Employment peop multiple people. The Democratic National committee were donald trump made a plea to russia. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Questions like, why did the thencandidate ask that . Did somebody tell him to . Was it scripted . Was donald trump trying to give himself cover for what he already knew was about to come . Investigators also want to know if he knew Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, john podesta, would be targeted later. Nbc news reached out to the white house and the president s legal team. Well have their response in just a moment. Witnesses tell us trumps longtime confidant appears to be a key focus. Contacts with wikileaks and if he ever met with julian assange. One witness says he wanted to know if there was a scheme. Was stone working on the side for trump after he officially left the campaign . That witness felt they were trying to figure out if the wikileaks release was a big plot. Investigators were interested in statements still made in the leadup to the elections, specifically this tweet here from august 21st, 2016, where stone said it will into an podestas time in the barrel. Wikileaks released podestas emails a month later on october 7th. Hours after the access Hollywood Tape drops. He said he never skoucircumstan evidence the disclosures. I have no idea what he knew and i have never met aainge. Those emails along with others stolen from the dnc proved invaluable to donald trump to convince voters Hillary Clinton was not fit for office. I love reading those wikileaks . Another one came in today this works wikileaks is like a treasuretrove. Out today, wikileaks just came out with a new one. This news just came out. Wikileaks. Of course, you didnt know there was a thing called wikileaks, right . They got it all down, folks, wikileaks. Wikileaks. Our big question today is probably the same as Robert Muellers. What did donald trump know and when did he know it . First lets get to our reporters. Hallie jackson is at the white house. Ashley parker is a White House Reporter for the Washington Post and msnbc political analysis. Jonathan ma l. A. Mere is a White House Reporter. And Nbcs Carol Lee who helped break this story. Carol, this is pretty significant because this is showing the special counsel is not just investigating obstruction. They are investigating whether or not the president of the United States himself coordinated in some way about these emails during the election while he was still a candidate. Right, which we tend to forget but is the heart of this investigation, was there any collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia, and how far up would that go should it exist . This is the first instance where we have questions when it comes to the president , specifically involving the campaign and how the president s own public words, whether its on twitter or his press conference that you were at in 2016 are being scrutinized, what did me mean by that and his spokesperson said he was joking. The connection between the president and roger stone, theres a lot of questions that are being asked as you know about how often they communicated, the circumstances around his firing, or departure from the campaign. And so this is, you know, and the wikileaks piece of this investigation specifically has not been something weve seen mueller address publicly and the social media aspect of it zbleenlt its important to note that so far we havent seen any indictments whatsoever, any real news coming from the special counsels office directly about what happened with the dnc hacks, the stolen emails from Hillary Clintons campaign as well. We also havent heard anything about the meeting that donald trump jr. Had in trump tower. These are the big moments, those Big Questions from 2016 that we havent heard a word from the special counsels office, at least not yet. I want to take a trip down memory lane and talk about that inference when sean spicer said the president was joking when he asked russia to look into those emails. I followed up almost immediately after that and asked him basically if he was serious. Heres what he said. Unfortunately we dont have that. Anyway, i asked him if it gave him any pause, he said it did not. Hallie jackson, the white house doesnt generally respond to anything regarding the special counsel, but this is a big blow to what theyve been saying, that the president himself was colluding and that is big witchhunt . Yeah, the president as recently as yesterday, as you know, called this a witchhunt as hes done so many times before, tweeting that online. Weve reached out based on the reporting to the president s outside attorney, to the internal attorney at the white house as well asking a long list of questions related to not just some of the threads that you guys have revealed, but also some of the president s actions prior to the transition, back when he was still a candidate. John dowd the president s outside attorney is telling us we dont comment on things involving the special counsel. When pressed for more, he respectfully declined. The president is holding an extended meeting with lawmakers to talk about specifically about School Safety. I can tell you our colleague Julia Ainsley has reached out to the special counsel, who is not commenting. Not surprising given its rare for their office to make comments on any of the reporting related to the special counsel investigation, katy. Roger stone hasnt been interviewed by the special counsel, at least not yet. But he was fired, or quit, back in august of 2015. Thats pretty early on. But stone has been a longtime confidant of trumps. The question is of whether or not he was still around were popping up during the campaign. They certainly were. You know, even into this white house, i understand that roger stone and President Trump and thencandidate trump spoke on the phone fairly frequently. Now, his aides would often tell you roger stone doesnt know what hes talking about, he doesnt speak on behalf of us and he doesnt speak on behalf of the white house, but he is someone who in moments is talking to the president and does have an awareness of what the president is thinking and feeling and wants to communicate. And is also planting bugs in the president s ear about things he should be doing. Roger stone has been one of the biggest proponents that President Trump should be actively fighting back against the Mueller Probe and should not be participating. So youre right, hes in contact. The atlantic the reporting roger stone did have direct twitter messages with wikileaks. Yeah, they even posted screen shots that suggest theres some sort of exchange between stone and wikileaks. Stone said he cut it off and there wasnt nefarious about the exchange. But stone is one of the ultimate political dirty tricksters. He has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back. Which is true. That is not an expression. That is actually true. That is not a figure of speech. He actually has a tattoo of nixon on his back. That hes someone who has come up through republican circles. He was involved during the george w. Bush recount in 2000. Hes been a longtime confidant of donald trump back when he was a businessman and then a potential political candidate. He was involved in the early days of the campaign before departing under contested circumstances. We know he still does talk to the president and talks people in the president s world from time to time, and that he has indeed been agetating another that the president should fight back, on contrast from the posture of the president s legal team. The fact that we know that George Papadopoulos has said, has pled guilty to the special counsel, and that was because he was talking about emails that russia had with an australian diplomat while he was in london. Yeah. And thats just another dimension. Because hes cooperating, obviously, muellers team is going to learn more about how he came to know that, who else knew that in the campaign. So at least somebody on the campaign knew about it . Thats certainly where his value comes in as a cooperating witness. Also his positions on russia, why did he take certain positions when was being advised to take a harder line . Did he ever meet with Vladimir Putin . Things like that. And also Paul Manafort, his connections with roger stone and specifically why Paul Manafort would work for free . Everyone talks about this persons not taking a salary, theyre working for free, isnt that nice . Why in the world would somebody do that . Another reason for doing that, which would be if you had more nefarious goals by working for a campaign. Why would you work for a billionaire for free, was a number of the questions that have been out there. In terms of the other things weve been reporting and we were able to get from the questions out of the mueller team, specifically as you mentioned, why did donald trump hold the positions that he held . Was it because of specific business interests he had . When it comes to russia, why did he advocate that putin get involved in syria and not care that theyre getting involved in syria when it wasnt u. S. Policy at the time . Why would he do that. Ashley, a gop primary wasnt particularly fond of russia. They didnt like Vladimir Putin. It wasnt a normal position for a republican candidate to take. Why would donald trump take that position . Why would he always be so friendly to Vladimir Putin . Sound like im asking you, but those are the questions that have been surrounding this. And there are ones that have remained unanswered largely. I think ashleys lost our feed. Jonathan . Yes. Now President Trumps relationship with russia has remained puzzling throughout. We have the famous tweet from a few years ago when he suggested putin should be his best friend. Theres been suggestion that the special counsel is asking questions about when the president first decided to run for president , which would then, perhaps if this was something years in the works, that pointed to did russia have an early in with him. Time and time again that the president has sided with russia when it seemed to be a political unpopular decision. Another moment would be the republican confession last year when the platform shifted to a much or prorussian stance. With manafort, this is another moment where its a question of what was the motivation . Manafort and the ties he has over in that part of the world, or was that something the president himself wanted . And also calls into question how much Robert Mueller is trying to squeeze Paul Manafort and whether or not manafort could be a potential link here in this investigation to find out what exactly was happening at that time. At the time off the News Conference, he was in charge. He was also in charge for the convention. While they were at the convention, the gop platform was changed. Seems like a lot of the focus is starting to center on what happened in that summer. Why did donald trump say that about russia, but also who knew what about these these dnc emails. Right. One of the things i found interesting in reporting this story is when you hear the questions that are being asked in these interviews, they overlap with questions that reporters have been asking for a while publicly. When weve done that, we get a lot of pushback from the president and his team saying theres nothing there, why are you asking anything . And clearly someone is seasoned, like Robert Mueller, thinks these are legitimate questions to be asking and is, in fact, asking them. And its part of this investigation. And the fact theyre being asked now suggests that this is not wrapping up anytime soon. No. And i was talking to another person who had been interviewed. They were telling me that the mueller team knows what they are doing. These are not crime scene cops trying topie piece together a story. Heres who you were sitting next to when you were having this conversation. Do you remember saying this . We have an entire verbatim of that conversation. They know the answers before you say them. Theyre not just fishing here. Theyre pretty studied up. And its because of that that the white house theres a situation where President Trump wants to sit in the room with these investigators because they are concerned that the mueller team already that see lay of the land. This is a president who shall we say sometimes has a shaky grasp on the facts and theyre afraid of what he could say, what if he purgers himself . Jonathan, carl, great job. Nice to work with you. Hallie jackson, thank you as well, and ashley parker, appreciate it. Jonathan, youre going to stay here, dont go anywhere. Tom do you pree served from 2007 to 2009. Hes been a lawyer for george bush and partner with gibson dunn. Gentlemen, welcome. I know youre watching up on this breaking news because we just reported it 16 minutes ago. But tom, the only person who might be surprised that mueller is actually investigating cooperation between the president or seems to be that hes investigation this because hes got a line of questioning surrounding this, could be potentially the president himself. Yeah. I think thats right. Look, it doesnt surprise me at all that bob mueller is requesting the asking these questions. I think with all the brouhaha about all the fast groouf the collusion between the campaign and the russians. Doesnt surprise me mueller is asking these questions. I think its an open question as to what thea answers are. But mueller is assembling a team and putting together the witnesses. Wont be too long before he shows his hand. Matt, its not just that july News Conference where he said russia, are you listening. Its also roger stones tweets about wikileaks in the months that led up to the election. Its also how donald trump used wikileaks to his advantage during the election. Remember, the john Podesta Emails came out just hours after the access Hollywood Tape was released. Donald trump was mired in this huge scandal. And only hours later there is a scandal that could very easily distract from it and put focus again on Hillary Clinton. Yeah, thats exactly right. Just as the hacked dnc emails came out right before the Democratic National committee, timed to disrupt the convention and a time where Hillary Clinton needed a bump out of the convention. I think these are the central questions of this investigation. Especially when you put it in the context of the entire timeline. We know that in april, a member of Donald Trumps campaign, a Foreign Policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, was told bay russian intermedes area that the russians obtained Hillary Clinton emails. We dont know if thats the dnc emails or Podesta Emails. We remember his campaign was informed that. We dont know how far up to chain that information went. But Robert Mueller knows because George Papadopoulos is now a cooperating witness. When you take the fact that the Trump Campaign had that information in april, and then in june they were told in an email to donald trump jr. That the russian government wanted to help elect trump president , it makes trumps actions in july when he made that statement at the press conference in a way its collusion out in the open. After his campaign was told that the russian government had obtained clinton emails, hes out publicly asking them to release them. If that was a private communication, we would just be waiting for an indictment or impeachment referral. When you put it in context to the rest of the timeline, its an extremely damning piece of evidence. Stone has been a french character in this story from the beginning. Hes somebody who makes outrageous statements online, makes outrageous statements in person as well. Hes somebody that many folks have tried to chalk up to someone who likes to stir up trouble, not someone who necessarily knows as much as he claims that he knows. Hell want you to think something even if its not true. How much of a critical witness could roger stone be, but also how much of a tricky witness would roger stone be . He is an tremendously tricky witness. If im bob mueller, im not sure i would put roger stone on the stand in front of a jury to attest what he said or didnt say to the Trump Campaign. Theres no question that roger stone and other people who were tied into this situation are unusual characters, fringe characters outside the main street mainstream of republican politics. There were a lot of folks like roger stone who were involved. I think the question here is whether all the circumstantial evidence that weve seen so far, all these dots on the landscape, all add up to collusion, whether bob mueller is capable of connecting these dots to make a case. There certainly is a circumstantial case, maybe it made it to the president , i think what bob mueller needs to do is tie this down with direct evidence if he wants to bring this before a jury. When talking to people about the interviews are like with the investigators to find out how detailed they are, sometimes the questions theyre relaying back to me sound general. These questions dont sound knowledgeable, and the person will push back and say no, they know everything. And their voice will drop and they say it. Theyre able to recreate entire scenes, say who you were sitting next to and what you said in that room. Talk to me about the work that goes into preparing for any witness that comes down and sits down and talks to them . They will have done their homework, not just in interview other witnesses, but remember, they now have three cooperating witnesses we know of. These are witnesses that are not just in answering the questions that are asked of them but was your an incentive to tell everything they know because it helps reduce their sentences. Two of those witnesses are very senior witnesses, at the very upper echelons of the campaign and administration. When mueller asks these questions of other witnesses that come in, they are taking not just their interviews but the cooperation theyve gotten from other witnesses, but also emails theyve pulled, documents they subpoenaed. Sometimes they have documents that have been pulled by the email providers. They come in with a wealth of information. A good witness will be prepared for that, will have done their homework. A bad witness will be caught flat footed. Thats where you have witnesses making mistakes intentionally or unintentionally. Weve seen a couple false statements charges already in this case. I wouldnt rule out others to come. I think the key point underlying this new report, though, youre right that bob mueller auto is asking these questions. Its right to say you would expect him to ask these. I wouldnt rule out that he knows some of the answers to them. Lets talk about the emails and the paper trail. Donald trump for all we know, donald trump doesnt email. He doesnt leave a paper trail. He talks on the phone. Is it going to make it harder for them to nail him down if he did, in fact, try to coordinate, if there was something there, is it going to be harder to find a paper trail . Im not saying there was, i dont know. But without those emails, will that make it more difficult . Absolutely it does. One of the best pieces of evidence a prosecutor can have in that case is words or text that comes straight from the witness, straight from the defendant himself. If you dont have some sort of smoking gun evidence from donald trump showing that he knew this, it makes it that much harder because then you have to rely on other witnesses, emails from other people, circumstantial evidence. If youre in a posture of a criminal prosecution where you have to prove guilt beyond all reasonable doubt, thats going to make muellers job harder. Its a challenge hes going to have to confront. Matt, one question about Paul Manafort. He hasnt yet pleaded guilty. Theres an expectation that maybe he will in the future, who knows . But we had Chuck Rosenberg on the other day whos not prone to exaggeration that he at some point will be a convicted felon given what hes being charged with at this point. What are the reasons that manafort might not want to strike a plea deal. He could be waiting for a pardon. It would get him away from the most serious federal charges even though it would bring the white house into great controversy if the president was to grant such a pardon. Two, helping me be worried some other retaliation. Lets not forget that the people that manafort was in business with in ukraine, people from russia, are some very serious players. And he knows a lot about activities that happened there and potentially things that happened in this campaign. Its a dangerous thing to cross people like that. We dont know if thats the case, but i think to get back to chucks point, manafort is going to spend time in jail likely. Hes going to be a convicted felon. The question is how long does help the to go to jail . Strike a plea deal if he has information about the president , the president s soninlaw . We dont know the answer. Mueller may or may not know the answer, but that is the key question for Paul Manafort to face in looking at what are some really, really grim options. Matt miller, tom, due pree, thank you. If the White House Briefing wasnt canceled, we would probably get answers to the questions we asked, but also potentially an answer to this question. How long will Jared Kushner have a job inside this white house . And is the trump family and chief of staff john kelly locked in a death match . Well ask our reporters instead and talk with a former Clinton White house chief of staff, his name is mack mccollaredy, right after break. Hey, sir losealot thou hast the patchy beard of a prepubescent squire thy armor was forged by a feeblefingered peasant woman. Your mom as long as hecklers love to heckle, you can count on geico saving folks money. Boring fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. My names dustin. Hey, dustin. Grab a seat. Woman okay. Moderator nice to meet you. Have you ever had car trouble in a place like this . roaring of truck yes and it was like the worst experience of my life. Seven lanes of traffic and i was in the second lane. When i get into my car, i want to know that its going to get me from point a to point b. Well, then i have some good news. Chevy is the only brand to receive j. D. Power dependability awards for cars, trucks and suvs two years in a row. Woman wait laughing i definitely feel like im in a dependable vehicle right now. Woman 2 i want a chevy now. Woman 3 i know President Trump repeatedly bashed Hillary Clinton for how she handled classified information ahead of the 2016 election and now hes facing his own backlash for how hes handling classified information and who hes allowing to see it. Now that Jared Kushner securitys clearance has been downgraded, its the president who has some answering to do. Jared is a very successful entrepreneur in manhattan but he likes this better than real estate. She sent vast amounts of classified information, including information classified as top secret. He is so great. If you cant produce peace in the middle east, nobody can. Okay . This is where they said that she was extremely careless and, frankly, i say grossly incompetent. Jareds done an outstanding job. Hes been treated very unfairly. Hes a highquality person. He works for nothing. She set up this illegal server knowing full well her actions put our National Security at risk. And put the safety and security of your children and your families at risk. Hearing those comments from President Trump about Hillary Clinton and matching them up with his comments for Jared Kushner is important for this reason. Kushner still has a big job inside this white house. He felt have a Job Description that should require him knowing our nations biggest secrets. So exactly qualifies him to have that job and how long will he continue to have it . The Washington Post reports that officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements and lack of Foreign Policy experience. And then theres this. Axios is reporting trumps family is, quote, furious with chief of staff john kelly for his decision to downgrade kushner and that gentlemtheyre in a death match. Jonathan la mere are back with me. And mack mclarty. Im sorry, the term javanka throws me when i have to read italy. Youve been chief of staff, you know who should be working inside a white house and who should not be. Should Jared Kushner still have a white house job . Katy, thank goodness i havent been in this exactly same position in my responsibility. But i think security clearances are obviously extremely critical. I am, frankly, surprised theres been a number of people that have had temporary or only partial security clearances at their level in the white house. And that hasnt been addressed earlier. So i think well have to see, it appears chief of staff kelly is tightening up very forcefully here. President trump about a week ago said it was the chief of staffs decision. Well see how much consternation this causes within the white house. You have some of these situations develop, not like this where you have family members. Thats unusual. But there has to be, katy, a rapport, an ease, trust, and respect between chief of staff and the president. Talk about what responsibilities jared currently has. Peace in the middle east, trade deals with mexico and china, prison reform, and streamlining an overhauling the federal government. Some of those are dealing with Foreign Policy, not having a security clearance, is that going to affect the way he does his job . It has to. Thats such a broad and diverse portfolio, katy. I had the privilege to serve as counselor to the president for two years after i served at chief of staff, and i had a broad responsibility, but they were specific in nature. And thats a very broad responsibility. Yes, i think you have to have access to information in order to have the credibility, the standing to make informed decisions in order to lead an effort to to advise the president. Ashley, lets talk about the Washington Post reporting talking about the ways other countries were discussing how they can potentially manipulate Jared Kushner. China, the united arab emirates. Sounds like a pretty big deal. You have twoo keep two thing in mind. Theyre always looking to seek an advantage. Thats not necessarily new. What is new and what is a big deal is because of jareds complicated situation both often getting exceptions because hes the president s soninlaw, and also his very complicated financial situation where he is in a ton of debt for the building he bought on 5th avenue and his sort of wide range of contacts with Foreign Governments is what makes this situation in his case unique and problematic. Another issue is that these governments are, again, trying to manipulate everyone. But when they come to jared, at least initially, he was going outside the normal chains of command. We record they viewed him to be naive. If you have someone who is naive, normally before taking a meeting with a foreign official or Foreign Government, they would go through all the white house processes to make sure they have the proper people in place. When you go outside the chain of command, it makes it much easier for a Foreign Government to manipulate you than if youre sort of following processes and dont have all these other entanglements. We were showing video of 6665th avenue thats own by kushner and his family and its got a 1. 2 billion mortgage that comes do you next year. A lot of concern whether or not theyre going to be able to make that mortgage because they wanted to redevelop this building, but are having a hard time finding a partner to do that. Jonathan, its a breaking point when it comes to Jared Kushner or will he always be in this protected status because of his relationship with his daughter. To, quote, the president , stay tuned. Trump has stayed with Jared Kushner up to this point. We know he has been frustrated at times behind the scenes at kushner, but to this point there seems to not be thbreaking. Theres no question theres real tension between him and the chief of staff right now, including over this issue of security clearances, but not just that. Kelly was telling people around him that he was frustrated, wasnt always sure what kushner and ivanka were doing. He tried to amend that. Kushner and his camp have pushed back about that. Theyve chafed up against those restrictions. Jared kushner also announced he was about to lose one of his top aides in the white house, not a household name across america, but a powerful figure within the west wing and always fought for kushner and ivanka. His spot seems more precarious than its ever been. I wonder whether this security clearance drama would have come to a he had in this way or whether held still have his clearance if it wasnt for the daily mail. Com accomplishing those allegations against rob porter, they abused two of his wives f. That story didnt come to light, would this story have come to a head and would Jared Kushner still be enjoying the same security clearances. Thats a bit of an open question. Thats a great question. Its one were pondering. My understanding is that when general kelly came in, he sort of started a set of processes and discussions about just getting security clearances in line. This was sort of proceeding slowly and behind the scenes, and at some point the ultimate decision we saw about interim clearances may have been announced quietly possibly. But what i understand is that what ultimately started originally just as a tabloid story of hope hicks dating rob porter before there were even allegations on two aides stepping out on the town, basically hastened this process, forced this memo to become public. And sort of left Jared Kushner intentionally or unintentionallily standing in the falling house of cards as collateral damage. This is who does not have a permanent security clearance as of this moment. Jared kushner, one of them. Ivanka trump, his wife, not getting as much scrutiniy. Don mcgahn, Sarah Huckabee sanders, raj shah, and dee nah powell. Thank you all. Shortly the president is going to sit down with members of congress at the white house to talk about School Safety and guns. This as one of americas largest sports retailers is taking matters into its own hands. Well tell you what theyre doing next. Me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. Hold on dad. Liberty did what . Yeah, Liberty Mutual 24hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. My dad says our insurance doesnt have that. Dont worry i know what a lug wrench is, dad. Is this a lug wrench . Maybe . You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Smile dad. I take medication for high Blood Pressure and cholesterol. 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The president prepares to meet with members of both parties and both chambers, it appears that any consensus on what action to take is still elusive. Today one of the nations largest retailers, Dicks Sporting Goods goods announced a big change. They stopped selling assaultstyle rifles and ending sales of high capacity magazines and will not sell to those under 21. The ceo explained the decision in an interview with nbc news. What really hit home for us is we found out that in november we sold the shooter in parkland a shotgun. That wasnt the gun, nor it was it the type of gun used in the shooting, but when we looked at that, we followed all the rules. We did exactly what they were supposed to do. And he was able to buy a gun from us. And we felt theres something wrong. The systems in place are not sufficient to be able to stop this. So we decided we need to take a stand here. Joining me now, New York Times columnist and j joe. Dicks dropping these guns, its a big deal. This follows bank much omaha dropping their credit card, delta dropping the discount. Seems like retailers and corporations are going to take the steps that congress wont. The market is working faster as it often does than congress. This is the beginning of a change. Weve seen so Many Companies set up away from the nra, but thats just one piece of it, and thats not going to change the dynamic. It is more things like what dicks did today. It is more about, for example, black rock, which is one of the largest investors in the world. They owned huge stakes in these companies. They planned to go to the gun manufacturers and say as its going to be better for your business to evangelicvoluntaril more screening, to do things that might seem on the face of it to be hindering business, but its better to do it that way. By the way, if you dont, well vote your board out. Why are they doing this now . Theres been a number of shootings, why this one . You can ask why did the Metoo Movement happen now . Theres something going on around advocacy. The election of President Trump generated all sorts of different emotions and feelings. I cant speak to what happened in this particular instance. Youve seen this happening over the last 12 months. A lot of us have said is that real, some kind of phony marketing, and i think were seeing that theres something more to it. It might be a millennial thing. So much of whats going on in these companies is driven by millennial employees who said i stand for something and i dont stand with guns. The question to you, joe, is does the nra move at all . You broke with the nra. You parted with them saying they came from a dark and fearprovoking place. In your opinion, dunk the nra will ultimately budge at all on this issue . I cant speak for them. The reasons i quit the nra is what they were putting out into the media space was not congruent as an american or human being. You have to call the nra to see what theyre going to do. Im not standing with them anymore. What do you make of the swaying tide of Public Opinion . I think its great. I think people are activated. What were seeing right now is informed passion of Parkland High School students sweeping away positional power within the United States. And we may for the first time in a long time see change. You are a combat veteran and handled similar types of weapons . Yes, maam. Seeing them on the streets, people own them, using them for hunting, being able to go to a store and buy one, in your opinion and from your experience, is there a legitimate reason to own one of those guns . I dont. Heres why. The m 16 was developed and purposely designed and built to kill as many people as quickly and efficiently as possible. The ar15 is a derivative of that platform. Theres no difference between an ar15 and the m 16 a 2 or m 16 a 4 we carried in battle in iraq and afghanistan. To see this killing children is ridiculous in my opinion. Andrew, are we going to be seeing more companies or more movement . Youre going to see some Companies Step out, but theres a number of ceos that are very, very fearful. They really dont want to speak stores, we have employees, were worried sometimes even physically, they say to themselves, i dont want people coming into to protest guns ablaze and that is something i think both fascinating and scary. Andrew ross sorkin and joe plenzer, thank you. And joining me now is ken paxton, attorney general of texas. Thank you so much for being here. First, what is the reaction to Dicks Sporting Goods decision to stop sales of ar15 and highcapacity magazine. They have a right to do that and they are a company that has responsibility to their shareholders and if they believe that is the right thing, then they certainly free to do that and they should do what they think is best for their company. What do you think of the corporations decisions deciding to come out and restrict this when congress will not. Are we seeing the market make changes that our lawmakers are unwilling to do. Obviously they are reacting to something so they have to make individual decisions just like lawmakers about what is best for shareholders and that is their decision. Not every company is making this decision. Weve heard about a few. So it is interesting to see if there is a lot of companies or just a few that react this bay. And lawmakers shareholders are the American People and the public and that is right. And poll after poll shows in the wake of in strategy, people want stronger gun control and more measures. Are republicans being tone devon this . I think part of it is trying to figure out what will work. More gun laws, i dont think, are the answer. We have laws against murder and we still have shooters that are willing to violate those laws. I would rather focus on something that would work which is providing a deterrent, which is having people ready to go, whether it is Law Enforcement or whether it is armed teachers, i want something that actually works. Im tired of hearing about the stories. And i want to spend years focused on gun laws. We can do that after we fix the problem which is to have people ready to react and provide a deterrent for those horrific crimes. Lets talk m about what ha in your state, the dallas shooter use an ak47 assaultstyle rifle and he was a military vet and knew how to use it, do you think there is a innocent to trust an interestest to trust others. There are laws in texas against guns in churches and there are exceptions. So no one had a gun. But ever this person came in to shoot the people, somebody came in from the outside and my understanding is they came with an ar15 and saved the lives of the rest of the people in the church. So had that person not been armed and had the ability to fight back, we would have had more people dead. Im talking about the dallas shooter, not the texas shooter. Im giving you an example of when a weapon like that was useful in texas and we had an example of a weapon like that being used to defend people. So in most cases, it is a weapon that most people wouldnt have a need for but in one case in texas it saved lives. Lets talk about whether or not raising the age to buy guns is a good idea. Youve been quoted past by saying i dont think gun laws will change somebody willing to kill people. What about at the very least raising the age minimum for somebody to own an assaultstyle rifle like an ar15. He doibts ha a dont have problem with changing the age. I dont think it will make much dink. People that want to kill will find a way to get a gun and so i want to focus on things that will work. If people want to spend tieme passes laws like this, fine, do it. And we have schools in texas that are armed teachers and there are signs saying Administration Teachers may be armed so and i would love to see more of that in my state and other places to not keep repeating the same story. Texas attorney general ken paxton. Thank you very much. Thank you. And coming up, or right now, it is unbelievable how far some people will go to justify their views on guns. Alaska republican congressman done young suggested last week that if jews were armed, they could have prevented the holocaust. The comments were in a back and forth between young and his democratic opponent who they report was in the audience as young addressed Alaska Municipal League in juneau. His opponent shine asked him about School Safety and he recorded the exchange and posted it on youtube. How many bans of millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed . 50 million. In russia. Because their citizens werent armed. How many jews were put into the ovens because they were unarmed. Nbc news reached out to young for the comment this morning. And we just received a statement from a spokesperson saying the comments were taken, quote, entirely out of context. And went on to say he was not implying that an armed Jewish Population could 3r50e vent the horrors of the holocaust but zis arming citizens could have detrimental consequences. A defenseless people are left up to the mercy of its leaders. Coming up, weve got one more thing for you. Stay with us. That goes beyond assuming ingredients are safe. To knowing they are. Going beyond expectations. Because our pets deserve it. Beyond. Natural pet food. Thats it girl get it, woo, yeah mom my games over. Parents arent perfect, but then they make us Kraft Mac Cheese and everythings good again. To everyone else, ieveryone else. But on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. Fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. Lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. Im glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. For some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. And improves function. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. Tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. Common side effects dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. Dont drink alcohol while taking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those whove had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. With less pain, i can do more with my family talk to your doctor today. See if lyrica can help. And i am a senior Public Safety my 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. And one more thing before we go. White House Communications director hope hicks is a key figure in the russia investigation and made an important admission when she testified yesterday before the house intelligence chitty while there for more than nine hours. The New York Times reports that she told the panel that her work for the president occasionally requires her to tell, quote, white lies. According to the times, she insisted she had not lied about matters material to the investigation in the russian interference in the election and possible link to Trump Associates but as we end a very busy hour, lets be clear about one thing, white lies are still lies. That will wrap things up for me. Ali velshi starts now. Dont go far because we want to talk about this story you and carol have broken about the mueller investigation. Im ali velshi. We were supposed to have reaction from Sarah Huckabeesanders and her briefing was cancelled to make room for President Trumps meeting with bipartisan lawmakers to talk about school and Community Safety in the midst of a fer vent call for gun control in america but the attention may not just be on guns because of this nbc news exclusive. Nbc news has new reporting that Robert Mueller is is now asking pointed and specific questions about whether donald trump himself knew that democratic emails had been stolen before that became Public Knowledge and whether he was involved in their strategic release. This is key. This is according to people multiple