Sort of whimper and probably more protests in the streets. We will see you again on monday. I hope you have an excellent week. Now its time for the last word with katy tur filling in for lawrence tonight. Hey, rachel. Can you say bloody catastrophe with a british examined. Both terrible. Both brexit and your british accent, im sorry to say. If i do a fake british accent, it actually sounds like im scaring. We wont go there. Rachel, have a wonderful weekend. Im katy tur in for lawrence odonnell. Exactly one week ago special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report to attorney general william barr detailing his investigation into President Trump and russia. In the weeks since, its become clearer every day that the fight to release muellers full report might be uglier, dirtier and just as controversial as muellers actual investigation. That is especially evident after barr sent a letter this afternoon to the chairman of the senate and house judiciary committees. Barr writes in part, we are preparing for the report preparing the report for release, making redactions that are required. The special counsel is assisting us in this process. And that is where things get tricky. What barr decides to redact and why he decides to make those redactions will be the subject of intense scrutiny and debate. House democrats are calling for maximum transparency, but barr seems to suggest in his letter that what could amount to a substantial part of the report will be redacted. He says hell redact grand jury material, intelligence information, information that impacts ongoing cases and, information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties. Basically embarrassing information from players who barr potentially decides are not part of the main investigation. That is a lot congress potentially will not see. Thats a lot potentially the public will not see. It is hard to imagine democrats going along with that. According to the atlantic, House Democrats position now is that there is nothing stopping barr from giving us the grand jury material that informed muellers findings, according to a democratic staffer who spoke with reporters. If he doesnt then that amounts to a coverup. That sets up a major confrontation between democrats and the Justice Department. And nbc news reports that dems are ready to fight. The next step democratic staffers said would be a subpoena. Well have more to say on april 3rd. One staffer said. Right now House Democrats have demanded access to the full report, including its supporting documentation. By monday april 2nd. Another possible point of contention, barr says he does not have plans to submit the report to the white house for a privilege review, but as ari melber pointed out earlier tonight, that wording is key because barr could very easily change plans later. And former federal prosecutor joyce vance points out that barr could, theoretically advise trump are some items he believes he should exert executive privilege on. If the white house tries to keep parts of muellers report hidden, it doesnt take much to imagine how that would turn out. Another interesting point that should not be overlooked is barrs twopage letter. In that the attorney general pushes back directly on media reports and other public statements criticizing the memo and his outline of muellers findings. Public statements like this. I have said and ill say again, no thank you, mr. Attorney general. We do not need your interpretation. Show us show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions. To delay the release of an over 300page report written by mueller so the American People and we senators and congressmen can see what was written has too much of the odor of political expediency to help the man who appointed him, President Trump. Barr states in his letter tonight that he did not summarize muellers report and adds that his letter was not and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting of the special counsels investigation or report. Instead barr argues the memo was a summary of muellers principal conclusions. One point of contention here, mueller did not make a decision on obstruction. That one was made by barr and Rod Rosenstein themselves. Despite barrs apparent frustration over how his original memo should be characterized, this example makes it clear that bill barr has been paying attention at the very least to democrats and to media coverage. For the first time he gave a firmer date for releasing the report, setting a midapril deadline for a redacted version. Also for the first time barr confirmed that the report is nearly 400 pages long. It is important to keep in mind that that does not include supporting documentation. So we could easily see an entire report that is a whole lot longer than that. But so far barrs concessions arent enough for democrats who are already out swinging tonight. House judiciary chairman jerry nadler rejected barrs midapril deadline saying, as i informed the attorney general earlier this week, congress requires the full and complete Mueller Report without redactions as well as access to the underlying evidence by april 2nd. That deadline still stands. House intelligence chairman tweeted earlier, redactions are unacceptable, and he spoke with us a short while ago with rachel maddow. Almost none of what hes doing is required by law or by the regulations. He certainly didnt need to provide that summary nonsummary. Presumably in a 400page report by the special counsel, the special counsel wrote his own summary. Mmmhmm. And there would have been nothing to preclude bill barr if he wanted to give a forecast of what was to come in releasing the summary. Folks, you may want to buckle up. We are in for a long and bumpy ride. Leading off our discussion tonight is lisa graves, who we booked because of her expertise as a former staffer on the Senate Judiciary committee. She also has experience in the Justice Department as a former Deputy Assistant attorney general under president clinton. She knows how congressional committees interact with the doj and how critical negotiations like this one happening now take place. Also joining us tonight, ambassador wendy sherman, former undersecretary of state for Political Affairs and an msnbc Global Affairs contributor. And jonathan alter, columnist for the daily beast and an msnbc political analyst. Lisa, i do want to start with you first because it does seem like there is going to be a battle between congress, specifically democrats in the house and the doj. If democrats want to see the entire redacted version and theyre arguing that theyre able to keep that secret, if youre worried about sources and methods or youre worried about grand jury material. What sort of argument will they make to the Justice Department that will succeed . Well, im not sure about that, but i think they may end up having to go to court over it. What you see here is congress that is a coequal branch of this government. Congress in fact has superior authority in the area of impeachment. Its specifically given the power of impeachment. And what youre seeing from the Justice Department is really an effort to ignore history. What you saw in watergate was a prosecutor who did not reach conclusions, recommendations, but was preparing that material extensively in watergate for congress determination because it certainly is congress determination whether to impeach President Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors, whatever they may be. I dont know about you, katy, but i was certainly shocked to hear that there were 400 pages in this report. Now, as a lawyer, thats like 200,000 words and thats not counting the appendeces and the graphs and charts. The idea that william barr would hold to himself with Rod Rosenstein the right to basically summarize that and dismiss that evidence going from a friday night to a sunday, thats not time for any normal person to actually assess that evidence. After 40 lawyers, 50 investigators, you know 2,500 subpoenas, 500 witnesses, the idea that they could reach this conclusion and think that its going to stick is pretty absurd. Congress has a right to that material and i would say the American People have a right to see that material as well. Wouldnt barr be playing with fire, though, if he sent out a memo of principal conclusions from the Mueller Report . Again, his decision on obstruction was his and not muellers, but that greatly deviated from what mueller presented in his actual report . Yeah, i think thats not likely to have happened, but the devils always in the details. And at some point Soon Congress anyway is going to see those details and this whole story may take on a very different coloration. Just because he didnt commit a crime, according to mueller, doesnt mean that the president and the people around him werent engaged in seriously improper behavior, and we might get insights into that. We will get insights into that when we see this material. Now, watergate was just mentioned. There was a very interesting relevant case in 1974, its called haldeman versus sirica, and in that case an Appellate Court found overwhelmingly that congress did have the right to this material from the Justice Department. So, you know, if they abide by precedent, congress will get this, whether they get it on april 2nd or later on remains to be seen, but we are going to see this and the pressure works, katy. The fact that barr had to back and fill today so he didnt look like a political hack, that meant that whats happened over the last week with these calls for the release of the report have been having an effect. Lisa, though, lets talk about what barr has said he would redact. There is information he says hes going to redact in there that would potentially jeopardize current investigations, and we know there are other investigations going on. Is there an argument to be made that some of that might need to be redacted . When youre talking about sources and methods, might some of that need to be redacted if the Intelligence Community weighs in . Are there valid arguments in your opinion and from your experience to redact some material that might be in this report . Well, i certainly think for the Intelligence Committee in the house for hpsci, they deal with sources and methods material all the time. They deal with some of the most Sensitive Information in the entire u. S. Intelligence community and there is no basis for redacting that from that committee. In terms of the other committees, i think congressman nadler is right, they have a right to see that full report. There are circumstances in which the Justice Department and the congress negotiate about the terms of sharing information, particularly, for example, grand jury information. But its certainly not the case that there is no precedent for sharing grand jury information with congress and that there is certainly there is certainly no precedent to suggest that the white house and the pardon me, the administration cant share sources and methods information. Thats opposite of the reality. The reality is there is ample precedent for sharing this information with congress under terms that are negotiated, and i think there is ample precedent for the vast majority of that information that does not pertain to a pending prosecution to be made public for all the American People to read. Ambassador, this investigation is not just about donald trump and his campaign, its about we believe its about russia and how russia meddled or attacked our elections and how they were influential. What sort of information does the public need to see, in your opinion, to give us a better idea of what exactly happened in 2016 so were informed for 2020 . Well, first of all, you know, one of the big differences between the United States and russia is were a democracy. We believe in transparency. We think transparency is important for accountability. Our most sacred documents start off we the people because government is about citizens asking for a government, but that government is governed by the people, and so transparency is about respecting people in a democracy, and we undermine our institutions when we dont have that transparency because it makes people even more suspect. And weve seen how the president has tried to tear down american institutions, so if william barr does not share a full report with congress and the congress doesnt share as much as possible with the American People, were undermining the very nature of our democracy and we are saying to russia that the way you conduct yourselves, which is full of secrecy and kgb tactics, because president putin is really a kgb agent now governing his country, that we are really heading in the wrong direction. I must say, katy, i wonder the president goes and does his big rallies. He really talks about everything with the people at his rallies. I would hope that he respects those people enough to share all the information with them and not be worried a bit about it because thats who we are as a country. Doff lnt bet on it. Well, you might be hoteling your breath for awhile. Ambassador, what is the message that russia is already getting . I mean, adam schiff would say that there is evidence of collusion. Republicans would push back on that. So would so would donald trump. Regardless, it seems like from at least the barr version of muellers report that there was no conspiracy here. There was no not enough evidence of conspiracy to criminally convict anybody, but what we do have is a president ial candidate, at the very least, standing at a podium in july of 2016 and saying, russia, if youre listening, find the emails. Absolutely. There was a president ial candidate waving around the wikileaks releases and saying i love wikileaks and reading off the embarrassing information to his advantage. That stuff all happened very much in the open. Then there is a reporting on the don jr. Trump tower meeting. We know all of that. What is the message that russias already gotten. Absolutely. The message that russias gotten is that the attorney general of the United States can put out a fourpage document about a 400page report and basically say everything is okay and, russia, youve gotten away with it. I think that putin probably feels pretty good today. Now when those 400 pages come out, and i really think there will be a big push to get them out because 75 of the American People in a new poll that came out today are in support including a majority of republicans support the report becoming public because it belongs to the american citizens to find out whats really gone on here. Whats really concerning, katy, beyond all of this is there is no really comprehensive plan in our government to ensure that we do Everything Possible to make sure that our next election is safe and secure. We know that russians tried again in the 2018 election. We dont think there was any major problem with that election, but it was because a lot of people in states and a lot of other people were on board. A president ial Campaign Raises the stakes considerably and i dont think our governments prepared to take this on. On the other on the flip side, what does it say to a president ial candidate Going Forward on what they can do . Well it says to a president sorry, john. Go ahead. I think, you know, eventually the congress is going to enact legislation as it did after watergate to correct a lot of the abuses that weve seen. But, you know, one thing very interesting that barr mentioned today was, he said he is, quote, required to redact, to protect representational interests. That is a loophole that you could drive a mack truck through. Yeah. He could basically redact the whole thing since everybodys reputation is on the line. But what he didnt mention is that his reputation is on the line, too. Talk about reputational interests. I mean, you know, when he was attorney general in 1992, william sapphire, conservative columnist, wrote a column about what a hack attorney general barr was because he was protecting president bush from an independent counsel. If he continues to engage in such a shameless political fashion, one member of Congress Called it a coverup you heard it right at the top of the show. Were not quite there yet, but its beginning to smell a little bit like a coverup. If he continues down this road he will hurt not just his own reputation but he will remind the American People that the president really has something to hide. Jonathan alter, thank you very much. Sorry, i didnt mean to cut you off there on the end. Wendy sherman and lisa graves, i apologize. Appreciate it, you guys. Thanks for joining us tonight. And coming up next, well get reaction from a freshman democrat working to hold the Trump Administration accountable on the Oversight Committee, which will vote next week to subpoena the white house personnel Security Director about the security clearance process. Also ahead, what is qanon and why were so many enthusiasts of qanon at the trump rally in michigan last night . And in tonights last word, some words from the michigan rally and Donald Trumps deep thoughts. An rally trumps deep thoughts. danny let me get this straight. After a long day of hard work. You have to do more work . Every day youre nearly fried to a crisp, professionally can someone turn on the ac . no . Oh right. cause there isnt any. Here vo automatically sort your expenses and save over 40 hours a month. Without you, we wouldnt have electricity. Our hobby would be going to bed early. vo you earned it, were here to make sure you get it. danny its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. You need insurance. 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The Trump Administration has been stonewalling multiple congressional investigations by refusing to comply with dozens of document requests. But democrat have a new strategy to force the white house to work with them. The Washington Post reports that House Democrats are seriously considering withholding money from Key Administration priorities until their document requests are met. It is not clear yet which departments could be targeted, but according to the post in the coming weeks as House Democratic appropriators write bills funding agencies and departments across the federal government, they will be working with chairmen to find out what one official called pressure points to force compliance. The white house has refused other requests for documents relating to trumps family separation policy. Jared kushner and ivankas use of a private email account and the illegal hush money payments to women that Michael Cohen alleged he made at trumps direction. Democrats on the house ways and Means Committee ramped up efforts to formally request the president s tax returns after cohens testimony last month revealed key details, including telling congressman jimmy gomez that he did not believe trump was telling the truth about being under audit. Mr. Cohen, do you know whether President Trumps tax returns were really under audit by the irs in 2016 . I dont know the answer. I asked for a copy of the audit so that i could use it in terms of my statements to the press and i was never able to obtain one. Joining us now and a member of both the house ways and Means Committee working to get the president s tax returns, and the Oversight Committee investigating the White House Security clearances, democratic congressman jimmy gomez from california. Congressman, thanks so much for being here. Just out of curiosity, what sort of funding do you think should be on the table in terms of revoking that funding in order to get the white house to submit to the document requests or these subpoenas . You know, one of the things that people dont really understand is that a lot the leaders and the chairs of different committees act as a team. Everybody is doing their part. So oversight investigating, of course, the security clearances, ways and means investigating the tax returns, and now appropriations is looking at those pressure points. And i know chairwoman nita lowey is still looking at what those pressure points will be, but theyre going to do it in a concerted manner to make sure we maximize that pressure. Do you have an idea of what that would look like and are you concerned there would be public backlash to Something Like that . As long as it doesnt undermine, you know, public safety, it doesnt undermine any key, you know, business of the federal government, i think the public will be okay. But, you know what . I want to just kind of point out something. This administration, weve had wilbur ross to come and testify, we had steve mnuchin, we had kirstjen nielsen, we had the acting attorney general, and they all showed one thing, theyre not going before congress to answer questions, theyre there to protect the president and to dodge and delay and to push back so we have to find other ways to hold this administration accountable. In terms of what you think the priorities should be thats my question. What do you think the priorities for democrats should be . Is it getting the full Mueller Report right now . Is it investigating and trying to get ivanka or Jared Kushner in front of committees to talk about security clearances . Is it getting Donald Trumps taxes . Is it investigating conflicts of interest or emoluments . What is the what should be the priority right now when it comes to donald trump . You know, we have to do it all, and thats the problem with this administration, they have so many different avenues that we have to go after. So, first, we need a push to make sure that we get the full Mueller Report without redactions. And the reason why is that the American People wont trust this report unless its fully revealed. I also believe sitting on both ways and means and oversight that tax returns will tell us a lot. Allen weissleberg, his finance person, if we can bring him in to testify, were going to understand how did he use the tax code to either enrich himself or avoid paying taxes. I think that is somewhere we should go as both the Oversight Committee as well as the ways and Means Committee. In terms of the Mueller Report, do you expect to see anything in the Mueller Report about Donald Trumps tax returns . You know, im not sure. Thats one of the reasons why we need to get our hands on it. I think we need full transparency. I support chairman nadler holding this administration to the april 2nd deadline, and i think we need to push back as a Democratic Caucus and as a house of representatives over our role as a coequal branch of government. Congressman jimmy gomez, thanks for joining us tonight. Thank you so much. And coming up, how much do you know about the Conspiracy Theory qanon . Nbc News Reporter ben collins has been covering the protrump antihillary conspiracy and he was shocked by what he saw at the trump rally last night. Hes going to tell us about that right after this break. Thats a win. But its not the only reason i switched. Geicos a company i can trust, with over 75 years of great savings and service. Now thats a winwin. Switch to geico. Its a winwin. Paper prepares us switplease have a seat. Showcases the best ideas and motivates decisions. Lets get started. 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And it made National News when Vice President mike pence tweeted and then soon deleted a photo showing him with a Police Officer who wore a patch with the letter q. But what is it . Simply put, its kind of a Conspiracy Theory, a Conspiracy Theory fan fiction, if you will, that started and is based on anonymous postings on an internet message board in which someone or in reality many someones posting as q falsely claim that the world is run by a satanic cabal of elites led by barack obama, Hillary Clinton and the deep state. And that donald trump with the help from secret allies, including special Counsel Robert Mueller, will expose and defeat this deep state. Now where have we heard that term before . The crazy attempt by the Democrat Party and the Fake News Media right back there and the deep state. To overturn the results of the 2016 election have failed. So why are we talking about it tonight . Well, because supporters of qanon were out in full force of President Trumps rally in grand rapids, michigan on thursday. You can see in this line of Trump Supporters waiting in line to get into the event many wearing tshirts emblazoned with the letter q and shouting qanon slogans. Nbc News Reporter ben collins has been covering qanon for the past year. He reported the number at the number of proqanon reporters at the rally in grand rapids, michigan on thursday as absolutely shocking. Now, there is no evidence to back up any of the qanon claims. Again, absolutely none at all, and there is even a theory that the q posters might be elaborate pranksters modelling themselves off an italian book. But for those who wear tshirts and claim to be in the qanon clique, what do they hear when the president says things like this . All the current and former official who paid for and promoted and perpetuated the single greatest hoax in the history of politics in our country. They have to be, im sorry, they have to be accountable. Joining us now is nbc News Reporter ben collins, who is the perfect reporter to talk about this because he has been reporting on qanons presence at Donald Trumps rallies for the past year. Ben, so good to see you. What do those qanon supporters, believers hear when the president says stuff like that . They hear a wink and a nod, thats what they hear. No ones denied it or anything like that. There are people on the fringes of the trump orbit who have denied it in the past, but no one has out and out said this is crazy, this is insanity, please dont follow this thing. They rely on that sort of wink and nod. They rely on little clues like its numerology. Its not real winks and nods. But thats what they get into it. What is the danger when theyre showing up with q tshirts and q hats and q patches and theyre shouting qanon themes, whats the danger . This is a militant group. Theres been two murders tied to this group alone. One happened a couple of weeks ago. I dont know if you saw, somebody killed a mob boss and he held his hand up and said q on it in court. Here in new york city. Someone tried to burn down comet pizza. Same pizza place by the way, pizzagate is part of qanon. Every Conspiracy Theory from the right is from qanon. An hour before retried to burn this place down, he posted a qanon video from a very famous youtuber who has tens of millions of views. So why has this popped up at Donald Trumps rallies . I mean, it wasnt a huge thing during the 2016 campaign. Right. Its suddenly much bigger now. But i guess you could argue the pump was primed. I mean, i do want to play one sound bite from october 13th, 20 2016, and just listen to the terminology that donald trump is using. Weve seen this firsthand in the wikileaks documents in which Hillary Clinton meets in secret with International Banks to plot the destruction of u. S. Sovereignty in order to enrich these Global Financial powers, her special interest friends and her donors. So true. [ crowd chanting lock her up ] so that was at the end of the campaign. Donald trump didnt think he was going to win, looking for anybody to blame, and he was talking about this grand conspiracy to keep him out of office, to keep him from fighting for the people at those rallies. Is that part of the reason why this is such a prime place for conspiracy theorists to latch on to . Yeah, its perfect for them. What it does is it combines the two kinds of problems that we have on the internet and politics right now, where he primes the pump, like you said, and then there are these recommendation algorithms on websites like youtube and facebook where theyre searching what the president says. They say, you know, Hillary Clinton evil or Hillary Clinton part of a global cabal or something, but then the second video after that, the one that auto plays after that is whats the global cabal really . Oh, its about pedophilia, its about killing and eating children. There was a lot of this thing last year because its a doomsday cult about how one day there is going to be a tape that comes out that says Hillary Clinton is going to chop the face off a child. It never came because it doesnt exist, but it doesnt matter because the whole point of it is to extend the boundaries of how evil this set of people in the deep state can be. What is the remedy here, though . Is youtube, is twitter, is facebook, are they looking at this and saying this is an area that we need to police a little bit more . Dont you get into a very slippery slope with freedom of speech . Well, thats the thing, you can get into a slippery slope with freedom of speech, but they havent even gone down that road yet, right . They can give you better videos than if you type in Hillary Clinton evil. The auto play, essentially. Yeah. Like there are better there are better ways for things to happen automatically to you on the internet. Better algorithms. Yeah, exactly. This isnt a speech issue. I always say if you walk into a store, like a bookstore and say, hey, can you tell me about world war ii . If the bookstore is handing you mein kampf right away, im not sure thats a good bookstore. If the bookstore is handing you stuff about world war ii, thats probably a good bookstore. Thats what we need to start doing more on the internet. This is how it grew. People had good intentions sometimes. People had okay intentions. People wanted to learn about politics and they got radicalized over time because they were trying to solve that mystery. Thats a good analogy, bookstore. Ben collins, thanks very much for joining us and helping us understand. It is all very weird and confusing. Coming up, among the many things the Oversight Committee is investigating is the new report that donald trump inflated his assets to lenders and investors. Stay with us. Thats next. Whenever were about to get on a stage for a huge audience, i always give my dad, like, a facetime kinda moment. You see the crowd, you see the emotion. You know, he has that experience for the first time with me, and thats really important to me. I created a rockstar. both laughing announcer the best network is even better when you share it. Buy the latest iphone for you, and get iphone 10r on us for someone else. And get apple music on us, too. Only on verizon. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, every day can begin with flakes. Its a reminder of your struggles with psoriasis. But what if your psoriasis symptoms didnt follow you around . Thats why theres ilumya. 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Lawrence ended his show last night talking about the moral responsibility that 2020 president ial candidates have to release their 2018 tax returns before tax day on april 15th. But theres one candidate you can probably assume is not going to release his 2018 return, and that, as youve guessed, is donald trump. For nearly four years trump has repeatedly dodged questions about his tax returns by claiming they are under audit, a claim his personal attorney Michael Cohen cast doubt upon during his testimony before congress. And were learning more and more about why President Trump might not want his tax returns to be released. Yesterday Washington Post reporters David Farenthold and Jonathan Oconnell reported that donald trump regularly sent his Business Partners documents he called a statement of Financial Condition which detailed trumps properties, debts and multibillion dollar net worth. According to the post, those statements regularly inflated the value or size of trumps assets while omitted properties that carried big debts. One of the most blatant and easily disprovable errors contained in the documents is the claim that trump tower is 68 stories tall when, in fact, it is only 58 stories tall. The House Oversight committee is now investigating whether these misrepresentations cross the line into potential fraud, and as requested, ten years of these statements from the trump organizations accounting firm. As 2020 democrats start making moves towards transparency will donald trump be able to continue to dodge questions about his taxes and Business Practices . David k. Johnston and Christina Greer join me here next. Ere do, and youre gonna sing. Jamie, this is your house . I know, its not much, but its home. Right, kids . Kids . Papa, papa [ laughs ] you didnt tell me your friends were coming. Oh, yeah. This one is tiny like a child. Yeah, she is. 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Because we know mom wants whats best. More beverage choices, smaller portions, less sugar. Balanceus. Org im being audited now. A minor audit. Its under routine audit. Like, routine. But, but as soon as my routine audits finished, ill release my returns. Ill be very proud to. That is how the president dodged questions about his tax returns last election cycle. People in this studio are laughing right now. With a 2020 president ial democratic field pressing the issue in congress, will he be able to do it again . Joining me now is david k. Johnston, who knows more about taxes than just about anything. Author of its even worse than you think, what the Trump Administration is doing to america and Christina Greer, political scientist and associate professor at fordham university. David, the president has been claiming hes under audit now since the beginning of time. Hes offered no proof that hes under audit. A letter from his tax attorneys but now letter from the irs. We cant go to the irs and get that information because the irs cant answer those questions. And now because he is president , those tax returns are locked away in a vault somewhere. So its Donald Trumps word versus everybody else. Everybody seems to know that he doesnt want to release them. Do you think this reporting from the Washington Post today is one of the reasons potentially why . Well, the post reporting provides some delicious new details about his development in palos verdes, california, but i think one thing to keep in mind is that donald trump has been tried twice for income tax fraud. He lost both cases. The judges wrote opinions that just excoriated his conduct. There were badges of fraud that would have justified criminal action against him. These were civil tax fraud trials, and trump has never been willing to produce the audit letter, thats an announcement that tells you nothing except youre under audit. So why should we believe hes under audit if he wont even produce the audit letter, given his past record of known income tax cheating . Will he be forced to releasing them this time around . If all of the democrats do so, Bernie Sanders ends up doing it as well, will he be forced, will be shamed into it . No, because were dealing with a man who has no shame. Simple answer. Period. Right, no. I dont think so, no. Jay inslee was on fox friends this morning, he said im releasing all my taxes. He said, donald trump, i dare you to do the same. Is that the way to do it . Have democrats get on fox friends and say im going to release my taxes, the president s too scared to. It doesnt matter because unfortunately he has the Republican Party who is standing behind him. These are men who once i say men primarily, who once had respect and dignity for themselves and their party. Weve seen them behave as sycophants when it comes to this particular president because theyre afraid of him for a host of reasons. I dont think theyre ashamed of trump to know that there is a bottom less pit of a lack of selfawareness and absolutely no shame. Awareness. Everyone in the country can release their taxes and he still wont and hell come up with some excuse as to why hes going cheat. Lie, and steal. Hes inflated and deflated his assets according to a report from the Washington Post. The idea that he claims trump tower is 68 stories but in fact is 58 stories. Is something weve heard him say before. He thinks the atrium is ten stories and that should count so he adds it on top of the tower even though its 58 stories. The interesting thing about that reporting from the post, david, no Financial Institutions and bank complained about any of this. Even though they may have been loaning him money on Financial Statements that could potentially have been inflated or deflated, they were more bothered. Well, donald has gotten bankers to break the law. I have a copy of letter of chase bank which loaned him the entire Purchase Price of maralago and money on top of that which they pledge to not record the mortgage. So donald went around saying i paid cash for it, theres no mortgage. It is against the law to not report a mortgage. If wave full accounting of Donald Trumps finances, there are more things. There is the scam they ran and ivanka was deeply involved in in baja, california, ripping people off over a development that never took place. And throughout his career, donald has made up numbers and got away with it again and again. In this Case Congress under a 1924 law to avoid corruption in the tax system has an absolute right to see his returns. They look at peoples returns all the time. In addition to state of new york can go after trumps returns. The city of new york is the manhattan prosecutor, he can also go after his citys city return. In terms of return itself, we dont know whats in it and if well see it. Just wondering what difference does it make to like him. If there is a desire to pull away some of Donald Trumps support, and the idea may be oh people find out it was not his taxes or how hes leverage might convince people otherwise, do you think thats the case or is this a foregone conclusion for them . They dont care whats in the returns except donald trump of the person he is. The democrats cared because they think it is a larger issue that needs to be discussed. Donald trumps base does not care. They did not care. When the man came down the gold escalator and said that mexicans are rapists and we had the muslim ban and the trans ban, and shole countries and the base have not left him after charlottesville. Theyre not leaving. They dont care. They think his policies will help them. When people start filing their taxes in two weeks, theyll realize those tax cuts are not for them especially regular working class americans. But they are with him. And because of the Mueller Report, because theres so many egregious accounts that this president has done not just whilst in office but before office, which is pulling these threads of just years and years and decades of corruption, it seems as though its a witch hunt. We never had a president in modern history that was this corrupt or ignorant of the office and just completely disavowed norms and institutions. So it seems as though democrats are picking on him, but a lot of people, myself included, who are genuinely worried about the american democracy and the future of the country if we survive by 2020 or 2024. David, what about Bernie Sanders . Does he have the responsibility to release those taxes during the primaries or before the primaries or before he might or might not become the nominee . Bernie absolutely has an obligation here. I wrote about it in the last campaign when he played games about it. Bernard doesnt talk to me anymore since i pointed out his wife took it can be fraud. Okay, thank you guys very much. I switched to miralax for my constipation. Stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. Miralax works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. And it doesnt cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. Miralax. Look for the pink cap. You wouldnt accept from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. So why not bundle them with esurance and save up to 10 . Which you can spend on things you really want to buy, like. Well, i dont know what youd wanna buy because im just a guy on your tv. Esurance. Its surprisingly painless. President of the United States comes out in opposition to his own party. Thats what donald trump did last night. We have breaking news, ready . Can you handle it . I dont think you can handle it. I support the great lakes. Always have. [ cheers ] theyre beautiful and theyre big and very deep, record deepness, right . And im going to get in honor of my friends full funding of 300 million for the great lakes restoration. [ cheers and applause ] which youve been trying to get for over 30 years. The cheering crowd may not have realized that Donald Trumps budget calls for a massive cut to that program to protect the ecosystem of the great lakes that he took credit for. Congress appropriated 300 million for the program last year, but trumps latest budget proposes a 90 cut reducing funding to 30 million. In fact, every trump budget proposed cuts of the program. Michigan democratic congressman dan kildee compares to trumps quotes. They put out a fire that they started. And that wasnt the only selfmade fire donald trump tried to put out. His budget would have eliminate federal funding for the special olympics. But after that was wildly wmd, donald trump condemned it too. I just authorized a funding of the special olympics. Ive been to the special olympics. I just its incredible, and i just authorized a funding. I heard about it this morning. I have overridden my people. If he wants to protect the great lakes and fund the special olympics, why was it not in his budget . Does donald trump not know that his own administrations positions, what they are . Does he not agree with them, or is it like the Washington Post observed today . For President Trump, the easiest problems to solve are the ones created by his own policy. Thats all for tonight. All for the last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts right now. Tonight, the attorney general has issued a clarification. We are now told the Mueller Report is several hundreds pages long. He says we, the people, can expect a redacted version by midapril. The problem is thats not going to cut it for democrats in congress. Plus, a former ambassador to russia is with us to talk about what it was like in front of adam schiffs house intel committee. When the political divide burst wide open. And the president begins another florida weekend claiming hes been exonerated and threatening to shut down our southern border. All of it as the 11th hour gets underway on a friday night
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