Down the barrel behind it. Just in no particular order today, today the head of the National Security agency has not been authorized to disrupt russian Cyber Attacks targeting our elections. The head of the nsa said were absolutely not doing enough. Russia is encouraged to do more by the success their efforts thus far, but his hands are basically tied because the president hasnt given him or his agency the daytoday authority to disrupt russias ongoing Cyber Attacks against us. Thats a big story. Also today, the president announced his Reelection Campaign which is strange enough since hes only been in office for a year but then he also chose to name his Campaign Manager for his reelection effort in 2020. Cant use the old Campaign Chairman obviously. Hes got 23 felony counts pending against him, so no, not him. The new campaign chief instead will be the guy that served as trumps Digital Media guru Brad Parscale. As we await word from the special counsel as to whether there will be further indictments in the russia investigation with the data side of the president ial election in 2016, donald trump has just named the Digital Media guru from 2016 as the chief of his whole 2020 effort. That seems like a big story. But wait, as soon as that was announced, the Associated Press said a few months ago, Brad Parscale just named Campaign Manager for 2020, just a few months ago parscale signed a 10 million business deal with a super shady penny stock wp thco, which has recently been investigated for pumping its stock price online. This is a Company Famous for one of its top executives offering to pay a Million Dollar bribe to some Hedge Fund Investors supposed Hedge Fund Investors to get them to illegally pump up the companys penny stock price. Those Hedge Fund Investors were fbi agents and it was a sting that executive ended up pleading guilty to commit securities fraud. He flipped and became a cooperating witness for prosecutors and now Brad Parscale just joined the board of that company and did a 10 million deal with him while hes just been announced as the trump Campaign Manager for 2020. All the while Trumps Deputy Campaign Chair from the last campaign pled guilty to two fellness and his aforementioned Campaign Chairman from the last campaign is due to be arraigned in federal Court Tomorrow and will be arraigned again in a different federal Court Two Days later in both cases on multiple felonies. That seems like a big story, too. I can tell you there is some beautiful historical symmetry in the fact the president announced his Reelection Campaign today on the same day that the russia Legal Defense fund for trump 2016 Campaign Staffers was formally incorporated into law. Well have more on that coming up later on this hour. The atlantic magazine tonight also released direct messages between Trump Campaign associate roger stone and wikileaks. These are direct messages between stone and wikileaks from before the election even though roger stone denied he had direct contact with wikileaks. This means roger stone now admits being in direct contact during the campaign with a russian cutout that released emails stolen by the russian government and belatedly admits to being involved while they had emails stolen by the russian government. Those in addition to the direct contact during the campaign between wikileaks and donald trump jr. , which the Campaign First denied but now they have been forced to admit, as well. All of these news stories breaking in the same afternoon, this is all one day of news. Lets keep going. Today the White House Communications director was called to testify under oath to committee and White House Communications director refused to testify about anything and nobody is asserting executive privilege here. Shes refusing to testify. Okay. Conveniently that means hope hicks drafting a false and misleading statement and the true nature and meeting during the campaign that involved and a whole bunch of russians by claiming they had dirt on Hillary Clinton that had been collected by the government that they wanted to deliver to the Trump Campaign. Also today, another white house official is reportedly talking about the false statements about the trump tower meeting, josh raffle. He quit the white house today. Josh raffle had kind of a strange job. He was technically deputy Communications Director at the white house though that title was never formally announced before he quit today. Okay. And real life what his job actually was was that he was the spokesman for the president s children, for the president s children given senior white house jobs. Its a strange thing to have the president s children and senior white house jobs and also a strange thing that we, the taxpayers, were paying the salary for the president s daughter and her husband to have their own dedicated Communications Specialist on tap. But today that Communications Guy announced he is quitting. We contacted the white house and josh raffel himself today to ask if hes been interviewed by special Counsel Robert Mueller. We also asked about whether hes been questioned about his alleged role in crafting the trump tower meeting statement or anything else. We asked if mr. Raffel secured legal representation for himself. We got a polite decline to comment on both matters. But that, all of those things happened before the big news broke at the Washington Post. Well have shane harris, the lead reporter, well have shane harris here in just a moment to go through this. Basically, here is the scoop. Last month in what was then the biggest story of the year, they the new yorker magazine reported that senior Law Enforcement official himself come to the white house in december and given senior officials at the white house a stark warning that a member of the president s family was being targeted by a chinese influence operation. In that same article, evan and adam for the new yorker reported Jared Kushner had basically been blowing off the National Security protocols with meetings, including meetings alone on at least one occasion from the Chinese Ambassador. Further reported on u. S. Intelligence intercepts that turned up some worrying discussions about kushners dealings with the chinese. Quote, u. S. Intelligence agencies aggressively target Chinese Government communications including the ambassadors reports about meetings in the u. S. According to current and former officials briefed about chinese communications, chinese officials said that in meetings to prepare for the chinese president summit at maralago, the Chinese Ambassador and Jared Kushner discussed the business interests along with u. S. Government policy. If Jared Kushner is bringing up his own personal business interests alongside government policy while talking with the Chinese Government, thats a serious National Security breach. And what just broke tonight in the Washington Post tells us a little more detail about why that is. Were going to go through that with shane harris in just a second but that new yorker report from last night, that was the first time we were learned that Jared Kushner was given access to the president s daily brief thats prepared for the president every day. What was unprecedented and frankly strange about that revelation is that Jared Kushner was given access to the pdb despite the fact he doesnt have a full security clearance and hasnt been able to get one since hes been in the white house. Since then, as you know, the whole issue of security clearances has blown up into a full scale disaster for the trump white house. Following revelations about rob porter, the white house staff secretary who lost that job following news reports about serious Domestic Violence allegations against him from both of his exwives. Those news reports about those domestic violation allegations, those were revelations to all of us and the public but it turned out the white house had known for a long time. The exwives had been interviewed by the fbi as part of rob porters background process for him trying to get a security clearance. The fbi wouldnt clear him to get a full security clearance because of the allegations against him, which they described to the white house chief of staff and the white house counsel. Despite that, white house chief of staff john kelly kept rob porter in that job. He even recommended rob porter for big promotions and he kept giving him access to the most classified materials despite rob porter not being able to get a security clearance. So the furry over rob porter and white house handling of those allegations, the white house inexplicable lack of concern over security clearance problems, that led to sustained controversy for a white house that otherwise sheds controversy like water off a duck, it also led to a policy change at the white house. As of this past friday, white house chief of staff john kelly announced with this memo that the white house would no longer allow access to highly classified material for staffers that couldnt get a full security clearance. And once we got that policy announced, we did see a few people start peeling off out of white house jobs. A speech writer couldnt get a full clearance. Four appointees in the Commerce Department as reported tonight in the Washington Post by carol. We asked josh raffel if him leaving tonight had something to do with the security clearance issue having to do with him. No answer from him on that either. There is this fraught question looming over this security clearance controversy because the most high profile people in the white house who we know havent been able to get full security clearances are these two. The president s daughter, ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are each titled as senior white house advisers. Jared is in charge of middle east peace and china and mexico and all trade policy. Ivanka just got back from briefing the president of south korea on the new north korea sanctions. How on earth can they do these senior jobs if this policy from chief of staff john kelly means that the two of them will no longer be allowed to see classified materials . Tough question. Politico. Com reporting tonight the new john kelly policy about the security clearances, the new policy is in effect, it did go into effect a few days ago on friday. Politico first to report this means Jared Kushner at least no longer has access to highly classified information. He has lost his access to the highest level of classified material including the president s daily brief. We also assume that these changes will restrict access to information for the president s daughter, but who knows, were in brand new nepotistic ground here so we await further word on ivankas job. All that is unfolding and meanwhile tonight, the Washington Post just dropped the hammer when it comes to Jared Kushner specifically. Headline here is quote, kushners overseas contacts raise concerns as foreign officials seek leverage. This story takes the concerns first reported in the new yorker last month and it turns them up to 11, citing former and current u. S. Officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter, shane harris and his colleagues report tonight quote officials in at least four countries united air of lack of Foreign Policy experience. National security advisor h. R. Mcmaster learned that Jared Kushner has had contacts with foreign officials that he did not coordinate through the National Security council and he did not officially report them. The issue of foreign officials talking about their meetings with kushner and their perception of his vulnerabilities was raised in mcmasters Daily White House briefin briefings. The meetings with kushner and vulnerabilities was a subject raised in mcmasters meetings and he was naive and being tricked with officials some of whom said they wanted to deal only with Jared Kushner directly and not with more experienced personnel. So this is operating at a couple of levels. The personal drama here is that its not just that Jared Kushner cant past the background check to get a full clearance. There is some hangup at the fbi in terms of clearing him through. Thats no longer the story. The personal drama here is with this breaking news tonight in the Washington Post, this means that the problem is inside the house, right . This is the president s National Security advisor and white house officials more generally who have these concerns about Jared Kushner and thats why he wont get a full clearance. Quote, kushners contacts with certain government officials have raised concerns inside the white house and are a reason hes been unable to obtain a permanent security clearance. So again, this is not the white house fighting with the fbi over whether or not its okay to clear jared. This is the white house itself not being okay to clear jared. Which is one thing if jared were a normal employee. If youre going to end up firing a rob porter or a mike flynn, thats one thing. But what happens when the guy in question, the guy about whom there are serious National Security concerns is the president s soninlaw . Happens when the president s own top level staff takes a stand against his family . Who wins that fight with the president who gives his family top level white house jobs . And then there is the legal and scandal issues here, too. Quote, special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked people about the protocols kushner used when he set up conversations with foreign leaders. Now, it has previously been reported that Robert Muellers team of prosecutors expanded their interest in Jared Kushner to include his efforts to secure financing for his company from Foreign Investors during the president ial transition. Well, tonight the Washington Post put some meat on those bones, again, siting u. S. Citing u. S. Intelligence intercepts. Quote, officials from the uae identified kushner as discussing financing with a russian banker. He met in december 2016 with sergey with a bank called veb subject to u. S. Sanctions. The bank said they talked about Promising Business lines and sectors with Jared Kushner at that meeting but kushner himself told congress that meeting didnt involve any discussions about his familys company. Uae. Russia. Its china, too. Before Trump Took Office kushner met with executives of a Chinese Company to discuss a troubled kushner investment in a new York Office Building at 666 fifth avenue. That company was just taken over this weekend by the Chinese Government. Thats who kushner was negotiating with during the transition for like a 400 Million Investment in his familys company building. So this is in the Washington Post tonight. This is a bombshell for a couple reasons. One, there is the unprecedented and bizarre personal drama where we cant predict the outcome because weve never had anything like this before. This bizarre personal drama that derives from nepotism which is why there are anti nepotism rules. Bizarre drama from the white house including the security advisor and chief of staff drawing a line and saying no to the president over his soninlaw. Saying that on National Security grounds and there are concerns about the behavior of a white house Senior Advisor and contacts with multiple foreign countries, serious concerns they would rank among the biggest scandals in any modern presidency even if there werent bizarre and complicated nepotism concerns layered in the middle of this same scandal. Joining us now is shane harris of the Washington Post, one of four reporters that broke this big story tonight. Mr. Harris, congratulations on this very big story. Thanks for joining us tonight. Thanks, rachel. Let me ask you about h. R. Mcmaster. Theres a lot of discussions about white house officials having concerns and then theres a lot of specificity in your reporting about h. R. Mcmaster, learning about kushners worrying contacts, which he didnt officially report and coordinate through the National Security council. Why is mcmaster the person in line to be monitoring this behavior by a white house official . Are the daily Intelligence Briefings that hes receiving where he was getting reports about these concerns . Well, h. R. Mcmaster came in to replace Michael Flynn after he was forced out of the white house with his own russia related issues sits at the center of National Security policy making that goes on in the white house and also his job to make sure the state department, the Defense Department and Intelligence Community their views are all represented and all of that information is brought into the white house has a coherent policy. When he came into his job he discovered and quite taken aback to find out Jared Kushner was having his own policy discussions with foreign officials and not reporting that through the normal channels of people in the white house. That was a problem because Jared Kushner is a Senior Advisor to the president with a lot of Foreign Policy issues and if hes not reporting in those conversations hes having, that means the white house doesnt know what was said in those conversations. The white house also doesnt have the chance to brief kushner ahead of time to say youll be talking to the foreign minister of china. Here are the things we know. Here are the things he might have tried to tell you. Dont believe him. This is what the truth is. These prebriefings after the fact they are standard and done really to make sure that the people in those discussions have the full benefit of information that the government has and that the white house has a cohaerent policy. So mcmaster surprised to find out took steps to make sure he was notified when jared would be having those discussions. In terms of mr. Kushner and his security clearance, of obviously there is a question about the classified material but a question what is holding up his clearance. One of the big advances in your reporting is weve previously been told the fbi was having problems for a background check for a security clearance application and as of february 9th, the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein contacted the white house and said there were serious remaining concerns about mr. Kushner in terms of his background check, but what youre describing tonight is separate and apart from whatever is going on at d. O. J. And fbi with the question of his background check, there are concerns within the white house itself about his behavior as a white house official that themselves might be enough to block him from getting a clearance. Thats how im reading it. Is that a fair reading of what youve reported . Yeah, it is. I think that youre right to zero in on this. We havent really precisely known up until now what was it the fbi was finding or his background check that was causing the problem and it had gone on for more than a year. He wasnt fully forthcoming. These contacts he was having, the conversations he was having, ones mcmaster doesnt know about, there is something that becomes major impediment to him getting a clearance and whats become clear in this is that he is not going to get a top secret security clearance through the normal channels. It would take the president intervening to give him the clearance. We still dont know precisely everything said in those conversations but the fact of that was singled out to us by sources as a hurdle, as something keeping him from getting that clearance that is very significant. Washington post reporter shane harris, one of four on this scoop tonight from the Washington Post. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Appreciate it. Congratulations again. Thanks. Based on this reporting, i know everything is unprecedented. Its impossible to imagine that white house Senior Advisor Jared Kushner keeps his job and National Security advisor h. R. Mcmaster keeps his job, all together now given what has been reported about the serious conflicts among them and the suspicions of the white house officials toward the president s soninlaw including stripping his clearance. I cant imagine this sustains. Can it . Hold that thought. Thanks man. Imagine if the things you bought every day. Earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. With the united mileageplus explorer card, youll get a free checked bag. Two united club passes. Priority boarding. And earn fifty thousand bonus miles after you spend three thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months from account opening plus, zerodollar intro annual fee for the first year, then ninetyfive dollars. Learn more at theexplorercard. Com but some of us make somethinge make sommuch more. Dinner. Mom would be proud. With blue apron, any night is a chance to see what cooking can do. If you spit blood you may have gum problems,s and could be on the journey to much worse. Try parodontax toothpaste. Its clinically proven to remove plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums. For healthy gums and strong teeth. Leave bleeding gums behind with parodontax toothpaste. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. As we continue to cover this breaking news tonight about h. R. Mcmaster and security concerns and other white house officials airing serious National Security concerns about Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw, who was just stripped of his access to highly classified information, were joined by somebody who understands these things, if anyone does, because shes been there. N aye colle wallace, former White House Communications director hosts deadline white house right here on msnbc, the single smartest show on cable news right now. Hi, nicolle. How are you . I cant believe you said that. You threw me. I forgot everything i learned. In the Washington Post tonight, this shane harris was the lead story is the lead reporter, this strikes me as a big scoop among big scoops. Yeah. One of the things he says is that mcmaster was taken aback to learn Jared Kushner was taking meetings without coordinating then and reporting he was taking the meetings. Now is there having worked in the white house, thats weird, right . Beyond weird. Well find through the Mueller Probe if crimes were committed and its been the radar since the earliest days of the transition. Before there was a transition, the times or the post broke the story about the back channel he tried to set up with russia. Hes been having interactions with Foreign Government at best were inappropriate and unprecedented and at worst may have involved criminal actions. Now we got last month from the new yorker had that incredible piece about china, what leapt out is people familiar with u. S. Intelligence intercepts said chinese officials discussed meetings that happened with Jared Kushner at which he reportedly brought up his own personal business interests alongside u. S. Policy interests. Thats a serious allegation. Weve got other u. S. Intelligence intercepts described in the Washington Post tonight where four Different Countries describes what makes him vulnerable including personal financial difficulties, business interests and pursuit of Foreign Investors for his familys business interest while hes been associated with the Trump Campaign and administration. Here is my question, why is it so dangerous for a senior u. S. Official to be mixing his own personal business interests and financial needs with government policy . So its not about what you think it was about. The background check isnt about the fbi looking at your answers on a form, going into the field to vet them out and deciding if you have the sufficient character or leadership skills to be a white house aid. Thats up to the staff to decide. They go out with a single purpose. The reason for your fbi field investigation, the reason they go out and check the answers they give on the initial form or more advanced one is to see if youre a potential target for blackmail. Jared kushner as of today has not proven hes not a potential target for blackmail. You are a target if youve done anything that you would take great measures to assure didnt become public or wasnt made known to your home government or Law Enforcement. Thats right. Anything youve done that you would be embarrassed by or you would get in trouble for is something that would make you vulnerable to blackmail manipulation. We talk about them so they are in the past and were in the process of unpacking it. There is no evidence Jared Kushners actions that prevented him from getting a clearance and you have to keep in mind, we only know that he couldnt get a clearance. Nbc news broke the story but we only got access to this information about the people with interim clearances because of the rob porter scandal. So because of the audacity of the white house to leave an accused wife beater in a position where he was handling incredibly sensitive information, he would have been the person putting the pdb on the president s desk. We learned the numbers of people on interim status. All the reporting tonight bears out not only had it been something he couldnt achieve, it might have been something he would never achieve. What i heard from sources is that jareds sort of deliberations about do i stay or do i go, and i agree with your list of three people its not sustainable for h. R. Mcmaster, john kelly, not a stretch to describe it as a snake pit. This move was a consolidation of power by kelly. Hes reached out to corey lewandowski. To get lewandowski on his side in this fight . To have his back because lewandowski remains close to jared and ivanka. They can spin it however they want. They sent a Senior Administration official to say jared is a good boy and does lots of work and you hear the president say over and over he doesnt make money here. Not a good talking point. All right. We know how that worked out for others that didnt make money on the campaign. The problem jared has now is that his wife has a portfolio she enjoys. There is no natural, graceful exit. I share your theory that h. R. Mcmaster may not be where he is for a while. This is a public power struggle made public by their own hubris and their own nones. Thanks to incredible reporting and the operating clearance and now we know he probably never would have gotten one. Yeah, this is kelly taking a stand and saying were drawing a line. Saying that kids got to go. Its mcmaster and kelly saying there is a National Security reason he has to take the downgrade in clearance. I have not heard them say he has to leave the white house. Being publicly embarrassed. Getting your clearance stripped and access information stripped. The reporting in the new yorker is not an anomaly. He flew over and met with the saudi leaders and that wasnt on the list. It was a known unknown the ways that hes mixed Foreign Policy discussions with his own sort of just people could just say, you know, and they are experienced in doing this, he is not. How is your familys business . Tell us about your familys industry. Its as easy as that to mix the work of a policy adviser and the work of you got something to use against them and say show us some of this classified information. Because those conversations are on going, how do you clear them . Nicolle wallace and person who has been transformed by the experience of covering the trump administration. Transformed. People like you miss my old boss. There youre wrong. There youre wrong. It was normal. It was normal lines of debate. Well fight about this over a drink. We have a little mini scoop tonight still coming up. A scoop mini. Thats coming up in just a second. Stay with us. What would our Founding Fathers want us to do about this president . Im tom steyer, and when those patriots wrote the constitution here in philadelphia, they had just repelled an invading foreign power. So they created the commander in chief to protect us from enemy attack. The Justice Department just indicted 13 russians for sabotaging our elections. An electronic attack on america that the chief investigator called warfare. So what did this president do . Nothing. And is he doing anything to prevent a future attack . The head of the fbi says no. This president has failed his most important responsibility protecting our country. The first question is why . What is in his and his familys business dealings with russia that he is so determined to hide, that hed betray our country . And the second question is why is he still president . Join us today. We have to do something. Ok, i. Is it. . Clearblue digital pregnancy test. With smart countdown, gives unmistakably clear. Results written in words. Over 99 accurate. Absolute clarity, when you need it most. Happy birthday. Happy birthday trump world Legal Defense fund. We were first to report earlier this month on plans for a Legal Defense fund to help People Associated with President Trump pay for the lawyers they need to deal with the russia investigation. According to the draft papers, the fund would be called the Patriot Legal Expense Fund trust l. L. C. There was no public announcement that this Legal Defense fund was coming into being but we found signs it would soon be incorporated as a nonprofit in the state of delaware. Weve been waiting and watching and clicking and reloading where the government of delaware puts information about corporations that get born in that corporate friendly state but now we need pace and worry no more. Behold today it was born, the Patriot Legal Expense Fund trust llc as of 3 32 p. M. Delaware time. We still dont know whos going to get to donate to this russia Legal Defense fund or who gets help or who will decide who gets help or who gets left out. An attorney declined our request tonight but this is officially now happening. This still mysterious, legally unusual defense fund for people in trump world who are dealing with the russia scandal. The defense fund exists today. The same day trump announced hes running for reelection. As we learn more, well let you know. Make something for dinner. But some of us make something much more. With blue apron, any night is a chance to see what cooking can do. Aww thanks for loading, sweet. Oops. Oh burnton gravy . Gotta rinse that. Nope. No way. Nada. Really . Dish issues . Throw it all in. Cascade platinum powers through even burnton gravy. Nice. Cascade. January 2016 then candidate trump made a mistake skipping a debate and went to a fundraiser to veterans. He said he was giving it all away to veterans groups, including a Million Dollars of his own money. When a reporter at the Washington Post dug into that, he discovered that a majority of the money from the fundraiser had not been given away and there was no evidence trump himself donated any of his own money anywhere. That story, that veterans money story launched David Farenthold on a beat that would eventually produce scoop after scoop about how trump ran his Charitable Foundation and his business. David farenthold revealed that donald trump never delivered and made charitable donations with other peoples money and passed it off on his own, who broke tax law using his Charitable Foundation to settle legal disputes to settle donations and buy big portraits of himself and crashed a Ribbon Cutting ceremony for charity opening, a Nursery School for children with aids stole a seat on stage that was reserved for a big contributor and left without personally giving one red cent. Also the access hollywood tape, the most read story of all time on the Washington Post website was David Farentholds story. He won a Pulitzer Prize. Do you know what hes working on now . Thats next. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Tylenol cant do that. Aleve. All day strong. All day long. Check this sundays paper for extra savings on aleve pm. You wouldnt accept from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. International hotel and tower in panama city, panama. Donald trumps only hotel in latin america. He doesnt own it but his company is paid to run it. You might remember this special report by richard engel. Richard turned up evidence that hotel was built as a brazen vehicle for russian mafia money laundering. Here is what is going on there at the trump hotel and tower in panama city today. Quote, Panamanian Police handcuffed a Security Guard in the midst of a dispute the hotels majority owner tried to fire the Trump Organization and trump employees are refusing to leave. Quote, there were physical altercations between rival groups of Security Guards. A visit by Police Officers and a triumphant piano performance. The conflict took place in a room that contains surveillance monitors and control the fire alarms and water pumps. Todays conflict took place in a room that contains surveillance monitors and servers that control the bills fire alarms, fiberoptic communications. They posted guards at the room and bard everyone else from entering for days. At one point staff who work for the owner cut the power to that room. This video obtained by the Washington Post shows what happened this morning when several of the owners staffers were finally able to enter that room. A chaotic room of shoving and shouting ensued as trump guards tried to evict them. Quote, someone grab me by the neck and wrestled me down. At least five Panamanian Police officers arrived at the hotel and broke up the fight between the rival groups. I think the technical business term here is nuts. But here is the kicker. Quote, the Panamanian Labor Ministry is now investigating whether there were violations of the National Labor code at the hotel. The Public Prosecutor is examining whether trump employees have disregarded lawful orders from their employer. Which means if you boil it down, that means the president s private company is now under investigation by a Foreign Government and foreign prosecutors. And David Fahrenthold continues to write sentences that no one ever thought would be written about a serving american president. Such as, quote, the white house didnt respond when asked whether the president had been briefed on this fight at one of his companys 12 luxury hotels. Joining suss David Fahrenthold, Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post reporter and as of today, yay, msnbc political analyst. Congratulations on this new reporting. And thank you for joining us here at msnbc. Were so glad to have you here. Thank you. It is great to be here. Great. Tell me about this panamanian dispute. What are they fighting about . Basically, there is a guy who owns the hotel. The hotel is as you said not owned by trump, its run by trump. The owner of the hotel has decided its losing too much money and he blames mismanagement by the Trump Organization and also blames the trump brand which is toxic in latin america for the fact that the rooms are basically empty. He is trying to fire the organization, even though the contract as far as i can tell didnt allow them to fire them. He is trying to do this by sort of showing up, going to panama, handing out letters of termination and hoping the panamanian government will help him. And what about these investigations by the panamanian government . You described interest by the prosecutor, interest by the labor ministry. Are these serious investigations . Are these is this petty harassment of the Trump Organization on behalf of a competing business interest . Or is this serious stuff from that government . It seems to be serious. Its actually moving quite fast. So the majority owner has basically asked the governments help in getting to the hotel, delivering these letters of termination and basically getting these Trump Organization employees out of the hotel. So far it seems like the government is sort of taking his side and making efforts to follow through on that. We wont know for a couple of days how far it goes. But it seems like he has sort of the advantage so far from the government. Are there any additional complications that are going to arise internationally if these investigations do proceed to the point where theyre a serious problem for the Trump Organization while the president still maintains his active interests as far as we can tell in the Trump Organization as a business . Well, as you said, President Trump has said he has given up daytoday management of his business, but he still owns it. He still gets money out of it. The money that that panama hotel makes is still his money. The u. S. State department and the Panamanian Foreign Ministry say look, this isnt a diplomatic matter. We dont know what the president s level of knowledge is about this case. So far there hasnt been some sort of International Incident coming out of this. But you are right to raise the potential. What if this goes farther along and the government does eject trump from this property where he is making money . The government does arrest more of his employees . You can see the potential for more friction. What do you think is going to happen next here . What are you watching for next in this story . Obviously, its interesting in its own terms. Its interesting as an artifact of a president having a current private business. But there is also this prospect that this could become an unprecedented international complication for this government. Thats right. Im looking at two fronts. One, in this particular case in panama, does the owner of the hotel continue to have success using the panamanian government to kick out trump . And if that works, how long does it take . What are the consequences for trumps employees, and does trump try to do anything in the panamanian legal system to block it . Trump has tried all these things in the u. S. Legal system, but hasnt done anything successfully in panama. Does the Trump Organization make an appeal to panamas legal system. And then beyond that, say this does work and the trump name does come off that hotel, where does it come off next . Weve already seen it come off two hotels in toronto and in a New York Soho neighborhood where is the next place where trump isnt popular and the owner of a hotel that he runs tries to kick him out. Right. And how do we expect the president to react as he sees consequences for his business from his new political life. David fahrenthold, Washington Post reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner and as of tonight msnbc contributor. I have to tell you, we are all super, super excited to have you here. Thanks. Thanks. There is latebreaking news tonight about the democrats making some surprising election pickups tonight in places you wouldnt expect. Thats next. dog mmm. This beneful grain free is so healthy. Oh farmraised chicken thats good chicken hm . Here come the accents. Blueberries and pumpkin. Wow. And spinach that was my favorite bite so far. avo beneful grain free. Out with the grain, in with the farmraised chicken. Healthful. Flavorful. Beneful. [thud] [screaming crying] [screaming crying] [screaming crying] [phone ping] with esurance photo claims, you could have money for repairs within a day. Wow that was really fast. Huh. So it doesnt have to hurt for long. Hmm. Thats insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Im all about my bed. This mattress is dangerously comfortable. When i get in, i literally say, ahh. America loves the leesa mattress. We have more five star customer reviews than any other mattress of its kind. This bed hugs my body. Im now a morning person. Hello bed of my dreams. Discover how leesas innovative design provides an extraordinary sleep experience. Then place your order. Well ship your mattress right to your door. So you can enjoy a risk free trial at home. I love my leesa today is going to be great sleep on it for up to 100 nights and love it or youll get a full refund. Returns are free and easy. Order now, and get 125 off, plus a free pillow worth 75 and Free Shipping too. Go to buyleesa. Com today. You need this bed. Parodontax, the toothpaste that helps prevent bleeding gums. If you spit blood when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. Help stop the journey of gum disease. Try parodontax toothpaste. Some breaking election news for you tonight. Democrats tonight flipped two more seats in special elections around the country. In New Hampshire, democrats flipped a seat in the state house. The democrat in that race appears to have won by eight points. This is a district trump won by 13 points. So this isnt just a democratic pickup in New Hampshire tonight. Its a 21point swing in the democrats direction. This is the fifth seat that New Hampshire democrats have flipped from red to blue since the president ial election in 2016. There was also another flip tonight in connecticut. Democrats clawed back a seat held by republicans in a district that Hillary Clinton had actually won in 2016. Phil young won tonight in the House District 120 in connecticut. Hell be the first democrat to represent that district in connecticut in 44 years. So there were three special elections tonight. Democratic pickup in New Hampshire, democratic pickup in connecticut. That i think makes 39 total democratic flips from red seats to blue seats since december 2016. But check out the result tonight in the Third Special election tonight. That happened in kentucky. Now in this one the democrat lost. This is a kentucky special election for a house seat. But frankly, its news here that the democrats even tried to contest this seat. This seat, House District 89 in kentucky is a district that donald trump won by a margin of 62 points. The democrat lost there tonight, but she still swung the district almost 30 points in the democrats favor compared to 2016. So, again, tonight, there were three special elections. Democrats flipped two seats tonight, two seats out of three from republican to democrat in New Hampshire and connecticut. And in the third one in kentucky, they pulled off a 28point swing. This is basically been the story of special elections that weve seen across the country in red states and blue states since the november 2016 president ial election. Democrats look at the special Election Results across the country, and they see stars in their eyes in terms of what is going to happen in november 2018. Every election is its own local story. You cant predict good evening, rachel. I have breaking news for you from the New York Times about the color of lies. Hmm. In the white house. And there is a hint in the name of the white house what color the lies are. Stand by. Im going to read it to you word for word hot of the press of the New York Times. Hope hicks, the White House Communications director told prosecutors that her work for trump that has a reputation for outright falsehoods had occasionally required her to tell white lies
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