Andrea, it is great to see you, congratulations on 40 amazing years. It is great to work with you. Thank you. Good afternoon to all of you, i am kasie hunt in today for craig melvin. Stop this. The president tells is Attorney General to end the russia investigation in a string of tweets on the same day his form er campaign chairmans trail. The Press Briefing should start in about 15 minutes. Well see how they respond to questions about this. Plus, russian influence, hearing on capitol hill reveals russias push to sway American Voters went deeper than we thought. We all these talks, when do we see action to stop it . Off message, the president says you need to buy an id to buy
groceries the day after his administration floats the idea of a huge tax cut for the rich. We start with President Trumps twofold twitter attacks today demanding his Attorney General end the Special Counsel investigation. He defended the target of one of the biggest Indictment Results in that probe. Former Campaign Paul manafort. The White House Press briefing in about 15 minutes. We are expecting Sarah Sanders to take the podium and answer questions about why the president wants to end the probe that secured five guilty pleas and dozens of indictments. Lets start with our nbc News ReporterPeter Alexander at the white house and ken dilanian following the Manafort Trial in virginia. Ken, i want to start with you. What is the white house and how are they pushing back, there is some new reporting from Rudy Giuliani and the president s attorneys talking about the meaning of the word should . Reporter thats exactly right. The white house is pushing back by directing reporters like myself to the outside counsel. I will be the reporter who goes in the room within the next 45 minutes and Sarah Sanders will be walking out here in about 15 minutes from now. Here is what this all began with. It was in effect on extraordinary appeal, Jeff Sessions earlier on twitter. This is what President Trump tweeted. Well put it up on the screen. He says this is a terrible situation and Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now before it continues to stain our country. Bob mueller is totally conflicted and his 17 angry
democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to usa. The Washington Post heard from Rudy Giuliani and jay sekulow. Sekulow telling the post, the president did not have any order on this. We heard from Rudy Giuliani that it is established that the president uses his tweets to establish his opinions, he carefully uses the word should. We reached out to the Justice Department as well and they are declining to comment. Kas kasie. Because we know the president is so exactly careful of which words he chooses to use. Exactly. What did the president say about Paul Manafort . Reporter the president has been paying close attention to whats happening across the
river of that trial of this former campaign trying to distance himself in the past saying he was aman manafort campaign for five months. The president tweeted. Looking back in history, who was treated worse, alfonse capone, legendary mob boss, killer public enemy number one. The bottom line of this president is hes frustrated on this. He thinks that hes being connected to the Paul Manaforts case that he knows all of these charges relate to actions. It is worth noting that the
president then Kancandidate Don Trump knew manafort and he has known him for decades and manafort has lived at trump tower for a selected time. He did select him to go onto share his campaign without checking into that background. Peter, thanks. Ken dilanian tell us of the case. Reporter the jury has not told these prosecutors work for mueller. How extraordinary it is for the president of the United States to denounce his own Justice Department and fbi and unlawfully predicated Criminal Investigations over seen by his own appointee. We kind of got used to it from this president. As for the trial, it is so far from this political world in washington. Right now kasie, we are deep in the world of mens fashion. Do you own an ostrich jacket . Reporter i do not. Paul manafort does and the prosecution introduced some pictures of his closets at the condo from the fbi executed a Search Warrant and the next witness is the guy named matt katsman. The whole point is to show the jury Paul Manafort evaded taxes and spent money that was stocked in overseas Bank Accounts on these high end items and other evidence included Land Randolpher Arandolp Rover and 50,000 renovations on a couple of bathroom and property. The judge is constantly Paul Manafort is not on trial because he had a lavish style. Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Order. I think that i would rather be on the prosecution on that particular piece of evidence in the same way that he said would means wouldnt. To that point aaron. Shes right in the context of any one of us operating in a daytoday life with somebody and not just your boss but kind of the commander in chief of the United States of america tells you to do something, how else are you supposed to take it . I keep on thinking if i got my boss came to me and said hey, you should write about this thing. I would not take that as an option. I think maybe i should go write that thing. I definitely should if i want to watch out for my job. So i think that the question though whether that rises to the legal standards just because it is meant to be interpreted as a command. I think thats the argument that the president s lawyers are going to make. Matt miller, whats the
difference between the public and private version of this . One of the things thats interesting of the idea that mueller is going through the tweets. Often times we dont necessarily the president s keeping something secret. In this case, it seems that the public statements itself are problematic. They are just as powerful evidence as anything he said in private. If the president is taking direct action to conceal something, for example, when he asked all his staff to leave the room so he can have a one on one conversation with james comey. He knew what he was doing is inappropriate. If he were to do a Television Interview and directly admit what he did, why he did it with lester holt when he said i fired james comey because of the Russian Investigation. Thats powerful evidence against
him. Just because hes stupid enough to do it publicly does not mean it is any less damaging. Although there is the question of Contra Dridictions the president makes. The strategy, you say one thing and the other thing and it is totally contradictory and nobody know his state of mind. Is he doing that because hes trying to play in his defense of the Russian Investigation or is he all over the place . I dont think anybody knows the answer to that question. We spend a large portion of our time in the Media Psychoanalyzing the president trying to figure out what he means. Thats a game to an extent of the Mueller Investigation have to play, too. Jill, do you see any store rhistoric parallels that we need to focus on . Everyday is parallels. We are getting a pretty powerful case where the pieces of evidence are coming to ring tog now. I am going to count on viewers to come up with a fake nixons account. Matt miller before we go, we should not lose site of the fact that hes telling Jeff Sessions to end this. Of course, much of the president and much of his anger, we know hes angry about this. Jeff sessions had no choice to recuse himself. It was not an optional act. It was written in regulation. The president does not care about that and hes asking sessions to violate the Department Of Justice regulations and unrecuse himself and shut down the investigation into the president himself. Thats powerful evidence of the president corrupting. It is only wednesday. Aaron blake and ji
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about tresiba®. Covered by most commercial Health Insurance and Medicare Part d plans. Your hair is so soft did you use head and shoulders two in one . I did mom. Wanna try it . Yes. It intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. Manolo . Look at my soft hair. I should be in the shot now too. Try head and shoulders two in one. Right now we are waiting for the Press Briefing to get started on a busy day at the white house. It was scheduled to start five minutes ago. Fis first, after facebook revealed it uncovered operations similar to the one carried out in 2016. The Senate Questions digital and Social Media Experts on influences of the elections. T not just by the government but also by those who ought to
understand these tools best. Theyre creators. Nbc jo lynn kent is gjoining me now. Jo, i want to start with you. Have anything you have been monitori monitoring this morning, have anything stood out to you . Have you learned anything new today . U. S. Focus activities by the Internet Research agency out of russia spiked into mid of 2017. Thats a new nugget. Another thing we want to hit is talking about what we should be looking for going into the 2018 midterms. Automated accounts as we have reported are payable to put out much more devices content faster than humans so want to discord in the upcoming election and the individuals have been testifying have said faster than 25 or 30
acts. They are organizing facebook users bideny identity and other background issues and we are talking about antimuslims or antilgbtq and looking at extreme issues that can be used in extreme ways. I want to share some sound from some of the folks who testifies who this goes beyond facebook and twitter. We spend a lot of time talking about facebook and twitter. As renee highlighted and others have noted, this is a problem of the entire information ecosystem. This is crossed platform and reddit confirms hundreds of created accounts and tumblr did it and that platform was used to target the africanamerican community. This is why it is so difficult to quantify in any meaningful way the reach of these activities. This is across the entire
ecosystem. So kasie, what we are seeing is a continued attempt of manipulation. Facebook declined to say whether those problems, problematic pages or accounts came from russia or not. Senator mark warner says it is kremlins activities. There are a lot of voices weighing into this right now. The real center of the issue so far from this, one individual testifying saying extreme are screaming while the majority is whispering. It captures the sentiment of what we are learning today. Derek, i want to show you something that senator Susan Collins said today just exactly what the United States are doing with the problem that jo lynn just laid out. No, i dont think the administration is focused enough on this issue. For one thing, we no longer have a Cyber Security expert at the
white house whose sole job is to focus on issues like this. Thats a very porpt step that muy important step to take. It may be too late. Big question is will russia intervene of the 2018 elections in the same way we know . The answer is they started to try. Facebook shuts down over a dozen accounts. They found out certain profiles have been linked to the Internet Research agency, the ira have spent 11,000 on its platform. They essentially said help us work on this problem. You have facebook having this sort of realization that their platform is being used to so division and hate and disunity
of election year. You have the white house which is doing something completely different. Trump meeting with putin and refusing to say anything to russia acted inappropriately. You have the president repusing often to investigate moving further on these issues. I think shes exactly right. You have this remarkable situation where the business and political community, at least large parts of it are united in their efforts to combat russian attempts to intervene in our elections and the president of the United States is not only refusing frankly to help them, hes actually purposefully trying to shut down an investigation, illegal investigations into the origins of these efforts. It is a shocking thing. Jo, at this point, facebook is turning to our government
saying hey, can you help us get to the end of this and figure out the last mile of what is going on here, right . Well, facebook is cooperating with the Department Of Justice and fbi and other agencies in washington. The real issue is regulation and selfpolicing. These Major Tech Companies are not capable of policing themselves and running a flat form that can promote real true tiff or just the basic truth. There is not a political will right now, at least on capital hill to place regulations on these companies or sort out what it may look like. Theyre saying if it is necessary, they see a lot of political will coming out from the senate and the house and you got the Intel Committee hearing coming up from the week of september where you will hear jack dorsey and we dont know if the googles ceo is going to accept his invitation. Those are critical moments thats coming up that well be watching closely if anything can be moving. Thats september and the midterm is in november. Coming up very, very quickly. Nbc jo lynn kent and jared thompson. Thank you very much. Thanks. We are keep on watching the white houses brief pressing room. These briefings have become less and less frequent. There is quite a bit of ground to cover. The president in his element among his supporters, how he connects to the everyday man. His interesting take on what you have to do if you want to buy groceries. Im ray and i quit smoking with chantix. I tried cold turkey, i tried the patch. They didnt work for me. I didnt think anything was going to work for me until i tried chantix. Chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. Chantix reduced my urge to smoke. I needed that to quit. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. Serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be lifethreatening. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. Tell your Healthcare Provider if youve had depression or other Mental Health problems. Decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. The most common side effect is nausea. I cant tell you how good it feels to have smoking behind me. Talk to your doctor about chantix. Its a hightech sleep revolution. The sleep number 360 smart bed intelligently senses
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the leader of north korea has followed through on his commitment to return the first set of remains of americans to our homeland. These brave souls deserve nothing but our honor and respect. The families of these soldiers have been waiting for more than 60 years for their loved ones to come home. We hope that as remains are identified, families like those of commander, can find peace. John was assigned to quad ron 125 and was killed. Johns nephew wrote the president a letter explaining how his uncle was a special person who grew up in the Great Depression and wanted to serve his country. Another letter from mary telling the president how her uncle have been missing. She has a picture of her uncle hanging in The Living Room as a
reminder of the servihis servic country. The president is committed to them and will work to bring them the closure they deserve. We have seen alarming images of the wildfires causing Severe Damage out west. The white house and fema have been monitoring the wildfires to ensure federal assistance are provided as quickly as possible. As a result, fema has placed resources from eight different federal departments and agencies to support the efforts of local firefighters and relief organizations. The president will continue to monitor this ongoing emergency and make sure the people of california receive the assistance they need to keep them safe and recovered. Our prayers are with the firefighters who recently lost here lives battling these fires and their grieving families. The president have been closely
following in turkey involving the pastor. Pastor brunson, we have seen no evidence that he has done anything wrong. We believed hes a victim unfair by the government of the turkey. The department of treasury is sanctioning turkeys minister of justice. Both of whom played leading roles of pastor brunson. As a result, any property or interests in property of both ministers within u. S. Jurisdictions is blocked. For anything further, i would refer you to the Treasury Department on that front. With that, i will take your questions. We would appreciate if you can give us more one of those turns out of the president s
tweets this morning about the russias direction of sessions asking to end the muellers pro probe right now. It is not an order, it is the president s opinion. It is ridiculous that all of the corruption and dishonesty thats gone on with the launching of the witch hunt, the president has watched this process play out. We look for that happening. You mentioned that the transfer of these remains. There is a report yesterday that north korea is still assembling icbms that it is not yet possible to verify remains. How did that meet some of the
tests that north korea is fulfilling its commitment. I am not going to comment on the first part of your question in. In terms of the remains, we have the best of the best that have been working over the last several weeks on this process. Well keep you updated on this. We feel comfortable in the assessment that they made up up until the point. John. Sarah, on the tariffs proposed against china, the figure for tariffs was 10 . The president wants to take it up to 25 . Whats the reason behind increasing from 10 to 25 and in a ticfortat. Who has more bullets . China or the United States . Well have an update later today and there will be a call at 3 30 this afternoon to
walkthru the walk through the details o f that update. The bottom line is the president is going to continue to hold china responsible for their unfair trade practices. This is gone on for long enough and hes going to do something about it. Does the president believe that the president have made some head waves with the e. U. In terms of taking steps and leveling the plain field. Does the president s team believe thats possible with china without some punitive measures. We would like to see the plain field levelled, the president as both he and i think about 15 members of his administration have said repeatedly we like to see the unfair trade practices. Until that happens, the president is going hold their feet on the fire. Hell dont put pressure on china. Hes not going to sit back and
allow american industry and workers to be talkken of. Jay. Evangelicals have been up . Arms of last years tax law, there is a provision in there that forced them to pay 21 of federal income tax. Can i assure that they dont have to pay a new tax . I am not going to make a blanket generalization. The Reform Package was to provide the greatest amount of relief to the greatest number of americans and we feel that it has done that. We feel that the other policies that the president has put forward when it comes to the economy have move to the balfour ward and making our economy stronger than it has been in decades. I think you can see that by all of the numbers that have come out over the last year and a half. Hunter. Thank you, sarah. What does the president prepare to do to make sure they keep their Tax Exemption . Certainly something that we are looking into but i dont have anything specific. Any threatening letter or communication aimed a aat Rudy Giuliani issued a statement saying he does not think this mornings tweet is obstruction because the president says sessions should stop the Mueller Probe. What i want to know is Rudy Giuliani the one giving the president legal advice on his tweets and does that statement reflect the opinions of the president s legal team. The president is not obstructing. Hes Fighting Back and stating it clearly and expressing the frustration that he has with the level of corruption that we have seen from people like jim comey and peter strzok and andrew mccabe. There is no reason he should not be able to voice that opinion. Margar margaret . Tesla plans to spend 5 billion to build a plant in china. Certainly we love to see all American Companies investing here and i dont have anything specific on tesla but we would encourage all companies to build their plants in america and put their investments here and not engage and help bolster like china that continues to be apart of of a very unfair process and very unfair trading practices. John. Thanks a lot sarah. There was reaction to the president s tweets today from some of his allies on capitol
hill. Republican senator hatch says i dont get what hes trying to do and another senator says the Mueller Investigation needs to move forward and let them complete their work. It needs to be completed and not cutoff. We would like for it to be completed sooner than later. It has gone on for an extensive amount of time and they still come up with nothing regards to the president. We said it for a number of time. So we agree on that front. Sylvia. We are tight on time because the president is going to be speaking. Sorry, john. Just because we are tight on time, i will try to get to as many as possible. Even if there are ten people that are voting illegally, it should not happen. The president wants to see the
integrity of our Election System upheld and thats the purpose of his comment. He wants to make sure everybody thats voteing should be voting. It should be celebrated and not discriminated. [ Inaudible Question ] i never had to show an id when i go to the Grocery Store. If you go to a Grocery Store, if you buy beer and wine, you are going to certainly show your id. Hes not saying every time he went in, he is saying when you go to the Grocery Store, i am sure everybody in here whos been to a Grocery Store that purchased beer or wine probably had to show their id. If they did not then there is a problem with the Grocery Store. Major go ahead. You wanted the investigation to end and also without any
obstruction meaning without any interference. Many described the tweets this morning as blowing off steam. It is just an opinion that hes throwing out there and had nothing to do of his control of the the president is stating his opinion. It is Crystal Clear how he feels of this investigation from the beginning. Sarah. You said a moment ago, the investigation itself is corrupt. The Mueller Investigation and you mentioned comey and mccabe and strzok. It was paid for by an opposing campaign and had a lot of corruption within the entity which was overseeing which was peter strzok and james comey and andr andrew mccabe, we laid it out a number of time. If it is corrupt, why
diplomat the president just end it . The president is allowed this . The president has allowed this process to play out but he thinks it is time for it to come to an end sarah, go ahead. Thank you, sarah. I want wondering if you can clarify this tweet from this morning. Is it the president s desire for sessions to unrecuse himself in the probe and is it his desire for the Special Counsel to be fired. I think i have clarified this ten times. It is the president s opinion, i dont have anything further. Steve. Last night at the rally, the president again pushed for creation of a space force of a new military branch. The Defense Department missed the deadline, we are told that the white house twice rejected drafts because of the Defense Department does not want a space force. How is the president going to
force the creation of a space force . We are continuing to work with the department of defense to figure out and determine the best way forward, something that the president feels strongly about and well work with our team there and figure out the best solution. I have a question about the president meeting with inner city pastors. Secretary carlson have pushed policies raised on poor people and antiimmigration initiatives. What is the president going to say to these inner city pastors who may be hurt with these policies. Hearing their concerns. I know the primary point of discussion for today is to discuss prison reform. I would not be surprised if they raise those issues. Thats why the president invited them here so he could have those ongoing conversations and determine the best. I am Sor Practicalthose poli
on people, are they helping inner cities . I would have to look at the cities, i would be happy to do that after the briefing. I am told it is under discussion for cuts as low as 25,000 next year. Does the president feel that this country admits too many refugees and what is the proper level is and what is the rational this is part an ongoing discussion and no Policy Decisions have been made but well keep you posted. I am sorry . Does the president think there are too many refugees coming into the country. The president wants to make sure who comes to the country, who they are. They pose no danger or threats to tamericans. We want to make sure we have the processes in place and the ability to vet any individual that would come into this country if the department of Homeland Security and other
agencies that they would work in coordination with, determine that they dont have the ability to vet a certain number then certainly the president would have concerns with that. The number one priority is National Security and making sure we have the ability to properly vet and process any individuals that come into this country. Jeff. Sarah, you said the president wants this investigation to be completed. He has not made the decision to sit down with bob mueller. Is he apart of dragging this out . When he tells you something personally, do you take it as a directive or as his opinion . On the first part, i would refer you to the president s outside counsel and the second part, sorry when he tells you something as a member of the staff, how do you know if it is a directive or an opinion. The president makes it clear when i am having the conversation with him. The tweet this morning said that he wanted to it is time
for the investigation to be stopped. Did the president know that the president cant stop the investigation . The president is aware of how the process works. Hes stating his opinion once again. David. Has he spoken to the nra about this . The Department Of Justice made a deal without the president s approval. The president is glad this effort is delayed to give more time to reveal the issue. Steve. The case of the pastor in turkey. Are you talking about the i am practiisonment of pastor bru . Is he upset about it . I think you can see in the actions of the president has made today that hes not happy
of turkeys decision not to release erdogan. Does the president support the possibility of taxed, and te possibility of a shutdown, is the president talking about endorsing a Government Shutdown before novembers elections, after novembers elections, or both . On the first part of your question, this is something that has a lot of support from various people. No Administration Policy has been determined. The president asked the Treasury Department to look into it. On the second part of your question in regards to the shutdown, the president isnt focused on the timing of before or after the election. He is focused on the results. He has been talking about this for a year and a half. Our Immigration System is completely broken and he is begging and has been for congress, particularly democrats in congress, to step up, do their jobs, stop kicking the ball down the field, and actually work with him to fix our system. Its that simple. Reporter does the president have a personal opinion as to whether or not the Current System works or should be changed . He asked the Treasury Department to look into it. David. Reporter thank you. Last night in tampa, does the president encourage the support of people who showed up in these qanon and blacks for trump Fringe Groups . Secondly, is the white house willing to say right now in view of what happened with one of our t. D. Colleagues last night that it is wrong for his most vocal supporters to be menacing towards journalists doing their jobs . On the first part, the president condemns and denounces any group that would Insight Violence against another individual. Certainly he Doesnt Support Groups that would promote that type of behavior. We have been clear about that a number of times since the beginning of the administration. On the second part of your question, the president , as i just said, does not support
violence against anyone or anything, and we have been very clear every single time we have been asked about that. When it comes to the media, the president does think that the media holds a responsibility. We fully support a free press, but there comes a high level of responsibility with that. The media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable National Security tools. This has happened in our administration and in past administrations. One of the worst cases was the reporting on the u. S. Ability to listen to osama bin ladens Satellite Phone in the late 90s. He stopped using that phone and the country lost valuable intelligence. Unfortunately, its standard to abandon common sense ethical practices. We condemn violence against anybody, but we ask that people act responsibly and report accurately and fairly. Sarah. Reporter they were trying to
prevent a broadcaster from getting his broadcast out and yelling that his network sucks. Is that right or wrong . What was the first part of your question . Reporter no one was being violent in terms of Hitting Anybody and no broadcaster was broadcasting state secrets. They were trying to do standups at a public rally, and people were trying to yell over them preventing them from doing their jobs and yelling their network sucks on live tv. Do you support that or not . We support Freedom Of The Press and freedom of speech. We think that goes hand in hand. Ayesha. Reporter talking about the tweets earlier, President Trump tweeted about manafort and comparing his treatment to that of capone. He seems to be saying being treated unfairly. Does the president feel like Paul Manafort is being treated unfairly . When he talked about this issue of Solitary Confinement and the fact that manafort hasnt been convicted yet, does this
administration have a larger concern about Solitary Confinement being used for people who havent been convicted outside of Paul Manafort . I am not aware of a specific Policy Position that the administration holds on that front. Certainly the president s been clear. He thinks Paul Manafort has been treated unfairly. Steve. Reporter ill take it. Two questions. Can you confirm if the president has accepted the invitation from the Prime Minister to be the special guest . I know that the invitation has been extended. I dont believe a final decision has been made. I do know that both Secretary Mattis and secretary pompeo will be traveling to india, i believe its next month, and will begin the dialogue and the process and potential discussion for a president ial visit later in the year. Reporter a historic election, and mr. Kahn, he ran on a Corruption Election in pakistan. He had very little to say good things about india, u. S. , but he is the Prime Minister of pakistan today. How you are going to deal with him . The United States reporter u. S. pakistan relations . Certainly the United States and india have a deep and abiding Strategic Partnership and we are going to continue to build on that partnership and advanced cooperation. I think you will see that at the meeting that will take place with Secretaries Pompeo and mattis next month. Reporter does the president believe Paul Manafort is innocent of the charges he faces . I dont believe thats the president s role to play. He believes he is being treated unfairly. Reporter the views of the president saying that Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions should stopped this rigged witch hunt right now. Has the president said that directly to Jeff Sessions at any
point . I am not aware of the President State his opinion. One last question. Reporter at any point to Rod Rosenstein . Not that i am aware of. Reporter a to a t on to that. Its his opinion that the Mueller Probe should play itself out . The president believes that hes watched this process, frankly, play out. Hed like to see it come to a conclusion since its been going on for the better part of a year and a half and they have found no collusion between the president , as he said many, many times before. The president has an event in a couple of minutes. Reporter you said the president believes he can fire mueller. So doesnt it look weak on twitter for him to say sessions should end this probe when its rosenstein that could end the probe and the president believes he can end the probe . Its not weak for the president of the United States to state his opinion. Thanks so much, guys. I want to bring in msnbc justice and security analyst
matthew miller and the Washington Posts aaron blake. They are still with me. Lets talk through a little bit of what we just saw there. This was a chance to ask the white house questions about the president s tweets this morning. Sarah sanders said the tweet about bob mueller. Is is an opinion. The president is not obstructing, she said. He is Fighting Back. She said most of america is angry about this. She also said that she defended we were going the viewers before we went into that live a clip of the president saying you have to get carded to you have to show an i. D. To buy groceries. She said he was talking about buying beer and wine. Just goat that to get that on t she is arguing this tweet in itself wasnt a criminal act because he was expressing an opinion, not issuing an order. Maybe. Maybe not. I think it will depend how that tweet is interpreted what he means by should, whether that is
interpreted as usually a Cabinet Officer hears a president say you should do something, you interpret that as an order. It could still be powerful evidence of the president s criminality when taken together with Everything Else hes done to interfere with this investigation and try to get it stopped. I think thats what the Special Prosecutor is probably looking at. The most interesting sentence in that briefing was when she said the president is not obstructing, he is Fighting Back. This is actually something that the president has said before, both in an interview in january and in a tweet in april. Thats also something that, by the way, could be used as evidence of obstruction. They are leaning into this. They want this fight. They want people to react to what the president is saying. They dont seem to be afraid that these things are being taken as evidence. When you say Fighting Back, thats the white house saying here that these actions are being taken on the president s behalf. Thats not him making sure that this investigation is clean and
that we have a good government. Thats him saying this is about me, im Fighting Back personally in this investigation. So the fact that they would put that forward in light of this controversy, i think, is really interesting. That really is, matt, kind of the whole strategy that the president s legal team is employing. They are quote unquote Fighting Back to destroy the credibility with the president s supporters . There are ways to fight back against a Criminal Investigation that are appropriate. I should say that are not criminal behavior. Whether the president does it or not the president doing it is different than any other subject of an investigation doing it because he has a responsibility for the Justice Department as head of the executive branch. I think that lets talk about Paul Manafort for example. He is on trial right now for tax fraud and bank fraud. Also under indictment for Obstruction Of Justice in d. C. For tampering with witnesses. I think Paul Manafort like a lot of other defendants would say what were doing is just Fighting Back. Doesnt mean it holds up in