On a friday night, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 554 of the Trump Administration, and the president escalates the war on his former lawyer and confidante, Michael Cohen, while denying that he had any advanced knowledge about that june 2016 meeting in trump tower. A source has told nbc news cohen is willing to tell Robert Mueller that donald trump jr. Informed his father about the meeting before it took place. Trumps son had that meeting with several russians after he was told they were coming prepared with damaging information about hillary clinton. Well, today the president responded with this so, the fake news Doesnt Waste My Time with dumb questions, no, i did not know of the meeting with my son, don junior. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam. Taxi cabs, maybe . Well explain that one. He even retained bill and crooked hillarys lawyer. Counsel. Muellers office says it plans to call 35 witnesses and financial crimes trial of exTrump Campaign chief paul manafort, which is slated to begin tuesday. This is the first of two trials for manafort. The witness list was made public just today. The biggest name on it, no surprise, is that man, rick gates, manaforts former partner and onetime deputy on the Trump Campaign who pleaded guilty and is now cooperating with the Mueller Investigation. After all of that, lets bring in our leadoff panel on a friday evening. The aforementioned emily jane fox, Senior Reporter for vanity fair. We should add, she just wrote the book on the trump family. Its called born trump inside americas first family. Josh gerstein, senior White House Reporter for politico. And jill wine banbanks, former Watergate Special counsel. Good evening to you all. Emily here in new york, id like to begin with you. If this relationship hasnt soured, id hate to see a relationship that has. Seems a little chilly. Offer to donald trump, but some people have argued that perhaps hes sending a smoke signal looking for a pardon. Pardon, yeah. Now, people who are close to cohen and familiar with his thinking have flat out denied that time and time again to me. They have said, the way that you would get a pardon is not by angering the president and sticking a thumb in his eye repeatedly, and even if he were to get some sort of prepardon, then he would undoubtedly be subpoenaed and would have to testify and then would not be able to plea the fifth. Thats something that according to all my reporting hes taken off the table. On the other side, you have President Trumps camp. And there was a school of thought on friday when the recordings were first released and Rudy Giuliani was the only person on the record describing the Subject Matter on that tape yeah, we quoted you on this broadcast. Yeah, so he was able to control the narrative for a few days until lanny davis did put out the actual recording earlier this week. And so, it was kind of a smart tactic to be able to define the
narrative, even though we now know that the very best case for Rudy Giuliani, there are questions raised about the narrative that he laid out there. So, what you have is a complicated set of motivations from each side, characters on each side that are not necessarily the most trustworthy or have the greatest credibility. And so, to try and determine who leaked what when is a difficult game. I will say that from my reporting in the cohen world the past 24 hours particularly after this revelation last night about what Michael Cohen may know about the trump tower meeting, they have said over and over again, we did not leak this, because this does not serve us. To have this out in the public was not our strategy. We wanted to be able to go to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, with this information. It doesnt serve us to have this out in the public. Now, it is possible in some way that it does serve President Trump to have one of the most damaging things out there, perhaps to control the narrative
again, and perhaps to make it more difficult for Michael Cohen to cooperate. If Michael Cohen is not going to cooperate, then maybe the president can breathe a little easier tonight. And josh, the only problem with conversations the likes of which were having here is its about the mechanics of leaking, and were forgetting the story in chief is, oh, yeah, by the way, its alleged the president had a heads up on russians coming to his Office Building in new york prior to him becoming president with dirt on his opponent. At the top of the ticket, as they say, one donald trump has been conspicuously silent but for his twitter feed this week. Right. And you know, given his No Collusion Mantra that hes put forward time and time again, there could hardly be a more damaging allegation then that he was aware in advance that his campaign was endeavoring to get damaging political intelligence about his opponent from russians
and russians that i believe his own family had been told had some connection to the russian government. So, theres no question that this would injure his narrative if people believe it. I think the problem is, as emily points out, theres a need for some additional cooperation. You have a number of people whose credibility is not particularly high and who have made statements that prove not to be accurate. The real question i think is not whether Michael Cohen has stories that could damage the president but whether he can lead Robert Mueller or other federal investigators like the folks in new york to provable facts, to other sources of information that can allow them to assemble a damaging case against the president. If its just stories that hes telling Michael Cohen, i dont think its going to be that damaging. And now to jill weinbanks. Counselor, if theres a short version of this answer, if its answerable, in your view, how
has cohens case changed this week, since tuesday . How has trumps case changed this week . I would say that cohen is in the same position he was in terms of whatever evidence positions against him but that he has put himself in a better position, because if he really does have the willingness to testify that he was in the room when donald trump sr. Learned about the meeting in trump tower, and if he will identify the other people who, rumor has it, were also in the room, it means that its not his word against the president s word. And as everybody has pointed out, they both have credibility issues. Giuliani is saying that cohen is a pathological liar, and he knows that because cohen lied for his client for many years, which is not exactly a very strong defense. And what does that make the client who hired the lawyer to lie for him . So, they both have credibility issues, but if he can identify other witnesses, i think josh pointed this out, it means that there is a really credible case. And to some extent, if im viewing this as a trial lawyer, juries really can make logical conclusions, and the evidence at this point is now getting very compelling that there was a clear willingness to accept help from the russians to win the election, to collude with them, as the public is calling it, or to enter into a conspiracy with them, which is what the crime is. And i think it really has gone to the stage where were really getting somewhere now, and we could have a very significant case. Emily, the counselor is right. Last night, watching Rudolph Giuliani on cnn, it was straight up Character Assassination, calling a person who was up until recently the personal, trusted lawyer of the man who
became president a pathological liar. If you believe the theory that the leaks have come from the trump camp, that would hold that this is some of the worst, most damaging stuff cohen has to tell the feds. But your reporting tonight is that cohen is sitting on top of a, quote, treasure trove. Is that a promise or a threat, or did they not characterize that . I think its both. I think there is a combination of things that is happening right now. Cohen had been preparing since early july for the onslaught that we are now seeing. He had heard word from people in the president s orbit that this kind of Character Assassination was coming, and he wanted to be ready to combat it, because he, as he has said, he has a family to protect, he has a duty that he feels he wants to serve to his country, and he wants to smack back if he is smacked. And he feels right now like he is the most under siege from
someone he was incredibly loyal to for more than a decade, and he doesnt want to take it anymore. And so, what he is saying is that, like we saw last week, if Rudy Giuliani is going to come out and categorize a tape like this, perhaps leak it or perhaps try to control the narrative, then hes going to release the tape in two days and try to correct the record. And he said to people who are close to him, if they want to keep playing this game, ill play it and ill play it to win. So, that is what i think, if Rudy Jagiuliani and the Trump Surrogates continue this Character Assassination we saw last night, then were going to continue to see the kind of behavior from cohen that weve seen in the last week. I have to ask you a question because youre still young and you have your whole life ahead of you. Maggie haberman tonight talked about this is what she called it, the culture of corrosive lying surrounding this story on both sides. Does it get to you . Youre writing down some of these quotes that become the news of the day. I think as all reporters are doing right now, youre just trying to get to the truth, and that is the hardest thing to do right now because there are so many people who are not honest brokers in this whole set of characters. And all that we can do is try and get to the truth of the matter, and trust who you think should be trusted and has proven to be a trusted source for you. It is wearing, but it is worth the wear and tear that it takes. All right, josh, next week begins the manafort trial, unless were looking at another delay. What stood out to you, if anything, if anyone on the witness list . Well, its going to be a cavalcade of sort of haberdashers . Haberdashers, if you call someone a tailor who sells suits to someone to a total of 800,000 over several years, youre going to see people that specialize in highend
landscaping 500,000 that manafort spent on that. Its really going to be sort of a Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous episode, i think, with one after another of these individuals coming in and testifying not just that manafort spent Hundreds And Thousands of dollars on their products, but that the method of payment was highly unusual. We had these exhibits come out publicly yesterday where people have written in longhand that these funds were transferred from some strangely named account in sky precypress, Whet Improvements or for a mercedesbenz that went for 130,000. Probably not typically the way people pay for these kinds of purchases, even if theyre lucky enough to have the money to do so. Jill, were also going to be seeing something important next week. This is the first of about 100 times i plan to say it these are Public Servants who are going to be putting themselves and their argument forward at
trial. Every one of the lawyers in this case could exponentially improve their salary in the private sector, especially with the pearl of any association to the Mueller Investigation on their resume. Instead, theyre going to lay it all on the line. This is a very closely watched trial, the first of the mueller effort. It is. And every one of them is dedicated to finding the truth and presenting it to a jury for them to evaluate. And i think thats what we will have. Its going to be a very exciting week. But if i could go back to something that was said, i want to address why possibly trump would have leaked this. And its because one of the first things that a trial lawyer learns is that if you have bad news or bad facts, its better to get them out yourself first. Dont wait to have to take it on cross examination. Put it out on direct
examination. Its much more effective in front of a jury for you to put it out. And in the way that this has happened, they did have a couple of days of their narrative, sort of explaining away this very bad for example, the tape. Then you hear the tape, and you go, whoa, its nothing like what giuliani said. Thats completely off. But after two days of hearing it, his base will believe that what he said is true. They will pay no attention to what they actually heard on the tape. And so, that is a reason why he might have gone ahead with it. And the other thing is, the value of cohen is not diminished by these leaks because he still has to be a witness in a trial. Its not enough even to have the tape. Someone has to explain the tape and someone has to say, did the president say use cash or dont use cash . And he is the one who can do that because he was the other
party to this conversation. So, i dont think it hurts his value as a witness, and he still will be valuable. And if he wants to make a deal with mueller, i think mueller would find him very interesting. Our thanks to jill weinbanks, to emily jane fox, josh gerstein, the members of our leadoff panel late on a friday night. The good news, ive been assured its friday. There will be no more of this for this week. Coming up, more talk of another u. S. russia summit. This time, one suggested by vladimir putin. And the white house says the president is open to a visit to moscow. Lord knows hes been there before. And later, with midterms fast approaching, the Administration Says foreign interference in our elections will not be tolerated. Well try to arrive at a definition of that when we come back on a friday night. It clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation state or other malicious actors. All this as nbc news reports, as the headline says pretty clearly, Trump Administration has no central strategy for election security, and no ones in charge. Thats pretty direct. Our own ken delainan writes even members of Trumps National security cabinet have acknowledged the need for a central, unifying effort, one that experts say is missing. Senior officials have also admitted that the government has failed to take steps necessary to give the russians second thoughts about intervening in american politics. Thats where these next two gentlemen come in. Two guests each with a book relevant to our conversation. First, malcolm nance, veteran of naval intelligence, security ops, homeland security, and the author of, get this, the plot to destroy democracy how putin and his spies are undermining america and dismantling the west. Plus, we have clint watts back
with us tonight, former fbi special agent, former member of the joint Terrorism Task force. His latest book, get this, messing with the enemy surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians, and fake news. These guys are a lot of fun, trust me. So, clint, are we getting played before putin ever dealt with our invitation to come to washington, which was smartly delayed after mcconnell and the speaker of the house visited the president. The president s now being invited to moscow of all the places on the planet . Yeah. As ive talked about on this show with you before, President Putin owns President Trump. Hes pushed him both directions and set him up in these scenarios. Im not sure President Trump even minds because he adores President Putin, it seems like so much. But you could see this coming. I mean, this play was going to be there. And every time these overtures are made and then pulled back,
it puts russia in a very strong position where they can then make these challenges, push these things. When you say, russia, do you have those emails . I think it was two years ago today, when you make that statement, it puts you in a very weak hand if you ultimately become the elected official, because you have someone across the ocean who has been influencing the election, who is in a powerful position, and who is manipulating the system, whether its information in Foreign Policy around the world in ways that are to the detriment of the United States. So, it makes President Trump really look like he has a weak hand in this scenario. And if he goes ahead and takes it, you know, part of the reason why they wanted to delay it for the witch hunt is they probably want to delay it for the midterms. Reaction was not good here in the United States, republican or democrat, to that helsinki summit. Now President Putin puts it out there. Do you go to moscow right before the midterm elections . It probably isnt a good political strategy for the president. Malcolm, our friend, clint, is absolutely right. It was two years ago today in response to a question from katy tur, who just anchored the hour
before us. Well take a look at what the president said then. Well talk about it on the other side. 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. Malcolm, we were all around back then. And in the media, i think its fair to say it was kind of passed off. It was laughed off. How do you think history will end up judging that moment in the Trump Campaign . Well, happy russia if youre listening day, and i think that it will resonate throughout history just like that. To be honest, just 24, almost 36 hours before on this network, we made the first warning that this was a russian attack on the United States and on the electorate, and i know that by
that morning, we were taking it pretty seriously on air. But i dont think that people understand the capacity of these foreign actors, in this case, russia, in creating not just a Social Media Storm where the media just took off after it, but also creating the metanarrative around the entire election that Hillary Clintons emails were bad, and they just played on our own investigations in congress and our own Freedom Of Speech Weaponized it and then used it against us. And thats why we have a situation where we have a president of the United States now may, in fact, be beholden to a foreign power, like clint said. Malcolm, hows it going to go down with your colleagues and members of your lifes work that the National Security adviser in the white house is now kind of trolling the Mueller Investigation by using the Phrase Witch Hunt . Yeah. There has never been a National Security adviser who is so blatantly and openly political in this way. I mean, john bolton just came out and used witch hunt right out there, as if this was a legitimate way of doing governance in his position. Its dimly looked down upon, believe me. Theres a lot of people in the community, and im sure, throughout the political world who just were astonished at this. But russia has to be delighted, because now this means the narrative of the entirety of the Trump Administration from top to bottom in, you know, from, in every aspect of government, from National Security all the way over to the guy cleaning at the gsa, everything is now a witch hunt, and that, of course, plays to our opponents. Clint, i have to read you a headline from the New York Times tonight, david sangers
piece Russian Hackers appear to shift focus to u. S. Power grid. That gets your attention. His lead sentence is, statesponsored Russian Hackers appear far more interested. Thats what got my attention. Far more interested this year in demonstrating that they can disrupt the American Electric grid than the midterm elections. And he goes on to cite u. S. Intelligence officials and tech company executives. What do you think of that . Theyre trying to essentially build options, whether its warfare or negotiations. A lot of times, youll hear people say, well, they didnt actually turn out the power, theyre not doing an act of war, but this is actually leverage that you can have. So, we know about this now. What do we have to do . In the United States, we have to go around and check all of our electric systems to make sure that there isnt a foreign adversary thats in those systems. And we have to them safeguard against that. That can be used as a tool. Thats a Negotiation Tool that they can use in terms of dealing with this. I think its important to recognize that hacking is going to continue, but the targets will probably shift. In the 2018 midterms, sure, i
imagine that the russians will do some sort of audience sustainment, you know. Theyll repeat the narratives that are pro russian, but what do they gain, really . How much can they really gain with the election of one senator or congressman here or there . What they can gain, though, is building additional capability and going after things like the power grid, water, other utilities, looking into other sources of information or hitting even our financial system, which is a technique weve seen from other state actors, going after u. S. Institutions. The Banking Sector maybe is a target. Those are things that are different capabilities that they can try and build out, and weve seen them use these sort of attacks. And ukraine. Ukraine is almost always the test bed that they use for their cyber warfare. They launched an attack called black energy during the middle of winter and shut the power off in that country, and they use these attacks very successfully, both as a warning but also as an intermediate step to full war. Our thanks tonight to two really smart guys who live and
work in a scary world. Clint watts here with us in new york and malcolm nance, who has written all of the books behind him. Gentlemen, thank you both for coming on a friday night. Coming up, i think wed all agree the House Of Representatives deserves a month off for good behavior. When we come back, the republicans who are heading home determined to hold onto their seats come the midterm elections. Year, i am sorry about that. [music playing] vo progress is in the pursuit. Audi will cover your first months Lease Payment on select models during summer of audi sales event. Let someone else do the heavy lifting. Tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 Booking Sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. So you barely have to lift a finger. Or a wing. Tripadvisor. Gathered here are the worlds finest insurance experts. Rodney mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. The list goes on. How about a discount for long lists . Gold. Mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching almost effortlessly. Its a gift. And jamie. Present. Together we are unstoppable. So, what are we gonna do . Insurance. Thats kind of what we do here. California had the worst Wildfire Season on record. Scientists say, our weather is becoming more extreme and we all have to be better prepared. Thats why pg e is adopting
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place, but the economy is the strongest ever, and i think thats going to have a very positive impact, and i am going to work very hard. Ill go six or seven days a week when were 60 days out, and i will be campaigning for all of these great people that do have a difficult race. And we think were going to bring them over the line. That was a very important little thing right there, donald trump speaking in the friendly confin confines of the Sean Hannity Show with members of the house now back home in their districts on their richly deserved summer break. The president is trying to shift the focus slightly to the midterms. And as we just heard, he intends to play up the economy. We saw two things this week. The president supporting various candidates via twitter. This continued tonight. And the president willing to fix or back away from some potential midterm land mines, mofor starters. After the visit from the republican congressional leadership, he postponed the invitation to putin to visit
washington, he deescalated a trade war with the eu, and he offered farmers a 12 billion bailout package, in effect, to offset the costs of tariffs. According to a new Cook Political Report analysis this is important, too republicans have reason to be worried with 102 days to go, democrats remain substantial favorites for house control. A big reason, republicans are defending 42 open or vacant seats, a record since at least 1930. Well, here to talk about it all, two learned folks of the political persuasion. Jonathan allen, Nbc News National Political reporter, and nancy cook, White House Reporter for politico. Welcome to you both. And jonathan, is there a way you can put the republican level of concern put it this way, what do you think this president heard from mcconnell and ryan Behind Closed Doors in the oval office . Well, certainly, House Republicans are very concerned about losing their majority. For mitch mcconnell, theres an outside shot that Senate Republicans would lose their majority. Certainly, theyre trying to build up as many votes as they can for the president. But this, right now, i think the president is treating the midterm elections as though he is on the ballot this time, because he knows that if one of those chambers of congress flips, his agenda will be put on ice between 2018 and 2020. And if hes, as hes running for reelection, remember he filed we zoom back out a little bit filed for election on inauguration day, an unprecedented thing. Hes been Holding Political rallies earlier and more frequently than past president s have in advance of the midterms, and now he says hes going to be out on the trail six or seven days a week. He understands his own political fortunes, and certainly, the fate of his agenda rests on his ability to have a Republican House and senate going into 2019. Nancy, i want to show you
three states, nbc news marist polling that are just coming in, not unimportant politically. Michigan, minnesota, wisconsin. Trump is under water in those three pivotal states right now. Let me ask the question a different way. Do you think the president accepts and is willing to be a realist about being a potential drag . Absolutely not, and i think we saw that with his comments on Sean HannitysRadio Program today, where basically, he said that he was going to go out there six or seven times a week. The irony is that a lot of these candidates dont necessarily want him to go to their states. A lot of them want to run on things that perhaps the Trump Presidency can take some credit for, like conservative judges or the state of the economy or the tax bill, but they dont necessarily want sort of the picture of trump in their district. And so, he is inserting himself in some races where its going to be much trickier. But as jonathan said, you know, i really think that he finally
has caught on to the idea that his political fortunes are very much linked with republicans staying in control of congress, and thats particularly true of the house, which a lot of Election Experts expect will flip to democrats, at least at this point. If democrats take back the house, theyll also take back the House Oversight committee, and they could really bury the president under a lot of hearings, subpoenas, and potential impeachment proceedings. Jonathan, a senior lifelong democrat said to me yesterday, remember, no one can lose like the democrats. And since you are coauthor of one of the chronicles of the last major democratic loss, we should probably put a giant asterisk on this conversation, and we should also emphasize to folks, these are individual House District races. Your results may vary, correct . Thats absolutely right, brian. I think if youre trying to get to add up the 23 seats that democrats need to take the house, you can see some pretty
easy places for them to pick up seats on the east coast and on the west coast. But in order for them to actually flip that chamber, theyre going to have to win some tough contests in the midwest and in the heartland. And you know, a lot of those prognosticators believe thats going to happen at this point. I think a lot of the battle that youre going to see over the next couple months with the president hitting the hustings is going to be in that sort of center part of the country. The one difference i would say between a president ial election and Congressional Elections is that in Congressional Elections, sometimes you can win just by being against the president of the United States because people want to put a brake on what that president is doing. In a president ial election, usually you have to have an argument against the other person, and your own agenda youre offering. Nancy, i know you took Creative Writing as a Young Journalist on your way up. With that in mind, how does donald trump spin a loss of majority the day after the
election . Doesnt that make it kind of a wartime footing . And doesnt that just change everything . Yeah, it would really make it a wartime footing. I mean, i feel like its a little bit early to say how hes going to spin it. I think in the meantime what hes going to do is what he started doing already in the last 24 hours. Hes really started talking about how democrats will abolish i. C. E. , how theyll raise taxes, and hes also starting to make the argument, which Congressional Republicans have been wanting him to make for months, which is really focusing on the economy. And we saw that this morning at this Press Conference he gave where he talked about the great gdp numbers. Thats what republicans they want him to stick to that message. Hes not great at staying on message and staying disciplined. We saw him at one tax cut touting speech throw a Speech Up In The Air and say, well, this is boring, much to the chagrin of a lot of republicans in washington. But i think if he can stick to that pro growth economic message, that could help republicans in a lot of these vulnerable districts. Two great writers and reporters, Jonathan Allen and nancy cook. Our thanks for joining us on a friday night at the end of yet another workweek. Coming up for us, 44 years ago today, washington was consumed by a different controversy. It was the day house members started voting on whether or not to impeach the president of the United States. A look back when we come back. An Energy Company helping cars emit less. Making cars lighter, its a good place to start, advanced oils for those hardworking parts. Fuels that go further so drivers pump less. Improving efficiency is what we do best. Energy lives here. Its a hightech revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed. It intelligently senses your movement and automatically adjusts on each side to keep you both comfortable. And snoring . How smart is that . Smarter sleep. To help you lose your dad bod, train for that marathon, and wake up with the patience of a saint. The new sleep number 360 smart bed, from 999. Smarter sleep will change your life. If yor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both Symptom Relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal Brain Infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. Is it to carry cargo. Greatness of an suv . Or to carry on a legacy . Its show of strength. Or its sign of intelligence . In crossing harsh terrain. Or breaking new ground . This is the time to get an exceptional offer on the mercedes of your midsummer dreams at the mercedesbenz summer event, going on now. Receive up to a 1,250 summer event bonus on select suvs. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. It has been an extremely busy week of fastbreaking news on multiple fronts. With us to talk about where all of this leaves us, jon meacham, the pulitzer prizewinning author and historian. His latest work is entitled, The Soul Of America the battle for our better angels. John, thank you for coming on. A gentleman we both know, one michael beschloss, has a very active and educational twitter feed, and he pointed out the following to us. Well put it up on the screen. House Judiciary Committee votes to recommend president nixons
impeachment for Obstruction Of Justice today, 1974. He included the next days the New York Times frontpage treatment. J jon, we dont have to draw any parallels, but the question to you is how much more real did things get this week . Then or now, or both . Today, in current time. Because you know, because like beschloss, who is the gibbon of twitter, sometimes july of 74 seems better. I think it got realer, to use a very elegant literary term. What we forget sometimes in the maelstrom of what we do, in the maelstrom of your broadcast and just the tsunami of information is that these things do take a good bit of time, from june 17th, 1972, until august 9th, 1974 was 27 months. Joe Mccarthy Rose and fell from
lincolns birthday in wheeling, west virginia, in 1950, until late 1954. Legal time does not work along the same geological spectrum as political time. Political time wants action immediately. We want a decision. We want to finish a news cycle. Legal time takes longer. And i think given, you know i dont know about you, but if i found out that my lawyer had been taping me and that a Special Prosecutor of the stature of Robert Mueller had access to those, it would go down as not a good week. Yeah. Well, one of the great bromides of watergate is that the heroes of watergate were republicans. Its true. If you had to extend that to present day, youd venture any names . Youd care to guess . No, and im a little
counterintuitive even on that. There were, i think, seven republicans on this date in 1974 who voted for article one of impeachment against president nixon, which was really the most significant one, and i suspect the one that had had gone to the senate would certainly have passed. Bill cohen was one of those republicans of maine. Hamilton fish of new york. Weve talked about it. Theres this legend about how Barry Goldwater and hugh scott and john rhodes went down to the white house to tell nixon the support wasnt there anymore, but that was august 6th, i think, august 5th. And one of the things and i think this is worth everybody remembering is, about politics and law moving differently things do at some point start to snowball. And what happened for nixon in july of 74 was the house
Judiciary Committee under rodino, who was doing everything he could to be quite fair about it and move with some deliberation. Remember, in the anniversay of this, the Supreme Court said that nixon had to turn over the tapes. And of those tapes was the great Smoking Gun Tape where nixon actually says, were going to use the cia to block the fbi from investigating the breakin. It led to the obstruction charge. And insofar as there is if not a parallel at least one of mark twains historical rhymes, it Doesnt Repeat itself but it rhymes, i do think what we saw this week in trumpland was the beginnings maybe even the middle of what an Obstruction Case might look like. We know weve always suspected he knew a great deal more about what was going on around him than hes let on. And i think were beginning to see how an evidentiary trail may
actually bring that home to us. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we make it a habit to invite jon meacham on our broadcast. Jon, my friend, thank you very much. Always a pleasure. Thanks, brian. Were back with more right after this. Thats confident. But its not kayak confident. Kayak searches Hundreds Of Travel and Airline Sites to find the best flight for me. So im more than confident. Hows your family . Kayak. Search one and done. Copd makes it hard to breathe. So to breathe better, i go with anoro. Go your own way copd tries to say, go this way. I say, ill go my own way, with anoro. Go your own way oncedaily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators that Work Together to significantly improve lung function all day and all night. Anoro is not for asthma. It contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. The risk is unknown in copd. Anoro wont replace Rescue Inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder, or urinary problems. These may worsen with anoro. Call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,
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tonight, something beautiful that happened earlier today. More specifically, something that was visible to a good portion of the earth for over an hour. It was a gorgeous and especially lengthy eclipse of the moon. While it happened at mid afternoon here on the east coast, it was a spectacular show for those who happened to be in the eastern hemisphere. During totality when the moon was cast in the shadow of the when the moon was cast in the shadow of the earth, it was illuminated by red light filtered by the earths surrounding atmosphere. One of the best images of this eclipse was taken and this is really no fair, by a german astronaut who happens to be one of only six humans who are closer to the moon than all the rest of us because they are right now on board the International Space station. The next eclipse that we get to see here in North America is on january 21st of next year. Our thinking on this tonight was after the week weve had, what a nice way to send you off into the good night