Not russia, though russia looms large in the background as it seems to in Everything Else these days. Manaforts being tried in Federal Court in alexandria, virginia. He was, of course, Trumps Campaign chairman, ran the rnc convention. Its the first of two trials for him, and this one hes looking at 18 counts of bank fraud, tax evasion, conspiracy charges in relation to his work for a prorussian party in ukraine before he went to work for the trump campaign. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. This trial is off to a lightning start. So far a jury has been seated. Opening statements have been delivered, and a witness has testified, all on day one. Manafort was a March To August Chairman back in 2016. He helped trump secure the nomination, make no mistake, and trump said so at the time. I have fantastic people. Paul manafort just came on. Hes great. He didnt need to do this, but he wanted to. Paul manafort has done an amazing job. He is here some place where. Is paul . However, more recently, as manafort was awaiting trial, the president sought to, shall we say, diminish his former campaign chairmans role. I know mr. Manafort. I havent spoken to him in a long time. But i know him. He was with the campaign as you know for a very short period of time. I tell you, i feel a little badly about it. They end with back 12 years to get things he did 12 years ago. You know, Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. He worked for me, what, 49 days . A very short period of time. Manafort is the highest Ranking Campaign personnel so far. He was part of the trump tower meaning when donald jr. And Jared Kushner had the russians come by. Also tonight multiple sources tell us Robert Mueller has referred another group of investigations to federal prosecutors up here in new york, the Southern District of new york. Those sources say that former
lobbyist tony podesta, former minnesota republican congressman vin weber, and former White House Council greg craig are all under federal investigation. The sources also say the inquiry into tony podesta, whose brother john ran the Clinton Campaign of course stem from muellers investigation into the case of Paul Manafort. As the Special Counsel and his team continue their inquiries, the president is now embracing a new line of defense. As we covered here last night, and as floated out yesterday by rudy giuliani. This morning, trump wrote on twitter, quote, collusion is not a crime, but that doesnt matter because there was no collusion except by Crooked Hillary and the democrats. Let us bring in our leadoff panel for a tuesday night. Josh gerstein was inside the Courtroom Today For todays proceedings. He is senior White House Reporter for politico. Also our very newest msnbc contributor. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Pretty judicial . Yes, it is more fair to appear in a suit than an orange jumpsuit. There is no reason to humiliate him in that way. There is enough happening in the courtroom as it is. I want to comment on tad devine quickly. I think it was very smart. Part of telling the jury the story is to tell it in a compelling way, and to tell it in a way that you put your witnesses in an order so you can protect your witness who is going to have the most problems. And thats gates. So here they start with tad devine. He is a very elegant, softspoken, nice person who said nice things about mr. Manafort that was elicited. And it allows the prosecution to be appeared to be being fair to mr. Manafort and to start and to overview the story in a way that is isnt bombarding them, but is getting the point
out. I think it was very smart. And its smart to put a couple witnesses in front and behind gates who are unimpeachable to kind of sandwich him in. And that was a very good start to the day, i think. Youre also smart to know that this is, after all, story telling. And youve said the same thing about mueller, that this will be a tapestry, a story he will tell when we look back on whatever book gets published, the mueller case writ large, do you think today this trial is the forward . Is It Chapter One . Well, i think its the i think its chapter one. Mueller has this huge charge to look into, and its this huge elephant. And you have to eat the elephant, right . So what do you do . You take a bite. You to take something small. You to take something easy for your first bite. And a paper case on a tax fraud would be the first bite of a very large elephant. For my fellow animal lovers,
we have thus far deceased an ostrich and an elephant by my count. So sam, lets strike a note for press freedom. Sure. Here we are in the last night of july. We have had three white house on Camera Briefings in the month of july, a total of 58 available minutes of on camera briefing time. What are we watching happen here . So its beyond its not just that chilling number which is chilling, you know. We had instances in which a reporter was restricted to going to an open air White House Briefing event. We had the president deliberately avoid interacting with the White House Press corps as we makes his way to either his motorcade or to marine one. And weve seen this happen under the new leadership of bill shine, who seems to have a very acrimonious relationship with the media, or i should say doesnt particularly like the idea of the media questioning
his client, the president. And i think whats ended up happening is donald trump has decided its in his Strategic Interests to essentially cut off access, to cut off the hard questions because they might trip him up. And its happening right as the Mueller Investigation is heating up, of course, as this trial has gone, but also as tough stuff like Child Separation Policy has come into the forefront. And unless there is some sort of price to pay, if they continue to think that this is in their longterm political interest, im not sure anything changes. In fact, i think it could even get worse as we go through august. So its chilling. Its been a long time coming, and, you know, the press corps has to figure out how to penetrate this bubble somehow. And im open to new ideas, and i hope they are too. All right. Well stay on it. And big thanks to our starting three tonight. Were hoping josh does not rue the day he signed up to help us cover this trial where days are long in alexandria. So to Josh Gerstein, to cynthia
askney, sam stein, thank you so much to all three of you. Thank you. Good night. Coming up, from our report in the trump rally in tampa tonight, this is critical. From a Special Correspondent who went there for us to witness his first trump rally. And later, more fallout from the trump Family Separation policy. New reporting on the trauma separated families are facing, after they are reunited. Were just getting under way on a tuesday night. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens brown paper packages tied up with strings these are a few of My Favorite Things
allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. If youd rather be home, ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. Pay no more than 25 per dose with copay card. Is the fact that its very, very tough on bacteria, yet its very gentle on the denture itself. Polident consists of 4 powerful ingredients that Work Together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. Were going to have tremendous Border Security that will include the wall, that will include the wall. Now a lot of people dont know it, but weve already started the wall. We got 1. 6 billion, and weve started large portions of the wall. But were going to need even the way we negotiate, were going to need more and were going to get more. And we may have to do some pretty drastic things, but were going to get it. That would be another hint at the government shutdown. That was President Trump rallying supporters on Border Security tonight in tampa. We should point out as we always have to the president s border wall has not been started, just repairs to an older section near san diego. The president spoke for over an hour on a number of issues, including the economy, including his contention that Merry Christmas is under siege no more, including trade immigration, the supreme court, voter id, and shopping for food. We believe that only american citizens should vote in american elections. Which is why the time has come for voter id, like Everything Else. Voter id. And if you go out and you want the buy groceries, you need a picture on a card. You need id. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need id, and you need your picture. In this country, the only time you dont need it in many cases is when you want to vote for a president , when you want to vote for a senator, when you want to vote for a governor or a congressman. Its crazy. That was the kind of thing tonight, and during the rally, the president also heaped praise on republican congressman ron desantis who is running in floridas gubernatorial primary. With us to talk about it, david
jolly, former republican congressman from florida, represented the tampa metropolitan region. He attended tonights rally in tampa, and now we can say among other things he has been to a trump rally. Also with us, lisa lehrer, National Politics reporter for the national press. Congressman, i am very interested to hear your takeaway from your first rally, and chiefly, what television doesnt convey about a trump rally. So i think some of the story lines are what we are used to. Perhaps the National Story tomorrow is really the chanting and attacks on the free press, and frankly, your colleague jim acosta other at cnn. A viral video that is now going around. The real verbal assaults, if you will, to the press. That was absolutely on display. We also saw the energy in the crowd when donald trump would address immigration matters, and frankly, antiimmigration rhetoric, if you will. Also mentions of hillary clinton
excited the crowd. All those bread and butter issues. Brian, what was most remarkable to me, though, and probably the thing that i will never forget, and i am wrestling with tonight is how homogeneous the crowd was. And we can decide whether or not we want to assign culpability to the president for cultivating a constituency that tonight was 99 caucasian, working class, or is that a broader National Conversation we need to have. But ill be honest with you. And i gut check myself. I asked friends and i asked other folks in the media, look around. How many african americans, how many black americans do we see tonight . And you could count them on one finger. And some of them were specifically positioned for camera shots. This was a White Working Class audience. To Donald Trumps credit, they felt he was speaking for them, not just to him, but he was speaking to their anger. Thats the one thing i wrestle with. Look, the Tampa Bay Community is a very diverse community. I represented a very diverse community. I walked into a rally tonight that was probably the most homogeneous environment ive been in decades. Im curious. How many people recognized you . Obviously youre from there. Youre republican, but youve been highly critical of this president. So i certainly received some criticisms from those who said i needed to be softer on the president. I could also have a conversation tonight, though, about how different Media Platforms divide the information that we receive, because longtime republican supporters who have not heard some of my criticisms because of where they receive their news today, they were not aware of my criticisms of the president. And so they treated me as a friend. But certainly there were those who wanted to know why i was there, questioned my intentions. Look, i was there out of respect for those who support donald trump. I dont support him. I remain a republican, and i was there to learn from those in attendance. I leave tonight in a strong disagreement as i arrived, but it was important that i attended. Well, thank you for that assessment. Lisa, in many ways it was a
standard trump rally. Just when you thought he was on the edge of being rooseveltian, he talked about actually taking office and realizing he was president. I made some notes here. He talked about washington, and he said i know the great people. I know the scum. So i figured okay, so not so rooseveltian there. Did you hear anything new tonight that he may take out on the road . I mean, it mostly did as you say seemed like the standard trump rally. It continues to be striking to me how much the president wants to run on immigration in these mid terms. That really is the central piece of his message, and its one that me believes, rightly so, resonates with his base. But i suspect what he may not be taking into account is it also resonates very strongly with democrats. So while drivie ining up his ba could help in the senate map which is sort of tilted toward republicans to begin with, in the house it gets a little more complicated because a lot of the battleground is in the suburban
districts. And by continuing to talk about these divisive issues like immigration, like the potential for a government shutdown, along with the, you know, never ending series of news about the investigation, you know, about controversial remarks, every one of those headlines is an additional shot of adrenaline into an already energized democratic grassroots. So what weve seen is protesters have become volunteers, are likely to become voters. And that level of enthusiasm is something that scares a lot of republicans, particularly when they look at the map in the house. Lisa, how concern ready you . Is the Associated Press to your knowledge about this other dynamic that david talked about . One of the viral videos of the abuse jim acosta of cnn took from the crowd we had to blur what people are wearing. We cant play what theyre yelling at him. Eric trump retweeted it. The president retweeted eric trumps tweet of the video. They were called fake news repeatedly tonight. Whats the level of concern . Well i think everybody is concerned. I thought the Times Publisher ag sulzberger made a really god point over the week. As you know, there was this back and forth after an offtherecord meeting with the president became the president made it public. He pointed out that the threats matter of course in the u. S. , but more importantly, trump is giving cover to dictators across the globe who want to suppress freedoms in places like syria, in places, you know, like the philippines, places where its really hard and very, very, very dangerous. And really, youre risking your life to deliver impartial information. That to me seems to be the biggest danger to the press globally. And that certainly a trend that is not being helped by the president s rhetoric. Congressman, you get the last word. Steve schmidt left the party. Are you still a republican . For now, but im always one day away, brian. What we saw tonight was a big tent republican party. Unlike the big tent conversations we had in the past ten yearsing whether or not there was room for moderates, tonight we saw a big tent that invited in extremists, the wikileaks crowd, the seth rich crowd. This is a different republican party. And, you know, there will likely be a day some time in the near future perhaps on your show where i join Steve Schmidt in making a statement very much like he did. Well, as for tonight, you are our Special Correspondent of the trump rally. Thank you, brian. And our correspondent lisa lere. We thank you so much david jolly and lisa lerer of the Associated Press. Coming up, the white house resume theyre is now put to rest, done and dusted, at least for tonight. Thats next when we continue. Know what . No, what . I just switched to geico
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