Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20180817

Security clearance move was decided weeks ago and was trotted out to change the subject. And not to be outdone trump is reportedly eager to do it again and we have the latest reporting. Also tonight one of the great voices of the past half century is gone. Tonight we will remember the essential and remarkable Aretha Franklin as the 11th hour gets under way on a thursday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 574 of the Trump Administration, and a new day brought the release of a another surepetitious recording by omarosa along with increasing signs her book and subsequent allegations and recordings have ignited this president. Omarosa manigaultnewman says the recording were about to play for you here igstraighprov attempt to silence her. Quote, the tapes of ms. Manigaultnewmans private conversations with mr. Trump and other officials connected to him have rattled the white house in a way that few things other than the special counsel investigation into possible Campaign Collusion with russia have. Mr. Trumps aides have been concerned they will make apee s appearances on other tapes of which newman is believed to have as many as 200. This conversation between omarosa and Donald Trumps daughter, that would be lara trump married to eric trump and an advisor to the trump 2020 campaign. Omarosa chose to share these four excerpts from a recording of a longer conversation. Its important to let you know that nbc news was allowed to listen to the recording in full to confirm that the clips are indeed in proper order and in context. In the this oaudio. Obviously like with the New York Times article and stuff, you know, its whats the New York Times article . The one that i guess you did with Maggie Haberman or they wrote about you. Clearly if you come over to the campaign we cant have it oh, no. So the only thing we have to consider when were talking salary as you know everything is public and all the money that we raise and pays salaries is directly from donors, small dollar donors for the most part. So i know you were making 179,000 at the white house. And i think we can work something out that would keep you right along those lines. Specifically, i havent added up the numbers but we were talking about 15k a month, lets see what that adds up to, so yeah, thats 180,000. Does that sound like a fair deal to you . In terms of your position pacifically i really feel like your commission requires you to be able to be flexible where you are. Sometimes come to new york for occasional meetings but i would love if you could occasionally do speaking engagements and that sort of thing for us. I think youd be awesome doing that. So it doesnt really matter where you are. When youre comfortable staying in d. C. , then were more than happy to have you. Lara trump responded to that with a statement that reads in part, quote, we still want her on our team because we cared about her so much personally. Thats why i reached out to her to offer a position with the 2020 Trump Campaign before we knew anything about the gross violations of ethics and integrity during her white house tenure. Another of omarosas bombshell tapes is a fraud. She told us how she interpreted that conversation. I saw this is an attempt to buy my silence, sensor me and may me off 15,000 per month by for the campaign. You saw this as hush money . Absolutely. He thought he could dismiss, that i could be disposed of, but donald trump is wrong. Vanity fair posted a piece, and he wants attorney general Jeff Sessions to have manigaultnewman arrested according to one republican briefed on the conversations. Are you concerned at all about being arrested . Well, what mr. Nixon i mean mr. Trump does will be brought to light. Every action he takes against me jeopardizes him and his presidency. So i think you should watch his behavior and how hes unraveling, and i dont have any fear. Youre going to release more tapes . If i need to, ill do what i have to protect myself. Im not going anywhere. Im not going to be bullied and im going to go toe to toe with him. Donald trump has met his match. The Republican National committee has now gotten in the game. Today the rnc released the greatest hits video designed to remind all of us about the warm and passionate feelings omarosa once held for donald trump. His policies effect my community where i live in los angeles and thats really why i standby him. And i believe you will see that this president is going to be incredible for this country. And i am excited about whats happening with this administration. He was the right choice for america. When i say trump train, i want you to say choochoo. Yall ready . Trump train. Choo, choo. Trump train. Choochoo. There was a link to that today to the twitter feed of the president of the United States and quote, thank you very much, o omarosa. Those who dismiss this as a kind of dust up between a former reality show host and a former reality show contestant may be making a huge mistake. Omarosa is weaponized, plays by trumps rules and has tapes. Heres how one veteran observer summed it all up last night on nbc. His attorney generals meetings with russian wheres, his Deputy Campaign chairmans tax fraud, his personal fixers secret shell company, his National Security advisors lies to it fbi, his sons attempt to get dirt from a foreign adversary, and the person who could end up taking down the president of the United States is omarosa. With that lets turn to our lead off panel on a thursday night. Veteran political journalist who happens to be coauthor of game change and double down. And ashley parker, white house political reporter for the Washington Post. Ashley, id like to begin with you having laid out of all that exposition including the Political Science as delivered by seth. How central, how pervasive is this topic, this cloud in that white house . Its dominated the white house this week in the same way its dominated the news. This was something the white house was initially hoping to avoid. They thought they could get the president not to engage on her book. But i have to say even before the book came out, even before this all exploded, people in the white house were nervous about what omarosa had, and they were reaching out to White House Reporters who they thought might have seen excerpts from the book in advance, is there an index and am i in it, and how bad is it. And that was before they knew she had tapes. So now she has tapes its become an issue we can see is consuming the president. And some of her charges especially saying that she has information that the president knew about wikileaks before anyone knew about those wikileaks emails, again, we dont know if this is true or not, but could be incredibly explosive and problematic for this white house. It was the fashion of this white house three months ago to say things like of all the cases weve seen, of all the people weve seen flip, its the cohen case in new york thats going to be pivotal. Instead does our friend mr. Myers have it about right, that this, this trove of recordings and how they come across, this trump trained professional communicator, this could be the one . Well, it depends a lot on whats on the tapes. You look skeptical. Well, it depends on whats on the tapes. Are there really 200 . Whats on them . Anybody in the white house weve talked to over the koucourse ofe last few months that freaked out the white house, the sudden fear if you were wearing a wire in the white house. Its very similar and a parallel to that. It obviously puts the fear of god in people to think theres a bunch of tapes out there. They all had contact with omarosa at one time or another. A lot of them met in rooms less secure than situation room. Michael cohen is closer to potential crimes that the president , the president s family, people around the president may have committed. And in the end those crimes may be more consequential. But theres no doubt that the pompous stuffed shirts among us in the same way people normalize Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti and said its a porn star and some chief hustling lawyer from l. A. , it turned out thapo that the porp star was more relatable, and the lawyer he plays the game the way donald trump does. Thats whats triggered trump so much is that he look at these people, they get the modern dynamics of media. Im not sure she understands how to sell books, but she does know the power of tapes. And the new wire is an iphone. The social club, all someone had to do was bring an iphone into the room, so i wanted to point that out. Kim atkins, the question keeps being asked what is the president afraid of, what has the president got to hide . Yeah, i think thats the biggest open question here. I know you sort of dismiss the reality tv angle of all of this, but the thing thats important about that is omarosa comes from the same place as the president. That mix of politics and reality television. She knows how to tease out something for maximum effect. Shes going to keep dropping these recordings, whatever she has bit by bit to keep her on television, to keep her book in the headlines because she knows how to sell the exact way that the president does. So is there some there there thats going to be her big finale, big reveal on the end . Quite possibly. But the concern itself is evidence that omarosa was present when people were talking about something that they dont now want to be made public, whether it was something illegal or something that would prove damaging to his presidency, we dont know. But its something there or they wouldnt be this disturbed, they wouldnt be, you know, keeping the security clearance revocation of a former cia chief in pocket to sort of lob out as a flash bomb to divert attention. Its an awful lot of reaction from this white house for there to be no there there. Ashley, knowing how much you love commenting on the journalism of other news organizations ill just say at the vanity fair report is getting enough traction for it to be addressed by sam nunberg, the roger stone acolyte who appeared a few hours on this network. Hes already got a source lined up. I think kelly, by the way, is one of the people actually prodding the president to try to arrest him. They think its a National Security violation. So that would be general now chief of staff kelly, the first person wronged in the public playing of these recordings, lets not forget, in the meeting in the situation room. And ashley, you get to cover this place tomorrow. I do. And i think thats sort of a key example why this is problematic for the white house. To johns point i should say on the one hand i checked in with someone who worked on the Campaign Today and said how likely is it that if there was something illegal or something that would actually be of interest to muellers team that omarosa saw it and taped it, and this person said their sense, and they dont know, was not that likely. She was rarely in trump tower often during the campaign. She was often not working when she was supposed to be working. Or when she was working she was often traveling or being a surrogate on tv. She triggers him and gets him to tweet things he should not be tweeting. She gets him to say things to confidants that he should not be saying, and then that throws the white house into this whole other level of frenzy that brings in the president and brings in general kelly and brings in the rest of the staff. So even in a very best Case Scenario where nothing illegal was done and she has no recording of that, shes yet again managed to plunge this very chaotic white house into chaos. John, you know that a well written one can pea a kind of modern day haiku. I came across one tonight on this very iphone yeah, are you recording this. No, im not. But we do have machines. Well, we are on television. Its part of the job. Greg miller for the Washington Post fired this off tonight. Its pretty great. President s Campaign Chairman is waiting to find out if hes going to prison, architect of bin laden raid is daring him to take his clearances. Reality show contestant white house employee has tape of 180 k offer she got to stay quiet. Years of chaos in one day. Do you agree with that assessment . Agree. All of those things i like, the recitation of three facts that pulls it all together. I do think its interesting theres a couple of things that tie things together. Particularly this brennen story, 1 former cia chiefs. The other former cia chiefs. All coming out and saying theyre protesting trump taking security clearance. It is what ties together Stormy Daniels, john brennen this is like the opening for a bad show. I had a fear you were going to do this. Walk into a bar. Not walk into a bar but walk onto a set, john brennen, Stormy Daniels and omarosa, all of them an attempt to silence critics through either pay offs or intimidation with brennen. Stormy daniels poses a threat, women pose threats so well pay them off. Omarosa today offered this 180,000 a year job, a no show job by lara trump by saying just dont say anything bad about us. John brennen you cant pay him off, but you can cut him off by intimidating him. All speaking to a president whos not just thinskinned but starting to feel the various angles that something has got to be done and somethings not just tweets at this point. Its taking more substantive actions. I think that shows you a president that feels and omarosa was not in the inner circle of the campaign. But the tape today talking to lara trump shows you something important. Which is that she may access to emails that may prove nothing for mueller, but when youre talking to members of the trump family youre hearing a lot of stuff. Thats hearsay, not admissible in court but might provide a lead for mueller going forward. Tomorrow morning the book tour continues. Any number of new surreptitious new to us recordings could drop. Whats the feeling in the west wing . I assume its great. Just judging from the president s twitter feed and the reporting weve seen already. Well see if someone else loses their security clearance or if a new tariff is impose on a different country. But i think this is going to hangover the white house until they are absolutely certain that omarosa has released everything that she has. I want to thank John Heilemann, kimberley atkins, ashley parker. Appreciate you guys starting off our conversation on a busy thursday night. Really appreciate it. Coming up john brennen fires back, accusing the president of speaking hogwash as he put it. New reporting tonight suggesting more could be coming out on this front. And later, what did the president just say that may not have been the company line, and why its important. The 11th hour, as we say, just getting started. Beautiful look at washington on a thursday night. Whoooo. Tripadvisor makes finding your perfect hotel. Relaxing. Just enter your destination and dates. Tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want for the lowest price. Dates. Deals. Done tripadvisor. Sometimes you need an expert. I got it. And sometimes those experts need experts. On it. [ crash ] and sometimes the expert the expert needed Needs Insurance expertise. Its all good. Steve, youre covered for general liability. And, paul, we got your back with workers comp. Wow, its like a party in here. Where are the hors doeuvres, right . [ clanking ] tartlets . We cover commercial vehicles, too. I think theres something wrong with your sink. We cover commercial vehicles, too. You might be missing something. Y healthy. Your eyes. Thats why theres ocuvite. Ocuvite helps replenish nutrients your eyes can lose as you age. It has lutein, zeaxanthin and omega3. Ocuvite. Be good to your eyes. This wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. If someone in the government has their security clearance taken away its supposed to be for cause and not for spite. Yesterday it was former cia director john brennen who had his security clearance pulled. Tonight the Washington Post is reporting this. President trump has told advisers he is eager to strip more security clearances as part of an escalating attack against foes who have criticized him or played a role in the probe of alleged russian interference in the 2016 election according to two white house officials. And they announced the action wednesday amid an onslaught of News Coverage from omarosa m manigaultnewmans new book. He came backswinging at the Trump Administration today as he did on television yesterday. Writing in this mornings the New York Times, quote, mr. Trump clearly has become more desperate to protect himself and those close to him, which is why he made the politically motivated decision to revoke my security clearance in an attempt to scare into silence others who might dare to challenge him. Former colleagues of brennen are jumping to his defense. You heard John Heilemann reference this letter. First of all, theres navy retired admiral william mccraven, who oversaw the bin laden raid and was in special operations. He wrote this the Washington Post calling brennen one of the finest Public Servants ive ever known. He goes onto say, i would consider it an honor this is talking to the president if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so i can add my fame name to the list of men women who have spoken up against your presidency. And from the former top officials, just about all the big names you know weve covered around here that represent both democratic and republican administrations, in it they defend brennen and call the president s action an attempt to stifle free speech. Well, here to talk about it all nancy cook is back with us, White House Reporter for politico. And we welcome to the broadcast aaron blake for the Washington Post. Aaron, your colleagues have gone ahead and verified this brennen matter was done without process, without cause, with rigor, that it was indeed political. Its setup actually an interesting contrast, i think, between the intelligence chiefs that you talked about who wrote that letter from bill mcraven who wrote that oped for the Washington Post, and some republicans in the senate who have differed from this decision in the white house and dont necessarily like the idea of revoking security clearances for former intelligence officials have also been critical of john brennen. I think the white house chose this one as the icebreaker when it comes to this effort because they recognize that brennen is something of a lightening rod even among people who might be critical of this decision. So youve seen a number of senators, john kennedy from louisiana, Susan Collins who differed with the decision actually said shes not happy with the way john brennen has been political. They wanted to force this issue and have this conversation, and they chose the most convenient person with which to have it. At the same time were seeing now that this is still a bridge too far for many in the Intelligence Community. And i think were going to find out whether the oped from someone like mcraven is going to be a Tipping Point especially for people not just within the Intelligence Community but within the administration who may not like this administration effort is taking place. And im going to come back to that word icebreaker in a few. Nancy, to you. Others would argue it would give the president all the air cover he needs to go ahead and start making the pulling of security clearances a weekly event at the white house. Well, i definitely think this is part of the pattern of the president really sort of understanding the ways he can use executive authority and pushing the bounldrydaries of t. I think weve seen it similarly to using pardons and now one other factor hes throwing into this is also of revoking Peoples Security clearances. And partly its just a means of sort of showing whos boss, but theres a ton of people at the white house who he feels are disloyal, people from the obama administration, people who have been critical of him. And i feel theres a real interest on the part of the white house to retaliate. And to put it into context the president usually isnt a huge fan of a policy process or a well laid out decision making. So what happens on a lot of these issues in the white house is the president says he wants something done. Lawyers or staffers try to slow walk him or make him follow a process and ultimately he interjects and does what he wants. And if we see him revoking more security clearances itll follow that ad hoc process in the days to come. And just because im running to a break, i want to read this from tonights the Washington Post. This is on the notion of pulling clearances becomes the next thing in this white house, this is benjamin wittis, a legal expert weve talked to from time to time. It you did this in one day it would have a saturday night massacre to it, but you spread this out and get them used to the first one and then you do a second one over a long period of time, it becomes a new normal. And that is true. It has kind of a frog boiling experiment air to it, and as Maggie Haberman is fond of saying there are way more norms than laws in washington that can be upset. As i promised nancy cook, aaron blake have agreed to stay with us. A quick break and coming up the president has gone and told the truth again in another matter that may shatter an earlier cover story. More on that when we come back. I put a spell on you yeah, because youre mine with chase atms serena can now grab cash on the go, all with the tap of her phone. Stop the things you do no card . No problem. Life, lived serenas way. Chase, make more of whats yours. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Welcome back. According to tonights the Washington Post President Trump believes hes coming off as strong and decisive with how he has handled outspoken critic john brennen. Yesterday he explained to the wall street journal why brennens security clearance was pulled. He said, quote, i cull it the rigged witch hunt and these people led it, he added, so i think its something that had to be done. That was not among the reasons given by his press secretary yesterday. Any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with mr. Brennen are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior. And you probably know where were going here. This would not be the first time that the president has blown up the cover story laid down to explain the action in the first place. Remember the comey firing. We were told it was because of the mistreatment of hillary clinton. And the president blew that up in the lester holt interview and admitted it was about russia. The trump tower meeting was said it was about adoptions until trump said it was about to get information about an opponent. Now a former assistant attorney general for the great state of new jersey and remaining with us nancy cook and aaron blake. This can make the job tougher for people like press secretaries, can it not . Yeah, it certainly can because this has happened over and over again. It wasnt just the trump tower meeting. It wasnt just the comey firing. This has been a situation in which the people who represent the president either arent allowed to talk to him or arent getting the straight story from him before theyre put out there to offer the first version of events. I think this is actually a situation where the explanation is somewhat more damning than the lester holt interview, albite perhaps a less problematic subject. When were talking about the holt issue, he didnt directly say he fired james comey because of the russia a investigation. He said the russia investigation was on his mind when he did it, which i think is a different legal standard. In this case hes actually talking ability how john brennen was somebody who led the quote rigged witch hunt and something had to be done about it. Thats a more direct line from a to b. So i think if youre talking about an investigation which they need to show theres corrupt intent, that hes actually trying to impact the course of how this has gone down, thats actually a more compelling set of evidence for the prosecutors to look at. Now, counselor, lets say youre still a fed and lets say youre part of the mueller team in washington, youre looking at this president who has these apparent moments of clarity that torpedo cover stories that were laid down. What do you glean from all of this . So, brian, this was exactly why its so important mueller get to sit with the president boo it an interview or subpoena grand jury situation and get a straight answer from him. Because he and his team have taken both sides of every issue, and lot of this obstruction investigation is going to come down to the issue of intent. What was the reason the president fired james comey, revoked the security clearance here . And if you have him on record saying i did it for reason a and did it for reason b, and theyre completely inconsistent, hes got to pin it down and live with one of those decisions one way or another. Nancy, this is another one of those cases how many people knew he had granted an interview to the wall street journal . Was there anyone there to prep him and keep his thoughts on the straight and narrow, and to you and your sources how much worry is there youre picking up from the west wing . Because were not talk about the trump agenda again tonight. Yeah, i think this whole week has been dominated basically by omarosa and the brennen stuff. Theyre just sort of not able to put forward an agenda where theyre talking about things they want heading into the midterms baz there midterms because theres the russia stuff that keeps coming up, the manafort trial. The president is jacked up about the midterms and feels he plays this very key role in helping the sway republicans towards republican candidates. Whether or not thats true remains to be seen, but that is how hes sort of portraying himself. And theres that tension with him wanting to do that versus all these other things that really threaten to swamp his administration including his own admissions about why hes actually doing things. And i think it also speaks to how Little People in the white house sometimes know about whats actually happening. I think sometimes the president is much more truthful with people outside the white house. Even on his twitter feed, than he is with his own senior aides. Im starting to pick up with people in your line of work, the line that mueller doesnt necessarily need trump, he can go off what he has. Maybe it may be true. But the problem is youre trying to pin down something that cant be pinned down. And intent is so important here. I think aaron touched on this earlier. The revocation of brennens security clearance is a new angle here, and the president is getting into more dangerous ground. What i dont think know if everybody understands is its also a federal crime to retaliate against somebody whos a witness. I dont know if brennen quite qualifies as a witness. But keep in mind if the president follows through with his threats to pull comeys clearance. Clearance comey will be a crucial witness here. And its a federal crime 1513, if anyone wants to look it up, to retaliate against someone to give truthful information to law enforcement. So hes getting closer and closer to dangerous ground here. Terrific point. Our thanks to you all. Well have you all back. Coming up there have been questions from the manafort jury. One of them may not be the best news for the prosecution. Were going to look back at day one of prosecution and talks to professionals when we continue. 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Now that you know the truth, are you in good hands . Day one of deliberations is history in the manafort trial. After going at it for about seven hours today the jury will be back at it at 9 30 a. M. The six men, six women asked targeted questions on Bank Fraud Charges and clarification about the evidence list and perhaps most notably theres this. They asked, can you redefine reasonable doubt. Well, the judge responded to the jury. And quote, the government is not required to prove the defendants guilt with respect to each element of the offense beyond all possible doubt. The test is one of the reasonable doubt. What is reasonable doubt. Overall a very good day for mr. Manafort. One caveat, most days he declares very good days for mr. Manafort. With us tonight is the Senior Reporter for politico whos been at the courthouse every day at the trial. Thanks for joining us. I really do appreciate it. You dont have to be felix fr k frankfurter to know that a question from the jury is not good because if theyre asking about it at all its not good period. There will be more questions within the coming days. Were going to dive in and look at these four questions here now but know full well theres a lot to come. They just sat through two mind numbing weeks to hearing from evidence, tax preparers, rick gates, hearing from rick gates, a lot of people who Paul Manafort was purchasing very expensive things from. Now theyre in a room and dont have access to those 2,500 pages of transcripts and dont have access to google. And the reasonable doubt one is interesting. Thats something manpert fafort lawyers in their closing arguments tried to hit on. Making it clear this is something they really need to be absolutely sure, at least thats the position that the Paul Manafort Team Presented to them. But as the judge pointed out it isnt quite that high of a threshold. But he didnt really give them that much more guidance than that. So maybe that argument got to at least one person. And i know youve been going through the questions, and if you match them up against the trial as argued, you think theres a tax fraud section, theres a Banking Fraud you think they may be through with the tax fraud section . Again tea leaf warnings apply. Tea leaf warnings definitely apply. There are 18 charge ins as in a counts. The first is Paul Manafort filed false tax accounts. And they had someone from the Treasury Department who testified and said i looked up, filed bank rorpeports with the. Government and didnt file them. At the very end of the arguments in their cross examination and closing arguments made it a point Paul Manafort wasnt the sole owner of those bank accounts. And maybe theres a bit of wiggle room there. Maybe theres a technicality he can get off on. And thats where the technicality came in there, where they were trying to get the judge to explain what was the legal requirements for foreign bank accounts. And in that sense he really read back to them the jury instructions hed given back to them, which were pretty mundane, pretty detailed, very technical and they were left with that to decide on it. But were the recipients of it. Thank you so much for joining us on our broadcast tonight. When we come back, long live the queen of soul. Plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. 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If you were lucky enough to see her perform in person, then you know it was like opening your first bottle of champagne while standing in front of a jet engine. Arethas songs changed the rules and the balance of power dynamic on those boy girl and man woman songs for the era. For the young ears listening at the time, it was pretty revolutionary to hear her acknowledge that some guys kisses were sweeter than honey but to remind him, guess what, so is my money. Her song respect isnt was about that, chain of fools same thing. Most of her songs were one of two things. She was either deliriously in love or pissed at a guy. Her personal life was a movable feast of insecurities and phobias. Including a legendary fear of flying. By she did the flying with her voice. She had incredible range especially in the upper reaches. She always seemed to rise to the note. Though some of those notes we note through sheer force of will did agree to come down and meet her halfway. She was an instinctive piano player with perfect pitch. Her life was not easy. Let this sink in for a moment. She had her first child at the age of 12 and was a mother of two by the age of 15. By the time of her death, she held honorary degrees from harvard, yale, and princeton. She had performed for kings and queens and president s. She sang at the obama inauguration. And she regularly moved the president to tears. So tonight, if youre so inclined, say a little prayer for the light and the sound and the life that was Aretha Franklin and for the family members she leaves behind. When we come back, portions of my last conversation with the queen of soul. Wondering what dress im going to wear now. I say a little prayer for you i say a little prayer for you sharper vision, without limits. Days that go from sun up to sun down. A whole world in all its beauty. Three Innovative Technologies for our ultimate in vision, clarity, and protection. Together in a single lens. 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In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. Ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. Pay no more than 5 per dose with copay card. Ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. With the new chase ink business unlimited card i get unlimited 1. 5 cash back. Its so simple, i dont even have to think about it. So i think about the details. Fine, i obsess over the details. Introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase. The very last thing before we go tonight, the woman we are remembering in her own words. Aretha franklin was the first woman inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. Yet, she never missed a chance to talk about the gospel music that got to her first and singers like the great gospel singer clara ward that were a huge influence. In later years, aretha was a walking event, an icon and a treasure. She survived a lot of Health Scares and she gave fewer interviews when her life took a more reclusive turn. I was honored to sit with her here in new york back in 2012 for what became our fim conversation. I had no idea for the longest kind of time that i could sing. Clara ward who was one of my mentors along with my dad came to our church, the new Bethal Baptist church out in detroit and she sung. We used to have programs after the service in the morning. She sung and i knew that was what i wanted to do. I said thats what i want to do. After hearing her and she just she tore up the church. Does the act of singing make you feel closer to god . Of course, yes, when im singing gospel and other things, it depends what im singing. Tell me what Amazing Grace means to you. Amazing grace is just that. His Amazing Grace. It has brought me a long way. And my god, i would never have dreamed that i would sing for Prince Charles and the queen and meeting lady di in the receiving line in london. And 20 grammys later, the National Metal of tnational med arts and the congressional medal. Who would have thought it. Do you allow yourself time and deep enough thought to realize and take stock in how many peoples lives youve changed, how many lives youve made better by giving us that sound track . You know, people talk to me in concert and they come up and shake hands and sometimes they ask for an autograph, sometimes they just want to say a little something. They dont always want an autograph. And it is amazing to find what it is singers do for people, and ive thought about that. What is it exactly that singers do for people . And its amazing. Youre kind of their driver, nurse is, nurse practitioner, you play a number of roles in peoples lives. We all play a role in different ways. Were all part of the whole. We just play it in different ways. But what a role she played in our lives. Think of it this way. We are all able to say tonight that we lived in the time of Aretha Franklin. Gone today at the age of 76. That is our broadcast for a thursday night. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. Baby just a little bit, just a little bit boy has there been a lot of news today. The jury in the Paul Manafort case met for just over seven hours today before they ultimately broke off deliberations and they passed a note to the judge. There were four questions for the judge on that note. Well get some expert advice in just a moment from somebody who used to be the lead federal prosecutor in that district. The former u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of virginia. Were going to talk to that expert, the person who has had that experience