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
Trump got updates on the whole of government approach his administration is implementing to safeguard our nations elections. The president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation state or other malicious actors. That kind of Paper Statement is a contrast to trumps actual words in helsinki where trump sided with the russian president over his own Intelligence Agencies on the question of whether russia interfered in the u. S. Election. That was the Press Conference where putin brought back an idea these two leaders had apparently talked about, a joint u. S. russian Cyber Security group to investigate Russian Election meddling. Sort of like having el chapo join up with the dea to fight drug trafficking. Now this quite absurd plan to team up with the only country whose own agents have been charged for 2016 interference first came up you may remember all the way last summer when trump wrote that he and putin discussed
now the question is whether trump lied about the worst possible thing, not the pr afterward, but whether donald trump took actions or had intent about the meeting that could contribute to elements of a crime. that s not a question posed by say a trump critic tonight or an investigator aggressively looking at these issues or posed by journalists digging into the story. this is now the key question facing the white house courtesy of one of trump s longest serving once most loyal aides, a man with him before most of his current political staff who documented and recorded their interactions. that may be why these new reports say this once loyal team, these two team mates 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 return on than loyalty all depends on the situation. and trump certainly isn t taking
advice. but cohen is learning trump s return on that loyalty all depends on the situation. trump isn t taking cohen s counsel anymore. it s a stand-off captured by some words of wisdom from a famous song jukebox joints that says it all depends, with friends like you, who needs friends? sometimes the best advice is no advice, especially when it s your advice. i turn now to former federal prosecutor joyce vance who has much experience here. i don t think there s any doubt that donald trump is not taking michael cohen s advice and counsel anymore. how do you view the significance of this rupture and the types of leaking and back biting that we re seeing tonight? this is potentially very significant, ari. you know prosecutors are hard wired to be cautious, so it s important to say that we haven t