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
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
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Over 30 hours with the white House Counsel, misspelled only, with my approval for purposes of transparency. The Washington Post reports that mcigans own lawyer has told the Trump Legal Team, mcgahn does not believe he implicated the president in any legal wrongdoing when he spoke to the special counsel. Meanwhile the president s lawyer is now in Damage Control mode. Earlier tonight, he explained that and he the president s former attorneys are now aware of what was in mcgahns testimony. John dowd got a political version of what mcgahn said during that period of time. John, of course, because of what happened over the weekend, went through it thoroughly. Ive been on the phone with him for hours and gone over it with him. When it first came out, i didnt know the details of what mcgahn said. Now do i. I knew not to worry because if the president said anything criminal to the counsel of the white hou
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Former Chief Of Staff at the cia and at the pentagon. Robert, i would like to begin with you. What is the degree to which the trump camp was Caught Off Guard by just the idea of 30 hours of don mcgahn testimony in front of the special counsel . Its not tonight trump camp Caught Off Guard. It was mcgahn himself a year ago who was found this whole strategy by john dowd and ty cobb, the president s lawyers, to be off. Mcgahn didnt agree with the Cooperation Strategy when it came to the mueller probe. He advised against it. He went along with the cooperation, setting the over 1 million documents from the white house and offering his time. In fact, i saw mcgahn go into muellers Office Around 6 00 a. M. One morning when i was staking it out. He was fully cooperative then and ever since. Theres some reporting. Hey, joyce, cobb and dowd, their decision to waive
during a similar investigation. So a little