Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20180830

Tonight, Andrew Gillum responds. The 11th hour begins now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Im ali velshi in for brian williams. Day 587 of the Trump Administration brings the sudden news that the west wing attorney who has been the pivotal link to Robert Mueller during the russia investigation is out. White House Counsel don mcgahn will soon be making his exit. Axios was first out with a report this morning. That was quickly followed by this tweet from President Trump. White House Counsel don mcgahn will be leaving his position in the fall shortly after the confirmation, hopefully, of judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. I have worked with don for a long time and truly appreciate his service. This afternoon trump was asked about the departing white House Counsel. Don mcgahn is a really good guy, been with me for a long time. Privately before this he represented me. Hes been here now almost two years, and a lot of affection for don. According to several reports, mcgahn did not know in advance about trumps plans to announce his departure. The Washington Post spoke to one person about mcgahns response to the trump announcement writing, his reaction was, of course, it happened this way. Don mcgahn worked with trump during the 2016 election before he was appointed to be white House Counsel. And during an interview at this years cpac, mcgahn talked about his influence within the west wing. I advise the president on a range of issues from constitutional law, executive power, whether or not we can go to war, judicial selection, administrative law, essentially Government Law that the president has to encounter on a daytoday basis. And that involves you in just about everything . Unfortunately, yes. Mcgahn has also been on the front lines of this administrations dealings with Robert Mueller, and hes been a key witness in the russia inquiry. The president s announcement today comes after the New York Times reported last week that mcgahn has spent 30 hours talking to muellers team and that the president s team didnt seem to know what mcgahn had shared with investigators. Today the president insisted hes not at all concerned with whatever mcgahn told mueller. Are you concerned about what he said to the mueller team . Not at all. When did you know he was going . I knew he was going. I had to approve it. We do everything by the book, and don is an excellent guy. And that prompted harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz to say this. I cant imagine that he wouldnt be worried. If hes not worried, he should be worried. Whenever somebody on the inside spends 30 hours with somebody who is trying to get you, you got to start worrying, and you should have started worrying even before that happened and thought seriously about what your options were to reduce the amount of worrying that youre going to have after the fact. Now, again, close involvement with all aspects of the russia investigation meant he was often off on a collision course with the president. You may recall in late january of 2017, mcgahn was the First White House official to be warned about National Security adviser Michael Flynns contacts with russia. In march of that year, trump reportedly pressured mcgahn to ask Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the russia investigation. There were also clashes with fbi director james comey who was eventually fired in may. And in june trump reportedly tried to get mcgahn to orchestrate the firing of Robert Mueller. Mcgahn has said to have refused, threatening to resign himself. Now, if theres one area where mcgahn and trump agree, its not judicial appointments. The white House Counsel has been instrumental in getting neil gorsuch appointed to the Supreme Court, and mcgahn is now shepherding the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. So far hes helped win Senate Confirmation of more than two dozen Appeals Court judges. The potential loss of mcgahn as an ally in the white house has sparked concern among republican senators. Today senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the executive committee, posted about him leaving. He said, quote, i hope its not true. Mcgahn is leaving the counsel. You cant let that happen. There is also talk about a replacement for mcgahn. Emmett flood, this man, is the one name most frequently mentioned. Flood represented former president bill clinton when he was impeached. The Washington Post sent this tweet today saying, flood is widely seen as a likely replacement and was personally recruited by mcgahn to join the white house back in the spring. Flood has built a rapport with potus, to mcgahns relief. But no decision finalized yet. The president s inner circle is diminishing. The headline on another blockbuster piece of reporting by the Washington Post tonight reads, winter is coming. Citing 26 sources, the story describes how aides and advisers to the president fear the white house is ill prepared for a potential democratic takeover of the house of representatives in the midterm elections, now just 69 days away. According to the paper, winter is coming, said one trump ally in close communication with the white house. Assuming democrats win the house, which we all believe is a very strong likelihood, the white house will be under siege. But its like tumbleweeds rolling down the halls over there. No one is prepared for a war. Lets bring in our leadoff panel. Phil rucker, the Pulitzer Prize winning bureau chief for the Washington Post. Tamara keith, White House Correspondent for npr, and richard painter was chief white house ethics adviser for george w. Bush. Thank you for joining me. Lets start with you. Why now . Whats specific about the potential departure of mcgahn thats got so many people worried, or is it just one more thing thats making them worried . Ali, its just one more thing thats making them worry. This fear has been building for a while now as it looks increasingly likely that democrats have a real possibility of taking over the majority of the house at a minimum in novembers midterm elections. And people around the president , his allies, including some of his advisers inside the white house, are very concerned that could lead to a barrage of subpoenas, of investigations, of inquiries into ethical misconduct in the administration, into increase perhaps into the president s businesses, and most dangerously, into possible impeachment proceedings, depending, of course, on what sort of report special counsel Robert Mueller issues regarding obstruction of justice. And so there is concern that trump is not prepared for that, that he hasnt hired the kind of lawyers to his legal team who can really manage an impeachment battle with congress. He certainly has in Rudy Giuliani a fierce and vocal defender and somebody willing to wage this Public Relations battle with mueller, but hes not exactly what a lot of trump allies believe the president would need in an impeachment lawyer. But theres also concern that the white house itself has not built the infrastructure necessary to manage all of these investigations and these subpoenas. The white House Counsels office had 35 lawyers at one time, now its down to 25. Mcgahn is leaving, but so, too, have a number of his deputies in the counsels office. So there are vacancies there to be filled. Then you look at the Communications Operation in the white house. They do everything they can to put out these fires every day and deal with the day to day, but that doesnt leave them a lot of band width to prepare for the real difficulties that could come if democrats win the house and begin these investigations. You know, tamara, just this last week weve heard stories about how the president i can in order the advice of john kelly, of Sarah Huckabee sanders to issue a proper response to the passing of john mccain. Subsequently he did it later. But it really brings up the question of where do the guardrails exist in the white house . There is some talk that ivanka and jared might have been behind the acceleration of don mcgahns demise. Were not sure what john kelly is doing exactly in the white house. Hes not keeping the president out of trouble. So there is definitely some sense that there is no supervision there. And when john kelly came in, he said he was going to be the chief of the staff, and at this point, its not clear, really, who hes supervising. Don mcgahn as the white House Counsel, he was never the president s lawyer. He represents the presidency. And at times, what was best for the presidency isnt what President Trump wanted, which led to sort of a contentious relationship, because out in the outside world, when President Trump was businessman trump, he had lawyers who said yes. And don mcgahn has been someone who at times has had to say no. Let me ask you, richard, when phil talks about the white house lacking infrastructure to deal with this sort of thing, the president has systematically dismantled an infrastructure that might have been there. Its not clear he had one in the start, but the fact is so many key people are leaving. What is the role of the white House Counsel and in what way should the president be looking at the role of the white House Counsel because he has expressed concern that don mcgahn wouldnt get on its been reported that he has expressed concern don mcgahn wouldnt get on board with the idea of pardoning Paul Manafort. So the infrastructure was broken from the beginning. Well, it certainly was. The role of the white House Counsel is to assist the president in complying with the law, making sure the president complies with the law, discussing the various options open to the president that comply with the law. This president doesnt want to comply with the law. Has obstructed justice, the fbi director drafting a statement for his son in the Mueller Investigation about the trump tower meeting that was a lie. The list of problems goes on and on. And im amazed that don mcgahn stayed this long, because if a white House Counsel sits around and watches people break the law and then gets involved in the coverup, well, we know where that leads. John dean can tell you about that, what happened in the nixon years. You end up losing your law license and go to jail. So im amazed he stayed this long. I dont know whether emmett flood is going to really want this job unless this president is going to decide hes going to comply with the law, and thats not whats been going on over the past almost two years now. So what happens next in that description that richard just gave, phil, that the white House Counsel, and this is something don mcgahn said himself, that his job is to acquaint the president with all the various laws that the president has to come across every day. And as tamara said, his job is to advise the presidency, hes not there to protect the president. But if the president thinks don mcgahn maybe wasnt loyal or said more than he should have to the Mueller Investigation in his 30 hours of being interviewed, what does the president do, then . Does he bring someone in who will do his bidding more willingly than don mcgahn did . Thats a great question, ali. I dont know. I think if he were to tap in flood to replace don mcgahn, he would be getting very much the same kind of white House Counsel. Someone who is a lawyers lawyer who will stand by the presidency and defend the presidency and work on behalf of the presidency which at times will come into conflict with President Trumps demands for loyalty. Part of whats going on here, the president views the presidency, the executive branch, as so much about himself. Its about defending him, its about promoting him, its about protecting him, and thats not what our system was built for, and thats not what the white House Counsels office is for. Thats what Rudy Giuliani can do and is doing, but hes a separate outside attorney for the president , and frankly, there is fear in the orbit that the president hasnt even taken that role seriously enough to have sort of a top flight, white collar criminal defense attorney who actually has worked with the Supreme Court and can handle this impeachment proceeding in that chair. Tamara, if one looks at this administration and wants to look at things that are really successes, the appointment of members of the judiciary at the federal level, at the circuit level, has been one of those successes and don mcgahn has been behind a lot of that. Absolutely, which is why you got that tweet from Chuck Grassley and why mitch mcconnell, the Senate Majority leader, put out the most effusive statement in a very long time. He said hes the best white House Counsel hes ever known. Hes ever known. And the reason is theyve been able to push through just a huge number of conservative judges. And in part thats because of rule changes in the senate, in part its because don mcgahn and his team have been vetting people and getting them in the pipeline. There have been a couple of misfires, but largely, they have been able to just get a ton of judges approved by the senate and into lifetime appointments. And if you go back, President Trump when he was running, there was a lot of people on the right, especially evangelicals, who were worried about some of the things that come along with donald trump. And they were reassured by this list that mcgahn and others put together of judges that the president said he would consider his list for the Supreme Court. And the fact is that the president , by handing this to mcgahn and just sort of letting the process go, hes giving those voters exactly what they asked for. Richard, the president we know has not always been given the best advice. We know by john kelly, we know by jared kushner. But we dont have a lot of reports of bad advice that hes gotten from don mcgahn. At this point with the investigation closing in on him, does the president getting rid of don mcgahn expose him to greater legal jeopardy . Probably not, because he doesnt listen to anyones advice unless he wants to hear that advice, and its advice he wants to hear. Hell listen to Rudy Giuliani mouth off and Alan Dershowitz when dershowitz goes on the television to attack Robert Mueller, and hell listen to people who repeat the lines that he wants to hear. But he will not listen to good lawyers. Donald trump, even in his days back in new york, had trouble finding good lawyers. He took roy cohn, who was senator Joe Mccarthys lawyers, he was one of the nastiest lawyers in new york. The bottom line is donald trump doesnt want to listen to good lawyers, good lawyers dont want to work for him. He ends up with people like michael cohen. Its been a disaster. I would never want to be Donald Trumps lawyer. I wouldnt want to end up going to jail. There is a lot of liability that seems to come with working in this white house. Thank you, guys. Coming up, while Robert Muellers team ponders its next move, Paul Manaforts lawyers want to move his next trial. An investigation update ahead. Why this contest is being called a proxy war in the National Political debate. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a wednesday night. To rent a movie . Showtime. Or buy the hottest shows. Even here . Weve got you covered. Now they are all yours. To take on the go. On any screen. Bingo alright and watch whatever you buy. Wherever you are. Head to xfinity. Com stream to start watching. Simple to rent, easy to buy, awesome to go. President trumps former Campaign Manager wants his second trial moved out of d. C. Paul manaforts lawyers say he cant get a fair trial there and theyre blaming the president s tweets. The president has lamented how bad he felt about the socalled witch hunt, praising him for not breaking and declared, there is no collusion. And trump had this to say about manafort and the russia investigation just last week. I must tell you that Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with ronald reagan, he was with a lot of different people over the years, and i feel very sad about that. It doesnt involve me, but i still feel you know, its a very sad thing that happened. This has nothing to do with russian collusion. This started as russian collusion. This has absolutely nothing to do its a witch hunt and its a disgrace. As the Washington Post reports, manaforts defense told the judge, quote, manafort has become an unwilling player in the larger drama between trump and special counsel Robert Mueller and has asserted that nowhere are potential jurors more biased against him than in the district because of its partisan makeup and saturation of political news. The judge hearing the case agreed to give the motion a fair look but noted she believes the overwhelming majority of the publicity is national. Manafort is charged with conspiracy and money laundering. Hes pleaded not guilty. The request to move the d. C. Trial comes a week after manafort was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud in a separate trial in alexandria, virginia. It still remains to be seen if manafort will be retried on ten counts on which the first jury couldnt agree. Today was the deadline for muellers team to decide on that, but the judge granted the prosecutions request for more time. With us to talk more about this is jonathan lemere, White House Reporter for the Washington Post. Let me start with you on this jury question. Is there any argument made by the defense that a jury in d. C. Would be more poisoned as it relates to News Coverage about Paul Manafort than elsewhere in the country . No. People in virginia, or wherever they want to move this trial to, will also read newspapers and watch cable television. They may watch a little more fox news and less msnbc, and thats really what this is all about. They want to move this into trump country. They prefer an allwhite jury, im sure. And this has been going on for months where the Trump Supporters and manaforts supporters, a lot of people have been accusing Robert Mueller of setting up these trials in the District Of Columbia in order to nail trump and his associates, and there is a tinge of racism in some of these claims, too, about d. C. Jurors. I think a washington, d. C. Jury can be very fair, just as fair as a jury anywhere else, and if you commit the crime in washington, d. C. , i think you ought to be ready to deal with a washington jury. Jonathan, one doesnt have to be a code breaker to make sense of the president s constant tweets about manafort, his comments he wouldnt comment about john mccain passing away, but hell always comment about what a great man Paul Manafort is who doesnt break and doesnt flip. At the same time Paul Manaforts lawyers took every opportunity to thank the president for his support. It almost seems like were watching a coded organization or some code between the two groups about not breaking and pardoning. That comes just hours after the astonishing split screen where manafort pleaded guilty. In fact, he steadfastly praised manafort. He said he feels like this is a warning shot from mueller, that even though this trial didnt have anything to do with russia, the special counsel is sort of flexing its muscles and sending a message to the president saying, hey, this could be the opening act, and trump worries that a real member of his inner circle could be next. And certainly, though there has been some reporting that manaforts lawyers expressed some ideas of negotiations with lawyers in the second trial, but yes, manafort fought this. He didnt flip. Unlike, say, rick gates who turned against him. And the president has talked to people about potentially pardoning him. We have Rudy Giuliani tell us in recent days, sort of downplays that, confirmed the discussions were had but suggested it was floating out there and the president agreed we should do it. But even acknowledging that, hes giving us a window to the idea that there have been discussions. Its not outlandish when there are suggestions the president has talked about this. However, don mcgahn showed resistance to pardoning manafort. I dont know what the rules are, what don mcgahn would have had to do about this, because he has said the president does what he wants to do. I wonder how that plays into the whole matter. We heard as well mcgahn was suggesting that was a bad idea, and he is one of the few white house figures, senior aides, who has shown some willingness to stand up to President Trump, suggesting that there was talk sometime last year where the president was really on a tirade about the Mueller Investigation, that mcgahn was one of the people in there who said, look, you cant mess with this right now, it needs to run its course. Todays news that hes leaving is not an entire shock. Weve heard for a long time, and the desire to bring flood in so they could transition before he leaves. I dont think the president would be that sorry to see him go, particularly if he can transition someone else. I dont know who is going to be that lawyer, who is going to tell the president the things he might do that are bordering on dangerous are good things. Good to see you. Thank you. Coming up, dog whistles and socialism and its only day one. What the florida election might tell us about division in this country when the 11th hour returns. Ahh. Summer is coming. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. The race for floridas governor heated up in a big way. Just hours after democrat Andrew Gillum pulled off a major upset in his primary. As his opponent was being interviewed about his own primary win, trumpbacked ron desantis talked about him being a racist dog whistle. He has charismatic views and i watched the democratic debates. None of that is my cup of tea, but he performed better than the other people there. So weve got to work hard to make sure we continue, florida, going in a good direction. Lets build off the success we had with governor scott. The last thing we need to do is monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. Fox news issued an onair statement after the interview saying it does not condone that language. Earlier tonight my colleague Lawrence Odonnell asked if he was offended by these comments. I try not to think too much about taking these folks seriously when they defend themselves. Theyre embarrassing themselves. They can be better than this. I know our state is better than this, and i think its just left to the voters to make sure that we send a very clear and convincing message that racialized politics and politics of division are not who we are. The Desantis Campaign put out a statement responding to the backlash that read in part, quote, ron desantis was obviously talking about florida not making the wrong decision to embrace the socialist policies that Andrew Gillum espouses. To couch it as anything else is absurd. Ron desantis also tried to clean up his responses earlier tonight on fox news. It had zero to do with rayshawn, it has everything to do with florida and do we want to build on success, or do we want to turn to left wing policies that will absolutely devastate our state. Heres the thing. I believe people should be judged based on their ability and character regardless of race, but its because of that that i know socialism wont work in florida. Its not good for any race, color or creed. So this is not about race, its about ideas and principles. Here to discuss it with us, donna edwards, and david jolly, of florida. Ive spoken to a number of people all day. Some people said he should get out of the race and he should apologize, and i spoke to a spokesperson of Andrew Gillum and said, what do you think ron desantis should do, and he said to me, he should keep talking. Well, i think he should. Heres the thing. I actually spent some time today because i didnt know the phrase monkey this up. Then when i found all kinds of i had idioms with the phrase monkey, the phrase monkey it up does not appear anywhere in the english language. It wasnt a dog whistle. It was a straightup racist call, and i think the best thing mayor gillum can do right now is run with the best interests of the voters talking about wages and health care and improving the states economy, and that is going to be a win for Andrew Gillum. David, let me ask you about this. Mark caputo sums up the race this way. The upset win on tuesday of Andrew Gillum, in defiance of polls and conventional wisdom, marked a profound political shift in the nations most crucial swing state as democrats took a page from the gop in choosing a candidate who they hope will energize their base. Gillums victory makes floridas race for governor a choice between newera liberalism and his handpicked candidate, republican ron desantis. Its just two points behind, so there were a lot of moderate votes last night as well, but importantly, gwen and martha got behind gillum. I would warn republicans do not under estimate Andrew Gillum, because what he has done is he has nationalized the race for the democrats, he has energized this race. The contrast between the two parties now takes care of itself and we get to have a National Conversation about the direction the republicans want to go and the direction the democrats want to go. On the issue of ron desantis comment today, even in the most favorable light, it was stupid and callous and showed a level of historic negligence that ron desantis he could have said, hey, look, i didnt mean anything by that comment, but im definitely not using that again and i apologize. And he should have said that to Andrew Gillum. He should have picked up the phone and called Andrew Gillum, thats not what i meant. In the most favorable light, in the worst favorable light, which is fair to ask, this is a Republican Party where President Trump has unleashed certain elements where this language is permitted. It was a bad day for ron desantis, this was a very good day for Andrew Gillum. Dawn, let me ask you this. As david points out, Andrew Gillum was the most progressive guy in that race. I think i spoke to him about a month ago. He was far behind in fundraising, he was far behind in the polls. He had the backing of joe sarus, he was a clinton supporter. Later in the game he got the backing of bernie trump, but he also got the folks who wanted stronger gun laws in florida and he got a bit of support from africanamericans. Its an interesting coalition hes built and it may turn out to be a successful one. I think so. Andrew gillum ran a race that obviously consolidated his base of voters, but he ran a race across the entire state. And i think that what david says is true, that the fact that democrats came straight out, all of the field came out and endorsed Andrew Gillum means that theyre going to run a race that is going to be able to consolidate those democrats, and then thankfully, able to reach out to independents who were closed out of this closed primary. So there is still a lot of votes out there to be gotten. By the way, i think its been a long day, i think i said bernie trump. You did. That would make for an interesting candidate. David, i want to ask you about Something Else that i was personally quite stunned by when we got news that the president had had a conversation with evangelical groups in which he hoped he said this. Lets just play what he said. I just hope there wont be violence. I can tell you that because thats the way, i guess, if you look at what happens, theres a lot of unnecessary violence all over the world, but also in this country. And i dont want to see it. And he was saying that in reference to reports that he had told evangelical groups that if republicans lose in the midterm elections, there will be violence. David, it alarms me because i remember rwanda, i remember bosnia. You can go back in history further than that to germany in 1931. This warning that they will take what you have away and they will be violent. I think that crosses a line for the president. That crosses a line to hear the president of the United States talk about violence in nature of a political election. We recognized this week a man, john mccain, who recognized that your job is just as important on Election Night as the victor to help heal and bring the country together. This is a president who continues to remain unprepared as a leader for the nation and also prepares to permit these types of narratives in a Republican Party that is unrecognizable to the titans we remember of generations past. David and donna, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for being with us tonight. Good to be with you. The president s latest accusations about china and pushback from one of the intel agencies that trump loves to attack. The 11th hour is back right after this. Well have to see. I think part of the north korea problem is caused by our trade disputes with china. China has been taking out about 500 billion a year from the United States for many years, so we cant let that happen. So when we started working a little bit against china, and we have a great relationship with china, i have a great relationship with president xi. I think hes a terrific man, a terrific person. But we have to straighten out our trade relationship because too much money is being lost by us, and as you know, china is the route to north korea. 93 of the product and various things that go into north korea go through china. That was President Trump earlier today on the relationship between the United States and north korea, blaming the lack of negotiations with north korea on his trade disputes with china. Trump later echoed those thoughts on twitter in what he called a statement from the white house. In it he went one step further, writing, quote, there is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint south korea war games, and adds this. The president can instantly start the joint exercises again with south korea and japan if he so chooses. They will be far bigger than ever before. This announcement comes just one day after defense secretary jim mattis announced there are no intentions to stop the military exercises. We suspended several of the largest exercises, but we did not suspend the rest. So there are ongoing exercises all the time on the peninsula. We suspended several exercises at the direction of the president. The good faith effort was made. We have done no planning for suspending others. Mattis clarified his statement this afternoon saying, quote, no decisions have been made about future exercises. With us for more tonight, retired fourstar general barry mccaffrey. Youre a military expert. I know a little about economics. I wont bother going into too much detail about the fact the president continues to be dishonest about the 500 billion china apparently takes from america, but the concept that the north korean problem is caused by our trade relationship with china, i just couldnt make sense of that. Well, look, i think it would be a huge mistake to look for a rational pattern of activity in the u. S. Government right now dealing with either china or north korea. Secretary mattis is a brilliant, terrific public servant. I feel the same way about pompeo at state, treasury secretary is pretty good, cia director is pretty good, but there is simply no coherent strategy unifying the efforts of the u. S. Government dealing with any one of these problems. So in the middle of a trade war with china, in the middle of an unconstrained Nuclear Threat from north korea, and the president left singapore and said the Nuclear Threat from north korea is over. Its not. Its done, its all good. It was fantasy. Now in the middle of this, were talking about Hillary Clintons emails and why thats the subject of ongoing debate the president tweeted last night sharing reporting from the daily caller. Hillary clintons emails, many of which are classified information, got hacked by china. Next move better be by the fbi or the doj or by all their many missteps, comey, strzok, page, ohr, fisa, dirty dossier, et cetera, their credibility will be forever gone. Earlier nbc news said the clinton servers were hacked. And they said there is no evidence that servers were hacked. How do they just put it out there . It doesnt have much impact on reality. I must admit now the unsecured clinton server, in my view, probably could have been hacked by latvian teenagers or criminals or uruguayans or whoever. I think that was another huge insecurity in the last administration. But right now we have Serious Problems that are facing us. What are we going to do about north korea which continues to develop fissile material for nuclear weapons, continues to manufacture their prototype icbm, has not done an inventory of their nuclear capacity, has made no effort to come up with a concept on a verifiable denuclearization. Theyre simply not going to do it. The white house doesnt know what theyre doing on this question. But what about mattis . Is this a Good Cop Bad Cop thing . Is mattis still in the inner circle . This is worrisome because mattis is one of the adults in the room. Mattis is worshipped on the armed forces, hes devoted to the rule of law and the constitution. He somehow got a bunch of Service Secretaries who are probably the best weve had in 25 years. Its an island of sanity over there. And i think hes learned how to deal with the president. I dont believe hes going to allow anything that threatens our security to happen without speaking up, so im sort of putting him in a box and saying thank god hes over there. You know, if this had been 20 years ago, the secretary of defense would have resigned in humiliation that he got stepped on an hour later by the president. Im sure there was a National Security Council Meeting in which they tried to figure out, what are we going to do about President Trumps latest statement . And he went back to give him the leverage to deal with the north koreans. By the way, those exercises dont cost a dime compared to the dod overall budget. Coming up, on what would have been his 82nd birthday, family and friends and arizonans gather to mourn john mccain. The emotional farewell when we come back. Ll when we come back. When john mccain called on us to serve a purpose greater than ones own selfinterest, it wasnt a talking point designed to win the next election. It was how he had actually lived his life. And continued to live his life. Its how he wanted us to live ours. He represented our values all over the world as senator from arizona and america is stronger for his fierce defense of our values. We can be proud he was our senator. John mccains family, friends and fellow state leaders have been delivering their final tributes to the lion of the senate today. Mccains body is lying in state at the Arizona Capitol in phoenix. Hes only the third person in the last 40 years to be given that honor. It was an emotional afternoon for mccains wife cindy and his children as they honored their father and approached his flag draped casket. The flag a reminder of his Navy Services in vietnam. Two of his seven children followed in their fathers foot steps and joined the military. His son jack returned from an overseas deployment to attend todays service. Following it the private ceremony, hundreds filed into the capitol to pay their respects to a man most had never met. Todays memorial is the first in a week of somber events to remember his life and legacy. Tomorrow after a Funeral Service where former Vice President joe biden will speak, mccains body will be transported to the u. S. Capitol where he will lie in state on friday. A Memorial Service will be held at the Washington National cathedral on saturday where barack obama and george w. Bush will both speak. His 106yearold mother roberta reportedly will attend. Hell be laid to rest in annapolis, maryland on sunday. Coming up, Trump Doubles down on his praise for the governments handling of puerto rico and says he did a fantastic job. This mayor of san juan, puerto rico is having none of it when the 11th hour continues. Cancer. Its very personal. Each of us is different. And each cancer is different. How it reacts, how it evades and adapts. And how we attack it. Thats why at Cancer Treatment centers of america, we use diagnostic tools that help us better understand what drives each persons cancer. This is what we mean by outsmarting cancer. And for some, it may uncover more effective treatment options. Like christine bray. After battling Ovarian Cancer for several years, her test results revealed a potential treatment not considered previously a drug therapy that targeted her tumor. Today, christines metastatic cancer is in remission. This is precision Cancer Treatment. Because at Cancer Treatment centers of america. Were not just fighting cancer. Were outsmarting it. Visit cancercenter. Com and schedule an appointment with our cancer care specialists today. The last thing before we go tonight is an update to a story we brought you last night. Thats about the devastating toll Hurricane Maria really took on puerto rico. Yesterday officials updated the number of lives lost in that hurricane from 64 to 2,975. And today, President Trump who was roundly criticized for his governments response to the needs of puerto rico after the storm was asked about this tragic news. I think we did a fantastic job in puerto rico. Were still helping puerto rico. The governor is an excellent guy. And hes very happy with the job weve done. We have put billions and billions of dollars into puerto rico. And it was a very tough one. Dont forget, their electric plant was dead before the hurricane. If you look back on your records, youll see that plant was shut, it was bankrupt. It was out of business. They owed tremendous amounts of money. They had it closed up. When the hurricane came, people said what are we going to do about electricity. That wasnt the hurricane. That was gone before the hurricane. Weve put a lot of money and effort into puerto rico. And i think most of the people in puerto rico really appreciate what weve done. As we mentioned last night, san juan, puerto ricos mayor carmenule lynn cruz was among his harshest critics. And earlier today, i had the chance to ask her about President Trumps latest comments about that horrific death toll. These are 2,975 people. That will no longer see the light of day. These are parents, children, grandchildren, grandparents. People whose lives will never be the same and the onset of fear and lack of dignity in which the Trump Administration continues to treat the people of puerto rico makes you mad, makes you angry. And makes you realize that this man is not that he doesnt want to get it, its that he is incapable of feeling solidarity and empathy. And now that number 2,975, will follow him wherever he goes for the rest of his life. Tonight on all in. Not excellent guy. The man at the center of the Trump White House sent packing in a tweet. Mcgahns a really good guy. What the exit of the White House Council means for the president. And for the mueller probe. Are you concerned about what he said to mueller . No. Then the candidate that trump tv built. The last thing we need to do is monkey this thing up. How democrats continue to build a new coalition. We are going to remind this