Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Government had informed state Election Officials that russians tried to target Election Systems in 21 states in the leadup to the 2016 election. Of course, the other thing we know the u. S. Deterrence campaign isnt working based on the reporting of the daily beast that russians trying to infiltrate the emails of staffers of senator claire mccaskill. They were sunsuccessful. Thats why they say there need tos to be a coheercherent strategy can i ask you, though, about the mood in that building behind you there, geoff. In terms of the headlines that involve former trump Attorney Michael Cohen and the Trump Tower Meeting and russia and his allegations that President Trump knew about that meeting in advance. Whats the mood there . Reporter well, a source close to the president described
that is a crime. And it also opens up all sorts of possibilities because, if the president knew that the russians were
inconstancy, this unwillingness to stand by what we say and to be consistent with what we say, i m worried it s going to lead to a lot of tests for the united states. more tests, haass believes, because the u.s. president has less credibility. and there s no person s credibility that matters more than the president of the united states. it is the person in whom billions of people around the world through their governments have placed their futures, their faith, their security, their confidence. up next, the impact of trump s lies on the human mind. as dishonesty gradually increases, the reaction of the public actually decreases.
became a bottomless pinocchio, which you get if you repeat 20 or more times. he s referring to remarks trump made about a whistle-blower complaint that stated that the president had tried to pressure ukraine and withheld aid while pushing for dirt on joe biden and his son, hunter. the whistle-blower s report was very wrong. i think with the ukraine scandal and the conspiracy theory that the president is depending on, we re seeing lying at a scale that is somewhat new and is very complex. he looks for hints from others. oh, ukraine was to blame for interfering in the 2016 election, not russia. this is all crazy talk, and all of it is a lie. the president, part of his lack of faith in facts is his belief in conspiracy theories.
decide to tell this lie? the american taxpayer is not paying for it. his goal is headlines. headlines and provoking rage, polarization. but there s also part of the administration, that sort of china is an evil empire camp that really always wanted to see the u.s. separating from china, that would like to see us have a fundamentally different economic system. and i think that to the extent it bolsters him with his base, trump is quite happy to go along with that. china was taking $500 billion a year out of the united states. once again, that s not factual. first of all, the number is exaggerated. it is not $500 billion. last year, the u.s. trade deficit with china was around $380 billion. and we lose for many years $500 billion a year with china, and many other countries lose billions. it s not a money-losing thing. it just means that we buy more products from china than the
faith. i have loyalty to people i work with. there s limits to loyalty. to a political party when you see things happening. don t try to defend the unexplainable. you can t. i m terrified this level of lying will become the new norm in politics. is this the new norm? what impact will this have on the nation? the u.s. is still scarred by lies around watergate and vietnam. will president trump s falsehoods forever mark this era? how can we trust the next president? i think these are all challenges and they re totally normal and we have to remember that democracy is not given to us, democracy is something that we have to work really hard to create. part of that hard work these days is seeking out the facts and then agreeing to accept them as fact. tapes don t lie. the president lied. mr. president is not the fake news.