Canceled it . On friday, the New York Times wrote the following. Quote, a senior white house official told reporters that even if the meeting were reinstated holding it on june 12 would be impossible given the lack of time needed. President Trump 1307bded on twitter with this false accusation. Quote, the failing the New York Times quotes a senior white house official who doesnt exist, use real people, not phony sources. The source was, in fact, a senior white house official speaking to a large group of reporters in the White House Briefing room. We journalists try as hard as we can to always identify our sources on the record so that we can tell you, our viewers, watchers, listeners, why you should trust our information. Sometimes we agree to allow people to speak anonymously. Well refer to that as talking on background. Nbc news does know the identity of this official, although were not identifying him because we agreed not to. We, however, do not invent people. If we did, we would and should
lose our jobs. But i digress. This is one small example of a phenomenon, really a strategy of President Trumps to undermine the press. Heres 60 minutes leslie stahl explaining a conversation she had with the president before he had taken office. At one point he started to attack the press. And i said, you know, that is getting tired. Why are you doing this . Youre doing it over and over and its boring and its time to end that. You know, youve won the nomination. And why do you keep hammering at this . And he said, you know why i do it . I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you. He said that. So, put that in your head for a minute. Indeed. So, what does this strategy, these attacks on the press and more importantly, the attacks on the credibility of the information that you are able to learn through the press . What does this strategy mean for our democracy . Consider what dan balls at the Washington Post wrote in this mornings paper. Quote, if the president s goal is to poison the reception to whatever bob muellers findings turn out to be, as seems evident from what he and his allies have done, he is making progress. Heres the president s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spelling it out even more clearly. Giuliani was asked if his comments about the Mueller Probe are part of an intentional strategy to undermine the Mueller Investigation. They are giving us the material to do it. Of course, we have to do it in defending the president. Were defending to a large extent remember, dana, were defending here, it is for Public Opinion because eventually the decision here is going to be impeach, not impeach. Remember the congress, democrat and republican are going to be informed a lot by their constituents. Our jury as it should be is the American People and the American People, yes, are republicans, largely, independents, pretty
substantially, and even some democrats now question the legitimacy of it. To impeach or not impeach. Id like to welcome my panel to talk more about this. White house correspondent for reuters jeff mason. Associate editor and columnist for real clear politics amy today art. Former Deputy Secretary Of Defense msnbc analyst evelyn. And former congresswoman of maryland, donna edwards. Thank you for coming in on this Memorial Day Weekend which has not the pace is not what were used to in the Trump Administration despite the holiday. Jeff, i want to start with you because as i understand it, you were in that Background Briefing at the white house this past week. Were you im not even sure i feel like i should ask if you were surprised this is a tact the president decided to take with regards to this. It is a little jarring for him to deny the existence of his own aide. It is jarring. I remember even very early on in his administration he would encourage or tweet or say reporters need to use sources with their names. I printed it out and hung it up in a Little Office that we work in behind the white house because so often white house officials who do speak to us very frequently White House Press officials speak to us, say i can tell you this on background, which as you identified to your viewers means not with attribution to their names. They do it all the time. We, of course, would also prefer to use names. It always makes the story stronger, makes the package stronger. But thats not always the rules they play by. You at one point ran the white house Correspondents Association. Weve been talking about this now several days. We were just showing Maggie Habermans tweet on screen, of course the New York Times reporter involved in this. What is the steps the Correspondents Association can take in a situation like this . That is a good question. I mean, i dont speak for the Correspondents Association any more, but i do think its important for reporters whether we are all covering the white house or covering other aspects of washington or other beats around the country to stand up
for truth, to call it out when Something Like this happens. In this case the president obviously saying something that is untrue. I think we can band together on that. And then as i repeated over and over again when i was president of the Correspondents Association, i think the best way we fight back is by doing good work. A. B. Todstodardt, we want it be about the things were writing. If we have sling ands arrows, thats part of the job. There has been a lot of republican criticism of the media over the decades. Newt gingrich, we were not a favorite of his. But this does seem to be different than the kind of criticism that oftentimes politicians have thrown at the media in the past. Well, leslie stall laid it out. President trump made it clear as a candidate. He made it very clear as the nominee. And then as President Elect and then as president that he is going to run against the media because it works. It works with his base. It works with even people who arent even really trump
supporters. Republicans who believe that the media is too liberal, is biased. And then independents which are skeptical of the whole process. And giuliani there was claiming oh, there are some democrats who feel this way too now. It is a very obvious strategy. Theyre not trying to hide it. Giuliani made it very clear he is not a Legal Counsel right now to the president. Hes playing his spokesman on tv basically about the Mueller Investigation whenever he can get the chance. And it makes trump happy and he fights back and says things like rigged and illegitimate and thats what hes doing. Hes making it very clear. Whats frightening obviously is that it works. And what dan balls is talking about today is just how much this has become sort of tribal gladiators and the way that trump and his spokesman and sort of the pro trump media and his members of sort of this group on the hill of members of congressmen who speak for him
trash anyone who defends bob mueller, hes brought his numbers way down to the point Republicans Dont Believe Anything Mueller will come up with. Im glad you brought up dans column. I have more i want to share. The gap between the jeff flakes of the Republican Party and what increasingly is a protrump majority is how the president has been successful shaping opinion ahead of whatever judgment is levelled by the Special Counsel and his team. Heres Majority Whip in the Senate John Cornyn talking with hugh hugh et about what the president has termed as spygate. Can you explain the difference between a, quote, confidential informant, close quote, and a spy . Well, you really cant. I mean, spies typically i think of in terms of foreign powers. But here, the fbi was involved in a Counter Intelligence investigation, i presume, and used somebody who had contacted
various subjects of their investigation to communicate back to the fbi what they found out. I guess for all practical purposes, for most people it wouldnt be any different. Donna edwards, im kind of going back in my head to that clip of Rudy Giuliani we showed at the top of the show where he said, look, this is going to come down to impeach or not impeach question. He was acknowledging at its core there is a legal framework, but impeachment is a political question. Democrats in your party have been saying they cant get ahead of the American Public. They need to let the investigation take its course, have the findings come out. And then perhaps if the political will is there, there might be a way to move forward. But it does seem as though the president and his team are swaying Public Opinion without much pushback necessarily from democrats. Whats your take . Well, without pushback from republicans either. And i think that part of whats happening fair. Its a onesided argument
because obviously bob mueller cant and wont come out and say, no, this is what were looking at, this is the direction were headed in. The president out there who is able to and i would say the press should stop using two and three Sill Balanyllable words at a lie. John cusack. Its much easier to understand, the public will get that. And the president has lied repeatedly because he has an intent to confuse the public. And i think by not calling it that, what happens is that the president is able to characterize things so that the American Public is confused and you can see that in some of this recent polling. But its a onesided argument. When bob mueller comes out with his final report as we all expect that he will, and more, perhaps more convictions, but certainly more indictments than then the public will have an opportunity. Republicans cannot continue to sit on the side line while the president really dismantles the
system. Evelyn parker . I agree with that. I spent seven years working for the Senate Arms Services committee, one of the most bipartisan committees in the senate probably on the hill. And, you know, we always believed that nobody has the right to their own facts. And you get the facts together as republicans and democrats. So, the other thing we saw earlier this week as you well know was this attempt to get facts just to republicans. Again, about the spygate thing to amp it up. Right. Youre talking about the meetings at the Department Of Justice and information that those republicans on the hill were asking for. Correct. And i mean, in and of itself meetings to get information, fine. But they should be bipartisan, especially when it is about an investigation of the executive branch. So, i think the biggest problem is this not calling a spade a spade. Certainly falsehood is okay, but lie is even better. And then bipartisan, the republicans need to speak out and defend the institutions, the truth and the process. We didnt even touch on either the fact that there were white house officials at the
beginning of those meetings who may or may not have had the right to see that information. Through all of this, of course, the president maintains that he and kim jongun could still meet for an historic summit in singapore on june 12. The president confirmed on twitter today that a team of u. S. Officials has arrived in north korea to, quote, make arrangements for the summit. And heres what the president had to say about it last night. A lot of people are working on it. Its moving along very nicely, so were looking at june 12th in singapore. That hasnt changed. And its moving along pretty well so well see what happens. Those comments came after a surprise meeting between kim jongun and south korean president moon jaein yesterday. Afterwards president moon said north Korea Remains committed to holding talks with President Trump and to completing the denuclearization of the peninsula. Evelyn, i want to get you to weigh in on this broadly, but
first, jeff mason, are you going to singapore on june 12, or are you staying home . Im so confused. The fact that the president last week so very clearly canceled the summit it was a letter. Not even the tweet. Later also in his remarks that day at the white house, he said, who knows, maybe it will still happen on june 12. Hes been leaving the door very wide open for that despite the very dramatic cancellation letter. He wants to go. He wants this to happen. And so, how did the letter evolve, then . Obviously somebody convinced him this is the right thing to do or is this another impulsive, im going to send this because i want them to know im willing to do it . I think they were responding to a comment marc made the night before and which well either meet you for a summit or a nuclear showdown. The president and others decided we cant have a meeting under these circumstances. But he still wants to go. And so the key question there is
whether or not they can agree ahead of time that denuclearization will be the outcome of that meeting. And that seems to be where the south koreans and the north koreans have discussed a little bit and what the u. S. , no doubt, is pushing for in advance. Evelyn, i want to give you the last word here. What is your i was honestly surprised at the way some of the comments in the wake of the cancellation of the summit broke down on capitol hill. I was up there talking to republicans and democrats. It actually seemed to be a pretty universal feeling that Going Forward with the summit, assuming that denuclearization is on the table, was really the right move. I mean, do you see an area where there is a Nobel Peace Prize in Donald Trumps future if he can pull this off . Well, i mean, in a very distant future because the north koreans as we know, their goal is not to denuclearize, to give up their Nuclear Weapons program. They say very clearly we want to denuclearize the peninsula and thats a whole nother ball of wax because that probably means removing u. S. Forces. It means more than Nuclear Things when you ask the north koreans face to face. Right. But its a process and this is the whole problem. Everyone is for a dialogue and a discussion basically opening a negotiation. And getting to some kind of freeze and then, sure, great. If one day we can get the north koreans to give up their Nuclear Weapons, fine. I think the president , this back and forth, isnt very helpful. First he got spooked, to answer the question you asked jeff, he got spooked by the north koreans not showing up for some Working Level meetings and i think he thought maybe theyre not going to show up at my meeting. Right. So this meeting between moon and kim the south korean and north korean leaders respectively was basically to test, okay, you guys are coming, right . Trump doesnt want to show up yes, i think there was also there were also comparisons that involved breaking up with the girl before she can break up with you. Anyway, of course we would be remiss if we did not note that the white house issued a Historic Coin for this event
featuring the likenesses of the president and kim jongun. The initial Coin Offering was 24. 95 on the White House Gift shop website. Now if you want one, you only have to pay 19. 95. So, not the strongest start for that commemorative decorative coin. Who knows. Maybe one day it will be worth a lot more than that. Anyway, just ahead, my exclusive interview with republican senator james lankford. We talk about whether the president s Favorite Spygate is a fair description. His answer is no, at least, not yet. And as we go to break, a State Of Emergency in maryland. This is dramatic video of brown waters rushing down main street as flash floods strike ellicott city, not that far from where we are here. Emergency rescue is underway. 13 miles from baltimore, it was devastated by similar flood waters in july of 2016. We are going to be watching this story. Our thoughts and prayers are with our neighbors. We will keep you updated on that. Kasie d. C. Is back after this. , stuck down here between your seat and your console, playing a little hidenseek. Cold. Warmer. Warmer. Ah boiling. Jackpot. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, you could be picking up these charges yourself. So get allstate, where agents help keep you protected from mayhem. Like me. Mayhem is everywhere. Are you in good hands . Powerful skincare,s now lightasair a Breakthrough Moisturizer whipped for Instant Absorption feel a lightasair finish in a flash new olay whips ageless
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