Another seems to open. Enter, the New York TimesFront Page Story of a secret plan by Trump Associates said to be backed by kremlin about the Armed Conflict with Russian Allied forces within its own borders. In other words, while the fbis investigating an alleged back channel during the election between russia and the Trump Campaign, there may be another previously undisclosed back channel between russia and known Trump Associates. But before we dive into the times report, a little context. Throughout the entire russia controversy, the president has repeatedly denied having any russian Business Ties. I own nothing in russia. I have no loans in russia. I dont have any deals in russia. Russia is fake news. Russia is fake news. But thats a relatively recent claim. In 2008, for instance, donald trump jr. Told an interviewer, russians make up a pretty
disproportionate crosssection of a lot of our assets, say in dubai and certainly with our project in soho. We see a lot of money pouring in from russia. Trump was involved in a lawsuit dealing with russia and kazakhstan. Before the russia controversy, donald trump claimed to have close Business Ties to russia and a personal relationship with vladimir putin. Have you had any dealings with the russians . Well, ive done a lot of business with the russians. They are comys, you know that . They are smart and tough and they are not looking so dumb right now, are they . I do have a relationship and i can tell you hes very interested in what were doing here today. Hes probably interested in what you and i are saying today. Insuransince he never releas tax returns, its hard to know what ties, if any, he has with the russians. And associates of the president were working on a back channel
author of trump nation the art of being the donald. I read this article five times. Wait, what . Sater was a figure i was familiar with primarily from your reporting. Who is this guy . Felix sater came to the United States from russia with his family, settled down in new york and proceeded to get in a lot of trouble. He did prison time for assaulting someone with the stem of a margarita glass. In 1990s, he was involved in Stock Schemes with Organized Crime Members in the new york area and then he falls in with a Real Estate Group who has offices one floor below Donald Trumps offices. And theres no question as to whether he was involved in the
soho trump deal . No. He was a primary player in it along with another, tedric irif. Trump put no money into it, which is typical from many of those deals during that period. He was a little tight for cash. He essentially lent his name to the project, they gave him a piece of the action. I think he got 16 of the trump soho. He put his name on it but he was the minority partner and these guys funded it and built it. Sater also has russian connections. Hes of russian birth but grew up here but apparently is someone who maintains Business Relationships there. Took the Trump Kids Over To Moscow at one point . He joined ivanka and don jr. In moscow in february 2006. The primary partner of his at bay mark was a former soviet official. So theres multiple russian connections here. I think whats important to remember here, trump for all
everything he did in russia, never got anything built there. The most he got done was a beauty pageant. Its unlikely that youre going to see humongous Financial Relationships between trump and russia but i dont think thats the troubling element of it. The troubling element is hes opened the door to russia using him or playing him as a pawn around very serious issues. Hes invited the Russias To HackHillary Clintons campaign. We now know that a number of federal agencies are looking at the Trump Campaign around Improper Communications with the russians including Michael Cohen, the broker of this new go ahead. Well, to me, part of it is, lets just throw out everything having to do with the ongoing Smoke Billowing out of the Sort Of Trump russia story and just focus on the idea of felix sater and Michael Cohen, a business
associate with mafia ties through some back channels unspecified. And the third member of the trio has claimed that hes got Corruption Evidence against poroshenko, the ukrainian leader, and has openly said that hes got putins backing or high aides of putin have supported his position. Why the three of them are suddenly put together a plan like this it makes you think what the heck else are people talking about and meeting about if these three guys are getting together for a ukraine peace deal. And why do they have this kind of proximity to donald trump. Michael cohen was the trump lawyer. He left in january. He now appears to have this almost like Clark Clifford role, an adviser to the president on sensitive issues. If hes a gatekeeper, people like felix sater from getting into the president s orbit. I think thats probably a good piece of advice from tim obrien if youre watching, mr. President. Thank you. Joining me now is a reporter for the washington post. How did according to your reporting, roselyn and the white house is basically saying theres no paper on this, that they have a record of the National Security council, its fake news, et cetera. What does your reporting suggest about how the heck this even started to come together . Its a little bit of a mystery. Felix sater says hes an akwat tans of this u krar general lawmaker and he brought the plan to Michael Cohen. I spoke with Michael Cohen just today who described a phone call from his old friend felix who had he known from the Trump Organization and said complete me for coffee and there was this
ukrainian parliamentarian and his peace plan. Right. And so this peace plan, which the ukrainian parliamentary says has the tasset or explicit to stop russianbacked forces within ukraines bders using Military Force and a low level of separatist agitation, right . Right. It would call for an end to russian hostilities and also have a referendum on the future of crimea, which is the portion that russia seized in 2014. Apparently the referendum would offer two choices. One would lease crimea to russia for 50 years and the other would lease crimea to russia for 100 years. In either instance, they would get crimea, which is a top priority of the russians. Wait a second. Wait a second. The peace deal, one of the
pieces of the peace deal is a referendum to the people of crimea about whether they want to be leased to russia for 50 or 100 years . Thats correct. And it should be noted that the kremlin feels so strongly about crimea that when asked about this today they also dismissed this because they said how could we lease something that is ours . How could we lease something that is ours . So their belief is that crimea is part of russia. Heres the other question. My other understanding about the contours of this is theres different rounds of sanctionses that have been posed on russia but the strongest and the most buyin for are the ones in response to the seizure of crimea. Those would be lifted under this plan, right . Well, its a little unclear if the plan itself called for the lifting of sanctions. Of course, if there were peace in ukraine, an organic ukrainian accepted peace deal, there would no longer be a need for sanctions. And so the idea is that a peace
plan would lead to the end of hostilities and the lifting of sanctions. Rosalind, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Im joined by robby mook, Hillary Clintons campaign manager. You talked about the russians and invited criticism for it because whatever your feelings are, theres a sense in which it felt off topic given what was at stake. Im sort of curious how you think about that in retrospect given the news that we have now. Its frustrating, chris. A lot of the topics we brought up, including felix sater and the fact that there are Financial Connections between the Trump Campaign and that there were conversations going on between the Trump Campaign and russia, its frustrating that that didnt get covered. I think what matters now is the future and i think whats hard to grasp in general about this
entire situation is that it just feels like fiction. Its so strange. You know, these shady characters, the idea that theres Financial Connections, secret meetings going on and i think its very easy, because its so strange, because its so bizarre to cast it aside. What were asking for now is for everybody to take this very seriously. Were looking at a situation where a foreign government, a, broke into the dnc and tried to influence the election and now, b, that potentially with money, they are trying to influence the affairs of our government and Foreign Policy and the idea that now a plan was able to get directly to the president bypassing our entire diplomatic and National Security apparatus is really alarming. Thats why we need an independent Bipartisan Commission to look into this and im just calling on every american. Lets put aside republican or democrat. Every american needs to demand that we see Donald Trumps taxes
and that we get to the bottom of what happened here. But you and i both know i had understand your calling for every american. Obviously the prism for all of this is deeply partisan. Its deeply shot through with the sort of tribal affiliations of American Politics and Peoples Trust and belief. Is there any reason to suppose that, say, the Republican Party has any interest in actually getting to the bottom of this . They do. I really believe that they do. And i think lindsey graham, john mccain and others have surfaced this issue. It was the democrats that putin went after today. It could be the republicans tomorrow. And i think republicans should be particularly afraid as we approach these midterm elections. The russians can do to them what they did to hillary. And so to see this as partisan in any way is looking at this in such a shortterm mindset thats really scary. And what im particularly afraid of is that the network that the russians have built, be it the
financial ties to donald trump or this network of fake twitter accounts and Media Outlets that theyve set up, that they will permeate our political and process and dialogue so deeply let me just stop you right there. Because that seems to be part of the problem about this sort of the category were creating here. So at one end of the spectrum you have what appears to be criminal intrusion into an email server. Right . And the other is, theres fake twitter accounts. So theres a big spectrum in terms of how objectionable and influential those things are and it seems like they get rolled up into the same category. But i think, chris, we need to see this as a singular effort on the part of putin to influence america, to influence our dialogue and decision making. Look at the radical change weve seen since donald trump took office. Were now discussing whether to take away sanctions from russia. Weve now got Back Channelling for proputin peace deals in the ukraine. I mean, this is a totally different situation than we had just a month ago. You know, the head of the National Security council, the National Security adviser was someone who bid on the payroll of rt, a russian propaganda arm. I mean, its incredible when you step back and think about it. And i think at the crux of this is the fact that i actually want to take a little issue with what was said earlier. I dont think its the donald trump is invested in russia. I think its russia is invested in donald trump. Thats why he doesnt want to show the taxes and thats why hes so afraid to upset the russians. I dont think donald trump has somehow become a russian disciple. I think he has deep Financial Issues at stake. That is obviously an accusation or an allegation that of course we cannot in any way verify and theres one way
essentially we could definitively rule it out. Robby mook, thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you, chris. Coming up, reassuring iraqis know we are not reinvading the country to take their oil. Thats next. Plus, Congress Members on recess meet the resistance. Ahead, the latest explosion of town hall protests this weekend and one republican member who isnt backing down from his constituents. I dont want to here a canned answer. Yes or no, can you say yes or no if you with every click. Call. Punch. And paycheck. Youve earned your medicare. It was a deal that was made long ago, and aarp believes it should be honored. Thankfully, President Trump does too. I am going to protect and save your social security
and your medicare. You made a deal a long time ago. Now, its congress turn. Tell them to protect medicare. This is the story of Green Mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets take a trip to la plata, colombia. This is boris calvo. Thats pepe. Boris doesnt just grow good coffee, boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even Better Coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. Thats blanca. Yup, pepe and blanca got together. Things happen. All this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain coffee. Packed with goodness. As you know doubt know by now, there was no incident in sweden as the president claimed during that saturday rally. The governor of sweden had to point that out. The embassy asking the u. S. State department to explain. President trump later clarified saying his comments were in reference to a fox news segment he had been watching which was inflammatory meanwhile, including the United States commitment to the European Union and in abu dhabi, the secretary of defense was forced to clean out the president s prior musings about going back in and taking iraqs oil. So we should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe youll have another chance. But the fact is, should have kept the oil. All of us in america have paid for our gas and oil all
along and im sure that we will continue to do so in the future. Were not in iraq to seize anybodys oil. Joining me now, elliott cohen, former counselor at the state department under condoleezza rice. Perhaps you can tell by that, a republican, a conservative, also a never trumper. Mr. Cohen, essential is it to have Foreign Policy pretend that the president s pronouncements dont exist or to have various members of his cabinet explicitly rebutting them all the time . Well, its not tenable. There are a number of problems. If people get used to the idea that you cant believe a word that he says, there are real consequences to that. The other problem that youve got, an awful lot of the effort
now of his National Security team, secretary mattis, Secretary Tillerson and so on, is devoted to cleaning up messes. And when youre cleaning up messes, youre not able to take the initiative of taking a wide range of issues that were facing in the years ahead. You said this, which i keep thinking about this quote. Ive been in this town for 26 years. Ive never seen anything like this, referring to the president. I dont think this is a mentally healthy president. What did you mean by that . If you look at dsmiv and dsmv, if you look at narcissistic personality disorder, the psychologists and psychiatrists dont like to do remote diagnoses, you cant go through it and not say check, check, check. I think the president is a narcissist. That doesnt mean that hes unable to function but it is very, very troubling. It means he has trouble with empathy. It means he interprets everything absolutely personally, it means hes
susceptible to flattery. Its in many ways disabling from the conduct of effective certainly Foreign Policy, probably domestic policy as well. Now, what i will say, hes appointed some capable people and the question is whether they be able to contain him. But even if they do that, you know, we still need more. It is a dangerous world out there. Yeah, the containment, i thought of h. R. Mcmaster, the individual who has just been named active officer, Active Duty Officer who has been named to replace michael flynn. From people ive talked to respect him a tremendous amount. He wrote a fascinating book about the war and why they werent able to tell the president the truth, which seems germain in this context. But how much can you expect if everyone is trying to figure out what the lates