points in 2016? right. look, i think what the president is trying to do here is make lemonade out of lemons. this nomination was a huge embarrassment for the white house. clearly ronny jackson was not properly vetted. he had to withdraw his nomination. and now trump is using the opportunity to try to come after tester. i don t know what he is referring to when he says he has damaging information on the senator, but he is certainly hoping that this could hurt him in the mid-term elections. and already we are seeing the national and republican committees sort of seize on this. they ve put him on the top of their target list hoping to go after him and flip him. this is a state where trump won by 20 points so trump obviously is beloved in that state. but tester is going to have his work cut out for him. i just want to say though, i don t know if these attacks are going to work. keep in mind, republicans were also part of the reason why this nomination was stalled. it wasn t just democrat
the question is do they want the president to help with the mid-term elections, do they want him out there. i think in some districts, absolutely, people are embracing trump. they want him to come campaign for them. but in other areas, especially these more suburban, centrist, swing districts, they don t want the president there and he is seen as more of a liability. what about, sean, the statement about democrats possibly impeaching him? what s the message there from the president? the message there is to get the conservative base energized in you have to come out and vote this fall. the president is not on the ball ballot, so a lot of republicans worry the core supporters who voted for him in big numbers in 2016 are just not going to show up in november. this is a way of going to them and saying, the president s not on the ballot but, if you give democrats the keys to the car, if you let them control the levers of power in washington, they re going to go after this president. t
then coming your way at the top of the hour on a.m. joy, congresswoman maxine waters on what the president said about her last night. builder triple action. it kills weeds, prevents crabgrass and feeds so grass can thrive, guaranteed. our backyard is back. this is a scotts yard.
if he has nothing to fear, quit acting like you re guilty. let us find out. let the american people find out exactly what took place. to your point about that trump tower meeting, i want to play for you what the president said about the russian lawyer specifically at the heart of that meeting? she told my colleague, richard engel, that she s an informant for the russian government. here s what the president said about that last night. you heard about the lawyer? for a year, a woman lawyer, she was like, oh, i know nothing, know nothing. now all of a sudden she supposedly is involved with the government. you know why? if she did that. because putin and the group said, you know, this trump is killing us. why don t you say that you re involved with government so that we can go and make their life in the united states even more chaotic. what did you hear in that explanation, congressman? it s hard to tell because it is extraordinarily confusing. let s remember this meeting took
place long before the election. but only a few weeks after george papadopoulos was told by the russians. this is now almost two years ago. mr. papadopoulos was told by the russians that they had e-mails that they had illegally obtained. we haven t even questioned mr. papadopoulos in the house investigation. what are they afraid of finding out? clearly the russians intent was to attack our democratic process. but just as clearly, the trump campaign sought this information, obtained this information, and attempted to work with the russians to attack our democratic process. does that rise to the criminal level of a conspiracy? again, that s for mr. mueller to decide. what are they afraid of? let him finish his work. the democrats singled out rather, the president singled out maxine waters, a democrat from california, who is one of many who have openly called for