Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20170704

Have we held in this country. The answer to that is 58. A lot of twotermers and one four termer. We started having them in the 1700s, 1789. In terms of which american president ial election has been the most contentious, that is up for debate and every century has its candidate. Which one was heavily scrutinized after the fact, that is pretty clear that were living it right now. There were hints before the november election that something was off, something was going on in this one that was different. It all seemed almost too big to grasp at the time, in the middle of what was already this incredibly interesting campaign, this incredibly volatile campaign. But in the middle of all of that there was an external foreign dynamic at work. Beginning with the news last summer that the email servers of the Democratic Party headquarters had been hacked by russian hackers. And the news that Voter Registration systems in at least two states or maybe ten states or maybe 20 states had been probed or breached to some level by again, hackers. By october, a month before the election, the United States Intelligence Agency came out and said while they couldnt agree that it was definitely the russians behind the Voter Registration hacks, they said they were confident that the russian government had definitely directed the hacking of the dnc and other american political organizations in order to quote interfere with the u. S. Election process. So the bizarre story out of all of the weird stuff thats happened in american elections, this story, our story, our generations story of the bizarre russian hacking of our election, that story was at least starting to emerge in the weeks before the election. But at the same time, you know, as usual, as normal, there was a super contentious fascinating president ial Campaign Going on. And that was very engrossing at the time. And it was not until after the election that the extent of the russian involvement in our president ial election really came to light, and that started with a startling report from the Washington Post that came out the evening of friday, december 9th. A report that kind of blew all other news right out of the water. So we had a whole show planned tonight that had honestly nothing to do with this topic. But then the Washington Post just dropped this astonishing bombshell. If you havent seen this yet im going to put the headline on the screen so you can see it. Im going to quote the lead directly. The cia has concluded that russia intervened in the 2016 election to help donald trump win the presidency. Rather than just to undermine confidence in the u. S. Electoral system. Theyre citing officials briefed on the matter, quote, intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connection to the russian government who provided wikileaks with thousands of hacked emails from the dnc and others including Hillary Clintons campaign chairman. This is stunning stuff. All right. And this has just broken within the last hour in the Washington Post. Theyre reporting that the cia not only concluded that the russians intervened in the election, stole information, publicized stolen information to help donald trump win the presidency, but the cia gave its information about russia to the leadership in the house and the senate. And the white house wanted to make a big public bipartisan stand against it and republicans said no. Mitch mcconnell specifically said no. No. Dont tell the public. And so we held the election with the leadership in congress knowing full well what russia was doing and we all went to vote while they sat on that. Until now. Until the post published this tonight. That was friday night, december 9th, 2016. Breaking news from the Washington Post. The first of many friday nights when i would have to work late. Basically since then, since december 9th we have been in kind of a sustained period of very distracting, very engrossing political crisis. This has felt like a sustained political crisis. As since then weve learned more and more and more after the extent of russian involvement the election and the investigations into the Trump Campaigns contacts with russia. But during and after the campaign. Watch the date stamps on these as they fly by. Just as were coming on the air we got news the former cia director James Woolsey tonight has abruptly quit the Trump Transition Team with no explanation. Tonight after saying for weeks that there would be no senate or house investigation of this matter, the Senate Intelligence committee finally said, yeah, well look into this. All of a sudden this is starting to feel like the most important political story certainly in the world. With one week to go before we are supposed to swear in donald trump as president of the United States. The the New York Times has just published a story titled intercepted Russian Communications part of inquiry into trump associates. This is obviously a very inflammatory, very hot story. These new details coming out the eve of the inauguration is a bombshell. Okay we have major breaking news this evening. We have just been notified within the last minutes while we were in our commercial break that the acting attorney general of the United States has just been fired. Okay weve got breaking news, a National Security story just post bid the Washington Post about National Security adviser Michael Flynn and his contacts with russia. We have breaking news tonight that goes to the question not just of whether or not the National Security adviser is about to be fired, but it also goes to how many people in the new administration knew the kind of trouble that National Security adviser Michael Flynn was in. How many people knew about that and when they knew it. I want to bring you some breaking news that the the New York Times just posted. This has just gone up since we went on the air. Ive been marking it with my trusty highlighter. Let me tell you what theyve reported directly relevant to what we need to talk to congressman schiff about. Trump Campaign Aides has repeated contacts with rux intelligence is the headline. The operative word being campaign. This is during the campaign. This is during the election. Theres brandnew breaking news now from the wall street journal. Can we put this article on the screen please . Did he make a full screen out of this . Yes. Thank you. You see the headline, spies get intelligence from President Trump. Theyre not showing this him that because theyre not sure if he can be trusted with it. Hes the president. The Washington Post breaking news just this evening that will frankly tie your socks in a knot if you were thinking that maybe the whole trump sheriff russia thing was going to be investigated impartially and aggressively by congress. The two republican chairman of the intelligence committees in the house and the senate, they have both admitted to the Washington Post that they have been calling reporters off the record at the request of the white house to tell reporters that theres nothing to these stories. We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast for some breaking news tonight regarding attorney general Jeff Sessions. Weve agreed that Jeff Sessions has agreed to amend his testimony. In his testimony at his confirmation hearing at the senate in january, he failed to disclose meetings that he had with the a russian Government Official when she was asked about Trump Campaign meetings with the officials. He told the senate that he didnt meet with any russians but he did. He will now change his testimony. Were following the breaking news tonight that the fire National Security adviser retired attorney general michael glin was fired from the Trump Administration after 20 days on the job. Tonight hes asking for immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony in the trushrussia scandal. We have to start tonight with breaking news which has just been published by the Washington Post. The Washington Post reports that a fisa warrant was issued last summer to monster carter pages communications. Im never going to get another friday night off in my life. Im telling you. Friday nights are very news heavy in the Trump Administration. According to nights front page scoop in the Washington Post, mike flynn was warned explicitly that his conversations with russian officials was quote undoubtedly being monitored by the fbi and the nsa. There are interesting questions about whats happening with the department of justice and Paul Manafort. Is Jeff Sessions involved in any work at the department of justice concerning Paul Manafort or is he recused. We can report tonight that the Justice Department will not say. We started asking yesterday. We asked throughout the day today. We have asked it five times in five different ways including me making the request myself personally multiple times in as many different ways as i could think of it. They will not say whether or not hes recused. He has recused on flynn they say. He is recused on things related to the Trump Campaign broadly. They wont say about manafort. So we have news to break tonight. Another subpoena has been issued as part of the ongoing investigations into President Trumps associates. Again nbc news reporting exclusively that federal investigators subpoenaed records relating to a 3. 5 million loan taken out by Paul Manafort last year. Weve got much more to come tonight. And because this is our life now, new substantive breaking news has happened in the last couple of minutes. Because no night is complete without breaking news stories about the new administration. Weve gotten this reporting from the times. Quoting from the times, Michael Flynn told President Trumps Transition Team weeks before the election that he was under investigation. All set to do a specific show today, a block, b block, c block, people booked, ready to go, scripts in. We know were reporting. Had it all planned out. New breaking news. Throw everything out the window. This is the new schedule. This is how we work now. You wait long enough into the evening without getting too drunk to Pay Attention to the news and youll find that something breaks and changes your plans. Monday evening it was President Trump passing on classified intelligence to the russians in the oval office. Tuesday night it was the existence of a memo from fired fbi director james comey describing a conversation if which he says the president asked him to back off the fbi investigation of former National Security adviser mike flynn. Last night it was the appointsment of a social counsel to take over the trumprussia investigation. Now its the fourth day of the week and so now weve got a new one. Tonights scoop comes courtesy of Michael Schmitt at the the New York Times, a sorry that hes broken tonight. The front page of the the New York Times website, in addition to the alleged direct pressure on bithe president on director comey, apparently the president called the fbi director and pressured him to put out public word about trump not personally being under investigation. Nbc reports tonight that Jared Kushner is under scrutiny in the trumprussia investigation. Those officials saying that Jared Kushner is a person of interest. Well kochl back to another friday night of what seems like extraordinary news from the trumprussia inquiry beginning with Robert Mueller taking over the grand jury inquiry in the lobbies that flynn did for turkey without registering as an agent of the Foreign Government. Required under law. The a. P. Would report that mueller could expand the probe to including Jeff Sessions and rodrosenstein for their roles in firing. The a. P. Reporting that muller is taking over the probe of the former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort. Talk about dot connecting. Weve been bush whacking through the forest for a long time and we came out into a clearing and we can see where we are. Its a landmark moment in terms of understanding this investigation, i think. Great to be back. And because we have to begin tonight naturally the universe has welcomed me back with latebreaking trumprussia news, news that has just broke nn the Washington Post with the last hour. According to nights Washington Post yet another senior serving National Security official in the u. S. Government has reportedly now told associates that the president directed him, the president told him to intervene with the fbi to try to stop the trumprussia investigation. The new reporting from the Washington Post just out in the last hour concerns not james comey but the director of national intelligence, appointed by President Trump. Former senate dan coats. Tonight we have this brandnew reporting from the the New York Times about cia director mike pompeo and trump National Security adviser mike flynn. It concerns the question of what happened in the 18 days between the time when the acting attorney general, sally yates, warned the white house that mike flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. What happened in the 18 days between when yates gave that warning and when the white house finally fired him. This is your life, america. This is what your life has been like since december. Do you wonder why youve been a little stressed out over the past few months. Have you been following this news . It has been a long but gratifying seven months for journalism, particularly the nonstop, feels like nonstop breaking news from our Excellent National treasure world class american newspapers like the Washington Post and like the the New York Times. We have as a country weve covered a lot of ground over the last seven months or so on this show, covering these breaking news updates every night as these stories have broken night after night after night. For the rest of this hour tonight, were going to be, not just looking at where weve been and what weve learned over this remarkable sevenmonth period in american history, were going to zero in on the major things to look out for as the investigations into the Current Administration continues. Happy Independence Day. Stay with us tonight. This is going to be fun. On may 17th this year in the evening, 7 04 p. M. , robert these days families want to be connected 24 7. Thats why at comcast were continuing to make our services more reliable than ever. Like technology that can update itself. An advanced fibernetwork infrustructure. New, more Reliable Equipment for your home. And a new culture built around customer service. It all adds up to our most Reliable Network ever. One that keeps you connected to what matters most. On may 17th this year in the evening, 7 04 p. M. , Robert Mueller confirmed that he had been named to be special counsel in the trumprussia investigation. That was confirmed at 7 04 p. M. 34 minutes later, 7 34 p. M. , his law firm confirmed, the law firm that he had just left in order to become special counsel, they confirmed that bob mueller was already staffing up if are the trumprussia investigation. Among the people he would be taking with his from his old law firm is this man. James quarrels. He started out as a special prosecutor in the watergate prosecution. Then we learned about Andrew Wiseman also going to work with mueller. He was running the fraud section at the Criminal Division of the u. S. Department of justice. But as weve previously talked about, Andrew Wiseman is a veteran of 25 mob prosecutions. He managed get a longterm mobster to testify against john gotti. He got that same guy to come back out of witness protection to testify against vinnie the chin ga ganty. He was involved in the prosecution of felix seder for a mobconnected fraud scheme to which free lix seder pled guilty. After quarrels and wiseman we learned about michael tree bin. He walter dill linger told the Washington Post that dre bin is the most brilliant and most knowledgeable criminal lawyer in america, period. Since then weve learned that bob mueller added an experienced Justice Department Trial Attorney named lisa paige to his team. Wired magazine had an interesting profile with her that included her experience with Money Laundering and organized crime investigations, investings where she partnered with an fbi task force based in hungary which focused on european ors organized crime. Another interesting hire. And then theres elizabeth prolager. She comes to the bob mueller team via the u. S. Solicitor generals office. A lot of very important courtships on her resume. Very well established and well regarded. She appears to be fluent in russian from the national law journal, court, as an emory law journal graduate she majored in english and russia. She won a scholarship to study russia. Watergate, mob, Money Laundering, criminal law, fluency in russian. Thats who hes put together so far. Any sense of what Robert Mueller might be working on here . Any base he hasnt covered yet . Watch this space. New bandaid® brand skinflex™, bandages. Our best bandage yet it dries almost instantly. Better . Yeah. Good thing because stopping never crosses your mind. Bandaid® brand. Stick with it™ pressure. I feel it every day. But at night, its the last thing on my mind. For 10 years, my tempurpedic has adapted to my weight and shape, so i sleep deeply. And wake up ready to perform. Nothing performs like a tempurpedic, and our july 4th event is the perfect time to buy one. Save up to 500 on select tempurpedic mattress sets. 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For a limited time, you can qualify for two treatments at no cost. Stand up to chronic migraine. Talk to a headache specialist today. Ten days after election day when the Trump Victory was quite fresh and the implications of it was starting to become clear, the Trump Transition Team made a decision. It was a decision that made me do a whoop when i heard about it. It led me to do something that i rarely do on this program and you might not know this is a real thing. I broke format. I threw out what we were planning to do. I went off script. Did an unproduced off the cuff segment where i rift into the camera live on national tv for two minutes about what that decision might mean. And ultimately that decision colored the five months of the trump team. What that decision made me take everything i had and throw it out the window. Stay with me. Thats next. The cliches that you never get a Second Chance to make a first impression. But good old mike pence never got a single chance to make a first impression. Because the biggest night of mike pences public life, the night that mike pence was chosen to be Donald Trumps Vice President ial running mate. That same night there was a sudden dramatic coup attempt in turkey. And that surprise bizarre intense news, that pretty much swallowed up all of the other news in the world. And if the turkish coup itself was dramatic news, chit was dramatic enough, i have to say the aftermath of the coup attempt has been even more dramatic. Turkeys president has been trending autocratic but after the coup attempt he started rounding up people by the tens of thousands. Started building hundreds of new prisons to lock those people up. The guy he blamed for than anybody for the coup attempt was this ee man. Turkeys president after the coup attempt demanded that the u. S. Hand this guy over so he could be dealt with back in turkey. And while im sure that turkeys president feels strongly about that, this guy is a legal permanent resident of our country now. We dont hand people over because other countries say so. Other countries dont get to demand that we hand them over. But interestingly on election day, on our election day here in the United States in november, we learned in a strange way that somebody who was about to become very very powerful in this country was apparently totally on board with that demand to hand over that turkish guy to the turkish government. On election day this week, on tuesday, Donald Trumps top military and intelligence adviser wrote an oped in the hill saying basically, you know what . We should hand that guy over. He called this eman whos living in the poconos a shady islamic mullah and he said this, this is nice. Quote if he was in reality a moderate he would not be in exile. You know what . Honestly right now there are 100,000 journalists, professor, mayors, politicians, freaking libraries who have done that. Hes building 174 new prison to lock up tens of thousand os people who he has rounded up in a gigantic purge. The hand them over guy, this guy that says we should hand this guy over, he probably deserves it, that general mike flynn, the top adviser. He was named to the executive committee of Donald Trumps new Transition Team. That was the friday of the u. S. Election this past november. That was the day that we first learned that Michael Flynns lobbying firm was on the payroll of the turkish government. Three days after the election and red flags were already going up. But just one week later president elect trump announced that in fact mike flynn would be his National Security adviser. At which point when that announcement happened during our show on the air that night, i went into an extended ad lib about mike flynn. At this point in the show i had something i wanted to cover but i scrapped it. Theres something i need to say about the mike flynn National Security adviser announcement. Its an announcement. Its done. All a president elect has to do to get a National Security adviser is ask somebody and have them say yes. This mike flynn thing is done. That means it will the not be discussed compared to people who have to go through the confirmation process. The choice of mike flynn is a kettle of fish other than anything we expected from the Trump Campaign. Mike flynn calls islam a political etiology hiding behind a religion. Calls islam a malignant cancer. He has been a frequent quest on Russian State Television and sees no difference between Russian State Television and for example, msnbc. He will now be the closest person to the president of the United States on a daytoday basis on all Foreign Policy issues, on all military issues, on all National Security issues. And he is way outside anything that anybody on the left, right or center might consider to be the mainstream either in thought or temperament in terms of National Security issues. And its done. And trump gets him unless he has some change of heart or you know awakening of conscience about doing Something Like that for a key position. I would also say that mike flynn has been on the payroll, his Intelligence Firm has been on the payroll of turkey including the Trump Campaign without disclosing that while he was on the Trump Campaign. I know hes not going to get as much coverage as the other people that have to get confirmed over the next few days. Stick a pin in that. Its a rel i important really worrying announcement. Im not the kind of person who ever says i told you so, but imagine somebody else who looks like a lot like me, sounds like me, dresses cheap like me saying i told you so. The first evident trouble with the choice of mike flynn to be National Security adviser came even before the inauguration. Came about a week before the inauguration. Washington post reported that mike flynn called the Russian Ambassador several times on december 29th, which is a key day because thats the day that the Obama Administration announced retaliatory measures against russia for them hacking or election. So reporting that flynn called the ambassador several times that day. That led to several days of sean spicer insist tlg was no call by mike flynn to the russians on december 29th. Then he said it was a call on the 29th but nothing but holiday pleasant pleasantries. But absolute lit it had nothing to do be sanctions. That explanation held for almost three whole weeks until the Washington Post broke that story wide open. And in breaking that story the post found the answer to something that had been nagging people ever since the Obama Administration had expelled those Russian Diplomats and seized the russian compounds. There had been a nagging question. Why didnt moscow retaliate when obama did that. Thats how these things are worked out. We kick out a whole buchbl of their guys, they kick out a whole bunch of our guys. But putin didnt respond in kind. Obama took over his long held russian compounds in the United States, seized them, kicked out the russian spies and diplomats. Putin responded by doing nothing. It was weird. But then heres where the Washington Post picks up the story. Putins muted response took white house officials by surprise. Triggered a search by u. S. Spy agencies for clues. One former senior official told the post that something happened in those 24 hours between obamas announcement and putins response. Officials began pouring over intelligence reports, intercepted communications and diplomatic cables. They found evidence that trump National Security adviser mike flynn and the Russian Ambassador to the United States had communicated by text and telephone around the time these sanctions were announced. So weve got u. S. Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies bugging the russians, right, listening in on this russian officials calls. And what they hear, according to these multiple corroborated reports is the man whos going to go on to be trumps National Security adviser calling the russian government and essentially telling them dont worry about these sanctions that the u. S. Government is putting on you. Hes calling russia to undermine the sanctions that the Obama Administration is putting on them. Told them dont bother reacting to these sanctions. Once trump is sworn in, well fix it. Well take care of it. Working secretly with a foreign power to undermine the actions of the u. S. Government, thats kind of a big deal. Even the trump folks recognize that somebody doing that would be kind of a big deal. They recognized it enough that they took great pains to deny the heck out of this for weeks now. The subject matter of sanctions or the actions taken by the Obama Administration did not come up in the conversation. They exchanged logistical information on how to initiate and schedule that call. That was it, plain and simple. They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States decision to expel diplomats or impose a censure. Either they all bluntly lied about mike flynn and what he was doing about russia or they lied unknowingly because they were saying something that they thought was through. Because mike flynn told them a lie and they passed it on thinking it was troupe. Either way that cant stand. That seems like a big deal for the top people in a brandnew administration. That was february 10th of this year, not even a month into the new administration. Less than four days later mike flynn was out. Late last night in the middle of the night the National Security adviser to the president resigned, was fired, resigned, resigned, was fired, we dont know. But hes out. National security adviser Michael Flynn. We now that the Justice Department, including sally yates, she went to the white house at the end of january and they informed she and another sean your career justice official informed the white House Counsel that mike flynn had had contacts with the russian government that were not only undermining u. S. Government sanctions against russia, these were contacts that he lied about and they told the white house that he had done it. And we know that the white house knew about that for weeks and they took no action. Why did they take no action . Why did they continue to let Michael Flynn have the access to the president and the access to classified information that he enjoyed up until the night he was fired. The New York Times and the Washington Post have both reported citing multiple sources that his contacts with the russian government didnt start once she was National Security adviser, they didnt start once trump was elected. Michael flynn was in contact with the russian government during the campaign, before the election, while russia was interfere in the u. S. Election in multiple ways trying to tip the election to donald trump. Did Michael Flynn help them with that . Did mike flynn or anyone else collude with the russian government in their efforts to elude the election . Its a serious charge, an absolutely unanswered one at that point. That is still an unanswered charge. Since mike flynn left the white house he and his businesses and Business Associates have reportedly been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. Mike flynn is a focus of Robert Muellers investigation which is reportedly looking into not only flynns russian contacts but also his work lobbying for turkey. Mike flynns activities during the press den campaign, during the transition, his very brief tenure in the white house itself, those are turned out to be right at the center of the ongoing investigations into this new administration and the russian attack on us last year. And those ongoing investigations have ended up putting a spotlight on one particular member of the Trump Administration and the specific question of whether or not he knew what mike flynn was up to. That spotlight is now on a very high ranking currently serving member of the administration. One who never got a fist chance to make a first impression. And that story is next. It was three days after the president ial election last year, it was november 11th, that we first talked on this show about trump National Security adviser mike flynn and the possibility that he was being paid to represent the interests of another country other than the United States. November 11th, three days after the election, that was the day that we learned that flynn had been on the payroll of the nation of turkey. And that presumably is what explained why mike flynn on election day published a weird oped praising turkeys government. That all happened right after the election. But it wasnt until four months later, long after flynn had become National Security adviser and then lost his job as National Security adviser. It wasnt until months later that he finally filed paperwork to retroactively dedlar he had been acting as an agent of a foreign power while serve in the Trump Campaign. Mike flynn may be long gone from the white house now and may be reportedly under all kinds of investigation. But you know we never did get a straight answer from the Trump Administration about how and why they installed someone as National Security adviser who really was acting as an unregistered paid agent of a foreign power. Mike flynn has finally retroactivity registered with the Justice Department as a Foreign Agent. Hes admitted that he took hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby for the government of turkey last year, between august and november. But again this filing is retroactive. It as not like hes filing now saying hes about to start to take money to lobby for the turkish government. Hes filing now to say that he was while he was also working for trump. The white house said today that President Trump had no idea. No idea that mike flynn was an agent of a Foreign Government while he was advising the Trump Campaign and leading the National Security part of the trump transition and, honestly, while he was sitting in on the president ial daily brief and all of the other things he did as part of the trump effort. And maybe, maybe, amazingly thats true that President Trump had no idea mike flynn was a Foreign Agent while he was doing that because maybe the president consumes no news and information that is publicly available to the rest of us. Maybe he didnt notice anything on cable news. Maybe he didnt notice anything on the daily caller or politico or cnn or bloomberg or any of it. Just didnt notice. But you know, just a week after we did that big segment that we did on Michael Flynn working for a Foreign Government, just one week after that, democratic congressman Elijah Cummings wrote to the Trump Transition Team to formally alert them to these credible news reports that the top National Security adviser to the transition and to the new president was lobbying for turkish interests. Notification from congress. And now today, the Associated Press has confirmed that the Transition Team, beyond the letter from Elijah Cummings, beyond all the news coverage, the Transition Team was formally notified by mike flynns lawyers during the transition that he was on the payroll of a Foreign Government. Quote, lawyers for flynn told trumps Transition Team that flynn might need to register as an agent of a foreign power. Even if the president had no access to all of that publicly available information, we know for certain the white house is actually tonight confirming that even if theyre still saying the president didnt know, theyre confirming that the transition knew. The Transition Team was informed at the highest levels that mike flynn maybe needed to register as a Foreign Agent. Even if you dont if the president somehow was completely immune to this information, the white house confirms the transition knew. The head of the transition was informed. Who was the head of the transition . An incredibly honestlooking gentleman named mike pence. Michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a Foreign Agent for making more than 500,000 as a lobbyist essentially for turkey. Your reaction to that considering that doesnt that mean, mr. Vice president , that even if he didnt lie to you about what the Russian Ambassador said or didnt say, that you would have had to fire him anyway . Well, let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it, and i fully support the decision that President Trump made to ask for general flynns resignation. Youre disappointed by the story. Its the first i heard of it, and i think it is it is an affirmation of the president s decision to ask general flynn to resign. First of all, bret baier at fox i think asks the question perfectly, right . He lays it out, lays it out accurately. Let me get your reaction to this, basically saying is this not a significant scandal involving general flynn . How does mike pence respond to that . Play that bit again. Well, let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. That was not actually the question you were asked. But nobody asked when you heard of it. But twice without being asked when he first heard of this, twice mike pence volunteers that this is all news to him. Never heard this before. Youre disappointed by the story. Its the first i heard of it. It is impossible that this is the first time mike pence has heard of it. Its impossible. Mike pence was the head of the transition. While all of those news stories about mike flynn being on the turkish governments payroll were breaking, he was the head of the transition. When mike flynn was being vetted for the National Security advisor job. He was the head of the transition when Congress Formally notified the head of the transition that mike flynn appears to be on a Foreign Governments payroll. He was the head of the transition when mike flynns personal lawyers came and told the head of the transition that mike flynn maybe needed to register as a Foreign Agent. And now mike pences explanation for this whole story inexplicably is hes never heard any of this. Well, let me say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. That cannot be true. That cannot be true. That cannot be true. The mike flynn scandal in this white house, the inexplicable hiring of flynn, the secret foreign ties of flynn, the National Security adviser to the president of the United States being forced out of that job just 24 days into the new administration because of his secret foreign ties and contacts all of it. The mike flynn matter is astonishing in its own right. But the mike flynn matter is also the mike pence matter. The Vice President s behavior, his account of his own actions around mike flynn, these things just dont add up, and they never have. Vice president pence tends to keep a low profile in this administration, but he really has made a number of blunt, direct, false statements related to the trump russia investigation. He bluntly asserted that the trump transition had not applied for a security clearance for mike flynns son. They actually had applied for a security clearance for mike flynns son. Mike pence also bluntly, boldly asserted that james comey was not fired for anything having to do with the trump russia investigation. The president himself has admitted that is in fact exactly why james comey was fired. Mike pence has bluntly asserted that there were no Trump Campaign contacts with russian officials during the campaign. That is not true. He has bluntly asserted that he had no idea that mike flynn had a paid relationship with any foreign countrys government. That would seem to be impossible. Mike pence formed a Political Action committee in may, which is an unusual thing for a Vice President to do. That was may. In june, he hired an alist private lawyer to represent him personally in the russia probe. And then after weeks of speculation and reporting to the contrary and the Vice President s office refusing to confirm one way or the other, eventually the Vice President s private lawyer said that mike pence will not use that new pac that he set up as a vehicle to raise funds to cover his legal fees. But, you know, he could if he wants to. The mike flynn story, the mike flynn story is unprecedented in american history. Honestly, its incredible. But it also is the Vice President s story now. And unlike mike flynn, mike pence of course is still in office. Watch this space. This week, right after this glorious Independence Day holiday, President Trump will be heading to europe for his second overseas trip of his presidency. He will be stopping in poland. He will be stopping in germany and in germany in hamburg, he has planned a very special meeting with russian president vladimir putin. In person, first time. I wonder if theyll get along. That does it for us tonight. Happy fourth of july. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Witch hunt. This is not a witch hunt. This is a search for facts. The fbi is investigating whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russias efforts. The whole russian thing, thats a ruse. There are three investigations. These are not hoaxes invented by democrats. It should be over with. In my opinion, it should have been over a long time ago. Has the dismissal of mr. Comey in any way impeded any investigation. You cannot stop the men and women of the fbi from doing the right thing, protecting the American People and upholding the constitution. What trump is going to find out eventually is that the rules do apply to him, and its going to come by way of bob mueller. The president of the United States is under criminal investigation for his conduct in office. Look, who brought this on