Cares. That itself was an interesting thing to watch at the time. President ial nominee absents himself from the Party Platform process. Interesting. But what was way more interesting than that, what was riveting and bizarre to watch at the time that we Couldnt Make Heads Or Tails of at the time was the Trump Campaigns one exception on the Party Platform. Even hope the they let this other stuff slide, that was very much not in keeping with trump and the campaign, they did decide to get up on their hind legs and fight and intercede aggressively for one specific thing in the platform. One specific part of the republican Party Platform, and that was a thing about russia. There was a proposed plank for the republican Party Platform that said ukraine should get help from the United States up to and including lethal weaponry so ukraine could fight off russian incursions. And you know what, the Trump Campaign let Everything Else in the platform slide. Even stuff that might theoretically have bothered them but that, that ukraine and russia thing, they jumped right up on that and insists that plank only, that one, had to be taken out, that language could not stand and it was weird at the time and there was a lot else going on in president ial politics, it was the conventions, right . But even then as the russia trump questions continued to percolate and got more acute over time, ultimately trump the candidate did have to answer for what his campaign did with the platform at his convention. Why did you soften the gop platform on ukraine . I wasnt involved in that. Honestly your people were. Yeah. I was not involved in that. Id like to id have to take a look at it but i was not involved . Do you know what they did . They softened it, i heard, but i was not involved. I was not involved. In addition to the candidate himself denying having anything to do with it, his Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort, who had done all that work in ukraine, he also denied having anything to do with it. Theres been some controversy about something in the republican Party Platform that essentially changed the Republican Partys views when it comes to ukraine. How much influence did you have on changing that language, sir . I had none. In fact, i didnt hear of it until after our convention was over. Where did it come from, then. Everybody on the Platform Committee said it came from the Trump Campaign. If not you, who . It absolutely did not from the Trump Campaign and i Dont Know Who everybody is but i guarantee you it was nobody on the platform. So nobody from the Trump Campaign wanted that change in the platform . No one. Zero. So after the Republican Convention the candidate himself denies having anything to do with it. His Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort denies having anything to do with it, denies that neither he nor anyone from theTrump Campaign had anything do with it. How did it happen . Dont know, must have been fairies. Now that bizarre nonexplanation, those denials, have fallen apart because now a former Trump Campaign official has fessed up about it. Hes a former Trump Campaign official named j. D. Gordon and he says as a Trump Campaign official at the time taking orders from the Trump Campaign at the time hes the one who did it. He says now that he was the one who interceded in the republican Party Platform to get this language that would keep russia happy and he says he did it specifically at Donald Trumps request. Gordon says he was a part of the effort that was pushed by the Trump Campaign to put some language in the gop platform that essentially said that the Republican Party did not adcate for arming the ukrainians in their battle against prorussian seratists. That was a big issue flaring up at the time of the Republican Convention. That effort was successful in
having that language in the republican Party Platform. And i asked j. D. Gordon, why did you advocate for that language . And he said this is the language donald trump himself wanted and advocated for. This is just one thing that happened on the Trump Campaign. It was weird at the time. We got these denials that seemed implausible about it for months, now its falling apart. Why now . Why are people from the Trump Campaign now admitting that, yeah, they did change that plank in the republican Party Platform to make it nicer to russia . Why are they admitting it now after denying it for months . I dont know. But tonight as i said, this breaking news, politico is reporting that the fbi is on to this now, too because this russian citizen who worked with Paul Manafort reportedly visited Paul Manafort while he was running the Trump Campaign at the time and he reportedly later told people that what he came to the United States for last summer was to get that language
obtaining testimony from Christopher Steele for the inquiry into the Trump Campaign and ties with russia. Adam schiff told us last night that his committee certainly will want to get to the bottom of the details of that dossier and report what has been substantiated, what hasnt and find out how mr. Steele based those conclusions. He told us if its an issue of him not wanting to appear, him not wanting to face questions from the whole committee we more than welcome his cooperation in any manner he is comfortable. If its an issue about whether he is willing to come before the committee, i can say i am more than willing to go to him. I know there are other members of the committee who would join me in that. Thats an unusual offer from the top member of the Intelligence Committee. I will go to you, sir, i will go to a foreign country to get your testimony. Stay where you are, we can come to you. This is a guy who thinks he has safety issues. This is a guy who has been in hiding for weeks in fear for his own safety ever since he was
revealed as the author of this dossier of alleged russian dirt. The reason i raise the issue of that dossier in conjunction with this new information about the Trump Campaign now admitting that, yeah, they did change the republican Party Platform to make it more prorussian, the reason i raised these two things together, that dossier and finally us getting an explanation on what happened with that ukraine and russia plank and the Republican Convention, the reason i raised these together is because one of the Baseline Allegations of that dossier is actually it appears to be about that platform change. One of the things it alleges is allegedly a quid pro quo between the Trump Campaign and russia. The russian regime has been behind the apparent leak from the Democratic National committee to the wikileaks platform. The reason for using wikileaks was plausible deniability. The operation has been conducted with the full knowledge and support of trump and senior members of his campaign team. In return, the trump team has agreed to sideline russian intervention in ukraine as a campaign issue. And again i have to stress that we need to describe this dossier as an unverified dossier of russian allegations against donald trump. But everyday now, everyday i lead my show and i think im going to be talking about Something Else but everyday a new piece of it falls in place and this is just the latest one. In the last couple of weeks and days, even into tonight more pieces of it are falling into place. The Trump Campaign used to deny that any of its staffers, anyone related to the Trump Campaign had any contact with any russians during the campaign. Well, no, in fact, meetings between Trump Campaign people and russias have led to the resignation of the national
security adviser, thats led to the recusal of the Attorney General of the United States. The Trump Campaign as of last night is not only admitting a trip to russia by one of its official Foreign Policy advisers during the campaign but as of last night theyre now admitting this trip was authorized by the Trump Campaign at the time he went to moscow. Now politico. Com is reporting what is basically a direct russian tie to that change in the republican Party Platform to benefit russia last year. If politicos reporting is accurate, the fbi is looking into a Russian National who was previously suspected of ties to the Russian Security services and they are reportedly looking into his role in what the Trump Campaignowdmits were its efforts to what is it . Sideline russian intervention in ukraine as a campaign issue. To take russian intervention in ukraine out of the republican Party Platform as an issue. Its everyday another piece of it gets corroborated. So we will all continue to describe this dossier from Christopher Steele as unfounded and unsupported and that is true when it comes to the dossiers Baseline Allegation that the Trump Campaign not only knew about but they actively supported the russian governments attacks on Hillary Clinton and the russian governments hacking and intervention into our president ial election to benefit trump but even if that is as yet in itself uncorroborated and undocumented, all the supporting details are checking out. Even the outrageous ones. It seems like a new one each passing day. Now the author of this dossier has surfaced in britain and hes okay. About any u. S. Investigation of this matter. Seems like a very important question whether or not investigators are going to talk to him, whether they are going
to get testimony from the author of this dossier. With each passing day more parts of the dossier get supported by the facts and previous denials by the Trump Campaign, whether its about Jeff Sessions, michael flynn, carter page, about the ukraine platform, whether its about Paul Manafort, their previous denials are falling apart. And we are also learning more in dribs and drabs about the Law Enforcement investigations and Counterintelligence Investigations that are under way into the Trump Campaign in russia and we are learning more dribs and drabs everyday about what the Intelligence Committees in Congress Might be able to do in their investigations, whether or not they do it. So were learning more about what happened. Were learning more about what bull pucky the Trump Campaign denials were on this stuff. Were learning more about these investigations. What were going to talk about tonight in part is that there is up with other piece of this that is getting clearer each day and
its something Jeff Sessions has not recused from and the Intelligence Committees are not thinking about investigating it but its starting to feel like an urgent matter and that is the question of what happened after the campaign. Thats the question of whether russian intervention into u. S. Politics into high level top level u. S. Politics, whether it stopped during the campaign or whether it is still happening right now inside our government. And that sort of upsetting story is next. Various shouting heigh ho its off to work we go woman on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. And each job created by the Energy Industry supports two others in the community. Altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. These are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen,
all while reducing americas emissions. Energy lives here. With toothpaste or plain water. An their dentures all while reducing americas emissions. And even though their dentures look clean, in reality theyre not. If a denture were to be put under a microscope, we can see all the bacteria that still exists on the denture, and that bacteria multiplies very rapidly. Thats why Densts Recommend Cleaning with polident everyday. Polidents Unique Micro Clean Formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria. For a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture every day. Yesterday at the State Department nbc news intrepid veteran reporter Andrea Mitchell became the personification of pushy persistence trying to get the new Secretary Of State on the record on anything. Again, welcome. Reporter mr. Secretary, china said there will be consequences for the deployment now of antimissile defenses in south korea. Thank you. Reporter can you respond thank you. Thank you. Reporter can you respond to thank you, were leaving. Reporter mr. Secretary, can you respond to the threats from china . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lets go. Thank you. Reporter mr. Minister, are you sure the Trump Administration will be strong against Vladimir Putin. Thank you, guys, were leaving the room. Thank you. Andrea, press are departing the room. Lets go. Reporter we havent had time in here. Im sorry, you need to leave. Lets go. Lets go, guys. Andrea mitchell is a very nice person but shes obviously dogged at her work and at the end of the clip you can see how frustrated she is after Secretary Of StateRex Tillerson has given absolutely no response to any questions after andrea and other reporters were pushed out of the room at the State Department by state Department Staff. Its clear, state Department Staff know andrea well enough to be on a first name basis with her. They have seen her at the State Department for years if not decades but the Secretary Of State wont say a word. Wont say a word. And you see the look on andandre face there. I think part of the reason andrea seems so frustrated is this isnt a one time thing. This keeps happening. This is the second time a few days andrea has been put in this position. Ii mr. Secretary, can you do your job with the kind of budget cuts the president has proposed . What does it say about the priority of diplomacy in this administration . Thank you, everyone. Reporter do you think youll have a deputity time soon, sir. Lets go. Thank you, were done. Reporter when do you think you might have a deputy . Andrea, please, lets go. Andrea, come on, guys. This way, thank you. Out, please. Out. When we first played that tape a few days ago my reaction to it, you might remember, my reaction to it spontaneously was raise your children to be reporters. Its amazing tape of Andrea Mitchell and how she works and how hard she pushes to get information out of people in power but you know what . In addition to being an interesting thick there to see in terms of what it means to be a reporter and how hard she works, there is something very
serious going on there. What Andrea Mitchell was asking there what did she say . Do