News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Its something that i think the president and his lawyers know, the Special Counsel will be looking at. So interesting. Im really glad that you pointed out the similarity and language there, particularly since there are reports that the Special Counsel is looking at whether tweets can be used as obstruction of justice. Lets look at the trial. Whats happening in the manafort trial as we speak, shimon . Todays really been so two witnesses so far that have testified. One of them, i think, the important witness here, the fbi agent who entered manaforts home. They did a Search Warrant at his home in alexandria, virginia. Theyre talking about some of the documents that they found. And this really goes to the meat of the prosecutions case. These are documents about his loans, bank records, things they found with his name on it. Wire transfers. Goes to the meat, to the heart of the case and the evidence that the fbi has gathered and now the prosecution is using in the case. Significant there also today from the fbi agent is that hes
looking back on history, who was treated worse . Alfons capone, legendary okay. Hold that for a second. Legendary mob boss, killer and Public Enemy Number One or Paul Manafort, political operative and reagan dole darling now serving Solitary Confinement, although convicted of nothing. Where is the russian collusion . Now putting aside that weve all taken tours of alcatraz and it wasnt exactly nice digs. What do we make of this . Im putting this to you first,icatelyn. The last thing they wanted was for the from the compare him to al capone. Alfons capone. His full name. But were seeing this. The white house has been saying they dont know what the president s reaction to the Paul Manafort trial is. They havent spoken with him about it. But we heard from the president for the first time this morning only on day two of this trial is expected to go on for two or three weeks. What exactly his feelings are as hes watching all of this play
2010 to 2014. Thats well after he would have worked for Ronald Reagan or bob dole. To answer the president s question about why didnt anybody bring this up . Thats another question the president was tweeting about. Why didnt anybody tell me. Thats the gist of one of his tweets. Why didnt anybody tell me about the bad stuff that manafort allegedly did. Really . Just pick up the phone and call somebody or ask him or ask anybody. What happened to hiring only the best people . I think it wasnt a secret the circles with which and in this operated in in washington, d. C. If you look through disclosures to the extent he made them and sometimes that turned out be a problem legally, it turns out, he wasnt representing necessarily fortune 500 companies. But in lobbying or influence pedling that operate in the darker areas of d. C. Some of his partners, if you talk to anybody who covered k street or covered Paul Manafort or roger stone coming up, any of those guys, there was an understanding of the place that they were operating here that
could potentially lead him into trouble. Ill note as a random aside, Solitary Confinement. Hes meeting with republican senators on justice reform. If he has a huge problem with Solitary Confinement it can be discussed at 2 45. White collar criminals. I dont think thats the topic. Theyre downplaying the role he had. The president stayed in touch with Paul Manafort for months after he left the campaign. He left in august and then they stayed in touch for months after that. The president has often done this with people who left the white house or his campaign. Also with rick gates, his deputy who is testifying against him. He left as well shortly thereafter Paul Manafort. But he and the president stayed in touch and he served on one of his inauguration committees. Its not like the president completely cut off access when all of these questions started coming up which is why Paul Manafort left. They stayed in touch for months after. The president s the whole gist of what hes saying this morning and in a very aggressive way and what he said in the past, particularly when hes
saying that sessions, who technically has nothing to do with this because he recused himself, should end this because the collusion, the whole question of this is a witch hunt. Lets go back to what the Deputy Attorney general who actually appointed mueller actually said the investigation should be about. Certainly collusion was part of it, but the core, the core of it was the following. To ensure a full and thorough investigation of the russian governments efforts to interfere in the 2016 president ial election. Why, mr. President , would you not want the Mueller Investigation to find out the answer to that, particularly as it is happening, according to his own government and according to facebook as we speak. Thats exactly right. And i think one other aspect of that tweet that he sent about being in the dark is he could be trying to now set up his defense generally that the bad fbi, the
bad Justice Department, didnt really tell me about what was going on so dont try to blame me for anything. Hes kind of like talking as usual about both sides of his mouth here saying he was kept in the dark. Saying this is an unfair thing and yet being told the same type of thing is reoccurring right now. The one interesting thing about this in terms of the timeline is the manafort and gates indictments were first Out Of The Box, were now seeing a pattern with mueller of handing off some of these investigations to the Southern District of new york. Its not inconceivable that had this come later down the pike, it was compartmentalized to being just tax issues that maybe wouldnt have stayed with the Special Counsel. First Out Of The Box and now in the trial now. I know theres a lot you cant say because you did represent rick gates briefly. But knowing what you know if youre the white house and the president , do you have a reason to be concerned watching this trial . Looking at whats happened in the trial, not yet. But i think it may be just dawning upon the president that,
oh, my gosh, they really are taking manafort to trial. He knows what dangers manafort may have and once this trial commences, the pressure is much, much greater on manafort and there are deals cut during trials. People have plead guilty midtrial. Is this a signal to manafort that a pardon could be coming . Just stick with me . I defer nobody wants to get into the head of the president on that one. You shouldnt. But he hasnt ruled it out yet. Hes been asked time and time again. Hes been quite snappish in his responses about potential pardons for them or pointed out they havent been charged with anything. But he has not ruled out the idea of that. So its still there. But i do think over the next few days as this trial is playing out, even though it has nothing to do with russia, russia is looming large over this. The more the president sees it as we saw from his twitter feed, it reminds him of Jeff Sessions
recusing himself which is the number one thing thats infuriated him when Jeff Sessions recused himself and flew down to palm beach and the president ripped him a new one over it because he was so frustrated about it. Were trying to dissect and get into the president s brain but we should not forget about the fact that it is so unheard of and inappropriate for a president of the United States to be saying in any medium, twitter or anywhere else, that even investigation that was going on and was ordered by his own Deputy Attorney general should end. One real quick thing about that. Can you imagine if what he tweeted was discovered by reporters in a memo that had been sent in . Were known to 280 characters and now he operates and certainly thats a way that got him elected and its a Central Tenet of who he is. Can you imagine if that would have been found in a memo uncovered somehow . Very different. Good point. Up next enemies posing as friends to disrupt the november
election. Facebook reveals a bunch of fake accounts that stirred up real political activism. And this is not about 2016, folks. This is happening right now. Pto7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I think he might need some support. Yes start them off right. With the School Supplies they need at low prices all summer long. Save 200 on this dell laptop at office depot officemax. Gimme two minutes. Eligible for medicare. Save 200 on this dell laptop and ill tell you some important things to know about medicare. First, it doesnt pay for everything. Say this pizza. [mmm pizza. ] is your part b medical expenses. This much about 80 percent. Medicare will pay for. Whats left. This slice here. Well. Thats on you. And thats where an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company comes in. This type of plan helps pay some of what medicare doesnt. And these are the only plans to carry the aarp endorsement. Thats because they meet their high standards of quality and service. Wanna learn more . Its easy. Call Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company now and ask. For this free Decision Guide. Inside youll find the range of aarp Medicare Supplement plans and their rates. Apply any time, too. Oh. Speaking of time. About a little over half way and theres more to tell. Like, how. With this type of plan, youll have the freedom to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Great for staying with the one you know. Or finding. Somebody new, like a specialist. There are no networks and no referrals needed. None. And when you travel, your plan will go with you
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manafort trial. Joe johns . Reporter hi, dana. Look, what weve just heard from the federal prosecutors and its not clear whether this is a strategy or whether its a bluff or exactly what it is, but one of the prosecutors, speaking apparently in front of the jury now, has suggested that its possible rick gates, who is a deputy of the man who is on trial, might not testify. That would create an extraordinary situation because as you know, Paul Manafort here on trial for financial crimes. They spent the morning entering into evidence and producing to the jury reames of documents, receipts of all kinds of papers in which money passed between manafort and various parties in an attempt to show that manafort
essentially cashed in on the millions and millions of dollars he received to buy houses to repair homes and so on. And at the center of the Defense Strategy is that his deputy, rick gates, effective ly did wht he did. So the prosecution raising the possibility that rick gates might not testify at this stage sounds fairly extraordinary, especially because during the Opening Statements, we were certainly given the impression that rick gates was a key part of this case. Gates, of course, has already agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in the case of Paul Manafort. And apparently willing to do so. Also, i have to point out that the prosecutor who initially said its possible. Rick gates may not testify later
said he didnt mean to suggest that rick gates would not. So you have a little bit of double speak there occurring in the court. Fascinating development and we dont know what it means. Okay. Joe johns, thank you. Lets bring in Shimon Prokupecz who can help us explain what it may or may not mean. Rick gates, long time righthand man to Paul Manafort, both in business and in the trump campaign, i should say, was and has been somebody who the prosecution was relying on, frankly, to take down manafort and to convict him. If he does not testify, what does that say about the prosecutions case . That means they believe in their case and their case is likely much stronger than we think and that they dont need rick gates to make their case. I think what happened in this case, and this is where the quite honestly. Nd of screwed up when they went with their Opening Statement and try to pin everything on rick gates. They were the ones that
introduced rick gates into this trial. Not the prosecutors. Prosecutors dont ever promise something to a jury and not deliver it. Its just a mistake, and youd never do it. If the prosecution said we were going to call rick gates and this is what hes going to tell you, then that would be a problem for the prosecution because the defense can argue, while the prosecutors come in and told you rick gates would testify, he didnt. What are they hiding . In this case, that didnt happen. Was the defense team that introduced rick gates into this. And also, dana, i want to point out, while rick gates, he may be on this witness list that the prosecution had filed with the court, the prosecutors are not bound by anything that they file in terms of a witness list. That is just done as a way to make sure no one on their jury knows who these witnesses are. So, really, i think its a development in the sense that if we dont hear from rick gates in this, it doesnt mean anything for the prosecution. Its really what does this is a about the defense and where does the defense go. Keep in mind, last point, the
defense can always call him as a witness if they choose so. That is such an important point, shimon, because you would assume if youre representing Paul Manafort you want rick gates on the stand because you want to chip away his credibility and knock down everything he has said about the prosecution and clearly the prosecution, because weve seen a lot of it, they have so much in the way of paper and evidence that they are showing the jury. So, okay. Thank you. You really did explain that, as always. We have a lot of Breaking News this hour. Up next well give you a bit more. Former president barack obama wading into the 2018 midterms. Stay with us. Still a chance here. Its willingham, edge of the box, willingham shoots. Goooooooaaaaaaaallllllll that. Was. Magic. Willingham tucks it in and puts the championship to bed. Sweet dreams, nighty night. As long as Soccer Players celebrate with a slide, you can count on geico saving folks money. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Pressure, what pressure . The players on the. Pressure, what pressure . Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. Stadium pa all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. Behr presents ordinary versus overachiever. Behr premium plus, behr through it all with a toprated paint at a great price. Find it exclusively at the home depot. A book that youre ready to share with the world . Get published now, call for your free publisher kit today President Obama has Just Announced some midterm endorsements. The former president s office says hes backing 81 candidates across the country. Obama tweeted today, im proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of democratic candidates, leaders as diverse patriotic and bighearted as the america theyre running to represent. Im confident that together theyll strengthen this country we love by restoring opportunity, repairing our alliances and standing in the world and upholding our fundamental commitment to justice, fairness, responsibility and the rule of law. But first, they need our votes. Now Lets Talk About that a little bit and specifically
about this list and the import of it. Lets talk about who he has on the list. Then well talk about who he doesnt have on the list and what that means. What do you guys think . If you count the theres two things that im struck by. A little more than fewer than more than 20 house candidates. Brings them right up to the edge of the 23 they need to retake the house. So his involvement in those races, races where republicans are holding plus three or four or five dems seats matters and is important. Those are places he can go and have a real impact. The other thing, and this aligns with the criticism of his time in office is the number of down ballot candidates hes getting behind. The big criticism of the Obama Administration and dnc is he let the Democratic Party under the federal side of things wither away. 1,000 democratic seats with the redistricting effort, plus these endorsements they are firmly refocused on that and recognizing how
important thats going to be, particularly when redistricting comes up the next couple of years. As we were coming back from break reading the list, you were looking at california. And gavin newsom, so on and so forth, theres a big name missing from this list. Senator Dianne Feinstein up for reelection and who was against a fellow democrat. So what struck me about this list having just skimmed it is in almost all of these cases, these are states that have already held their primaries. Hes not wading into divisive intraparty democratic fights for the most part. Not trying to put a thumb on the scale of the progressives versus the establishment or any of the other democratic divisions. These are people who have already made it through primaries and giving them a seal of approval. The other thing hes not doing is making a lot of endorsements in deep red states where his association with obama might hurt a candidate trying to win in sort of uphill territory for a democrat. So these are mostly safe plays
but in the case of feinstein where her challenger has actually been endorsed by the california Democratic Party and what has become an ideological fight between democrats, she would presumably be quite helped by his endorsement, and he is not giving it. Very, very interesting. And then theres the whole issue of the fact hes getting involved. People have been asking, can you be more aggressive, get more involved . This is his first step. Lets look at the republican side, though. President trump is going to close this week with a Third Campaign rally. This time a saturday stump for an ohio house candidate, troy balderson. Hes got a coveted trump tweet endorsement. The rally comes before august 7th, a special election there. A source tells cnn the president has big plans to be on the road much, much more as midterms ramp up. Arguing he wants to take matters into his own hands before november. But the commander in chief has some really noticeable surrogates joining his rallies. His own kids. I have great children. And a couple of them, plus, are here tonight. Eric trump who has been fantastic. He loves his political stuff. Erics wife lara who is great. I think she singlehandedly won the state of North Carolina for trump. We have somebody that nobody ever heard from. Ivanka. Eric trump tweeted a picture from last nights florida rally you saw there with his wife lara who does work on trumps reelection campaign. His Sister Ivanka is a white house adviser. You know, this could be incredibly helpful to the president in places that, just like obama on the democratic side in red states in swing areas where the president is,
you know, kind of the worst person to come in to help a republican because theyre trying to get independent and democratic votes. Maybe the kids arent as toxic . Thats definitely right. We saw this in 2016 when ivanka trump went to places like pennsylvania. The suburban areas to campaign for her father. So weve seen her come do a lot of interviews to talk about workforce training which is the least toxic of topics to get into. In our interviews shes really not tried to talk about russia at all. Weve seen Don Junior Wade into the more controversial topics, but hes someone who the base loves. So, you know, were seeing someone like ivanka good with the moderate voters perhaps and someone like don junior who really gets the base riled up. A fascinating character to me is lara trump, eric trumps wife, who does get into it. And is, as the president said, she single handedly helped me win North Carolina. He may not be that wrong. Listen to what she says on the
campaign trail, how she says it. I get very upset when i hear all this nonsense about russian collusion. Theyre trying to tell you that your vote didnt count, folks. Let me tell you something. Your vote counted then. Its going to count in the midterms come november, and it sure as hell is counting in 2020 when we reelect donald j. Trump. Shes on the trail all the time. She is, has an actual role in the 2020 campaign. Shes a senior adviser. Secret weapon . Its like a mixture of ivanka and don junior. The woman who can canappeal to women voters and the donald trump rhetoric coming out there saying your vote did matter. Trying to tell you it didnt matter, but i think the white house and President Trump is
increasingly worried about losing the house which a lot of people in washington do believe the democrats will take back. They know if they, do the democrats want nothing more than to torment President Trump and his agenda which is likely why were seeing the surrogates go out on the trail. Im also told the president is very worried about losing the house. What it means for his agenda. Its not just that agenda. Whoever has control of the house has oversight responsibilities. And we know from both parties how that looks. Okay. Everybody stand by. Well take a quick break. Well be right back. Theres also a lot to know. The most important thing . Medicare doesnt pay for everything. Yep. Youre on the hook for the rest. So consider an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. A plan like this helps pay some of what medicare doesnt. So you could end up paying less. And these are the only plans of their kind
endorsed by aarp. Selected for meeting their high standards of quality and service. Call Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company now to request this free Decision Guide, and learn more. Like, Medicare Supplement plan, give you the freedom to go with any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Its nice to have a choice. And your coverage goes with you, anywhere you travel in the country. We have grandkids out of state. They love our long visits. Not sure about their parents, though. Call unitedhealthcare and ask for your free Decision Guide today. A rock n roll hour here on inside politics. We reported about the president s tweet storm this morning. Seeming to demand that the Attorney General end the Special Counsels russia probe. I just spoke to the president s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who told me the following. He said the president was expressing his opinion on his favorite medium, twitter, for asserting his First Amendment rights. Giuliani also told me the president said that he should didnt say it was a demand. No president ial order is going to go down and he was simply expressing his opinion. That just in from Rudy Giuliani trying to clean up what the president did this morning on twitter that got everybody understandably concerned on capitol hill and in the Justice Department about what the president might be doing and
whether hes going to do something and not just talk about it. He says its just the president s opinions but the president is saying Jeff Sessions should end the investigation. Should is taken as a directive if your boss tells you, you should do something it can often be taken as a directive. Hes saying its just his opinion but in the past, sean spicer said shes tweets are official white house statements. This is what the president is saying. A lot of people are agreeing his most explicit directive to Jeff Sessions to end this. This is the most blatant direction for Jeff Sessions who cant end the investigation because hes recused from overseeing it. Giuliani is trying to clarify, trying to clean up what the president said in whatever moment he was in. For whatever reason that he sent that tweet. We still dont really know why he went further than he did before. But youre right. This isnt you expressing your opinion or you or anybody else in the world. This is the president of the
United States who has Actual Authority over things like this. Now never mind the Attorney General Doesnt Have Authority since they recused himself but its not the same. Its definitely not the same. This is the president of the United States. And were probably going to see Sarah Sanders having to again try to fig are out how to play this. This is a statement thats really hard to walk back. Its rich that theyre trying to point out a distinction between his tweets and official orders because as theyve said in the past, the tweets speak for themselves. This tweet really does speak for itself. N also the president has privately tried to convince sessions multiple times to take back over this investigation and reverse his recusal. Hes not just saying this on twitter. Hes directed Jeff Sessions in person to take back control of the russia investigation. So this isnt some random tweet. This is a longstanding pattern from him. Phil, regardless of the clarification we just got from Rudy Giuliani of what the
president really meant which is just using twitter to express his thoughts and his opinions, this is a real situation and there has been a heavy flirtation on capitol hill with making the Mueller Investigation the law of the land by statute. Passing legislation. It hasnt happened. The Senate Majority leader has been reluctant and resistant to doing that. Will this situation change that . No. No, look, it wont. A couple reasons here. First and foremost, and this goes for the speaker. They, and you know this as well as anybody, dana. Their theory of the case is the way to get through to the president in the most effective way to get the president to align with your thinking is to do it behind the scenes and by phone. Not publicly. Not out passing legislation. Certainly legislation the president could veto. They think that would exacerbate the situation. Two, the house is gone for the next five weeks. You make a good point. Rank and file members in the house and senate from both
parties have written legislation like this. I dont see any prospects of it coming any time soon. Thats how things are viewed at the leadership level. Just let this stuff go. Hes just blowing off steam. He wont actually do anything. And my understanding is people at the white house tell people on the hill, dont worry about it. Hes not serious. Which is effectively what giuliani said to me. Hes just blowing off steam. And the sort of backdrop of this is, if he went beyond blowing off steam and actually made a directive to fire robert mueller, you Better Believe the house would have to come back in session and it would be a Saturday Night Massacre modern day. All right, everybody. Taking a breath. Up next, more on what the senate intel chairman said about russian interference right now to novembers election. Nding ne. Youre smart, you already knew that. But its also great for finding the perfect used car. Youll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. Now youre even smarter. This is truecar. Welcome back. We touched on russias social Media Disinformation Campaign earlier in the program before having to turn to several Breaking News stories. I want to go back to that briefly before we end this show. I want you to listen to a sound bite from republican senator richard burr about election interference and the goal that interference has. That campaign is still active today. They didnt do it because they have political leanings to the right or to the left but because they or because they care about our elections but rather because a weak america is good for russia. Some feel that we as a society are sitting in a burning room calmly drinking a cup of coffee telling ourselves this is fine. Thats not fine. And thats not the case. That is such an important
comment from a republican saying its not about politics. Its about trying to sow chaos and division in this country, in society. Its really important. This is the latest in a litany of comments from within the administration itself trying to say publicly in as many ways as they can that this is a serious threat, its a real threat, its an ongoing threat and its a threat that needs leadership from the president and that is not something that he has rushed to provide. Yet another instance on top of multiple people in the administration. The calls coming from inside the house and they continue to wait for someone to pick up the phone. On leadership, we can run the sound bite from the president at his big rally where he talked about everything on facebook except that he didnt talk about facebook. He didnt talk about this at all about russian interference when we are currently in an election year, which is stunning. It is. But also the president has kind
of, as we know, mixed up the whole collusion and russian meddling. Two very separate things. He thinks talking about any sort of meddling is an admission of collusion. He tries to avoid that topic altogether. Except that its happening and he is the president and were heading into an election. A lot more to talk about on that. Thank you for watching. Were waiting for a White House Briefing to start any minute. Wolf will bring you that when it starts and picks up our coverage right after a break. Come fly with me, lets fly, lets fly away. Come fly with me, lets fly, lets fly away. In a key study neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 , a 94 decrease. Neulasta onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the day after chemo and is used by most patients today. Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta if youre allergic to it or Neupogen Filgrastim . An incomplete dose could increase infection risk. Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious Lung Problems allergic reactions, Kidney Injuries and Capillary Leak Syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, Trouble Breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. Ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. Pay no more than 25 per dose with copay card
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