Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20191128

The recently fired secretary of the u. S. Navy has published an oped for the ages. This man, former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was pushed out by the president on sunday over the disciplining of a navy s. E. A. L. Who had been convicted of posing with the corpse of an isis fighter, which is against military policy. The president had intervened to stop the ces. E. A. L. From being demoted and losing his status as a s. E. Al. In this remarkable oped tonight in the Washington Post the former Navy Secretary delivers his side of the story. Secretary spencer calls the president s intervention shocking and unprecedented. He continues, quote, it was also a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices, end quote. Now, thats not the usual thanksgivingeve message but welcome to 2019. Today we saw a slew of new impeachment related developments as well as new legal developments concerning the president s advisers both past and current. This morning the federal judge overseeing the case of President Trumps First National security advisor Michael Flynn agreed to delay his sentencing. Flynn, you will remember, pled guilty in 2017 to lying to the fbi about his conversations with the russian ambassador. He he had scheduled to be sentenced on december 18th. Today at the request of both flynns lawyers and prosecutors, d. C. District judge emt sullivan agreed to postpone flynns sentencing date until after the departments Inspector General issues a report into the origins of the russia investigation. Now, the president and his allies have recently been hyping up that report and its potential to outline major wrongdoing by fbi figures who were tasked into looking into the russia scandal. The president recently said the reports conclusions may be, quote, the biggest scandal in the history of our country. The biggest scandal in the history of our country. Except from whats been reported publicly thus far there seems to be little basis for that assertion. Today we got a new headline on what to expect courtesy of the New York Times. You see the headline here, russia inquiry review is expected to undercut trump claim of fbi spying. According to a draft copy of the report, the times reports tat the Inspector General, quote, found no evidence at the fbi attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Trumps Campaign in 2016. As the president and his supporters have maintained. We should note nbc news has not independently confirmed this reporting, but it tracks with previous reporting that the Inspector Generals report is likely to show no political bias on behalf of top fbi officials and that there was a proper legal basis for surveilling certain Trump Officials during the campaign. And the Inspector Generals report is due to land on december 9th, by which Point Congress is already going to be waistdeep. And new information continues to pour out eroding holes in his defense. Yesterday the New York Times reported that the president had already been briefed about the whistleblowers complaint before he finally decided to unfreeze 391 million in military aid to ukraine that he had ordered halted earlier in the summer. The release of the final remaining deposition transcripts, by this man, the house intelligence chair adam schiff, also led to the new previously unreported bombshell that two officials at the white houses office of management and budget resigned over concerns about that hold on military aid to ukraine. Today today also brought new word about the possible motives of the president s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, whos been at the heart to pressure ukraine. Alleged that giuliani pursued business deals worth hundreds of dollars from the same Ukrainian Government that was supplying him with damaging information about the bidens. Were going to have more on those reports and on giulianis potential lead in the liability coming up in the show tonight. But the new reports about giuliani comes as President Trump seeks to distance himself from his lawyer, saying in a new interview that he did not direct giulianis efforts in ukraine. Now, that assertion flies in the face of public testimony by multiple witnesses in the impeachment inquiry who told lawmakers over the last two weeks that giuliani was central to efforts by trump to get the Ukrainian Government to launch investigations into the 2016 election and his domestic political rival, joe biden, as a condition of receiving military aid, and a much sought after meeting with the president in the oval office. And a lot of people heard that testimony. New figures provided by nielsen showed at least 70 million americans tuned into at least some of the hearings over the past two weeks. Those who did were treated to devastating testimony from a procession of fact witnesses who laid out the details of the president s conduct and what they knew about a secret shadow diplomacy that undermined our ally ukraine as it continues to fight a hot war against russia. Here is some of that testimony. There appeared to be two channels of u. S. Policymaking and implementation. One regular and one highly irregular. I was concerned by the column. What i heard was inappropriate and i reported my concerns. It is improper for the president of the United States to demand a Foreign Government investigate a u. S. Citizen and a political opponent. Mr. Giulianis requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a white house visit for president zelensky. Mr. Giuliani demanded that ukraine make a Public Statement announcing the investigations of the 2016 election dnc server and burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the United States. So you heard President Trump ask ambassador sondland is he going to do the investigation . Yes, sir. What was ambassador sondlands response . He said, oh, yeah, hes going to do it. Hell do anything you ask. Ukrainians who prefer to play by the old corrupt rules sought to remove me. What continues to amaze me is that they found americans willing to partner with them in working together they apparently succeeded in orchestrating the removal of a u. S. Ambassador. As i said on the phone, i think its crazy to with hold Security Assistance for help with a political campaign. And what did ambassador sondland say tell you that he told mr. Yermak . That the ukrainians would have to have the prosecutor general make a statement with respect to the investigations as a condition of having the aid lifted. I refused to be part of an effort to legitimize an ultimate narrative that the Ukrainian Government is u. S. Adversary and that the ukraine not russia attacked us in 2016. These fictions are harmful even if theyre deployed for purely domestic political purposes. I dont think that raising 2016 elections or Vice President biden or these things i consider to be conspiracy theories that have been circulated by the ukrainians, particularly the prosecutor general, theyre not things we should be pursuing as part of our National Security strategy with ukraine. When youre talking to the president of the United States, the secretary of state, the National Security advisor, the chief of staff for the white house, the secretary of energy, i dont know how thats irregular. Was mr. Giuliani promoting u. S. National interests or policy in ukraine, ambassador . I dont think so, maam. Mr. Kent . No, he was not. What interests do you believe he was promoting, mr. Kent . I believe he was looking to dig up political dirt against a potential rival on the next election cycle. That public testimony from the impeachment hearings is now being written up into the a final report led by adam schiff. Schiff says the report will be handed to the Judiciary Committee soon after Congress Returns from the thanksgiving recess potentially as early as monday. The Judiciary Committee has already scheduled its first public impeachment hearing for next wednesday. That hearing, according to politico, will feature a panel of constitutional experts and focus on the definition of an impeachable offense. The committee will reportedly use the hearing to analyze the evidence gathered by the house intelligence committee. In addition, politico also reports that the committee is expected to hold at least one more hearing in addition to the one next wednesday which could come the second week of december. Committee chairman jerry nadler extended an invitation to President Trump or his lawyers to appear at next weeks hearing alongside the constitutional experts on the panel. The white house is currently deciding whether or not to participate. Tonight politico play book reporting the white house involvement in those hearings is unlikely. Quote, as of right now people close to the president , donald trump on the white house staff and on capitol hill do not believe he will send a lawyer to participate in next weeks judiciary impeachment hearings. So what do we expect going f forward . Kyle, good to have you with us. A lot of the reporting i just quoted is your reporting. Lets talk about first of all chairman nadler, the attention is now going to move to him from the intelligence committee. Hes given the white house until sunday night to decide whether theyre sending donald trump, donald trump and lawyers or lawyers for donald trump to this hearing. Its been a big part of the discussion from republicans youre not letting us have youre not letting the president have his say or any part in this. What is likely to happen . As my colleagues reported it does seem unlikely at this moment the president is going to send his lawyers to capitol hill to participate in this hearing. They just dont see a benefit at this moment because first of all were talking about the hearing off the constitutional definition of high crimes and misdemeanors. Not necessarily going to be riveting tv but its going to be a high part of launching an impeachment proceeding. Even republicans on the committee are saying dont bother sending your guys, this isnt the time. What they want to know is when does the president get to call his own witnesses and will he be allowed to question those witnesses . And when we get to those sort of procedural elements, it definitely may see more interest its going to be a different flavor. The Intel Committee hearings were fact witnesses or people providing context about russia, ukraine and the United States and the strategic history. This is not what the Judiciary Committee is going to be doing. Theyre going to be evaluating whether the facts are constitutional requirements that the president has. And applying this to this idea does this warrant the removal of the president from office . Does this meet the threshold of high crime and dmisdemeanors . Its be fascinating but all extremely high level. This report adam schiff is going to hand over to the Judiciary Committee maybe some time next week, he said after the thanksgiving recess, is that a report were likely to see, our viewers are likely to see . We expect that to be a public report that will essentially be the framework of at least some portion of the articles of impeachment that the Judiciary Committee will ultimately draft. But you went through a litany of stories at the top here that suggests the facts are still in some ways coming out. Thats the one unusual piece we have here is this a fast moving situation where were learning new details about the actual investigation every day. And so what those articles will look like and whether the facts will be completely different and new elements will come out and new witnesses will before theyre drafted is a big question mark. Before it all starts to sound the same and drip together, the very interesting piece of news that is being reported tonight by newspapers is that the president caught wind of the fact there was a whistleblower complaint. He knew the gist of it, and then released the money and said to Gordon Sondland and others, no quid pro quo. The idea that the money was released because they knew there was an investigation going to be happening. Right. And in some ways there was already evidence of this. We know that the democrats had announced an investigation of ukraine matters on september 9th, two days before the aid gets released, but this tells you even more that the president and his team was aware at least in a broad way of what the whistleblower had concerns about. And so we now know a new element of the time line just gets introduced, usually these things are wellsettled by the time utalk about drafting articles of impeachment. So very fast moving situation. Lets talk about the articles of impeachment. Something you wrote tonight two articles are virtually guaranteed to show up as features of impeachment against the president but that democrats are divided on whether to involve matters related to russia and the Mueller Investigation into this. Tell me a bit about the dispute. Right, so the ukraine investigation clearly honed in on the abuse of power argument. Trump pressured a Foreign Government to help his own political prospects and obstruction. A lot of witnesses were blocked from coming. Congress still hasnt had access to some of the top witnesses theyd like to see. The mueller report, which many people thought would initially be the basis for any impeachment proceedings we saw, has kind of fallen by the wayside except we had this ruling by don mcgahn who a judge said basically has to testify. And hes been blocked, and he could provide very valuable information to congress that could feed another article of impeachment on obstruction of justice if they go that route. So this is something again very fluid and a lot of members would like to see that factored into any impeachment they move f forward with. Tonight, weve got new reporting from the Washington Post that appears to contradict or at least cast doubt on one of president Donald Trumps central defenses in the impeachment inquiry. You may remember that one week ago today Eu Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified to congress that there was an explicit quid pro quo involving the announcement of investigations into trumps political rivals in exchange for a coveted white house meeting. At that hearing sondland also testified that he spoke with the president by phone on september 9th, two days before the hold on military aid was lifted. This is important because of what kyle just said, september 9th, two days before. The president took to the white house lawn to defend himself, using a set of talking points based on that specific call between trump and sondland. According to both sondland and the president , when sondland asked the president what he wanted from ukraine on that september 9th call, trump replied, quote, i want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Well, now tonight new reporting by the Washington Post casts doubt on those claims. The post reports that, quote, no other witness testimony or documents have emerged that corroborates sondlands description of a call that day and that the white house has not located a record in its switchboard logs of a call between trump and sondland on september 9th according to an administration official. You can see why every day sometimes it feels like every hour new reporting makes this story that much more intriguing. Joining us now ben rhodes, deputy National Security advisor under president obama and author of the world as it is a memoir of the obama white house. Mr. Rhodes, thank you for joining us tonight. Lets forgot get your reaction to this. The idea Gordon Sondlands testimony in large part was predicated on this phone call that apparently took place between him and donald trump, a phone call that feels like it might have been scripted. It was so good in what it had to say if you were Gordon Sondland. What do you make of the fact theres no record of this phone call . Well, look, first of all, ali, the whole fact picture around this phone call suggests that there was entirely a quid pro quo, that trump was leveraging this assistance to try to get an announcement of these investigations, and then this reporting kind of suggests what also seemed to parrot, which they knew they were going to be caught, and so this is someone who knows theyre being caught, calling someone and saying i am not committing a crime. You know, nobody says no quid pro quo. Thats not like something you say in casual conversation here. So it seems very clear that this phone call is contradictory to the rest of the entire fact pattern and was motivated by their effort to get something on the record that could potentially obscure what theyd already been caught doing. You were a deputy National Security advisor under president obama, and i think it has been years probably since iran contra that the National Security advisor role has been so public and people have understood how it all goes on. The people who populate that office in many cases the people weve heard testifying, they were not democrats or republicans. They were people who had been working inside the Security Apparatus either for a long time in government or outside. Give me your sense of their impact on the impeachment process so far . Well, thats a great question, ali, because the points critical for people to understand is the vast majority of the National Security staff in the government is apolitical. There are people who are Civil Servants who serve both republicans and democrats. Foreign Service Officers at the state Department Like people that weve heard from repeatedly, bill taylor comes to mind. People in the uniformed military like colonel vindman who comes to mind and then nonpartisan experts like fiona hill, all of these people are there to serve the National Interests and thats generally the National Security and you hear what are the National Interests of the United States and ukraine . And the National Interests to push back against russian aggression. And whats so striking in this whole process is separate and apart from all those people there was this distinct channel of people like Rudy Giuliani and Gordon Sondland. Rudy giuliani whos not even in the u. S. Government. Hes a personal attorney for President Trump. And Gordon Sondland whos a donor not even representing ukraine. Hes there representative to the european union. So clearly trump created a parallel channel that would carry out his efforts to politicize for his own personal and corrupt gain, our foreign policy. And all the rest of the people were mystified and in many cases apparently horrified by this. I we got some of this from some of this testimony. But there may be some who think thats enough to impeach donald trump, but National Security experts are actually concerned its not actually the personal enrichment part is secondary to the fact that money was congressionally approved for a National Security reason. So doing Something Else that is of no consequence for personal enrichment or political enrichment is one thing. But this wasnt a thing to play with. The support for ukraine is not sort of a fun, charitable thing. Yeah. This is not some trivial National Security matter. This is one of the chief geopolitical hot spots in the world today, ali. Ukraine literally depends upon this assistance as a lifeline as it is fighting an ongoing war with russia that is occupying f part of its territory. The thing that worries me, ali, is if donald trump is not held accountable for this the message that will be sent presumably by the Republican Party is that were okay with this. Were okay with president s essentially putting the personal interests over the National Interests even in matters of extreme National Security importance. And think about how that could be applied Going Forward. What is the message Going Forward to other countries around the world if were basically going to say its a country and it doesnt matter if a president prioritizes the interest of his political opponents over the National Interests. Can you remember when you were deputy National Security advisor whether there were Congressional Republicans saying were okay with this, wed be okay with president obama doing Something Like this . Those were simpler times, ben. Not only did they try to make president obama out to be someone who was an out of control executive and he wasnt, but we were constantly attacked for not doing more to help ukraine. And watching them flip to suddenly have no problem to treating this ally like a second class citizen, a country only a form for their own personal political efforts to obstruct or attack democrats. Thank you for joining us. Thanks a lot. Good to be with you. Deputy National Security advisor under president obama. Well be right back. R president. Well be right back. Cut. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. For your worst sore throat pain, try Vicks Vapocool drops. Its not candy, its powerful relief. Ahhh vaporize sore throat pain with Vicks Vapocool drops and try new vapocool spray. You have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. 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And one of the ways it could be there could be a real overlap and this is speculation, we dont know what the Southern District is doing. But one way you could do that is if you have a case on bribery involving the president , well the president under the doj policy cannot be indicted while hes in office. That does not apply to anyone else whos involved. Right, you cannot indict the president some people believe under Justice Department policy, but that protection does not apply to the people around the president like the president s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. This week we learned that federal prosecutors in new york are investigating giulianis Consulting Firm and a pair of giulianis associates. The already indicted lev parnas and igor fruman. And then today we got this from the New York Times and the Washington Post. Both papers reporting that while Rudy Giuliani was working to find dirt on the bidens for the president , he was also pursuing business interests with ukrainian officials. They focused on a draft proposal calling for ukraines top prosecutor lutsenko to pay giuliani at least 200,000 to represent him and another proposal calling for the Ukrainian Ministry of justice to retain giulianis firm for 300,000. Giuliani told the papers he rejected both offers. Its hard to see how this has been a fun thanksgiving week for Rudy Giuliani. Yesterday the president told a former fox news host that whatever jewgiuliani was doing ukraine, he wasnt doing it at trumps bidding. Meanwhile mr. Jewel yany is apparently scrambling to patch things up with the president especially over the matter of insurance. Ive seen things written like hes going to throw me under the bus. When i say that i say he isnt, but i have insurance. I have insurance. Now a lawyer for mr. Giuliani tells reuters giuliani, quote, at my insistence had called trump in the last day to emphasize he had not been serious when he said he had an ininsurance policy if thrown under the bus. This is good. Giulianis lawyer says, quote, he shouldnt joke, hes not a funny guy. I told him 10,000 comedians are out of work and you make a joke. It doesnt work that way. Barbara, thank you for being with us. He went on national television. He was speaking to ed henry at fox and he said this thing about ive got insurance. Youre a former prosecutor. I dont know who in real life uses that but there seems to be a message. He made that statement twice when he talked about hes not concerned about President Trump throwing him under the bus because he has insurance. And then when he was asked about it instead of saying thats just a joke, i meant sort of the literal if i were injured by a bus i have Health Insurance type of thing would have been easy to explain it, but instead hes got thisry hes got information about the bidens and a rico chart. It really does seem like what he was trying to say there is i know where the bodies are buried and so President Trump would not dare to turn on me, which is a very strange thing for a lawyer to say about his client. Not just a lawyer, a former prosecutor, a former attorney general. A former you know, this guy was a da not attorney general. A da. Rudy giuliani knows the law. He knows people who talks like this. He knows what he means when he says it, but he must be gaining a great deal of interest from prosecutors who are looking at him and his firm and their work in ukraine because he keeps leaving breadcrumbs. Hes been really reckless i think in his Public Statement. He has to know he most certainly knows anything he says publicly, anything he says on twitter can be used against him. So he really is beginning to paint himself into a corner because when youre talking to people casually you can make inconsistent statements and they dont get used against you. But down the road he may find himself in a position where statements he made have really locked him into a position that could be harmful to him legally. Theres two Giuliani Associates lev parnas and igor fruman. Theyre expected back in court on monday. According to abc news parnas has turned over audio and video recordings and photographs that include giuliani and trump and hes given this to the house intelligence committee. I dont know what that means. What do you glean from that . What could we possibly be talking about . I dont know. And, you know, im a little bit skeptical of what parnas has to deliver because hes been so public, and his lawyer has been so publicly lobbying for his testimony. You know, practically begging to testify perhaps in hopes of getting leniency in that new york deal. So i dont know what to make of it. I look forward to seeing it, seeing what it is. But if he had something in which President Trump and Rudy Giuliani were discussing, the work that giuliani was doing on President Trumps behalf in ukraine that could be of great value especially now as President Trump seems to be distancing himself from the work of giuliani with regard to ukraine. Barbara, good to see you as always. Thank you for joining me. A former u. S. Attorney and msnbc contributor. Stay with us. Weve got more news just ahead. Contributor. Stay with us weve got more news just ahead. Its not just a cold if you have high blood pressure. Most cold medicines may raise blood pressure. Coricidin hbp is the. 1 brand that gives. Powerful cold relief without raising your blood pressure. Wed love some help with laundry. Heres how you do it. Spray and scrub anything with a stain. Soak your nasty jersey. It stinks wash the really dirty clothes separately. Remember hard work builds character tide pods with upgraded 4in1 technology unleash a foolproof clean in one step. 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So the comments in the room at the deputys level reflected a sense there was not an understanding of how this could legally play out. Laura cooper told congress that white house budget official mike duffy was in the room when those red flags went up. Those immediately concerns about how the white house could legally hold back money that congress had appropriated to help ukraine. The summary of a new report from the House Budget Committee suggests that the White House Budget Office and the same budget official, mike duffy, got a number of warnings that holding back the ukraine money was illegal. On august 3rd, a week after meeting cooper the meeting cooper described, duffy signs a letter withholding those critical funds. Three days later on august 6th duffy signs off on another letr for the White House Budget Office withholding the ukraine funds. Then on the 9th democrats on the Appropriations Committee in both the house and senate warn that withholding funds could be illegal. Then duffy signs another letter withholding those funds. August 19th, democrats on the house and senate Budget Committees in the house and senate again warn the white house that withholding the aid for ukraine is illegal. On the 29th of august duffy signs another Letter Holding back the aid. In midseptember when the state department moved to release its part of the ukraine funding at the urging of National Security advisor john bolton, even then the White House Office of management and budget held onto the office for another two weeks plus even though they had been ordered multiple times in writing that withholding the money, the congressionally approved money is illegal. This is all documented. In a summary of a new report from the House Budget Committee the committee writes, quote, after a careful review of the materials provided to the committees the committees have become more concerned the apportionment has been abused to undermine Congress Constitutional power of the purse. Specifically the time line of omb actions, actions taken by omb as seen by the apportionments which are legally binding documents suggest a pattern of the abuse of the apportionment process, ombs authority and current law. So that is what the House Budget Committee is saying happened there, a pattern of abuse with a paper trail. The question now is what the House Budget Committee intends to do about it. Joining us now congresswoman barbara lee, democrat of california and a member of the House Budget Committee. Congresswoman, thank you for joining us. Thank you. My pleasure. Glad to be with you. The House Budget Committee is learning details something wed had the Broad Strokes of. The office of management and budget which is white house operation, sort of had some strong sense that holding back this 391 million in congressionally approved aid might not only be the wrong thing to do but is probably illegal. Ali, let me first say i serve on the Budget Committee and the Appropriations Committee. And both of our chairs wrote a letter in september questioning what was taking place. And of course they responded with documents but not the full complement of what we needed. Secondly, there was as you indicated and im glad you gave the time line because there was a pattern of abuse, and in fact during this process can you believe this two career individuals who were just doing their job, they were removed from the process, and a political person an appointee was placed in that position. And they went on and withheld the 400 million in Security Assistance. This was very dangerous. First of all, theyd attempted to stur comvent the congressionl authority. This president i guess he has no clue this is democracy, not a dictatorship and there are three branches of government. And they continue to usurp Congressional Authority and we see this in what has taken place as it relates to the Security Assistance. Its possible the president may have no clue about Congressional Authority. Its not at all possible that his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a former member of congress who was very, very preoccupied with Congressional Authority when barack obama was president , it is absolutely not possible that Mick Mulvaney can have an understanding of what congressionally approved aid means. No, he does and i served with Mick Mulvaney, and he knows good and well what has taken place. And in fact what they were trying to do is bribe the Ukrainian Government. I have to tell you i was in ukraine earlier this year and i know the risks and the fact they need Security Assistance. The former vice chair of the committee that funds all of our foreign assistance, and believe you me this was wrong, Mick Mulvaney knows its wrong, and it was really used to try to bribe the Ukrainian Government in an attempt to undermine future elections, mind you, the 2020 elections. And this is very serious moment in our history, and this was quite frankly unconstitutional. So ben rhodes was on with me a little while ago and he was making the point that republicans traditionally would not have accepted this. Not just interference in congressionally approved money which is its own issue but perhaps the more important issue that the 391 million was approved by congress on a bipartisan basis because it was an important thing to do from a National Security perspective. Our ally, ukraine is in hot water with russia. Theres clearly a double standard, and its clear to me this administration is a lawless administration. And remember senator Mitch Mcconnell said they were going to do everything they could do to stop president obamas agenda whatever it was. So believe you me this double standard is very evident, and in fact when you see two individuals who actually have resigned over this 400 million Security Assistance, they were doing their job. They were patriotic and i tell you the republicans need to follow suit and do their job, try to at least show the public they understand the Constitutional Responsibilities of being a member of congress and do their job. And theyre just not doing that. Why . Its beyond me. Congresswoman barbara lee thank you for joining me. Good to speak to you again. Still ahead if youre thinking were living in divided times, probably but it could be worse. Weve dug up the Old Newspaper clippings. Worse weve dug up the Old Newspaper clippings. Wow. Thanks, zoltar. How can i ever repay you . Maybe you could free zoltar . Thanks, lady. Taxi only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. loud fan noise children playing Music Building experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. With moderate to Severe Ulcerative Colitis or crohns, your plans can change in minutes. Your head wants to do one thing, but your gut says, not today. If your Current Treatment isnt working, ask your doctor about entyvio. Entyvio acts specifically in the gi tract to prevent an excess of white blood cells from entering and causing damaging inflammation. Entyvio has helped many patients achieve longterm relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. Ask your doctor about the only gifocused biologic just for Ulcerative Colitis and crohns. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. And theyre just not doing that. And theyre just not doing that. Do not adjust your screens. These are cows in russia wearing Virtual Reality goggles. Its no joke. This is real experiment in russia right now. The ministry of agriculture in moskow Just Announced their scientists created special Virtual Reality engineered to fit cow heads. In order to show in other words warm weather and green pastures. The thinking goes a Virtual Reality will calm the cows down and calm cows produce more milk. Now, if youre a cow mother russia is happy to tweak your reality for op. Results and its not just cows. Next time youre in russia try pulling up the forecast or a map of the region on an apple device and youll notice something odd. Crimea before it was annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014, a move that got russia kicked out of the g8 and got them sanctioned, that crimea now appears on maps and weather forecasts not as part of ukraine, not even as disputed territory. If youre inside russia looking at that map on an apple device crimea appears as a russian territory. Despite the fact that for the rest of the world beyond russia crimea appears an maps as what it is, disputed territory. This tweak to the maps, this alternative reality, if you will, is straight from Vladimir Putins wish list. Putins government lobbied apple to reconfigure the maps to putins liking and apple aqueoused. Happy thanksgiving, vlad. Or, quote, theres no going back. The situation is closed. We have received everything we wanted. You can say that again. For the record ukraine has denounced apple over this is no surprise, changing the man to show crimea as one of it russia when that is one of the most contentious churd rails moves the goal posts on what is fact and what is reality. Ask yourself how does it help anybody now your internet spits out different facts depending on where you live and the political leaning of your president. Not even cows need that kind of Virtual Reality. Cows need that Virtual Reality. Im your curious cat, and you know what they say about curiosity. Itll ruin your house. So get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow. Get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because its a ninja foodi, it can do even more, like transform into an air fryer. The ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps. And the first thing we do is to which were all so fond of. And then we proceed to do that. Its a good time to get the speeches over first and then get down to the real business of the day which is to make short work of the bird. This is what the children do displaying no shyness in front of the president of the United States. President Franklin Delano roosevelt loved thanksgiving celebrating along side children who like himself had suffered from polio. While fdr was busy carving his bird only half the country celebrated along with him. You see for decades the holiday was observed on the final thursday in november. But in 1939 the last thursday fell on november 30th. Now, at the time the country was still dragging itself out of the Great Depression and roosevelt, a democrat, feerd that a shortened Holiday Shopping season would be bad for retailers, so he decided to issue an executive proclamation moving the holiday one week earlier. Now, the move was designed to help the country, it divided it instead. That it benefitted only large retailers, College Football coaches were livid. Many schools had scheduled big homecoming games for an original holiday only to discover the games would now be played on a random weekday that was no longer thanksgiving and everyone would be at work. The move so angered one arkansas coach he threatened to change parties and vote republican. Fdrs political adversaries pounced. Maines governor refused to carve a banquet turkey and whipped a can of sardines out of his pocket and proceeded to eat them instead. The president s critics instead referring to it as franksgiving, some states like texas couldnt make up their mind and ended up celebrating the old and the new thanksgiving. The whole thing was a mess. So much so that the three stooges even took to mocking it. Where is everybody . Maybe its the fourth of july. The fourth of july in october . You never can tell. Look what they did to thanksgiving . The controversy continues from 1939 until 1940, until 1941 when Congress Passed and roosevelt signed a resolution setting thanksgiving as the fourth day in november. So thanksgiving has always been steeped in political controversy, whether it be the holidays origins or the bruhawhaw with fdr or the even the polite disagreements we see at our own thanksgiving tables. But this year we are seeing a first. After claiming victory over the war on christmas President Trump has moved to the idea that there is some sort of grand campaign to change the name of thanksgiving. So now we have the great war on thanksgiving. Seriously, theres no evidence of that. No one is looking to change the name or change the date or do any of that. And at the end of the day heres one thing we can all maybe be thankful for, theres never a dull day around here anymore. That does it for us tonight. Now its time for the last word with my friend Steve Kornacki in tonight for lawrence odonnell. Good evening, steve. Thank you for that. Happy thanksgiving to you as well. And we are excited to have neil cattyal here tonight. Now all that analysis is poured out into the a new book just ou