Hallmarks. This boy using all his strength just to breathe. First responders douse the victims with water stripped off their clothes to wash off what they said was a chemical weapon. Medics and volunteers in this rebelcontrolled part of syria rushed the injured to local clinics. They claim syrian president Bashar Al Assads regime fired the banned chemical nerve agent sarin. The gas attacks are continuing every day and notice no one is doing anything. Reporter other victims were taken to a makeshift clinic built in a cave to protect it. There a father kissed his daughter goodbye. An activist said war planes were still overhead. Then hospitals are often targeted in this war that respects no conventions. Amazingly, the activist survived. That is Richard Engels reporting from nbc nightly news tonight on this incredible attack what appears to be a chemical attack of some kind that killed dozens of civilians, including many kids in syria today. One of the underreported underdebated decisions of this new administration is that very quietly, they have been moving tons more american troops into syria, into the syrian civil war. Now were used to receiving blunt, terse little notifications from the pentagon or white house whenever any significant number of u. S. Troops are moved into war zones. Thats the way theyve always done it. In this new administration, though, they are not doing it that way. They are moving u. S. Troops in considerable numbers but theyre not announcing it. Last week democratic senator chris murphy on the Senate RelationsCommittee Posted a blog entry on the Huffington Post as his way of getting word out these big troop deployments to syria were happening. He said quietly, without any official notification, President Trump sent 500ewmerican trps into syria. News reports suggest this deployment may just be the tip of the iceberg with some saying the plan is for hundreds more american troops to be added to the fight in coming weeks. Quote, nobody actually knows how many u. S. Troops are inside syria now because the administration has largely tried to keep the buildup a secret. So there are lots more american troops heading into the war in syria but the administration does not want to say so and they have not been talking about these additional deployments. This is whatever you think about the war in syria, this is a fundamentally awkward thing for the basic structure of how our democracy works. This is an awkward thing for civilian control of the military. Congress having the ultimate sayso over matters of war and peace. For the American People knowing about what u. S. Troops are doing in our name on our behalf and our ability to be good citizens about that. To debate and ultimately decide through our democratic processes whether those fights are worth it and whether we want american troops engaged in these particular wars. When it comes to syria, thats going to be a particularly hard debate to have, if we ever really have one. When it comes to whether or not u. S. Troops should be fighting inside syria in significant numbers, americans have found that to be a very difficult question to ask. The last time the u. S. Government confronted the issue of chemical weapons being used by the Syrian Military against their own civilian population, last time this issue arose was in 2013. David corn today did a really good roundup of how the man who is now our president reacted at the time to that crisis. The last chemical weapons in syria crisis that really became a major issue in this country, rounded up what his public statements were. Syria, obviously, is a catastrophe, right . Its a moral and human and geostrategic catastrophe. Its a hard strategic question for the United States as to how to make that situation better. President obama takes tons of heat to this day for not having sent u. S. Troops into the war in syria. But what he actually did, if you remember, is he asked congress to authorize that. He asked congress to authorize a war in syria, if thats what they wanted. The way Congress Responded was by doing nothing. Obama asked congress to authorize that and they went us . Huh . They would much prefer to criticize the white house. Criticize anybody for what a disaster that war game rather than get on the record for what should be done about it. St people with political aspirations would like to avoid making any overt declaration about what is the right move in syria. What would improve things in syria. What exactly should american troops do in syria. Most ambitious politicos would stay out of that one and theyve proven that by the fact they did stay out of it when they were asked to make that call. But you know what . Donald trump was not shy about it. As a Real Estate Developer and Reality Tv Show star at the time in may 2013, he was quite clear about what should be done. Congress didnt want to weigh in on it. He was very clear about what needed to happen. Specifically about what should not happen. Here he was. May 2013. Quote, syria is not our problem. Donald trump, may 2013. By the following month, by june, quote, we should stay the hell out of syria. What will we get for our lives and billions . Zero. That was june. By august, stay out of syria. By september, he was having back and forth with people on twitter about it. Here he was posting a public reply to bigsexybdavis. Mr. Trump could attack syria or no asked bigsexy bdavis. Mr. Trump responds, no. In case that colloquy was not clear enough, 15 minutes later, trump posts again. What i am saying is stay out of syria. Okay. Got it. Then two days later, do not attack syria. Then two hours later, this time in all caps, do not attack syria. September 7th, president obama, do not attack syria. September 9th, dont attack syria. September 11th, forget syria. September 13th, stay out of syria. A lot of people, congress itself did not want to go on the record about what the United States should or should not do in syria. President obama went to congress in august and explicitly asked them. You want a war in syria . Authorize it and well go. Congress response was no comment. They did not want to vote on that or be on the record saying what ought to happen in syria. Donald trump not afraid. Very clear about it with bigsexy bdavis and everybody else within sight and sound of his twitter account. Totally clear. Stay out of syria. Well, now after todays horrific attack in syria, the white house has issued a response in President Trumps name. His response to this syrian attack today is to blame president obama for not attacking syria back in the day. Quoting from todays president ial statement, these heinous actions by the Bashar Al Assad regime are a consequence of the past administrations weakness and resolution. The white house response is to attribute to to president obama because president obama, quote, did nothing in syria. President obama, in fact, did not invade syria. Maybe because he was persuaded by Donald Trumps arguments by it at the time talking at on twitter with bigsexy bdavis saying syria is not our problem. That syria is their war. Now hes saying everything thats happening now is because obama didnt go in. But you know what . Hypocrisy is cheap. Saying one thing and doing another, condemning other people for things that you yourself are guilty of, we wouldnt have half the parables in the bible if human beings had come up for a cure of that particular affliction. The thing that is new under the sun, a thing that is new about this new administration that were just figuring out now is their unusual decisionmaking process about when they choose to operate behind closed doors and when they act out in the open. Every administration likes to play up its strengths and downplay its weaknesses. Their behavior is weirder than that. Theyre now writing their own essays, making their own public blog posts. Theyre having to do that because the white house is not telling us that information on its own anymore. Thats a strange decision on their part. Eventually well find out these are not covert actions that these u. S. Troops are taking. These deployments are not classified. So by just not announcing when troops are going and what troops are going, theyre not keeping the information actually secret. Well find out. Theyre just obscured a little. They buy themselves a little time in which ey dont have to answer any questions. By not announcing these troop deployments, the white house avoids or delays there being any political fight in washington over whether or not theres a good strategic reason to send more american troops into the middle of that syrian war and why the president has changed his mind about that. It is presumably easier to blame the Previous Administration for bad things that happen somewhere than it is to argue for what you want to do differently. So theyve come up with this closed door strategy on syria at least where they are not arguing for what theyre doing. Theyre not announcing it or explaining it. Not making a case for themselves. Theyre just doing stuff without saying that thats what theyre doing. And thats not the way it is supposed to work when it comes to americans putting their lives in danger in war. And so that is where it stands out the most. But that is not just their m. O. On National Security matters. The new administration does this on other stuff. The president has signed some of the furthest reaching legislation of his young presidency. He just signed a bill that lets your Internet Provider sell all of our personal data. Your online usage data, financial data, anything theyve got on you. They can sell it without your permission or even your knowledge. This is a big deal. This is going to be a big deal for all of us that your Internet Service provider can do this. This is a Material Change from the way your data is handled now. Its one thing if there are specific websites or specific apps that collect data about you and what you do online. Whether or not you care about that if you care about it you have options. Options as a consumer to choose to not use those websites or not use those apps if you dont like eir pracy policies or w they deal with your inrmation. But your Internet Provider . Its not like most of us have a lot of choice when it comes to who you get your Internet Service from. In massachusetts, theres one way that internet can come into my house. Its through dsl and theres one company from which i can purchase at dsl service. Thats it. But now thanks to this bill that President Trump just signed, my internet provide are and yours can take your browsing history, their record of everything you have ever downloaded, can take their data about anything you have ever done online, all of your financial information, everything they have got on you and they can sell it to anyone without even giving you notice that theyre doing so, let alone allowing you the opportunity to object. If you dont have a lot of choice of Internet Providers, your only option for opting out of this system, for protecting yourself at all is to not use the internet . I mean, really . But that change is now official and its thanks to President Trump and republicans in congress. Basically a Party Line Vote to pass this thing and President Trump just signed it. As you might imagine, this thing is radically unpopular. Even the radically prodonald trump corners of the internet at the donald sub reddit which is famously protrump community online. Trump supporters are freaking out that he just signed this thing. Yougov did a National Poll on this. They describe what the bill does and then asked, should trump sign this or veto it . 11 said donald trump should sign this bill. The proportion that said he should veto it . 74 . 74 say do not sign the bill. He signed the bill. And courage, he did it behind closed doors. No photo op. No standalone press release. No awkward ceremony where he gets up and starts to walk away because he forgot to sign the bill and has to come back afterwards and make sure he really signs it. This one they did behind closed doors. No press, no tweets no, cameras. They do not want to talk about it or defend it. No human wants this. And so they signed it in secret. Were still new here, right . Were still figuring them out. But were starting to figure out a little bit about how they do things. Remember this big photo op day . Get the women in here. This was the signing of the promoting women in entrepreneurship act. That same day they also signed the inspiring the next space pioneers act. Awesome. Very well staged photo ops. Executive orders that did absolutely nothing substantive whatsoever to promote Women Entrepreneurship or to promote women pioneers in space. Not a single dollar or cent moved left, right, up or down because of either of those all for show executive orders. But they did put on a show. They got their big photo ops. And then that same day, they cleared all the extras out of the room, pushed out all the cameras, closed the doors and very quietly that same day, the president also signed a very consequential bill which makes it easier for seriously mentally ill people to buy firearms because you remember how everybody campaigned in november on the more guns for the seriously mentally ill platform, right . That one they did not want to talk about. That one, they wanted to do it for some reason but they knew they couldnt defend it. So that one they did in secret. They still did it but they did it in secret. Were starting to learn the ropes with these guys. They will make a show out of anything they want to. But were also learning that they are unusually afraid. They are deathly afraid to talk about their own actions that they cant defend where they are acting not because a single identifiable human being wants them wants them to act that way but for some other reason they still feel compelled. Whether its guns or the internet or the secret escalation in syria that they cannot defend and that before he was president he was so opposed to. Whether its any of those issues, we now are starting to figure out what they are doing and why they are doing it when they retreat behind closed doors to do so much of what they do. And weve got a scoop on that tonight. Weve got some leaked documents out of the epa that have never been seen by the public eye before. Weve got them tonight. Thats coming up. Stay with us. Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant taste of death, but once uh, excuse me, waiter. I ordered the soup. Of course, maam. My apologies. Cmon, caesar. Lets go. Caesar on a caesar salad . Surprising. Excuse me, pardon me. Whats not surprising . How much money matt saved by switching to geico. Could i get my parking validated . Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Theres nothing more than my vacation. 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Make sure theyre producing. Woo employee of the month you really shouldnt leave their side. Vita coco coconut water, hydration comes naturally. Im ricardo, a sales and Service Consultant here at the xfinity store in bellevue, washington. Here at the store, we offer internet, tv, phone, customer service, home security. Every situation is a little different. It could be about billing, simple questions like changing the phone number. Sometimes, they want to upgrade, downgrade, but at the end of the day, you want to take care of the customer. One of the great things about comcast, theres always room to move up. Of course, it depends on you, how hard you work. Want to update you on something unexpected happening tonight, right now. Its about the Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination. Weve got a live picture. This is a live picture of the senate floor right now. The gentleman in the tie is oregon democratic senator jeff merkley. The reason this is news is because jeff merkley has been standing there doing this for a very, very long time tonight. We have just learned that apparently hes just getting started. Senator merkley is now planning on holding the floor overnight tonight, talking all through the night to oppose the nomination of judge neil gorsuch to the Supreme Court. He started speaking around 6 45 eastern time tonight. As you can see, he is still going. His office tells us he intends to continue speaking as long as he is physically able. So far senator merkley has spent his time talking about george gorsuchs record, why hes opposed to judge gorsuch and also what he says is the only relevant context in which this nomination is playing out. What he calls the theft of a Supreme Court seat that should have been killed by president obamas nominee. The Majority Team in this chamber decided to steal a Supreme Court seat. Again, such a theft never, ever has happened in the history of our nation. The majority said we intent to pack the court of the United States of america. There was no principle to the position. It was a warfare tactic of partisanship to pack the court. It was a end justifies the means even if the means violates the core premise of the constitution and does deep damage to the senate and does deep damage to the court. That was senator jeff merkley of oregon speaking earlier this evening, but he is still there. Again, this is a live picture. Senator merkley is in hour three right now. In terms of the context, democrats have announced theyll filibuster Neil Gorsuchs nomination. They do have the votes to do that. That drama is getting under way in washington now. It will play out over the next couple of days. Earlier today, maine senator angus king became the final senate to announce how he plans to vote. Hell oppose gorsuchs nomination and support the filibuster with angus king weighing in, all senators have declared their intentions. We believe that neil gorsuch will likely have 56 votes which means he will be four votes shy of the 60 votes hell need to overcome a democratic filibuster. The only way republicans will be able to get him through, onto the court is if they kill the filibuster. Well, today the Top Republican in the Senate Mitch Mcconnell set up the next key votes on judge gorsuch. He set them up for starting thursday morning. If they do decide theyll go through with this, all the way, if they do decide to kill the filibuster and change the United States senate forever just to get him through, that vote, that key vote will be expected on friday. Mewhile, oregon democratic senator jeff merkley intends to hold the senate floor all night long tonight to try to stop gorsuch from going through. Hes at about 2 1 2 hours so far and counting. We dont know how late hes going to go. But watch this space. Umbrellas you need one of these. 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He says rather than entering a vacuum, im getting emails from the president s team, if not every day, then every other day. Hours a what were working on. We need another meeting. Thats him enthusing to the Washington Post about how good dow chemical has got it now with this new white house. Three days after doing that quote, the Trump Administration gave dow chemical a present. The new epa administrator was overruling the scientific findings of his own agency and deciding personally that he would okay the use of one of dow chemicals pesticides despite his own agency finding it was too dangerous and too toxic for use in the United States. Scott pruitt said it would be greenlit. Under the previous president , dow chemical had been losing the fight over that pesticide. But the new president and the daily phone calls and the heres what were working on and we need another meeting and can you get us more input on this, dow chemical feels its winning. And theres nothing illegal or inherently wrong with the ceo relishing his new access with the white house and benefiting from the policies but its a nice tidy demonstration of how things are getting done now. Theyre not shy about it. Here again is that photo op one more time. The ceo of dow chemical on the left sidthere. What the president is doing in this photo op is signing an order to broadly upend the Way Public Health and safety get protected by the government. He was signing the executive order for agencies to start wholesale deleting health and safety regulations. Watch what the president does when he finishes signing the thing. Should i give this pen to andrew . Dow chemical. I think maybe, right . Give the pen to andrew. Dow chemical. Pleasure working with you. That was the president rolling out executive order 13777 enforcing the Regulatory Reform agenda and thanking, by name, andrew, ceo of dow chemical for all the help. Tonight we can report exclusively on how one part of the government is responding to that executive order. How its going to work in real life. We got this exclusively in the sense that we have obtained new internal administration documents that have not been publicly released. We believe them to be genuine but the epa is not answering our questions about them. What these documents appear to show is a fairly Sweeping Change and how the government deals with questions like whether to ban a pesticide from dow chemical when the governments own scientific studies have determined that pesticide is unsafe. And it isnt just about pesticides. Its broadly about clean air and clean water and things like keeping the public safe from radiation. Agn,he epa did not answer any of the questions we asked them about these documents but what we believe these are are internal memos from inside the epa, and they show the first steps in how that part of the government is going to carry out that, heres your pen, andrew, executive order. The one about health and safety regulations. The memos appear to be from epa administrator scott pruitt dated march 24th. You can see there it says see the from line . From e. Scott pruitt. Then it looks to be his signature off to the side on the right. This first memo calls for epa regulators to start reporting any action they take, any regulatory action anywhere in the country. Needs to now be reported in a central database. Effective immediately, epa program and regional offices shall report all regulatory actions in the agencys regulatory management system. Regulatory actions to be reported include but not limited to those relating to any statutory or deadlines, pesticide tolerances, significant new use rules, delistings, permits, federal implementation plans, state implementation plans. They should air on the side of including actions in the system. Basically that means that if any action is taken anywhere by any epa office, any epa personnel anywhere in the country, a statement on how much pesticide its safe to leave on a crop or response to a petition or response to a court, anything has to be reported to headquarters in d. C. Everything, everywhere in the country goes through d. C. Now. Everything. So thats memo one. Thats the first thing that we obtained. Thats new. Then tres the second memo we obtained. It specifically cites that, heres your pen andrew executive order. And then it says this. By may 15th, the offices of air and radiation, land and emergency management, chemical safety and pollution prevention, water, environmental information, congressional and intergovernmental relations and small and disadvantaged business utilization should provide the task force with recommendations regarding specific rules that should be considered for repeal, replacement or modification. While we intend to do some outreach regarding this effort, id like the recommendations from those offices to be informed by consultation with their particular stakeholders and that is all supposed to be done by may 15th, which is six weeks from now. And thats the first step in the process. Obviously, it makes it a huge difference who the epa considers to be a stakeholder affected by their regulations. If its the dow chemicals of the world getting daily calls and ceremonial pens from the white house, we can imagine some of what dow chemical would like to have happen. Having it done by may 15th should be no problem for them since theyre talking every single day anyway. But if it isnt just dow chemical, if its also like our lungs and skin and vital organs that have a stake in these regulations, are those interests getting consulted, too . As we wholesale plan to get rid of health and safety regulations . That we dont know. We talked to two leading environmental groups today who have been epa stakeholders in the past each of them said theyve heard ans from thepa about these new processes that we have documented in these two memos that we have obtained. One of them told us they used to talk to epa all the time under the Old Administration but under the new administration their official communication is down to zero. Maybe that will change. They have a whole six weeks. Something else interesting to watch here, we spoke with one lawyer who represents companies that to v to submit to epa regulations. They are worried about the huge budget cuts that have been revealed in other epa documents leaked to the press. Even from the corporate side. They are worried about the epa no longer having enough staffers even just to do the permitting work that Industry Needs to move ahead. As long as were going to have any regulations left. That lawyer says the industry has not heard anything from epa about this Broad National review of every last Single Health and safety regulation, including anything about any regulations that the industry might actually like to keep. So thats curious. Theres definitely a mismatch between what epa is doing internally and what everybody who deals with epa has heard from them and thinks is going on. Now that said, what does dow chemical think of this . We asked. We asked dow chemical. They did not answer our question about whether epa has reached out to them about these new processes. The company spokespeople did tell us that, quote, dow works closely with epa every day on matters that affect dow. Yeah, we know. Dow also told us as a company they support the epa decision not to ban their pesticide. Well, blow me down. If we hear more from the epa about these memos, about this radical new process they apparently are putting in motion very fast without telling very many people about it, we will let you know. In the meantime, were going to make these memos public now. Were going to post them at maddow blog. Com. If you would like to get something into my hands, whether or not the epa will ever answer my questions about it, please, send us what youve got. You can do so through a website weve set up, www. Sendittorachel. Com. What do you got . Thank you in advance for whatever it is you send. I have asthma. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. 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Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum about 20 years ago, you could hardly turn on your tv without seeing this nice man. Unavoidable for comment. His name is joe digenova. He was a prosecutor in the reagan administration. What he was talking about all the time on every tv station in early 1998 was the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He and his wife were both lawyers. They had a Cottage Industry going where theyd offer their expertise on just how much trouble president clinton was in and how many crimes he had committed. At one point joe digenova gave a newspaper a scoop about a secret Service Agent having caught president clinton and Monica Lewinsky in a compromising position. Ooh, ooh, yeah, that didnt happen. He said it was true but it was not true and the paper had to retract the story. In the first month after the lewinsky scandal broke, joe and his wife were quoted or appeared on television over 300 times. It was one of the unavoidable and now legendary things about that scandal. By the spring of that year, some folks were sort of starting to sour on the lewinsky investigation. The head of the bar investigation was questioning the tactics of the special prosecutor kenneth starr. Even some republicans were saying the special prosecutor should step down. An ap headline said starr takes flack from several sides. On a sunday morning, things not going his way, joe digenova went on meet the press and did a Little Something called changing the narrative. He brought notes to help him remember what he was changing the narrative to. If you let me just say something. This is fascinating. I think while people are concerned about ken starrs tactics, they ought to be concerned about the white house tactics. Ill tell you why. Last week i got a telephone call from a correspondent for a National Weekly telling me that word had gotten around town that i and my wife were being investigated by a private investigator with link to the white house and attorneys representing the president. Do you know for certain youre being investigated by private eyes . Weve been told by correspondents for one national magazine. The chairman has been informed by another National Daily that hes being investigated and we have been told by numerous other correspondents in this city that that is what is being done. I hope it isnt true. I would hope their firm denial would come from people. If the white house is condoning the investigation of private citizens looking into their lives, if they are trying to intimidate people from exercising their First Amendment freedom to speak out on issues regarding the law of this land and the president of the United States, thats truly a frightening development. Frightening development. President of the United States sending private eyes after his political enemies. Wow. And you know, joe digenova got a call from a guy who said its true. Maybe someone told a congressman about it or maybe numerous people who in any case, thats definitely the real scandal here. Thats definitely the real story. And if joe digenova was looking to change the narrative it worked. Headlines were all about the white house denying it sent private investigators on joe and his wife. Ken starr started calling white house officials to testify about whether they were trying to intimidate people and the narrative became war between ken starr and the white house and everybody is using dirty tactics. My favorite was from usa today at the time. Clinton versus starr turning nasty. Who can claim truth or objectivity anymore . Who indeed . There are specific people who are called upon to play this particular role. In the d. Cbusiness of partisan scandal making and scandal distracting. People who are called upon to muddy the waters, shift the focus, confuse the narrative. During the benghazi investigation, joe digenova was backpedaling claims the Obama Administration was intimidating witnesses. During the president ial campaign, joe digenova was back regularly citing supposed inside sources telling him that Hillary Clinton was definitely about to be indicted over her emails. She was guilty of several felonies. She couldnt be elected because she was definitely going to jail. And now act 17 in this lifelong play. Late last night a conservative website posted a story claiming that obama National Security adviser susan rice ordered intelligence agencies to compile spreadsheets of intercepted communications between donald trump and his staffers for purely political purposes. Their source for that info was . Joe digenova. He said susan rice engaged in illegal activity. You just have to take his word for it. And that was the latest evolution today of this alternate story line, this parallel republicanfriendly universe in which the real scandal is not russia attacking our election, is not what anyone in the Trump Campaign might have been to potentially coordinate with russia to undermine our election. No, the real scandal is something the Obama White House did. The allegation is that in one case, they are alleging in the daily caller that there was a spreadsheet you put out of all of these names. Absolutely false. And circulated. No spreadsheet. Nothing of the sort. Now susan rice has to give her denial of what joe digenova said to a right wing blog. War between the trump and Obama White Houses. Everybody is using dirty tactics. The exclusive sitdown today susan rice and Andrea Mitchell was an epic moment in the clearing up of this particularly muddy moment in this scandal. It was epic and Andrea Mitchell joins us next. Stay with us. My business was built with passion. 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Dry mouth can affect how your mouth feels and how you feel. Discover act dry mouth, specially formulated to soothe and moisturize your mouth. And try new act dry mouth spray for relief when you need it. The allegation is that somehow Obama Administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes. That is absolutely false. Do you seek the names of people involved to unmask the names of people involved in the Trump Administration, the Trump Campaign, people surrounding the president elect in order to spy on them . Absolutely not for any political purposes to spy, expose, anything. Did you seek the name of mike flynn . I leaked nothing to nobody, never have and never would. Susan rice this afternoon in an epic interview with Andrea Mitchell denying reports that she was the one sought to unmask names specifically for political purposes. She has been unmasking improperly and circulating beyond intelligence or other proper purpose. Peter piper says. Joining us now is Andrea Mitchell. Thank you for being here. You bet. Let me ask you your big picture take on what you made of what susan rice told you today whether anything she said today surprised you and how it made you feel about this overall allegation that there is an Obama Administration scandal here. Well, i got to tell you, i was surprised by one big thing. When she said that she was unaware that mike flynn had been unregistered agent for the turkish government during the transition and that she had read it in the newspaper or the press en she learned about it as we did very recently, belatedl that surprised me because if she were tracking transition officials so closely and tracking mr. Flynn in particular who had risen to a high profile of inquiry because of his contact and the surprise that avenue one in the National Security field had that Vladimir Putin did not respond to retaliate to obama sanctions that was surprising. But she wasnt tracking him that closely and now we learned according to the wall street journal if they are correct tonight our colleagues there reporting from republican sources whom they site that there were only two officials unmasked from the trump transition. One did not relate to russia. One was mike flynn regarding ambassador because they had conversations and it was not susan rice who unmasked them or requested rather from the nsa or cia that they be unmasked. In terms of susan rice as a point of focus for conservative media, obviously they zeroed in on her in the benghazi controversy with incredibkrebcr ferosity. I know the Obama Administration felt her being targeted was more convenient. I think there was a lot of resentment for the role she was chosen for in that political scandal. Is there any sense that this is carryover from that especially if there is now contrary reporting that it may not have been her at all. The sourcing in terms of where this allegation against susan rice comes from to me isnt just thin, it is laughable. It was very clear from a couple of things said on capitol hill that they were putting her in this framework of benghazi and blaming her for everything, called her the tabloid mary that she pops up. It seems she was convenient and the fact is that for 24 hours people were talking about susan rice and not talking as much about eric prince and carter page. If the distraction is the goal its working and what john mclaugh ln, former acting director of cia and academic and absolute intelligence pro said to me today that this is all going down blind alleys and taking peoples attention away from the main act which is did Trump Officials collude with russia when russia attacked our election . The more we talk about this other stuff which will be picked up and investigated in the House Republicans are signaling they want to call her as someone on the witness list said it not so much yet. All these different diversions or other issues, if you will, mean that the less attention from the committees is being paid if not by the fbi to the main act which is russia. Andrea, we have about a minute left. I do have to ask you about the white house really attacking you today. You did this interview with susan rice. They responded, the white house responded by accusing you of being a democratic pr person which, of course, just gets my back up because i dont like people attacking you. If you have any response to that or does that strike you as par for the course . I always prided myself for not being a pr person for anyone. The lane i have chosen is to be a journalist. And being a partisan is not what i am. So people judge me by my work. I have been as resented by the clinton and Obama White Houses as i have by the reagan and bush white houses. And now against the trump white house. Maybe it is a badge of honor. Badge of honor officially. Congratulations on this interview today. Thanks for being with us. Thank you. Well be right back. When you booked this trip, you didnt know we had over 26,000 local activities listed on our app. Or that you could book them right from your phone. A few weeks ago, you still didnt know if you were gonna go. Now the only thing you dont know, is why it took you so long to come here. Expedia. Everything in one place, so you can travel therld b. i wanted him to eat healthy. , so i feed jake purina cat chow naturals indoor, a nutritious formula with no artificial flavors. Made specifically for indoor cats. Purina cat chow. Nutrition to build better lives. In my johnsonville commercial we open up in the forest. Hi. Im jeff. 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Obviously, this is a big deal because he is the former acting director of the cia but is also a big deal because in the intelligence world was a russia specialist. He knows of which he speaks on these matters. You are about to hear from him right now because he is joining Lawrence Odonnell on the last word msnbc. Great. Another great rachel and andrea segment. If you can just keep those coming . Is that too much ask. For the rest of my life. Thank you lawrence. Thanks. Well, with another Missile Launch in north korea and the worst chemical weapons attack yet in syria, the Trump Administration has taken no action of either of those things