At todays sessions hearing. The equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. Major holes in tillersons sanctuary. Were we lobbying before or against . Im a germaphobe, believe me. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. There are just nine days until donald trump becomes president of the United States. Today we were inundated with news, much of it disturbing, about what to expect when he takes office. In fact there was so much news today it is, frankly, impossible for us to fully cover what we saw and heard, which may well have been the point. We are going to aggressively cover the issues we have deemed most important and they are big ones. Among them, the President Elect evoking nazi germany to characterize u. S. Intelligence agencies, offering kind words to the russians who the Intelligence Community believe hacked the dnc and clinton campaign. Trumps Secretary Of State pick exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson possibly lying under oath at his Conf
at all the other circumstantial evidence that they surrounding these meetings that they ve admitted to. i mean, we know that, for example, that mike flynn was paid half a million dollars to represent certain interests apparently to the benefit of the republic of turkey, which he reported on his financial i m sorry, on his lobby disclosure form after the fact, something that he had been doing while he was advising the trump campaign. we first reported that meeting involving jim woolsey that occurred in september. they denied that that discussion had taken place. they made all sorts of suggestions that it was mistaken. yet they did admit that they talked about gu lesson at that meeting. if you look at the lobby reports, it said they were trying to figure out a way to get gulen back to turkey. you look at the op ed pete s that mike flynn wrote on
our usual rule. they are false. why is this well, we know for example that mike flynn was paid half a million to represent certain interests apparently to the benefit of the republic of turkey which he reported on the lobby disclosure form after the fact. something that he had been doing while he was advising the trump campaign. we first reported that meeting involving jim woolsey that occurred in september, and they denied that discussion had taken place, and they made all sorts of suggestions that it was mistaken. and yet, they did admit that they talked about goolan at that meeting. if you are look at the lobby reports, you see that they were trying to find a way to get him back to turkey, and if you are look at the op-ed piece that mike flynn ran on election day that ran in the hill newspaper in which he essentially called him a terrorist, and said that
record show and not know that was happening and not know they were lobbying against sanctions. the second thing he said to me when i presented the evidence, he said to me well, it doesn t say whether we were lobbying for or against. in what world would he have lobbied for sanctions that would have hurt the bottom line of his company? so it clearly was at least not transparent and worrisome because if he really didn t know, how do you operate a large institution like the state department and what s your management style? he also exxonmobil responded saying let s be clear, we engaged with lawmakers to discuss sanction impacts, not whether or not sanctions should be opposed although that strikes me as a distinction without a difference if you come to a member s office and say this is going to hurt our bottom line you don t have to say that s why you should oppose it. absolutely. mr. tillerson said it was to seek information and guidance. well, you don t have to have a lobby di
to seek information or guidance. you have a lobby disclosure form because you are taking a specific position for or against a specific piece of legislation or regulatory action. that thing about getting information is not tenable because you don t need to do that to file a disclosure form. they were clearly lobbying against sanctions on iran, russia and other iterations of those sanction regimes. so was this fundamentally deceptive? i asked at the beginning but he says he never personally lobbied then you have your colleague saying you called me. do you feel the answers he gave today were forthcoming and truthful? no, i have serious questions as to what he answered. on the whole sanctions regime, which is part of our limited arsenal of peaceful diplomacy tools so you don t have to go to war over disputes, he had it all over the place. he has a history of lobbying against it to exxonmobil then he says they can be powerful a