with donald trump, it has nothing to do with the campaign and nothing to do with the election for president of the united states. absolutely right. the thing is to remember here that mr. gates and paul manafort were involved in deep business connections with these agents for quite some time. they had a dizzying array of tax fraud that tax liens and loan businesses that they had on one another that required him to be in constant contact with their former associates as i understand paul manafort was even trying to use his position in order to alleviate him $18 million debt that he at one point owed. so does get very complicated here. it seems to be largely localized at paul manafort, gates and illegal efforts to lobby on behalf of foreign powers and really to avoid paying the irs the multimillions of dollars that they had in lobbying on behalf of foreign governments.
now, the ban on bump stocks is one of a number of gun control reforms that president trump has been calling for but it s the first real big one his administration has taken action on unilaterally while they wait for congress to take additional action. garrett, thanks so much. rick: for more on the politics surrounding the gun control debate, brad blakeman and dave brown, former senior advisor and committee council to patty murray. thanks to both of you for being with us. thanks for having us. rick: we heard a lot of passionate voices today. there are questions about who is backing some of those kids. there s no doubt about it. the kids didn t get their lunch money together and spend multimillions of dollars it took to produce these rallies all across the country. so somebody s bank rolling them. it s not like the nra doing an event which is veteran very transparent.
medica medicaid, repeal the affordable care act so they can pay for this whatever $3 trillion, $2 trillion deficit that will have to pay for this tax plan. this is so atrocious, horrific and terrible. this is political suicide for the republicans. i have to ask this question, katon. even if you personally like the policy, i know you do, the plain fact is republicans have to sell the idea that 18 bucks a week for the average hard working stiff out there, busting their hump every day, 18 bucks a week, and that that will be temporary, and that their boss, the corporation is getting multimillions of dollars. donald trump and his cabinet get multimillions of dollars. tax breaks for private jets. the messaging is easy. then they ll say paul ryan will come calling and take away their medicaid. this is not an easy sell for your party.
alluded to and that s a much narrower protection for him. there is is speculation he would come because of risk to his son. there is nothing in the plea agreement about his son. i wonder how circumscribe this protection for mike flynn is right now in exchange for his cooperation. appears to be very, very narrow. quick question briefly, in your experience, once an investigation has a big time cooperating witness and everybody knows it, does that change the calculations about other people that may be charged in the same case and whether or not they cooperate? sure, in any situation, once somebody once somebody knows that the government is getting information about him or her from somebody else, then that person has the stakes raised and may say it s time for me to come in. here is the thing, the best deal goes to the people who are first in the door, and so people like you said earlier in the show, paul manafort could cooperate. he might. the charges against him are multimillions o
multi multimillions of dollars. if he comes in, he has to eat that and we ll see whether he s willing to do that or not. paul manafort, may be the guy saying or launder the money to begin with. or there is that. paul, thank you very much. thank you. a lot more to get to on this blockbuster news day with news that continues to develop right now in washington. stay with us. it s red lobster s new ultimate surf & turf event. get ready