Brandnew reporting this morning about a Fiery Exchange between the acting defense secretary and senator Lindsey Graham over the president s plan to withdraw United States troops from syria. And off to the races. Just hours after throwing his hat into the 2020 ring, Bernie Sanders raises more than 4 million bucks surpassing his closest rivals in fundraising intensifying a battle among democratic contenders. 4 million. Too much money is in politics. The president s scorched earth strategy to combat the numerous investigations looking into all aspects of his public and private life. New reporting shows just how far mr. Trump has gone to undermine those efforts. I have a great team to break down all of it. But first, i want to give you a snapshot of exactly where we stand because it is easy to get lost. As we get closer to the end of the special counsels inquiry, we must remember that the president has done Everything Possible to be distract, downplay and demonize everyone and everything connected to this investigation. The New York Times broke it down for us. It is worth looking at because we tend to forget a lot of this stuff. So lets go all the way back to the beginning. February 2017. It started with damage control. Former National Security adviser Michael Flynn had just quit among questions about his russia contacts. The president reportedly told his press Secretary Sean Spicer to mislead the publicing about how he left. And heres what is sean spicer said. The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation in a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for general flynns resignation. Can we give an err to that. That is not what happened. President thought it sounded better than the truth. We saw echoes of the same strategy in may when the president fired fbi director jim comey. Then he gave conflicting accounts of why he did it. In both instances, President Trump apparently thought letting these guys go would end the russia investigation. Instead, it just fueled the fire. Phase two, tried to kill the investigation by starting at the tippy top. We know the president was furious that former attorney general Jeff Sessions we accused himself from the russia inquiry. He tried to pressure sessions into quitting and tried to get him fired. President trump also tried to fire Robert Mueller at one point and in both cases white house aides held their ground and the president ultimately backed off. How about phase three . Go after the investigators. This has been going on since the summer of 2017, and it shows how the president was using his fellow republicans to undermine Robert Mueller on his behalf. According to the times, at a time when mr. Trumps lawyers were urging him to cooperate with mr. Mueller and to tone down his twitter feed, the president s fiercest allies in congress and the conservative news meed why offia were busy trying to flip the script on the federal Law Enforcement agencies and officials began the inquiry into his campaign. Then we go to face four. Muddy the waters. This effort really got going last spring when Rudy Giuliani became the goto attack dog for the president in his war with the special counsel. Giuliani also gave some time to some very memorable lines just like this one. Please listen. When you tell me that he should testify because hes going to tell the truth and he shouldnt worry, thats so silly because its somebodys version of the truth, not the truth. He didnt have a conversation. Truth is truth. I dont mean to go. Truth isnt truth. Truth is truth. And, of course, the president has played a massive role repeatedly attacking everyone from Michael Cohen to the democrats to the Justice Department and, of course, the fbi. According to the New York Times, he publicly attacked the russia investigation more than 1100 times. Finally fiz five. Getting friends in high, high places. Part of that effort was getting a new attorney general and we know william barr has said things in the past that were critical of the mueller investigation. But one of the biggest takeaways from the times article was that the president reportedly called acting attorney general Matt Whitaker to see if he could get an ally put in charge of the cohen case out of the Southern District of new york. Both whitaker and the president had denied that. Did you ask acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker to change the leadership, the investigation into your former personal attorney Michael Cohen . No, not at all. I dont know who gave you that. Thats more fake news. Theres a lot of fake news out there. No, i didnt. At no time has the white house asked for, nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsels investigation or any other investigation. I like to point out that promises and commitments are different from the president asking you to hook a brother up. I want to bring in the panel. Ken delynnian, National Security reporter, phil rucker, White House Bureau chief with the washington post, jessica rothe, professor at cordoza law school and former federal prosecutor with the Southern District of new york and my friend nick akerman. He was also with new york Southern District as a former assistant u. S. Attorney and currently a partner at dorsey and whitney llp. Jessica, to you first. Even if President Trump did ask whitaker about putting someone else in charge of the s dp ny investigation, if he didnt do it, is that actually a crime. Well, if he asked him to do it its certainly evidence of his intent throughout this process in terms of his interest in influencing what was happening within doj. A whole lot of intent if theres no and heres what they did, what does that is actually get you. A matter of federal law if we were talking about actually considering charging someone for obstruction of justice, just the mere attempt to try to influence with corrupt intent an investigation is sufficient to be chargeable. You dont have to actually succeed. Theres lots of issues whether a president can be indicted and whether the requisite intent actually is established beyond a reasonable doubt. He doesnt have to succeed in actually influencing the course of the investigation. We sometimes forget the significance confident Southern Districts own investigation here. You recently said the experience the Southern District of new york bringsing to this case is beak like a whole other mueller investigation. Easily. Youve got two very experienced prosecutors that are in charge of that investigation. Two people hole col very well be attorney generals. We dont talking about that one very often. No, we dont. But they actually are into all of these other aspects of the cohen investigation. They brought the indictment that related to the payoffs to the two women. Theyre looking at this whole business about the inaugural committee. Theyre using the same witnesses that Robert Mueller is using. Rick gates who is intimately involved with that whole business with the inaugural committee is obviously cooperating with the Southern District. Theyve got that huge pile of documents that they will seized during that search warrant at cohens office, home, and apartment. I mean, a whole bunch of things. So the sky is the limit here. I mean they can go back and look at everything that the Trump Organization diagnose, whether or not there were payoffs to foreign governments that violate the foreign corrupt practices act. They can look at all of these things that are really outside the wheel house of Robert Mueller. And the Southern District is not going to be stopped. I mean if they find the crime, theyre going to indict. There is a reason why they call it the sovereign district of new york. Phil, i think i saw a tear running down your face when i was going through the five phases that President Trump has employed in this strategy because youve lived it up close. And as insane or buffoonish or ridiculous or unethical as it may have been, has it worked . Well are, thats a good question. I have lived through it, and the power of that reporting by the New York Timesing is just documenting all of these things which are just so extraordinary day to day in one piece to paint a portrait of the president s motives and what he tried to do. You know, some of the polling suggests that the attacks on mueller, the sustained assault from trump from rude die giuliani, from the president s allies in congress, has worked to shape Public Opinion to some degree. Mueller who is a decorated war hero obviously and one of sort of the most esteemed members of Law Enforcement before becoming the special counsel is now seen increasingly as something of a partisan figure which seems to have been the intent of the president s esstrategy to tar him again and again. For every time Rudy Giuliani is out there attacking bob mueller, bob mueller is silent. He doesnt do tv interviews. He doesnt take to twitter to go after the president or to defend the integrity of his work. So hes taken a hit in Public Opinion certainly. The only person whose voice weve heard less than Jared Kushners is bob muellers. Ken, i want to talk about the president attacking the russia investigation on almost a daily basis. 1100 times is what the New York Times has reported. We still dont know why hes doing it. Is it possible all of this is about his ego and defending his election victory or is it really something criminal . Thats a really important question, stephanie. Of course, its possible that donald trump is attacking the russia investigation because hes compromised by russia. That would be bad. But two years into this investigation, we have yet to see any hard evidence of that. If Vladimir Putin has something on trump, we dont know what it is. It could be hes going after this investigation because its embarrassing. It really doesnt matter. Its a crime to pervert the course of justice. Donald trump, while he hasnt done what nixon did that we know of, ordered an agency to stop investigating, taken affirmative steps to thwart the investigation using his power, hes gone on twitter and attack the fbi and Justice Department, ask people privately to do things that were inappropriate, ask his intelligence officials to say theres no collusion. When you put that all together as the New York Times has done, it looks like a pattern to corruptly pervert the course of justice. Thats what Robert Mueller has to tell us, whether he finds it rises to that level. Nick, History Lesson time. Richard nixon, compare and contrast into clearly nixon was doing the same thing. He was raising hush money to pay off the watergate burglars, giving them money for lawyers even though he said in that Famous Oval Office conversation, it would be wrong, he did it anyway. What has happened here is, its not that nothing has happened. To give you one example of the impact of what donald trump has done, all you need to do is look at the jury that came in on the manafort case in the Northern District of virginia where you had one juror who was one of the holdouts that hunging that jury and said that it was a witch hunt. That is Proof Positive that be what hes done is working, and that is jury tampering. Thats a crime. Thats a 20year felony. Is that jury tampering though . Well, its pretty attenuated. Certainly whats happening is. She just used the word attenuated. You get two points for that. I do think what were having is a real effort to undermine our institutions of justice. The department of justice and also the federal judiciary. If we can going briefly to roger stone and what he posted about the federal judge this week with the picture of her and the picture of the crosshairs, to me that is the new low in terms of an ongoing effort that the president started to undermine our judges as well as the department of justice. And so thats going to having an effect throughout the country i think potential jurors, and to the people who are just watching at home who are the electorate. This wasnt have an teniated this was right in the middle of jury deliberations and during the trial that donald trump was calling this investigation a witch hunt and saying that manafort and his Campaign Manager was a good guy and he felt sorry for him. My goodness. Felipe, you have a great story that if people havent read it yet, theyre going to get excited on william barr now in place as the new attorney general. Rosen will be nominated to replace rosenstein. What does all of that mean for the Justice Department and its relationship with President Trump . Its a new day at the Justice Department because bill barr is in his first week as attorney general and bringing on an ally to be the new deputy general. President trump is continuing to rail against the Justice Department, against barrs predecessors in leadership there, mccabe, rosenstein, even sessions and comey, as well. And its created an awkward position for barr who has come into the job you know wanting to preserve his reputation as something of a relatively independent person. He knew he was walking into an awkward situation. Oh, yeah. At best. Come on now. Isnt this a little bit like you get what you get and you dont get upset . The exactly. I talked to Richard Blumenthal yesterday about this. He said look, the bed was on fire when bill barr got into it. He knew what he was getting into. President trump has the Justice Department in his eyesight and is going after it again and again and again on twitter which is creating an awkward dynamicing there. If anybodys looking to get him a new job gift, maybe fireproof pajamas. Coming up, 2020 and all the money. The president going on the attack against Bernie Sanders this a. M. After sanders raises millions of dollars in the first hours after announcing his second president ial run. How that could shake up the rest of the candidates. Run. How that could shake up the rest of the candidates. You should be mad at airports. Excuse me, where is gate 87 . You should be mad at nonseasoned travelers. And they took my toothpaste away. And you should be mad at people who take unnecessary risks. How dare you, hes my emotional support snake. But youre not mad, because you have e trade, whose tech helps you understand the risk and reward potential on an options trade its a paste. Its not liquid or a gel. And even explore whatif scenarios. Wheres gate 87 . Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. What would it look like [if we listened more . ] could the right voice the right set of words bring us all just a little closer, get us to open up, even push us further . It could, if we took the time to listen. The most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories. Download audible and listen for a change. The only way we will win this election and create a government and an economy that works for all is with a Grassroots Movement the likes of which has never been seen in american history. It appears that Grassroots Movements are off to a strong start. Senator Bernie SandersCampaign Says it raised more than 4 million in the first 12 hours after announcing his 2020 bid. The Campaign Says the money came from nearly 150,000 individual donors from all 50 states and surpassed the previous record set by senator Kamala Harris who raised 1. 5 million in her first 24 hours as a 2020 contender. In a large field with a number of other candidates that are taking a page from his progressive platform, will sanders be able to set himself apart . Here to weigh in, basil smikle former executive director of the new York State Democratic Party and my friend republican strategist and author of branding america. I have to say this first. 4 million for Bernie Sanders, 1. 5 million for Kamala Harris for the 2020 election. Imagine if that 5. 5 million or the total raised so far all the potential candidates and President Trumps 2020 reelection, imagine if that money went to our Public School system. Wouldnt that be glorious . Okeydoke. The average donation was only 27 bucks. Does the first day of fundraising speak to the excitement thats still around for sanders or listen, he already had the framework in place and knew he was running and all he had to do was hit go. I think the latter. The framework and infrastructure was already there. I dont think theres excitement because of what happened in 2016. Half hearted endorsement of hillary after the primary, this half hearted attempt to bring democrats together after that. The consistency of him lobbying sort of bombs against the democratic party, not so much the establishment, the party at large. Its an impressive number. No question about it. But i just dont see the lane for him in 2020. I think democrats are still upset at him. 27 bucks. You dont blow your nose for 27. What . Anyway, you know what. Shes like do you know what i do. I dont even get that. I think that 27 tells me that its a movement. This is momentum because thats somebody, 27, 30, 50, thats somebody that probably doesnt have a lot of money but they believe in the cause. Youve got to remember that Bernie Sanders is the original guy that started all this progressive movement. You dont think thats orchestrated to get those teeny donations . He has the instruct in place. You get 34 million day one. Youve created the idea of this headline and this movement which is exactly what he wants to do. Heres whats going to be the fun part of Bernie Sanders campaign is going to be when theyre all on the stage and youve got people like Amy Klobuchar that are going to knock down his policies and say well, you know, this is great. How are you going to pay for it. Theyre going to force him to the table. Barney franks was on cnbc yesterday. He was saying look, all these policies with the green deal and things like this are not sustainable. You cant pay for each one of them. You cant do that to a system. Barney franks who is a major democrat you know was sitting there on cnbc breaking it down. I dont disagree he has had had an effect on the 020 race in the sense a lot of younger candidates and voters that came to the process because of him certainly a lot of president ial candidates are moving more to the left and talking about things like Affordable College and health care, revamping health care and medicare for all which are largely a result of what he was talking about in 2016, but having said that, think about it this way. Hillary clinton got more votes than he did in the primary. She talked about sort of a pragmatic practical approach to governance and shes not even viewed at this moment as someone that should be thought about as a candidate. Yet, were welcoming Bernie Sanders. Do you think she should be . Im asking you. If she wants to do it, she should do it. Thats not what im asking. I would love to see her run. Why . There are so Many Democrats that feel like. I have no problem with kamala maris is going to break the glass ceiling. Im not talking abouting whether harris should be president. If clinton wanted to run, i would love to see her run. That does not mean that i think Bernie Sanders should be on the stage and we should be talking Hillary Clinton off the stage especially since were at a point where voters even though we want to talk about aspirational positions theyre looking at what can be done and being able to fulfill promises. You have two different sectors of the party for the democrat party. You have the moderates and you have the progressives. So youre going to have to have a combo. Hold on a second. We have an updated number. Hes now raised 5. 9 million. Great for him. Which faction of the party because it is so divided is going to prevail for democrats . Because if you actually look at the midterms a whole lot of moderates won. I think of mikey cheryl from new jersey, you dont talk we dont hear his name often. You hear alexandria ocasiocortez 24 7. Heres my problem. I dont think the partys moving that far to the left. Heres why. Thats a great republican sort of narrative but i dont think thats true. Heres why. Heres a good example with bernie. Bernie just raised 5. Million. When bernie ran in the primaries in 2016, where he won is where trump won in many places. That says to me that theres just an appetite for voters, theres an appetite that voters are looking at the party and saying both parties are not for us. Theyre looking at certain policies and saying the system is rigged. Heres the good news for all those voters. Thats not left or right. You are about to get amen knew like youre at a Chinese Restaurant and about to have so many options. Well see whats in store. Up next, the surge in u. S. Companies buying back their stock could problem to be a big issue in 2020. Plus a pattern is emerging with some fortune 500 companies. Theyre doing it legally but essentially paying no taxes. Are you . I dont think so because all of this is a result of the big trump tax cut. Were going to talk about it, money, power politics next. Tal money, power politics next last years ad campaign was a success for choicehotels. Com badda book. Badda boom. This year, were taking it up a notch. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Nobody glows. He gets it. Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com but allstate helps you. With drivewise. Feedback that helps you drive safer. And that can lower your cost now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Discover. O i like your card, but im absolutely not paying an annual fee. Discover has no annual fees. Really . Yeah. We just dont believe in them. Oh nice. You would not believe how long ive been rehearsing that. No annual fee on any card. Only from discover. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. 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. Or trips to mars. 4. 95. Delivery drones or the latest phones. 4. 95. No matter what you trade, at fidelity its just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. Welcome back to msnbc. Im stephanie rhule. Look at your screen. Special olympics new york is about to ring the opening bell down at the stock exchange. And markets are expected to react today to the ongoing china talks and the allimportant minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting back in january. I hear the bell. Those minutes will be published later today and will tell investors what the fed wastorying about interest rates. Companies are preparing to announce more stock buybacks in 2019. We know already that in 2018, it was a recordsetting year for stock buy backs. U. S. Companies announced a whopping 1. 1 trillion bucks in buybacks and half of those announced buy backs 460 billion are concentrated in 19 companies. The massive currently in buy backs in part was triggered by the gop tax cut has caught the eye of politicians on both sides of the aisle. Joining me for money, power, politics, josh brown and felix salmon, axios chief financial correspondent. As we have this conversation, i can hear gary cohn screaming at his television saying you dont understand how buybacks work. Theyre great for shareholders and shareholders are everyday people in their 401 k s. Beyond garys view who helped orchestrate this tax cut, now were hearing from republicans and democrats, maybe buy babbs are too much. Maybe we need to set limits. Whats your overall thesis . This is not new. We had companies for a long time, 30 years that have bought back stock when they determined they couldnt earn a better return putting money into other projects. Its not virtuous to say corporations shouldnt buy back, not invest. We had a massive cap x bubble in the 1990s into 2000s. They built all this telecom equipment. Lots of bankruptcies and layoffs. M a largely is destructive. Think how many layoffs you get when a giant company buys an almost giant company. These are not necessarily better than buybacks and i think buybacks are such a lightning rod because people rightfully see most of that benefit is accruing to the 10 who own 80 of the stock. M a, mergers and acquisitions what you often see when a company buys another is when they streamline the business and improve operations they end up laying off. Synergy. Thats nicer than layoffs. We go after these companies for buybacks say saying its irresponsible, theyre lining their own pockets. As the ceo of a company it is your job as a fishery to do the best thing for your company. President trump, Mick Mulvaney said were going to give these tax cuts can even democrats thought the tax rate was too high for Corporate America. The government told us its going to free up companies to give raises and hire more people with tax cuts. The government cant control that. Companies are going to do whatever they want to do. Theyre going to take the cash and give it to shareholders because thats what the shareholders want and give it to them shareholders in the form of buybacks rather than dividends because as marco rubio says, the buybacks are taxed at a much lower rate than the dividends are. Thats not fair that why should buybacks be taxed at a lower rate . It doesnt make a huge amount of sense. Im sympathetic to what rubio is doing here. His proposal is likely to sink the minute it comes out because its hard to effect in practice. But buybacks are a way of getting around the taxes which do exist. Thats unfair. Its worth pointing out you can do all of these things. Apple has doubled 80s r d spening. Research and development. Hiring people left and right all over the country,able new headquarters, designing new products. Sure a lot of work is being done overseas, as well. Its a global corporation. Theyve done the biggest buyback in history and they pay a dividend. Its not a black or white yes or no. I think what were trying to find is the happy medium between is there really a happy medium . Im not dogging on Corporate America. Think about carried interest for a minute. All along the campaign trail even while they were working on tax reform, the president railed against private equity firms and carried interest saying this is a ridiculous hookup. Either he was lying or member of congress were. The tax cut came through and carried interest still in there. These are hoop loopholes. Buybacks is a loophole a way of giving money to shareholders without him having to pay tax on it. Theres no good reason for it to exist. Average american, half the country doesnt own stocks. Theyre never going to be in a position to get this hookup. I want to stay on paying taxes. Theres tons of headlines. Lots of s p 500 companies who made billions of dollars in the last year and legally they get to pay no taxes, gm, good year, netflix, u. S. Steel. Theyre paying almost or absolutely nothing and i know the three of us arent. So you want to know the irony . If you hate buybacks then what you really want is amazon. Does nos buybacks. The reason theyre not going to pay taxes, their profits doubled from 2017 to 2018. We have preferential for stock based compensation. We let them write that off and we let you write off research and development. Amazon takes full advantage of that. Theyre compensating employees with shares. Shares have risen tremendously in value and you get a bigger writeoff the more that compensation is. Do you want a company doing all the things amazon has hired 670,000 people. I dont think anyone would say they are the enemy. The issue. That was that whole fight to get them to pay a 15 minimum. No noncommunist is going to say amazon has not hired people and spent a lot of money in the economy. Does the issue remain what a complicated tax structure we have . As long as Corporate America or rich people have their own tax attorneys or Tax Departments a tax attorneys job is to find loopholes and minimize what a company or a wealthy individual pays. Frank rhule is still doing his taxes on his dining room table. While that will paradigm still exists, the average american is never going to be in an even Playing Field as the rich guy. Absolutely. Corporations are experts at making sure that taxes are, their profits are held in local tax jurisdictions. They never need to pay tax. If theres a way of minimizing or cutting their taxes by billions can of dollars can, theyre going to be able to find it because they have the most expensive tax advice and normal people do not. Buybacks and stock based compensation are one very, very common way that corporations find to minimize their taxes. Legally. We have an answer as citizens as people as opposed to corporations the answer is to save for retirement. Citizens and people. Save for retirement and invest. Your 29 trillion right now the of u. S. Everyday households have invested in i. R. A. S, 401 k s. This is what we should be working on. Instead of Rube Goldberg contraptions the shuman sanders proposal saying a company has to pay a 15 minimum wage before they can do a buyback. I dont know how thats enforced. Why even have buy backs be part of the conversation . In you want to do a nationally mandated minimum wage, just do that. You dont need the pinball that hits the dominos that blows the fans. We can attack that or we can have policy that pushes more people toward being able to save and invest. That is a better use of our energy than to try to divine which is more virtuous dividends or cap x or mergers or buy backs. That is a very tricky road fraught with unintended consequences. He took a dig at the game house trap. Its hard to put together. No disrespect to mouse trap. Very hard to find those pieces. Coming up, a clash abroad that could affect policy here at home. Senator Lindsey Graham and acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan getting into it over syria. New reporting about the private fight now public. New reporting about the private fight now public burning of diabetic nerve pain these feet raised a bouncing boy and climbed the ladder in the hardware business. But i couldnt bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. So i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. 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But he never called me back if your cousins wifes sisters husband isnt a lawyer, call legalzoom and well connect you with an attorney. Legalzoom. Where life meets legal. Come hok. , babe. Nasty nightime heartburn . Try alkaseltzer pm gummies. The only fast, powerful heartburn relief, plus melatonin so you can fall asleep quickly. Oh, what a relief it is now to a Fascinating Development from oversea where republican senator Lindsey Graham apparently got into it with acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan 0 over the president s plan to pull allamerican troops out of syria by the end of april. Courtney cue by is military reporter. Give us some context. What happened . So this was on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, a Big International gathering of World Leaders from everywhere. In this case, there was a large congressional delegation led by graham, cindy mccain was there, they were calling it the honorary mccain delegation since he was such a presence at the security conference every year. They set up a whole bunch of briefings one with acting secretary of defense Patrick Shanahan. They were there to cover a wide array of issues. Graham who has been pretty zwrout spoke been his opposition to withdrawing all u. S. Troops from syria he press the acting secretary on the plan and on whether shanahan agrees with there plan saying and using some colorful language, graham, about his opposition to it. And when secretary shanahan continued to defend the plan and copied to defend the plan withdrawal which at this point is still on track to be complete by the end of april, Lindsey Graham shouted out at him if thats your plan, i consider you my adversary. It was a really tense moment according to a number of people in the room who we spoke to. Wow. This is extraordinary. You can read more about this in courtneys piece on nbc news. Com right now. Thank you so much. Coming up, you know i am taking you back to north carolina. This story is mind blowing to me. An update on the case of potential Election Fraud in theth congressional district. Today we are expected to hear from the republican candidate at the center of all of it. From the republican candidate at the center of all of it. Your brain changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In Clinical Trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. The aarp Auto Insurance program from the hartford . Lets take a ride with some actual customers and find out. Well, tell me about your experience when you switched to the hartford. When i switched to the hartford, im sitting there thinking, man, i should have turned 50 years ago. They saved me a bunch of money. 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Today marks day three of the hearing after another day of bombshell testimony that is painting a much clearer and more disturbing picture of what went on in the district. Leanne caldwell has been covering the story from the beginning. Im so appreciative shes joining from us raleigh, north carolina. Walk me through yesterday and whats in store today. Reporter sure. For first for today, its going to be a big day at that hearing. We expect to hear from republican mark harris, the candidate in this race. Hes expected to take the stand. We understand also that mark harriss attorneys will try to continue to separatemaker ris from mcclay dowless, the man at the center of this fraudulent absentee ballot operation. Dan mcgreedy, his attorneys are going to try to connect him to do you r dowless saying how did you not know this man was undergoing this operation with these really wild results that definitely benefited you. Its going to be a really big day at the hearing, steph. My goodness. I want to get my panel to weigh in on this. Basel and noel still here. Is the right move for the Republican Party at this point to say lets have a new election, lets have a new candidate . Yes, yes, this is the right move. I think considering all the black cloud that surrounded this election, i think its fair to say that probably even the voters would appreciate just a whole new from scratch vote because if you voted for whichever candidate you liked in the first place, youre just going to reestablish your vote. It weeds all these fraudulent voting ballots. I think thats unlikely. I mean, one would think chris kovach, the former high priest of the voter Fraud Coalition would be monitoring this. Im not sure if ive heard from him. Whats your a revote. What happens you seat the republican and what the congress could choose not to seat him when he gets there. None of that really should take place. Just have a revote. But i think youre right, stephanie. Where is the president s Voter Fraud Commission . They should be down there banging the drum and saying this is what were talking about. Theyre nowhere to be seen. And another point, going into the midterm elections, 28 states had some restrictions on voter access. This is a big we saw what happened in georgia. We need to have the conversation going into 2020 about voters ability to go to the polls. What do we do about absentee ballots . How are we supposed to manage this . In the context of north carolina, this was so troubling because it looked like someone knocking on your door saying im just going to fill that out for you. Let me just get that for you. There can be a better system. There no question about it. We tried of that after the help america vote. Were getting better. Were not there. Wait. I can buy all of my groceries and my Kids School Uniforms by pressing one button in four seconds. When i went to vietnam in 2000, i got my money out of an atm, i was like how can we not vote when i get money across the country. Remember with al franken when they found votes in the trunk of a car . This has been going on for years, both sides. Democrats and republicans. Theres voter fraud or restrictive voting on both sides, but what i will say is that we could make the process better. We can do early voting. We can do automatic registration. We can make it a holiday which apparently republicans think is a ridiculous thing. Technically speaking you would say this whole thing is toto cray cray. A member of the former Voter Fraud Commission weighed in. Matthew dunlap. Heres what he said. Where is the voter fraud crowd . The folks who cry crime when two people named john smith vote in the same state. Theres silence in the fraud reveals their fundamental bad faith. Thats an aggressive statement, but hes got a pretty strong point. He has a great point. He has a great point. When you have evidence of blatant fraud, where is everybody . Youve got to have somebody. Then why wouldnt at the very least to save face, why wouldnt the president weigh in here . Were talking about a congressional seat even if it went to a democrat. It wouldnt flip things. It wouldnt hurt the republicans anymore. And the president could stand on that and say were not going to let this happen in my house. Theres two thoughts here. With everything going on in the news, a lot of people have said then things come out to wait and see what the end results are in anything, whether its voter fraud or a tape, a clip that you see. So maybe lets just say that President Trump is waiting in all the facts come out. Its an ongoing deal. I dont buy it. Respectfully. I dont buy that. Youre not going to let me sit on that . No. The president doesnt care. He only cares if it helps him. I tried. I know you did. I guess in his mind he believes this helps him. Whats interesting in just to talk about this issue broadly, particularly as it relates to communities of color, think about whats happening in 2020. This primary schedule actually puts an emphasis on African American and latino voters. We should really be having this conversation in earnest about whats happening in all the states including north carolina. I am being too idealistic . Why not put together a Public Private partnership with the Biggest Tech Companies and say lets create an all electronic voting system, or not everybody has access to the internet, but something. But we do have the greatest tech minds in the world right here. Why wouldnt we say this is the isnt Jared Kushner in charge of innovation . Hes in charge of everything. It is infrastructure. I actually agree with that. There are a lot of voters that still dont trust that. Yes, they want a paper trail, but they still dont trust i have your information anyway. A lot of voters there are a lot of voters who dont louise ruhle, not a computer person. I love that reference. There are a lot of people that order groceries, bank online. Sometimes they cant help it. Sometimes its easier just to do it. But maybe its rich people who do. And facebook and google have a bad wrap. This would be one thing they could collaborate on and make it better. I understand it and agree. But even if you even if somebody takes money out of your bank fraudulently, you can get that back. You cant get your vote back. We have to do something about the ads. Theyre horrible. Voting is an insanely personal the only way it works is if you get the business sector, the private sector, and the Public Sector to come together. It can be done. Somebody taking my money . Thats also personal. It is, but you can get it back. Some might say more personal. Okay. Im going to leave it there. Were going to take a quick break. Youre watching msnbc. G msnbc. 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Are medicare cuts that save less than one percent worth the risk to millions of patients . Call and tell congress, stop cuts to part d drug coverage medicare patients depend on. All right. You know how we end this show. No matter what theres always good news somewhere and we think good news ruhles. A world war ii veteran celebrated his 92nd birthday. Over two days he bought more than 1500 worth of chickfila for customers in the military. He said someone bought runlunchr him a long, long time ago, so on his birthday he does. Happy birthday to edmond. Now to Hallie Jackson who probably likes a chickfila sandwich. Who doesnt . Im Hallie Jackson in washington. A different kind of storm is settling over the west wing as an angry president today blasts the New York Times and denies he ever asked the former ag to step into an investigation that affects him. The fallout from that and our top three take aways this morning as the former fbi acting director stands by his story. What hes ready to tell lawmakers now about whether he thinks President Trump could be a russian asset. A member of the Judiciary Committee joins us live later. And on the 2020 front, the president is taking a dig at Bernie Sanders calling him crazy. He is crazy rich on the fundraising front. How the senators huge fundraising hall might send a shiver through his competition. And the new american led push t