Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20180221

A guilty plea in the muller probe the 11th hour gets underway. Good evening from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. This is day 397 of the trump administration. News on the mueller front, the Mueller Investigation of russia and a matter involving the president s soninlaw and chief of staff. First off tonight, Robert Mueller has obtained a new guilty plea as he investigates russias interference in the 2016 election. Before today, three people have already admitted their guilt to the special counsel. Former National Security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and a california man richard pineto. Now alex van der zwaan, the soninlaw of one of russias wealthiest men has pleaded guilty of lying to the fbi. Well have an explanation of this prong of the story for you just ahead. Today, we also saw the white house answering questions for the First Time Since muellers extraordinarily and extraordinarily detailed indictment of more than a dozen russians. In the wake of President Trumps weekend twitter rampage, our colleague Kristen Welker today asked about trumps view of the indictments conclusions. Does the president now acknowledge what the special counsel indictments made clear, which is that russians not only tried to meddle but interfere and influence the 2016 election . Absolutely. And the president has acknowledged that multiple times before. The president hasnt said that russia didnt meddle, what he is saying is it didnt have an impact and it certainly wasnt with help from the Trump Campaign. Its very clear that russia meddled in the election. Its also very clear that it didnt have an impact on the election and its also very clear that the Trump Campaign didnt collude with the russians. Problem with that is, you may recall the president himself has usually not been that definitive on the question of russia meddling and has consistently raised doubts about intelligence pointing to the kremlin. She doesnt know if its the russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking. Could be russia, but it could also be china. Most importantly, were hacked by everybody. The whole russia thing, thats a ruse. Could have been china, could have been a lot of different groups. The russia story is a total fabrication. I call it the russia hoax. No, russia, did not help me. That i can tell you, okay . Its a democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election. Today, the president also went back to using his predecessor as a foil. Quote, i have been much tougher on russia than obama, just look at the facts. Total fake news. White house also questioned about that. He hasnt criticized Vladimir Putin about this. He hasnt even called on putin. He criticized obama, he criticized the fbi, he didnt even criticize Vladimir Putin. He has been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined. Hes imposed sanctions, hes taken away properties, hes rebuilt our military. He has done a number of things to put pressure on russia and to be tough on russia. Just last week, there was an incident that will be reported in the coming days in another way that this president was tough on russia. A bit of a dramatic curtain razor there. The Washington Post Phillip Rucker will join us reports the tougher than obama theme has consistent throughout this presidency, especially when it comes to National Security and Foreign Policy. The white house was also forced to address the issue of security clearances today. In particular with regard to trumps soninlaw and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, who still operates under a temporary clearance. Clearance. The chief of staff on friday issued that memo on security clearances, those with interim security clearances by the end of this week that have been outstanding since june of last year would lose their access to classified information. One of those people who we know from his attorney is Senior Adviser Jared Kushner. Can you talk about whether or not how hell be able to do his very senior job in the white house if he does not have access to classified information . I can tell you that no decision within the memo will impact anything that Jared Kushner is working on. White house chief of staff john kelly backed that up tonight with this statement, which reads in full, quote, i will not comment on anybodys specific security clearance situation or go beyond the memo released last week. As i told jared days ago, i have full confidence in his ability to continue performing his duties in his Foreign Policy portfolio, including overseeing our israelipalestinian peace effort and serving as an integral part with our relationship with mexico. Everyone in the white house is grateful for these valuable contributions to furthering the president s agenda. There is no truth to any suggestion otherwise. But just a short time ago, the New York Times reported kushner is apparently facing off with kelly over the issue of security clearances. The times reports tonight, quote, Jared Kushner is resisting giving up his access to highly classified information, prompting an internal struggle with john f. Kelly, the white house chief of staff, over who should be allowed to see some of the nations most sensitive secrets, according to white house officials and others briefed on the matter. Mr. Kushner has insisted that he maintain his current level of access, including the ability to review the daily intelligence briefing when he sees fit. The pdb, as that briefing is known in the trade, as the single most sensitive collection of our nations secrets on a daily basis. The times continues here, quote, mr. Kushner and ms. Trump, a reference to the president s daughter ivanka, have been critical of mr. Kelly in conversations with the president , who spent the weekend at his maralago resort in palm beach, florida, surveying people about whether he should fire his chief of staff. Lets turn to our lead off panel on a tuesday night, shall we . Kimberly atkins, chief reporter for the boston herald. Michael crowley, National Security editor and Senior Correspondent for politico, and Phillip Rucker, White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post. We welcome you all. And, phillip, you are on the board. The latest of everybody tonight. So ill start with you. This kushner kelly, somewhat have a looming confrontation. The snarky way to ask this, is this a white house with an insatiable appetite for distraction and infighting . Well, brian, it has proven to be just that for the first 13 months of this presidency, and there have been tensions at various moments over the last several months between Jared Kushner and the chief of staff john kelly. In part because kelly has tried to control and tightly manage the access to the president and sort of who is involved in what decisions and who gets that sort of freeflowing access in the west wing, which Jared Kushner used to enjoy before kelly became chief of staff. And this security clearance issue is certainly putting a real spotlight on Jared Kushners situation. He does not have a permanent security clearance. There have been a number of questions raised through that process, including over his the things that he left off of his forms earlier when he first came into the white house. So its been a problem for him. Its not really hit a head until this rob porter scandal, the staff secretary who was forced out over Domestic Abuse allegations, and its created a conflict here. Michael, this gets into your area of expertise, the pdb, this briefing for the president lets put it this way has traditionally been handled, seen, dealt with by those who have been there before. Professionals in the field. Those who have been around a presidency. You found the kelly statement about jared interesting tonight in its wording. Well, look, i think whats happening here is, first of all, the kelly statement was notable for the fact that it didnt specifically deny the charges that are being reported tonight, which is that kelly wants to see jareds jareds security clearance cut off, and he seems to be suggesting you can go on and do these things and have fun knock yourself out. Middle east to mexico. I question how you can be the guy overseeing the middle east Peace Process without a full security clearance. By the way, that involves so many complicates issues, including ones that have to do with terrorism and security. But, look, think whats so interesting about this confrontation is to me its sort of a test case of the clash between the kind of National Security establishment that has formed around trump, that is sort of trying to keep a conventional direction on this presidency and this administration, and the sort of wheeler dealer new York Real Estate trump organization, trump family culture that has a totally different unorthodox background. So much of the tension that weve seen in this presidency has come from those two different strains colliding, and i think that who wins this struggle will tell us a lot about which way the president is willing to go in the future. And i think the National Security establishment, people like kelly, have really lost patience with people like Jared Kushner and all of these other sort of characters who have come in with no government experience and they feel like they just dont belong in these sensitive meetings, in situation room handling classified information. Now were really going to get a resolution. The president from a background of Reality Television and new York Real Estate. Two firsts in one. Hey, kim, the times is reporting tonight been you have your your own reporting, i have mine, a lot of folks do, that the president has been ruminating openly, loudly, using words about how general kellys days might be numbered going as far as to kind of straw poll some possible replacements. And that seems to be one of his favorite things to do. Again, from his reality tv background, he loves firing people or at least talking about firing people. Its unclear how whether how imminent john kellys departure might be. I mean, if you recall, the president was doing the same thing about attorney general Jeff Sessions for a long time and hes still in that post. But at the end of the day, its this entire issue, especially surrounding Jared Kushner, is up to the president. The president has the right to grant a full security clearance to whomever he wants and that decision is unreviewable and its totally up to him. So if the president wants Jared Kushner to get this president ial Daily Briefing then Jared Kushner will get the president ial Daily Briefing. At the end of the day, i think that may be what it comes down to, if john kelly is adamant that no one who has more than an interim clearance see this information and donald trump really wants him to to. Phil, let me read you a quote from vanity fair tonight. Its about the weekend that was, the president s foray into social media and apparently a family foray to the caribbean. As trump melted down at maralago and the administration reeled from one of the most dismal weeks in 13 months, kushner and ivanka werent in the country, according to two people familiar with their travel plans. The senior aides took a holiday in the sun, enjoying the long weekend in the caribbean. Phil, prompting a friend of mine in this line of work to say, why is it when something bad happens those two are so often out of town and not in the loop . Youre exactly right. I remember back last spring when the Health Care Vote was coming into the house and there was a huge debacle there where the vote failed in the house the first time and jared and ivanka were skiing out in colorado or someplace like that, so they were not around for that either. Look, the reality is that theyre not traditional staffers in the sense of being on call and responsible for working 24 7 at the white house. Yes, theyre on the staff. Yes, they have offices in the west wing. Yes, they have titles and jared obviously now has access to the intelligence briefings, but theyre also family members and theyre entitled to take leave when they choose. They can go home when they want to. Theyre not sort of held to the same standards that a lot of other staffers inside the white house are. Michael crowley, i was reminded recently that upwards of 80 of the citizens of this country, god love them, are not on twitter. For those that are, ive read the word gas light a lot on twitter. Saying the president is gaslighting the nation with his assertion hes done more on russia in 2017 than eight years of the obama presidency. What does gaslighting mean in this context . So gaslighting is the idea you are intentionally bewildering people and theyve gone crazy by presenting them with information that doesnt make sense, that runs contrary to everything they understand, and in this case, i think the white house is making a claim that is very hard to defend and i think people understandably would be very confused. Let me just quick laissez, you can fairly criticize barack obama for not having taken more action in response to russias election meddling. That is an interesting debate, but i think Sarah Sanders argument that trump has done more in one year than barack obama did in eight years really does not stand up at all. We can go through the list. Barack obama imposed sector sanctions after the seizure of crimea, imposed sanctions on individual russians who were close to Vladimir Putin, flew to estonia and went to the capital of estonia and gave a big speech affirming americas commitment to the nato alliance, article v of the nato treaty which says any one member would come to the defense of any other, basically saying to the russian if you make a move on the baltics, america is going to come and hit you back. Sent troops to poland. Oversaw the implementation of an antimissile system that drove the russians absolutely nuts. The list goes on and on. There are those who would like to see obama do more, but, really at this point its not close. It is a strange claim to make. I will say that the trump administration, the officials below trump have taken some steps standing up to putins russia, and the white house could be taking more realistic credit for some of those steps. Never mind the fact that trump himself seems to be completely out of step with some of these lower level officials implementing the policies. But Sarah Sanders statement today, many people may describe that as a bewillering, gaslighting claim. Kim, the folks who work for us, the taxpayers, gave us a briefing for the first time in a week. Did you gain any clarity from it . No, we heard the talking points that we are familiar with. Denying that the president has called the russia investigation a hoax, when he has repeatedly, sort of trying to find nuance there. Saying its only the trump involvement that hes called a hoax. We didnt get much clarity on the Jared Kushner situation. It seemed to be just more of the same information. We only the only thing we got is that little bit of information that the u. S. Did something to russia and we have to wait a couple of days to find out exactly what it was. That was a curtain raison. Kimberly atkins, Phillip Rucker, michael crowley, thanks for starting us off. Appreciate it. Coming up for us, what message was Robert Mueller trying to send, in any, with a guilty plea today of a dutch lawyer . Well ask a former u. S. Attorney. And later, what exactly is the top item that youd say is on the trump agenda these days . And can the white house get out there and sell it amid time putting out fires . The 11th hour on a tuesday night continues. As we have reported, Robert Mueller has secured a fourth guilty plea in his wideranging investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election, again in keeping with the custom of a tight lid on this case, todays development is one that no one saw coming before today. Earlier today, getting to the news of it, dutch lawyer alex van der zwaan pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his communications with former Trump Campaign aide rick gates and an individual named as person a in court filings. We should note van der zwaan is the soninlaw of a putinlinked Russian Oligarch named in the russian dossier. Its not clear if van der zwaan has signed a cooperation deal with mueller. Nbc news said his attorney said in court today, quote, there is some possibility he would not face a long sentence but because he doesnt have a criminal record, he might only get a few months, even without a deal. Todays news came after a Los Angeles Times report that rick gates will plead guilty and tiff against Paul Manafort. Gates and manafort both pleaded not guilty back in october to a number of charges, including money laundering. Trump attorney ty cobb failed to comment on todays charges against this lawyer van der zwaan, saying it is not related in any way to the white house. With us for more tonight, Julia Ainsley is in new york, nbc news National Security and justice reporter. And former u. S. Attorney joyce vance is back with us. She spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. Okay, julie, you get to take the big swing at the first question here, and that is significance of what happened today. This guy and why were about to hear the name skadden arps more. Those are great questions. Significance for today, most reporters in washington said this is a name we havent heard before. We must just be looking at the tip of the iceberg. It wasnt in one of your baseball cards you follow . I wish i could tell you it was, brian, but it really wasnt. It seems were following a tangent from a tangent. We know this person, Alexander Van der zwaan communicated with rick gates, a deputy of Paul Manafort on the Trump Campaign. You have to follow each little bread crumb to get to the white house here. It seems like a tangent from us on the outside. Really, when you look at the communication, what is involved in this document today, the context starts to come to light. Part of it what they laid out in court today is that skadden arps is where Alexander Van der zwaan was working. He was based in london and he leaked talking points about a report he was working on with rick gates to come up with a justification for the imprisonment of the ukrainians prime ministers opponents. Ukraine tied to Paul Manafort how . Because, of course, Paul Manafort was working on behalf of the Political Parties there, the prorussian interests in ukraine. This is a lot to handle. The point is skadden arps is not supposed to have talking points. Theyre supposed to be an independent body. Those were leaked to rick gates and it seems that Alexander Van der zwaan lied about that communication with rick gates. Whats interesting here if were reading between the lines, how do they know he lied, what testimony is conflicting . It seems from reporting it could be that rib gates is now telling the truth and this man, Alexander Van der zwaan, what his testimony is is now sign as false. Wow. Joyce, i didnt even mention that it appears this young man, our dutch lawyer, speaks russian and recorded some of his phone calls. Just interesting plot points along the way. Joyce, to your to the ears of a former fed, what does this tell you about the Mueller Investigation . Mueller looks to be charging straight into the core of this investigation and determining whether there was collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians as regards the election. And so the bread crumbs that julias referring to are these little pieces that let mueller test the evidence and ultimately determine whether there was, in fact, criminal conduct that involved not just russians as we saw in last fridays indictment, but folks in the United States as well. Julia, weve asked you this before and youve confirmed, and today im guessing drives home the tip of the iceberg theory. Actually, icebergs have more showing above the surface than this mueller case seems to. Thats probably true, brian, and i think were seeing the scope as well. That its not just going to be the president , the campaign and Russian Oligarchs. Were going to see everyone tied into this web, and a big thing that is coming to light is the way that lobbying has been influenced by foreign governments inside the United States for a long time. And Paul Manafort was the face of that. Were starting to see the fact Michael Flynn as well. Yeah. When people dont disclose, when they dont disclose these fielgsz that people had ignored for years, if you pull on those threads, you start to see all of these flounces underneath that are driving a lot of the politics, that drove a lot of what happened with people who worked on the Trump Campaign. Not only is Robert Mueller getting at a lot that we are going to learn about this white house, were going to learn more about the way washington works just from this investigation. Joyce, how much did manaforts worries deepen in the course of this one day . Absolutely exponentially. Manafort, who has maintained all along that he wants to go to trial and that hes not guilty, is rapidly coming to the point where its going to be very difficult to maintain that posture. It looks like rick gates, his longtime sidekick is cooperating against him. Obviously weve now gotten van der zwaan, we dont really know what he has to contribute. At the end of the day, though, manafort who is in his early 70s and may be looking at Something Like 15 years under a guideline sentence will really have to decide if he wants to roll the bones at trial. He cant be sleeping very well right now. Wow. With thanks to our guests tonight, Julia Ainsley and joyce vance, this was, again, another interesting day in this investigation. Coming up after a break, Steve Kornacki is among our guests tonight. Hes going to be at the big board with new numbers on how we all feel about guns and gun safety reforms in the wake especially of this High School Shooting in florida. The 11th hour back after this. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, working, just like it should i was at the school when this act of terrorism occurred. I heard the gunshots and my classmates died. That happened. And the fact that this is just so close to home, it even is home, the school is practically in my backyard. I live five minutes away. We were named one of the safest cities in the country and it still occurred. It doesnt matter who you are, and i dont think the politicians understand that, this could happen to their son or daughter, it could happen to anyone and we need to prevent this from happening in the future. How impressive have these kids been . Students from parkland, florida, continue to speak out about gun violence after 17 people were scott shot and killed, as she said, at their high school last week. Today, around 100 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School boarded bus to pressure lawmakers. Many were in tallahassee to see the Florida House overwhelmingly reject a bill that would have banned ar15s and weapons like them. At a medal of valor ceremony in the white house this afternoon, the president spoke about meeting with the families of those killed at parkland and announced new measures to curb the use of bump stocks. We cannot imagine the depth of their anguish, but we can pledge the strength of our resolve. And we must do more to protect our children. We have to do more to protect our children. Just a few moments ago, i signed a memorandum directing the attorney general to propose regulations to ban all devices that turned legal weapons into machine guns. Really important to point out here, the gunman in last weeks Florida Shooting did not use a bump stock, and, remember, they are attachments to an ar15 which use a Spring Loaded mechanism so they can speed up the rate of fire. They can turn a semiautomatic single shot ar15 into something that fires much more like a machine gun, a full automatic weapon. Even the nra agreed last fall to restrictions on bump stocks, although they oppose a full ban. Notably, again, bump stock not used in this florida incident. Just this evening, President Trump pivoted to another aspect of the gun control debate, writing on twitter, quote, whether we are republican or democrat, we must now focus on strengthening background checks. The president will host what the white house has billed as a listening session with parents, students and teachers from that High School Community tomorrow. With us tonight to take a closer look at the numbers, where this country stands on this gun control debate is our own National Political correspondent Steve Kornacki. Hey, steve. Welcome. Hey, brian. Thanks for that. There are few issues when you try to figure out the politics of an issue, there are few that get you as turned inside out as the politics of gun control. Because some things can seem very popular, almost universally popular, then you kind of cycle them through the political system. Not so much. Here is an example. You saw the president mentioning something to do with background checks in a tweet tonight, well, this has been an issue that has been kicking around for awhile. On the surface, look at this. This is as close to universal as youre going to get in polling on any question on any topic, 97 , a new poll out today, 97 of americans say they want universal criminal background checks for the purchase of a firearm. Look, there is no partisan gap on this. It go across party lines, independents, democrats and republicans alike. Why on earth are the politics of this complicated . There are a couple of reasons. First of all, there is this basic philosophical question. Look, we know the democrats by and large the energy for background checks legislatively has come from the democratic party, by and large the opposition has come from the Republican Party, yet when you ask people which party does a better job with gun policy, the Republican Party wins. Remember, universal background checks, 97 support, and yet republicans win that philosophical question. That is number one. How about this, though . How about when you run an actual Political Campaign around the issue of background checks. A lot of nuance enters into the debate at that point. Look at this, they did this in maine in 2016, a statewide ballot referendum. This is a state Hillary Clinton won. Background checks, poll it, 97 . They ran a campaign. There was money, debates, arguments back and forth, it lost. Background checks lost in maine 52 to 48 . How about this . One of the last times we had a tragedy like we saw a couple of days ago, you had the sandy hook massacre in 2012. What happened after that . There was a push in the United States senate for background checks. There was a vote, in fact. It failed. Didnt get enough votes to pass. This was in 2013. How about the politics of this . Every single one of the republicans you see here, they all voted against background checks, every single one of them who was up for reelection in 2014 won reelection. Again, voting against something on paper is universally popular. Not a single one of those republicans who voted no and on the ballot next year paid a political price. There were two democrats who voted against the background checks, they did lose. But you have to point out, they lost to candidates who were at least as conservative as they were on guns. You cant look to that background check and say anyone paid a price for voting against it. Fantastic collection of numbers and polling. Now the search for answers against. Steve kornacki, always a pleasure. Thanks for spending time with us tonight. Coming up, its only been three weeks since the president s first state of the union address. Tonight, a look at where that trump agenda stands when we continue. Im a concrete mason. I own my own company. I had some severe fatigue, some funny rashes. Finally, listening to my wife, went to a doctor. And i became diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma. That diagnosis was tough. I had to put my trust in somebody. When i first met steve, we recommended chemotherapy, and then we did high dose therapy and then autologous stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, he went on to have progressive disease. I thought that he would be a good candidate for immune therapy. Its an intravenous medicine that can affect the patients immune system and unleash it against the cancer. With chemotherapy, i felt rough, fatigue, nauseous. And with immune therapy weve had such a positive result. Im back to working hard. Ive honestly never felt this great. I believe the future of immunotherapy at ctca is very bright. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. Its been exactly one week since the white house held a press briefing, and in that time there have been a number of issues Donald Trumps administration hasnt responded to. So at the press briefing today, in a little less than 20 minutes of podium time, press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders was hit with dozens of questions ranging from the mueller indictments to possible ethics violations by trump cabinet members. Why hasnt the president implemented the sanctions which Congress Passed last year . The president doesnt really think that the fbi failed to stop the parkland shooter because it was too involved with the russia investigation, does he . The president in 2000 did support an assault weapons ban. Whats his position now . Are you angered by this or outraged that russia tried to interfere in our election system. Would the president consider granting mr. Kushner a full background check . What does the president think about secretary shulkins handling of his travel, the wimbledon tickets and all of that . Does the president believe there should be an age limit for those who buy an ar15. The longer you go between taking questions, the more questions youre likely to get, thats how that works. Lets talk about a reactive Trump White House. With us to do that is phillip bump, National Correspondent for the Washington Post and john harris is back with us as well, a veteran journalist who spent more than two decades covering politics and the white house for the Washington Post. He happens to be editorinchief and cofounder of politico. John, remember a more innocent time in say the last presidency and before that in the modern era where you deliver a state of the union and that would begin a sales campaign, often up front about it and often featuring a road trip to drive home that message. Brian, most president s regarded the state of the union speech as not just a night, but really a month, a week leading up to the speech, two or three weeks after on the road in which you can expect to dominate the agenda with what youre actually trying to do on policy substance. Donald trump, in part by choice because he weighs into controversies. In part by accident because hes been overtaken by events, particularly the russia investigation and the shooting, he totally squandered that opportunity. So, phillip, getting things done, getting out ahead of a cycle, a news cycle, a day, a half a day, there must be a list in this west wing of things they want to accomplish. He talked about it three weeks ago. I mean, theoretically, i think its safe to assume that President Trump has a fairly limited policy agenda that he wants to put forward. He certainly did articulate some things during the state of the union address, he talked about immigration in particular, but hes not a policy guy, hes not a policy wonk, hes not somebody who has paid over any course of his presidency paid any attention to policy and that suggests he probably isnt too focused on this, but i think one thing we should keep in mind, it had been a week since there was a press briefing and Sarah Huckabee sanders came out today and could absolutely have foretold at 4r50e69 80 of the questions she got there but her answered did not reflect she had a week to sit and come up with responses to them. Thats emblematic of the white house. There is always some crisis. Some disaster looming that President Trump has tweeted out that they need to respond to and it gives them so little time to come up with a weeks worth of explanations, much less looking ahead a week or ten hours. John, if we had the big four from us on capitol hill on this, schumer, pelosi, mcconnell and ryan, what would they tell you is their priority . Would they argue that anything is a shared priority between them and the white house on the republican side . Well, i dont know about shared priorities, but they definitely have some shared interests, you know, senator schumer, remember, said he would be open to working with the Trump White House on infrastructure. Theyve got a big looming problem with the deadline still on what to do about the socalled dreamers, the daca children, so there is a big opportunity for to get to work in a shared way. There are not really shared obviously shared goals. Both gentlemen have agreed to stay with us. Were just going to sneak in a commercial break. Still ahead on the other side, what this president did today that truly sets him apart from every other commander in chief before him. 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Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Dont take botox® if theres a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. With the botox® savings program, most people with commercial insurance pay nothing outofpocket. Talk to your doctor and visit botox®cmsavings. Com to enroll. About 12 years ago as a young receptionist in trump tower, i was forcibly kissed by mr. Trump during our first introduction. Mr. Trump repeatedly kissed my cheeks and ultimately my lips in an encounter that has since impacted my life well beyond the official occurrence. That as a young woman named Rachel Crooks back in 2016. Shes one of 19 women who accuse President Trump of Sexual Misconduct before the election and is now running for office in her home state of ohio. The Washington Post published a lengthy profile on todays front page, prompting the president to lash out on twitter, and we quote, a woman i dont know and to the best of my knowledge never met is on the front page of the fake news Washington Post saying i kissed her for two minutes yet in the lobby of trump tower 12 years ago. Never happened. Who would do this in a public space with live security cameras running . Another false accusation. This public response from the president , which like so much of what he has just said in the last 72 hours, lets say, on social media is hard to imagine coming from any of his predecessors. This comes amid denials of affairs with a porn star and a playboy playmate. The white house has called the accusations baseless. Back with us, phillip bump and john harris. John, not only can you say that you could put any president s name at the top of these tweets and not envision it, not imagine it, its kind of a case of where do you want to begin . Well, whats stunning, brian, and you and i were there back in the clinton days, in an earlier era when there were stories about the president s indiscretions. These dominated the news and dominated the news agenda to literally years. Whats striking to me in the trump era is the Stormy Daniels story a month or so ago, this story, they all seem to get lost in the whirlwind. So just to connect it to our last statement, i think donald trump pays a heavy price in his policy agendas for the kind of constant swirl of allegations and attacks and twitter storms on the substantive side. On the political side, think it works for him. These allegations, they seem to come and go like straw in a hurricane. You could argue it was part of the baked in package of things people knew and thought of about this president , phillip, as shocking as the president s tweet was this morning on this matter, just as tweet was this morning, just because were not used to it from president s, she came back strongly and said, please, by all means share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential Elevator Bank on the morning. January 11th, 2006. Lets clear this up for everyone. Its liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself. She is running for state legislature in ohio. Compelling stuff. I think the important thing to remember about crooks story is it was contemporaneously reported. We see the same pattern of behavior from President Trump who when people need to be reminded said on tape that he did precisely what crooks alleges he did to her in 2006. But there so often are these contemporaneous corroborations of the stories that the women are telling. I think thats important. I also do think its important to remove 2016 as a sort of validation of these allegations against trump simply because 2016 was a one of a kind of events for trump. Weve seen his support among women has continued to decline, specifically collegeeducated women and if he seeks reelection in 2020, i dont think hell have the same support he had. Thank you both for joining us. Coming up here, separating fact and this heated debate after a tragedy in florida when we continue. Lts last thing before we go here tonight is a reminder that any time. Day or night and you have a computer and you can stomach it, you can go on the web and find the newtown, connecticut conspiracy theories, folks who say it was all carried out by actors who were bussed in and out. They were never able to say where those 26 people went, where those 21 children went having never returned home that day, along with the six teachers. And russian sponsored trolls and bots have already jumped into the debate to defame and degrade the survivors of the High School Shooting in florida and the students who have stepped up to lead the antigun movement. False stories have been floated and read by unsuspecting users of social media, and as theyve been casually passed on into the blood stream, theyve gained an audience, and gained currency while remaining fake. The president s eldest son has been engaging in some of this topic on twitter. Heres how the normally trump friendly post reports the story, donald trump jr. Liked a pair of tweets attacking a teen survivor of the mass shooting in florida that left 17 people dead, including one that suggests the boy was a fabrication of the mainstream media. Yesterday the twitter accounts for two fringe web sites got into a fight over a fictional Conspiracy Theory against the Broward County sheriff that is to vial and crazy to repeat. The bots and trolls have gone to work and as they did during the election to further divide our already divided country. This afternoon an aide to a Florida State lawmaker suggested to a Tampa Bay Times reporter that two of the students who have emerged as leaders since the Florida Shooting, Emma Gonzalez and david hogg were both, quote, actors who traveled to various crises when they happened. The aide was quickly fired. The students in anger and grief are aware of the false allegations about them as they continue to push their message. The people that we left behind, the people that are no longer with us, they are not acting, they are dead. Now, my friends, im not going to be able to talk to them again and to have the other people tell me that my mourn, my grief is not real, that im just acting it out, i would love to be that good of an actor, but im not. Trust me, this is real. Cameron, david, emma, none of us are talking to adults. Were just talking it out. It is the students. Its not acting, it is real. That is how the aftermath of this shooting is still playing out in ways so real, sincere and raw and totally false at the at the same time time, and that is how the debate and the worry over russia is at real and close to home as a high school on the edge of the florida everglades. Thats our product tonight. Thank you for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. This morning students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are in tallahassee ready to call on florida lawmakers to take action on gun control. It comes as their movement gets National Attention ahead of a march on washington. Plus amid growing pressure, President Trump appears to endorse two measures related to gun control, a ban on bump stocks and strengthening background checks. And in the russia investigation, the soninlaw of a Russian Oligarch pleads guilty to lying to investigators in Robert Muellers probe. Good morning, it is wednesday fe