Attorney will lead and inspire greatness for the country he loves, dan coats will be leaving office on august 15th, i would like to thank dan for his Great Service to our country. The acting director will be named shortly. Dni director coats and the president have had a a tumultuous relationship over the past year with coats contradicting the president multiple times. He was on the defense when the president went on the attack criticizing different intelligence agencies. In an interview last year, coats found out during the interview that Vladimir Putin from russia may come to white house. He expressed concern publicly. He also contradicted the president on north korea and syrian policy. Congressman John Ratcliffe, the incoming head of the dni if hes confirmed, is the opposite of coats in that hes a staunch defender of the president s policies. He has an intelligence background from the george w. Bush administration. He made headlines op wednesday with his aggressive questioning of Rob
Charlie pleased to be here, thank you. Melissa do you feel ready . Charlie i hope so [laughter] melissa lets get to it. The two brothers filing a defamation lawsuit against smolletts highprofile attorneys, the brothers were initially arrested as suspects in the alleged attack in january but were later released. They are claiming that Jussie Smollett paid them a sum of money to stage an attack to benefit himself. They add that the actor directed every aspect of the incident. Smollett maintains the attack was not staged. Heres an attorney for the brothers reading their statemen statement. These lies are destroying our character and our reputation in our personal and professional lives. Those who know us personally know that we dont have hate for anyone that is not who we are. We will no longer sit back and allow these lies to continue. Melissa mike tobins live in chicago with the latest. Mike . Its important that this lawsuit does not name Jussie Smollett as a defendant, rather, he names
Will he defy the courts to do it . If its tuesday it is meet the press daily. Good evening, im kasie hunt in washington in for chuck todd. We begin tonight with breaking news. It has been a wild day of intensifying political fallout involving the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case. The floodgates have opened for democrats, their house leadership, senate leadership, members of the rank and file and a number of 2020 candidates now calling for the president s labor secretary, alex acosta, to resign, over his handling of epsteins case when he was u. S. Attorney. Acosta, however, seems to be digging in. Today he responded, defiant about how he handled a 2007 plea deal with epstein that critics argued was far too lenient. Especially in light of evidence revealed in yesterdays doj indictment. This afternoon speaking from the oval office the president threw his support behind his embattled cabinet member. I can tell you that for two and a half years he has been just an excellent secretary of
That question slamming the kmer Commerce Departments reasoning saying it must demand something other than the explanation offered. So then on tuesday when you had had the commerce secretary capitulate announcing the sense qu census would not include this question. However, the next day, the third of july, the president sent lawyers scrambling when he tweeted he was not dropping the request to add this Citizenship Question. That brings us to the president and today. I just spoke with the attorney general. We have a number of different avenues we can use all of them or one. Were doing very well in that issue. Were spending 15 to 20 billion on a census. Were doing everything. Were finding out everything about everybody. Think of it, 15 to 20 billion and youre not allowed to ask them are you a citizen . And by the way, if you look at the history of our country, its almost always been asked. So were fighting very hard against the system that is a very difficult system. But well make a decis
Weeks. There were hints and whispers of impeachment. Now that congress is back. Now that the Judiciary Committee has taken this action and the speaker is constantly saying i dont want to do this. But if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, is it an unimpeachment move . Right. Welsh dana, i might as well explain. Were at the debate in houston for the democrats. I have this microphone for the spin room later on, which gets loud in this place. I think this is a potential problem for the democrats up on capitol hill. When you have politico with a story that calls the situation with the impeachment a dumpster fire. Cnn says its the gang that cant shoot straight for democrats on impeachment. And you have the House Speaker saying she is done taking questions on the rhetoric of whether its impeachment or not. An inquiry, an investigation or moving forward, she says theyre on the right path. Either way, there are clearly moderates in the Democratic Caucus who are uncomfortable with this pla