he mislead the american public at the time they were making a fundamental decision about who will lead this country. and by not being honest, a, the russians had something on him at the time in addition to the fact that he wasn t being honest and that in itself was being compromised. yes. right. this is one of many things. if you go back and look at the things that the american public didn t know. he knew he reached out through the nra. he knew there was a hacking. he knew there was a social media effort. he knew michael cohen talked for an extended period of time and there is some follow-up. he knew all of these things. these are all things that as we judge how donald trump responded in the months since, it is
the gun rights group shelled out more than $30 million to boost trump in 2016 according to the center for responsive politics. to get the endorsement is a fantastic honor. mueller s investigators were interested in how trump and early operatives first formed a relationship and how trump wound up speaking at the annual meeting just months before announcing his presidential bid. trump was helped along by his son, donald trump jr. he played a role in building ties to the nra. they love the nra more than anyone they know. great to be here. these are our people. these are the things we do. we don t know how far the special council is digging into this relationship. a spokesman declined to comment. the nra did not to. when president trump received
of this? it is the latest shoe to drop. we don t know what mueller has. right. you had that. i think it s important to remember that the nra endorsed donald trump. they did so well after he was the front runner. so it s not as if they were sort of coming out of the box saying this is our guy. it s a political organization. of course. wait for the winner. right. that s it. the nra has had this question looming over this for well over a year now. they said we only took x amount of money from russian interests. it is a question by itself. it certainly is the case that russians or at least himself saw this to the trump campaign. there were multiple ways in which he leveraged people to try to get a meeting with them, ended up in another weird coincidence, sitting at a table in kentucky which is this whole other question that mueller is looking at.
breaking news on the russia investigation. tonight, we are learning for the first time that the special counsel has expressed interest in the trump campaign s relationship with the nra. this emerging just weeks after alleged russian spy maria butina pleaded guilty to attempting to infiltrate the nra. the senate sets votes on competing republican and democratic bills to reopen the government. both are expected to fail. hopes of ending the standoff remain slim as the president escalates his power struggle with the house speaker. the white house moving forward with plans for mr. trump s state of the union address, despite pelosi s request for a delay. i will speak with the chairman of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. our correspondents and analysts are standing by. first, sara murray. what are you learning about the special counsel s interest in the nra? we knew that lawmakers had
$30 million is a huge funnel for money. it remains to be seen. nra hasn t been doing well financially over the last several years. they haven t been doing well in terms of membership as well. it could cat liez into membership members and real growth for the organization. we know about the reporting to date. it is big news that mueller is looking into this. former russian central banker sought to build this bridge between russia and the nra as a means to influence american politics. the fact that north is running nra indicates a need to clean house. you have this conservative organization that during the cold war was really, you know, anti soviet. all of a sudden finding himself in situations where they may have been influence in american politics. it is astounding. this is a real elevation of what the reporters and the senate intel have been looking into.