message ahead of the midterms. meanwhile hours away from the release of the affidavit that led to the fbi search of mar-a-lago and the redacted document that tells us anything that we don t already know. the latest in an escalating situation in ukraine, the largest nuclear power plant goes offline after intensive fighting sparked fires in the russian-controlled silo. good morning, and welcome to way too early. on this friday, august 26th. i m in again for jonathan lemire, president biden stepped back on to the campaign trail yesterday, with a fundraiser and a rally in the dc suburbs of maryland. he railed against maga republicans at both events. told donors, quote, what we re seeing now is the beginning or the death knell of an extreme maga philosophy. it s not just trump, the entire philosophy, it is like semi-fascism. the rnc came back with this statement, despicable, biden forced americans out of their jobs, transferred money from working families to harvard lawyer
weeks ago. what we could learn when the document comes out. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is friday, august 26th. i m willie geist. with us this morning, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. former united states senator and msnbc political analyst, claire mccaskill. and white house editor for politico, sam stein. we wake up to some news this morning. a redacted copy of the affidavit used to justify the search warrant executed at donald trump s mar-a-lago estate will be made available to the public by at least noon today, possibly this morning. federal magistrate judge rhinehart yesterday ordered it to be unsealed after the justice department submitted the redacted version for him to review. in the order, he outlined which sections of the affidavit the government redacted before public release, saying, i find the government has met its burden of finding a compelling reason, a good cause, to seal portions of the affidavit. because disclosure would reveal the identi
witnesses who said they were pressured by people close to the ex-president to, quote, do the right thing, be loyal to donald trump, reminding them trump would be paying close to attention to their words. the committee suggests it has many other examples of witness tampering, which is of course a very serious crime. is that what is happening here? and will the doj be looking into this? they believe they could affect testimony of witnesses before the committee. oits a very serious issue, and i imagine the department of justice would be very interested in and take that seriously as well. the two investigations going on, congressional and criminal, are showing signs of clashing again. there s friction over access to transcripts of interviews the committee conducted that the justice department wants. the new york times reporting federal prosecutors were just as surprised by hutchinson s testimony this week as anyone else watching and left feeling blindsided. but at the same
crime? according to three cnn sources t former aide to then white house chief of staff mark meadows told the panel she was contacted by someone in the trump camp attempting to influence her testimony. remember those messages vice chair liz cheney read aloud at tuesday s hearing alluding to possible witness intimidation. the gop congresswoman didn t name names but she relayed accounts of two unidentified witnesses who said they were pressured by people close to the ex-president to, quote, do the right thing, be loyal to donald trump, reminding them trump would be paying close to attention to their words. the committee suggests it has many other examples of witness tampering, which is of course a very serious crime. is that what is happening here? and will the doj be looking into this? they believe they could affect testimony of witnesses before the committee. oits a very serious issue, and i imagine the department of justice would be very interested in and take that seriousl
aide to trump white house chief of staff mark meadows. she was present during many critical events and conversations in the white house and we know that she s been cooperating with the panel already sitting privately for at least three different times. you can see her there. cnn reporter marshall cohen is live in washington, d.c. good morning, what do you think that we could learn from hutchinson today? reporter: good morning, guys. we could learn a lot. and you know the committee thinks that this is super important because they scheduled this surprise hearing. it was supposed to be, you know, a little break, a little hiatus after the july 4th break. not so much. this afternoon we ll be hearing from cassidy hutchinson. as you said, she was there for a lot, in the trump white house, she was an aide to mark meadows and she witnessed all kinds of events. i ll break down some of the things that we ve already heard from her and some of the things that we might be hearing from he