Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Would have obstructed it. He has a right to defend himself. If he believes hes innocent, he is innocent, he should speak out. White house also moved quickly to frame trumps words as nothing more than his own personal view. Its not an order. Its the president s opinion. The president is not obstructing, hes fighting back. The president is stating his opinion. Hes stating it clearly. Hes certainly expressing a frustration that he has with the level of corruption that weve seen from people like jim comey, the president s angry. Frankly, most of america is angry as well and theres no reason he shouldnt be able to voice that opinion. But remember what the white house once told us about how we should regard what this president says on twitter. Are president trumps tweets considered official white house statements . Well, the president is the president of the United States so theyre considered official statements by the president. Hes willing to speak candidly about the reaction by
many lawmakers in the capital. Every morning we wake up and he tweets something. Muellers going to finish his investigation. The truth is all going to come out. Thats the best thing that could happen for the president and for the country. After that from senator rubio let us bring in our leadoff panel on a wednesday night. Peter baker, jill colvin, john heilman and harry litman. Former u. S. Attorney, former assistant Deputy Attorney general under president clinton. Peter, id like to begin with you. Id like to read to you what sally yates wrote on social media. Today our president called on our reduced Attorney General as shocking as that is. Whats more dangerous is weve gotten used to it. The rule of law wont evaporate overnight but it can slip away
if we let it. There we have the president s own words to judge him by. This is on him. This is one of those lessons we get to see if words have consequences. What is fascinating is how much this plays out in public out loud. What we see from the president s tweets is him saying what would have been a scandal has like president nixon been found to have said it privately in a taped session in the oval office. The tape that finally undid him in watergate was hearing him order his aides to tell the fry to layoff the watergate investigation. Here you have the president saying on twitter the Attorney General who reports to him should shut down the investigation directly. And it is in fact both surprising and yet not surprising. Its the kind of thing hes done for a year and a half. We have kind of as a society gotten accustomed to it to some extent. Harry, i dont walk around quoting u. S. Code. For gods sake i dont comment on that. Particularly on this argument you started hearing from someone late today as twitter still seems to so many people as a medium. This could still be kind of slow rolling obstruction in plain
sight and the three words in the Obstruction Portion are if youre trying to influence, intimidate or impede an officer of the court. How is this not that . How is this not that . Exactly right. And in some ways the notion of whether its preparatory or a command almost doesnt matter although its a very, very tenuous distinction. Its not only the president saying this but hes saying the same sentence right now. Surely anyone who heard those words in the oval office would think he better remedy the situation or hes going to lose his job. But if what the president is trying to do in a mild way or a dictatorial way is shut down the investigation, ill give you three other words which are obstruction of justice. Its the its a real possibility and especially, brian, given the whole run of different tweets, all of which are admissible. Hes really flirting with
the flurry of tweets. One confidante said that the president is, quote, in a dark place. The president has been furious. Its been building over the last couple of weeks. He was furious at the media the way that he felt that he was not given enough credit for the meeting with vladimir putin. Putin was portrayed, he felt like he didnt get enough credit for meeting with kim jongun in singapore. And youve got a president who feels the media is attacking him and the government is coming in and attacking him right now. You have in addition to the manafort trial on television, the president has been deeply shaken by the Ongoing Investigation of the audiotape and that set him off. The president is not in a good place. John heilman, what is it were witnessing . Were witnessing a combination of the president acting out what weve seen over and over, this is an expression of his id. Hes angry and afraid and he can see the walls closing in. I think hes somewhere close to panic right now, and thats part of Whats Going On. He still has some degree of political ability. If he wanted to fire rod rosestein, hed do that. We dont know whether hes right about this. He thinks theres a political consequence on capitol hill. If he didnt think there was political consequences, if he thought they would all role over he would do it. He manifestly believes that he would like to be shut the suit down. So youve got the president still making political calculations, not going as far as what his i think his core wants him to do. At the same time the outlet of twitter, it really is, you know, bill clinton. Can you imagine if bill clinton had walked up to the podium and
said, Janet Reno Should Fire ken starr. That would have provoked a cataclysmic scandal and a cataclysmic counter reduction, both democrats and republicans. The twit its a heck of a me its beneficial in other ways. Its the s ed 201 harry, are you a member of the club despite all of the great bylines. I may be a member. One confidante said that the president is, quote, in a dark place. The president has been furious. Its been building over the last couple of weeks. He was furious at the media the way that he felt that he was not given enough credit for the meeting with vladimir putin. Putin was portrayed, he felt like he didnt get enough credit for meeting with kim jongun in singapore. And youve got a president who feels the media is attacking him and the government is coming in and attacking him right now. You have in addition to the manafort trial on television, the president has been deeply shaken by the Ongoing Investigation of the audiotape and that set him off. The president is not in a good place. John heilman, what is it were witnessing . Were witnessing a combination of the president acting out what weve seen over and over, this is an expression of his id. Hes angry and afraid and he can see the walls closing in. I think hes somewhere close to panic right now, and thats part of Whats Going On. He still has some degree of political ability. If he wanted to fire rod rosestein, hed do that. We dont know whether hes right about this. He thinks theres a political consequence on capitol hill. If he didnt think there was political consequences, if he thought they would all role over he would do it. He manifestly believes that he would like to be shut the suit down. So youve got the president still making political calculations, not going as far as what his i think his core wants him to do. At the same time the outlet of twitter, it really is, you know, bill clinton. Can you imagine if bill clinton had walked up to the podium and said, Janet Reno Should Fire ken starr. That would have provoked a cataclysmic scandal and a cataclysmic counter reduction, both democrats and republicans. There are a lot of things about twitter. Its a heck of a medium in some ways. Its beneficial in other ways. Its the same thing that the op ed is in the New York Times in 2018. Those words are hanging out there. Harry, are you a member of the club despite all of the great bylines. I may be a member. Youll believe a mueller trump meeting when you see it . In other words, ill believe it when i see it like i dont think its going to happen. Im a long term Card Carrying Member of that club. I think however much they pare it down, it will be questions if he answers them falsely hell be subject to criminal charges. There will be questions did you know flynn was under investigation . We have new reports that shows he was. There are probably half a doze other thing that Trump Doesnt Know and mueller does and, yeah, i dont see his sitting down with them under any circumstances where theres criminal penalty and i dont see mueller situation. We knew if we needed any help that the president s words were going to be impactful. The minute we learned how many News Organizations got what the president meant to say, phone
calls afterwards, i know yours was among them. Absolutely. Theyre trying to make the part, this is an opinion, not a command. Thats because they understand there is a line. Thats where theyve drawn the line. He can express his opinion, they can say he wants to shut it down. There may be a moment he can change his mind. Hes been convinced and fired rod rosenstein, Firing Bob Mueller would create such a blow back against them . What hes trying to do is in effect continue to shape Public Opinion to make sure his base and maybe some other people believe this investigation isnt
legitimate. There isnt no reason to believe what might come out of it that might come out of this investigation and to prepare the ground with what will lay the groundwork when we hear about the investigation. Jill colvin, we mentioned three whole News Media Briefings for the month of july from the white house. They are, i should point out 10 for august so far. We had one today. The president is about to go down for ten days. Rush limbaugh was able to talk to him today. Is the philosophy going to be friendly as preferred . I know thats been a problem. If theyre trying to keep them into a standing press conference, go back and forth and make matters worse. I thought it was really
if he pulls over i can cut back to shave of my questions on obstruction of justice. Ive already got this case basically made. Its not a position of weakness. Does it get more highbrow than someone quoting review of New York TimesBest Seller Books . I dont think so. Thank you for helping us out. Coming up for us, is the president s behavior a clue of whats to come. We ask a former fbi agent what he thinks and if there were problems that popped up at the rally last night . You are not alone. We will have the track fringe conspiracy grouch behind them. Beneath the dome on a wednesday night. Are you ready to take your wifi to the next level . Obstruction investigation. He can throw this mornings tweet on the pile. Here with us to talk more about it, clint watts, former fbi special agent. His latest messing with the enemy, surviving in a social media world, hackers. I have to ask you if you came across the type of behavior were seeing from the nations Top Executive in your old day job at the fbi, how would that alter your investigation . What would that do . It adds to the pile. It continues the time line. Several interesting thing about this obstruction angle, Hearing Negotiation from the mueller team about taking written responses to questions and then sitting down for an interview. Im sure it adds to the pile. It continues the time line. Several interesting thing about this obstruction angle, Hearing Negotiation from the mueller team about taking written responses to questions and then sitting down for an interview. Im sure
isnt that just to get him in the door . It is. It can play very much to the president s disadvantage because strategically, he doesnt like to leave very much. Hell be working with so hes going to have to go in and understand and know what the state said, the president is at a huge disadvantage. He doesnt know everyone what mueller has talked to, what they have told him and what documents, texts, also match up to a time line. Weve seen here on nbc news. Well, comey when i got rid of him, it was because of the russia thing. These republicans are very damning. Even not actually obstruction. Its the attempt to be struck in terms of how the investigation progresses. The mueller team probably has all of the data it needs to ask the questions, have the president come in, its very difficult for the president to be consistent with the written statement and the bottom line. Any acknowledgment by those
around the president that his tone isnt always that of an innocent man . Reporter absolutely. His lawyers, his legal advisors, you know, around a year ago when he first started building up the legal team really emphasized to him that you cannot be making public attacks against mueller or against this investigation. They were successful. Last time trump would say no collusion and he pretty much tamped down in the personal attacks on mueller but that strategy he felt wasnt really working for him and there was a moment there was a particularly activist Michael Cohen raced and he had already been testing the water and the rhetoric. He had been told this investigation would be done by 2018 with his lawyers. He continues to see involvement from people in his administration and campaign. That was the moment he said, forget this. Im going on full attack mode. Rudy giuliani was brought in to be the public attack dog of the client. It is a major share we were when the latest advice. You wrote about the latest stage and looked at it in another way, it looks like
mueller is trying to say whatever you need to do to get the guy in here, get him in the door. Thats typically how these negotiations work. Yes. To the point the guests were making earlier, doesnt look like mueller is caving. Mueller really knows the answer to a lot of his questions and the point clint was making, to some extent, the trump does know what the documents are out there. They know what the witnesses have said to some extent. Mueller has more, many, many more pieces of this puzzle than the president s team does. He knows the answer. He wants to get those on record. Around obstruction, one of the main ones was to determine the presss impact. They want to give us and that is typical for how things go. Any of these sort of, you know, carefully Core Rio Graphed negotiations. Hes agreed to stick around and were going to put his web training to use. Clint, our thanks for now and shannon, our thanks for coming on. Coming up, incredibly expensive mens wear, wire homes. Why are transfers from Bank Accounts in cypress. When The 11th Hour continues. Paul manafort enters tomorrow. Prosecutors talked about how manafort made his money in the ukraine and how they contend he presented it to the United States. They have piles of evidence on how he paid for things largely through foreign bank transfers. Were guessing not a lot of members of our audience have paid for things through foreign bank transfers. The president who has sought to distance himself from his former chairman did weigh in today writing, quote, looking back on history who was treated worst, alfonse, killer or paul than ford. Coming up, incredibly expensive mens wear, wire homes. Why are transfers from Bank Accounts in cypress. When The 11th Hour continues. How he paid for things largely through foreign bank transfers. Were guessing not a lot of members of our audience have paid for things through foreign bank transfers. The president who has sought to distance himself from his former chairman did weigh in today writing, quote, looking back on history who was treated worst, alfonse, killer or paul than ford. Darling now serving Solitary Confinement although convicted of nothing. Where is the russia collusion. Thats our president. Here to talk about it, daniel goldman. And rachel is with us. Im sorry for the long day this makes for. Talk about what was presented today. The judges theory that hes not allowing photographs to be displayed in court but hes going to allow the jury photos when they go off some day to deliberate. Thats in part because he wants the trying to move quickly. Hes been adamant and theyre able to move. They were supposed to take three weeks and the government says they will fin next week. You might not want a person knowing how much Media Coverage this case is getting, but it seems like he might not let them show the jury. In the end they came in, they came in at the end of the day but they did get pictures of the 650,000 ostrich jacket and i think an 18,500 python jacket and all sorts of other very expensive suits. Man likes jackets. Counselor, a couple of questions for you. First of all, this is a nonsee questered jury. The president is tweeting about the defendant in a way that they can all see proclaiming his innocence. Where do we find that . What do we do with that . The judge will inspect the jury. Do not read about the case. Do not watch television about the case. This is a different world where were dealing with twitter. I dont know if the judge has instructed the jury not to read twitter but thats what they need to do. Were not see questered like the simpson trial, for example, but they have obstructed the two not to read any newspapers. We have to interrupt our conversation to ask rachel, have you heard such a charge from the judge . No. Im not sure he knows what twitter is. At 78 he will admit it. He always says i would say dont look it up in an encyclopedia, but im the only person who does that. Dont look it up online. Assuming they hold to that, they havent heard the trump tweets. You could be in a coffee shot and it might come across your
vision. Dan, we did hear he gave the government roles a couple of brush back pitches, shim movement. They keep showing the lavish lifestyle. You can over play that hand. Not a time to be a rich guy, but you have to understand the context of this. Its not just that he lived a lavish lifestyle although that is sort of his motive, particularly when the money dried up after he stopped working for kovich in 2014, that he wanted to continue this lavish lifestyle. You also have to be able to show in a Tax Fraud Case that what you declared for your income tax is less than what you actually earned. One way to do that is to show what we call in prosecutor world, unexplained wealth. How can you be playing out 6 million in cash, if, for example, you only declared that you made 1 million. It is very relevant evidence. I think what the judge is getting frustrated with is dont try to over sell it. Thats not really whats relevant. Whats relevant be is the money
not the photograph. So hes trying to stretch that and keep things moving. Rachel, what were the hints that rick gates, star witness, former manafort assistant, may not end up taking the stand . So one of the prosecutors did Say Gates May or may not testify. Obviously that caused a lot of commotion. But i think theres not much to it. Always prosecutors when told not to put in some evidence because a later witness will testify to it will say, well, we havent were not sure that person will testify so we should put it in now to make sure they can account for any possibility, you know, whatever might happen to rick gates. I think he was doing that the way prosecutors do and he did sort of immediately walk it back and saying particularly thats true of any witness. It would be shocking if rick gates didnt testify. He is a key witness in this case. Yes. And the defense is planning
to blame everything on rick gates but im sure prosecutors were preparing for that. Counselor, i have time for a yes or no . Yes, but i gave you a one word answer. The prosecution did not include gates very prominently in the opening statements. That would indicate they would always prosecutors when told not to put in some evidence because a later witness will testify to it will say, well, we havent were not sure that person will testify so we should put it in now to make sure they can account for any possibility, you know, whatever might happen to rick gates. I think he was doing that the way prosecutors do and he did sort of immediately walk it back and saying particularly thats true of any witness. It would be shocking if rick gates didnt testify. He is a key witness in this case. Yes. And the defense is planning to blame everything on rick gates but im sure prosecutors were preparing for that. Counselor, i have time for a yes or no . Yes, but i gave you a one word answer. The prosecution did not include gates very prominently in the opening statements. That would indicate they would certainly be calling him. The fact that they didnt is interesting. They didnt try the case with gates as a witness. Great thanks to our two guests. Terrific segment. Daniel and rachel, thank you both very much. Coming up, you may have seen them displaying the letter q. They are a Conspiracy Group willing to believe, say, perpetuate just about anything. Their story when we come back. man managing my type 2 diabetes wasnt my top priority. Until i held her. I found my tresiba® reason. Now im doing more to lower my a1c. I take tresiba® once a day. Tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerful a1c reduction. woman wed been counting down to his retirement. It was our tresiba® reason. He needs insulin to control his High Blood Sugar and, at his age, hes at greater risk for low blood sugar. Tresiba® releases slow and steady and works all day and night like the bodys insulin. vo tresiba® is a longacting insulin used to control High Blood Sugar in adults with diabetes. Dont use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Dont share needles or insulin pens. Dont reuse needles. The most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. Check your blood sugar. Low blood sugar can be serious and may be lifethreatening. Injection site reactions may occur. Tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions. Taking tzds with insulins like tresiba® may cause serious side effects like heart failure. Your insulin dose shouldnt be changed without asking your prescriber. Get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, fast heartbeat, extreme drowsiness, swelling of your face, tongue or throat,
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the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. The letters displayed prominently. We saw it on signs and shirts and the q stands for quonon. They got their start on the web. They received intel from the top of the government. There is no end to false rumors they pushed including a smear effort on youtube alleging several hollywood celebrities. They believe the Mueller Investigation is about obama and clinton and trump is made to appeal more as the cover. It goes on from there. A local news crew interviewed a q conspiricist at the trump event. Qanon stormed the great awakening. He said, this is the calm before the storm. That launched us into the q being military intelligence. Talking to all of us. Letting us know Whats Going On behind the scenes, letting us know the covert battle. What can you do . Spread it. Combat the mainstream media. Were fighting a battle on all fronts. There is a q coin. Here is the comment from trump that gave this group a lot of fuel. A photo op during a white house dinner for military commanders and their spouses. Note what the president says here which would normally be filed during the toss off work. Whats your thoughts . Talk. Its a storm. Whats the storm . Military people, i will tell you that. What storm, mr. President . Youll find out. Thank you, everybody. Calm before the storm. Nbc News Reporter ben cohen covers this and has been looking into the group and writing about them. Weve asked clint watts, former fbi agent to stick around. Ben, i guess their motives and beliefs, what else should we know about them . Unfortunately, you got it all right. Theres not much to know. This is a Conspiracy Theory that donald trump is doing everything right. Anything that looks like hes
military people, i will tell you that. What storm, mr. President . Youll find out. Thank you, everybody. Calm before the storm. Nbc News Reporter ben cohen covers this and has been looking into the group and writing about them. Weve asked clint watts, former fbi agent to stick around. Ben, i guess their motives and beliefs, what else should we know about them . Unfortunately, you got it all right. Theres not much to know. This is a Conspiracy Theory that donald trump is doing everything right. Anything that looks like hes doing it wrong is the right thing. Theyve misconstrued typos to make it look like hes in on it. At the end of the day this is a situation where people on the internet cant grapple with the
reality of the situation. Its to take out all of the disinformation. Thats what you see here, theyve accused people from celebrities to politicians of a sex ring. Its pizza gate. Its amped up with the help of people on twitter, reddit and facebook. You do your work as we do ours in a free society where its hard to limit this kind of thing. Its hard to squelch or suppress it. Look at the climate this is coming up in. Right. Going back two years ago we saw the kremlin pushing a lot of disinformation around the election. What were seeing now is a lot of high end production. The videos are very good which makes them more convincing. Youre seeing them spread very rapidly. The key phrase there, the calm before the storm. What you can do if youre a good social engineer and you can pick out the phrases and combine them into a conspiracy it seems more convincing to people who dont really know the details. Im not so much worried about russian disinformation, im worried about american disinformation. Its a Public Safety issue. Weve seen people show up with shutdowns, if you look at it it has all of the elements of what would be an uprising. So i think its a really dangerous phenomenon especially when you see it tied to the president and his rally. In the immortal words, its all Fun And Games until something goes wrong. Weve already seen it with the pizza gate. A man walks into a pizza parlor
and shot it up assuming there was a Child Sex Ring in the basement. Theres a guy who blocked the entrance to whoever dam. Since hes gotten into jail hes sent a bunch of wild letters to the president. Theres a guy in arizona who has for the past few weeks, he has a Felony Trespassing Charge because he believes that a Homeless Camp he was Live Streaming it on youtube and facebook until they brought it down. This has real life consequences and its happening all the time now. The people putting up q signs at trump rallies is not going to help it. Clint, how much do you fear this group is getting a wink and a nod from the right people to not stop and what can the government do in a free society . Part of the reason why this works is we asked politicians
that we see foreign media influence. We had a meeting in the senate. The Intelligence Committee was talking about the media and disinformation. They can make manipulated truths. They can do that faster than they can identify them and swap them down. In that lag time we have lots of changes happening. One in four dont think they should have their children back united. Four in ten dont actually think its a bad idea for russia maybe to medal in our election. This is like breaking something and dividing it. Those people with Sophisticated Technology that can mine and grab an audience and can slickly produce content can drive major events, political, Public Safety. You can get people to show up with rifles. This is a dangerous situation
and if our politicians are not tamping it down or not saying much or are letting it go, it could be really devastating to our country in the long run. In this world weve seen people can show up with guns theyve compiled on a 3d printer. The president has a rally in ohio. We will watch for this and see who turns out in both cases. Wed love to have you gentlemen both on again on this subject if youd agree to that. Thank you so much for coming on. Disturbing topic. Appreciate it. Much more ahead on The 11th Hour when we come right back. We are back just quickly with some reminders for you, especially our friends who time shift our broadcast. You can watch us any time you please by downloading the msnbc app. Right there on your phone. You can listen live each night
with some reminders for you, especially our friends who time shift our broadcast. You can watch us any time you please by downloading the msnbc app. Right there on your phone. You can listen live each night on sirius xm satellite radio. Were also available as a podcast. Completely portable. Really no reason why youd ever have to miss a single broadcast of The 11th Hour. Another break. When we come back, how it is that Richard Nixon got caught up In The Name Of this broadcast just today. Broadcast and truth be told of this broadcaster. Hes one of the great president ial historians and authors of this time. Michaels twitter feed does not disappoint. Just in the last few days he has given us Richard Nixon jumping off a limo, mid Town Manhattan 1956, general fords cue card from when he took the Oath Of Office and an early selfie taken by young jackie kennedy. But then today there was this from michael and we couldnt help but notice this it said The 11th Hour from this week back in 1974. Indeed, for Richard Nixon it was the proverbial 11th hour as articles of impeachment were marching towards him. Nixon announced his resignation august 8th. He remains the only president ever to do so. Michael remains one of the great sources of history on social