Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. It is now under way. The director of National Intelligence said in a recent speech that the Warning Lights are blinking red and the Digital Infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack. And here we see the incursions coming. Russian hackers have now already targeted at least three candidates in this years 2018 midterms. Reports one of the targets is missouri democratic senator Claire Mccaskill. So highway donald trump doubts much of this is even occurring, his pentagon chief does say there are secret actions now underway to combat it. What is the government doing to halt russian interference in the next elections . Yeah, im not at liberty to explain what were doing in that regard. Just rest assured there are actions under way to protect our elections or to exposeness
now the question is whether trump lied about the worst possible thing, not the pr afterward, but whether donald trump took actions or
That and whether he can help prove it, thats an open question. We also know on the day that donald trump junior formally accepted that meeting, candidate trump touted the big upcoming speech about hillary clinton. I am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week, and were going to be discussing all the things that have taken place with the clintons. I think you will find it very informative and very, very interesting. Candidate trump did not make that monday speech. As trump now repeats his denials about any advance knowledge of the meeting, it is critical to note this is a meeting that team trump already lied about. His own lawyers often admitting to mueller trump dictated that misleading statement about the meeting originally. First they lied about what happened in the meeting. Then they lied about the defense of the meeting. Which he was choosing to offer,
even though he also claimed he didnt know anything about the meeting. Now the question is whether trump lied ab
The latest Political Developments of the day and interviews with top newsmakers are featured. Ears is that trump was not at au walled off from the seedier aspects of being donald trump. In fact, he was very much hands on. If cohens account proves true, Donald Trumps Daily Collusion Denial may undergo an extreme make over and his supporters may soon be conditioned to accept that collusion isnt a crime instead of there was no collusion at all, and that is just the p. R. Battle front. The legal problems for the president may be twofold. One, the Trump Tower Meeting is under scrutiny in the Obstruction Of Justice track of the Mueller Probe, and on the Collusion Track Bob Mueller has charged russian officials for Election Meddling and he may be building a conspiracy case and working to Connect The Dots to any unwitting or witting accomplices inside the trump orbit. Cohens bombshell contradicts many months of denials from donald trump about his knowledge of the Trump Tower Meeting, like this
president who also knows cohen. trump allies are gaming out how to in the words of one outside advisor, bury cohen. joining us now former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade, betsy woodruff, politics reporter for the daily beast and heilemann has joined the table. barbara, let me ask you, there is also reporting that michael cohen puts other people in the room with donald trump, jr., and the president. could that be the piece that explains why he was willing to dangle this out there? could that be something that is of interest or of value if he can paint a picture and offer up the names of other witnesses that could say that, yeah, donald trump knew about this meeting? yes, very much so. in fact, if you listen to rudy giuliani when he s using the word lie, lie, lie over and over again, one of the things he says that s already important is uncorroborated. the key that a prosecutor would want to do in a witness like michael cohen is corroborate him. one way you can do it is by not calling hi
even though he also claimed he didn t know anything about the meeting. now the question is whether trump lied about the worst possible thing. not what was discussed in it, not the pr afterward, but whether he took actions or had intent the meeting that could contribute to elements of a crime. that s not a question posed by, say, a trump critic or an investigator aggressively looking at the issues, or posed by journalists in the story. this is now the key question, facing the white house, courtesy of one of trump s longest serving once more loyal aides. a man who was with him as political staff, a man who documented and recorded interactions and that may be why these new reports say that this once loyal team, these two teammates, are now dead to each other, preparing to bury cohen, is what the white house is leaking. michael cohen used to be a loyal trump friend who gave privileged advice. but cohen is learning, trump s