He hasnt been charged with anything yet. But it would be standard procedure, and a Special Counsel investigation, to look into any financial heres what Jared Kushners lawyer is saying in a statement tonight. We do not know what this report refers to. It could be Standard Practice for the Special Counsel to examine financial records to look for anything related to russia. Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with congress what he knows about russia related matters. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. Whats your reaction to that . It may turn up nothing. But this is part and parcel of this long drawnout investigation that were in for. The idea that any one of these little new additions of information is going to be the body blow that, you know, unravels this whole mystery or takes down the administration, thats not going to happen. On the other hand, the idea that any one of these stories on its own is going to Vindicate Kushner or President Trump on their own is not going to happen. Were going to find out one way
or the other, if theres any collusion, maybe there is, maybe theres not, were going to find out one way or the other if theres any obstruction of justice. Laura, speak to us about the significance of this. We spoke last hour, that this doesnt necessarily mean guilt. You know, less than 150 days in office, the president is reportedly under investigation. His soninlaw, and the finances being looked at. How much trouble is this for the administration . Its a great deal of trouble. Politically speaking, of course, and legally, its no picnic to have the fbi have a devoted person whose singular focus is to determine whether or not you violated the law. Yes, it could ultimately come up that they are completely exonerated in some way, and vindicated. But realistically speaking, this is an indication this is going to be a thorough and very wide sweeping dragnet. There are people closer and closer to the president s orbit. With michael flynn, he, too, is
entity to the demise of the United States. In doing so, you cant have one person whos pushing a lot of paper around, one bureaucrat in d. C. Who is active. You have to have people taking very different angles, the obstruction angle, collusion, finances. Thats why investigators are Interviewing Coats and rogers and everyone else, because they have to take a very wide approach. What this tells you is good news for the president of the United States, that theres not a narrow focus here. While he is now part of the probe and has by his own actions brought the magnifying glass above his head, anything is game. It tells you, of course, the focus, if its not narrow, they dont know yet what theyre looking for. It could be anything. That can in a way, thats not going to appease the president or make him feel comfortable, but its a way of saying, look, we do not know yet what we have. Which is why we cannot be
presumptuous. Youve been around washington for a while. Not saying anything about your age or anything. I earned all these gray hairs. Youre a republican. And if youre in the white house, if youre part of the administration, you hire 13 attorneys, what are you thinking . I think lauras right, talking about the history of how the Special Counsel investigations work. This is an indication right now that its a very thorough investigation, that it is potentially much wider. But i think the main worry i would have is, this goes to the politics of it, that it may take potentially longer. And right now, one of the big challenges this white house has is that it has a very ambitious agenda. It has control of both houses of congress. And has a lot of things it wants to get done. But this continues to really pull them away from their central core focus on things like the economy, and national security, and other big ticket items. And serves as a distraction. Every day that the white house
is on offense of what they want to do of what motivated voters to support donald trump in the first place is really a lost day. So every single day we see that the president and white house staff having to litigate this, makes it potentially more i would be nervous about this if i worked for donald trump. Because, you know the wider part of it, yeah. Right. Theres theory, i dont know if its true, that a theory that we all commit three felonies a day. If you followed me around all day, you could put pretty much i dont know about you, okay. Ill steer clear. What are you doing . My point is, look, starts off as a land deal in arkansas, and ends up with the president , you know, perjuring himself. Or starts off with a Valerie Plaim Leak and ends up with scooter libby. I think that, you know, it could be that theres no collusion, that theres no fundamental problem. But if you lie to the fbi, you
go to jail. There could be a lot of people who did some things that, you know, werent on the upandup. Somebodys probably going to go down at some point i would think. Theres something that laura said. I really think donald trump and his administration, but mainly donald trump brought this upon himse himself. It is his tweets, the things that he said. He said about james comey, he tweeted james comey better hope there arent any tapes. They dropped the memo, well, i have a tweet. Perhaps this investigation would not have become so extensive had donald trump exercised some level of restraint. Yeah. And the Vice President himself is now nervous as well. Hes hiring his outside counsel. Everyones nervous, even proactively before the noose is closer to them. Mike shields . Look, you hear the tone of what we were talking about. Kushner hasnt been charged yet. The walls are closing in. This is what washington does with one of these things. It sort of creates this tear of guilty by just coverage. Coverage makes you guilty. The fact of the matter is, theres been scores of investigators looking at this russia thing for months now. They havent found anything. Theres literally the only thing 50i78 Harping On It tonight its illegal leaks. No one has been found guilty of anything. The point about the language but now were talking about maybe we should be careful to say, people are innocent, all of them, until proven guilty. Just because youre interviewed by somebody doesnt mean theyre part of a grand jury investigation. Theyre being looked at. Nothing has happened to them yet, people watching are thinking probably something is there. A lot of people will probably say, thats kind of what i mean i think we can all be a
little more careful with our language, but i think thats just the vernacular that people well, thats why the president s pushing back so hard on this. You might understand why he gets so aggressively pushing back when he watches this kind of no, no. Something probably happened. Is he under investigation when he started Crooked Hillary . Hes the one who started about talking about people being guilty, when nothing had been found. So im sorry, if this kind of language bothers him, he brought it upon himself, just like every single thing that has happened up to now. You could point back and say, geez, if he just stopped his twitter fingers from going happily on his phone, he wouldnt be in half of the hot water as he is right now. To your point, kevin, i agree with you that he could easily try to distract us from all of this russia collusion, perhaps treason, obstruction of justice
if he focused on his agenda, which im sure the republicans would love. This is exactly the point im trying to make. But let me wait, wait. That actually dovetails from the previous let me be quite precise on this point. I think youre harping on an issue that really avoids the forest for the trees. The point is this, one person who is to blame for this language that talks about very ominous and looming is james comey. Because it has been a longstanding tradition that People Dont Comment On Acting Investigations for the very reasons you spoke of. The tar and feathering that happens in the court of Public Opinion and Public Square is precisely why people condemn james comey. Now that he has started the pendulum in motion toward that arena, people are talking about things in the ominous tone youre talking about. Its not just the media who does it. It was the former director of the fbi. In doing so, it points out this particular point. You cannot discuss an active investigation, because it makes the public believe that there is
far more to it. Ultimately there may be exoneration here. But the problem here is what theyre talking about, the president of the United States by not recognizing the fact that its an active Ongoing Investigation is commenting on it in a way and making proactive steps where hes creating a greater issue. Well be right back after this. Whoooo. Looking for a hotel that fits. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over 200 sites to find you the hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazie, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. The opioid my doctor prescribed for my Chronic Back Pain backed me upbig time. Before movantik, i tried to treat it myself. Spent time, money. No go. But i didnt back down. I talked to my doctor. She said one, movantik was specifically designed for opioidinduced constipationoic and can help you go more often. Number two . With my savings card, i can get movantik for about the same price as the other things i tried. Dont take movantik if you have a Bowel Blockage or a history of them. Movantik may cause serious side effects including symptoms of opioid withdrawal, severe stomach pain and or diarrhea,
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difference between when he does Something Like when he sent out the video message today to the congressmen and people who were playing ball, and when he talks about david bailey and Crystal Griner and say they should be commended, that that resonates and the other things may not resonate . Of course, he does. Not only the statement at the Baseball Game today, but the statement he gave yesterday. These tweets are about pushing back on a political investigation of him. And hes using politics to push back on it and using his twitter account that hes done since running for office. It goes right past washington, d. C. , past the media out to the american people. Thats the way he wants to communicate with people. Hes been pretty successful in doing that. Then we show it on the screen and it gets to the american people. But my point and i want david to respond to this, if you are fighting something legally, does the court of Public Opinion matter . Shouldnt he be doing having that fight with his attorneys, and doing it in a smarter way
than maybe contradicting himself . Something that attorneys can use . Or even people on the other side of the political aisle can use . The court of Public Opinion matters and the legal fight matters if youre President Trump. To your point, don, hes working at crosspurposes to a degree in this. Yes, mike is right, hes communicating over the heads of the media, to his core supporters. But at the same time that hes sort of rallying the troops, hes also signaling to the rest of america the not the 38 of people who have the favorable view of him, but everybody else, that hes not taking the legal fight seriously, and that hes not approaching it in a way that we would typically describe as president ial. I just take this opportunity just to address one thing from what we were talking about before. You made a good point before about talking about when we say theres an investigation using the word yet. Lets get that out of the way. Youre right. Everybodys innocent until proven guilty. Youre right, We Shouldnt Say yet. Now that thats out of the way, all the other issues still apply. We need answers to the question, why the president has been so solicitous of russia. We need answers to the question, why during a transition Jared Kushner is plegt with the head of a russian bank. We need answer to the question why was comey fired. Very, very quickly, first of all, this was already this story was already out. Its interesting that its suddenly news again. Now hes a white house offerings who has taken on a Foreign Policy portfolio. It shouldnt be shocking that hes meeting with people. So, look its not shocking. But why dont we add that context . When we say breathlessly, oh, my gosh, theres a leak, Jared Kushner is under investigation, for something that may have been part of his duties as a transition official. Thats a long thing to apparently too long for a lot of people in washington. Jared kushner being under
investigation is not false. When we say, when youre explaining, youre losing. There are so many things that we have to explain. We have to put context to them when we talk about Jared Kushner, the president. There are so many things. We shouldnt have to add all that context. The media should have a responsibility to add the context to make sure they dont alter the context. Absolutely. I dont think theyre offering it, though. Lets assume the media is not giving donald trump a fair shake. Isnt it incumbent upon a politician to try to get good press . And if they get continuously, if they have their agenda derailed, is it the onus on them to say we have to figure out how to control the message, develop relationships with the press . If Lynn November Siger got bad press for reagan, theyll say, were not doing a good job. I dont understand why you or others, every time that im here, and i try to criticize the way the media has covered donald
trump, it immediately comes back to its Donald Trumps fault. Ive been working in politics for 20 years, and ive seen conservatives not get a fair shake from the media. The media, if you look at the data, where Media Members give money to, who they vote for in primaries, they lean to the left. This is something thats been going on for years and years. Hold them a little more accountable. Be more selfreflective of their own for every action there is an equal reaction. They are the crooked media. Theyre not it needs to well, im not do you want the media to say, no i would like the president of the United States to be better. Why is the bar so low for donald trump . It performs a vital role in american politics. I want the media to be selfreflective and ask themselves why the public is losing faith in them. This is what the media hears when you say that. We want positive stories about donald trump. Thats not the medias job. The medias job is to report. The reporting is not always positive. How about asking the media if something is right or wrong . Anytime we push back, anytime the Trump Campaign pushes back on us as newspapers, or tv networks, the pushback is, fake news. Its not about the fact look at rob rosensteins statement that came out tonight. He didnt say that the story in the Washington Post was wrong. He said, beware of anonymous leaks. Thats not the same as saying the story is wrong. So if the idea is to hold the Media Accountable, the