Interesting. Solid conservative, excellent legislator. I think es hes one of these people you want in congress. A person of tremendous integrity whether you agree with him or disagree. He knows full well hes going to face a primary opponent and trump will campaign against him but in the land of barry gold water, were going to see now a defiant and Maverick Mccain and someone in flake with this book and his campaign is going to elevate conservativism again. The ultimately they need to find a way to govern. The to go to voters to say give us your trust to move the country in a new direction. Thats not just about the economy and the governments intervention in the economy. So you have the republicans making a move towards conscience or so they say and chris, you
have this other blow to the president in the form of a lawsuit, former d. C. Cop accusing fox news of manufacturing a story, using the death of a dnc staffer to distract from the Russia Investigation. We talked to the donor at the center of it last night here. Ed po towski, going to the family with a tip that revealed nothing about the truth. How big a deal is this lawsuit to fox news, part of it is met with shaun spiean spicer. And the president is alleged to have read this piece. I think that last piece you mentioned is the most important. Obviously theatrics is one side of the story. Is proof is soft. In h a lawsuit. So, but the fact that that allegation, that theres those
emails are texts in which it says the president read this and wants it out. First of all, why is the president reading a story before its published. Thats number one. Number two, it does suggest an involvement in a story that is, at root, in a tremendously sad story about the murder of a Young Political operative. That is conspiracy sheerries aside, this is about seth rich in a robbery gone wrong not according to chris, according to the police. So, the i think we are all now familiar with this sort of stuff, which is the twisting around in the shaping of events to push a political perspective. The when you have a Major Networkagain, alleged in a lawsuit when you have a Major Network and potentially the white house involved, its all the more unsavory and all the more hypocritical if the charges
against the white house end up being true. Because Donald Trumps favorite thing to do is run down the so called fake news which is essentially translated news he doesnt like. This is actual fake news. This is created from whole cloth, taking grief of a family over the tragic loss of a son and trying to use it for political gain when you no he theres no there, there. Lets add to this. Donald trump rose to political prominence by advancing a lie about the president of the United States not being born in america. It was nonsense and a racist lie. Thats how he launched himself. Hes very comfortable in the murky end of swamp. Thats where hes operated. Thats a fact. He doesnt get the benefit of the doubt. Of course hes interested in trafficking this filth. He was up there saying go wikilea wikileaks, its so irresponsible on its face and its rooted in something else. Not only the hideous disrespect for a grieving family but that somehow what russia did to attempt to manipulate our election is a product of this deep state conspiracy instead of the Intelligence Agencies who make mistakes but have worked really hard to protect this country and are working to protect his administration as well whether he believes them or not. There are real threats out there from russia to the United States, to our Electoral System trying to be influenced and he doesnt care about that because he only sees that as a question of his legitimacy. The thats the fund mental problem we see here. Its not hyperbole. If you start to add these together. The idea of fake news, it is lies and conspiracies that undemocratic regimes use as
their currency. Theres more to come on this story. Because the lawsuit by rod wheeler, the detective has just been filed so there are certainly more investigation and threads that will come out. Gentlemen, thank you very much for all of this. As david and chris just pointed out El Oh Kweptsly and you made the same point earlier this morning. It comes down to trust and that ic tas us to the other top story. The white house now admitting that the president did weigh in on whatever that means, 0en that misleading statement by his son about that meeting with a russia lawyer. Take a listen to the latest spin. The statement that don junior issued is true. Theres no inaccuracy in the statement. The president weighed in h as any father would, based on the limited information that he had. Why do i call well would Beious Beiously reed reading off notes. They had been saying initially. That is called spin. So lets discuss with former
federal prosecutor and deputy special counsel, peter ziedenberg. How do you see this shift from no role to weighed in. Meaning full . Not meaningful . Why . Its of a piece. Obviously this is something thats happened time and time again. Anyone who goes out for the administration and stakes out a position, its just a matter of time, it seems before that position is undercut. But i think more importantly, it really poses a legal risk for everybody who was involved on Air Force One and who played a part in drafting that statement. Why . Because this is taken you have to look at the context. Okay . So this is an ongoing criminal investigation. The first thing that Defense Attorneys will always tell a
client whos the subject of an investigation is do not talk about this case with anyone. And in particular, do not talk about this case with anyone else involved in the case. And the reason for that is if the government prosecutors find out there were conversations, they are immediately suspicious and the first thing that theyre going to want to find out is what were they talking about and were they trying to match their stories, and basically obstruct justice. But you have let me just get in there the analysis to help people out with this. Because the president s theory is sufficiencyargument. Okay fine we werent telling the truth when i said i didnt play a role. Its not illegal for me to shape the message. I think its all bogus so im going to craft my own narrative. Its certainly true that lying to the public is not a crime. And putting out an Inaccurate Press release is not a crime. So, i dont think anyones suggests that in and of itself youve got a case based on false statements made in a press release, but, step back. If youre a prosecutor and looking at an Obstruction Of Justice case, youre thinking in your mind a narrative. The youre thinking literally already about what an Opening Argument would make, what would sound like in your own head if you gave it to a jury. And at least what i would be thinking theyre thinking is that they fired james comey why . We have the makings lets say a theory of obstruction. The theory is that hes afraid of what the russians investigations going to turn over. The so now you fastforward and
youve got this email, which is highly incriminating. It basically says the russian government wants to help the elect donald trump and weve got dirt on Hillary Clinton, and three of his top staff, including his son, his Campaign Manager and soninlaw take the meeting and attend. The view from where i would be sitting if i were a prosecutor is thats a highly incriminating meeting. And their reaction to this news is also something you want to watch. If they really believed the meeting was a nothing, a Nothing Burger is what they said originally, then why all the deception about what went on . And why is the president involving himself in coming up with what appears to be a false recitation of the facts. And the theory would be because hes afraid of the truth. And that feeds into this
overarching nar aive it. The so in and of itself, not a im kroo. No question about it. But as a or he just doesnt like the suggestion so trying to do everything he can to tamp it down. I want a quick take from you on this. Is what the russians would call what aboutism . Forget about what trump and his staffers may or may not have done, what about the clintons, speech that bill clinton gave and the actions taken buy the Secretary Of State and money that came into the foundation. Is there anything there you believe deserves parallel concern and consideration . No. And more importantly i dont think theres anything there that bob mueller and his team is going to consider relevant. A prosecutors going to look at the case on all fours and say is this a case i can go to a jury and persuade 12 people beyond a
reasonable doubt. Hillary clintons uranium deal is not going to enter into that analysis. Bob muellers a registered republican. Put in place by the Deputy Acting Ag that trump had celebrated and relied on. Former prosecutor peter, appreciate your perspective. Thank you. We have breaking news right now to get to flight data reveals that that north korean int intercontinental ballistic test came within miles of the flight path of an air france passenger jet. An air france spokesperson says the test zones do not interfere with the flight paths however since north korea never announces its test, airlines do not know when or where there could be danger. Meanwhile the u. S. Is testing
another intercontinental missile. Officials say this is not in response to the recent missile tests. As we mentioned republican senators are breaking with the president on health care. The a gop senator is going to join us to talk about what theyre doing and why. At the Lexus Golden Opportunity Tesales event before it ends. Choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for 299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Expoliplosive news. Concocting a fake news story about a murder of a dnc staffer. Reporter theres a possibility this is a guy who provided two wikileaks, all those dnc emails a false story could have fingerprints reaching all the way to the white house. Claiming Fox Conconductcted a s if it was true that seth rich gave wikileaks the dnc emails wouldnt that blow the whole russia collusion . Reporter that is part of this pro trump conspiracy theory. Richards theory says his death has been exploited by right wing media. At the center of the story is a
wealthy republican donor. Claims they were in conhoots contriving a link. Wheeler worked with ba to you ski. Its very consistent with a person with my experience to begin to think perhaps there were email communications between seth and kick can i leeks. Richs family says thats not true and d. C. Police belief his killing was a botched robbery. The nothing politically motivated. But that didnt stop fox. It sure doesnt look like a robbery. The looks like a murder. The. After days of coverage back this may, the network retracted the story. Now, months later, wheelers explosive lawsuit says he was misquoted, defamed by fox. I do believe i was used as a pawn in this entire thing. Reporter and his suit goes much further claiming the story was coordinated with the white house. I think their goal based on the emails and voice mails i
got from ed butowsky was to bunk this. The this whole idea something was coordinated with rod wheeler thats absolute nonsense. Reporter this text message is one the suits most eye popping claims. Not to as any e. Anymore pressure but the president just read the article. He wants it out immediately. The its all you up to you. Butowsky now says he was just kidding around. This was tongue in cheek talking. Reporter the white house pushing back as well. The president didnt have knowledge of the story. The white house didnt have involvement in the story. Reporter but there is a link to the white house. Butowsky and wheeler met with then Secretary Sean Spicer a month before the story came out. Butowsky telling cnn he wanted to present audio. Did he know why you wanted to meet with him. No. As a matter of fact yeah. Because i said to sean ai was going to be in town. The my conversation with sean about this recording lasted about one minute. He said, ed, i dont know anything about it. I dont want to know anything about it. I cant do anything. Reporter spicer says it was just a tenminute courtesy meeting. But the suit claims spicer asked to be kept abreast of developments. As for fox it calls the accusation completely erroneous. Our next guest was a target of russias meddling in the u. S. Election when his emails were hacked and leaked. John was the consciousnangs very much for being here. Good morning. What do you think of this surreal and terribly sad story about the murder of seth rich and this new development in h this lawsuit that connects the
white house with this story, rod wheeler, who has filed a lawsuit. He was the former d. C. Homicide detective who says that the white house is very interested in h deflicting away from the Russia Investigation and trying to basically pin it on seth rich leaking this. Well, couple things. The first of all, i think it was despicable that fox news was peddling that and i think whats really amazing is this now connection possibly between the white house reknow that sean spicer was at least informed. We know he went to the same podium and said he didnt know anything about it after that meeting. There are emails implicating the president. So its really the lowest of the low. And on top of that, just last week, the president wined and dined Shaun Han Nertty who was
the chief and bill shine who had to resign from fox. The some reporting that shine may be brought into the white house. So the whole thing is horrible, i think, and i think that the rich family has really suffered a lot as a result of the lack of values both at fox news and the white house. Whenever the white house is asked, at least in the press briefings, about the Russia Investigation, and anything, any of the threads, they pretty quickly deflict to well, why Arent You InvestigatingHillary Clinton. This just happened. Sarah huckabee sand ders was just asked the question and you can see this plain as day. Let me play this for you and get your response. You guys are focussed on a meeting that don jr. Had no consequence when the democrats actually colluded with a foreign government. If you want to talk about a
relationship with russia, look nor further than the clintons. Bill clinton was paid half a million dollars. Hillary clinton allowed the uranium to be sold. Clinton campaigns chairmans brother lobbied against sanctions against russians largest bank. If you want to talk about having relations, look nor further than there. I dont know if you can see on your screen but shes reading from notes. Yeah. This is what they do. They try to divert attention. Those stories she went through have been knocked down by the mainstream media. Le but i think just like the seth rich story at fox, what they like to try to do is throw dust some place else so they at least give the altright media and fox news something to talk about. When we ought to be talking
about that meeting with don trump jr. And the fact that the president dictated, according to some sources, at least participated, in a statement that was grossly misleading. Think about that. This is trump family values. The kids come to the president and say, dad, its time to come clean. Wed better talk about what happened at that meeting. And whats the dads response in no. That might hurt me. Put out a grossly misleading statement, which fell apart within a couple days. What do you think is the upshot . H. They have a lot to answer for. Yeah. But what do you think that somebody has been exposed to more legal jeopardy as a result of that . Yeah. Think that you heard that from the former prosecutor in the valerie plain case. I think they all to the o. Got together, the special prosecutor, mr. Mueller is
certainly going to be suspicious about that. The and i think adam schiff, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, i think put his finger on this. The they may not have evidence of collusion yet but they sure have evidence and this meeting is evidence of init ent to collude. Don jr. s statement this is great and influencing the timing of when they might use the information. Remember, this all goes back. The they like to say theres no crime. This all goes back to crimes that were committed. The hacking of the dnc, hacking of my emails, hacking of other Clinton Campaign staff emails. Those are crimes committed by the russians, and now we know that if at at minimum, they were encouraging them to use the fruits of those crimes. I want to get to an op ed you wrote for the Washington Post in which youre offering free advice to the new chief of
staff, john kelly for the white house from you, from your position as former chief of staff. Your first tidbit was dont take the job. Hes clearly rejected that advice, now that hes in the job and in the white house, what advice do you have for him . Yeah. As i said, that had been overtaken by events before i wrote it. Look, i have tremendous respect for general kelly. He has a very difficult job. I think day one, he got rid of anthony scaramucci, at least got him out of the Communications Director job. I think that the reason his job is going to be so tough is that theres a culture in the white house that really is sort of knows no boundaries, hes got to contend with a president who even after appointing him, has said that hes not going to stop tweeting. s he going to continue his current practices. So, i think hes tried to show some discipline in the white
house. Hopefully that will be successful. We all want the country to succeed. And he has a tremendous record of service. Hes also got to reestablish relationships with leaders on both sides of the aisle on capitol hill. I think the white house, again, has no credibility. So i think it really is i