Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Our colleague Kristen Welker there is still a steep hurdle to an interview with robert mueller. It would, quote, raise significant article ii questions going to the heart of president ial authority. Its not just about this president but about the presidency. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani spokes with axios. They report, quote, there are two topics the president s lawyers want to rule out in order to agree to a trump sitdown with mueller. One, why trump fired fbi director james comey. Two, what trump said to comey about the investigation of former National Security adviser michael flynn. Tonight, bloomberg has also spoken to giuliani and also reports that those two topics are off limits. According to bloomberg, giuliani said, quote, if asked the president would tell the Special Counsel that he didnt urge comey to stop Investigating Flynn and Didnt Fire Comey to cut off his investigation into russian int
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Election, that means the more careful you have to be in how overtly you investigate or charge someone who is going to be on the ballot in that election. First of all, donald trump, as far as i know, is not on the ballot in 2018. So this whole issue about them affecting the election is actually pretty tangential. Its not clear how much it applies. But mueller is so clearly cautious and observant of precedent and law. Yes. So he will take it into account. But its sort of a sliding scale. Trumps not on the ballot. So you dont have to be quite as careful as, for example, charging someone like collins who is up for reelection. So there they had to be very, very careful. And also, you know, you have to not you dont have to stop the whole election the whole
investigation. Can you pause some aspects of it . You just dont want to do something overt. He can keep doing lots of stuff, its not like theyre goi
By the thousands still left. Theres approximately 8,000 of those still left. And so we will not have a winner, we will not have a concession by a loser, in this race until all of those votes are counted by august 18th. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Tonight, President Trump calls the russia investigation an illegally brought rigged witch hunt but says stay tuned. While Rudy Giuliani puts the chance of a sit Down With Mueller at 50 . In the manafort courtroom, the judge tells the jury disregard my criticism of the prosecution. And nearly one year later are we getting closer to learning the truth. What really happened in the dark aftermath of Hurricane Maria in puerto rico. The 11th hour on a thursday night begins now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 567 of the trump
presidency. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani spoke with axios. They report, quote, there are two topics the president s lawyers want to rule out
it s sort of money grubbing, greedy corruption, to make money, emoluments as they call it, to make money out of their office. you see the same type of coverups and, frankly, lying. when somebody who is the president of the united states says things that aren t true, that should still unnerve us a bit. and trump is much different from nixon, he kind of does it in public, which is try to obstruct justice. but it s still very unnerving that you re breaking down the rule of law, especially when republicans had always been strong about the rule of law, always been strong against corruption, always, you know, been strong on character, which is the most important issue when we select our leaders. do you think, in 30 seconds or less, seeing this stuff in plain sight, is harder for us to discern in the public realm when the president tweets something that he couldn t possibly have meant that. well, of course he does. that s a really good point, it s hiding in plain sight. it s a coverup tha
or less, seeing this stuff in plain sight, is harder for us to discern in the public realm when the president tweets something that he couldn t possibly have meant that. well, of course he does. that s a really good point, it s hiding in plain sight. it s a coverup that s not a secret coverup. it s being done in plain sight. and it s weird how our own immune system to this types of thing gets a little bit jangled when people do it in plain sight. thank you. great to see you. those parents watching, send your kids to tulane, they ll get to sit in his class. walter isaacson with us here in new york. coming up, would you believe over a thousand dead in puerto rico as a result of hurricane maria? it s certainly now matching what the people on the ground there had been seeing and saying. we ll explain when we come back. it s kind of like playing your own version of best ball.