Transcripts For MSNBCW The Last Word With Lawrence ODonnell 20170901

Even on a wall anywhere in a building of the trump administration. Yeah. Well, you know, shes doing an excellent job, harriet tubman, and shes getting recognized more and more. Not by this group. I think we can have complete confidence that the Obama Administration proposal will not survive in this administration. Yeah. Its a shame. Its an absolute shame. It is tragic. Yep. Thank you, joy. Thank you, my friend. Donald trump was the first president ial nominee who did not release his tax returns since 1976, and you remember his reason. Im being audited now. Im under a routine audit. A minor audit. Every year i have a routine audit. Its under routine audit. Like routine. But, but, as soon as my routine audits finished, ill release my returns. Im be very proud to. And of course most of the news media fell for the audit excuse. But there was never any evidence at all that Donald Trumps tax returns were actually being audited. Donald trump never produced an audit letter from the irs. Easy thing for him to do if he was being audited. If he wasnt being audited then, donald trump might be being audited now in the most serious review of his tax returns that he has ever been subjected to. Betsy woodruff is reporting in the daily beast tonight, special counsel bob mueller has teamed up with the irs according to sources familiar with his investigation into alleged Russian Election interference. His probe has enlisted the help of agents from the irs criminal Investigations Unit. This unit, known as ci, is one of the federal governments most tight knit, specialized, and secretive investigative agencies. Its agents focus exclusively on Financial Crime including tax evasion and money laundering. Betsy woodruff will join us in a moment with more on her reporting. The irs special agents in the criminal Investigations Unit are, on a perdollar basis, simply the most valuable employees in American Government at any level, federal, state, or local. At salary levels in the neighborhood of 100,000 a year, they each collect millions upon millions upon millions of dollars in taxes that the treasury was otherwise not going to ever see. They collect that as a result of their successful tax investigations. They are a Profit Center in the federal government. They are highly experienced professionals who know what they are looking for in tax returns and how to find it. Only an absolutely perfect tax return could survive their scrutiny. What is the likelihood that Donald Trumps tax returns are perfect, that he doesnt stretch the law in any way or violate the law in his tax returns . How about his drowning in debt soninlaw, Jared Kushner . And what about Paul Manafort, who was doing millions of dollars in cash business in countries like ukraine . If there is a crime in Paul Manaforts tax returns, Robert Mueller, with the help of the criminal Investigations Unit of the irs, is going to find that crime. But a tax crime is the one thing that Robert Mueller does not have a free hand in prosecuting. He will need the approval of the assistant attorney general for the tax division. That is one of the hundreds and hundreds of jobs that donald trump and his administrations incompetence have not fielded. On tuesday, donald trump pretended that not filling those jobb jobs had nothing to do with his relentless incompetence. It was all part of the grand plan. We are not looking to fill all of those positions. Dont need many of them. Reduce size of government. Of course not filling the jobs with trump appointees does not mean that those jobs are empty because those jobs are all occupied by someone. And so the acting assistant attorney general for the tax division is David Hubbard, who joined the Justice Department in august of 1999 during the Clinton Administration when janet reno was the attorney general. Mr. Harvard has since then worked under democrat and republican attorneys general. In 2012, the Obama Administrations attorney general eric holder promoted David Hubbard to be the tax divisions Deputy Assistant attorney general. So the person who will have the right to approve a tax prosecution against Paul Manafort or Jared Kushner and ivanka trump or donald trump jr. Or the president himself is an 18year career Justice Department professional who began his service under president clinton, served eight years in the Bush Administration Justice Department, another eight years in the Obama Administration Justice Department. We can only wonder who President Trump would have put in that job if the president or anyone working for him had any idea how important that job is, and i mean how important that job is to President Trump. And so the acting assistant attorney general of the tax division is not a trump man. And in the end, it could turn out that filling that job was actually a lot more important to donald trump personally than filling that Supreme Court vacancy. Nbc news has new details about the contemporaneous notes that former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort took during the now infamous june 2016 meeting that donald trump jr. Arranged with russian nationals on the promise that he would receive, quote, dirt on Hillary Clinton. Paul manaforts notes, quote, included a mention of political contributions near a reference to the Republican National committee, two sources briefed on the evidence told nbc news. Nbc news initially reported that the notes contained the word donation, but a spokesman for senator Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee whose staff has reviewed the notes, disputed the word donation. The two sources who initially provide the information then said the word in Paul Manaforts notes was not donation. One said it was donor, and another said it was a word that referenced a political contribution. Joining us now, ken dilanian, betsy woodruff, politics reporter for the daily beast, and mieke eoyang, Vice President for the National Security program at the third way. Ken dilanian, i want to go to your reporting for nbc news about these Paul Manafort notes. Walk us through that. Sure, lawrence. One of the most interesting things about it is that we learned that Paul Manafort, while he seemed to be on his phone during the meeting according to some of the participants, he was actually taking notes on his phone. And those notes are now in the hands of the house and Senate Intelligence committee and in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller. What were told is that those notes are rather cryptic. Theyre not sentences. Theyre fragments. Theyre words. Some of those words included a reference to the Republican National committee, as you said, and a reference to political donations. And the context is not clear according to my sources. But it raised enough alarms that people want to look more closely into this because, of course, its illegal for russians or any foreign source to contribute to a u. S. Political campaign. Its an illegal for an american Political Campaign to accept foreign donations. So if there was any hint of donations from russians being broached at this meeting, whether by the trump side or the russian side, thats hugely significant. And just to review for our viewers, this is the trump tower meeting back in june 2016 between Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and donald trump jr. And a russian lawyer and a rushamerican lobbyist. By the way, that lobbyist has testified to Robert Muellers grand jury in washington, we confirmed today, lawrence. Betsy, i want to go to your reporting on the irs teaming up with mueller. I just want to clarify for the audience that if donald trump was under an audity last ye las but if hes been under an audit, that does not mean in an audit, the criminal Investigations Unit is involved. They are not involved unless there is a reason to suspect theres criminal investigation worth doing. These are the top guns. If these people have never gotten a look at trump tax returns and they are now getting a look at trump tax returns for the first time, thats a whole new experience for donald trump. Without a doubt. This is a very elite, close knit, highly Skilled Group of investigators. And, in fact, one of my sources told me that bob mueller is a longtime fan boy almost of the criminal Investigations Unit at the irs. And the reason for that is because their work is so thorough, they produce investigative packages that are just what ive been told, typically airtight, very easy for prosecutors to understand, easy to make sense of. They basically hand the prosecutors they work with a case on a platter. So mueller and also one of his top deputies on the probe, andy weissman, have had a lot of experience working with this small, elite group of investigators. And what i was told is that it wasnt particularly surprising that mueller brought them in because he holds them in such high regard. And, betsy, i made much of who is the acting director of the tax division now in the Justice Department. Talk about that for a minute because this is a career professional. Most people have had no contact with him at all. That job is removed from politics in washington. Its hard to find people who even know people who work in that unit. Right. Thats a really important piece of this. I would say its the most important thing here is who is not currently running the tax division of the Justice Department. Thats the point. Thats whats really crucial, right . I spoke with a former federal prosecutor who worked in the tax division earlier today, and he told me the Trump Transition Team was warned by some of their republican allies that they needed to get someone in the tax division who at least would be sympathetic to the president , who at least might be potentially open to cutting him slack. But they didnt get it done. That speaks to a broader competence issue on the part of the transition team. Now, of course, its much too late for the president to be able to put somebody who he sees as a useful ally in this spot because suddenly this position has become so important, and its so clear how much power whoever runs the tax division is going to have when it comes to this type of prosecution. And, remember, decisions about whether or not to bring tax charges are really complicated. This isnt often an open and shut, open and shut, easy to decide call to make. The folks who decide whether or not to bring these charges have to think hard and sometimes its tough. They can be judgment calls, and thats why the president must be a little bit disappointed he doesnt have someone there whose judgment would potentially lean a wee bit in his direction. Mieke eoyang, there are now at least publicly two big pressure points in this investigation. One is the meeting that ken was talking about earlier in those notes from Paul Manafort, that meeting at trump tower in june of the Campaign Year with the russians, don junior, Jared Kushner. The other is what is perceived as the possibility of obstruction of justice in the firing of jim comey. We know that theres a lot of work being done by the special prosecutor on that. Were going to discuss that later in the program. But on this june meeting, when we consider the possibility of what might be in Paul Manaforts notes, ken raised the issue of possible illegal contributions. What else might they be looking for that could be in Paul Manaforts notes or Jared Kushners notes or anyone elses notes of that meeting . Right. So i think that you would look for evidence of what kinds of tactics they would be using and what was discussed in this meeting. Remember, the russian lobbyist who came to this meeting is alleged to be a hacker for hire, for breaking into companies and stealing email, exactly what happened to the dnc. And also remember in this meeting, this is the meeting where donald trump on air force one dictated what the statement should be that his son put out. So now the president is personally involved to the consternation of his aides, who didnt want him to be involved in this. So there are a lot of different legal angles here. Also Paul Manafort is somebody who has tremendous experience working with russianbacked oligarchs around the world and trying to help them buy political influence in the u. S. So this question of foreign contributions really comes to a head because that is Paul Manaforts expertise. And, ken, talk for a moment about what might be in the testimony that we know the special prosecutor has obtained on that meeting. Well, there are different stories about what that meeting could be. Many of them are equally damaging to the trump case because under one scenario, you know, the lawyer and the lobbyist insist they came to that meeting to talk specifically about a group of esoteric sanctions called the magnitsky act and they were presenting some information that really wasnt of much use to the Trump Campaign. And what Intelligence Experts tell me is that may well be true, but the point was the russian government sent them there, according to the email under which the meeting was set up, with an explicit promise of help and of derogatory information about Hillary Clinton. So they may have been patsies, many Intelligence Experts say, for a russian operation that was designed to see whether the Trump Campaign would take the bait, would agree to a meeting under the auspices of help from the russian government, which they absolutely did. So thats one version of the meeting. Other version of the meeting is that substantive discussions about collusion were had. Now, obviously the participants explicitly deny that. A third version is its totally innocent. Its exactly what both sides say it was and mueller is going to end up doing nothing with it. Those are our three options as we consider this meeting, lawrence. Betsy, to just go back to the irs, these people, these agents, many of them are accountants themselves. They are just in every way the people you dont want looking at your tax returns. And donald trump knows this. It strikes me that this news tonight is the kind of news that donald trump can easily comprehend the threat level of it. Without a doubt. This is sort of a return of the geeks moment almost. But these folks arent sort of your stereo typical pencilnecked geek types. These are both highly intelligent people and highly experienced people who understand the way that the tax law works incredibly well. One of the things that a lot these tax agents are extremely conversant in is the question of money laundering. Another issue that theyre almost undoubtedly looking at relates to Paul Manaforts potential overseas Bank Accounts. One of the simplest ways that you can bring tax charges is if somebody doesnt disclose when they file their tax returns to the irs that they have money in Bank Accounts overseas. Its called a check the box prosecution, and if you can prove, number one, that nobody checked the box disclosing they had that money, and, number two, that they actually did have money in overseas Bank Accounts, then you have a slam dunk case. One think ive heard multiple times as ive been speaking to former federal prosecutors and other folks who understand this world is that thats probably manaforts biggest legal liability. Of course the president is going to get that. Hes somebody who cares about tax law, who understands the way that your tax forms can be used to depict you in a very unflattering light in court. This is something im confident that has certainly raised stress levels among folks who get whats really going on and who are supportive of President Trump. And just before we close on this, this raises the issue of the special prosecutors cooperation with the new York State Attorney general once again because if Paul Manaforts tax returns included new york state tax returns, if there was any untruth about the income, that appears on both tax returns. Theyre both untrue. So you have a new york state income tax violation that could be prosecuted in place of or alongside the federal tax violation, and thats all about trying to avoid the president s ability to pardon on federal charges. Were going to have to leave it there for tonight. Thank you for joining us tonight. Mieke, please stay with us. Coming up, Donald Trumps attorneys make their case to Robert Mueller about james comey. What theyre telling the special prosecutor about james comey. And new reports today say that President Trump is under, quote, house arrest, and the person who has him under house arrest in the white house is the person they now call the church lady. boy and these are the lungs. class ewwww boy sorry. dad dont worry about it. mom honey, honey, honey, honey vo at our house, we need things that are built to last. Thats why we got a subaru. avo love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Get 0 apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 legacys. Ends august 31st. flourish spray noise flourish spray noise flourish spray noise flourish spray noise the joy of real cream in 15 calories per serving. Enough said. Reddiwip. flourish spray noise share the joy. You dont let anything lkeep you sidelined. Come on thats why you drink ensure. 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. Look, hes a show boat. Hes a grandstander. The fbi has been in turmoil. What i did is i was going to fire comey. My decision. In fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. Its an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. That was lester holts interview with the president , which may become an exhibit in the case against the president if the special prosecutor makes such a case. New reporting from the wall street journal tonight says Donald Trumps lawyers in the russia investigation have made a case to the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, that the president did not commit obstruction of justice when he fired fbi director james comey. The journal reports, lawyers for donald trump have met several times with special counsel Robert Mueller in recent months and submitted memos arguing that the president didnt obstruct justice by firing former fbi chief james comey and calling into question mr. Comeys reliability as a potential witness, people familiar with the matter said. One memo submitted to mr. Mueller by the president s legal team in june laid out the case that mr. Trump has the Inherent Authority under the constitution to hire and fire as he sees fit, and therefore didnt obstruct justice when he fired mr. Comey. Another memo submitted the same month outlined why mr. Comey would make an unsuitable witness, calling him prone to exaggeration, unreliability in congressional testimony, and the source of leaks to the media. Heres what former fbi director comey told the Senate Intelligence committee in june. I know i was fired because of something about the way i was conducting the russia investigation. It was in some way putting pressure on him, in some way irritating him, and i was fired in some way to change or the endeavor was to change the way the russia investigation was being conducted. That is a that is a very big deal and not just because it involves me. In a new twist in the james comey matter, tonight Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham have sent a letter to current fbi director Christopher Wray requesting all fbi records relating to james comeys public announcement that there would be no criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton for the use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Based on documents the senators have already reviewed, including transcripts of some interviews conducted in the Justice Departments own investigation of comeys handling of the clinton announcement, the senators say, it appears that in april or early may of 2016, mr. Comey had already decided he would issue a statement exonerating secretary clinton. That was long before fbi agents finished their work. Mr. Comey even circulated an early draft statement to select members of the senior fbi leadership. The outcome of an investigation should not be prejudged while fbi agents are still hard at work trying to gather the facts. The senators letter came up today during the White House Press briefing. Senators grassley and graham revealed today that they have evidence suggesting that former fbi director comey made a decision to not charge Hillary Clinton several months before the investigation actually wrapped up and before they interviewed Hillary Clinton. Does the president know about this, and does he believe that that adds weight to his decision to fire comey . Im not sure if he is aware of that revelation, but if it is as accurate as they say it is, i think that would certainly give cause and reason that james comey was not the right person to lead the fbi. Joining the discussion now, ron klain, former chief of staff to Vice President s joe biden and al gore and former senior aide to president obama. Hes also a former chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary committee and was chief of staff to attorney general janet reno. Also with us, David Kajo Cay j n johnston, and mieke eoyang is still with us. Ron klain, lets work in reverse order on these stories. The james comey developments tonight, including this letter which is a long letter that includes references to transcripts from the senators to the fbi, seeking more information about how comey reached his decision on Hillary Clinton, they are suggesting in that letter that it appears to them that he made up his mind before the investigation was complete. Yeah, lawrence. Im old enough to remember when President Trump claimed he was firing james comey because he was too harsh on Hillary Clinton in the investigation. So i think you have to take all of this with a grain of salt. I have no doubt that jim comey, like any lawyer, probably drafted an initial preliminary draft of his decision and circulated that before the investigation was finished. He could see where it was heading. He obviously wanted to begin to prepare what he was going to do about that. It was a consequential decision. He wanted others to review it. Theres nothing improper about that as long as he didnt reach a final decision and didnt make a statement until the investigation was done. I mean after all, he had spent months already looking into thp issue. The law was clear to him. The fact that he prepared a draft of a statement before it was over, shared that draft with others, got input on others Means Nothing as long as he withheld a final decision and withheld issuing that draft until the investigation was complete, which is what happened here. And, david, one of the key elements of investigation, if not the key element of the investigation, was what was on that email server and what were in the actual emails. That is something that the fbi had completed the study of by the time james comey started forming clearly forming his opinion, as i think the senators are right, that he was in the process of forming his opinion. And in forming that opinion, he already had the information of what was actually in the emails. Well, lawrence, as ron pointed out, its not at all unusual to start drafting something when you generally know where the facts are going to go. Its like journalism. You prepare a draft of a story. What ultimately appears in print could be entirely and totally different from what youve otherwise seen. But theres nothing amiss about that, and clearly at the point that comey would have written something, he knew a lot of information. But whats going on here is dirtying up anyone who is going to go after donald. Its a basic strategy hes used for years, dirtying up anyone who is going to go after him. So, mieke, if youre the special prosecutor, and lets just look at the lets take the senators letter at face value, and lets just assume that theyre right completely. Lets assume that james comey did make up his mind before all the investigative work was done. How would that affect james comey as a witness to what donald trump said to him in the oval office . Not at all, lawrence. Whether or not james comey made up his mind beforehand, which i assume that he did not because he could have gotten more evidence in later that would have changed his final decision, he wouldnt have made up his mind. But its one of those things where they it doesnt matter what he was thinking in the Hillary Clinton investigation. What matters is why he was fired. And donald trump probably didnt know what was going on inside the fbi at the time. The senators only just found this out. So that wasnt a factor in Donald Trumps decision. So the decision on whether or not to fire comey, to remove him from the russia investigation, has nothing to do with the senate letter. So, ron, let me give you a shot at that. Lets just assume that you can find evidence that james comey handled a certain investigation, whether its the clinton investigation or some other investigation did a really terrible job handling a certain investigation and prejudged the evidence on a certain investigation. Yeah. How would that affect him as a witness to what donald trump said to him about the investigation that he was conducting . I agree with mieke here. Obviously it will color his testimony at trial or Something Like that. But as a legal matter, it doesnt affect it at all. It goes back to this argument you mentioned a minute ago. The Trump Lawyers argument that trump had the Inherent Authority to fire comey. Of course he did. But he cant fire him, he cant exercise authority for an illegal reason. If someone walked in with a sack of cash to the oval office and said, fire comey and put my brother in, that would be bribery. That would be illegal. He has the authority to fire and hire an fbi director, but he cant do it for an illegal reason. And the evidence here is pretty clear that the reason he fired james comey is not because he messed up an investigation but because he was pursuing an investigation, the russia investigation. And trumps firing him to stop that investigation, that is obstruction of justice. And however comey might have botched one way or the other the email investigation, it doesnt change the fact that trump had no legal right was committing a crime if he fired comey to obstruct an ongoing investigation. And, david, that brings us to the obstruction of justice matter that the president s lawyers seem to be very concerned with. Here they are delivering memos to the special prosecutor, pleading that the firing of james comey is not obstruction of justice. Well, lawrence, just as you can have a perfectly legal act become illegal by its intent, what we should keep sight of here is that congress decided to put the fbi director into a fiveyear position. And the reason they did that was to or tenyear position, to depoliticize the job. And what donald trump did here was make it very clear that he was going to run contrary to that. Comey testified that he thought the president had a right at any time to ask for his resignation. I thought that was a strange thing for him to say because youre only supposed to get rid of the fbi director for cause. And theres no indication of any cause here whatsoever except Donald Trumps clearly corrupt effort to try and shut down an investigation that was threatening to him. Mieke, as i said before, we know at least publicly we know the two big pressure points in this investigation are that june meeting in trump tower and the president s firing of james comey and the president s lawyers are proving that this is their principal concern by delivering these memos to the special prosecutor, arguing their defense case now to the prosecutor on obstruction of justice. It makes sense lawyers would try to argue their case as soon as they can and they better make a case for the president or theyre not doing a very good job as lawyers. But when they try to argue that james comey is not a reliable witness, i was one of those congressional staffers who took testimony from james comey for what happened in the Bush Administration on electronic surveillance, and james comey is a very reliable witness. He has excellent recall. He is very objective at saying whats happening in the room. He admits to when he has made a mistake. He is not someone we found was an unreliable witness. So for them to make that argument that hes unreliable in congressional testimony, it just doesnt fly. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Really appreciate it. Coming up, we have more breaking news tonight. A new report tonight that insiders believe that donald trump is on what theyre calling an inevitable collision course with his new chief of staff, general john kelly, who the white house staff some of them anyway now call the church lady. We want hd. And every box and dvr. All included. Because we dont like surprises. Yeah. 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Get your domain today, and get. A free trial of gocentral from godaddy tonight the Washington Post reports some of the president s friends are worried that hes on a collision course with white house chief of staff john kelly. Trump chafes at some of the retired marine corps generals moves to restrict access to him since he took the job almost a month ago, said several people close to the president. They run counter to trumps love of spontaneity and brashness, prompting some trump loyalists toder icively dub kelly the church lady because they consider him strict and morally superior. The article also says trump appears to pine for the days when the oval office was a bustling hub of visitors and gossip over which he presided as impresario. Ron klain is back with you. Ron, youve worked in well organized white houses, and what kelly is trying to do is just what we would call business as usual in the white house. Yeah. You know, lawrence, only in a white house like this one, which seems like it was written by damon runnian, would someone trying to impose some basic order on the place come across like they were a church lady. If anything, youd have to say what these stories point to is how modest an effort to control john kelly is putting on. Hes largely given up on controlling the outputs from the oval office. He said hes not going to try to control trumps twitter. Hes only trying to organize the inputs into the process, and thats a pretty modest level of organization, truth be told. Lower than any other white house we can think of. And even so, this crazy hall of mirrors white house is rebelling against even that level of control. And general kelly refuses to play some of the trump games like, say, when donald trump tries to call him up onstage during a rally. Lets watch this. John wheres john . Where is he . Where is general kelly . Get him out here. Hes great. Hes doing a great job. And, ron, john kelly was there. He just refused to go out. Yeah. Look, general kelly is a very serious person. Hes not going to be a political prop for donald trump. Hes not going to be a rally toy. Hes not going to be something sold on the trump website for 40 bucks. You know, hes put his credibility and his career on the line in trying to sort out whats going on in the trump white house, and hes not going to play the kind of games that donald trump likes to play. So were going to see how long that lasts. Whether or not trump is willing to stick with this kind of organization or discipline, as modest as it really is by historical standards, or whether or not even this modest level effort to keep trump somewhat organized is going to fall apart. You know, from the day he was named for the job, i was wondering how long will it be before were doing this segment. And, ron klain, thank you for joining us in the first trump versus john kelly segment. Im sure there will be more. Thank you, ron. Thanks, lawrence. Coming up, when donald trump makes a promise, always, always, always ask for the receipt. One way or another, im gonna find ya im gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya one day maybe next week, im gonna meet ya im gonna meet ya, ill meet ya w. I was always searching for ways to manage my symptoms. I thought i had it covered. Then i realized managing was all i was doing. When i finally told my doctor, he said humira was for people like me who have tried other medications,. But still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. In clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers,. Including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,. And new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb,. Hepatitis b, are prone to infections,. Or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. If youre still just managing your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. The Washington Posts David Farenthold won a Pulitzer Prize exposing Donald Trumps lies about his Charitable Giving. No one has told more public lies about Charitable Giving than donald trump, who might just be the least charitable selfproclaimed billionaire in america. Sandra bullock, who is not a billionaire, is contributing 1 million for Hurricane Harvey relief to the american red cross. And so after that, the president , who claims to be a multibillionaire, send the White House Press secretary out to say this. I had a chance to speak directly with the president earlier, and im happy to tell you that he is would like to join in the efforts that a lot of the people that weve seen across this country do, and hes pledging 1 million of personal money to the fund. Most of Donald Trumps public Charitable Giving has been done with other peoples money that has been contributed to something he calls the donald j. Trump foundation. Nbc actually contributed half a Million Dollars to the donald j. Trump foundation so that donald j. Trump could pretend to be contributing to charities on his tv show. It was really just all part of the shows budget. So when donald trump makes a public promise to make a charitable contribution, there are two questions to be asked. First, whose money is he going to use . Will that be coming from trump personally as opposed to the trump phofoundation or the Trump Organization . I know that the president , he said he was personally going to give. I dont know the legal part of exactly that, but he said his personal money, so i would assume that comes directly from him. David farenthold never assumed that, which is why he now has a Pulitzer Prize. The other question to always ask about any trump promise on Charitable Giving is when can we see the receipt and a copy of the actual cashed check . The other way for donald trump to prove hes made a charitable contribution is, of course, to show us his tax returns, but we might only see those if Robert Mueller introduces them as an exhibit in a courtroom. And so today the president added a White House Press Briefing Room stunt about Charitable Giving to his response to Hurricane Harvey. Well have more on the president s response to Hurricane Harvey next with Ana Marie Cox and charlie sykes. Check it out selfappendectomy oh, thats really attached. Thats why i rent from national. Where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. 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If your uc or crohns medication isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. Texas is a unique place. Its a great, great state. Great people. And i think youll be up and running very, very quickly. Really very quickly. So, yeah, i think youre going to be in fantastic shape. That is but one of the platitudes that President Trump offered this week when the death toll earlier in the week for Hurricane Harvey was still in single digits. Today as the death toll rose to 32, the president s response was to promise to make a personal contribution the president s response to was to make a Million Dollar contribution to the Hurricane Harvey relief. The office of government ethics tweeted this in response. If potus really does donate a Million Dollars not his Foundation Month not his Foundation Money to an actually 5019 c 3 Charitable Organization not one that he or his family or Company Controls not his foundation that uses donations to buy a portrait of himself and provides the public with verifiable proof that he fully completed the transaction in the reasonably near future, not distributed over ten years, not whenever the irs tax audit is completed, then i will gladly offer up a genuine thank you to him for donating 11 hundredth of one of 10well that he purports to have which would be exactly equivalent to a donation of 100 by a family with a home a Retirement Plan and combined savings worth a combined total of 1 million. Joining us now Anna Marie Cox and with the host of the podcast with friends like these. Charlie sykes, how the right lost its mind charlie is ray msnbc contributor. And your review the response to harvey so far. Underwelcome, i guess would be the gentlest critique i could give it. I was driving somewhere earlier this week and heard mike pence on the radio talking in texas. And i had this like moment of like both fear and relief at thinking he might be the president. You know its its a low bar to sound president ial these days. But in guy who has the personality of a ken doll managed to seem compassion it and empathetic in comparison to the actual president who literally did not see any of the flood damage himself. Literally saw nothing on his own with his own eyes. About the devastation going on there. Didnt touch a single survivor. Its astonishing. Also, you know you did a lot of good contextualizing for the donation socalled. I would like to point out its one tenth of one pers percent of the 1. 0 billion that trump proposes to cut from fema. The reason a lot of us give money in times like in is because we cant do anything else. This is the way to feel involved. We cant get physically involved. Were not a member of the government. So we cant do anything structurally so we give money. The president can do a lot. A Million Dollars is even if he literally even if he actually gives it its literally almost the least he could do. He could do more in terms of preparedness, in terms of climate change, in terms of getting people to realize that we need to change the we think about development. I am going on a little bit. I want to hear from charlie. Charlie, the president the president could make out that personal check to the United States treasury, just send it in there. Of course then it would not be a deduction. But certainly fema they know what to do with the money. Congratulations if in fact he writes out the check but the questions you ask are comparison. Your comparison with sandra bull okay is right on point. But no one is asking whether sandra bull okay whether she is writing the money or whether its her own money. Because unlike the president she is not a grister when it comes to charity. Anna marie touched on this. The absolute complete lack of empathy by in man was on display this week. I actually think people are starting to see this. You watch some of the focus groups. Look at some of the police. People are sort of stepping back going we might have supported i him because we thought he would fight for us. But it turns out its always all about him. Its all about donald trump. And you can kind of sense you know a growing sense of understanding about the character of this man. And, again, when you have a Natural Disaster like this is it too much for the cht of the United States to be a healer, somebody to focus the nations attention, do the things that anna marie was talking about is it too much to ask . And the contrast between mike pence who is not necessarily the warmest cuddlyiest guy in the world and donald trump was pretty dramatic this week i thought. Anna, the congress has a lot of important business to do in september, raise the debt ceiling, get a budget passed and pass some new money that money that no one contemplated until now. Pass new money for the Hurricane Harvey relief and thats a very, very big package. The truth of where the president is on this will come in how he tries to help in managing that legislation. Or if he doesnt do anything at all. Right. Which is what i imagine will happen. He is going to tweet fox and friends and talk about he saw on tv. His entire reaction to the storm seems to be as though it was sweeps week. As though he was watching a Weather Channel special and not actually seeing this horrific catastrophic event take place, something thats unprecedented in terms of how many people displaced and how much rebuilding there is going to be. He doesnt feel anything except what he feels for television. And charlie well see how much he pushes the congress to get this done. Yeah, absolutely or because i do think that you know for him it is the show its not the policy its not the results. Anna marie and charlie, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you. Tonights last word is next. 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. Certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. Before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if youve ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. Tell your doctor if youve ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all the medicines you take including herbal supplements. Taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. Common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. Ready to let go of hep c . Ask your hep c specialist about harvoni. Cohigher ad higher parents arent perfect, but then they make us Kraft Mac Cheese and everythings good again. More boy and these are the lungs. class ewwww boy sorry. dad dont worry about it. mom honey, honey, honey, honey vo at our house, we need things that are built to last. Thats why we got a subaru. avo love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Get 0 apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 legacys. Ends august 31st. President trump reportedly has his problems with secretary of state rex tillerson. This could be one of them. Particularly i want to thank the government of mexico for the offer of assistance to the state of texas. They have offered a wide range of assistance, coordinated with the governor down in texas and also through fema. But a very generous of mexico to offer help at this challenging time for citizens down in texas. Thank you very much mr. Secretary. Youre absolutely welcome. And we are here to help. We are neighbors. Friends and thats what friends do. That was yesterday at the state department. Thats tonights last word. The 11th hour starts now. Tonight, the wall street journal breaks new details on how the president s attorneys have been meeting with Robert Mueller. And making their case that trump didnt obstruct justice. Plus speaking of the special counsel, he has more help. Mueller has reportedly called in the irs. And Paul Manaforts notes from the scrutinized meeting with donald trump jr. And russians. The 11th hour on a thursday night begins now