Transcripts For MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell 20170328

Know youre going run off the set and immediately check twitter to see what donald trump says no . No, it burns my eyes. Many tweets in the last hour, including one where he is attacking once again the Republican House Freedom Caucus for basically defeating his health care bill. And when he did that this weekend, i kind of tweeted a reply to him saying please keep doing this because these are the people you need to pass legislation. Who does he think who does he think he is going to get if he cant get these guys . He could possibly just be trying to keep you happy. Oh, man, on these tweet, he has done a fine job of it. Fine job. Thank you. The president is awake at this hour, and he is very busy tweeting. He appears to be very, very angry at the conservative republicans in the house of representatives who he still needs to pass any future legislation, and he is still angry. In his tweets tonight at bill and Hillary Clinton. I really think it will be best if he were to step aside, let someone else handle this investigation. Well, im sure that the democrats do want me to quit because they know that im quite effective. Chairman nunes seems to be more of a partisan for the president than an impartial actor. Now we know he went to the white house to get that alleged information. You cant make this stuff up. Im bouncing around the room a little bit with all of his explanation. People dont get on the white house grounds by accident. Go into a secret room and log on to a computer unless somebody on the white house staff allows you to do that. You remember, President Trump said he felt in part vindicated by the revelations by devin nunes. They dont know what theyre doing, or theyre engaging in some kind of massive coverup. If this was a movie, you turn it off because you wouldnt believe its believable. Can you say factually that it is not possible that chairman nunes came to brief the president on something that he obtained from the white house in the investigation . I cant say 100 that i know anything what he briefed him on. But its possible . Anything is possible. We have breaking twitter news tonight, which is the principle way that donald trump likes to make news. He has just tweeted in the last hour why isnt the House Intelligence Committee looking into bill and hillary deal that allowed bill uranium to go to russia . Russian speech money to bill, the hillary russian reset, praise of russia by hillary or Podesta Russian Company . Trump russia story is a hoax. These two emails plus an additional email that will go to later on one on Health Care Just issued within the last hour clearly the president trying to change the subject of what the news today has been, about the House Intelligence Committee. Well will come back to these tweets in a moment. There is an open revolt now on the House Intelligence Committee. The Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, the leading democrat, congressman adam schiff called for the chairman, devin nunes, to recuse himself. I just think enough question has been raised in the public about whether he can lead a questionable investigation in this given the reports of the issues. I really think it would be best if he were to step aside, let someone else handle this investigation, given his role in the Transition Team and the events of the past week. It just has too much called into question whether he has the objectivity necessary to oversee this investigation. Four other democrats on the House Intelligence Committee now, eric swalwell, jackie spears, Joaquin Castro have called on nunes to recuse himself. The calls for recusal came after chairman nunes confirmed reports that he met with a source at the white house the day before he went public with the information that members of the president s Transition Team were swept up in incidental surveillance of foreign officials. His spokesperson told nbc news chairman nunes met with the source of that information at the white house grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source. Congressman schiff says nunes still has not shared that information with anyone else on the Intelligence Committee. There is nothing normal about what has taken place over the last week. Its certainly not normal to go and receive information as the chairman of a committee that you cant share with your own committee members. But you go and share with the president. Particularly if the investigation involves associates of the president. Its not just an unwillingness to share with democrats. None of the committee members, democrats or republicans have seen what the clairemohairman i referring to. In an interview today with eli lake of bloomberg, who will join news a moment, devin nunes defended meeting his source at the white house, saying that the white house was the most convenient secure location with a computer connected to the system that included the reports. He added that his source was not a white house staffer and was an intelligence official. But senator mark rner, the Ranking Member of the senate Intelligence Committee said devin nuness explanation is more than suspicious. I, and i know chairman bury on the senate side and democrats, republicans, we dont know what mr. Nunes is talking about, what kind of information. Weve queried the intel community. I dont think they know what he is talking about. And it seems more than suspicious that he is somehow going to the white house. And anybody who knows anywhere in the white house complex, the eisenhower building or the white house itself, you have to be escorted. Who is he meeting with . Is it a source or was it somebody from the administration . And here is what devin nunes had to say about recusal tonight on fox news. He wants you to quit the investigation. Youre not going to do that . Well, im sure that the democrats do want me to quit because they know that im quite effective. Joining us now, david corn, Washington Bureau chief for mother jones and msnbc political analyst. Also with us eli lake, columnist for bloomberg view, who interviewed devin nunes today. And tim mak, Senior Correspondent for the daily beast. Eli, let me just go straight to you. Youre the only one who has spoken to the chairman today among us, anyway. Did he know that these calls for his recusal would be coming today . He did not mention that on the phone with me when i interviewed him. But we certainly have seen a kind of drumbeat of democrats for the last week have been kind of horrified that they werent briefed about it. They say its very unusual he would brief the president and the press before he would brief his Ranking Members. I think these calls have be comi. But we didnt talk about it in thconversation. But in your interview, you got some specificity about the behavior that he describes and the way that he reviewed this material, saying that he went to the white house. And saw it there. Because there was no place for him to do that back at the Intelligence Committee. And yet the person who he was meeting with showing him this didnt work at the white house. How did both of them get access to the white house grounds . I dont know. I think thats a good question. But i would just add some context here that, you know, the congressman nunes has been talking about the issue of unmasking and inappropriate reporting on this incidentally collected information now for more than a month. And its something that i think he has heard from other people. And he has a reputation for cultivating independent source within the Intelligence Community as opposed to going through the normal channels. And he has been doing that before he was chairman. So i would say that he has had a few people who have come up to him about this. And i think this was sort of the last piece of that puzzle. Tim mak, you got some information on the puzzle as it was developing at the end of last week where this scene of devin nunes in an uber vehicle with a staff member suddenly gets a message and jumps out. How does the information that eli got from the chairman today and the other information developed over the weekend, how does that fit with what you were reporting about his suddenly interrupted uber ride . Look, i think what it shows is that there is a lot of confusion. I thinmaybe even in the chairmans own mind what he saw and what he knows. What has been so unusual over the last week, especially in the night before he held that press conference was that senior very, very senior members of his staff were kept in the dark, didnt understand what the chairman was doing. And were talking folks with years and years in the Intelligence Committee, people who you usually rely on if youre the chairman of committee. They didnt know what the chairman was up to. Now we have a situation where there is a lot of confusion. The chairman said in his initial press conference that the president might have been surveilled. And then he walked that back. He has said that there might have been incidental collection of information about trump Transition Teams. Through surveillance. Now thats unclear. He hasnt been clear what exactly he has, whether something actually improper has occurred. And now were all talking about this issue, instead of what we were talking about before he held his press conference last wednesday, which was the fbi is undertaking an ongoing criminal investigation, an Ongoing Investigation into Trump Associates in russia. Eli, quickly, before i go to david again, when you were talking to him today, which version did he land on today . Because he has said at certain points, it wasnt clear to him exactly who was being referred do in these report, and that others he has very specifically said yes, the president was one of the people referred to, and it was very clear to him who they were. Did he tell you the president is identified in these reports . What he said was that there were reports. And some of this could be conversations between two foreign officials about meetings or the trump transition. And he said that this was about the senior staff and, you know, and people within that trump transition that appeared in reports that were widely distributed, including sent to the white house. And so i think his issue is not so much the collection as it is how widely it was distributed and what intelligence products it ended up in. And i would just add that a lot of this mystery will be solved, at least for the committee, because he also told me that he intends or expects that these documents will be made available to democrats and republicans on the House Intelligence Committee this week. And they probably will have to go to another location. But he did say he expected to see all that this week. In the meantime, david corn, the president has a suggestion for the committee by twitter tonight, saying why isnt the House Intelligence Committee looking into the bill and hillary deal that allowed big uranium to go to russia, russian speech money to bill, the hillary russian reset praise of russia by hillary, or Podesta Russian Company . Trump russia story is a hoax. Its not clear that Donald Trumps defense lawyer was involved in the writing of that tweet. But it certainly is his attempt at it tonight. Or that there was any adult supervision. I dont know who let him alone tonight because he went on a tweet storm. Its an absurd tweet because its not a hoax. We know that Michael Flynn talked to the ambassador, the Russian Ambassador even before the election. We know that people who worked with trump, manafort and others had russian connections. We know that russia attacked the election to help donald trump. There is nothing hoaxy about this. David, i have spoken to the Russian Ambassador before. Am i part of rigging the election . Im glad you brought that up. Okay. Because this will allow me to explain why this would be wrong. Starting in june, there were media reports that the russians had hacked the election and were mucking about. By midaugust, trump and flynn were briefed that russians were behind the hack, and that the intent was to throw the election in his direction. Okay. So now the question i have for you, eli, and maybe you can get an answer from Michael Flynn or anyone connected to the trump world. Okay. Youre talking to the Russian Ambassador or any russian after that point in time, whoa are w saying to them . Are you telling them to knock it off . Or are you saying to them, and just speculating here, youll get a better deal with us than you will be Hillary Clinton . And if so, you are knowing them encouraging them to continue their covert Political Warfare against the United States. Now i know you wouldnt do that, eli. Youre an honorable person. But we know Michael Flynn who talks about kidnapping people, who lied to the Vice President is not an honorable person. We know that donald trump doesnt take this russia stuff seriously. So no, i dont think you would do something wrong. But i want to know what they were telling the Russian Ambassador before the election when they had reason to know putin was targeting our electoral process. I think thats a pretty fair question and a basic question. And until trump can answer that, he has no right to all the caul this thing a hoax. Tim mak, let me go to tim for a second he. Tim, and that is what im about to say is true on all committees, the staff is more knowledgeable about everything the committee does there are Staff Members on the Intelligence Committee that has much, much more experience than devin nunes ever will be this kind of material. To ignore them in this process is one of the most inexplicable elements of it, even more so, more inexplicable than ignoring his leading democratic member on the committee. And as more inexplicable than him running first to the speaker of the house paul ryan which is the single most underreported stop on devin nuness tour that way on his way to the white house. Is there anything that you have heard from devin nunes about this that makes sense about why he would not confer with any staff about this . No. Its not clear to me. There is nothing to suggest that devin nunes has done anything improper. But he has certainly acted in a very unusual way over the course of this week. And if you analyze whats happened, he simply disappeared on tuesday evening from the perspective of his staff. And they didnt understand what was happening, even until the last minute before his press conference on wednesday. These are, like i said, folks with a lot of experience. And they could provide a lot of guidance for the chairman that would have led him perhaps not to hold a press conference on wednesday morning. Perhaps not to make these kinds of allegations which ultimately he had to walk back or create a lot ofconfusion. Or to kind of destroy whatever hope there was left for bipartisan investigation on the committee. Eli, did you get a chance to ask devin nunes about his first stop with speaker ryan before going to the white house and what ryan said to him, what he told him to do . I did not ask him about speaker ryan. And i have to tell you that it was one of these situations where the cnn story was breaking, and i kind of went for the interview and wanted to focus on the white house visit on that. Great. Eli lake, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thank you. Tim mak, thank you for joining us. David, were going to need you in another segment up here. Coming up, congressman ted lew just over the weekend said donald trump is an evil man. That is a line that no other member of congress has yet crossed, the evil man description. And george will will join us with what to expect next from the conservatives in the house of representatives who george will predicted on this program would be President Trumps biggest problem in passing his health care bill. M doing right by our customers. Whos with me . Were like a Basketball Team here at ally. If a Basketball Team had over 7. Im in. 7,000 players. Our plays are a little unorthodox. But to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. We know what you want from a Financial Company and well stop at. Nothing to make sure you get it. One, two. And we mean nothing. Youthats why you drink ensure. Andsidelined. Othing. With 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy to get back to doing. What you love. Ensure. Always be you. The search for relief often leads here. Today theres drugfree aleve direct therapy. A high intensity tens device that uses technology once only in doctors offices. For deep penetrating relief at the source. Aleve direct therapy. Ways wins. Especially in my business. With slow internet from the phone company, you cant keep up. Youre stuck, watching spinning wheels and progress bars until someone else scoops your story. Switch to comcast business. With highspeed internet up to 10 gigabits per second. You wouldnt pick a slow race car. Then why settle for slow internet . Comcast business. Built for speed. Built for business. My two sons who are right here, don and eric, are going to be running the company. They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. Hey, ready for the big meeting . Yeah. Uh, hello . A meeting . Its a big one. Too bad. We are double booked diarrhea and abdominal pain. Why dont you start without me . Oh. Yeah. If youre living with frequent, unpredictable diarrhea and abdominal pain, you may have Irritable Bowel Syndrome with diarrhea, or ibsd. A condition that can be really frustrating. Talk to your doctor about viberzi, a different way to treat ibsd. Viberzi is a Prescription Medication you take every day that helps proactively manage both diarrhea and abdominal pain at the same time. So you stay ahead of your symptoms. Viberzi can cause new or worsening abdominal pain. Do not take viberzi if you have or may have had pancreas or severe liver problems, problems with alcohol abuse, longlasting or severe constipation, or a blockage of your bowel or gallbladder. If you are taking viberzi, you should not take medicines that cause constipation. The most common side effects of viberzi include constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain. Stay ahead of ibsd. With viberzi. Weve got another tweet from donald trump that a just came in about health care. Donald trump has been tweeting angrily tonight. About people he is going to need to pass any future legislation. He is still mad at them for n passing his first big bill last week. Tonight at 9 40 p. M. , he tweeted the Republican House Freedom Caucus was able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after so many bad years. They were ready for a win. But on friday, the day donald trump surrendered to congress and gave up his promise to his voters that he would repeal and replace obama care, the president knew exactly, exactly who to blame for his own surrender. With no democrats support, we couldnt quite get there. Just a very small number of votes short in terms of getting our bill passed. I think the losers are nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer because now they own obamacare. They own it, 100 own it. The president couldnt find a single republican to blame on friday for the failure of his bill, including the dozens of republicans who pledged to vote against his bill. A pledge that forced the president to give up on the idea of even having a vote on it. But as so often happens, when the president woke up on sunday morning, he was in a different world. Now it was time to blame the Freedom Caucus. The conservative republicans who blocked the trump bill. Democrats are smiling in d. C. That the Freedom Caucus with the help of club for growth and heritage have saved planned parenthood and obamacare. That was sunday morning. The conservative republicans who blocked the president s bill are professional politicians. Therefore, they never give up. Meaning they never publicly give up the way donald trump did on friday. Professional politicians always at least pretend that theyre still in the fight. Theyre still trying to get this done. I can tell you that conversations over the last 48 hours are really about how we come together in the republican conference and try to get this over the finish line. Thats the leade of the group of conservative republicans who killed the president s bill. Nothing can get him to give up publicly. Here is the impossible dream that conservative republicans and all republicans say they are pursuing on health care reform. Lets bring down the cost of premiums so that middle class people will be able to afford a plan in the private sector that actually fits their families needs. Until we get a bill that brings down the cost of health care for hardworking americans, were not going get something that happ passes us. Joining us now george f. Will, Award Winning columnist for the washington post. George, you predicted this on your first appearance on this program you. Told us all to keep an eye on mark mad dose as the president s agenda moves forward because you had trouble then imagining mark meadows going along with the kind of thing that paul ryan and the president were trying to do in the health care bill. And here we have the president attacking mark meadows, the Freedom Caucus, who he is going to need on every future vote. Well, he is going to need them, unless his plan is to find 25 or 30 centrist democrats who will take their place. I dont know where he is going to find six of them, lot alone 26 or 7 or 8 or more. On this one point, mr. Trump and washington, which he cordially detests are of the same mind. Washington generally finds the Freedom Caucus eccentric because its composed entirely of men and women who say what they mean and mean what they say. And the president himself who does not have a lot of philosophical ballast finds them to the preliminary soul line of convictions. He finds them hard to accommodate in his freewheeling transactional approach to politics. The marker that were hearing from, both the conservative republicans and the Freedom Caucus, and the marginally less conservative republicans in the house is that whatever they do in health care, whatever they lad intendedo do in Health Care Must bring the costs down. Health care must become cheaper for the american people. And when a republican says or any member says im not going to vote for a bill unless it does that, whether they know it or not, theyre saying theyre never going to vote for a bill because that is in effect impossible to do. It is very difficult to bring the cost of health care down when you have attached the most rapidly growing portion of our population, the elderly as a matter of entitlement to this extremely dynamic science of medicine. But before we say this is a blind spot just on the part of the Freedom Caucus, turn your attention to rodney friehlinghaasen of new jersey. He has been in congress now i believe 12 terms. This is his 12th term now. He is not a simple back bencher. He is a serious, complicated man who happens to be chairman of the House Appropriations committee. And he too said he could not support this bill. For reasons having to do with the interests of his new jersey constituents. So the idea that you can caricature this as a kind of archconservative, a phrase that even i do wish the New York Times would get tired of using, the archconservative on the part of the rebellion of the Freedom Caucus. There was an attempt to move to a legistive arena in which the democrats have a very clear philosophy that embraces these kinds of interventions in the health care market. And there is no republican philosophy that could be pointed to prior to the inauguration of President Trump that would say that this is why were doing it. Id never heard a republican make the case for subsidizing the purchase of health care before in the congress. Well, thats not quite fair. I think paul ryan for years has talked about premium support that you give People Health savings accounts. You allow them to shop across state lines to create a continental market. And for those who cant afford the premiums, you give them premium support. Another entitlement, frankly, that theyre willing to embrace. I think there is a republican plan. This plan, however, that was broke or even row rococo in his complexity was presented as a banner choice expect by mr. Bannon who went to the house caucus who said you have no choice, you have to support this. These are grown men and women who have worked hard to get to the house. And they didnt come here to be talked to like that. The latest tweet just occurred after that program started. He said the democrats will make a deal with me on health care as soon as obamacare folds, not long. Do not worry. We are in very good shape. And so there he is telling the Republican Party that hes eager to make a deal with the democrats on this. This couldnt betier since the democrats would never make a deal with him on this. And so he all he is doing is kind of openly saying to his own party, im ready to abandon you if the democrats will only help me abandon you. Well, remember, this is a president who as a candidate last year said pointedly its called the Republican Party, not the conservative party. This is a man who as a candidate said the single payer system works great in scotland and elsewhere. This is a man who as a candidate said im going to take care of everybody. The government is going to pay for it, and were going to cover everybody. So, again, this is not a man who has been exactly congruent with the conservative base, which is most of the party he has rented in. And george, your reading on the direct issuance of threats by steve bannon, and then this image that the president had going into this that he was going to be the tough guy who would tweet these members to death if they crossed him. And we saw absolutely no enforcement power, no sense of intimidation by anyone. You couldnt find a member of congress who even hinted at being afraid of the white house on this. What does that do to this white houses ability to deal with negotiations in the future . Well, first of all, if you present yourself as the alpha males alpha male, this is not a good thing to happen to you, to find out people are not afraid of you. But beyond that, i find it frankly exhilarating to see a significant cohort in congress who do not jump when the executive branch says to jump. They are i think a symptom of th slowly gathering independence of the legislative branch to do what in the scheme of things theyre supposed to do, which is to be jealous of their prerogatives and particularly wary of the rivalry they should have the the executive branch. Thank you for warning us to keep our eye on mark maddows through this story as we did. And thank you for being with us once again tonight. Glad to be with you. Coming up, congressman ted lieu who this weekend crossed at least a rhetorical line with donald trump. He said that the president of the United States, these are his words, is an evil man. Ted lieu joins us. T now. The newly advanced gle can see in your blind spot. [ dinosaur roar ] onboard cameras and radar detect danger all around you. Driver assist systems pull you back into your lane if drifting. Bye chief. Bye bobby. And will even help you brake, if necessary. It makes driving less of a production. Lease the gle350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. The uncertainties of hep c. Wondering, what if . I let go of all those feelings. Because i am cured with harvoni. Harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. Its been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. And is proven to cure up to 99 of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. 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Bounty, the quicker picker upper crossed a big line with donald trump this weekend, becoming the first member of congress to call the president an evil man. Here is why. Ive been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we can do politically speaking is let obamacare explode. It is exploding right now. After that, ted lieu tweeted president donald trump, you truly are an a evil man. Your job is to help americans, not intentionally try to destroy their lives. Joining us now, democratic congressman ted lieu who serves on the house judiciary committee. Congressman, thank you very much for joining us tonight. That when i saw that tweet, as soon as i saw you use that word evil, i thought thats something i havent seen before. And i wanted to bring you here tonight to talk about it. Did you have to think about using that word for a while before you decided to put it that way . I did not. I was very angry when i saw Donald Trumps tweet, because it suggests that he is going to sabotage obamacare and hurt tens of millions of people out of anger and spite. That is evil. Its also unconstitutional. Article 2 of the constitution requires that the president faithfully execute the laws passed by congress. Obamacare is a law of the land. His duty is to execute it correctly. He has tweeted tonight twice within the last hour about the health care bill. This time blaming the conservatives in the house, the Freedom Caucus for its defeat, something he resisted doing until the weekend. And also bringing up the democrats. His most recent tweet in the last 30 minutes was the democrats will make a deal with me on health care as soon as obamacare folds. Not long. Do not worry. We are in very good shape. What kind of deal would you be willing to make with the president on health care . I am not obamacare. I will work with different people across the aisle to make the law better. You can always improve a law. But you cannot intentionally sabotage obamacare, which is what donald trump is suggesting. And keep in mind the president is now their establishment. Republicans control congress. If health care fails, its on their watch. Its because they did it. And its because they need to own it. And my hope is that they do the right thing and improve the law rather than try toabotage it. You said you are on obama care. Yes. Meaning thats how youre enrolled in health insurance. That is correct. In fact, were required as members of congress to buy off the d. C. Exchange. So im buying it off that exchange, even though my residence is in california. A lot of people think that you that members of congress and the senate get special deals with very, very lavish Health Care Plans. I just want to go to the point that youre actually users of it yourselves. That was built into the legislation, that you be users of it yourselves. As a user of it, do you see things in it that you would like to change and improve that you would like to tell the president about . I do. Im more than willing to work with others to make the law better. I think we should improve the networks that are in obamacare. But keep in mind, this law has so many provisions that help people, not just off the exchange, but with their employerbased Health Care Plans. Such as the ban on Lifetime Coverage maums. So if you have cancer, it used to be even your employerbased Health Care Plan could stop paying. On obamacare that cannot go into effect. And were helping lots of Cancer Patients across america. Which again shows why donald trump is evil if he really wants to wreck this law. Did you get any response from the white house from the president or from steve bannon or anyone there about your tweet saying that the president is an evil man . I have not. And by the way, i think bannon evil is well. But i have not. Congressman ted lieu, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Up next, donald trump promised he would not talk to his sons about his businesses as president as a matter of simple ethics. One of his sons has turned him in. One of his sons confirmed that donald trump lied about that. Thats next. Just imagine if all the machines at work were constantly thinking. Always on the lookout for patterns and connections to make everything work better. I call it the internet of everything, but its really the internet of everyday life. The partnership between Dell Technologies and sap helps make the promise of the internet of things a reality for our customers. We know how powerful live data can be. We use sap at dell to run everything from finance to procurement to travel expenses. And thats the same kind of live insight we can now start offering to all of our customers. 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It starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies only from tums what powers the Digital World . Communication. Like centurylinks Broadband Network that gives 35,000 fans a cutting edge game experience. Or the network that keeps a leading hotel chains guests connected at work, and at play. Or the it platform that powers millions of ecards every day for one of the largest greeting card companies. Businesses count on communication, and communication counts on centurylink. I have wonderful children that are in the business and have wonderful executives. They would run it. I would not even think about this business. I would have nothing to do with it. And ill be honest with you. I dont care about it anymore. Im so focused on doing a great job as president. My two sons who are rig here, don and eric are going to be running the company. They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. Turns out he is interested, and he doesnt trust those two little boys to run the company. Just over two months after taking office, donald trump has broken that promise. His son eric told forbes he gives his father financial details about the Trump Organization on the bottom line profitability reports and stuff like that. But, you know, thats about it. Probably quarterly. David corn is back with us. David, you have a feeling it might be more than quarterly . It might be more than four times a year . I like he said probably quarterly. Maybe every day. You know, we could literally do a show a night, lawrence, on the conflicts of interests in trump town, in trump world. They dont go away. Trump didnt separate himself from his business. So he knows if people are or countries are booking hotel rooms or big blocks in trump Hotel Downtown here in d. C. He knows he is getting that money directly. We did a story a week or two back, and mother jones about a chinese American Woman who is connected to the chinese elite, and even connected to Chinese Military intelligence, buying a 15 million penthouse in one of his new york city apartments. He knows thats happening. Theyre not even vetting these deals. So they promise theyd would vet. He said he would take care of this issue. None of this is happening. There are already a couple of lawsuits out there on various fronts. This is klepto cronyism. Thats what you have. And its not going to stop. And in itself, it would be the most major scandal facing a presidency in who knows how long. And yet its scandal number ten in the day. On a good day. Were talking about Jared Kushner talking to Russians Bank that was sanctioned. And everything else. And his family is conflicted with deals with china and everything else. Everywhere you turn, there is financial interests overlapping policy interests. And all of it distracting us from other more important things that we could be covering if we werent on the scandal beat. David corn, thank you very much for joining us. I really pratt it. Su coming up, the soul sucking attention eating black hole of the trump presidency. Look closely. Hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. The microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn countless points of data into insights that transform their business and will enhance the game for players and fans. The microsoft cloud turns information into insight. You get to do the dishes. Ed. Bring em on. Dawn ultra has 3 times more greasecleaning power. A drop of dawn and grease is gone. Hes a nascar champion whos shes a worldclass swimmer whos stared down the best in her sport. But for both of them, the most challenging opponent was. Pe blood clots in my lung. It was really scary. A dvt in my leg. 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Tum tum tum tum smoothies only from tums in an article for Foreign Policy entitled the soul sucking attentioneating black hole of the trump presidency, David Rothkopf writes if you doubt that the impact of the shift to all trump all the time news is making it hard to focus on much of what might otherwise be worthy of our attention, consider this. Since taking office, the Trump Administration has ramped up military operations in yemen and iraq, committed to deploying over a thousand additional troops in syria, stood by as civilian casualties have soared and watched as a strategically important province in afghanistan fell to the taliban, all without so much as making a rip until the public consciousness of the United States. Trump was very nearly mute on north korea save for some ill considered tweeting. David rothkopf, just off a flight from china, will join us next. Whether youre after supreme performance. Advanced intelligence. Or breathtaking style. Theres a cclass just for you. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Lease the c300 sedan for 389 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. But i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Now because they see American Leadership vanishing before their eyes. America just seems to be fundamentally withdrawing. You know, this is at a moment where we live in a multipolar world where frankly its easy to accept an offer from china or from russia to be your pal if the United States isnt on the playing field. Joining us now, David Rothkopf, ceo and editor of Foreign Policy magazine and the author of the peace. I need to say the title one more time. Piece entitled the soul sucking attention eating black hole of the trump presidency. David, you have the floor. What is that doing to both the news medias attention and to our relations around the world . I think Donald Trumps narcissism has fed our own national narcissism, and we cant look beyond the daily scandals that you have been rightly reporting about throughout the show. The problem is the rest of the world is goingan. You know, in china right now its noontime. They are up. They are building their country. They are having their lives. They dont talk about trump all the time. When they do, they are kind of mystified by it. But they are assuming a leadership role. In the middle east, the ute statess embracing a whole bunch o new policies that ar producing massive civilian casualties, new kinds of divisions. And they are not worried about our political scandals. They are worried about whats going to happen next to them. Our european allies are worried. Russia is trying to seize the void. Weve got a lot of problems, a lot of big things that are going on that we dont talk about in this country because we have this reckless, out of control, inexperienced ethically compromised television eating monster in the oval office. When you look at the state department in this administration how are they handling the new challenges presented by a world confused by trump . He wiwell, i think at the to state department isnt doing much of anything. Rex tillerson is kind of the phantom secretary of state. The one trip that he made to asia was kind of a fiasco at each and every stop. Hasnt appointed deputies at the position where is the policy is made. There are good people at the state department that wish they could be doing more but right now they are staring down the barrel of 30 or 27 or whatever kind of budget cuts that are likely to eviscerate the programs that we use in order to maintain the peace around the world. When the world looks at trump, do they,t look at the rest of the government and say, well, this government is designed in a way that can survive someone like this . I dont know if the United States government in recent years really has given off that vibe of competence since the congress hasnt gotten much done. But you know n recent days, as investigations have begun to look like they are getting a little bit of traction, i have started to hear people say, gee, maybe it works. Maybe those checks and balances work. Maybe this guy, trump is, not going to run amuck and maybe we are going to get back to the United States that at least we could depend on in the past even if we didnt love it all the time. And i think there is a little hope that that may be the case, that trump may be a short timer. Because i have got to tell you, with the exception of russia and a couple other auto accuracies in the world the people i speak to around the world are extremely disturbed at the prospect of a protracted trump presidency. On the crazy things like not shake hands with angela merkel, has the world gotten to a point now where they sort of get it . Like, the way a lot of us it took us months of watching the campaign to realize oh, this is the way this person is and is always going to be . But that doesnt necessarily mean something is going to happen in government because he says its going to happen . Despite my youthful appearance i have been around in washington long enough to have seem a number of president sees. I have never seen a presidency where one of the first or second questions that i get from International Leaders is, is this guy sane . Is you know, does this guy really have it all together . And i have to say i think the world they see the weird stuff, happened shakes and that kind of thing, tweet storms like you have seen in the past hour, outbursts, apparently a pathological compulsion to lie and they think, does the United States have an unhinged president. I think there is a reason they think that, by the way, because we do have an unhinged president. Right. Doesnt that then make Rex Tillerson the most important secretary of state ever in the sense that his job is to represent to the world that this government is okay whatever they think of the person in the white house . Well, sure, if he showed up for work, if he did that, if he reached out, if mattis did that, if kelly did that, there are all these guys we called the grown ups. We said they are going to offset trump and send the world a different message. As far as weve seen kelly hasnt been able to do it at the department of homeland security. Certainly tillerson hasnt done it at the state department. Mattis has actually overseen a ramping up in the middle east thats produced some real recklessness, and were about to see more setbacks in afghanistan, and possibly mistakes made in iraq that open the door to another surge from isis. I have got to say, the grown ups dont look like they are showing up. So that sort of straw that we were grasping at seems to be dematerializing in our fingers right now. David rothkopf, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I know you just got off the plane from china. Really appreciate you coming on. My pleasure. Tonights last word is next. Fun in art class. Come close, come close. I like that. [ all sounds come to a crashing halt ] ah. When your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. Awww. Try this. For minor arthritis pain, only aleve is fda approved to work for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. Thank you. Come on everybody. Aleve. Live whole. Not part. Explore your Treatment Options with specialists who treat only cancer. Every stage. Every day. At Cancer Treatment centers of america. Learn more at cancercenter. Com experts i dont regret not running in the sense that it was the right decision for my boy, for me, for my family at the time. But do i regret not being president . Yes. No man or woman announces for president of the United States unless they honestly believe from their experience they are the best qualified person to do that. And at the time, i thought that the circumstances were such that i was the best qualified. That was joe biden yesterday in upstate new york speaking to college students. Thats it for the last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams is next. Tonight, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee under fire, being asked to step away from the russia investigation after a powerful revelation about where he got the information he shared with the president. Also tonight, the president s soninlaw expanding his portfolio as he prepares to face questions about his own ties to russia. Why we havent heard a lot from the president about his poll numbers of late. The 11th hour begins right now. Good evening once again from our headquarters here in new york. This was day 67, and as we begin week ten of the Trump Administration, it remains the only presidency to be operating under the specter of russian influence. We know there was overt russian interference in our election, and thats a first as well. As for the covert, thats the focus of several investigations, including the House Intelligence Committee. It was an eyebrow raiser, to be