A recap of the days news. The russia investigation, but i think in terms of optics as people watch all of this, it doesnt paint a picture of a group of men and donald trump is among them in the broader sense who play outside the rules, who bend rules when it comes to the financial stuff. Who are playing with players, oligarchs, that word thats been banned from the courtroom. And i do think it lends a general impression from the general public of people who have secrets to hide and those secrets coming out. What i think what was so interesting today is that rick gates also admitted that hes a liar, that he cheated paul manafort. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Right, so how do you figure out that testimony which is very damning because Defense Attorneys are going to get up and say have you not admitted youre a liar . And unreliable. And is it all the best people i hired all the best people. People who are accused of Money Laundering, tax evasion. Theyre all the best people. I hire the best scammers. And slanderers. That tells you all you want to know about the president who hes surrounded by and people who not only have these suspicious and suspect links to the kremlin but as we were hearing from testimony today, people who were outandout crooks. Thats who the president is surrounded by. Hes downplaying the role, it was just a few months. But gates stayed on with trump even after manafort left, and and worked on the inauguration committee. Now hes cooperating with mueller. What does that mean for the president in. I think it means big trouble for the president , which is why i think youre seeing some of this lashing out thats going on. The fact he is lashing out in kind of racist ways is a classic pattern with him. Because when hes Feeling Pressure he tries to do something that energizes his base, whether its trashing the media, Dog Whistling about
african americans or what have you. Hes feeling the pressure. Admitting to collusion. I mean lets not lose sight of that. This is crazy, the fact we had a president who more than a year ago basically admitted on tv he was committing Obstruction Of Justice when he fired fbi director jim comey and said he was doing it to stop the investigation of the russia thing. And now hes basically admitting to collusion, admitting that this meeting that happened at trump tower was about getting dirt from the russians and so which is illegal to do. Hes worried about the legal liability for his son. And himself. Hes lashing out in all sorts of erratic ways because it feels like the room is closing in around him. Frank, sources telling cnn and dana bash that trump is being urged to stop tweeting about this trump tower meeting. But this is after he sent out a tweet that the meeting was about
getting dirt on Hillary Clinton, which is of course is not what they said initially. Initially it was about adoption. Initially he didnt dictate that the Press Release or statement that don junior made. This story changed so many times. And they have tried to get donald trump to stop tweeting before. This is not the first time that a tweet has gotten him in trouble and that people around him have said mr. President , lets go easy on twitter. I think its going to be live by the tweet, die by the tweet. Max, ive got to play this for you. Because earlier today don junior was asked about these contradictions. He was on laura engrams show. Heres what he said. Do you want comments on that . Theyre hitting you on that for contradictions. Theyre calling it worse than contradictions, obviously. Hello . Donny, what is your reaction to all that . Were going to see if we can reconnect with donald trump, jr. On this because we cant seem to hear him. Donny, you hear that . We dont know where he went. I know where he went. Hang on, dont answer that. Lets talk about it. So interesting time to drop off and two minutes later he came back on the radio show and said this. They were playing the recording and then they got cut off. It was a 20 minute meeting and ended up being about essentially that was nothing relevant, and thats all it is and thats all theyve got. You know, thats not the premise that got them in the room and it was essentially a bait and switch to talk ability that. And everyone has basically said that in testimony already. So this is nothing new. Okay, does it sound to you, throw, like the president s son is still disappointed that the russians didnt deliver dirt on Hillary Clinton, the dirt he expected . Except we know that they did. We dont actually know, don,
what happened at this meeting. We actually have to take the word on donald trump, jr. And the others that they didnt deliver dirt at this meeting, thigh they may well not have. But actually a few months later they started delivering dirt through wikileaks. Thats how they did it. Not through the trump campaign. I really think while its hugely important to focus on this meeting because this is i think the tip of the iceberg that reveals the level of collusion that was occurring, i suspect theres a lot more and some of which has already come out including the contacts that roger stone had with wikileaks, roger stone had with guccifer 2. 0. Who was a Russian Military officer. Theres a lot more there and at the end of the day i suspect were going to find out that President Trump himself was intimately involved in whatever was going on because weve seen that donald trump himself was personally supervising the pay off to that playboy playmate. And now we know he knew from hut Michael Cohen is apparently prepared to testify that donald trump, sr. Knew in advance about this june 9 meeting. I suspect theres more stuff he knew about. And suspect hes not only nervous for his son but himself because the truth is starting to emerge, and its highly damning for him. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate your time. Up next, the new book everything trump touches dies. Were going to speak to its author, republican strategist rick wilson. What do harvard graduates
their brightest minds. Just text the keyword on the screen to 202020 with your smartphone to claim your complimentary bottle of forebrain. Do it now before you forget. Thats the keyword on the screen to 202020. Its no surprise you would name your book this. So what does this mean . I look at an existential threat from the old conservative values, a balance government between three coequal branches and i saw him as something that was going to be inordinately destructive to conservative, and the shortterm own the lib of the american sort of republican id he appeals to has locked down what was the republican party. And i wrote this as a kind of warning to folks who every time they enter his orbit their lives turn to something they didnt expect. And theres this long train of bodies and policies donald trump has left on the ground because of the way he is and who he is as a person. And i think that scales down from, you know, if you go to work for him your life turns into a living hell, your
reputation is shot. Unfortunately, it also scales up to the character of the country and the way we are seen in the world and the way we treat each other. You afraid the countrys going to die because of it . I dont know if were going to die. I truly believe america as an amazing Immune System and sometimes it takes a long time to kick in. Its like the churchhill thing, itll do the wrong thing until the last second. One asked me about the pastor. Someone who was at the meeting said, well, what do you think . Whats your honest opinion . And i sent them you talking about everything trump touches dies. And i said if you believe in it, then go at it with full force and dont say im sorry i shouldnt have done it. But if you dont believe in it, then you made a major error because your credibility is gone. I think there are a lot of people who would sacrifice their credibility for him. Look, these are some of the many people you say have tarnished their reputations by following the president s policies. That is your opinion have failed m miserably. How is that different . Look at that list growing. In other administrations theres generally a sense that when you depart at the white house, theres sort of an easy transition out as a general rule. White houses tend to not fire people willynilly. The Trump White House fires people at a rate that exceeds all the previous white houses combined in the first year and a half. Theres a broken system in the middle of this and theres a Cancer Eating at the heart of it, and thats donald trump. He does want to be managed or handled or behave in the ways a president is expected or needed to behave as a national leader. Youve seen it. Its impulsive. Its the tweeting, the constant tabloidstyle professional wrestling beeves with people. And those are signs of a very weak man. Those are signs of a weak character and a weak leader. And hes got a super power which is his twitter feed and a network thats dedicated to him all the time. Besides that this is a guy basically wondering around in the dark. Hes wondering around scared when mueller is going to drop the hammer on him, wondering around scared because of his tax returns. Or find about the cohen has stacked up. He lives in fear. Remember he didnt participate in the fox debates or whatever, and he sort of like bullied them into his dorner corner because i guess they realized his base was watching and they wanted more trump. Because before they were not they were no so protrump. So even they have sort of sold something. They recognize it. They hit 90 million households, and they recognized there was an audience that believed in donald trump because they saw this
reality tv character. So what does that say then about conservatives . Because a lot of them are over there, conservatives in washington, conservatives in the country and those who work for the trump channel . The disappointing thing about a lot of conservatives is they werent really. A lot of these people for years and years were like i want to have limited government, i dont want to have the government picking winners and losers in trade deals are now enthusiastically saying lets quintuple the size of i. C. E. , lets build this gigantic new wall, manipulate countries on their trade policies. Lets pick winners and losers in the economy. When barack obama was president i seem to recall that was a trillion dollar deficit. Not to say nothing of the fiscal mismanagement of the country, were going to pay a horrible price on this, with a blown out deficit, blown out debt and trade wars that never end well. Donald trump is not immune of the laws of economics. As a republican. I wonder how you see how does the hypocrisy hit you because when you see things like kim jongun and the criticism, i cant believe that barack obama wants to meet with a dictator, i cant believe we dont meet with dictators, and all of a sudden this is the greatest thing that can happen, our president will meet with a dictator. So what does that do to you as a republican because i think democrats are like see i told you so. As a republican one of the biggest problems i have with trump is he is authoritarian curious. He doesnt believe in sort of the better angels of our nature. He likes the tough man, the guy with the Swagger Stick and the uniform. Rather than the people who builtup a democratic system somewhere in the world. Or fought against oppression. He likes the putins of the world, the kims of the world and the xis and dutertes of the
world. Rather than the people fighting for freedom. The fundamental thing is we were against a lot of authoritarianism. We believe in the constitution. Is it real . Ive got to tell you i think a lot of people were waiting for the opportunity to let out their much less beneficial spirits and go after people based on a lot of things that are showing out in the way the president treats africanamericans and minority folks. I think that moral high ground and, you know, for the common man of the forgotten man, i think thats all been blown out when you think about exactly i want to tell you after charlottesville i dont want to hear anything about economic anxiety. Thank you so much for saying that. Ive got to play this. This is an amazing clip. This is from jake sherman, donald trump talking to dan
rather, 1999 about john mccains military service. Watch this. The way trump looks at it, hes at least better than everybody else in the rain race. Beginning with john mccain. He was captured. He flew combat missions. Does being captured make you a hero, im not sure. Does being captured make you a hero, what is it . Is he a capture truther. During that time donald trump wiz fighting the Battle Of Studio 54 and battling back his horrific bone spurs. Thats real heroism. Trumps treatment treatment of mccain from the beginning, the has been a morally repulsive spectacle. Pattern of trumps behavior they stretch way back. The Central Park Five is not so different from where hes at trying to turn back athletes who are protesting Police Violence into thugs and criminals. This is an arc thats been with him for a long time on a lot of these things. And this arc the guys he doesnt like personally, considering he avoided the draft five times, thats the thing you watch the trips throughout his life. The song repeats. Here it is. I love the cover. How did you come up with this cover . Genius graphic designers. Its amazing. I like the hand. Weird little hands. Once again the book is called everything trump touches dies. When we come back the incredibly close race in ohio that could predict what happens to the house after the midterms. Will a democrat take a seat thats been held by republicans for decades . This is not a bed. Visit cancercenter. Com breast and its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial
and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer5 to 500500 to start listening today. Call or go online today. Call or go on line today. A special election in a republican held ohio Congressional District tomorrow could hold clues in how the parties are going to fair in the midterms which is now three months away. Wow, thats close. Here to discuss is harry hinten, cnn politics Senior Writer and analyst. And larry sabino, and also the author of the kennedy half century. Gentlemen, so good to have you on. Harry, this ohio strict here, the district is what, ohio 12, it elected trump by 11 points, by a recent university poll. It shows Republican Troy Balderson with a single point lead. Over democratic. Effectively a dead heat. Why is this competitive . Whats going on . This is district thats been held by the republicans since the 1980s. John kasich held the seat when he was in the white house. Its an ancestrally republican district. What weve seen is a large shift towards the democrats. If you look at the other shifts so far it makes a whole lot of sense. And thats why its so emblematic what might occur in the midterms because its part of a pattern. Its interesting. This seat has been held by republicans for decades, larry. But balderson he was ten points ahead of oconnor about six weeks ago. So tell me about this momentum. Why is this so important . Well, its important because its the last special Congressional Election before the november elections. Its really the last impression that at least activists and the party people will have of what actually is happening on the
ground. And look, if oconnor, the democrat oconnor actually wins this, its going to send shock waves through the republicans around the country. Even if he comes close it will be very, very significant. As harry was just saying, this is part of a pattern not just in Congressional Elections but also state legislative elections that have occurred since trump took office. What does that tell you . You said even if he comes close hes pretty close in the polling. Republicans have out spent democrats five to one. And this is an area that is traditionally republican. Yeah, and its not just trump. Mit romney carried it by 10 points, almost the same as trump and as you or harry mentioned this was governor kasichs district. 35 years of republicans. So if you could have a district that switches, the last district before the election that switches parties to the democrats, i think its going to have a major impact at least on morale on both sides. Down for the republicans, up for the democrats. Its not far, harry, from the 18th district, but both districts largely white. Theyre suburban. Democrats have a young challenger in Danny Oconnor there like they did with danny lamb. Is this the same play book here . I would say its not the same play. This district is far better educated. The 18th had a history of electing democrats. And thats what makes this district so unique because it doesnt have a history of electing democrats. It is a well educated district. As donald trump liked to say, i like to poorly educated. Uneducated. If they can win here then there are a ton of well educated districts not just in the
midwest but in the south and midwest, well educated districts that have historically may have been republican. But may shift into the democratic column. What do you think, more educated theyre more likely to be swayed and listen to reason and facts than the poorly educated. I would say those are your words not mine. Larry is the best person to ask about that. But i would say that well educated districts have been shifting away from the republican party. They do so in especially 2016. Weve seen it throughout the polling in 2017 and 2018. And so this is the type of district that if well educated republican districts are going to flip, this would be one of those. Larry, you want to respond before i ask you the other question . Look, listen to what gove