What ive been telling audiences for a very long time and unfortunately youve had to hear me talk about time and time again how one party gets elected, they overreach and then it actually helps the party that has just been defeated. Donald trump obviously did well because he had a lot of the countrys eyes and ears during the state of the Union Address, even though it was a rambling as though the wall street journal said, this jigjag sort of thing, but he had his Closing Argument, just like in el paso, he had a Closing Argument and the closing argue monment was mp of mistakes, unforced errors the democrats already made, you can talk about the botched forecast for the green deal, can you talk about whats going on in virginia, the blackface controversies there, the lateterm abortion celebrations, the new york legislature. You can talk about a lot of these Different Things that, give again, a reason to say dont look at the mistakes ive made, im here to protect you from the extreme democrats. I know of what i speak because bill clinton got elected in 1992 with 43 of the vote. People like me got elected in 1994. We immediately went too far right and what did we do . We reelected bill clinton. And ive said time and time again bush won in 2004, they talked about a permanent republican majority, two years later, nancy pelosi elected speaker of the house. It was supposed to be an ascendent majority. People said you overreached. The tea party. The tea party overreached, barack obama was reelected, two years later, donald trump was elected. Democrats get elected, have only been there for two months and theyve already given donald trump his Closing Argument for the 2020 campaign. Now, listen, im not telling democrats to be what they are not, mika. I am just going to repeat what i said before yesterday and that is before you hold a press conference, before you put your talking points up on your office thing, before you say anything that you think is going to be controversial, ask yourself a question, wwnd what would nancy do . Because she has already proven she knows how to defeat donald trump. There are a lot of Young Democrats that havent even been in congress for two months, and they are offering donald trump way too much fodder. Yes, hes a hypocrite. Yes, hes a racist. Yes, he is all the things that we say he is every single day, but unlike us and 94 republicans, we had newt to go to and his ideas were crazier than ours. They have somebody who knows how to went and put to the the largest majority since watergate and somebody who knows how to beat donald trump. Democrats cant afford any more unforced errors because all they are doing is making the once unthinkable now possible and that is the election of donald trump in 2020. Theyve got to play smarter. And with that analysis, we now follow the news. There are two tracks here. A federal court ruling last night finds that Paul Manafort intentionally lied to the Mueller Investigation about contacts with an operative linked to russian intelligence, who manafort had an inperson meeting with while he was still serving as Donald TrumpsCampaign Chairman in august of 2016. District judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that manafort meant to lie on at least three issues and that federal prosecutors are no longer bound by their deal to recommend a lighter sentence for the 69yearold manafort. The judges written order states that manafort made multiple false statements about his interactions and communications with Constantine Kilimnik, who the fbi has linked to russian intelligence. The judge also ruled that manafort lied to the fbi, the special counsels office and the mueller grand jury regarding payments made by an identified firm, firm a, to a law firm that, the matter was material to their investigation, along with false statements in october of last year that were material to another d. O. J. Investigation. The judge said prosecutors failed to show that manafort lied in two other instances. This new rule cog affect the severity of punishment for Paul Manafort. He is scheduled to be sentenced on march 13th. The level of stupidity is unbelievable, but this is a big, big step in the Mueller Probe, a big win for bob mueller. A big step in the probe. Jeremy, i just have to ask you and im not being facetious here or not trying to be funny in the least, but how in the world can these people be so stupid . How can they be so dumb . Rick gates proffers, makes a deal, proffers, lies, gets caught. Paul manafort makes a deal, proffers, lies. I mean, all of these people lie. They all lie to bob mueller and they all get caught. I feel like singing where have all the flowers gone . When will they ever learn . Youre not going to be able to slip anything past this guy. Whats it mean for the overall case . When you have an enormous secret, joe, you may engage in extreme stupidity to cover it up. Thats what appears to be going on here. Manafort had a chance to really reduce his sentence after he was convicted and pled guilty. There are only two tickets out of prison when youve pled getty, one is to work with cooperators and be truthful and the other path is a pardon. In some respects manafort was digging in here, hopefully telegraphing to the commander in chief, the president , his buddy, the fact that hes holding firm and a pardon should be coming his way. The big question is why were they covering up this along between Constantine Kilimnik and the trumpcampaign. What is it that would make them engage not just in stupidity but reckless conduct . So why did they . I think they were covering up the ties to the russian federation. And they didnt want it exposed to bob mueller. Theres no other explanation. And those ties, katty kay, why would the conclusion necessarily be a focus of donald trump . I think for donald trump it always comes down to money. Could it be that this was all about money and nothing about anything else that mueller is looking into . Well, we know that hes had business dealings and was trying to get trump tower off the ground in 2016. There was one specific business negotiation with the russians that was going on. Investigations are also looking into reports of whether he had money that was lent him by the russians at a time when he couldnt get money from other u. S. Bangs ks in order to fund businesses. Thats all under investigation. The key is why in august of 2016 did Paul Manafort and rk gatick Santorum Rick gates sit down with kilimnik . And that would start to fit the pieces of a quid pro quo. We dont know exactly what was discussed at that august meeting. Youve just come out of the convention, the Republican Convention has softened the platform when it came to russia over ukraine and then you have this meeting with a russian operative talking potentially about ukraine and lifting sanctions and some sort of peace deal. The pits of tbits of the puzzle fitting together. Weep just dont have a we just dont have all the pieces yet. Its very interesting where donald trump and the Republican Party have added 2 trillion to the national debt. This news from usa today with all the forfeitiefeitureforfeitr probe may be turning a profit. Every bit will help to get us back to some sort of fiscal sanity. I think what katty was talking about seems to be the most logical respiration of what was going on here. And the inappropriateness of manafort in the middle of the came in 2016 off trying to do either his own business with the ukraine or somebody elses business, who knows, but its obviously just another example of the tawdry behavior that went on in the Trump Campaign even before he was elected. Manafort did owe a lot of money to individuals in ukraine and its possible all of this was to get himself off the hook. By the way, happy valentines day. Thank you, joe. The red sox probably had the worst opening day of pitchers and catchers reporting that weve ever had. Obviously its the second day of the title defense. Ive already panic stricken. You have to be a red sox fan near death to get a happy valentines day, i guess. Im very panicked. But donald trump not as panicked this week, not only because of his poll numbers but also chairman burr came out and said he didnt see collusion. You have to weigh this with the manafort news. What is the current environment inside the white house regarding the investigation, manafort, mueller, collusion. I know the president has been upset obviously over the past several months and hard to control. What about now . First of all, the special counsel is an unlikely growth industry that were seeing for the american economy. So i think that is very interesting and amusing. But the president , look, he is of course manafort remains a concern. And Paul Manaforts commitment is to be applauded. This is far from the first time he has been reprimanded by judges for misrepresenting himself and violating his plea deal. The president obviously took burrs statement and hes tweeted about it repeatedly and bob mueller continues and theres been no conclusion reached there, though we all should note there may not be a final report were all going to be able to pore over, thats certainly that we need to recognize, there may not be a conclusion to the investigation one way or the other that i think the public is expecting. In the white house, there is the sense that the birthing is good news. He really took a beating during the shutdown and as unhappy he is this week with this new deal and hes told people hes been upset at republican neg ootiato and feels like he has been able to get in there and done better, but there is a begrudging sense that he needs to sign it. He is the president , donald trump, who changes his mind all the time. So we certainly wouldnt bet our mortgages on that but the sense is the white house is telegraphing that he will unhappily sign it but he will. Hell move using executive actions to appropriate more money to continue to finance the wall project and that hell take that as some sort of win and try to change the subject. He has to sign it. He has no political option not to sign it. Sign it, move some money toward his wall and say i won, even though he caved and he lost. He knows he got beat and his poll numbers took a real hit during the last shutdown and he acknowledges he candidate afff have that happen again. A lastminute motion from republicans to formally condemn antisemitism and, quote, all attempts to delegitimize and deny israels right to exist. The motion passed 4240. About the motion, qg magazine tweeted i really wished this happened back in 2016 when the president s reporters were sending Death Threats to jewish reporter or trump told the Jewish Coalition i dont want your money or when he lied about tweeting a star of david plastered over money or when House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy tweeted an antisemitic tweet implying prominent jews were buying the midterm elections. Andrea mitchell asked Vice President mike pence about the hypocrisy while she was in warsaw with him yesterday. Take a look. Its important that the leaders in the Congress Take a firm stand against antisemitism rhetoric. And i think it requires consequences in this case. And what the president said about banning all muslims in 2015 . Look, the president instituted a travel ban for the security of the United States of america. Yeah. The hypocrisy of the republicans is beyond breathtaking. We can do this in sequential order. In early december 2015 donald trump talked about a muslim ban, banning offer 1. 5 billion people from entering this country pause of the god they worship, pure bigotry, unconstitutional, a rank violation of the first amendment. Then he talked about a muslim registry. Republicans said nothing. Then he claimed that he didnt know who david duke was or who the ku klux klan were or what they did on the sunday before super tuesday. Republicans said nothing. Then he attacked an indiana judge born in america because his parents were born in mexico and he actually said that that american judge couldnt be fair and do his job fairly because there was hispanic blood in him. Republicans said nothing. Then he starts putting star of davids over dollars and Hillary Clintons image. Republicans say nothing. Kevin mccarthy suggesting that jews are buying the midterm elections by putting up pictures of george soros. Then during the caravans, republican congressmen saying that jews like george soros were funding the caravan in hopes of stirring up their base. The antisemitism, i mean, i havent even touched, mika, on charlottesville there are so many examples of how this republican majority and the house of representatives and this republican president have used racism and bigotry and of course the original sin was Donald Trumps birtherism and yet they shamelessly attack one horrible antisemitic tweet, which should be condemned but they are the last people to throw stones because they dont live in a glass house, they live in a glass tower that has the words trump etched in crystal all over it. Fake gold. Because the racism and the bigotry, 24 karat fake gold. The racism and bigotry theyve shown over the past few years and theyve put up with, i guess best way if you want to just boil it down, mika, you just look at how you had paul ryan calling donald trump a racist and a couple days later paul ryan endorsing donald trump, which is why what i said off the top is so critical. America cannot afford for these democrats to blow their opportunity, to return sanity to washington, d. C. I totally agree. Were going to have Claire Mccaskill on at 7 00. Shes warned about that democratic overreach. To put a period on what youre saying, if youre a leader and you dont stand up to it, then how are you not a part it haof . More on that tweet from Kevin Mccarthy. Just before midterms he tweeted we cannot allow soros, steyer and bloomberg to buy this election, the word buy in all caps. Heres what the congressman said about that yesterday. You put out a tweet about 3 billionaires trying to buy the midterms. What did you bhmean by that . That was about democrats versus republicans. All i was pointing out was money that republicans and democrats were spending to defeat one another. Mika, the billionaires, he picked out three jews. He said lets put the tweet back up again. I mean, the tweet is saying with a picture of george soros, an ominous looking picture of george soros, Kevin Mccarthy said dont let three jews buy the election. Could we have a House Resolution condemning that . Could we have a Senate Resolution condemning that tweet, that now the person running the Republican Party in the house of representatives put out a tweet dont let jews buy the midterm election. Because thats what he said. And its beyond hypocrisy on a whole new level driven by hate. Heidi, the tweet that mccarthy deleted the next day so he must have finally realized something was wrong with it came as tom steyer, george soros and other prominent democrats were being targeted by pipe bombs. Remember that . It was asked why it was deleted if the congressman believed there was nothing wrong and the paper was directed to a Statement Issued at the time referencing the sensitivity of the political climate, aka, they did think it was wrong and took it down. Heidi, you spend a lot of time on capitol hill, you talk to these republicans off camera, off record, how do they bring this together, the fact that they will be, you know, staunch live defen staunchly defensive about a tweet by a democratic congresswoman and yet stand by this president s racism. Reporter well, they dont, is the answer. The parallel is striking. Its not just antisemitic trope but its the exact same antisemitic trope in terms of tying jews to money, in terms of the tweet that the president himself put out with the star of david and clinton sitting atop a pile of cash. If you talk to members of congress, democrats, they say the big difference here is that representative omar actually apologized and apologized immediately for this. But this should be a red light to some of these freshmen democrats, frankly, because this is the second time in almost as many weeks that weve seen one of them be piled on for misstatements or controversial statements and that they now instead of nancy pelosi are going to be the bulls eye for the republicans who really want to use some of these cultural issues to stir up their base. And this will not be the last time unless some of these members realize that they are now serving in congress and they need to be careful of what they put out into social media and into the twitters sphere because that will be used against them and be used against their entire party. The base doesnt frankly care. I dont know how aware they are of the hypocrisy and the statements that have come from those on their side of the aisle, but it can be used to great effect against the democrats. And jeremy bash, lets talk about the bill this was actually attached to, which was to end all u. S. Military assistance for saudi arabias war in yemen. What are the implications of that . This is a rebuke, mika, of the way saudi arabia and the uae have waged war against the houthi rebels. It will try to reign in what it sees as massive overreach of the trump policy. With just hours left before another Government Shutdown, what the president and his shadow counselors on tv are saying about it. Plus, a headline that caught a lot of attention, smaller tax refunds surprise those expecting more relief. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Where have all the flowers gone long time passing [indistinct conversation] [friend] ive never seen that before. I h