile Defense Strategy. Talk to us a little bit about that, why the president felt the need to be there to address this review. Thats actually the question that weve been asking since we heard the president was coming over here. Its a little unorthodox for the president to lay this out. A couple of the points that hes already made about the groundbased interceptors that the administration is going to invest in, thats actually been known. The u. S. Has about 44 of these groundbased interceptors. What these basically are, are if in fact there were a missile coming towards the United States, the u. S. Could launch another missile that would intercept it and take it out before it hits the United States or potentially an ally or another location around the world. The u. S. Has 44 of those in the continental u. S. Right now. Theyre upping the number by another 20 by 2023 or so. Thats already been in the works. Thats one of the points that he made. He also talked about as we were talking about right before he began speaking within about the first two minutes, he started talking about the border before he even got to the Missile Defense review. He also of course offered his condolences, as did Vice President mike pence before he came out there to the americans who were killed in syria yesterday, the four american, two u. S. Service members, one d. O. D. Civilian and one civilian contractor. So the president is still speaking. You know, as we mentioned, among the priorities are defending the homeland against north korea, against iran, against missiles they could be 17ing to the United States but also the missiles the u. S. Cannot defend against overseas from russia, from china, hypersonics and any space based. Thats what were waiting to hear from the president about. Kelly, over to you at the white house. The president not missing an opportunity to use this platform to address politics, hitting some of the key messaging from his stump speeches about the border wall, call the democrats the radical left and calling them the open border fringe. Is this part of his strategy, to use the Government Shutdown to link it all to National Security here . Well, the president tends to use any platform he has where he can speak to an audience on television and in this case of course at the pentagon to hit the main points of his argument. This may be the only time we see him today. We did not see him at all publicly yesterday. And so we have seen that he does not always confine his remarks to the topic or the location, as other president s have. Thats just the trump way. And he did go aggressively into making the case that there needs to be a border, thanking the military for its role when he dispatched different units to the border to do some fence work and support on the border. And so this is something that were now in day 27. Frustration that theres been no negotiations. The president insisting that professionals from the department of Homeland Security and the military have said that a border wall or barrier can be effective. So hes arguing that that is important not only for securing the nation, thats the National Security piece that he brings into this, but also he talked about the drug flow and crime and so forth. These are the themes weve heard from the president. Perhaps a different kind of setting for him to do it, but not missing a chance to make that argument. As weve seen, the president often uses very campaignstyle language, even when hes in the official duties of the presidency. So not a surprise there, but more of the beating the drum so to speak that he believes a wall or barrier is a necessity. No backing off and no sign that there is going to be any relenting on that point. If we do get back to negotiations with democrats between the white house, capitol hill and those who could possibly resolve this Government Shutdown. Ayman. Kelly odonnell live for us at the white house. The president also making reference to humanitarian crisis on the border. A new report from the health and Human Services general revealed that thousands more children than previously thought were in fact separated from their parents at that southern border. The separations occur during an immigration influx that began in 2017 before the zero tolerance policy from this administration actually took effect. The report says these children were not included in the lawsuit requiring they be reunified with their families and that health and Human Services is struggling to identify those children that are in their care. A tellall book, an attorney who says that quiet part loud and an exattorney who helped voice online polls. Well take a look at President Trump keeps close or at least once did. Eps close or at least once did ypical bank. Capital one is anything but typical. Thats why we designed capital one cafes. You can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. And one of americas best savings rates. 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This new disclosure raises even more questions about who the president surrounds himself with. Former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie has written a recent book that is coming out. According to the Washington Post and axios, its a tellall on the president s inner orbit. In the book christie says those around trump constitute a revolving door of deeply flawed individuals, amateurs, grifters, weaklings, convicted and unconvicted felons who are hustled into jobs they were never suited for, sometimes seemingly without so much as a background check via google or wikipedia. Lets bring in National Security analy analyst ned price. What do you make of this new development that Michael Cohen is saying that this money that was paid to the i. T. Firm was not a bag of cash but rather paid by check, so that would suggest theres at least some documentation of it. But im curious to get your thoughts of this new revelation. Is it a whole new problem for the president that you have his former fixer and lawyer saying he did this on behalf of the president s directions . Well, it could be a giant problem if what Michael Cohen is saying is true. Of course we have to take everything Michael Cohen says with a slight grain of salt. But if what Michael Cohen purports to be true is in this case, that it is a check, this is something that is eminently fact checkable. It could be a giant problem for President Trump because it seems that this was done in the runup to the 2016 election as a measure to give a boost to President Trumps popularity, even if it was in something seemingly as simple as an online poll, as simple as an online poll, including a cnbc poll. But it seems, if what Michael Cohen says is true, is this was done with the election in mind. This had an electoral purpose. So clearly this 50,000, if you take out at least the portion of which that was intended to start a twitter handle, women for michael trump, which seems more for Michael Cohens purposes than Donald Trumps, it seems this could have been an undeclared Campaign Contribution on the part of donald trump. It would be one thing if Michael Cohen made this without declaring this. But for donald trump to have made this contribution out of his own coffers to his electoral odds, at least, that would be a huge red flag and it would add to the red flags that weve seen with Stormy Daniels and other payments that President Trump, who then was a private citizen, made for these electoral ends. Made without reporting to the fec, apparently. Chris christie writes in his book about steve bannon and his references to Jared Kushner as the kid. Let me read you this excerpt from axios. The kid is Jared Kushner, the husband of ivanka trump and the son of Real Estate Developer charles kushner, a man i once sent to prison. According to the guardian, parts of the book are a blistering attack on Jared Kushner. He also accuses him of having carried out a political hit job against Chris Christie as an act of revenge for prosecuting his father more than a decade ago. The post reports that the book is actually surprisingly not too hard on the president himself. But it does look like the president might not have any friends left when you read this book and see some of his inner circle, its really just down to his family that are loyal to him in a very strong way. Well, i think the posts assessment is right. Everyone seems to have a target on tear baheir back when it com Chris Christie instead of donald trump himself. Weve heard donald trump say the buck doesnt stop with him, it stops with everybody, in his own words, but of course we know that not to be the case. It wasnt Jared Kushner or anyone else, for example, who made the final example to hire Michael Flynn as his National Security adviser even after president obama warned him against it. It was President Trump who hired Paul Manafort to be his Campaign Chairman and President Trump who hired rick gates to be his deputy. It was President Trump who put an amateur like George Papadopoulos onto his Foreign Policy team, having him sit at a small table in the 2016 election to brief him on Foreign Policy issues. It was President Trump who made all of these decisions. You know, Chris Christie says something interesting, that the president s team is comprised in part of convicted and unconvicted felons. We of course know who the convicted felons are. I think the Big Questions are those who have committed crimes who have yet to face justice. I think thats an arena that well be learning more about in the coming days and weeks. I have to ask you this, are we expecting to see a library worth of tellall books about President Trump, when you think of all the high ranking officials that have come out of that administration, and even the election and the campaign . Well, weve already seen that, i think. Weve already seen a president ial administration worth of tellall books to come out of this administration thats not even two years old, whether its omarosa, whether its the steve bannon michael wolf book, whether its the book thats about to come out from a former special assistant to President Trump. Weve seen enough dysfunction and chaos written about in this white house to last us a lifetime. And i think, more importantly, to send a shudder down everyone who knows the key truth, that people are policy. And unfortunately, far from the best people, this president has, as Chris Christie writes, i think, collected grifters and amateurs and sprikconvicted and unconvicted felons, people who are now setting the agenda and setting the policy to which were all subject. And thats not even to mention books by journalists like bob woodward who were sourced inside the administration with those details as well. Ned price live in washington, d. C. , thanks, ned. And here is something that is certain to make you smile, mohammed ali called his hometown in louisville, kentucky, one of the greatest cities in america. Now the city is paying tribute to the late boxer and humanitarian by naming their International Airport in his honor, the louisville mohammed ali International Airport. Ironically, its where he says he first developed his fear of flying. It was timed to coincide with what would have been the boxers 77th birthday today. The greatest of all time. Well be right back. L time well be right back. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Apples ceo tim cook is calling on congress to protect the privacy of u. S. Consumers online. Cook writes in Time Magazine that the federal trade commission should create and manage a data broker house to allow users to track how their data has been bundled and even sold. Cook warns consumers dont know how their data has been sold and bought in a shadow economy. He wrote, lets be clear, you havent signed up for that. See you tomorrow morning at 5 00 morning on first look. Andrea mitchell reports starts now. Right now on Andrea Mitchell reports, say what . Rudy giuliani leaves the door open on whether anyone in the Trump Campaign colluded with russia, a big change from his previous defense. The big question is, what changed . I didnt say there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign. Yes, you have. I have not. There was no collusion whatsoever. There was no collusion whatsoever. There has been no collusion, no obstruction, its all a madeup fantasy. Cooking the books. A new report reveals Donald Trumps former fixer Michael Cohen paid to rig online polls in the president s favor before the campaign. A poll came out recently that had me doing unbelievably well and that was when everyone thought i wasnt running. And feeling the pain. New numbers show the public is blaming the president for the shutdown as he complains to his sta staff, according to one report, that hes being crushed by the crisis. But who are the real victims . 78 of america lives from paycheck to paycheck. Thats a very, very high number. So for Something Like this to happen and they know those numbers, its sad. It means they care nothing about the American People as they say they do. And good day, everyone, im Andrea Mitchell in washington with the latest collusion delusion from the trump legal team. Personal attorney Rudy Giuliani now publicly conceding that operatives within the Trump Campaign may have colluded with the russian government but repeating false claims that the president has held that same position throughout the course of the Mueller Investigation. The president did not he said nobody had any
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