covering these right wing groups. with that perspective, what do you make of what we re seeing today in washington, d.c., a year out from what happened in charlottesville last year? well, you know, my experience in egypt has really informed a lot of my understanding of what s happening at home in the united states now. you really see that for a lot of people, identity is the crucial question in politics. and i imagi i think it s a lot of what s turning politics in the u.s. today. and president trump clearly appealed to a very strong and particularly ethnic notion of what it means to be an american. and so it s not surprising we see that manifesting itself. you also having covered egypt, get to understand what people mean when they say the deep state. there is a sort of bureaucratic apparatus that s a hardship to steer. and so we see that playing out. david, nice to see you. thank you very much. david kirk patrick. into the hands of the soldiers available now. up ahead in our ne
with all the other breaking news tonight this story could fall under category any other day. this could have been the lead story. the new york times reporting before the 2016 election donald trump jr. held a meeting with a small group that included an emissary for arab emirates and saudi arabia. the goal to help trump win the election. one says he pitched a million dollar proposal for a social media manipulation to help elect donald trump. joining me now david kirk patrick. what s the purpose of the meeting which took place three months before the election? the purpose was clearly to offer help to the trump campaign to elect donald trump. the main organizer of the
the time said flat out we would like to do whatever we can to help elect your father, donald trump. and an israeli citizen was there. it s improper for him to be helping to nut a campaign. he runs an internet company that specializes in shaping opinion and social media campaigns. and he was there talking about all that his company could do for the campaign. so the takeaway to my mine fairly unmistakebly is that they were trying to offer the help of at least the united arab emirates in electing donald trump. david, what does it take to get to the point where we know that foreign interests interfering in the election is not allowed. at what point does that line get crossed? is taking the meeting itself potentially problematic? by can t man that taking a meeting is problematic. i have no reason to believe that anything was promised in advance
but mueller seems pretty interested in not only this meeting but characters involved. president trump had this to say about the report, quote, the witch-hunt find no collusion with russia, so now they are looking at the rest of the world. oh, great. for more on the second trump tower meeting i m joined by one of the writers of that new york times piece david kirk patrick. thank you for joining us today. what exactly were these operatives hoping to accomplish during this meeting? did they simply want to help the president get elected? well that seems to have been the overall purpose of the meeting. erik prince brought the meeting together. he said flatly in the meeting, we re doing what we can to help you get elected. and george nader, who was there as an emissary, certainly, from the united arab emirates and possibly representing the saudis as well, that s what he said at
it might be possibly a coordinated effort between the uae and russia. i think that s one of the thing he is looking at. the frame that we are putting on this, perhaps russia, uae, two different entities trying to interfere in the election it might be that these two entities are in it together? yeah, the seychelles meeting certainly suggests that. but at this point i think that s a question, not an answer. david kirkpatrick thanks very much. great reporting as always and you from your colleagues. i want to talk more about this meeting, also the entire scope of robert mueller s meeting. i m joined by politico s white house reporter annie carney and new york times reporter matt owe pewso. he is also an nbc contributor. thank you for being here. great to see you. matt i want to follow up on something we were talking about earlier in the hour. that is the question of this informant that i know you worked with several of your colleagues on the new york times story