The latest Political Developments of the day and interviews with top newsmakers are featured. Its not like somebody former president got to report, somebody gave a little more than the minimum, some pac didnt follow a small regulation. This is a fundamental thing. The nominee at the closing days of the campaign, when he thought his campaign was on the line and a story or two stories potentially threatened his nomination went be and said, i have to make this story go away, according to Michael Cohen and said, go make this go away and pay for it. I think that goes not in a resistance way at all. A much more dramatic and more accurate way of stating what happened there. And, yes, it implicates the president in the commission of a felony, but it also implicates the president in what is now a growing sense that a lot of people have and not just resistance people, that this is one more way in which the 2016 election was facacta. Harry litman, were in dangerous territory here. Two nonlawyers talking about what may be under investigation in the Southern District is a conspiracy. That is a pretty clear parallel to what we are told by folks
like yourself about the Mueller Investigation and that its not collusion, collusion in and of itself wouldnt be the crime. Its the conspiracy to impact the election. Do you think that is what the Southern District is investigating when it comes to the Hush Money Payments . Do you think thats what they went in looking for . We know from the day of the raid thats one of the things they were looking for when they seized items from Michael Cohens homes and offices. Well, look, they were probably looking for the whole mother load of financial miss deeds that they found. But they also found this point and i cant say strongly enough, john is so deadon here. The second defense of team trump now is, oh, a Technical Campaign finance violation. That makes it seem ministerial. Its the exact opposite. It gives rise to the watergate comparisons. What cohen says in court by the way, its not in the information. He made a point of saying it. Not only was it at the direction of trump, but it was for the yeah. That will forever the evolution of a response thats at the center of pretty serious prosecution out of the Southern District. How is the legal Team Managing the Fact Patterns . They thought the new york part of this was the more troubling one because they didnt understand it. They claim to under the four corners of the Mueller Investigation and thought the president was in an okay spot. But all along they never thought they got straight answers from the president about this, and they never thought that they understood the full extent of the president s lee lags ship with Michael Cohen. So as this has gone forward, theyve really, really been in the dark. This is not like the investigation where they read through the questions the investigators wanted to and have an understanding of whats there. This is going on with knowing very little. Its not been smeared the way the Mueller Investigation has been smeared. You talked about they feel
inoculated from whatever the wit witchhunt is. This doesnt fall under the category of witchhunt. Why is it that Rod Rosenstein did not give mueller this aspect of the case and gave it to the prosecutors in the Southern District. By doing that, It Insulated Mueller from some of the criticisms that he truly is on an unending witchhunt thats looking at all sorts of things that have nothing with russia. These Career Prosecutors who do not have political faces, who do not have the Public Images that mueller has, has r have gone in and done this case. What does the president say . Is this part of the witchhunt . Is it a Justice Department wide thing . It insulated mueller. Do you think, eli, the fact this is getting more sprawling, not less, the fact that there are enemies within if the president doesnt make it, if the president is ever impeached in the house, it will not be the 17 angry democrats that he tweets about. It will be his former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort, his former fixer and personal
attorney Michael Cohen. It will be mike flynn. Hes been a cooperating witness for many, many months now. It will be his own inner circle that gave federal prosecutors and investigators evidence against him. There have been a lot of people indict the. I dont know if you heard the press secretary. The president didnt do anything wrong, i dont know why were talking about impeachment. This is a growing investigation, it keeps me taft sizing and getting bigger. No matter what the white house says theyre struggling to control it. The attorneys, as mike said, they dont know all the answers. They dont necessarily trust the president. Part of why this has gotten worse and worse because the president continues to talk. Every little thing that bubbles up from the press he has to respond to it. He answers these questions with a very sort of shortterm focus on getting past the story. So when the president has done that over and over again, you see him on Air Force One saying he knew nothing about the payment, weve heard mike l cohen and the president on tape discussing the payment. We know thats a lie. Even if the white house says its a ridiculous accusation hes lying, the whole country can see hes lying. The president himself who has told thousands of falsehoods over the course of his presidency on matters Big And Small is not very trustworthy and does not have a lot of credibility on this matter because weve seen already so many Big And Small efforts to mislead the American Public and investigators as well. Harry litman, the president s message on collusion went from no collusion almost like a tick to collusion isnt a crime. The president s message around cohen, we just showed the evolution from i didnt know anything about it to rudy saying he was reimbursed the president had a nonsensical word salad were going to spare our viewers of. He said on fox News Business later on i knew. You have to understand, ainsley, they werent taken out of Campaign Finance. The president goes on and on. Ill cliff note it for our
viewers. It was my money, it wasnt Campaign Finance money. But as you and heilman have been saying, they may be investigating a broader conspiracy. Can you speak to that . And also explain to me how the decision to make Michael Cohen someone who cooperates with multiple investigations may be something we dont know about yet, maybe something underway, may be something that is still going to happen, but Isnt Locked Down The Way emily has been explaining for two days to us now . Yes. So, two points. On the conspiracy, now, at least on these shows people are beginning to talk about conspiracy, not collusion, which is a good thing. And the first there is this very serious conspiracy that john outlined to influence the election, and then also in the next thing thats coming it appears lanny davis said, probably imprudently yesterday, that Michael Cohen has information about knowledge about the hacking. Thats the other broad conspiracy thats been alleged
by mueller, and that if the president is now stitched up in that, we have sort of a two different conspiracies hed have to fight. In general there are brush fires breaking out everywhere. On cohen, i think the key here, it is an odd procedural posture, but he has a very fine lawyer who is the former Criminal Division chief in sdny. And i think both parties wanted to lock this down quickly for different reasons, and they basically have a good faith understanding that they can reach given the credibility that guy petrillo has that he will, in fact he, cohen, in fact, will be cooperating both with sdny and with mueller and, in fact, he needs to do so because otherwise the crimes he pleaded to yesterday he just gets the full sheet and hes in front of a tough sentencer of five or six years. So i think we can expect a formal Cooperation Agreementthat hadnt been nailed down as of yesterday and we can expect him to go forward on both these conspiracy charges. Do you have any reporting on where a Cooperation Agreement stands . No different from what i reported yesterday which is talks between cohen and prosecutors, cohens attorney and prosecutors really only began the end of last week so this is just at the beginning. It feels like the guilty plea was the start, which seems to be backwards, but that is where they started and i dont think there is an update from yesterday. Cohen, from my sense, is still reeling from what happened yesterday. And very willing to cooperate. I mean, hes waiving his arms and saying pick me, pick me. Not only is he willing to cooperate. Lanny davis, his p. R. Attorney a good name. Been on television a million times since yesterday basically waving a red flag. Mueller, please call us. I got ask on morning joe, why not just go to mueller. Didnt really get a straight answer on that. They have phones. Heilman . There is no one ive paid attention to more than emily jane fox. Shes inside muellers head than any reporter. One of the things youve read, nothing about yesterday, as shocking as it was, is surprising. She said at the very top of the show. Michael cohen is throwing donald trump under the bus. Thats a colloquial way of putting it. If you read the art of the story, he came to understand as we saw yesterday, if he did not make some kind of deal, he could be in jail 40 years, right . Hes not going to go to jail for 40 years for donald trump. That sentence might be five years if he works out, this Cooperation Agreement gets settled, bob mueller eventually walks in in december when the sentencing come up, hes been helpful to us, id like to
recommend he has probation in six months. That is the game for him. How do i play this game out wait, wait, wait. So i dont have to go to jail at all. Its not just jail. This man is already in financial dire straits. Its hard for people to understand he lives a lavish lifestyle. He has been bleeding money for these attorneys for just the last couple of months. He has no clients. He is no longer a lawyer. Hes no longer Donald Trumps lawyer. He has no way of making money going forward. And so he is shelling out tens of Hundreds Of Thousands of dollars a month. Its not just about jail and its not just about him. He has a wife, he has two children and Young Children he has said this to me for the last six months that he has felt he has Collateral Damage and never has that been on public difficult play mo
display more than this week. Thank you for being here. The whisper goes to a roar after dramatic set backs. Will republic kanans finally gr spine . Donald trump has nothing but warm fuzzies for Paul Manafort who was convicted yet on eight of the charges got against him. Is a pardon next . Its not a beach town in italy, its what james comey had to say about the trump crew after first meeting them why hes more right now than ever. Be right back. With moderate to severe Crohns Disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. Is she alright . I hope so. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and Nervous System problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening Heart Failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. This wifi is fast. I know i know i know i know when did brian move back in . Brians back . He doesnt get my room. Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. This is a situation where a
court of the United States of america has accepted a guilty plea from someone who was the lawyer for the president of the United States, and that person in pleading guilty basically made very clear that it was the then candidate and now the president of the United States who directed him to commit a crime. This is a serious matter. Ive been here 11 1 2 years, and this is i dont think ive witnessed anything like ive witnessed over the last year and a half. Probably the American People havent in modern times. I feel like corker is desperate to scream. One of these days. Senators from both sides of the aisle in rare agreement these are historic times. In the wake of his former fixers guilty plea and his former Campaign Chairmans conviction, the Editorial Boards of the two largest papers paint trump as a crook. And even the wall street
journal Whose Editorial Parjs a pages are as editorial as they come, describe the news cycle like this. All of this reveals mr. Trump at his worst and shows why so many republicans had doubts about making him the partys nominee. Our friend Steve Schmidt was as always the most blunt writing, this means trumps presidency is not only illegitimate, but criminal. It means the president ial election was compromised by the most insidious criminal american in history. Trump is a traitor and putin determined the outcome. The Impeachment Bar has been reached. Joining us, University Professor and msnbc contributor. Joining the table, bill crystal, editor at large for the weekly standard. Eddie, let me start with you can you get yourself to the left of Steve Schmidt today . Oh, my goodness. Its hard. Ive been Walking Around for the last 24 hours with my mouth wide open trying to, trying to make sense of what happened
yesterday. As john said, it wasnt a surprise, but it made everything concrete. And so the question that we have to ask ourselves today is where is Mitch Mcconnell . Where is paul ryan . Were hearing the voices of Kamala Harris and corker, but where is the leadership of the Republican Party . And so we have to ask ourselves the question, will the Congress Actually perform its function . Or will they reveal that its not just simply the presidency that has been sullied, that the presidency has been deeply diminished, but congress itself has been diminished as well. I dont think theyre ever going to come out and say anything. If access hollywood didnt tip them over the edge, if people coming from bleephole countries didnt tip them, if all the examples of the president maligning and smearing the republicans running the Justice Department and the fbi havent tipped them over the edge, why would a guilty plea from a pretty shady fixer do it . I dont think it will in the short term im critical of the Congressional Republicans as anyone. I dont agree actually with steve and eddie on this. The Congressional Republicans have one important thing they need to do the next few months, protect mueller, protect the Justice Department, protect the investigation. I dont know if i could vote for impeachment on cohens plea. People who defend the rule of law must remember there is a will of law. Its not as clear as the rule of law. The key here im not trying to let the monkey off the back of the republican members. Theyve been terribly irresponsible and pathetic in not standing up to trump in many different ways. When impeachment comes, they have a serious responsibility to make sure the Justice Department continues to do the investigation unimpeded. Thats what they can do the next few months. I have a sense that the white house was more