Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. The issue of adoption, did that come up . Like i said, that was the primary thing we had spoken about in the meeting. Thats not the premise that got them in the room. Then it was essentially a bait and switch to talk about that 6789 everybody has basically said that in. The already. There is this another intere interesting thing over the weekend. Hope hicks boarded Air Force One and flew to the president s rally in ohio and back. You may recall, hope hicks resigned from the white house one day before a Congressional Committee that she had told white lies on behalf of donald trump. She is now living here in manhattan and she too has come under scrutiny for crafting that selfinflictselfinflic selfinflicted wound. We dont know the back story, but our understanding is this was not a tragic legal tweet. This was not a messaging tweet. This was the president waking up and doing what we reported him doing in our story, privately brooding and then publicly fuming and roaring. He sent this tweet out to refute a part of our story, but in doing so, actually pushed his own narrative into a place thats not particularly helpful for him or his namesake son. That might be an understatement. Lets talk about djtj donald trump jr. To your knowledge and based on the best of your reporting has anything about don juniors case changed materially that has motivated the president s behavior . His change in mood is this. The truth is, brian, we just Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Into some serious trouble. Joyce, things that happen in plain sight dont often have the gravity in realtime. Twitter as a medium is all but entirely lacking in gravity. Its instantly available. Its ubiquitous. Do you think what we saw in plain sight from the president s cell phone on sunday had a weight of a legal matter . It does. It will have ultimate weight here. I think twitter may end up being this president s undoing. Many of the worst hits he has taken and that his presidency have taken have been own goals often from twitter or his own statements to the media. But this one is really a doozy by any standard. Its difficult to understand what may have motivated him. Perhaps he felt provoked by ashley and philips reporting and went off without think about the this idea that don junior may have wandered into a crime is something we havent focused on. Thats not true. You get criminal liability for committing acts with a certain state of mind, not just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe trumps goal was to run a Public Relations campaign leak he so often does on twitter. Let me ask you about the u. S. Code that you no doubt have committed to memory it small be unlawful for a Foreign National directly or indirectly to make a contribution of money or other thing or value to to make a contribution or donation in connection with a federal, state, or local election. Joyce, has this notion been litigated . Probably a lot of people wish it had been liquidated. Do we know advice on your opponent from russians could be construed in Federal Court as a thing of value . Its an interesting question. Under this statute why which theres been little litigation, certainly people will have different opinions. But a thing of value is something that people would typically pay money for. People pay money for Opposition Research. Seems likely thats a possibility here. One of the most intriguing aspects is its not just illegal to receive this sort of help from a foreign government. Its also illegal to solicit that help from a foreign government. Just based on what we know, which is surely only the tip of the iceberg, looks like the participants in this meeting have a hlot of trouble on their hand. Phil rutger in the believe it when i see it, is this president really going sit down, but did Rudy Giuliani forgive the casualness of this, just need a distraction last week to point us in the future . . Thats the big question this week. The president s circle indicated this would be coming very soon. They are in the final stages of negotiations with the special counsels team. Thats been going on for months now to figure out the parameters and scope of the interview with the president. Who knows if that decision is going happen. This is a president who likes to always say, im going to do x, y, or zrk in two weeks and three, four, five weaks pass until you hear about it again. He may not have a decision this week, but we may have a decision announce in the ten mince on twitter. We need to stay tuned. What we know is theres disagreement on the team. The lawyers dont want him do the interview. The president wants to because he thinks he can convince mueller he did nothing wrong. Theyre going to have to reconcile that and come to some sort of agreement with the special counsel. Point taken, 11 12 p. M. On a monday night. The night is young in twitter terms. Theres a piece written in vanity fair on just what hope hicks was dong on Air Force One this weekend. Some speculate that amidded a weekend when donald trump was talking about the Trump Tower Meeting, having Hicks On Board was at best inappropriate and at worst, a chance for them to get their stories straight. Your reaction . And any reporting you can add . I think at the very, very, very least. The optics are absolutely horrible. You remember bill clintons Tarmac Meeting during the campaign. You just cant do this. My sense based on some reporting is this is the free wheeling way things work in trumps orb it. If you look at the last three rallies, he has taken people he feels comfortable with into the campaign and white house who flew on Air Force One with him, Cory Lewandowski to pennsylvania, hope hicks. So i think on some level for trump theres a sense of, this is friendly. Hey, youre in bedminster, why dont you hop on Air Force One, fly out to ohio with me. That ignores the situation theyre embroiled in. Terrific answer. Bottom line is it was an interesting visual on the tarmac in Morristown Airport on saturday. Our thanks to Ashley Parker, philip rutger, joyce vance. As always, appreciate our top three coming out for us. Coming up, more on why that meeting with russians in trump tower two years ago is considered to critical to the ongoing investigation. Later with 92 days to go to the midterms an idea of what well talking about this time tomorrow night and the what the primaries from ohio may show us. Just Getting Started on a monday night. Harmonica Interrupts . 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While both the president and his son maintained that Trump Tower Meeting yielded no information about Hillary Clinton the fact that it took place, the fact that there was a cover story put out about it, those have become big problems. We are lucky to have with us two people who have both won Pulitzer Prizes this year with that meeting. With us matt apuzzo and Ashley Parker agreed to stick around. Matt, welcome back to the broadcast. What was it like the first time you learned of the existence of this meeting. What are the dangling questions out there still unaddressed shh. Ashley got into this in the first segment. When we went to the white house with what we knew, the existence of this meeting last year, and we said, what was this about . We knew don junior, jared kushner, paul manafort, three most important people at the height of the campaign are meeting with a kremlin connected lawyer. We knew that. They said, what was this about . They push third down off and said, we need some time. People are traveling. Well get back to you. We said we just want to moe the answer. Well give you the time. They said, it was nothing. It was just about adoption. It was such a head scratch a. It was so obviously bizarre it raised more questions than it answered. Then over the course of three days the story kept changing. And here we are now a year later and we are still trying to figure out where exactly the president is on this. And where we have ended up is the president saying, we tried to collude with the russians but it Didnt Work Out and we didnt actually pull off the collusion. And that is Head Scratchingly where we ended up a yoear after reporting. Yashley, heres this presidet taking the time to dictate a meeting and the purpose of the meeting in trump tower. Can you believe we still have so many questions . That this still generates so much News Coverage a year later . I can and i cant. The way we understood the story was we understood the first statement was drafted or dictated by the president as he flew back from a trip to europe. Our understanding was it was this scrambled frenzy on Air Force One to try to come up with a statement with the president really taking the lead and dictating it. That sot of statement, that problematic first statement that arose from so much chaos, im not surprised that that Frenetic Energy isnt coi going on to th remind me there was an effort to expose this. Remind me mark karallo. Yeah, its interesting. He was a spokesperson for the legal team. He said that he resigned because he had concerned about this. The trump team says he was fired. He was never a valued member of the team, like so much that goes on in this administration it sort of depends on who you talk to, where the truth lies. I think the Point Ashley Made is a good one. The story she and her colleagues wrote about the misleading statement, that story has legs because that issue of President Trumps involvement in the missing statement is among the topics we now know that bob mueller wants to talk to the president about ands that at the heart of this question of, is bob mueller going to subpoena the president . Is he going to take no for an answer or is he going to take, well talk about this, but not that for an answer. One more question on that, matt of the foundation of the mueller case, the founding questions and documents do you think Trump Tower Meeting is easily top five . Yeah, i think its you look at the Questions Mueller said he wants answered from the president. The question of what did you know about this meet something what did you do in records to it is front and center. I think of course it is. It goes to the issue of people from the kremlin show up in the middle of an influence operation to tip the outcome of the president ial election and they say, we are here to help you on behalf of the russian governments efforts to help Donald Trumps campaign. We would like to hurt Hillary Clinton and they say, sure, absolutely lets meet. Of course its front and center. Its one of the most important issues facing the mueller investigation. Put it that way it sound almost like a serious meeting. Ashley parker whats the fear level the Anxiety Level who are regulars who work for this president in the west wing . Its high. Whats striking is its not just high among them, but its high with the president himself. So hes someone who, at this moment he does believe he has done nothing wrong. As phil said earlier he believes he can get in the room with mueller and convince him of that, but even the president is worried about who is getting wrapped up in this and especially about his son, don junior, ands that all tied to this one meeting. Its tied to what happened at this meeting. Its tied to who knew b what about this meeting before it happened. Its tied to whoever don junior may or may not have told. The president understands thats a risk because in that tweet sunday he also knew enough to distant himself. He said, i didnt know about the meeting in advance. Just because the president said something, that doesnt mean its true. It does show you he realizes any knowledge of the meeting beforehand would be problematic for him. We are 24 minutes into our broadcast week. We have already had three pulitzer prizewinners. Our thanks to two of them. Coming up, the star witness in the trial of perimeter. Takes the stand and immediately confesses to criminal behavior. The revelations under oath from rick gates and what he admitted to that caught everyone in the courtroom by surprise. vo people with Type 2 Diabetes are excited about the potential of onceweekly ozempic®. In a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. Oh under seven . vo and you may lose weight. In the same oneyear study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. Oh up to 12 pounds . vo a twoyear study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. Oh no increased risk . Ozempic® ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with Type 1 Diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not share needles or pens. Dont reuse needles. Do not take ozempic® if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to ozempic®. Stop taking ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, itching, rash, or trouble breathing. Serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis. Tell your doctor if you have Diabetic Retinopathy or vision changes. Taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase the risk for low blood sugar. Common side effects are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and constipation. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. I discovered the potential with ozempic®. Oh oh oh ozempic® vo ask your Healthcare Provider if ozempic® is right for you. The new united Explorer Card hooks me up. Getting more for getting away. Traveling lighter. Getting settled. Rewarded learn more at theexplorercard. Com manaforts business parter in, told the jury he committed a bunch of crimes. He said he had 15 offshore Bank Accounts they did not disclose to the federal government. He then testified that manafort told him not to report the accounts. At one point, the prosecutor asked him if he committed crimes with manafort. He respond simply yes. Gates also admitted he stole from his boss. He copped to Embezzling Hundreds Of Thousands of dollars from manafort by claiming false expense reports. With us today, at the end of a long day for him. And Danny Savales is back with us. Josh you get to go first because you were there. Im curious about things like eye contact, body language, and what was the reaction in there when gates said, sure, i robbed from the boss. That does indicate enough money was around that it wasnt missed immediately. Right. I dont think there was a lot of shock. The defense team said out at the very beginning, manaforts defense team that there would be indication that gates embezzled money from manaforts firm. There was a loot of attention given to the body language. Gates came in, took the stand, took the oath and in that process somehow managed never to took paul manafort, his former boss in the eye directly. Didnt seem to want to look at the defense table. Looked at the prosecutors, the jurors and the judge, but didnt want to crane his neck around the look scarily at manafort. I think as the afternoon went on there were cases he looked in his direct and said nice things but overall, the testimony and admissions to various crimes not just the ones being tried in this Virginia Case but ones soon to be tried in a washington, d. C. Case against manafort, that was certainly the substance of the testimony today. Danny, if youre the prosecutor you try to make this all above board. Be very direct. Did you break the law . Why, yes, i did. The implication is, just like the guy im hear to testify against. But if youre the defense and you get your chance at mr. Dp t gates, how do you further go after him . First, the prosecution is going try to get all of this damaging information out on direct examination. The idea being that when the defense stands up to cross examine them, theyre picking over a dead carcass because its been brought on on direct examination. Still, the defense is going expose him to the crucible of crossexamination. Any time you have a cooperating witness, its the situation where the government has gotten hand in hand with a criminal. Someone who stole, lied, cheated. It why, theyre asking the jury, dont believe me before now because im a liar, but today im asking you to believe me. Thats the conundrum with all cooperating witnesses. The government is making a deal with the devil in order to get another criminal. As you may recognize im abiassed criminal defense attorney, but thats the conundrum in every scenario. Its been reported in Plain English that this judge was a little snippy to the prosecution and has been tough on the prosecution among the two sides. Can you talk about that a bit . Yeah. I mean, i think that has been sort of a matter of amusement to many of the courtroom observers. This is a judge who likes to make references to baked alaskan desserts and how they doesnt do email. He has been belaboring about showing more pictures of suits than the judge thinks its relevant. Today we saw the prosecutions frustration with this boil over. There were a couple of frankly outright shouting matches between the judge and the main prosecutor who was handling the gates testimony. Both side were yelling at each other. It was very startle. It was the Courtroom Volume you might expect in a scene from a few good men. It really drew your attention. I can understand the prosecutors difficulties with some of this. Because as danny will realize, if a ruling goes against the prosecution, theres no appeal. If manafort is acquitted thats the end of the matter. If he rules against the defense, theyre entitled to some appeal. There will be a political impact. So this is really the prosecutions only chance to really dispute these rulings with the judge. They clearly feel he has been tying their hands. Danny, talk about this. You may outwardly perceive this judge as being harsh on the prosecution. In a way, hes safeguarding them. If they go admit too many Ostrich Jackets or mention russia. Or mention russia too many times or go out of bounds, its ripe for appeal. As much as he may appear to be yelling at the prosecution and taking the defenses side, in a way hes protecting the prosecution, too. Hes protecting the sanctity of the trial and looking out for appealable issues and heading them off at the pass before they become a real problem. These kinds of disputes between judges and litigants are not uncommon. Litigants have to make the record especially the Defense Attorneys on appeal. Its not uncommon for fireworks to go off between counsel. As long as the jury is out of the room, its much more acceptable. Counselor, thank you. Josh whenever youren i remind my audience, court starts in the morning and this guy is there. Thank you, gentleman, both of you. Coming up, the president rallied primary voters over the weekend. The aforementioned rally in ohio for this closely watched Special Election. Steve kornacki is here to explain why this one race has attracted so much attention and perhaps what well be talking about during this very hour when we have results tomorrow night. Who would have guessed . 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. Crisp leaves of lettuce. Freshly made dressing. Clean food that looks this good. Delivered to your desk. Now delivering to home or office. Panera. Food as it should be. We have a man thats going to fight for you. Hes going fight for ohio and hes going to be here for a long time. He will never, ever disappoint you. Hes just not going disappoint you. Hes really smart and hes a really hard worker. Troy boulderson, come on up. President trump setting some High Expectations there for the republican candidate at his rally in ohio saturday night. Tomorrow, he faces off against the democrat in this case, Danny Oconner in a Special Election for the states 12th congressional district. According to the folks at real clear politics, and we quote, the heavily republican 12th and its predecessors have sent republicans to congress in every election dating back to 1980 and 1936 before that. Trump won the district by 11 points back in 2016, but according to the most Recentle Toing This House Race is closer than most people expected. Thats where Steve Kornacki comes in. Steve, take it away. This time tomorrow night well probably know the winner out there in ohio that. Last line, that sound familiar. Thats the story of a lot of these Special Elections. Double digit homeworkly republican districts suddenly in play. The final election test well see before the med terms in november. A golden opportunity according to the polls to pick off a traditionally republican district, a trump by double digits district, a state that donald trump won by 12 points in 2016. Whats going on . Heres the fascinating thing. This is a district. Its really a tale of two districts that tell a story of two americas that are reacting very differently to the trump presidency. Donald trump won this by 11 in the 2016 but lets look closer at how he did it and isle see what i mean. Take a look here. This is a district that goes in and on the other hand columbus. First columbus, franklin county. A third of the votes are going come from this small land area. Thats the city thats the immediate suburbs. This is college educated, white collar professional class, higher income. Theyre the ones who are most offended by donald trump. You saw, this is a part of district Hillary Clinton won by 18 points. That was a big improvement for democrats versus what they normally do. Immediately north, bedroom counties here. Trump won this in 2016, but thats worse than republicans normally do. So between these two counties, parts of the counties in this district, its a story of the suburban backlash against trump. Is there going to be turnout for the democrats and is balderson going struggle . Thats a little less than half of the district. The rest of the district, the opposite story. Blue collar white voters. Look at these margins. Zanesville, obama carried. Swung to trump. The focus on this half swung to trump. The other half swung away. Very interesting story about which group is more excited. Youre allowed to go home for a change of clothe bus we have to have you back here tomorrow night. You got it. Coming up as we continue, President Trump told ohio supporters there could be a red wave come november and he could destroy any gop politicians who refuse to support him. Well talk about all of it when we come back. vo this is not a video game. This is not a screensaver. This is the destruction of a cancer cell by the bodys own immune system, thanks to medicine that didnt exist until now. And today can save your life. So lets promote our Summer Travel deal on choicehotels. Com like this. Surfs up. Earn a 50 gift card when you stay just twice this summer. Or, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com but allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Keep it comin love. If you keep on eating, well keep it comin. All you can eat riblets and tenders at applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. I said troy, did you invite trump in here, the president . He said, no, i didnt. So i think donald trump decides where he wants to go and i think theyre firing up the base, but i have to tell you, at the same time he comes in here, i was with some women last night who said, hey, im not voting. And theyre republicans. Im not voting for the republicans. See, this is the problem the party has now. That of course is the sitting governor of ohio, john kasich this week on abc news discussing President Trumps involvement in tomorrows Special Election in his state. As the governor noted. Some republicans are worried the president could hurt some gop candidates and not help. Take for example the president s decision to endorse the Secretary Of State for kansas chris kobach. Hes been an outspoken supporter of President Trump. Hes challenging the incumbent governor of kansas jeff collier. If kobach advances he could have a tough time winning the general election come november. We are joined by two of our frequent kwibtcontributors. The one great thing about the president coming to new jersey is we get all of our friend who cover the white house just across the hudson river. Congressman, when i ask you what your survival chances are as a nontrump republican member of congress trying to seek reelection is that a moving target on a daily basis . It is, because some things are coming into focus as we near election day. First in a republican primary, donald trump has the midas touch. This is his party. Every candidate in a republican primary today, including florida is trying get as close to the president as possible. What we also know in a general election this goes to kansas and the concern of the republican governors situation, in every special Congressional Election since donald trump has gotten elected, republicans have underperformed and at democrats have overperformed. We have yet to see a battle in a truly competitive congressional district. We have yet to see 23 of the 24 republican districts that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. That is where disaster could be in play. Anita, do you think kansas is the Great Laboratory to watch in this event . Well, i mean, its really interesting because so surprised he got in, right, because for all the reasons he just got in. But for a lot of reasons its not surprising. These two go back a long way. Donald trump jr. Has been there twice. They talk frequently. I think they talked on saturday. They have a close relationship. Some of these other republicans may not know the president as well, so we you know, the campaign had been expecting since february that the president might endorsement they heard that he might, so they had been expecting it and welcoming it. I think kansas sea little different than some of the other places. Congressman, the president s twitter feed for all the good and all the bad, to your point really does move voters. It does. We see this in florida right now. We have a republican g gubernatorial candidate that for 20 year has positioned himself to be governor. Because trump endorsed his opponent is now going lose this race. The Trump Candidate has pole vaulted to the lead. We are could have the greatest opportunity theyve had in 20 years. Donald trump has none of the down ballot positives in november. But he has all the down ballot negatives. And that is why, if youre a republican facing a blue wave, and youve embraced donald trump, you could be in real trouble in november. Im going to talk to you about aspirations and im going to talk about the journalist about reality. Starting with you, what would you like the gop Bumper Sticker for the midterm elections, partywide, to read . I hope the gop loses in november, because i think we need a hard reset, because i think under donald trump, weve abandoned who we are as a party. What i expect republicans to try to sell to the American People are the following. Donald trump, make America Great again is the only message say they. They will say they voted for lower taxes and democrats voted for higher taxes and they will sell you fear, talking about Border Security that truly only impacts about 5 of the constituency. But what republicans cannot overcome is the American People dont trust the Republican Party today. And i dont think ideology matters as much going into november. Obama care, 15 minimum wage, its important to lay those principles out. The question for voters in november is, do you trust donald trump and the republican majority in congress . I dont think 51 of the country does. Now, anita, what do you think the current Bumper Sticker is for the trump Republican Party . Is it make America Great again . Is it that simple . Fwl i think its every minute it changes. So, i think, you know, i hear from republicans in washington that they want it to be the economy. They want it to be tax cuts, you know, the things that we all think, right . Maybe Border Security, maybe some health care in there. But thats really what they want to talk about, let the president talk about the economy. Remember a week and a half ago when some of the jobs numbers came out i cant remember a week ago, are you kidding . The president came out unannounced to the rose garden and had a speech. Republicans were cheering that speech. Thats what they want him to do for the next three months. Thats not whats going to happen. Whats going to happen is, were going to get tweets about lebron james, about the russia hoax and the witch hunt and, you know, all sorts of people insulting all sorts of people, just because he cant stay on message. We before, we were talking about how we went to his first trump rally. A trump political rally is 90 minutes. He talks about everything. Its not about the candidate hes there to support. Its usually about himself and its about a million things under the sun. So, we cannot expect it will be about the economy. Former congressman david jolley visiting us here in new york and Current White House correspondent anita kumar. I hope my home state is being good to you. Enjoy the Northern New Jersey area while youre here. Coming up, the life and death struggle that is under way out west. Where they dont have time to stop to try to figure out just what it is the president meant. That and more when we come back. 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The president s tweets about this churning, Girinding Traged that californians are witnessing right now. 17 major fires are burning. Nine people have died. And we just learned tonight, the largest of these fires has just tonight become the largest in the history of that state. Over 1,100 structures have been destroyed. Watch this loop from the Weather Service satellite focused on the american west. This is what the fires look like from space. Look at those smoke plumes. They stretch now clear across nevada and into new mexico. And here is what the president said about the california fires. Governor jerry brown must allow the free flow of the vast amounts of water coming from the north and fool ishli being diverted into the pacific ocean. Can be used for fires, farming and everything else. Think of california with plenty of water, nice. Fast federal government approvals. But wait, theres more. California wildfires are being magnified and made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which arent allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the pacific ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading. An l. A. Times writer today called that strikingly ignorant. To be clear, no one that were aware of in california, in academia, in government, seems to know what the president is talking about other than the fact that rivers flow into the pacific ocean. And what does the president mean by tree clear . If he means fire breaks, they have been a regular means of Fire Fighting and Fire Prevention for generations on our wildlands. Right now, there are hundreds of people in california who have lost everything. Overnight tonight, more families will lose everything. The death toll in these fires includes children. The countryside will be scarred for a generation. Along with all available aircraft and apparatus, there are 14,000 firefighters in this fight, and they include some of the bravest and best people our country can produce. So, between condolences and comfort and thanks and cheering them all on, theres plenty to say on twitter or anywhere else about this life and death struggle going on right now in the state of california. That is our broadcast on a monday night, as we start a new