Speech that played like an extended airing of grievances. He mocked the media and the democratic party. Congresswoman Maxine Waters and senator john mccain and gorge h. W. Bush. The democratic senator and possible 2020 candidate, Elizabeth Warren and the me too movement. Say im debating poke hopt as. I promise you i will do this. You know the kits they sell on television for 2 . Learn your heritage. In the middle of the debate when she proclaims he is of Indian Heritage because her mother said she has high cleek bones. We will take that kit and we have to do it gently because we are in the me too generation. We have to be very gentle. We will gently take that kit and slowly toss it, hoping it doesnt hit her and injury her arm. We will say i will give you a Million Dollars to your Favorite Charity paid for by trump if you take the test and it shows you are an indian. Ahead of his trip to europe, trump took aim at American Allies vowing to demand more money from nato countries. I will see nato and tell nato, you have to start paying your bills. The United States is not going to take care of everything. They kill us with nato. They kill us. Germany pays 1 . 1 . And i said you know, angela, i cant guarantee it, but we are protecting and you it means a lot more to you than protecting us. I dont know how much we get for protecting you. They want to protect against russia, but pay billions to russia and we are the shmucks paying for the whole thing. There was no criticism when the topic turned to Vladimir Putin. Im meeting with president putin next week. They are going will President Trump be prepared, you know, president putin is kgb and this and that. You know what. Putin is fine. Hes fine. Were all fine. Were people. Trump also making no mention of Scott Pruitts ouster from the epa. According to the New York Times reporter it may not have been far from his mind. Trumps propertiation at the montana rally was steeped in grievance. People close to him believe he was angry about having to fire pruitt and lashed out at everyone except putin in his remarks. White house reporter from Bloomberg News and republican strategist. A democratic strategist. Shannon, to you first. A lot of what we heard from trump, its like the musician playing the greatest hits. These are the themes he has been pressing since a couple of years ago. There were some of the parts an extra edge to it. It was about pruitt . He mentioned he was in montana. The senator running for reelection and responsible for what happened with jackson. What do you think contributed to what we saw last night . We are starting to really see a shift towards Campaign Trump. This was obviously a campaign rally. He said he was there to hurt john testers reelection bid because he plames tester for the failed nomination of ronnie jackson. The Trump Campaign is off to a start. They are raising money and organizing rallies and they are more and more frequent. They are starting to test themes for 2020. I have been told he uses the rallies to see how crowds reaction. The Elizabeth Warren remark was testing out the crowd. This is Campaign Trump and what we saw on the campaign and he became a bit more president ial for a while talking about economic and tax plan and health care issues, but now we are definitely switching more to attack mode and campaign mode. What are did you make of this and not the first time hes gone after Elizabeth Warren. Is he trying to bait democrats and think this is the opponent he wants and trying to elevate her . What did you make of that . He has been attacking Elizabeth Warren for quite a while now. To the point made earlier, he gets instant gratification and reaction to that line of attack. For one thing, i think he uses the rallies to test run the divicive material and newest set of lies. The rallies are also used as a form of distraction. The things that donald trump is dumb. Donald trump is very strategic. He is not intellectually curious, but he knows how to push buttons and the buttons of his supporter who is we saw were eating up everything he said. Every vicious attack and offensive statement and new lie. They ate it up. Instant gratification and reaction. He knows what materials work best. I think he believes that his base is enough. If he can get his base out and keep them energized and riled up and continue to distract them from the fact that his policies are hurting many of them, he thinks thats his path to victory. In terms of the midterms, we have seen the energies there. I dont think there is any question. The question is will it be matched on the republican side or not. We have seen a lot of indications in the special elections and a lot of places it can be missing. Can he go out there and give speeches like this in the fall. Provoke reactions from democrats and pick targets like Elizabeth Warren and it will the attitude, me against the media. Me against the world. Me against the democrats. Could that get comparable energy . We have to go back and look at his Approval Ratings in the Republican Party. At 90 . No one is saying the reality is that the Republican Party shrank since he became president. Only the people who really love donald trump is staying. There is a reckoning am can be for the Republican Party. Its in the form of women. When we went off on me, too, that i was a fatal error. That attacks from wall street to main street and liberal and conservative. Republicans have always had a gender gap problem. We run for a midterm and its d plus 7 with women. Now we see poll where is its d plus 12. D plus 25 with women in quinnipiac. My pair went on fire. A lot of people tune out what he says and say its trump being trump, but when he hits me, too, my god. Democrats were smiling and popping champagne corks. I got asked and im asking because of what we watched in 2017. After the revelations of the access hollywood tape, democrats are popping the cork. I cant believe what the gap is going to be like with women right now. He did get elected. Is there a possibility we are missing something . There is not in my mind. We are seeing for the evidence, special elections in 2017 and 2018 as well as 2017. Look at what happened in virginia. How people organized. The womens march was the most dangerous thing to the Republican Party. It was the equivalent of the 53 party at the ballot box. We are seeing women independently organized. They might have the host of problems, but the grass rights organizations with the Virginia House of delegates. We are not winning as a party. There is a demographic problem. They have not addressed womens concerns and the one key group we are losing are the group we used to get the majority in the house and season. White married suburban women with kids. They are turning on trump and saying he is disgusting and his behavior is vile and time we make a change. There are 25 where republicans represent them and they voted for clinton and the line where they need 23 if you get the house. Thats a big place they will be looking. Trumps comments came on the same day that his white house announced the hiring of bill shine as the new assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff. The New York Times is describing the former copresident as well regarded for his ratings success for a news executive and carries the weight of accusations that he helped cover up scandals at the network. Shine was forced out over the handling of the scandals. The impetus to bring him into the white house. The role he is going to play and how this looks. What was the thinking in the white house . President trump really showed over and over again he doesnt concern himself too much with accusations about Sexual Misconduct by anyone from roger ales, bill oreilly who he defended. Rob porter and the staff secretary accused of domestic abuse. He was turning on rob porter. These allegations of abuse, there is never anything that stuck with the president that caused him to turn his opinion on anyone. Bill shine has been someone out there whose name has been around for a while as a possible Communications Director for him. Shaun h sean hannity worked out a deal to bring him on. What can he do for me and my administration, not the accusations that in the past with anyone else that never carried any weight. We are four months from today is Midterm Election day. The democrats need a net gain of 23 to pick up the house. You heard about the gender gap and we were talking about this thing and what trump says about me, too. We are looking at the districts that clinton won and democrats are targeting. Is this at a point if democrats dont win this thing in november, would that be a crisis for the party . I dont think so. I think there is a ton of energy out there. I worked in one of the districts being targeted. I worked on a campaign. Amongst suburban white women, there is a new kind of newfound angst around trump and a newfound concern around trump. The fact that he had all these people on his team who have been engaged in Sexual Assault and he himself has been accused by multiple women. The access hollywood tape, bill shine, all of this swirling around him is problematic. He has shown no interest in doing anything to address the issue. Instead he is embracing it by bringing people around him who covered up Sexual Assault or committed it. Thats not lost on voters and not lost on women, especially in the districts. Women in these affluent suburban districts are embarrassed by his behavior. Even those who lean to the right are embarrassed. It is manifesting itself in activism. New jersey, pennsylvania, northern california. We have the board fired up. We are talking about the exact question. Is that the difference for democrats. The suburban women in places like that. Thank you all for joining us. Coming up, President Trumps former fixer, Michael Cohen hires long time ally lanny davis as his new reporting. He no longer thinks the president has his back. 72 hours until President Trump announces his Supreme Court pick. Who is the frontrunner in the announcement . How is this for international diplomacy. President trump giving as a gift to kim jong un a cd of elton johns rocket man all while arguing that Vladimir Putin is just fine. Plenty more to get to with the round table. Where the is action is. Ngs like concert tickets or a new snowboard. Matt whoo whoo jen but that all changed when we bought a house. Matt voila jen matt started turning into his dad. Matt mm. Thats some good mulch. Im awake. But it was pretty nifty when jen showed me how easy it was to protect our home and auto with progressive. [ wrapper crinkling ] get this butterscotch out of here. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents. Theres quite a bit of work, cause this was all this was all stapled. But we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. But we can protect your home and auto the winter of 77. Uring i first met james in 5th grade. We got married after college. And had twin boys. But then one night, a truck didnt stop. But thanks to our forester, neither did our story. And thats why well always drive a subaru. Government lawyers told the federal judge they are unable to locate the parents of almost half the Migrant Children under the age of five. Parents of 19 of those children have been released into the u. S. And the whereabouts are unknown. Government lawyers are asking the judge to extend the deadline. The judge said he will consider doing that if the government will produce a complete list of all those children and the status of their parents by monday morning. Well be right back. [music playing] vo progress is in the pursuit. Audi will cover your first months lease payment on select models during summer of audi sales event. With i get rewarded explowherever i go. Going out for a bite. Rewarded going new places. Rewarded learn more at theexplorercard. Com i always liked michael. I havent spoken to him in a long time. Is he still your lawyer . Hes not my lawyer. Are you worried he is going to cooperate . No because i did nothing wrong. He said Michael Cohen, his long time attorney and fixer was no longer representing him. Cohen tries to cut any appearance of ties to trump and hired attorney lainy davis, an ardent clinton loyalist. Davis saying that cohen deserves to tell his side of the story. The New York Times reports that cohen told allies he no longer wants to be the villain in mr. Trumps behavior. He is reporting that last week cohen said he did not believe trump would wipe his slate clean using the president ial pardon. His mind set is of someone operating under the assumption he is not getting that. Joined now by paul butler and legal analyst, political reporter with the New York Times. Ken, let me start with you. I think the name lanny davis is someone who has been around for a while. We know him as a clinton loyalist. A lobbyist and has come under criticism for activity there. Talk about who lanny davis is and what he could potentially do with somebody like Michael Cohen. Lanny davis is a real expert, steve. And navigating the washington scandal culture and the media political culture. He has done that going back to bill clinton and his impeachment scandal and more recently with others and has shown he doesnt necessarily have ideological rigidity that keeps him from working with folks on the other side or clients that may not fit with what one might consider a Traditional Democratic capital d sensibility. He is currently lobbying for a check defense contractor and in that capacity he is invited steve bannon, the former white house adviser to debate at a Forum Sponsored by this contractor and interestingly, steve bannon when he was in the white house and trying to advise donald trump on how to navigate the then unfolding mueller probe, he reached out to lanny davis to pick his brain about it. Lanny davis is a recognized expert and who has shown a willingness to work with people who are not necessarily on his partisan team. I think its an interesting question. The activity Michael Cohen has been under taking here in public recently, the abc news interview, changing his social media profile and now with lanny davis, i think there is a question about whether there is about a legal strategy or a public image strategy. Do you read lanny davis as somebody who can help him navigate the court of Public Opinion or the court of law more . So both. Lanny davis is kind of like Rudy Giuliani in that he can go into a full on attack dog mode. He loves to go on tv and defend his client. He could be that lawyer for Michael Cohen the way giuliani is for the president , but he has mad skills. Mad department of lab mad legal skills the way we havent seen from giuliani. Michael cohen claps back on President Trump. You see him ghost the president on social media. We hear him say his loyalty is to his family and country and not President Trump. He is either really sending a message to the president. Yo, if you are going to pardon me, you better do it fast and quick and in a hurry. More likely he is sending Smoke Signals to special counsel mueller, im ready to talk if you are. Give me a ring. The issue hereof lanny davis being so close to the clintons, in his latest book he argues that the fbis actions in 2016 effectively robbed Hillary Clinton of victory. An appearance on hardball, Julie Giuliani received leaks used to pressure james comey to reopen the investigation of clintons email, something he did days before the election. Lets watch. Fact, on the 25th of october, days before the comey letter, mr. Giuliani went on television and said ha ha, this is fox, somethings coming. On october 28th in the morning before the letter was written, he went on the huy hewlett show saying i heard from former and active agents something bad is coming. Giuliani and many of the agents have been identified as leaking to pressure james comey to reopen an investigation that turned out to be a nothing burger. What do you know about the state of his relationship with the clintons right now. With Hillary Clinton. Is it still close or the sort of thing he would discuss with them or cleared with them at all . Any sense of that . Not necessarily whether he would clear his potential representation of Michael Cohen with them, but the argument you heard him making. He wrote a book about the argument of comey the election for donald trump. Thats he did talk with the clintons about and the clintons told their allies they believe in. To the extent that he is still seen as a clinton surrogate or at least an ally, that could be helpful for Michael Cohen. You have Michael Cohen trying to shift the narrative about himself now to distance himself from trump and to establish himself as sort of an independent figure in this narrative that who could be one who democrats or trump opponents might want to support having lanny davis on board could help facilitate that support at least in the court of Public Opinion. If i could add to that, its true that in the courtroom, lanny davis is a hired god. He will work with whatever client he thinks deserves his services. In the political realm, he is a big democrat. I dont think he needs this case. 72 years old and doing well. This may be part of his political agenda and thinks that President Trump stole the election from Hillary Clinton. He and hillary are besties at beast when it comes to politics. I think he is interested in how his new client, Michael Cohen, can help mueller make the case against trump. Just to remind everybody, the russian steele dossier, Michael Cohen is the star. Hes the key to collusion. He was the link between the Trump Organization and the russians. If there is a story to tell about collusion and trump, Michael Cohen is the person to tell it. We will see how it plays out. Thanks to both of you. And up next, we are days away from President Trumps announcement on his next nominee for the Supreme Court. He said it will reject judicial activism. What does that mean for row v wade and the constitution. With my bladder leakage, the products ive tried just didnt fit right. They were very saggy. From President Trumps . But with new sizes, depend fitflex is made for me. Introducing more sizes for better comfort. New depend fitflex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. Ive been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. Theres a lot of innovation that goes into making americas 1 shave. Precision machinery and highquality materials from around the world. Nobody else even comes close. Now starting at 7. 99. Gillette. The best a man can get. Welcome back to hardball. President trump is set to announce his Supreme Court pick on monday night. The president who prides himself on building suspense teased the grand reveal last night. As you know there is now a vacancy on the Supreme Court. And if you turn in monday at 9 00, i think you will be extremely happy. A source close to the president said that the president wants to maximize television exposure, warping against leaks because he wants to be the person who discloses the picks. That hasnt stopped the speculation. Many outlets reported that the three most serious contenders are brett kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. It is likely to revolve around the issue of abortion. They are working their way through lower courts right now. According to nbc news, no nominee said what their position is, but their use of coded language sends a signal on where they stand. Both kavanaugh and barrett sent the signals to those who want to overturn roe v. Wade. Senior Political Writer for the washington post. Its interesting. Like the most extreme example in the hearings, it was david suitor who claim heed never thought about abortion in his life. You are saying two of the picks have used code language on this. Activists recognize that seems particularly significant given that Susan Collins said she is not automatic a yes for trumps pick. Who are the nominees you are talking about and what is the code language . Right. So roe will be the threshold because Susan Collins said as such. At the same time you point out, many nominees have been keiji about it dating back to Robert Bourque when his nomination was torpedoed by womens Rights Groups and consultants have trained them not to answer the question. What we found is there is a good way to read some of this language that lines up with the same language that activist groups for pro life organizations use like the Susan B Anthony foundation and right to life foundation. What i found was that two out of the three, kavanaugh and barrett used those code words. There are only a handful. Is referring to roe as o portion on demand. We have a number of restrictions and states on abortion past 20 weeks. If you are calling our current laws on abortion, abortion on demand, you are referring to taking away the exceptions for the life of the mother. The second one and thats used by both kavanaugh and barrett. When you refer to someone as a strict constitutionalist, that is almost always im told by impartial constitutional observers, a reference to roe v. Wade because there is Nothing Specific in the Fourth Amendment on privacy related to abortion. Brett kavanaugh said specifically that the constitution should be read explicitly and the text matters. That is viewed by many in the pro Choice Community as a code word as well. The pro choice folks saying they see no signals either way from the third name . Kethledge is not on the record and we scrubbed the records. As far as we can tell he has not given a speech like barrett did on the 40th anniversary of roe where she made rrchss to abortion on demand and talked about the states have no role anymore and disparaging and talking about that in a disparaging tone. We didnt see that. I think thats why he is considered by some members to be the safer choice. He doesnt have the same record as either kavanaugh or barrett. If you are looking at republicans and mccain is sidelined and sitting on 50 votes and roe is fundamental to her choice, is that potentially advantage kethledge . It could be the case. I think kethledge is the that would mitigate the roe v. Wade attacks in the confirmation hearings. We are talking about code language here. These nominees will be coached on the way they should answer the questions during the confirmation hearings. We talk about someone like Susan Collins saying she wont vote for someone who is hostile for roe v. Wade. They have used these code words and have weighed in to some degree like john roberts and neal gorsuch. Unless there is a moment in these confirmation hearings that makes clear the nominees are going to vote against roe v. Wade, if you are Susan Collins, are you going to be the one who votes against republicans getting a 54 majority . Thats a difficult vote even if we are talking about a moderate from maine. Is there an indication the politicking we are seeing whether its democrats, we saw democrats at least early on a couple days ago going after barrett and conservative groups have different favorites much they have been putting the word out. Is there any indication that it swayed the white house or swayed the president in his deliberations . Its hard to say because i think there was at first a little bit of a conservative backlash against judge kavanaugh who has authored obamacare decisions that conservatives have issues with. Senator rand paul has apparently expressed reservations about kavanaugh. If he were to followthrough and vote against him, that would imperil the nomination in a way that goes beyond just Susan CollinsAmy Coney Barrett is the favorite of social conservatives, but she got push backs because of a lack of record on the bench. There is not enough of a track record to trust what she would do on the Supreme Court. If you are raymond kethledge, you are looking at the other two and liking the fact that you are the guy who is sitting back and hasnt really seen fit to irritate anyone through the process. Maybe hes the guy the president will go with, knowing its not the who will irritate either portion of his base, either the establishment or social conservatives. We are about three days of knowing who the nominee will be and the real fight will begin. Thank you both for joining us. Up next, President Trump is purchasing the reset button with americas traditional standing on the world stage, antagonizing allies and aligning himself with adversaries. We will tackle that next. You are watching hardball. Out of nowhere. S os you do, too, but not in time. Hey, no big deal. Youve got a good record and Liberty Mutual wont hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. You hear that, karen . Liberty mutual doesnt hold grudges. How mature of them for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Alright guys lets go lets do this. Okay you gotta be kidding me. Hold on, dont worry, theres another way. Directions to the greek theater. beep can i get a connection . Can i get can i get a connection . Ohhh can i get a connection . Trying find the old me welcome back to hardball. Secretary of state mike pompeo is back in pyongyang meeting with north korea officials to work out details to the agreement signed by President Trump and kim jong un last month. South korea media is saying they plan to present him with an elton john cd with the song rocket man, the nickname he gave kim jong un last year as tensions were running high between the two countries. They have not confirmed that report. Meanwhile, President Trump larked out against our nato allies about delivering raise to russian president Vladimir Putin. Im going to tell nato, you have to start paying your bills. The United States is not going to take care of everything. They are going will President Trump be prepared, you know, president putin is kgb and this and that. You know what, putin is fine. Hes fine. We are all fine. Were people. Joined now by the round table. Foreign Affairs Analyst and Business Insider politics reporter and Associated PressWhite House Reporter and msnbc political analyst. Putin is fine. Dont worry. We should be trying to get along. That message that he has been saying for a long time. All the questions swirling around. What could come out of this meeting . The reason we dont know is he hasnt said what he wants from putin nor has putin articulated what he wants from the meeting. Unlike the summit in singapore where the bar was set too high. Denuclearization or bust. Here there is no bar. We dont know what he is going ask from from putin or what putin is asking from trump. This could be much a do about nothing. Frankly thats the way trump summits tend to go. For a couple of years now, traditionalal traditionally, he gets as close as possible to nato allies and in a situation like this, there is a lot of tension there. It seems reverse and this is something that he wants to reverse the postures and relationships. Trump is doing putins job for him. Putins main Foreign Policy goals are two things. For the rest of the world to recognize he annexed crimea. We saw reports he wanted to recognize that russia annexed crimea and he said he was open to discussing that with putin and most recently we saw during not only his rally, but also during the g7 summit last month when he indicated that these u. S. Allies are not paying their fair share and doing what they should be doing. Hes alienating the u. S. s closest allies like canada and germany and france is and cozying up to putin. Its mind blowing. Classic bully boy behavior from the school yard. You take your friends for granted because you think they need you and you can kick them around, but you look at the other bully and you say that guy i admire. This is the pattern with trump. Hes not making this up. He genuinely likes and admires Vladimir Putin. He said it long before he was running for president. At the least we cant accuse him of sort of basically leading us the wrong way. This is a what you see is what you get situation. You will be on this trip next week. What is the mood around the white house when it comes to preparation and comes to expectations . You have the president saying dont worry. I have been prepared for this my whole life. What are you hearing around trump . The president has never been fond of lengthy briefing books or extensive study. He goes with his gut. The way he views policy is personal rapport with the other leader. He is desperate to have a Good Relationship with Vladimir Putin and believes its in americas interest to do so. Other questions about what his motivations might be. He is not shy about up ending the natural order. Lets remember what he did in nato a year ago. He went into the headquarters in brussels and talked about how much it costs and not nearly enough, they were contributing to defense. We saw him at the g7 leave with fay twitter storm against Justin Trudeau and withdrawing his name from it. Its the timing of this week that is so unnerved a lot of traditional American Allies. He will start in nato which likely will be a tense meeting and head to the uk where the protests are so great, they are keeping it out of london in the countryside where he wont see as much demonstrations. After a weekend of golf, he goes to held sisinki to meet putin a they are looking at what he might give away then. The stuff he said in the campaign, there is this posture on the world stage and reversal of what we have been used to. There is at least among his base an appetite for this. Its interesting because trump is a republican president. Republicans have traditionalally been hawkish on russia. Republican lawmakers expressed concerns about trumps affinity towards the russian leader and liking towards putin. Its very fascinating this kind of shift, this evolution we have seen not just with trump, but among his base also. It is striking and you go back a few years ago, it was the initiative of the Obama Administration and crimea happens and the 2016 election and there has been a reversal here. Its not unusual for a president to shake hands with bad guys. Lets not forget. Richard nixon went and shook hands with chairman m mao. Mix on went and he read those agenda papers copiously and went with the clear agenda of what he wanted from the meeting. He didnt feel compelled to say mao is a terrific guy and misunderstood and his people love him. None of that stuff. The thing with trump is there is a lot of this egregious lack of preparation. Thats frightening enough as it is. Afterwards there seems to be the egregious need to say nice things about unpleasant people. The other thing nixon didnt have to worry about that our allies wouldnt have his back. Trump is going in with our allies saying i have breaking news tonight out of thailand. Just moments ago a rescue operation has begun to rescue the 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in the cave for more than two weeks now. Joining me from thailand janice has been covering the storiment tell us more about the developments. They went in to start this rescue operation about 45 minutes ago around 10 00 a. M. Local time. 13 International Divers along with five thai navy s. E. A. L. S. They picked the best from the team to get the operation under way. The governor confirming that they are not going to be out until about 9 00 p. M. Local time tonight. This is an 11hour operation. The journey which is about miles through tunnels and chambers clamoring over bolders takes skilled divers about hours to do. They call it a buddy diving system where each boy is tethered to a skilled diver and pulled them through and pushes them through to make sure the child can make it through the really tough spots. The ones that are requiring a bit of diving for their heads to actually go under the water. A lot of this journey is actually walkable now. Apparently right into the three chambers. They feel like the conditions were never going to be better than they are right now. The water level is down and the rain is holding off, but there is this threat that its going to get heavy in the next couple of days. They made the decision to make the move now. And janice, you said this is going to take about nine hours for the operation . Its going to take about 11 hours. This is what they figure. With the skilled divers taking six hours to do the journey and these are professionals with each of them having a boy tethered to them, they expect it will take much longer. This is a pain staking process as well, but the boys are ready for it. They were informed this morning that the rescue was going to happen. They were ready and we are ready to come out. The families were informed and medical teams are on stand by. They have been rehearsing for this for the last three days and say the medical teams are 100 ready to deal with these boys when they do come out. We have to remember they have been in the dark for 16 days now. They are going need certainly hes your home and auto man big jim, hes got you covered great big jim, there aint no other so, this is covered, right . Yes, maam. Take care of it for you right now. Giddyup hi this is jamie. We need some help. The winter of 77. Uring i first met james in 5th grade. We got married after college. And had twin boys. But then one night, a truck didnt stop. But thanks to our forester, neither did our story. And thats why well always drive a subaru. We have many options for venezuela. This is our neighbor. Were all over the world and we have troops all over the world in places that are very, very far away. Venezuela is not very far away and the people are suffering and theyre dying. We have many options for venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary. Welcome back to hardball. That was President Trump last summer floating the idea of a military option in response to the political unrest in venezuela. As the Associated Press points out at the time, the public remarks were initially dismissed in u. S. Policy circles, but according to the a. P. The day before those remarks, trump, quote, turned to his top aides and asked an unsettling question. With venezuela threatening Regional Security why cant the u. S. Simply invade the troubled country . He also raised the issue with the colombian president. He discussed the military option in september with four latin american leaders reportedly leading off the conversation saying my staff told me not to say this. Trump campaigned on a no stupid wars platform during the 2016 campaign. Remember this . Youre tired of the reckless Foreign Policy, the crazy wars that are never won. We will abandon the policy of reckless regime change. My Foreign Policy will emphasize diplomacy, not destruction. We are back with our round table, bobby and jonathan. This was a year ago. Were getting new reporting on it now. What do we know about whats happened between a year ago and now . Is this something that just died in the white house . Has he talked about it again, is it a theme hes returned to . I was at bedminster when i brought it up. At the time it seemed to come out of nowhere. We in the press core were like, what . It was reported out very well. This is something he brought up before. It is not something he has focused on since. Lets remember when this happened, last august, at the height of the fire and fury, the harsh rhetoric with north korea. There is a sense he was looking at military options then, feeling the bluster of the United States armed forces and he was sort of floating this idea as possible. According to our reporting, we dont expect this is not something he was actively pursuing since people around the president talked about it. Sir, this is a bad idea. You havent thought through the destabilizing connecticut kwenss if you were to do this. The situation in venezuela now versus then, what can we say about it . The situation in venezuela, its a world class snafu. Its a bad place. You have an absolute tyrant of a leader who messes around with the political opposition. They conducted an absolute farce of an election. Potentially one of the rich est countries giving the smallest amount of oil which that country is sitting but so badly managed and corrupt it is one of the poorest countries in all kinds of social and economic indices. The situation is really, really desperate. But war is not an answer to that. Venezuela does not directly threaten the threat of the security of the United States. I cant imagine any of the latin american leaders with whom the president spoke would have approved of such an idea. Im sure they would have been horrified to hear that the american president was even thinking about such and quickly, that was 2016 trump saying iraq was the stupid est decision the country made. Setting aside the fact trump has pretty much gone back about everything he said about not being a war monger, that was the biggest thing he criticized hillary on. He said bush took us to war and Hillary Clinton is going to do it again so im your best bet and thats why you should vote for me. Setting aside he said that, its important to emphasize the fact bobby said they are issues are political and economic, not solved by military invasion. Its hard to figure out what trump was thinking when he floated that idea in the first place. Okay. A little more contest we learn from reporting this week, looks a little different now with what we know. The round table staying with us. These three will tell me something i dont know. Not a hard job at all. Youre watching hardball. Thanks for the ridealong, captain ive never been in one of these before, even though geico has been ohhh. Ooh ohh here we go, here we go. You got cut off there, what were you saying . Oooo. Oh no no. Maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years . Is that what you wanted to say . Mhmmm. I have to say, you seemed a lot chattier on tv. Geico. Proudly serving the military for over 75 years. You ok back there, buddy . And were back with the hardball round table. Bobby, tell me something i dont know. In london trump skips the golf and goes as a grand gesture, goes to moscow next sunday to watch the World Cup Final with Vladimir Putin as his guest. If that is true, then you have the prospect of russia being in the final against a nato country and the president of the United States rooting for russia, sitting next to putin. If youre thinking about political symbolism, it doesnt get sonam. Russia is loving all the hullabaloo around the nato summit and the putin meeting. They have largely driven this story from the beginning because of the lack of transparapet si from the white house. Well see if that continues through the summit. Were looking at the cabinet, who is up, who is down. Mattis was seen as the most influential. These days trump is turning him out more. Its pompeo if he gets north korea done. Interesting. Jonathan on his way overseas. That is hardball for now. Thanks for being with us. Chris mathews will be back monday. We are covering several stories tonight hours after donald trump attacked the me too movement in a bizarre and very negative exchange at that rally. Im going to speak tonight exclusively with a woman who accused donald trump of Sexual Misconduct during the 2016 campaign and how shes involved in politics today. Also the scott pruitt ousting was important, but thats not the only problem in the trump cabinet. I bring to you tonight a special report with a new look at another embattled trump cabinet member, betsy devos. Also an important update on a significant story that we brought you here last night on the beat. The trump