The first indications the winds are shifting at the state level in a way that could turn into a major storm nationally. Like early weather forecasting when you see the low pressure developing off the coast of africa. Anyway, mini canaries. Were claiming were coining this phrase. Thats all for the tonight. Well be back tomorrow. The beat starts right now. Is this butter fly theory like weather . Or baby canary . Were going mini canaries. Wait a minute. A canary is already small. But hey, theyre state legislative seats. We feel like congressional seats are the canaries. I wanted to go with finches personally but that annoyed some people. Getting darwinian. Chuck todd with the analogy and watching the races as a leading indicator. Thank you. President trumps approach to Law Enforcement is under scrutiny after he snubbed the swearing in ceremony for his own fbi director today. And we can tell you, thats
as Deputy Attorney general, of course, she was previously the boss of the fbi director and trump fired her over the travel ban west later learned she warned the white house about Michael Flynn who is now under investigation by yes, bob mueller. It is hard sometimes to keep track of all the fbi veterans involved in the criminal investigation of this trump presidency. As for russia, a new phase of the investigation underway. Interviews with white house aides are being scheduled. People have to commit to their stories. They would be creating a new crime if they lied to investigators. Now what is the view from the Trump White House on all of this . Sometimes it is hard to know. Today i did speak with white house special counsel ty cobb. He didnt say a lot on the record. Because thats not part of his job. He didnt deny these interviews are going forward. And he also wanted to emphasize the white house is cooperating. Telling me, today, while the white house Doesnt Comment on specific witnesses or interviewees, it remains
committed to full cooperation with the special counsel. As for jared kushner, his lawyer has gotten a little more expressive. At least when he thinks he is speaking to his own the client. Abby lowell was apparently, accidentally forwarding an intel letter that kushner failed to disclose the existence of. This is the second time a Top White House lawyer has fallen victim to these pranks. Cobb was disclosing some information to another person pretending to be a colleague this month. The im joined by natasha, david from the layatlantic. I want to start with you. The kushner email is a big deal and a lot of email talk in the 2016 campaign right now. The committee here, Senators Burr and warner on, a bipartisan
basis say they are concerned to learn of his personal email frkt the news media rather than from him. They write, please confirm Document Production that you made to the committee includes the personal email accounts. What are they concerned that . Once the politically hypocritical use of email is now hitting the russia case. This was a huge gaffe by the lawyer. He had been speaking to him earlier in the week thinking he was kushner. They are concerned that he made this private email account in december and did not disclose it to the Senate Intelligence committee when they interviewed him earlier this sum better all of his ties to russia about, what he experienced during the campaign. They want to know, have you really handed over everything or is there more information youre keeping from us . Right. The legs of the email
hypocrisy. Put that in the context of donald trump hitting another first. The first president to snub the swearing in of his own fbi director today. We dont i dont know he did it. He may be unwell. He may be unhappy about going to an event where he is not the center of attention. I dont think hes ever shown himself bashful about personal interactions with people he doesnt like. He is pretty assertive and is willing to do that. This was not the person he wanted as fbi director. He wanted to go. Farther outside the chain of command. He went through a lot of people had would be much more politically loyal to him. Chris christie and Rudolph Giuliani were floated around and he is daggers dwrarawn with thi agency. All great points. And i take your caution. We dont have a white house explanation of why he made this very unusual break with
protocol. Lets take a look at the fbi swar swearing in today. His judgment and integrity will always lead him. He has no hidden agendas. Well follow the facts independently no matter where they lead and no matter who likes it. It might have been easier to not have the president there. What did you think . Two things. One, if i were trump, i would stay as far from that swearing in agency as possible. First of all, if he goes and it is a positive event, he is essentially endorsing this guy who is investigating him. If the president wants to come back as he has in the past to try to discredit what the fbi is doing or what it finds in the future is a lot harder to do if he stood there clapping and smiling at the installation of the new fbi director. What youre saying sounds logical. But i guess it is my job to point out the hole. Didnt he already endorse him of
giving him the hugely powerful job . I think the more likely answer is probably, stay away from the agency whose agents are investigating you. Just dont get involved. It cant look good either way. Probably the more likely thing is they figured, its a mess. Stay away. Which is the donald trump view of all of this. The jayz saying, Love Me Or Leave me alone. Right. And he is still characterizing the entire russia investigation as a hoax. For him to show up at the swearing in ceremony, granted some of the people he had runins with like comey were not present but it would have been extraordinarily awkward. Do you want to weigh in . It would be awkward. I dont know that would be enough to deter him. But i think one of the things we have noted, trump seems to have these cycles of hyper manic and
sluggish activity. We hear from him a lot and then he sort of falters. And i think, ive always been mesmerized. One of the things you can learn what trump is about is by noting the things he most accuses other people of. That he would use jeb bush, of all people, the energizer bunny, of being low energy. The golf cart at the meeting with the g7 leaders. So it may not be fbi specific that cause him to miss an event. He may be on the ebb cycle of his ebb and flow. Now i have to ask you, the president you served, george w. Bush, was he more even keel . I know he believed in exercise and scheduling. Bush will the most predictable schedule of any human being youve ever met. He started really early in the morning. He ate luncher and if he could
have he would have eaten the same thing. He went to bed early. He was an extraordinarily physically fit president. Which donald trump is not. I want to give you a pop quiz. Put you on the spot. Can you name the most senior official who served in the Obama Administration and now is serving in the Trump Administration . The most senior . No. I cant do that. I can probably do it as soon as the camera is off. That was newly appointed. Not the holdovers. It is jon huntsman. Ill sure some would argue how we define it. He was newly picked by this president , sworn in today here. He told the Senate Relations committee there was no question russia interfere onned in the president ial election. Just walk us through significance of this and the role he plays here with a boss that wont say what i just read. It is a very odd appointment. Jon huntsman, pretty widely admired, was ambassador to
china. He speaks chinese, he knows china well, had been ambassador to singapore. He is someone with a deep knowledge and steeping with chinese culture. Bold and wise to send him to china. He does not speak russian. It is a strange pick. This is a high conflict situation, potentially. And you look at the Super Specialist who held that appointment under past president s. Under president obama, reagan, the bushes had reagan special the i haves. People, he could speak to people directly without interpreters. Again, great pick for many, many roles. And it is good that hes in this administration bust a strange job for him to have. Thank you. How is bob mueller potentially
pursuing new avenues against Paul Manafort . An antiCorruption Law that could be a powerful tool in this case. And who is to blame for the mounting Republican Obamacare failures in congress . Paul ryan has a few thoughts. And the Health Care Insider who got this email from the Trump Administration. Well explain. Youre watching the beat on msnbc. But there will still be pain. It comes when your Insurance Company says theyll only pay threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do . Drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. I tabut with my back paines, I Couldnt Sleep and get up in time. Then i found aleve pm. Aleve pm is the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Im back. Aleve pm for a better am. Paul ryan was ready, so ready he brought charts. To the interview. We passed 337 bills in the house as of this week. And you have the different this is more than obama, more than bush, more than clinton, more than h. W. Bush. So ryans hand held chart shows the house passed more bills which are stuck in the senate. But this was not an impromptu motel. Sean hannity accidentally gave the game away. He cut away from paul to reveal a fox graphic with the same data source to speaker ryans office. So ryan apparently knew hannitys question was coming and fox apparently had all the chart info in advance. This was a planned effort to blame mcconnell. Adding that mcconnell is tainted, echoing trumps frustrations. The house is tainted by the inaction. Ill very disappointed in
mitch. Well, ill tell you what. If he doesnt get repeal and replace done, if he doesnt get taxes done, then you can ask me that question. Heres why this is important. This fight isnt just a political civil war. It is a test of a key claim conservatives have been making for years. They say it doesnt really matter who republicans nominate for president. At the conservative cpac conference, it was famously put like this. We just need to president to sign there stuff. We dont need someone to think it up or design it. Pick a republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become the president of the United States. This is a chance for republicans to realize the body of where well be is louse and senate work the president s signing bills. Say what you will about donald trump. He does have enough working digits to handle a pen and he
says hell sign any obamacare bill. But so far this theiry Congressional Republican theres lead is failing under donald trump. To assess this, we have the ultimate paul ryan guest, the house speakers former chief of staff and ron clain, chief of staff to both Vice President s biden and gore. Gentlemen, good day. Ron, does this show that Grover Norquist digit pen theory doesnt work . I think he thought trump would use his digits to work the twitter machine. It is very hard to Pass Health Care legislation without president ial leadership. Hard to do tax reform without president ial leadership. While paul ryan was busy throwing Mitch Mcconnell tunneled bus last night, the real problem is donald trump. The weekend before Graham Cassidy went down in the senate, was he lobbying senators . No. He was busy tweeting about the nfl that weekend. So he has to get in the game. He has to provide the leadership if he is going to get these things done. Otherwise, it is a blame game. And Ryan Mcconnell can blame all he wants. Your boss is giving to it Mitch Mcconnell. What is the strategy to blame the obvious lack of legislation on mcconnell . Well, i think, one of the things thats happening is that paul is defending the house and the fact they have been doing things. And thats an important thing to do. I dont think theres much throwing mcconnell under the bus, saying they havent gotten themselves in order. Does anybody the control the vote . Surprise, surprise. John mccain is the only one who controls john mccains vote. So speaker ryan is hitting mcconnell, youre hitting mccain. Do i have that right . No. Im saying that senator mccain will do what he wants and
senator mcconnell cant control him, donald trump cant control him, paul ryan cant control him. Have they had a bad sfwheek they, a bad week . Its obvious that theyve had a bad week. Many of the things they wanted to do they wont get. What you need to do is be disciplined, consistent and Work Together to put the next issue theyll work is tax reform. It is a better set up. A better situation for republicans. They talk about tax reform all the time. They see it as basis for the growth we need. We covered that last night. You also made the assertion that ryan is not attack mcconnell in the senate. He is attack the house. Im hearing both. Paul ryan, the same message he had. Maybe a little less prepped,
less coordinated. Here he is bringing up the senate. Were all frustrated in the house. The senate has rules that perplex us. That frustrate us. It is the way their system works. And they had a razor thin majority. If youre talking about the rules of the other body, it sounds like youre not winning. Thats true. What is more, they lost this big vote. President trump said, it would be easy to repeal. He said he would do it on the first day he was president. They lost not because of the filibuster. They lost on a 51vote, vote tleflt couldnt get 50 republicans to vote for this. And senator mccains independence is part of that. The fact ryan zinke threatened the senator. She wasnt going to vote for it. Theyre the game that cant shoot straight. I agree that theyre a little more in their depth on taxes and maybe theyll do better on
taxes. On the president sitting back, throwing out principles, leaving it to the hill. Thats not how complicated things happen. You need presence leadership. To be fair no, one knew it would be this complicated. Thats true. Thats true. It is fair. And indeed, President Trump said himself. No one knew it would be this complicated. Real quickly. One of the problems was they didnt have enough work that was done in committees and regular order. What theyre doing right now is getting set to go through ways and means committee. Then the house floor. The Senate Finance committee to do the things they need to do. You can hardly blame they will for doing more of the procedural work to set up success on the tax bill. Thank you both. A lot of experience. Next, our original report. A powerful antiCorruption Law you may not have heard of could be used against key pieces in the case. New revelations about twitter and the election hack. Are tech guys putting profits ahead of our political process . My colleague will join us live to discuss straight ahead. Let in Food Particles just a few dabs of Super Poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more Food Particles so youre more comfortable and confident while you eat. Super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience try Super Poligrip free. The Hacking Of American Institutions by a foreign power is a crime. That sterm conspiracy. There could be a potential conspiracy charge against any one of them or all of them. In this case, the potential crime involves action coming from russia to the u. S. Like russians hacking in here. Maybe americans helping them do it. Theres another theory of the case. Legal experts telling the beat tonight that they may use a federal law to probe action coming from the u. S. Toward other countries. This antiCorruption Law prohibits bribing officials with money or giving them something valuable. Breaking that Corruption Law carries up to 20 years in jail. The law makes it illegal for an american to bribe people in china, which is something this law that trump used to rail against. What are we prosecuting people to keep china honest . Every other country goes into these places and they do what
they have to do. It is a horrible law and it should be changed. We are like the policemen for the world. Its ridiculous. Congress the didnt think it was ridiculous. It made the u. S. The policemen for the world which gives them extra power. Mueller has hired two prosecutors with specific experience using this very law. And heres what else is new. Showing Paul Manafort offered private briefings to a Russian Oligarch during the 2016 campaign, an offer linked to a contentious Business Deal and newly leaked deals. Now, the state Department Said he is one of the top three oligarch thats putin uses. Lets be clear. That alone would not produce enough evidence that manafort broke any lauflt prw. P