Analysis and discussion of the days top stories and compelling issues from Lawrence ODonnell. Things that are not truthful for donald trump. We dont have a lot of on the record lies or falsehoods if you want to use that word, from Michael Cohen. The only one that i can think of is that he told chris cuomo that he Wasnt Recording Him when he actually was. So in the Credibility Fight, ruth, who do you think is going to have the upper hand . Well, in the Credibility Fight you have to ask a few questions. One is who has the greater motive to lie here . One of the things weve learned, say, from Robert Mueller is if you go to him or his investigators with a false story and lie to them, you are going to get in a lot of trouble. So if Michael Cohen is not telling the truth here because he is looking for a deal from Robert Mueller and he peddles an untrue story, hes going to get himself into a heap of trouble. On the other hand, President Trump has some motive here to lie because it would be a very big deal, in fact, if, a, he knew about this meeting and if he had been lying to the
american people about it all along. The second thing, and dan can speak to this, is if youve got a witness who or somebody who may have some credibility problems, you are going to look for corroborating evidence. What do the other people who allegedly heard this say . What happened with these phone calls around the before and after the meeting to the blocked number . Who were they . What was don jr. s practice in terms of telling things to his father. It is not a simple he said he said swearing contest. You can bring in other facts to buttress your case. One of the things you want to use to assess the credibility of someone is generally people dont lie against their selfinterest. So if Michael Cohen were to get
courtroom when there is crossexamination and someone calls the cooperating witness a liar. It almost never happens in public. The reason is because most cooperating witnesses are guided by their lawyers and they know to be quiet in public. Michael cohen, if hes acting in his selfinterest, will be quiet because this is not helping him at all. You have a piece in the daily beast today where you say free advice for Michael Cohen from exfederal prosecutors, shut up. Yes. Hes not helping his cause by doing this. And to your point about, oh, lets flag this for the sdny or for mueller that i have this information, he doesnt have to do that in public. He has an incredibly able and capable and experienced lawyer who is very used to having these conversations with prosecutors, who are used to having those conversations with defense lawyers. Thats the proper way to do it. This is only hurting him. Regardless, it is getting ugly certainly in public. Here is a new report from Emily Jane Fox of vanity fair. There is an increasing Sense Inside Cohen World that trumps former attorney is ready to torch the man he once vowed to
take a bullet for, telling allies about a Treasure Trove of material he could inleash to create headaches for trump. There is a lot more to come, he has said. There is a lot. Jason, what do you think of that . I mean, the thing is, katie, cohen is really just confirming what most people with common sense would have assumed about President Trump anyway. Remember, prior to cohen, donald trump used to hang around with rory cohen. If this guy was his fixer, it is highly likely that cohen has all sorts of dangerous information about him that he could reveal. The reason this is playing out in public is, one, a lot of these guys like to get on tv and, two, this has become a large spitting match. There are egos involved. Cohen is not any more ethical than trump, but he may have some valuable information. Thats why Rudy Giuliani is out there running his mouth and contradicting himself every day. She was. She was identified as a russian government lawyer who was offering information about Hillary Clinton because the russian government, donald trump jr. Was told, wanted to see donald trump elected president. Dont need more than that. What would a responsible patriotic person do in a situation like that . They would call the fbi. At the very least they would say no thank you. What did we have . We had this meeting . And then what do we know . Donald trump helped to orchestrate a lie about it when it was discovered. Then he lied and his people lied, his lawyers lied about whether he was involved in orchestrating that lie. Now we need to find out is he lying or telling the truth about whether he knew about the meeting at the time. Guys, we also have something of an anniversary to celebrate. It is now two years to the day that donald trump called on russia to find Hillary Clintons missing 30,000 emails and then i had this exchange with him. Lets look. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. You said the russians he has no respect. You said i welcome them to find those 30,000 emails. Well, they probably have them. Id like to have them released. Does that not give you pause . No, it gives me no pause. If russia or china or any other country has those emails, ill be happy to see them. We know that the investigation really got started to get interesting into the Trump Campaign and what they had to do with russia because of that exchange because people in the Intelligence Community were like what is going on, why is he
saying that . Why would donald trump call on russia specifically to find Hillary Clintons emails. Prosecutors are trained not to believe in coincidences. That doesnt mean that they dont exist. But youre always skeptical of coincidences. So when you see him Say Something like that and then it later materializes that russia actually did have those emails, you naturally ask yourself what did he know. That is, im sure, a significant focus of the investigation. The same is true with this . How far is it to make this connection . What proof will they need to make that a definitive connection . There will be internal emails, memos, Text Messages . There is all sorts of Documentary Evidence in this day and age with communications. And that will also be the case as relates to this trump tower meeting. When trump promises a big speech on Hillary Clinton that is supposed to follow this meeting and then the meeting is a fail and that speech never happens,
the same kind of thing is going on in both instances. Daniel goldman, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Coming up, President Trump and Vladimir Putin have now invited each other for more talks. But are they talking about how russia is reportedly working to discorrupt the election this fall . While President Trump is celebrating strong economic news, some republicans are sounding the alarm about the midterms. Are you done yet . Does it look like im done . Shouldnt you be at work . [ mockingly ] shouldnt you be at work . Todd. Hold on. [ engine revs ] arcade game fist pump your real bikes all fixed. Man, you guys are good well, we are the numberone Motorcycle Insurer in the country. Wait. You have a real motorcycle . And real insurance, with 24hour customer support. Arcade game wipeout oh well. I retire as champion. Game hog champion. And help you feel more Strength Energy in just 2 weeks. Ill take that. Ensure high protein, with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. Ensure®
the president is open to visiting moscow. That was what the white house said today in response to russian president Vladimir Putin, who invited President Trump to come to the russian capital for yet another meeting between the two world leaders. Not only did this invitation come on the two Year Anniversary of Donald Trumps invitation to russia to hack Hillary Clintons emails, but it also came just hours before President Trump met with his National Security counsel for their election on security. The white house released a statement saying, quote, the president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any Station State or other malicious actors. But nowhere are the words russia or putin, despite the fact that many people in that very meeting
today have concluded and believe that Russia Meddled in the 2016 election and that russia will try to meddle in our elections again. In fact, just this week we learned about the first identified target of russian meddling in the 2018 elections. The daily beast first reported that the Russian Intelligence Agency behind the 2018 Cyber Attacks targeted senator claire mccaskill. In a statement, the democratic senator, who is in a tough Reelection Campaign said, quote, while this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I have said it before, and i will say it again. Putin is a thug and a bully. Joining us now, a former cia operative and former independent president ial candidate. Also back with us, ruth marcus. A couple days ago, donald trump tweeted the following. Okay. People probably happy about that. Hes saying yes to that. Based on the fact that no president has been tougher on russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the democrats. Huh . They definitely dont want trump. Vladimir putin last week that he wanted donald trump to win. What is donald trump doing with a tweet like this . Hes doing what he always does, try to muddy the water. So it becomes a hes im rubber, youre glue. Absolutely. I know it sounds childish. But actually i think it works. When i say it works, im not saying it is a good thing. But what happens is and i talk to americans across the country. Theyre busy. Theyre getting their kids to school. Theyre working hard to make ends meet. And what they hear, they get bits and pieces of this back and forth where somebody says the president is doing this thing
wrong or hes this or hes that and the president uses those same words against them. And people just throw up their hands and say, look, i cant tell Whats Going On, whats true, whats right, whats wrong. And they give up and turn off. Thats one of the most alarming things. It is a seemingly silly tactic that does have an impact, unfortunately. Last week i was filling in for this show, and i told people what my favorite analogy for trump is, which is he has a white shirt. He gets a stain on his shirt is. Instead of changing his shirt because there is a stain there, hes just staining his shirt with whatever he has on hand. And then people look and they say, oh, the shirt is supposed to be like that. I heard you say that, and i agree. Ruth, it is not just the president who is throwing this sort of stuff out. It is now his National Security advisor. John bolton, who before this, i
guess, was a very strong russia hawk. But now hes saying the president believes the meeting should take after the russia witch hunt is over. So we have agreed it will be after the 1st of the year. What is john bolton doing, ruth . I first met him many years ago when he was an official at the Department Of Justice whose investigation he was now trashing. And thats just really shameful. I think that comment was one of those audience of one comments we see from Administration Officials so often. Thats just a comment thats sucking up to the president using the kind of language the president likes. But i want to Say Something. I think everything evan said was right. But i think hes actually being a little too kind to President Trump. I know thats not your usual mo, evan, which is in this way. It is not just that its i am rubber, youre glue. The president is laying the potential predicate when he talks about the russians intervening now on behalf of democrats to do something that he liked to do in the 2016 campaign, which is to complain that it is rigged. So if the democrats win, is it
going to be because the election was rigged . Is it going to be because the russians rigged the election for them . This is a very, very dangerous argument for him to be making. Im glad you brought that up. This is one of the things when we talk about the 2016 election, this is one of those things that people dont remember very well, what donald trump was doing in the last month of the election. We talk about wikileaks a lot. But he was also going out and claiming that there is a global conspiracy run by the media elites trying to keep him out of office and keep the every day man donald trump supporter, the working man down. They are trying to do this because they are trying to protect their special interests. He was saying these dog whistle sorts of things at the end of the campaign. When i read that tweet about they definitely want the democrats, i read it in the same way, which is that this is him laying the ground work for a rigged election because he thinks the democrats have a good chance of winning in the same way that he thought in 2016 he was going to lose and hillary
clinton was going to win. When he wins, its the biggest, most amazing, most historic victory and, you know, no matter what the popular vote was. But if he loses, he is just going to do everything he can to dismiss the legitimacy of it. And that is actually really what the russians want. They want americans not to be able to trust in their democracy or trust in their elections. And he is aiding and abetting them when he does this. This sort of thing is not going to help. Current and former officials tell mbc news that 19 months into his presidency there is no coherent Trump Administration strategy to combat foreign election interference. And no Single Person or agency in charge in the white house took issue with that. No such strategy has been made public or even mentioned before. Evan, they dont i mean, they dont seem to have a strategy in place. There is not a strategy. Thats there is not a whole of government strategy. Individual agencies and Leaders Within agencies are certainly taking the action that they can take. But the president has certain authorities, authorities to bring these agencies together, authorities to coordinate their efforts, authorities to deconflict their efforts, to make sure theyre efficient and effective. Without the president s leadership, we cant respond the way we need to respond. When the Office Doesnt Fall for the phishing scam, is that just luck . Is it just luck that she didnt fall for it . Is it just luck that somebody didnt click on an email . Because it was made to look like it was coming from the microsoft server saying you need to change your password. The prompt looked legitimate. It just brought you to a fake website where they were able to use that to get into the email. Sure. Is it just luck that somebody didnt by chance click on it this time. I think everyone is getting smarter, especially in campaigns about needing to protect information. But i would say that i would shy away if i were her, if i were the senate and im sure he gets this very well from conclusively stating that she hasnt been effectively hacked. She wont know that until its too late. Thats the reality. So, you know, im very concerned. And i think were going to see microsoft has already acknowledged that other 2018 candidates have already been hacked. Over time were going to learn and i have reason to believe that we will, that other candidates in difficult races, democrats in the senate, are being attacked. And the reason for that is they are vulnerable and the result of their elections will impact the
president and his you know, his Longevity Potential as president if he is impeached in the house. What happens in the senate really matters. It will likely hinge on a couple of races. There is also, remember td triple c emails that russia was able to get a hold of for the 2016 election that havent really made an appearance quite yet. So well see what happens with that. Evan mcmillan and ruth marcus, thank you very much. The Trump Administration went to court today. That is next. Some republicans are worried that the president will overhype the economic successes because not everyone is feeling the benefits. Ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. Xeljanz xr is a oncedaily pill for psoriatic arthritis. Taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain, swelling, and significantly improve physical function. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma, and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts, and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you