Up 10 points. That has now evaporated. Interesting to see who turns out, a testament to the excitement level. Thank you all. That is all for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now with ari in for rachel. Good evening. Rachel has the night off. We have a pretty big show. Today was day two of the federal criminal trial of the campaign chairman. The witnesses were several people who sold the defendant clothes and houses that he bought through secretive International Wire payments. One important thing we learned from what happened today, this judge is holding muellers prosecutors to the line, limiting their questions and how they present key evidence to manafort to the jury. A former prosecutor who tried these kinds of cases and inside that courtroom today joins me to explain if what the judge is up to could hurt muellers case. There are reports tonight about the russian woman charged with trying to carry out the government influence campaign through the nra in the u. S. And
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day. This is a threat we need to take extremely seriously and to tackle and respond to with fierce determination and focus. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders told nbc news today that President Trump instructed his team to speak at todays news conference. Asked when the president made the request, sanders didnt respond. And its important to point out, just last friday the president met with his National Security council on Election Security for less than one hour. After the meeting, the white house released a statement that said the administration would not tolerate foreign interference in elections. But it did not mention russia by name. Lets bring in our leadoff panel. Jeremy bash, former Chief Of Staff at the cia and the pentagon
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. Whether a person is too close to the subject of the probe, whether Jeff Sessions would beak be more of a Trump Campaign surrogate who happened to be Attorney General rather than acting as an independent Law Enforcement officer. If sessions didnt recuse after that statement, it would have made him look even more like he was doing trumps bidding. And trump apparently didnt know that making that statement would also as just a general matter of embarrassment, make him look weak and out of the loop about a decision that was already done. Because there were reports that show the Internal Doj Process had already resulted in sessions accepting that nonpartisan Recusal Recommendation from the career staff earlier that week and that Jeff Sessions was already working with doj officials op writing the very rationale they would soon release to the public. In fact, it was barely an hour after trump put that public pressure on session
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Should is, thats rudys latest talking point. Was this Performance Today something long in the works, they were asked to submit their remarks, or were they asked to change the topic from the mess the president created yesterday with his Early Morning tweet about getting sessions to end the russia investigation . I think this has been building for some time. We saw dan coats a week or two ago raise some alarm in that interview with Andrea Mitchell in aspen. Weve seen alarm is a good way to put it. Let me show you his answer about helsinki. Lets watch that. In the runup to the helsinki summit, u. S. Officials, ambassadors to nato, ambassadors to russia, said the president would raise the issue of malign activity with president putin. He didnt discuss that, at least at the press conference. Youre saying today that the president has directed you to make the issue of election
meddling a priority. How d
And they all know that The 11th Hour with Brian Williams starts right now. New tonight, raging against the media. Donald trumps pennsylvania barn burner. He claims hes being riddenered hindered by the russian hoax. Meanwhile, back at the white house, the president s top intel and Law Enforcement officials show a united front and say what trump wont, that russia poses a threat to our upcoming elections. Also new tonight, Robert Mueller is looking to speak to another person with ties to that Trump Tower Meeting. And ivanka trump, off message, on her white house low point and a break from her dad on a popular talking point. The 11th hour on a thursday night begins now. Good evening once again from our nbc headquarters here in new york. Im Nicolle Wallace in for brian tonight. Hell be back tomorrow. Its day 560 of the trump administration. And President Trump just wrapped up a rally in pennsylvania where he ramped up his attacks on the
media. Just hours earlier, the president s Top Nationa