and people scratching their heads over his constant appearances before the press and cable shows. on thursday closed door testimony with the house intelligence committee and saying his testimony hard to follow. one called it bizarre and then the next day he is on cable television talking about the contacts and a trip to russia in july of last year in the heat of the campaign. carter page, the former foreign policy adviser to the trump campaign. meeting with no less than the deputy prime minister of russia and in that meeting in moscow for a conference. and then reportedly sending an e-mail to the trump campaign outlining the meeting and even mentioning it to jeff sessions who of course was an instructional part of the trump campaigning at that time. who is now attorney general and an individual who is denied many times being able to -- or has not remembered or denied having meeting with russians and that denial and refutation of that denial led to the appointment of the special prosecutor to jeff sessions recusing himself. so the web becomes ever more complicated and the web tangles and the president makes his way to japan to a crucial meeting with the prime minister there, shinzo abe as the clouds of war gather over the korean peninsula, many questions remain here in washington about this russia affair. >> at a lonely white house with the quote of the day. no one could figure out what carter page will be up to but we'll hear more about that in the days to come. and joining me now, l.a. times opinion writer jamil smith and katherine ram bell and national security and justice reporter julia ainsley and washington correspondent charlie savage. julia, will start with you. the trump campaign foreign policy adviser carter page confirmed he did meet with a russian official and called it a senior person during the trip to moscow. this drip, drip, drip continues and how damaging to the president are the new revelations. >> this is in the same vain as poppa dop list and the information from what mueller presented against him this week. what was unveiled this week. this is again a trump campaign foreign policy adviser meeting with russians and then conveying those meetings, those interactions to people within the campaign. so not only are we learning more about george or carter page. we're learning there are other people whose names we don't know who are also getting this information within the trump campaign. and it starts to create a cloud over people in the administration, whether or not they could really stand by the assertion that they knew of no coordination between the campaign and russia. with each step it gets harder to deny that. >> julia, when you talk about the cloud, the cloud hangs over jeff sessions, i think, just as much as anybody and this puts more pressure on the attorney general who testified he didn't know of anybody with the campaign meeting with the russian officials and said that on several occasions. take a look at what carter page told jake tapper yesterday. >> i mentioned that i'm heading over there, and totally unrelate he had to the campaign. it is in passing. >> he is the only one on the campaign that knew about the tripp. >> i mentioned it to -- few people. it will come out. things keep leaking. >> so oawkward to watch. how much trouble is jeff sessions in. >> it doesn't look good for him. as you will recall, during his confirmation hearing he said that he had no awareness of anybody connected to the tripp p tru -- the trump campaign who met with the russia and is there anyone in the campaign that didn't meet the russians. and is a photo on trump's where they have now pled guilty to saying -- or has acknowledged that he was trying to arrange a meeting between trump and putin. this does not look good for sessions. it kind of -- strains cred you'lliity that had no contacts between the campaign and the russian government. >> and let me ask you, considering that he has pleaded guilty, how much of a threat to jeff sessions is george popadopalous. >> you are getting at is jeff sessions vulnerable to perjury for testifying he didn't know about conversations with russian as popadopalous will say that -- at this meeting and talked about conversations with russians. so that is exactly what you are getting the getting at, i would add there is a deep ierony among those wantig to defend the president or see him go down and that is that jeff sessions stying -- staying in office is very important for protecting the integrity of the mueller investigation. that is why trump was trying to oust him and making noise about firing him earlier. because remember, jeff session is recused from this matter and that means rod rosen stein will oversee mueller and were sessions to be ousted and a new attorney general apointed by trump and confirmed by the senate. rosen steen is a fire wall between trump and mueller would disappear and someone else would take over the ability to curb or fire mueller. people is like sessions is going down on this ought to be thinking about it through that lens. >> and amidst this and here l.a., the president of the united states is going after jeff sessions and pushing the justice department to investigate hillary clinton and i want to play a clip of that. >> it looks like we don't have it. but the president said i'm not involved with the justice department. i would like to let it run itself but they should be looking at the democrats, at podesta and that dishonesty and lookedi lookeding at a lot of things and people are disappointed in the justice department, including me and there are estimates that jeff sessions is the fall guy and using this as an excuse and then appoint a new a.g. that will fire mueller. what are your thoughts about that. >> i think it is more than the mueller investigation. there is the possibility of him firing mueller through this new attorney general who might be a lackey and not involved in the crimes being investigated. but i think that you also look beyond that. this is authoritarian undemocratic language and talking about interfering from the executive branch into the process of law enforcement. and i think that while -- i think a lot of civil rights activists and people advocating for equal temperatureatment mig sessions being fired or removed, but there are things to think about. >> and it is a danger to our american democracy and it is like when the nbc times pointed out when the fbi was directed to go after dr. king. what are your thoughts when you look at trump and the way he's behaving. >> and i think robert mueller is taking notes on everything this person is saying. the president is saying that he wants to interfere with investigations, the president is saying he wants to go after political opponents and disappointing the justice department isn't doing so and disappointed with mueller's own investigation. and those things should come back to bite him should an investigation proceed. >> and charlie there is talk about pressure from democrats and republicans to pass legislation in the house and in the senate protecting robert mueller from being fired or calling for his ouster. what is your take on that? >> well legislation would very to been signed by trump or two-thirds of the chambers would have to over come his veto because any president would veto something restricting his authority like that. it seems i'm not sure to put that in the category of something that might happen in the real world or a mostly cloudy -- a mechanism for a bill that will never be passed. >> and i want to talk about the president on his way to tokyo as we speak and katherine on this tokyo trip, on this asia trip, 12 day asia trip, what your looking at most for the president to come back or to happen while he's overseas. >> i think the key question forrous allies in asia what is our strategy right now. as a country for getting the rising tensions with north korea under control. because if you are one of our allies and japan or south korea for instance, you are wondering at this point is this going to be addressed diplomatly or addressed by fire and fury like the world has never seen as trump seemed to indicate would be the case. is he going to continue undermining his secretary of state. the goal should be to put our allies minds at ease and show them a path forward for how we are going to get through this mess without it escalating it further. but if you are trump, you may be hoping for an international incident. i won't put it past him given that with be a convenient distraction from the domestic problems at home. >> julia, a distraction using a major international incident overseas with the north korea threat looming. >> and we've seen this play out time and time again when there is one scandal, and trump has a way of making another. >> it be twitter or playing up a threat that may not be as big of a threat as he makes it to be and he has the opportunity to do that on this trip. a lot of people want to see him de-escalate tensions with north korea and to try to make some dent in this problem that is looking like an escalating nuclear threat that is weighing heavily on this trip and weighing heavily on his responsibility. so so so i -- i think it is the white house strategy to deflect from the mueller investigation and focus on the president and his work on this trip. and we'll see whether or not they are successful in that. >>am he'l -- jamil, we talk abo deliverables and what will the president come back with on a 12 day trip to asia. that is not what we are talking about. what will he come back with. >> more chaos. as katherine mentioned, there is the possibility that north korea could launch a strike while he is in japan or north korea to make themselves heard on the national stage. also the fact that he's visiting the philippines and duterte. i think that capping off the trip with that visit, i think it should make more noise than it actually may at the end of day. >> well let's talk about vietnam. there is a talk that he may have a pull aside with putin while at the summit in vietnam. do you think that will happen. >> i think it is extraordinary politically unwise. if he is seeking to distract from the russia investigation t the thing he could do we be to talk to him. but in hamberg, germany, durping the g-20, they did have a pull aside. do you think it will happen. >> one of the oddities is despite everything, trump is the president of the united states and russia is an important country in the world. the two governments have to talk about things like sear for example from time to time. and it is kind of hard to see how trump avoids talking to putin from time to time just to carry out his job responsibilities. it is a -- quite a predicament that he and the country are in. >> and north korea is a maimer focus and the president as talked about fire and fury and pyongyang and skip going to the dmz and the vice president was there this year. and i hesitate to ask, do you get the sense we'll get a more muted trump in asia? >> a more muted trump? this is president trump we're talking about. so i'm going to say no. >> fair enough. and you also wrote charlie, by the way, this week i want to ask you about the president's suggestion that the new york truck attack suspect be sent to guantanamo bay. what would be the implications of such a move. >> that would be an unprecedented move, no one has gone to guantanamo from the united states and he didn't do it and he explains which was guantanamo doesn't work. and the civilian courts are a much better and swifter in locking them up forever than military commission and that is an observable truth about the world that republicans have over the last eight years of obama presidency been loathe to recognize. it is a break through that i republican president is saying that and ascending that truck suspect to civilian court as the obama administration had done before him. and it is a order of continuity and it pay depoliticize the issue during the obama years which is whether newly captured terrorists should be sent to the military or handled by the fbi and federal court, and before we go there is pressure from the democrats or republicans to protect robert mueller and i want to get the take of our other panelists for being fired calling from the ouster. hugh hewitt asked that -- mitch mcconnell this morning on msnbc. i want to play a clip of that. >> i don't hear much pressure to pass anything, there is no indication that the president or the white house are not cooperating with the special counsel. i think the view up here is let him do his job. >> i want to bring this around to you julia, and i asked charlie, do you see congress as having any role in protecting robert mueller's investigation. >> i agree with charlie, if we're trying to see where this investigation is going, congress wants to have its own piece of this and mueller has made very clear that he doesn't want them to interfere. he's put down the gauntlet saying that if i'm going to brief you on what i'm doing in my investigation, you can't leak that. he wants to draw clear lines and it seems that the support like charlie was saying, that would have to be behind a bill to really lock in mueller or push him out would be so extreme that it would be difficult to get that just considering how polarized and split congress is right now. >> we have to get that from mitch mcconnell in there. thank you all very much. good to see you on this saturday. and coming up, more bombshells this hour from former dnc head donna brazil and claiming the clinton campaign took over dnc funds before the nomination pros he -- prose was complete and now the revelation that the dnc chair thought about replacing clinton on the ticket and who could have ended up on the replacement team right after this break. or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually 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make sure you have what you need to get the care that's right for you. if you miss the deadline, you may have to wait another year before enrolling. call healthmarkets now! us. it's what this country is made of. but right now, our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps. and bridges our divides. donate to your local y today. because where there's a y, there's an us. the bombshells keep drom dropping in the democratic party. a new excerpt from donna brazile claims that after hillary clinton's fainting spell on september 11th, she considered replacing hillary clinton as the party nominee with this vice president joe biden. this is latest revelation after the chair revealed widespread dysfunction inside the democratic party, you including the shocking side deal with the dnc and the clinton campaign giving them control over the party finances and hiring process. let's bring in kurt bardel, a former breitbart spokesperson and liz smith. liz, i want to start with you. what is your reaction here to donna brai donna brazile replacing hillary clinton with joe biden and cory booker. what does that say about the relationship. >> i think a lot of people can read into that. and donna brazile has the right to tell her side of the story and i disagree with people trying to torch her for doing that. and jake, you know how this works. when you are trying to sell a book, you put out the most procaulkive excerpts and some of the things does comport with reality. and we do know they put their thumb for 2016 but the claim that she could un latterly replace hillary clinton with joe biden doesn't comport with reality and it does indicate there is a little bit of a strained relationship and it sort of underscores the fact that 2016 was an ugly, ugly cycle. and we should never go back there. >> and the truth is, she cannot unilaterally replace her. and is this about a book. there is not a normal agreement. according to the memo, in ex chunk for the clintons helping the dnc, that hillary for america personnel would le consulted and have joints authority over strategic decisions over the staffing and budget expenditures and general relations an date aa technology and is this an unfair advantage to the clinton campaign and a disadvantage to bernie sanders. >> and they had their thumb in 2016 for hillary clinton. and there is conflicting reports about how the agreements were enforced. but over all it is hard for anyone to claim that the dnc was an honest broker in 2016 this is good news and we've learned from that and tom perez, he said that he's committed to acting properly going forward and writing the wrongs that we saw in 2016. >> kurt, the president of course grabbed on to this and has not let go. despite the fact that he's on a critically important 12 day trip to asia and tre-- tweeting and calls it dishonesty and the bottom line is he had a similar joint funding commity with the republican committee. >> and there is this thought out that the democrats were fighting a rigged primary and that bernie sanders and the proguessives didn't have a fair shot and then this comes out. it is just adding fuel to the fire. the key thing in the memo was talking about general election. and i don't know any election where the rnc or the dnc nominee didn't want to have control over those apparatus once becoming the general election candidate. >> liz, are you shaking your head? >> no, i'm agreeing. and and i think kurt would agree, and the dnc and rnc are red headed step child and the n-- te nominees try to brush them aside, i agree with what he said. >> and every single moment and day this conversation happens, where democrats are fighting democrats, that is a day that trump is getting by and strengthens republicans and if republicans retoin control in the house and the senate despite having a president with a low approval rating if that happens look back on days like this, missed opportunities wasting time and where democrats are relitigating the last ejectilec and it has fdoes nothing for th next election. >> and on tuesday they have a virginia governor's race and then the mid-term elections around the corner. do you think democrats will unify going forward. >> i do. and this is a very, very insider conversation. there are definitely people who have been very vocal and there are people trying to exploit this. but no one who is voting on tuesday is going to say i'm sitting at home and not go out and knock on knock on doors because of something donna brazile wrote in her book. it is great and good for us to talk about these things but it is sort of time to move forward. we knew this was happening at time. and now it is a time to sort of learn from our mistakes and internalize them and go forward and unite for tuesday and for 2018. >> kurt, i have to ask you about the other big one, a new book about george h.w. and george w. bush and harsh words about trump. h.w. said i don't like him. i don't know much about him. but i know he's a blow hard and i'm not too excited about him being a leader. and how are republicans going to react to these comments? >> i think that he said exactly what many republicans privately feel. what almost every republican on capitol hill feels about donald trump. certainly what i feel about donald trump. and i'll tell you, it is amazing how candid people can be when they don't have to run for anything any more. we've seen it with the retirement of senator corker and flake and the comments of president bush, the elder. and i think as time goes on, you will see a lot more republicans just calling out what they see when it comes to trump, which is he a blow hard and dangerous. >> thank you very much. coming up, who knew what and when. trump advisers admit to meeting with russia officials during the 2016 campaign. new developments now raising questions about who within the president's inner circle was aware of these encounters. stay with us. okay, i picked out my dream 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you more information when it is available. and now here are the other headlines this hour. president trump has left hawaii to embark on a 12 day trip to asia to arrive in tokyo. it comes at a time with heightened tensions with north korea and here at home the controversy hangs over the campaign as new questions surround two of his former advisers. actress paz de la huerta is accusing harvey weinstein of raping her twice. new york city police say they find the star's story credible and they are gathering more evidence that could lead to an arrest of weinstein. he's denied all allegations of nonc nonconsensual sex. and a milt judge sentenced bowe bergdahl to a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank. the president call it a disgrace to our country and military. during the trump presidential campaign and how information could be crucial to the collusion investigation and that is coming up next. and tomorrow a special install of on assignment with richard engle exposing new details 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(vo) the subaru impreza. the longest-lasting vehicle in its class. more than a car, it's a subaru. i'm jacob soberoff, you are watching msnbc. more on the trump news in yet another example of a trump campaign officials having ties to russia. nbc news has confirmed carter page met with a deputy russian prime minister while traveling to moscow in july of last year. page insists that the interaction was, quote, brief, hello and greeting and i'm joined by matt miller, and richard painter, former ethics lawyer or president george w. bush. and i'm a big fap -- fan of the network and i'll play the conversation with chris hayes earlier this week. let's watch that. >> now you travel over the summer to moscow. >> yeah. >> are you the person they are talking about? >> i don't think so. i think that is a separate reference. >> but you say you're not sure. >> i'm sure i was not because it was very clear and if you listen to the audio or transcripts of everything i said. he was always there just as a private citizen. >> did you brief anyone on the campaign when you got back. >> i may have mentioned just a few sort of things i heard. but nothing -- nothing serious at all. >> well people keep using terms like serious or ore official but you told them what you did and who i talked to. >> i said there is positive feedback in general on the street. the average person is excited -- >> about donald trump in moscow. >> in general about future possibilities. so again i had no meetings, no serious discussions with anyone high up or at any official capacity. >> as sid earlier, i feel awkward watching carter page talk about this. it seems like he is contradicting what we know. that he met are the russia deposit prime minister and his argument this is just a greeting, a hello rather than a formal meeting. richard, do you believe him and does it even matter? >> i don't know whether to believe him. their all collaborating with the russians. and we're just hearing about new people every day who are affiliated with the trump campaign were collaborating with the russians and donald trump must have known about it. if he doesn't, he doesn't know what the people working for him are doing and that is a issue of great concern. so there was collaboration. i think president trump knew about it. the question is whether the collaboration is illegal collaboration. an that is has yesterday to be determined and that's what robert mueller is looking into. but they need to stop lying and pretend tlging there was no collaboration. we've seen several instances of collaborating by high-ranking officials working with the russians to get dirt on hillary clinton and this administration is making the situation much worse by con -- continuing to life and obstruct justice and those on the republican side are very worried about this. because it is start -- reflecting poorly on the republican party that didn't have a history of collaborating with the russians. >> and let me ask you, matt. carter page admitted he might have been on e-mails from george popadopoulos, regarding potential russian interference. how does that tie him in now to this larger story and what are the consequences? >> i think it helps answer the question or at least is going to help robert mueller answer the question, what did george popadopoulos do with the offer he got from a russian intermediary for stolen information and dirt on hillary clinton. that is the most important revelation in the past week. it ties the trump campaign directly to the hacking of clinton e-mails and put it rights in the heart of the campaign and who did george popadopoulos tell and how far up the campaign go and did it make to the candidate now president or kushner or paul manafort before holding the key meeting in june. you have to -- you have to ask and this is the question robert mueller is asking, did they go into the meeting knowing about the offer george popapadapoulos and delivering on the e-mails and delivering on that promise. >> and these discussions between papadapoulos and page happened openly over e-mail. they are talking about this and not trying to keep it a secret or go into great lengths to do so. do you chalk that up to carelessness. >> simple carelessness and people never expect to be caught. and you see that is obviously what happened to george papadapoulos and lied and was caught because they had e-mails that said when he had the contacts and exactly what they this -- had talked about. and i think that papadapoulos experience ought to be a useful experience for everybody else in the trump administration. if they go to talk to robert mueller and they are untruthful because he has testimony or seen e-mails, they will be in the same mess as popadopoulos which is staring down the offense of a obstruction of justice or a false statements charge which is how find themselves turning and flipping and cooperating. >> i would like to ask you richard about something here on msnbc today. illinois congressman mike quigley had an interview with alex whit and talked to carter page on intelligence and he talked about this topic with alex earlier today. let's watch that. >> the fact is it is a common trend of trump associates, there is now seven that we're aware of that had kplungsss communicatios with the russian and it begins with a denial and then reality acknowledging to minimal extent they can, yes there was communication. it is part of the problem with the investigation. this is going to take time. we're going to have to have others come forward, probably dozen more witnesses to get the full truth of what actually took place. >> does anything, richard, that page said, and there is six hours worth of testimony to yet hear. does it get closer to finding out the truth of what happened? >> it is just one more detail with respect to many of us knew all long, there was extensive collaboration between the trump campaign and the russians. in order to win this election and get dirt on hillary clinton. and some of that collaboration may very well have been illegal and that is what robert mueller needs to find out. we're going to hear about a lot more of this type of thing financial dealings with the russians, from various members of the trump administration, collaboration in connection with the election and a lot of things that people aren't telling the truth about and that is what is very disturbing for the american people. when people in high ranking positions and in our government lie and lie about critically important things. not what bill clinton lies about. he lied under oath about his sex life and here we are talking about people who lie about collaboration with a foreign adversary and for the first time in history, they have having a substantial influence if not a determinative influence in the out come of a presidential election. this is a national security disaster for the united states. and the only person that is smiling right now is putin. >> and he may be able to small to donald trump's face on the side lines of that summit in vietnam coming up in a couple of days. thank you both very much. great to talk to you. still ahead, we are talking taxes an the republican plan unveiled this week. we'll break down what the cuts mean for working americans, stay right here with us on msnbc. at planters we know how to throw a remarkable holiday party. just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host, no matter who shows up. do you like nuts? hi. so i just got off the phone with our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight... four weeks without the car. okay, yep. good night. with accident forgiveness, your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it. congressional republicans unveiled the tax plan this week but the bill has a long way to go before it becomes law. reporting out details the democratic leadership ideal plan of resistance. quote, maintaining total unity and generating broad public outrage. but will democrats be able to resist the siren call of tax cuts for more i'm joined byron reagan. ron, good to see you. and as you know -- a handful of vulnerable senate democrats and including heidi heitkamp and joe donnelly who are up for re-election where president trump won by massive margins, how difficult is it for them to block this bill. >> not so difficult if they could complain to their constituents why this isn't a bill that will benefit them. as you know, most tax experts and people that know a lot more about this sort of thing that you or i do have looked at this and said that this is heavily weighted towards the wealthiest 1%. 80% of the benefits go to the top 1% of the food chain here tax wise. so this is bad policy in that sense. and it is also bad politics in both a narrow and a broad sense. i think this is -- as you said, this bill has a long way to go. it will go to the senate and be changed there and it will meet in the senate that john mccain would like to see, i hope at least, regular order. which it has not had to good through thus far. there have been no committee hearings or public hearings and this hasn't been a transparent process and this is republicans sitting in a room and coming up with something off the cuff and that brings us to the larger kind of political problem and that is that this is no way to make tax policy. and john mccain knows that and he's spoken about that with the health care bill as well. that regular order is not being followed here. this isn't just a one-off kind of bill. this is remaining the entire tax system of the united states. you need all of the stakeholders involved and you need to get both parties together and the republicans have not done yet that and proven themselves once again as they did with the health care bill to seemingly be incapable of governing. they've had years to come up with a tax plan and it looks like they're kind of throwing it together in the back room here just a few of them. what is the matter with these people that they can't come up with a sound policy prescriptions. after all of this time. >> and i want to pass this on before thanksgiving so that gives them about 20 days. and i want to ask you about you alluded to the myth as many economists say of trickle down economics and the elephant in the room is you doubt president reagan was seen as the head of the trickle down economics but one of the former advisers bruce bartlett wrote an op ed and called i helped create the gop tax myth and trump is wrong tax cuts don't equal growth. the cutting taxes is wishful things and so is most cutting and said there is no evidence a tax cut would spur economic growth and pointed to the bush tax cuts for evidence. do you think the left has any hope of amplifying that message or is trickle down too ingrained in americans across america. >> and let's hope it is not too ingrained because it is nonsense as the piece is pointing out. there is no evidence that it work worked during my my father's administration. there are factor that's created the rebound in 1982 after the recession in 1981 for instance. and we've run this experiment ore and over again and on the state level in california and kansas. in california they raised taxes on the wealthy and they spent money on social services and their economy is booming. it is now the number five economy on earth. california. and kansas on the other hand, did the laugher curve experiment and the trickle down experiment and they ruined their economy. they destroyed their economy. so did the trickle-down experiment and they ruined their economy. they destroyed their economy. you know, so we've run this experiment, the evidence is in. trickle-down does not work. it's one thing -- there's maybe lots of things wrong with our tax code, lots of things wrong with our economy, one of them is not that wealthy people just don't have enough money to spend and they need a tax cut. that's just not one of the problems we've got. >> if i could, ron, i want to ask you about george bush's book. former president bush considers president trump a blow-hard, he said. he said he's only interested in feeding his own ego. george bush's son thinks mr. trump came to office without any understanding of the job. our father decreed thou shalt not speak ill of another republican. what do you make of this exchange between former presidents? >> i don't think that most of these people considered donald trump to be a republican. and i don't think he is in any meaningful sense of the word. n i think they're being charitable to mr. trump. he's a menace to this country. he really is our national tragedy right now. >> ron reagan, never one to mince words. great to see you. thanks for being here. >> thanks, jacob. coming up next, find out what senate minority leader chuck schumer told our own casey hunt about allegations the 2016 democratic primary was rigged. stay with us. i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. the big surprise was we're not german at all. 52% of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com. by listening to an thiaudiobook on audible.ame and this guy is just trying to get through the day. keeping it together. losing it. upgrade your commute. ride with audible. >> you went to russia but you are confident about sending a low-level staffer is not in reference to you? >> i definitely did not represent anyone from the trump campaign. >> i genuinely hope that you're innocent. you're doing a lot of talking. it's either admirably bold or reckless, i guess we'll find out. a heads-up, quick programming note tomorrow, do not miss an installment of "on assignment" with richard engel. he'll expose details with manafort's dealings with the kremlin connected billionaire. that's right here on msnbc and we've been talking about the story that's rocked the democratic party this week, allegations of favoritism towards hillary clinton from inside the democratic party. casey hunt sat down with chuck schumer. take a listen to his reaction. >> elizabeth warren said earlier today that based on new reporting from donna brazil in a book, that the 2016 primary was rigged. do you agree? >> i haven't read her book. i don't know the details so i'm not going to make a judgment on that. >> do you have any concerns about the dnc's involvement in the primary in 2016? >> you know, again, i didn't follow it. i'd like to see what donna brazil has to say, i will read it. >> bernie sanders has never campaigned about this to you before? >> he's complained all the time. >> kasie hunt, the best in the business. catch that tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. eastern. right here on msnbc. be sure to stay with us next hour. i'm not going anywhere. you shouldn't either. we're going to talk about whether social media dropped the ball and allowed russian interference in our elections. we'll be right back. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. pai'm open to that.medicare? lower premiums? extra benefits? it's open enrollment. time to open the laptop... ...and compare medicare health plans. why? because plans change, so can your health needs. so, be open-minded. look at everything-like prescription drug plans... and medicare advantage plans from private insurers. use the tools at medicare.gov. or call 1-800-medicare. open to something better? start today. ♪ good saturday to you. ik jacob soboroff in los angeles on a day in which the president embarks on a crucial five-nation trip to asia. and a former trump campaign adviser confirms he met with a russian official months before election day. we begin this hour with the losing candidate from that election, hillary clinton. a new report in "the washington post" that donna brazil considered replacing clinton as the party's nominee with then vice president joe biden. brazil reportedly considering that move when clinton fainted. here's that video on september 11th, more than a month after accepting the democratic nomination. the reporter behind that story, white house bureau chief phil rucker. good to see you. brazil describes this d dysfunctional mismanaged campaign. what was it about september 11th and that anniversary day that made her consider replacing hillary clinton? >> that was the memorial event in lower manhattan where hillary clinton had a bit of a fainting spell that was caught on camera. we later learned that she had a butte with pneumonia over that period of time. but donna brazil who at the time was the interim chairwoman of the democratic national committee writes in her memoir that she spent two days whether to initiate the process at the dnc of trying to replace the nominee. she would not have been able to do that unilaterally, but she explains she could have initiated that process. and she considered about a dozen different candidates or combinations of candidates, rather, and settled in her mind, according to her memoir on vice president biden as

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