Members of the trump cabinet watching i described how the 25th Amendment can be used to remove the president and make the Vice President what the 25th Amendment call it is acting president. Under the 25th Amendment, the Vice President and the majority of the cabinet can decide to invoke the 25th Amendment. That is entirely up to the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet. They dont need donald trump to become medically unable to do the job. They dont need a written opinion from a psychiatrist that donald trump is insane. If the president objects to such an action taken by the Vice President and the majority of the cabinet, then the amendment provides that, quote, Congress Shall decide the issue. And that will be determined by a twothirds vote of both houses of congress. When those votes are counted, mike pence could become acting president. Using the 25th Amendment is not, in fact, a complex process, as the op ed described it today. But that section could simply mean that the members of the cabinet who were whispering about invoking the 25th Amendment early on realized that they probably could not win that twothirds vote in the house and the senate after donald trump would object to their use of the 25th Amendment. And thats why they decided not to try it. Todays op ed piece is the first recorded instance in the history of the 25th Amendment of that amendment being discussed in a white house where the president is physically healthy and fully conscious. The cabinet was whispering about the 25th Amendment early on because of Donald Trumps amorality. And so according to todays New York Times op ed piece, as the resistance was marching in the streets against the president of
the United States, some Sleeper Cells of the resistance were beginning to take up positions inside the Trump Administration. And tonight the president of the United States will try to go to sleep without knowing who those members of the resistance are in his own white house and in his own administration. And so Donald Trumps circle of trust has reportedly been reduced to a point that seemed easily predictable at the outset. The Washington Post is reporting tonight trump already felt that he had a Dwindling Circle of people who he could trust. He fretted after wednesdays op ed that he could only trust his children. Leading off our discussion now, an Msnbc National Security analyst and former Chief Of Staff at the cia and the former Chief Of Staff to joe biden and
al gore. And former undersecretary of astate and an msnbc Global Affairs chairman, author of the new book not for the faint of heart. And wendy sherman, donald trump needs a lesson in what your book teaches, but he seems completely oblivious to everything that all of you on this first panel know about government and how it works and it is the reason you are all here, is because this is a story about the internal workings of the white house. You have all been here and we all know and the world knows we have never seen anything like what we saw in the New York Times today. And i just want to get your reaction to any part of that op ed piece as you have read it. There has been a lot of discussion about the process, who it is, which you will get to later this evening. Why he did it. Why he didnt have the courage that john mccains funeral spoke to us about. But the real point here is the president s behavior. We have a president who members of his own team believe is unfit to be president. Thats a constitutional crisis. There is a Corruption Crisis here, too, because the author of this piece says, hey, we left him in place because we like tax cut, Military Spending and deregulation. If the Republican Party is complicit in an amoral and unfit president because they are getting goodies for their donors, that is just corruption. And there is a chaos crisis. You have people in the president S Administration running around undoing his decisions, not following his orders, ignoring what he says. Thats chaotic. Donald trump tweeted treason. The answer is no. We have not had a treason case in america since world war ii because, as ive said before in this program, the United StatesSupreme Court has interpreted
the constitutions reference to treason as being as requiring a Declaration Of War and requiring cooperation with the country who is who we have declared war with in order to get to the standard of treason. And thats why we have not had a treason case since our last Declaration Of War, which is world war ii. Pardon that longer parentheses than i intended but sometimes the president is watching and he might learn something. Where do you see this going . What happens tomorrow in the Trump Administration . I think in some ways this anonymous piece may give rise to other pieces to come out, to speak out and to say, yes, indeed. We have a twotrack presidency. I think this is mostly relevant in the area of National Security, which is where i suspect this person works. But also it is the focus of the piece. The twotrack presidency where in essence we have foreign
policy decisionmaking thats been carried out by the career staff, the professionals as well as the senior appointees who know how to manage Foreign Policy issues. They are trying to keep things on an even keel, trying to work with allies and be tough on adversaries. Then the president is going off in a completely different direction. I think it is one thing if it happened in invested policy. Wendy sherman, this op ed piece creates either more confusion in the world or perhaps more clarity in the world because our partners in the world, our adversaries in the world, other countries have been wondering how you deal with this Trump White House and how you deal with donald trump. This op ed piece is saying you have to find the real person. If you really want to deal with the Trump Administration on x, whatever that is, find the real person who is in control of that because its not the president. Its the person who controls the paper involving x, and that person might or might not put that piece of paper or remove that piece of paper from the president s desk. So dealing with this presidency, it seems, becomes probably even more complex for foreign countries. I think a lot of National Security leaders around the world have gone and found those people that they can relate to and talk to, but in the end it doesnt matter because the keeps pulling the rug out from the people who are doing the work. Hell say, ill meet with the president any time, any place without conditions and then we have secretary mike pompeo coming forward and saying, no, not really. We want these conditions and these conditions and these conditions. At the end of the day, no one can be sure who is trying to keep our state, our country safe and protected on the right course. Theyre never sure whether the rug is going to be pulled out from under them. In the past, great patriots have left our government over issues of morality. They were Foreign Service officers. They could not stay. And i have said to many Foreign Service officers. Im sure jeremy and ron are saying, stay up until the point where it is ethically and morally not possible for you to do so. And then have the courage to speak out and speak your convictions. I wish this person had not spoken anonymously. Perhaps there is reason why the person did what they did. But what really matters here is changing the president of the United States, changing our politics, finding the courage, the persistence to get the job done for us. And when we think of the principles resignations, the threshold has been so much lower in the past, there was actually one that i can think of in the clinton administration, which was an Assistant Secretary in health and Human Services about Welfare Policy because bill clinton compromised too much with the republicans and he in principal resigned over that. I want to read you something that bob corker said today because it is shocking and completely obvious and was somewhere in the back of your head and in your set of assumptions already. Bob corker having read the New York Times op ed piece said i didnt think that anything was relayed in that op ed that was new. I mean, i think this is what all of us have understood to be the situation from day one. And so again it is not very it didnt reveal much to me. I understand this is the case. Yeah. And it points to another group that is responsible for the situation this op ed lays out. Thats the Republican Leadership in congress, which has failed to do their job of holding the president accountable. Even the ones that tweet and sometimes speak against him on capitol hill, you know, issue these mild rebukes rhetorically and then go and vote with the
president up and down the line. As you mentioned at the outset, someone who wanted to invoke the 25th Amendment would have to believe they had twothirds of the congress behind them for it to stick. With these republicans on capitol hill bowing to President Trump, thats what empowers the situation we face as a country right now. And jeremy bash, we dont know what twothirds of either body is going to look like after this upcoming election. But here you have as much chaos as we have ever seen in the Trump White House as donald trump has been attempting to lead the republicans in their reelection campaigns. Thats right, lawrence. I think the unavailability of the 25th Amendment is because, first, you have to have the Vice President on board. Second you have to have the majority of the cabinet and third you have to have twothirds of both chambers. What is a professional working on National Security or Security Matters to do. They will put their head down,
do their job and not do what the president says and carry out this quiet resistance. I just want to say, i dont think it is mysterious. It is not deep state or improper. I think it is patriotic, the right thing to do. It is what many of our neighbors, colleagues, friends here In Washington are sadly doing each and every day. All right. Were now going to be joined in our conversation by the democrat ek congressman who tweeted there is so much wrong about whats described in the New York Times op ed about donald trump. But blame falls squarely at the feet of the gop. Congresss absolute failure to check the president. They wont check him. So cowardly aids wont speak up publically and have gone rogue. You have made a point now that ron brought us to here, but you are making it today that this
should be looked at in terms of the fuller and wider Support System that donald trump has In Washington that really resides in congress. Good evening, lawrence. Thats absolutely right. This is directly the result of a Republican Congress that has been unwilling to do its job and to check the president. And they do that because they would rather get the tax cuts for the wealthiest and Gut Health Care protections. They figure hes worth the trouble. Look what it has caused. It caused aids in the white house to go rogue. I dont see these aids as patriotic. I see them as covering up very disturbing conduct. And the best thing they could do is to bring that conduct to light publically, name themselves, resign and allow democracy to do its job. If they do this and toil away in the dark, we dont truly know. It allows congress to get off the hook. We began the day without this op ed piece, without this voice
from inside the Trump Administration, Senior Administration official. We now have this voice. We now have this picture, which is a flawless reproduction of the picture were getting from Bob Woodwards book, the excerpts anyway, at this point. We dont have the name of the person. I have heard so much dissatisfaction today from people who dont yet have the name of the person. But dont we have something valuable . We have consistent evidence where all the arrows continue to point in the same direction, lawrence, whether its the Woodward Book, whether it was fire and fury, you have a reckless, corrupted, amoral president and they are doing everything they can to cover up for him, these aids. But you have a Republican Congress that just looks the other way. The author said that its cold comfort, but that they are
seeking to stop the president s worst instincts. There is nothing comforting about that. This person should come out publically and the republicans should be ashamed they have allowed this to happen. But democracy does not leave us helpless, lawrence. We can solve this this november and do the job these aids are doing and hold the president accountable. If democrats get control of the House Of Representatives, lets say we have that tomorrow, what would be the reaction of those chairs of those committees in the house to reading this op ed piece . Would they then be speaking the testimony from administration officials, high officials, Cabinet Officials asking them directly if they are the source of this article . I think the person people can count on us to do the investigations the republicans will not do, especially as it comes to National Security and particularly on the question of what was said in helsinki between the president and putin. We need the congress to speak up and hold this president accountable. Congressman, thank you very much. To turn back to our panel here, wendy, you worked on the democratic senate. What would you expect this op ed piece to provoke by way of possible Senator Investigation . I think the senate would go even further, i think. I think they would haul people in from the administration. I think they would look to see whether, in fact, it was time to invoke the 25th Amendment. You know, we count on the senate because they have sixyear terms and dont have to worry every two years about whether they will get reelected to have a longer view. We have to have a longer view that takes us to the 2020 election and really changes the leadership of this country. You asked about people around the world. They dont know what to do with us. They look at this corruption. It gives autocrats and dictators notice because they see a corrupt government. We cannot lead effectively under these circumstances. Jeremy bash, i have to believe there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Government Service workers in the departments, in the permanent staff in places like the State Department, places like the cia, the nsa, justice department, all over the administration who have read this Op Ed Piece Today and felt i am not alone. They might not know who joins them in that feeling in the next office or the next cubicle, but i have to believe that there are hundreds and hundreds of people working in the administration at the level that really gets the job done and really keeps the government moving who read that
Op Ed Piece Today and saw in it a reason for them to continue. Youre right, lawrence. This op ed is no minority report. I think it is the consensus view, the vast majority of people who work around the white house, the senior levels of the administration, have arrived at the same view of this. There are the people i talk to, the people that ron, wendy, eric talk to, you talk to, lawrence. I literally have not talked to a senior person who said, actually, everything is fine. The president is perfect. Hes making great decisions. Were all standing in line. That just doesnt happen. This bursts into the open whats been whit perred about In Washington for two years. Ron, there is senator corker saying day one it was his assumption on day one. And he had information on day one as a result of the transition that this is the way it was going to work. There were going to be people in there who were going to try to keep this unfit person who was occupying the presidency under their kind of control. Yeah. And, look, preday one, right, we saw it on The Campaign Trail Last year. We saw the warnings secretary clinton tried to issue. We saw his behavior as a candidate and all the things he said. The transition followed that. And the situation were in now is the inevitable product of that, lawrence. The product of the fact that there are career staff and responsibility political appointees who feel like they have to serve in the government. They are serving the government. They try to do the right thing. There is a story that secretary mattis rejected a direct order from the president because he thought it was unlawful. Thats his constitutional responsibility as well. It is not a good situation, and it is not a healthy situation and it needs to be rectified. It needs to be rectified by the person that wrote this and others coming forward and telling the whole story and not continuing to operate in the shadows. Thank you all for getting us started in our special coverage this evening. Were going to take a break here. When we come back, the question everyone, including donald trump, is asking tonight. Who is it . Who did it . Who wrote that op ed piece . I have been thinking about it, kind of studying it. My educated guess is next. Ou ha. Little things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with. An increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts,. Or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight
and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. President calls gutless and anonymous and is now demanding that the New York Times must turn over that person to the government. That person has already been turned over to the government by donald trump. Donald trump chose the person who wrote todays op ed piece that has become the president s obsession. It is one of Donald Trumps best people. Weve got the best people. I know the best people. Were going to use our best people. The best people. The best people. I know guys that are so good. And now theyre gutless. Its one of them. And its someone who knows what the cabinet was thinking early on about possibly invoking the 25th Amendment to remove donald trump from the presidency. The times used only the word senior official to describe this person. So the member of the cabinet of someone in the room with members of the cabinet all the time, a cabinet level official. The person still works there. So it is not the first secretary
of state Rex Tillerson or priens pree does reince priebus. In the words of the op ed piece, quote, working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agendas and his inclinations. It is easy to dismismost of the cabinet right off the bat because most of them have never demonstrated even the slightest disagreement with the president and most of them have never publically demonstrated the capacity for the kind of thinking about government and how it should work that is demonstrated in this op ed piece. So it is not steve or linda mcma hahn. There is every reason to believe
that the author of the piece is an experienced politician who knows the workings of Washington Well and knows how to deal with the New York Times at the highest levels. That leaves out almost everyone else, james mattis, Jeff Sessions, ryan sinky, alex azar. That leaves us with a short list that includes people like secretary of state mike pompeo, director of National Intelligence dan coats and nikki haley. The New York Times used he, but he have since tried to walk back that gender disclosure saying that its the, quote, the use of the word he was an error. But there are very few senior officials in the Trump Administration who are women and nikki haley works in new york city. She is not In Washington often enough to be accepted by the times as an authority of whats
really going on inside the Trump White House daytoday. And nikki haley has a future or at least wants to have a future in republican politics. So nikki haley would never take the chance of destroying her career in republican politics by being exposed as this author eventually will be as the betray your of donald trump inside the Trump Administration at the highest level. That brings our Guessing Game down to secretary of state and the director of National Intelligence. The op ed piece has a heavy emphasis on Foreign Policy. Take Foreign Policy in public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for awdictato the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly and where allies around the world are
engaged as peers, rather than riddled as rivals. Both have said that russians directed by Vladimir Putin did indeed attack our election. Dan coats and mike pompeo are doing what is described in that piece, calling out russia. The piece says the president , quote, expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its maligned behavior, but his National Security team knew better. This Isnt The Work of the socalled deep state. Its the work of the steady state. And so the one unit inside the Trump Administration that is called out for specific praise in this op ed piece is the National Security team. Mike pompeo and dan coats are
members of the National Security team. Mike pompeo served as the trump cia director. Mike pompeo and dan coats are both former members of the congress. Theyre both men who successfully ran for federal office, campaigned, got out there, made speeches. Mike pompeo became a member of the House Of Representatives. Dan coats first entered the House Of Representatives and then was elected to the senate. The op ed piece has a flow and a sweet to it that resembles a political speech. It is a Campaign Speech against donald trump. It has the highmindedness of an ambitious Campaign Speech. Both mike pompeo and dan coats are capable of the kind of thinking and phrasing and pacing that went into this Campaign Speech against donald 2ru78. But only one of them has no
expectation of ever making a Campaign Speech again in his life. Mike pompeo is an ambitious former member of the House Of Representatives who is 54 years old and has, he hopes, a bright political future ahead of him. So mike pompeo has a future in republican politics to protect. Which leaves us with 75yearold dan coats, who knows the director of National Intelligence is his last job in government. Dan coats was a reliable republican senator who could be counted on in every party line voechlt as a senator he always cared about things like deregulation, tax cuts, increased Military Spending, which happen to be the only three trump agenda items that get positive mention in the op
ed piece. Dan coats idea of a leader was Ronald Reagan who was elected to the presidency when dan coats was elected to the House Of Representatives. And his friend bob doyle was a leader. And dan coats is the only member of the Trump Administration who has ever had public moments like this. Moments after the president appeared to be siding with Vladimir Putin over you, you personally by name, you stood up and spoke out. Im wondering, why did you do that . Im not surprised were starting with russia. I was just doing my job. Just doing my job. That is what i watched dan coats
do every day that i worked in the United States senate in the 1990s. He was just doing his job. I disagreed with him on almost every policy question, but he appeared to be a serious republican senator trying to do his job. He wasnt one of the first people reporters would go to when there was breaking news in the senate, but he is one of those people now. We have some breaking news. The white house has announced on twitter that Vladimir Putin is coming to the white house in the fall. Say that again. Vladimir putin coming to the white house . Did i hear you right . Yeah, yeah. Okay. Thats going to be special. Were you aware of that . I think based on my reaction i wasnt aware of that. Would you recommend there not be a oneonone without note takers . If i were asked that
question, i would, yeah, look for a different way of doing it. The dan coats who i watched at work every day in the United States senate is not someone who could easily abide a donald trump in the presidency. And so based on the Process Of Elimination you have just seen and based on the content of the op ed piece which delivers specific praise to only one person by name, and that person is dan coats old friend in the United States senate, senator john mccain. My guess, my educated guess, is that the author of the New York Times op ed piece is john mccains old friend dan coats. The New York Times says the author of the piece approached the newspaper through an intermediary recently. It sounds like the approach came after john mccain died 11 days ago. Im sure dan coats has been thinking about john mccain a lot recently. And he has probably been asking himself what would john mccain do . And dan coats might have finally decided that what john mccain would do or what he would want dan coats to do would be to tell the American People the truth of what they needed to know about the president of the United States. Im wondering, when you watch that in helsinki, what was your gut reaction watching him validate Vladimir Putins assessment over yours . My thoughts there was that i needed to correct the record for that and that this is the job i signed up for and that was my responsibility. Obviously, i wished he had made a different statement. But i think that now that his its been clarified based on his
late reactions to this and so i dont think i want to go any further than that. That was as far as dan coats was willing to go publically. Two months ago. Today i think maybe dan coats went further than that. A lot further. burke thats what we call a huge drag. The Kayak Price Forecast tool tells you whether to wait or book your flight now. So you can be confident youre getting the best price. Giddyup kayak. Search one and done. Come hok. , babe. Nasty Nighttime Heartburn . Try new alkaseltzer pm gummies. The only fast, Powerful Heartburn Relief Plus Melatonin so you can fall asleep quickly. Oh, what a relief it is
stop fearing your alarm clock. With new zzzquil pure zzzs. A drugfree blend of botanicals with melatonin. That supports your Natural Sleep cycle. So you can seize the morning. New zzzquil pure zzzs. Let the guessing begin. The Washington Post says that donald trump has narrowed his list of suspects of who wrote that op ed piece to people who work, quote, on National Security issues or in the justice department. And i for once agree with donald trump. I think its one that works on National Security issues, and i think its dan coats. Who did it. Well ask our guests coming up. And, ron, i will let you go first because i saw a tweet from you earlier today saying you had a guess on this. We have not shared notes. I have no idea what your guess is. You have no idea what mine is until i just revealed. Ron, who wrote it . So, lawrence, i also sent that tweet it is someone i share something in common with. Thats my fellow hoosier dan coats. He is someone for whom there is no love lost. One of the few members of the administration to publically disagree with the president. It cites or handing of russia as a national success. And then it does have this political overlay, the language about free markets, free people, the embracing of tax cuts as a major success. Thats a republican politician. And then the ending kiss more john mccain. You add that all up. I think it fits dan coats like a glove. He doesnt really care about the consequences. I do think all the signals point to dan coats. Senator johnson, go ahead. In high school we learned the theory that shakes peer, was shakes peer an individual or a selection of people who put things together . I dont think it was one person. I actually thought it was mike pompeo and probably either sara Hukky Sanders and kellyanne conway. But the language was so flowing and flowery. You need a Communications Expert to put this together as well. So i actually think while one person they may use he or she from the New York Times, i think this was probably put together by two or three members of the administration all concerned who could then also say they have plausibility deniability. I would footnote that with dan coats has the people by his side to polish that. Jennifer rubin, who do you think . Jennifer palmeri said im pretty familiar with the Sourcing Rules for the New York Times and it could be someone one level one. There was one phrase in there, free markets, free ideas, thats
a russell kirk quote. Thats an undersecretary type. I think either in the State Department or perhaps working with dan coats. It is not the guy at the top of the food chain. And it is someone who would have had a lot of contact with trump, maybe made over seas trips with him, maybe been in the room with cabinet to initials, but that to me makes a lot more sense. As you point out, that language Doesnt Sound Like dan coats who is a kind of by the book kind of guy. The problem is, of course, even when their name is on an op sed, these people dont necessarily write their own material. They have Speech Writers and staffers. I dont think someone will trust another person to write it. So im going with State Department or National Security deputy kind of person whos one level down. I think every member of the cabinet and every senior official can expect their next
question from a reporter to be did you write that op ed piece and were going to see people saying no, and we might have someone refuse to answer, and that person rockets to suspect number one. We will squeeze in a quick break. Well be right back. Carla is living with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. Shes also taking Prescription Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptorpositive her2 metastatic Breast Cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. Patients Taking Ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. Before Taking Ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding,
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Tell me about that dental procedure again i can still taste it in my mouth progressive helps keep you out there. I can still taste it in my mouth Phone Ringing es offers big button,lized phones. And volumeenhanced phones. Get details on this state program. Visit right now or call during business hours. And our panels back with us. Jason johnson, i was struck by that phrase, One Way Or Another. The author of this piece seems to be absolutely fine with any way we get rid of donald trump, whether it be the 25th Amendment or impeachment or resignation or the Mueller Investigation or defeat in reelection. That One Way Or Another was very strong. What theyre also sort of implying here, lawrence, is they dont seem to have too much of a concern with how far this drags the country down until we get to that One Way Or Another. Look, i think this is a cowardly letter in general. I think you cant Dance With The Devil and then claim youre an angel and virtue signal, so at the end of the day while this person may anticipate doom, these sort of, you know, shifting the deck chairs on the titanic, thats not patriotic, thats cowardice. If youre doing this so you can get tax cuts and occasionally saving america, thats not something to be proud of. The gloom and gloom they predict seems to be the doom and gloom theyre comfortable with. Claiming they saved the world while they were there if there was still a world when they came out. What i did not expect was someone would do it from inside the administration in a New York Times oped piece in real time. Im with jason on this. I dont think this is particularly brave. By the way, the person goes out of the way to make a very peculiar point, which is we didnt want to create a crisis by invoking the 25th Amendment. We have a crisis. Its a crisis when the elected president of the United States is not really running things. That we have a rolling or a soft coup by people who think they know better than the person the American People elected. Listen, i didnt vote for donald trump. I think hes a nightmare. But this is not democracy. This is not how its supposed to work. We do have legal processes for moving a president out, whether it is the 25 amendment, whether it is impeachment, whether it is his party rising up and demanding his resignation. So i dont put too much stock in this persons fidelity to constitutional principle, and i am a little concerned that this is just a cya in a very dramatic fashion. The Washington Post is referring to in its reporting tonight what theyre calling Sleeper Cells in the white house. They say the phrase the Sleeper Cells have awoken circulated on Text Messages amembers of Congress Aides and outside allies. Its the Horror Movies when everyone realizes the call is coming from inside the house, said one former white house official, in close contact with former coworkers. Ron klain, the Sleeper Cells have awoken. This president is going to try to find out who this is, we know that. Right. So the question becomes, Whats Going On in the president s own attempt to do this . Will he pick up the phone . Will he call dan coats after watching this show . Will he call other people in the administration . His own suspects and ask them directly. Well, we know that hes raving mad tonight. Thats scary. But ill say its one more thing that does point to dan coats. The author would have to believe they have the tradecraft to write this, not have it be found out and get it to the New York Times, not have their computer be searched, not have their email be searched. That, again, points to the director of National Intelligence, who would have the socalled trade craft to pull off this kind of a thing. And, ron sorry, jason johnson, the investigation, however this i dont even know if thats the right word for it within trump world about this is obviously going to consume the president and who knows who else. We were wondering yesterday how long john kelly has before he gets fired for calling the president an idiot in Bob Woodwards book. Tonight the president is thinking, thats the high ground for him, people calling him an idiot in Bob Woodwards book. Thats nothing compared to this oped piece. Oh, yes, lawrence, this is not going to be an investigation, this will be an inquisition. They will be dragging people all through the streets trying to find out what happened. And, again, i think a key thing we find out in this letter again is hes not complaining about the muslim ban, hes not complaining about charlottesville, hes not explaining about some of the egregious things thiS Administration has done, hes primarily talked about National Security. Thats where theyre going to come in. Again, its still cowardice. Its still saying i worked at the death star but tried to aim it a little to the left. Thats where the president is going to focus his inquisition. Somebody is probably going to get caught and a lot of people are going to be fired after midterms. Jennifer ruben, donald trump is a very cowardly man. Hes demonstrated that throughout his life. Within the administration the only person weve heard about him willing to confront directly is Jeff Sessions, probably because hes physically small and probably because, as donald trump has revealed in the Woodward Book and elsewhere, he thinks Jeff Sessions is stupid because he is a southerner with a southern accent who did not go to an ivy league school. But donald trump confronting dan coats or donald trump confronting mike pompeo or anyone else in that administration is actually something hard to envision for such a cowardly man. Its true. He actually doesnt even confront Jeff Sessions. He just tweets about him and rages about him to other people. He could fire him if he wanted. He is president of the United States. But he wont even do that. So i think thats right. I think he will end his minions out to forage around in desks and look at computers and look at phones and all the rest of it. Maybe hell even roll out the lie detector tests. That would be fun. But i dont think that he is going to have the nerve to look someone like dan coats in the eye and say, you did it. I know you did it. I dont think thats his style. Ron klain, youve been involved in trying to strategize Congressional Elections for democrats. This is the kind of moment that is the nightmare moment for a party where youre everything youre trying to do gets
completely distracted by the person who is supposed to be the figurehead of your campaigning. Yeah, i mean, you know, theyre about to send President Trump out on the stump to campaign for republicans who is considered incompetent by his own administration, an idiot by his Chief Of Staff, possibly removable from office. I mean, it is a nightmare. Its a nightmare of unprecedented proportions and i think its why democrats are so enthusiastic about our possible quinns this fall. Ron klain is going to get the last word in tonights discussion. Thank you all for joining us in tonights coverage. Really appreciate it. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts right now. Tonight, another wild day capped off with another audible alarm from within the white house. A Senior Administration official shares his deepest fears with readers in the New York Times. The president wonders if its treason tonight with a bob