Before you go. Beginning with the end of the discussion about mike flynn. That scenario that maybe Michael Flynn lied to the fbi in a way that surprised them so much because he knew these questions were coming, maybe he did that because he was directed to do that by someone. Who could that someone be . Donald trump. That is a scenario i had not considered before hearing it here tonight. And it puts a whole new cast on the gymnastics that the Trump Administration and now bill barr are going through to try to get flynn protected. I mean, he did cooperate to a certain extent with the mueller investigation. And then he stopped. And then he was going to go to prison. And then they intervened to make this thing go away so he doesnt have to go to prison. If he was lying to the fbi because he was protecting the president from being exposed for his secret communications with the russian government during the transition, i mean, thats a whole different thing. That would also put a very different cast on any effort by the president to pardon mike flynn because even though the president s pardon power is absolute, you cant pardon somebody to protect yourself, at least arguably. So the strzok book is really, i think, quite important. And that would also have possibly included some kind of communication to Michael Flynn that there is a pardon. There is something coming. Were going to help you work your way out of this. Pull out of that guilty plea. Because we saw the most dramatic change of legal strategy by a defendant that i have ever seen, a guy who makes it very clear a couple times under oath, yes, i committed these crimes to then changing lawyers suddenly and making another claim that had no legal meaning whatsoever to anyone other than attorney general william barr. Yeah. And the interrogation of that process is going to happen in open court in the Federal District of d. C. On september 29th, the day of the first president ial debate. That judge gets to interrogate this bizarre unheard of process that they went through to try to snatch mike flynn from the jaws of defeat. And i the fact that all these things are happening at the same time and the prospect that strzok is raising what Michael Flynn could be covering up for, hot stuff. He spent his lifetime studying these kinds of questions and has gathered a lifetime of information in an arena that you would think would give him some real insight into what is the grip that Vladimir Putin appears to have on donald trump. And it turns out that where we are now is he seems to be in the same place as all of the people out there in the country who have just had the feeling that it must be financial. Its donald trump. It is some kind of grip. It must be financial. But he doesnt know definitively anything more than we do because that investigation was never really conducted. He was never he was setting up that investigation, right . So we know who he was enlisting in terms of fbi fire power for that investigation. We know that they had initial leads set up to do that investigation such that they knew they had to put together what he described as a 60person team to go after this stuff. He references President Trumps financial ties to russia and russians going back to the 80s. I mean, he gives you a lot of the ends of the threads here. Obviously anything thats related to an Ongoing Investigation or something that might be an Ongoing Investigation he cant talk about. But the implication between this and what mike schmidt just reported in his book in the New York Times within the last two weeks is that the financial investigation into the president and what lev ledge they have, they might have over him has never been done, even though it was started and set up, it has never been carried out as far as we can tell. You know, and then weve got good old Michael Cohen saying in his new book and telling me two nights ago that when President Trump was doing deals during the Obama Administration, he completely believed, not through some sort of else toe ter rick analys analysis, but believes that he has transactions he was making during the Obama Administration was Vladimir Putin paying him. So you put these things together and you see the russian effort to try to reelect him, and its just its all in the open. It is just a question of whether were going to fight it. Rachel, something you just said that i didnt quite understand. You said Michael Cohen was on your show two nights ago. Why does that feel like two weeks ago . Is that just this news week . That was two nights ago. Wow. I have realized that time ceases to follow any linear cascade when you dont sleep between days, and so thats what i think i have been doing wrong. Rachel, we have Eric Swalwell joinings us. That means we will have tonight on msnbc, two people, including you, two people who have read the strzok book. Were also going to ask him something i know you are concerned about, the california fires. He represents the Congressional District in california. I want to ask him what the situation is there and what he expects to see there in the next couple of weeks. It is a really grim situation out there. My parents rlive in congressm congressmans district. We are all riveted by that news and very concerned, so i am glad you have got him on about that. Thank you, rachel. Thanks, lawrence. Lets go to straight to congressman swal wel. You have been able to read Peter Strzoks book already. First of all, what did you hear in rachels interview tonight that struck you . Well, thank you for having me back, lawrence. I am concerned that we dont know what we need to know about donald trump to protect the country from what russia has on him. We have deep suspicions and all of the arrows continue to point in the same direction. When i was a prosecutor, each new witness i interviewed, you would always chart out whether the information theyre giving you points more toward guilt or if it points toward innocent. And actually in the law you are told that if you can draw a reasonable conclusion that information may point in both directions, youre to give the suspect the benefit of the doubt and say that it points towards innocence. Here everything we learn in these books from Michael Cohen or Peter Strzoks or even Bob Woodwards book, it all points toward guilt. It points to a compromised relationship that the president has where he continues to act in their interest, and we dont know exactly what this is because he blocks us at every effort to try to find out what the financial relationship is. And Peter Strzoks identified basically a lie donald trump told publically about the financial relationship. Lets listen to what peter strzok said about that with rachel in the last hour. I think that the places that he has exposure, the places where somebody like russia can place leverage over him, some of those examples, many are classified still, but some have become public and some point to exactly the financial coercion things like his lies, frankly, on the campaign trail in 2016 that he had no financial relationship with russia that clearly isnt the truth. Congressman, we all remember that very clearly, him saying, no, no, no no financial ties whatsoever. Michael cohen telling him, oh, yeah, we were trying to work out a moscow deal during the president ial campaign. Thats right, lawrence. When you put the president in different scenarios, you dont have to do hypothetical scenarios. We have seen him standing next to putin. Who does he choose . He chooses russia for who is responsible for interfering in the election. You look at what happened with the poisoning in britain back in 2018. Other countries are asking him to condemn russia and who does he choose. He says i would rather follow than lead on this, which is to benefit russia. You look most recently at Vladimir Putins opponent who was just poisoned. What does he do . He chooses the russian side by saying we havent yet seen all of the evidence. This is not a hypothetical theoretical example of somebody being compromised and acting as an agent. He actually does it in every scenario, real life scenario that hes in. One of the most important points you found in Peter Strzoks book . Well, i think his faith in the men and women at the fbi that they are still going to do their job if theyre allowed to is reassuring. The problem that i see is that even if you have good natured, hard working people with integrity, if they dont have leadership at the top, meaning from the president and other folks, they are gonna do their job and keep most of this private and confidential and away from the American People. And we have to make decisions in the next 54 days about who our leader will be. So it really is going to take whistleblowers to come forward, lawrence, through the legal channels as we just saw with the department of Homeland Security if the person people will truly know the rot that is happening at the top of the administration. We have a couple minutes left. And i dont want to run out of time to discuss the california fires, and we may even have some time to come back to this, but you represent a Congressional District, rachel was just saying where she grew up, in northern california. What is the situation in california tonight and in your district tonight . Thank you for asking, lawrence. I was at home yesterday and back in washington now and its an orange glow in the bay area. Its an ominous warning that we have to act on climate. First thank you to the firefighters who are on the front lines. Tomorrow it is 19 years since september 11th and we saw the brooifly of firefighters there and we have thousands right now fighting these fires. In my direct we have an all clear right now as far as evacuation warnings. But we know were at the beginning of fire season, not at the end. Whats disturbing is people say, wow, i cant remember a fire season that has been this hot or this smokey, but im afraid that this may be the least hot and least smokey fire season in the next hundred years if we dont act on climate that each year will be not as bad as the year to come. So it really is a flashing visual warning for us that we have to act. Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you very much for starting off our discussion tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you, lawrence. Wait until you hear what donald trump did last night inted of leading the country in the fight against the coronavirus. Thats next. Thats next. Sure. Okay. Okay safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. 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And innovation is at the heart of it. Verizon 5g ultra wideband is the fastest 5g in the world, with speeds up to 25 times todays 4g networks. Its massive capacity and ultralow lag time is already available in parts of select cities around the country. Which means businesses both large and small can innovate like never before. Footnow i got one toquestion for ya. How great do you want to be . The nfl makes it long awaited return. Putting on that jersey this season will mean more than ever at our home, i need everything you got. Everything. We want to to be the greatest. Perfect way to kick off the season. Xfinity is your home for the return of football. Today clinging to the wreckage of his presidency, donald trump confessed why he has no idea how to be president of the United States. I watch some of the shows. I watch liz mcdonald. Shes fantastic. I watched fox business. I watched lou dobbs last night, Shawn Hannity last night, tucker last night, laura. I watched fox and friends in the morning. You watch these shows, you dont have to go too far into the details. They cover things that are its really an amazing thing. Last night the president of the United States watched five straight nonstop hours of fox lunacy, and then he started his day today by watching three more hours of the same stuff, and he admitted that today in a press conference where he was trying to recover from the things that he admitted on tape to bob woodward. And Bob Woodwards new book rage. Donald trump is always the most damning witness against donald trump as he was today when he told us what he was doing last night for five hours, instead of reading the Harvard School of public healths new report on the impact of coronavirus on households in major u. S. Cities. The harvard report studied americas four largest cities and says half or more households in new york, los angeles, chicago and houston report facing serious financial problems during the coronavirus outbreak, with issues ranging from depleting their savings to Serious Problems paying rent. Donald trump doesnt know that because he spent five hours last night watching fox, and three hours this morning as he does every night and every morning. When donald trump went to the White House Briefing room today to try to rescue his Reelection Campaign from being swamped by the bob woodward book, he finally faced a first question that should have been the first question to donald trump every time he has submitted to reporters questions since he became a president ial candidate and then president of the United States. We had to wait until the end of the fourth year of the Trump Presidency for the first question to donald trump to finally be why did you lie to the American People . Why did you lie to the American People . And why should we trust what you have to say now . Thats a terrible question in the phraseology. I didnt lie. What i said is we have to be calm. We cant be panicked. This is worst than the most strenuous flu. Okay. And then you went on to say its just like the flu. What i went on and said is very simple. I want to show a level of confidence and i want to show strength as a leader. For donald trump showing confidence and strength always means moving his hands very strangely and lying, because he has no confidence and he has no strength and he never has had either of those things. Donald trump now stands accused in the court of Public Opinion of being personally responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people who would not have died if donald trump had told america what he told bob woodward on february 7th. It goes through air, bob. Thats always tougher than the touch. You know, the tough, you dont have to touch things, right . But the air, you just breathe the air, and thats how it passed. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than your, you know, even your most strenuous flus. You know, people dont realize we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year here. I say thats the same thing . This is more deadly. This is five per you know, this is 5 versus 1 and less than 1 , you know. So this is deadly stuff. If on february 7th donald trump had told the American People it goes through the air. You just breathe the air. Thats how its passed. Its also more deadly than the flu. Its pretty amazing. This is deadly stuff. If he had said that to the American People on february 7th, thousands of people who have been killed by the coronavirus would be alive today. Thats why kristin said this last night. I dont know if this is the coronavirus any longer or if its the trump virus. Kristins father died of coronavirus in june. Kristin says his only preexisting condition was believing donald trump. Today joe biden said this. He acknowledges that you breathe it. Its in the air, and he wont put on a mask. Hes talking about its ridiculous to put on masks. What do you need social distancing for . Why have any of these rules . It was all making sure the stock market didnt come down, that his wealthy friends didnt lose any money, and that he could say that, in fact, anything that happened had nothing to do with him. He waived the white flag. He walked away. He didnt do a damn thing. Think about it. Think about what he did not do. And its almost criminal. Almost criminal. What do you call a president who doesnt even know that more americans are unable to pay their housing costs than at any time in his lifetime. He doesnt even know that. There is not a single republican in elected office who is trying to help those people who cannot pay for their housing in america. The family of our next guest has been hit by the coronavirus, senator Amy Klobuchars house tested positive in march and has recovered. And her 92yearold father tested positive in june and has also recovered. Joining us now, the democrat from minnesota. Senator klobuchar, i want to get your reactions from what you have learned from the revelations in Bob Woodwards book so far. I think for anyone in america, and that is a whole lot of americans who have had this in their family where someone has gotten really sick and now we know 190,000 americans have died. By the way, all of this is coming out the day we hit the 190,000 mark. Thats okay. And when you have someone in your family that got as sick as my husband did and had severe pneumonia and you think that the president was out there right when hes telling bob woodward and probably others, oh, this is deadly. He knows its airborne. Right around this time hes telling the American People around valentines day he actually said, this will be okay. Its going to disappear with april, you know, with the warm weather. Hes saying things like, oh, its going to be okay. He is not being straight with people. And he, in fact, is undermining people who are trying to do the right thing. Remember those tweets back then against the governor of new york, against the governor of michigan, against the governor of minnesota putting out things to liberate states when, in fact, they were trying to do the right thing. And with all the knowledge that the president of the United States we now know had, he kept it from the American People and worse yet he undermined people that were trying to do the right thing. And as a result, people died. So for me, this is very personal because it didnt have to get to where it is today. Lets listen to two things that were said today. One by donald trump. The other by dr. Anthony fauci. Going around the final turn. There wont be any more shutdowns. We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because its not going to be easy. I dont hear dr. Fauci saying were rounding the final turn as donald trump said. No. And i think people have to be realistic. I have been with parents and teachers. One of my staff members, little first grader, had to learn how to use the mute button this week. And some schools are trying to be hybrid, open in our state, and were trying to do everything right. But we have to be realistic and follow science and whatever is safe. So as people are struggling, as you noted, lawrence, with the rent. As people who never thought they would be out of work are still out of work, as restaurants, small restaurants are just holding, trying to hold on, you dont tell people, oh, its going to be better tomorrow. You say, were making progress on a vaccine, yes. You say were going to wait until that vaccine is safe and then were going to do everything in our power to get it out to everyone. But in the meantime, we are doing all we can to keep people safe and make sure that more people dont die. Thats what a president does. Thats how a president leads. You talk about masks and things that will make you safer when you go out. Instead, he tries to undermine safety because hes just looking for the next tweet and what will make him popular that day. Well, i think that woodward book, it sounds like it all caught up to him because he thought he could get by with making up lies in one day, but now its all coming out. And its coming out when people are still hurting. Senator, keeping people safe means keeping people safe in their homes. How do we keep people in their homes when they are unable to pay their rent, theyre unable to pay their mortgages . Well, exactly. And you think about the fact that just today the republicans once again put up a skinny bandaid of a package that would not have helped the people we need to help, that wouldnt have helped the cities, that wouldnt have helped the small restaurants i just talked to, that wouldnt have helped the way they should with testing. We want them to pass the heros act. Its been sitting on Mitch Mcconnells desk. We are continuing to push them. And the president has done nothing to help us to get that heros act done. He should do it now no matter what happens to him. If he wants to save lives of americans and save liar lively hoods, he should get that passed. Joe biden is set to come to minnesota at the end of the week. Are you going to be there . And does joe biden need to come to minnesota now . Does the campaign need to Pay Attention to that state in order to win it . Well, the campaign is paying attention to every state in the country, in particular of course in the middle of the country. And minnesota was very close in the Hillary Clinton election. We did go democratic, but it was very close. And joe biden wants to make sure that he wins big in our state. And im so excited hes coming. Hes been ahead in every poll, lawrence. Jill came. I was with her tuesday. I planned to be with the Vice President next week when he comes to our state, and were just excited that hes going to be there. Donald trump keeps talking a big game about minnesota, but literally joe biden has been ahead in every single poll by good numbers. Senator amy klobuchar, were so glad that your husband and your 92yearold father managed to come through the coronavirus. Yes. Were very, very happy for you and your family. All right. Thanks, lawrence. Thank you, senator. And when we come back, senator Kamala Harris was on the battleground state of florida today making sure that voters there know that donald trump has lied and people died. Zerlina maxwell and joe layny cob will join us next. T. Here . Nope. 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We continue to have examples of the fact that this is an individual who is not concerned about the health, safety and wellbeing of the American People. And is, frankly, engaged in a reckless disregard of the lives and the health and wellbeing of the people of our country. I find it so outrageous. Vice president ial candidate Kamala Harris was campaigning today in florida where as of tonight the Biden Harris Campaign is ahead by two points in the latest poll. Senator harris held a discussion with Africanamerican Community leaders in miami today. Florida has been one of the states hit hardest by coronavirus with more than 12,000 confirmed deaths as of now. Today joe biden said Donald Trumps failure to deal honestly and effectively with the coronavirus has cost lives. This caused people to die. Why in gods name didnt he move quicker on the defense production act to provide ppp, you know, the protective equipment for doctors and First Responders . Why didnt he do that . Okay. He says he didnt want to panic people. But at least make sure everybody has the equipment they need. Donald trump is not campaigning for reelection on his record. The message is delivered in the final frame of the campaigns latest video ad with a picture of joe biden kneeling in a black church with a voiceover saying, you wont be safe in joe bidens america. Joining us now is Zerlina Maxwell and professor jelani cobbs. Both are msnbc political analysts. Lets start with the end point there. Donald trump has a video ad showing pictures of things that are happening while donald trump is president ending with, you wont be safe in joe bidens america. Yeah. Its really funny because its literally the opposite of reality. Normally donald trump may lie by tweaking one part of his narrative to fit the reality that is in his own head, but in this case, this is Donald Trumps america. And the fact of the matter is, lawrence, joe biden makes the most important point in that clip you played. Donald trump, regardless of whether or not he was telling us the truth or regardless of whether or not he was telling bob woodward the truth in private, he didnt have anything stopping him from getting the appropriate ppe equipment and activating all of the federal levers of power to ensure that it could take care of the pandemic in terms of the actions of his job. What he said is actually a whole separate conversation and equally problematic, but he could have done his job, and he did not do that, and that is, i think, the key point. This is Donald Trumps america, and he is the one failing. Professor cobb, its striking to see Vice President ial candidate harris in miami today and meeting with black Community Leaders there because in the numbers of black voters who didnt vote four years ago in miami, there are enough to get a higher vote count for joe biden than donald trump for the state. You can win that state by turning out that vote in southern florida. Sure. And i think that there are lots of republicans in southern florida who are aware of that. I think thats one of the reasons why we have seen the kinds of legislation we have seen as of late. As you saw the referendum that was held at the end of last year about whether or not to allow people who have formally had convictions to be reenrolled and be registered and be eligible to vote. And that was passed only to see the legislature and the fact that we have been in a poll tax, saying that people have to pay all the financial calls and make restitution to the state before they are allowed to register to vote. So i think all these mechanisms to try to offset that possibility. Yesterday we learned excerpts from Bob Woodwards book when he asked donald trump this exchange about do you feel you should work to try to understand, as woodward put it, to understand the anger and the pain particularly black people feel in this country, and donald trump says, no. You really drank the kool aid. I dont feel that at all. What was your reaction to the way donald trump answered that question . Hes telling the truth, which is a rarity for donald trump. And, so, i think that its refreshing for donald trump to say how he really feels. I mean, it was in private with bob woodward. He does not care about the pain and suffering of black people. He does not care about the pain and suffering of any americans, frankly, and that is not an opinion at this point. He has demonstrated that through his actions. Mary trump has a quote in her book, lawrence, that when i got to it i stopped in my tracks. He said that she said if he can in any way profit from your death, he will facilitate it and then he will ignore the fact that you died. And i cant stop thinking about that quote as we sit here this week with these new revelations because donald trump, his behavior is what cost people lives and his failure to do his actual job. So its clear he doesnt care about the pain and suffering of black americans because hes demonstrated he doesnt care about the pain and suffering of anyone. Professor cobb, what i was struck by in that exchange was the ease, the comfort, and i have seen this my entire life, the ease with which white people, especially white men Donald Trumps age, will very comfortably and easily say racist things to another white man with the assumption that that is a completely acceptable thing to say. Sure. And i think that what trump has done, and we have seen this from the outset, he has appealed to people who have really just kind of through him, be willing to say things they wanted to say in public. That started from the moment, the first day of his president ial campaign. So there is a linear connection from that first statement to the statement now that surrounded by a group of black people he wont be safe in america or telling people he wants to reduce the percentage of minorities and so on. So i think that while we looked at this initially and were agast and thought that would be fatal to a campaign, what we did not anticipate was the extent to which people have been going to the window and shout those kinds of things outloud to the public, and he allows people to do that through him. Yeah. What i have seen through the start with donald trump as a campaigner is that he has one of the strongest connections you can have with the kind of voter who supports him, which is he hates the people who they hate. They have shared hatreds. And that is as powerful a connection as people like that can have. Absolutely, lawrence. It reminds me of the week during the campaign where he was having a lot of rallies in 2016, and chicago was an infamous rally where there was a lot of protesters, and he was, you know, harkening back to an ugly period in American History in terms of his rhetoric. I remember thinking there was a lot of colleagues of mine thinking about the fact he was normalizing overt expressions of racism again, that he was making it okay that people now felt fine with expressing overt bigotry outloud and in public with no threat that they would be held accountable for that behavior at all. Thats what donald trump has done. It has dangerous consequences. It is not just impolite words. As we have seen very recently, it can lead to real world violence. So thats why its so important for us all to call it out every time. Zerlina maxwell and professor jelani cobb, thank you for joining us tonight. We will take a look at six new battleground state polls of the winnelectoral crowds. Thats next. Ectoral crowds thats next. Copd makes it hard to breathe. So to breathe better, i started oncedaily anoro. Copd tries to say, go this way. I say, ill go my own way, with anoro. 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Learning and concentration. Try it today with our moneyback guarantee joe biden is maintaining a lead in every National Poll of the president ial campaign. The latest being todays poll showing joe biden ahead 51 44. But the polls that matter the most are the polls of the individual states that will decide the outcome in the Electoral College. Joe worked as a pollster in both of president Barack Obamas winning president ial campaigns and in Hillary Clintons president ial campaign four years ago. Today he released new polls that he has conducted of some of the important battleground states showing joe biden ahead in michigan 50 43. Joe biden ahead in wisconsin. Joe biden ahead in pennsylvania 49 46. Joe biden ahead in florida 48 46. Joe biden ahead in arizona 48 47. And joe biden tied in North Carolina at 48. Joining us now is joel. Joel, some of those i said ahead, but theyre within two points, so those are really functionally ties within the margin of error. How do these numbers in these states compare to four years ago for Hillary Clinton . Well, thanks for having me, lawrence. You know, we have to remember these states are called battleground states for a reason. These arent slam dunks for either side. We learned that the hard way in pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan in 2016 when the clinton campaign, i think, underestimated the potential for those to be swing states. The truth is it was a total of 77,000 votes across those three states that tipped the Electoral College to donald trump. The important thing about these polls, my partner amy levin and greg conducted these polls. So you have a democrat and a republican working on these polls together for a third party client here, aarp. And so i think what were looking at what we would expect with less than 55 days to go here, which is these battleground states are going to be the terrain on which this campaign is going to be fought. I think the one difference we see here is in 2016 donald trump got to 307 electoral votes when he did win pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. But it looks right now that joe biden could keep the Trump Campaign on defense in states like florida, arizona and North Carolina. If i look at the numbers and i say donald trump wins wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigan again but loses florida and arizona, he went get to the 270 votes he needs. So the math is slightly different. The dynamics are somewhat the same. You have to be smart strategically and know where your paths lie. Which is why we saw Kamala Harris in florida today. What about that giant prize that democrats cast an eye on every four years, wondering when its going to go their way. The state of texas, we have seen some remarkable polling there, including some polls once in a while showing joe biden with a small lead in the state of texas. Yeah. And i think you have seen the incremental changes that are happening in texas there, lawrence. You have got some suburban Congressional Districts around houston and dallas that are likely to switch from republican to democrat. We have seen popular republicans in a plus nine republican district, will herd, a rising star in the Republican Party decide not to run for reelection again. There is something definitely happening in texas. I dont think anybody could predict with certainty that this is going to be the year that texas turns blue, but democrats have been working at it. And the more we make the republicans play defense there, that strengthens our hand across the rest of the map as well. Joel, if texas goes blue this time, that pretty much that would blow away any kind of worries about the Electoral College for the democrats, wouldnt it . Yeah. You throw that into the mix. Again, thats a huge number. And it would also reflect the sea change that i believe is happening in this electorate, visavis the Republican Party, which is that they have alienated a lot of suburban voters across this country. Most of the polls i look at show that donald trump is really underwater significantly with suburban voters. And you have to remember that in 2016 nationally he carried suburban voters by four points. Right now were seeing numbers where his Approval Rating among suburban voters is underwater by double digits, somewhere between 12 and 16 more approve of him. Joel beninson, thank you very much for sharing your insights on these polls with us tonight. Thanks for having me, lawrence. Thank you. And when we come back, Bob Woodwards new book rage, has left one reviewer wondering whos worse, donald trump or his republican enablers in the administration and in congress. A republican opponent of donald trump, the former governor of massachusetts, william weld, will get tonights last word next. 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There would be no President Trump in the white house tonight without complicit, the complicit of republican senators who refuse to vote to remove him from office, and the complicity of the trump cabinet, who we now know from woodwards book, as secretary james mattis put it, that they might have to take collective action, which is apparently a reference to using the 25th amendment to remove the president from office and make the Vice President the acting president. But no one appointed by donald trump has taken any action against this presidency other than speaking to bob woodward. The New York Times review of Bob Woodwards review says, what if the real story about the trump era is less about trump and more about the people who surround and protect him, standing by him in public even as they denounce him, or talk to woodward, in private . A tale not of character but of complicity . Joining our discussion now is bill weld. Hes the former republican governor of massachusetts. Hes a member of the Group Republicans and independents for biden. Governor weld, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I want to get your reaction to both what weve learned from Bob Woodwards book and that point raised by the New York Times review about the complicity of republicans in this presidency. Im not buying that for a minute, lawrence. Thank you for having me. But you cant blame the parasites and not the host. You know, its donald trump who wants to engender civil strife so that there will be a possibility of outright, you know, people shooting each other if he loses the election. Its donald trump who who regularly tells untruths to the american public. Dick nixon got drummed out of office because he told one untruth to the american public, and donald trump does it on a regular basis as weve seen not only in the example of what he said in february to bob woodward about the coronavirus, but in many other issues of vital importance to the United States. I cant get out of my head the other story from today, from the department of Homeland Security, about the acting head and the acting number two there, on orders from the white house, telling the chief intelligence official in the department of Homeland Security, for pitys sake, not to talk about russia, not to talk about White Supremacists, quote, because it makes the president look bad, closed quote. And this is something that the chief National Security officer of the department of Homeland Security felt were issues of National Security. I mean how do you figure that . I also cant get out of my head the image of ambassador kislyak of russia and foreign minister lavrov of russia in the oval office alone with donald trump and tass, not the washington post, not the New York Times, not even the Los Angeles Times or fox news, but tass, the soviet house organ what kind of image what kind of message does that send . Theres something drastically wrong with this picture. And that was in the first year of the Trump Presidency, which was when Michael Flynn lied to the fbi and was fired by the president basically because of that. Now the president pretends that never happened. I want to listen to a discussion with Rachel Maddow in the previous hour with peter strzok, the fbi agent who Michael Flynn lied to. Lets listen to this. Do you know why he was lying . Do you have any insight into what happened there given how weirdly this has gone in the months since . Well, thats the key question that we had. It wasnt so much why general flynn wasnt telling us the truth. It was whether or not he was doing that because of somebody, particularly the president , having told him or directed him to do that. We now know that prior to our being prior to our interview with him, he had spoken to the president , who told him to kill the story that was in the washington post, the David Ignatius column talking about these conversations. He had had a conversation with his deputy, k. T. Mcfarland about them, so this wasnt a surprise when we walked in. I cant explain why he didnt tell us the truth. And obviously he pled guilt to not one but two different judges orally and in writing. So i dont understand now why the department of justice is seeking to withdraw this plea. Youre a former Justice Department official. Whats your reaction to that . It could have been russia again. You know, back to your first point, though, lawrence, i do think its not Mitch Mcconnells secretary of Homeland Security whos telling someone not to talk about russia or White Supremacists because it might embarrass the president. Its not Mitch Mcconnell who is saying lets delay the election as trump was musing aloud about. Governor bill weld, thank you very much for joining us again tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you, lawrence. Bill weld gets tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. And good evening once again. Day 1,330 of the Trump Administration. 54 days remaining until our president ial election. One day after we learned that the president knew the full extent and the danger from the coronavirus and yet chose to tell the public something else, tonight without irony, he quoted fdr on the only thing we have to fear. He cast himself in churchillian terms explaining the reason he told bob woodward one thing and told the public another was in the spirit of that british world war ii poster keep calm and carry on. More on that later. Tonight trump held his 22nd rally of the year so far. A packed crowd at an airport hangar in michigan, as has become the norm for this president during a