involvement that he s called a hoax. we didn t get much clarity on the jared kushner situation. it seemed to be just more of the same information. we only the only thing we got is that little bit of information that the u.s. did something to russia and we have to wait a couple of days to find out exactly what it was. that was a curtain-raiser. kimberly atkins, phillip rucker, michael crowley, thanks for starting us off. really appreciate it. coming up for us, what message was robert mueller trying to send, if any, with a guilty plea today of a dutch lawyer? we ll ask a former u.s. attorney. and later, what exactly is the top item that you d say is on the trump agenda these days? and can the white house get out there and sell it amid time putting out fires? the 11th hour on a tuesday night continues.
jared kushner s name came up because i think do we still have ken dilanian here? ken, there was a line in the washington post story about how mueller now has people on his team who are expert in investigating financial crimes. and i wonder what that means. well, you know, as we said before on the show, the fbi is not going to ignore any financial crime that comes across in the course of this investigation. and we already know that paul manafort and mike flynn are under scrutiny in connection not necessarily with russia collusion,s but wi but with oth financial activities. flynn lobbying for turkey. manafort for various real estate deals. so it stands to reason, and now we have the jared kushner situation, the meeting with the bank we talked about before. of course, the fbi s going to look at that. and nobody wants to be in the cross hairs of an fbi investigation. and now multiple people are and who knows where it s going to go, nicolle. ari, let s talk about just building off w
signs of strain. we know that donald trump s sons met with dprgop leaders last we. they re vocal on twitter. we haven t heard them weigh in on the jared kushner situation. are there real signs that president trump is distancing himself in any way from jared? i don t think distancing is the right word, buthaty lleagues have learned is that the president is lashing out at his whole staff. jared used to be exempt from that, those kind of tongue lashings, but now he is in the room. interestingly, one of the reasons is his sister s dangling these eb5 visas to chinese investors who might be interested in one of his family s real estate projects. but jared had nothing to do with that. a more serious matter was his advice to the president that it would be a political win to fire
it s usually the reverse. ste it s not usually that a president feels the need to speak with a senior staffer/son-in-law in this case to the press. they gave that statement only to the new york times. that s been the official reaction that the president has still great confidence in his senior adviser, his son-in-law jared kushner. lindsey graham, it s interesting, the senator from south carolina, he has his own doubts about the veracity of the entire story saying that, you know what, this could simply suggesting this could be the russians sending out some disinformation to confuse everyone. he has an interesting perspective. i m not necessarily targeting or identifying lindsey graham but i think it s worth noting as you listen to people from capitol hill talk about the situation, while we didn t hear a lot from the white house about the jared kushner situation, many calls were placed to senior leaders on capitol hill to make a couple things clear. first and foremost they don t
professionals, political operatives, a war room that s being set up within the white house to handle this jared kushner situation, smart move on their part or not? this is exactly what happened back when we were in the clinton administration, where people decided you got to section off these controversies, put them in a box so you can get back to the other issues of governing or else they take over everything, they have to create something to handle this. interesting. my concern instead of dealing with russia, answering question, what you re doing is using taxpayer money to do this war room, and i think it s just avoiding something that s really important. this is russia we re talking about. you know what readers, joy is joining us now. oh, no! it s official. joy reid is here. she s here. and national republican consultant indicateon dawson and amandi joy you were on meet the press when i hope we get to show the epic read you did.