Ones. Among them, the president elect evoking nazi germany to characterize u. S. Intelligence agencies, offering kind words to the russians who the Intelligence Community believe hacked the dnc and clinton campaign. Trumps secretary of state pick exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson possibly lying under oath at his confirmation hearing about exxonmobil lobbying against russian sanctions and an impassioned and unprecedented plea from a sitting senator, cory booker, to reject trumps attorney general nominee senator Jeff Sessions over his record on civil rights. But we begin with the story we believe to be most important at this Pivotal Moment and what this day with as about. The nearly incomprehensible set of conflicts of interest that result from refusing to relinquish ownership of a multibillion dollar organizations that is engaged with businesses and countries around the world, the full scope of which we still dont know. Thats because trump refuses to release his tax returns. Well, im not showing tax returns, as you know, theyre under audit. Reporter every president since the 70s has had an irs. Ive never heard that. You know, the only ones who care about my tax returns are the reporters. Reporter you dont think the American Public is concerned about that . I dont think so. I won, i became president. I dont think they care at all. I dont think they care at all. The applause you hear was not from the press, it was from people the trump folks brought in to cheer during the event. Now, trump made those remarks at his press conference in First Press Conference in 168 days which had been billed as the moment trump would reveal the steps he had taken to address his conflicts. He came with props a stack of manila folders trump said contained document he is had signed in order to turn control of his business over to his sons. And what im going to be doing is my two sons who are right here don and eric are going to be running the company. They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. Reporters tried to take a look at the stacks of papers trump referenced but were prevented from doing so so there is no way of knowing whether they were genuine documents or just phony visual aids like the supposed trump steaks that trump showed off last march which turned out to have been purchased from a south florida meat company and still had the labels on them to prove it. To explain the steps he took, trump brought to the stage attorney sheri dillon whose lau firm won the 2016 law firm of the year. She said trump is not liquidating his assets because doing so could lead to unreasonable losses for trump and this is simply too high a burden. The approach weve outlined today will avoid potential conflicts of interest or concerns regarding exploitation of the office of the presidency without imposing unnecessary and unreasonable losses on the president elect and his family. That position prompted this response from the head of the office of government ethics walter schaub. The president is now entering a world of Public Service. Hes going to be asking his own appointees to make sacrifices. Hes going to be asking our men and women in uniform to risk their lives in conflicts around the world. So, no, i dont think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States of america. Here are the really important takeaways and what we learned today which is that donald trump will not release his tax returns, he will not liquidate his assets or divest and he will not place those assets into a blind trust. Instead he will enter the white house with the ability to use u. S. Policy to enrich himself and his family while maintaining a financial empire that could routinely invite bribery attempts on the part of foreign or even domestic actors. Remarkably, trump gave a con treat example of what that could look like detailing a heretofore meeting he held without Public Knowledge with a developer from dubai. Over the weekend i was offered 2 billion to do a deal in dubai with a very, very, very amazing man, a great, great developer from the middle east. Hussein demack, a friend of mine, great guy. And was offered 2 billion to do a deal in dubai, number of deals. And i turned it down. I didnt have to turn it down because, as you know, i have a no conflict situation because im president which is i didnt know about that until about three months ago but its a nice thing to have but i dont want to take advantage of something. Joining me now ambassador norm eisen who served as the white house ethics lawyer under president obama and richard painter who served in the same role under president george w. Bush. Gentlemen, let me start norm, ill start with you. If youre grading the plan, if you can call it that propose today in terms of insulating the president elect from conflicts of interest . Chris, thanks for having me. Yesterday professor painter, the bush ethics adviser, myself, and makes most distinguished constitutional lawyer, larry tribe, issued a fivepart set of five criteria. We did it before the press conference so there could be no question that the clarity that this was not prearranged. In all five spaces on that report card donald trump gotten a f today. Maybe a d in one area. So he did not divest ownership. He did not follow what every president has done for four decades blind trust or the equivalent. He did not appoint an independent trustee as oge has advised him to do. He did not deal with his emoluments clause problems, the unconstitutional flows of funds and other benefits from Foreign Governments and their agents. What he announced with his children is more like an ethics sieve, full of holes. So he gets f across the board. I should say that walter shaub gave a remarkable speech, we exerted some of it. He basically agreed with you, norm, this is not my area of expertise. Mr. Painter, what about the argument that was made explicitly by the president elects lawyer that forcing divestiture would essentially cost the president elect too much money. That it would be too painful, too large, to unreasonable a financial sacrifice . Well, in the Bush Administration as the chief ethics lawyer i worked with a lot of incoming cabinet officials who sold off assets and left money on the table, Stock Options and other money, and, yes, it cost them money to enter Public Service. I took a substantial pay cut to go work in the white house. Thats what Public Service is all about. I am thrilled to have a president who has friends all over the world who will offer him 2 billion and so forth, thats great, but thats got to stop as of january 20. Hes got to focus on being president and this is business is worth a lot to him but im sure he could sell it off for a couple of Million Dollars which is plenty of money for him, but this government everyday spends more money than that business is probably worth and he is in charge of it as president of the United States. Hes got to focus on his job and walter shaubs job at the office of government ethics is to advise government officials including the president on complying with a conflict of interest standard and walter is exactly right. There has been a political war against the office of government ethics this week conducted by super pacs and against walter in particular, trying to line him up for getting fired by the president or Something Like that and i have said this at the Brookings Institution this afternoon. If theres a saturday night massacre aatoge, we wont stand for that in the United States and we wont stand for a president who would tolerate that. This is an independent agency that implements ethics laws in the executive branch. Walter shaub has a job to do and he is doing it and its time for the president to focus on his job and to divest for those Business Enterprises instead of attacking the office of government ethics. I should note the saturday night massacre a reference to the attempted firing of Key Department of justice officials by Richard Nixon which essentially was the end of the end. Well, they did fire them, they got down to Robert Bourque who would take care of the job for them. But thats not going to happen and we wont let that happen in this administration unless President Trump wants to go the same way nixon went. Those are strong words and i want to talk about ill let you you gentlemen referred to as a constitutional crisis, which you, ambassador, referred to. It bans emoluments for american officials. Sheri dillon issued kind of fro from the bench her constitutional ruling, quite clear about what is and is not an an emolument. Heres what she had to say. Since president elect trump some people want to define emoluments to cover routine business transactions like paying for hotel rooms. They prevent what the president elect isnt aware of. These people are wrong. Youre wrong ambassador is that correct . Like many of her clients tweets and statements, its tolly incorrect. The emoluments clause, its a fancy 18th century word. All its intended to say is that president s of the United States cannot get cash and other benefits from Foreign Governments and you can understand why that would be a concern, how can we know if somebodys getting these 2 billion offers. Right. Lets say that came from a Foreign Government. We dont know if a Foreign Government was involved in that or not. How can we know theyre doing whats in the best interest of the United States . The founders were very concerned about that. They put this in the constitution and donald trump is allowing all of that to continue. Its absolutely shocking. Ambassador norm eisen and richard painter, gentlemen, you have been really, really helpful in understanding and navigating all this and i thank you for your time tonight. Thank you, chris. Still to come, Filmmaker Michael Moore with his reaction to the slights, vendettas and Unanswered Questions from the president elects First Press Conference. As that press conference was going on, we got our first chance to hear trumps pick for secretary of state and his somewhat inconsistent views about russia. Well dive into the Rex Tillerson hearing ahead. Let me ask you this question is Vladimir Putin a war criminal . I would not use that term. Well, let me describe the situation in aleppo and perhaps that will help you reach that conclusion. Spontaneous moment . Cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. 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To have a senator, a house member and a living civil rights legend testify at the end of all of this is the equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. It is a petty strategy and the record should reflect my consternation at the unprecedented process that braug us here. The confirmation hearing of senator Jeff Sessions. Congressman Cedric Richmond had strong words for the Senate Judiciary committees decision to place key testimony against sessions from members of congress at the end of todays hearing. The former chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member senator Patrick Leahy said he cannot remember a time when lawmakers who testified were put at the end of the hear. Among those testifying at the end of the hearing today, civil rights icon and congressman john lewis and senator cory booker who today we believe just became the first sitting senator to testify against a colleague in a confirmation hearing ever. If confirmed, senator sessions will be required to pursue justice for women, but his record indicates that he wont. He will be expected to defend the equal rights of gay and lesbian and Transgender Americans but his record indicates that he wont. He will be expected to defend Voting Rights but his record indicates that he wont. It doesnt matter how senator sessions may smile, how friendly he may be, how he may speak to you. We need someone who can stand up, speak up and speak out for the people that need help. Joining me now, share lynn ifill. Share lynn, i should be clear your organization has been a strong opponent of senator sessions. Let me ask you if you saw anything in the last two days that changed your mind . No, i didnt see anything that changed my mind. In fact, chris, i saw several things that deepened the concerns that we expressed about senator sessions, weve been familiar with him since 1985 when lawyers at the Naacp Legal Defense Fund represented three civil rights activists, two of whom had been Close Friends of Martin Luther king who senator sessions prosecuted when he was u. S. Attorney in alabama. They were acquitted but that prosecution had longstanding affects on that community in terms of intimidating black voters who were questioned by the fbi and who senator sessions allowed to be intimidated by members of his team. So weve known him and his record for a long time. What i heard yesterday was in my view what is a very cynical effort to dismiss a record of over 40 years senator sessions has been a u. S. Attorney, the attorney general of alabama for about two years and then the a United States senator and in that time weve had an opportunity to see where he stands on a variety of civil rights issues. He was rejected, as you know, by the Senate Judiciary committee in 1986 when he sought to become a Federal District judge because they found that the evidence of that prosecution and statements he was accused of making made him unsuited to be a Federal District judge. Yesterday he said he was wrongly characterized, you can find our report on our web site that starts looking not only from 1985 but up to this century and 2017, including during the campaign of president elect trump where senator sessions was a close ally and was the first sitting senator to endorse president elect trump. I want to talk about one specific area that ive been following myself for a book i wrote and something you and i have spoken about, which is policing. Particularly because this Justice Department under president obama i would say, particularly in the second term, has played a muscular role in the Civil Rights Division in patterns and practices investigations of cities from chicago to cleveland to baltimore to ferguson and Consent Decrees that are federal efforts to reform policing externally for localities that have proven to be unable to do that for themselves. Heres what senator sessions had to say about those Consent Decrees today. Take a listen. Its a difficult thing for a city to be sued by the department of justice and to be told that your Police Department is systematically failing to serve the people of the state or the city. So thats an august responsibility of the attorney general and the department of justice so they often feel forced to agree to a Consent Decree just to remove that stigma. That was obviously yesterday. What do you make of that answer . Well, i think you have to combine it with even more testimony yesterday, the fact he was endorsed by the fraternal order of police, there was a phalanx of Law Enforcement there to support him yesterday and the head of the fraternal order of police testified on his behalf today and they all essentially said the same thing, and what they said and what i heard out of the mouth of senator sessions is that he intends to be a champion of local police, that he does not believe the federal government through the department of justice should be intruding in local policing matters. He said specifically he thinks that too many people, including the department, are painting entire place departments as being engaged in unconstitutional conduct when in fact its just a few officers, a few bad apples, something weve heard before. We hes a proponent of that view. He has