A recap of the days news. I dont know where the evidence is that would suggest that. The fact is that thats what they used against conor lamb in the special election in Western Pennsylvania which trump won by 20 points and conor lamb won. They used it over and over again with Danny Oconnor in ohio 12 who, by the way, is still running in november against mr. Balderson and danny managed to collapse the trump margin from 11 down to less than 1 . Im not sure where the evidence that that is the case, that that is an effective appeal. Its certainly their standard playbook move in eeach and ever instance. Again, to be redundant and repeat myself, they want to hear about what theyre going to do to lower Prescription Drug prices and protect people with preexisting conditions. Build infrastructure that will move this economy strongly throughout the rest of the 21st century. Finally get americans a raise. These are the things they want us talking and proposing. They want us being practical and working across the aisle and solving problems. I think that rand paul is in tune with todays republican party, what i call the putin republicans, because theres been a sea change that donald trump has brought about which you can see in one poll number from that came out just about a month ago from gallop. In 20 14, about 20 of republicans thought russia was our spend or ally. Today ooits 40 despite everything russia has done to us including interfering if h our election. Dont we have a Russian Ambassador . Is. We do. What this reminds me of is the attempt by Jared Kushner after the 2016 election to establish a back channel to russia through the Russian Embassy in washington to bypass the State Department and our Intelligence Community and i kind of have to wonder if donald trump is trying to Say Something to putin in this letter that he doesnt want to go through the normal diplomatic channels. And hes using rand paul. Yes. Whos establishing himself as a russian loyalist. Interesting. Brian, lets talk about your reporting in politico here about
a lot of people dont trust him. Would russia actually live up to these agreements . An open question. I think the bigger question here is is whether or not with all of this white noise, all of these things were talking about, the way the russians have been acting, the Terrorist Attack in britain, there are activities in syria, in ukraine, clearly the meddling in americas electoral process, is it possible that washington and moscow could set that stuff aside and keep to the very traditional approach to arms control and trying to prevent an arms race . Im not sure that thats possible in this era. So, bryan, what is the whoous white hou white house saying about this document you obtained from russian officials . Well, the white house doesnt confirm or deny its existence. The russians were asked today about it and they were somewhat critical of a spokesperson said, you know, youre talking about
russia meddling in american elections, the americans cant even keep a secret, cant even keep control of what the two president s talk about privately. But more broadly, the Trump Administration has, and the president , himself, has said that he would like to try and find a way forward on some of these arms control issues. I mean, these are important issues. If the new start treaty is not extended when it runs oug out i 20, it would be the First Time Since 1972 i think that washington and moscow do not have some sort of process in place to limit nuclear arms. So, you know, think its concerning to a lot of people in the Arms Control Community because even though they may not like the president s approach to foreign policy, they do think these issues are important. But, again, the question is, can you set aside all the politics, can you set aside all the die stabilizing activities that russia is doing and, you know, get in a room and agree on these things . So, max, lets just say, what if all of this is true . Whats russia trying to achieve here with these proposals . What do they want . Well, broadly speaking, what putin wants is to have the United States basically recognize an expansion of russian power. I mean, putin is invading his neighbors. Hes interfering in our elections and european elections. Hes sent his military into syria. He wants russia to be seen as a great power and he wants nothing more than for donald trump to recognize him as a fellow statesman, a Fellow Superpower which donald trump essentially did in helsinki in the summit. Now, i commend bryan for his excellent reporting which brings up at least one of the issues putin wanted to discuss. What id really like to know, what we dont know is what was donald trump saying here . I mean, these are legitimate issues to talk about. Arms control, about russian interference in our elections. About russian actions in ukraine, syria, et cetera. These are all totally legitimate topics for an american president to discuss with putin. But what you want is an american president who will stand up for america, don, who will say, we
will not accept this misbehavior and were in favor of arms control, but by the way, youre violating the intermediate Nuclear Forces agreement and you need to live up to your prior treaties if were going to reach new deals. Now, does anybody here really think that donald trump did that with Vladimir Putin when we saw that shocking submissiveness on the part of trump in the Press Conference with putin where he was accepting his denials, his lies about russian interference in the u. S. Election . When he said it was an incredible idea to turn over the u. S. Ambassador for questioning by russians. Does anybody imagine that Behind Closed Doors donald trump was really standing up for america and sticking it to putin and telling him, Laying Down The Law . That i found very hard to believe. We still dont know exactly what he said or what went on. I find it interesting Vladimir Putin is stalking about ha happen happened in the meeting. Even the people around the president , they have no idea. Right. What was said. And probably the way the u. S. Government finds out what happened is by intercepting
russian communications about the meeting. Thank you, bryan. Thank you, max. When we come back, were going to talk to the man President Putin Singled Out by name who is at the center of the Trump Tower Meeting. Bill brouder gives us his take on the timing of the Just Announced russian sanctions. vo theres so much we want to show her. We needed a car that would last long enough to see it all. avo subaru outback. 98 are still on the road after 10 years. Come on mom, lets go avo right now, get 0 Apr Financing on the 2018 subaru outback. With our largest variety of crab all year like new crabfest combo. Your one chance to have new Jumbo Snow Crab with tender dungeness crab. Or try crab lovers dream. But hurry in. Cause Crabfest will be gone in a snap. Morning. Morning. What do we got . Keep an eye on that branch. Might get windy. Have a good shift. Fire pit. Last use 0600. Id stay close. Morning. Get ready to switch. Protected by flo. Should say, protected by alan and jamie. Right . Should it . When you bundle home and auto. Run, alan . You get more than just savings. You get roundtheclock protection. The white house slapping russia with new sanctions today. And i want to talk about this now with bill browder, how is a known putin critic and author of red notice a True Story Of High Finance murder. Fascinating book. I would suggest that everyone reads that. Everyone should read that book. Bill, thank you so much for joining us. Great to be here. So today, lets talk about these new sanctions that were announced against russia in response to the poisoning of former russian spy and his daughter in the uk. Russia denies responsibility for that, but do you think that these new sanctions have any
effect on putins behavior . Well, i mean, i think first of all, i think that these sanctions are significant mostly because you now have the United States, the most powerful country in the world, officially recognizing that russia committed an act of terrorism using chemical weapons in the heart of england. And now theres a certain set of sanctions that are going to roll out from that. I think thats very significant. And the way i understand putin, and ive known putin in a lot of conflict over a long period of time, is that hes a guy who likes to avoid consequences. He likes to do stuff where nothing happens when he does bad stuff. So the fact that there are consequences for this chemical weapons attack against the skripals, i think it very much puts putin on the defensive and makes him think, well, ive got to go do stuff where people and countries arent going to react and arent going to respond like this. Bill, there were a lot of Shifting Stories as you know on this whole russia, the meeting
at trump tower. The president has now acknowledged the Trump Tower Meeting was, indeed, to get dirt from russians on hillary clinton. Instead, were told that all they got was an attorney talking about the Magnitsky Act, also about sanctions. Whats your take on this meeting . Well, so there were two sides to the meeting. There were the russians then there was the trump family. The russians had something they wanted and the trump family had something they wanted. The russians who are working on behalf of Vladimir Putin wanted to have the Magnitsky Act repealed. The act is named after my lawyer, sergei magnitsy, killed in a russian prison. Unpleasant sanctions against putin and his cronies. They went in there and said we want these sanctions repealed. Of course, the russians dont womto a meeting empty handed. They have to offer something the other side wants so they were Proposing Dirt On hillary
clinton. So that was the quid pro quo. That was the setup for the meeting and everybody had something they wanted. Now, whether anybody walked away happy or not is another question. But its clear what the two sides wanted. Ive been wanting to ask you this because, you know, since the helsinki meeting, you believe that this private meeting in helsinki between President Trump and president putin, you think it was actually about you and the Magnitsky Act. Why do you think that . Well, i think that for starting out after the Magnitsky Act was passed, putin declared it his priority to have it repe repealed. That was back in 2012. Hes been on a mission to get it repealed ever since then. As we just discussed, it showed up as the one thing they asked for in trump tower. And weve known theres a bunch of other approaches and intentions that they had in washington an Elsewhed Elsewher it repealed then it shows up in the Press Conference. We also know in the press
conference in helsinki, that i should say before the Press Conference, they had a twohour meeting where nobody knows with what they discussed. This is what they discussed. It may not have been only what day discussed but surely this someone of the things they discussed. Bill, putin mentioned you by name in the public part of that Meeting Offering to allow investigators to interview those indicted by mueller in exchange to allowing russians to have access to you. How did you feel when you heard that . Well, i didnt feel great. At the same time, i didnt feel as if i was going to be handed over to the russians any time imminently, and as you may recall, after that sort of offer was put out there, the senate voted 980 to reject that offer and so, you know, theres this very strong appetite in the u. S. Not to have anything like that
happen. Yeah. And so i wasnt too nervous that i was going to be handed over any time soon. Well, the president called that, this is a quote, an incredible offer, then he was forced to back track after a huge backlash. You state would have been a death sentence. Sk well, what you have to unction is Vladimir Putin killed my lawyer Sergei Magnitsky for exposing a corruption scheme. His government killed him by torturing him to death in prison. Theyve been trying for the last 8 1 2 years to get me into a russian prison to do the same thing. If im handed over, the same thing will happen to me. You say you have been under putins skin for a very long time, right before the trump putin summit, you wrote a piece in time magazine. That piece is called ive been putins number one foreign enemy for a decade, heres what trump should know about handling him. Your piece was translated, published in russia and downloaded a massive number of times on a moss wow can website. What was putins reaction to it . I think putin was just going to talk about me privately in the meeting with trump, and i think that hes such an emotional guy that when he got hold of that article in russian, we effectively smoked him out. Thats why he mentioned me publicly. Im glad that whatever happened happened in front of the whole world as opposed to between two guys in a private meeting. Uhhuh. I just interviewed the gentleman about the politico reporting tonight. You know, theres no real record of what trump and putin actually discussed the meeting today. Politico published the document leaked from russian officials outlining the topic they supposedly talked about. Nuclear weapons, right . Youre skeptical about that. I think the russians leaked that document as a way to confuse the conversation. The idea of talking about Nuclear Weapons is exactly what
two Nuclear Powers should be talking about in a summit like that, not handing over dissidents and critic critics. That is the appropriate conversation and the fact that nobody knows what happened in that meeting a month later in that secret meeting, and then the russians leak a document like that looks to me like just a disinformation exercise. Doesnt look like that was the real topic of conversation. The book is called red notice. I urge everyone either download it or pick up a copy. Its a fascinating, fascinating read. Thank you, bill browder. Appreciate your time. Thank you. When we come back, some ceos who quit the president s Advisory Councils over his good people on both sides comments after the deadly White Supremacist rally in charlottesville, well, they joined him for dinner last night right before the oneyear anniversary of that violent rally. I have a lot to say about that. Stick around. I am all about living joyfully. You can add voice for just 24. 95 more per month. Call or go online today. Call or go on line today. The Virginia Governor and the city of charlottesville declaring a State Of Emergency ahead of the anniversary of last years deadly unite the right rally. Citing concerns over planned demonstrations of hate. National guard units will be deployed for additional security. Of course, it was one year ago that torchcarrying neonazi racists gathered there. Chanting racist slogans and terrifying people. 32yearold Heather Heiger was killed and many injured. In the aftermath, these comments from the president. You also had people that were
very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group, excuse me, excuse me, i saw the same pictures as you did. Many left President Trumps form rum and manufacturing advisory council. The groups of lead businebusine were meant to clab late with the administration. The president was initially unfazed saying for every ceo that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, i have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. Jobs. Kbt as the blowback grew, a vast majority of ceos on the panel said they were going to call it quitsd disba disbanded. President trump tweeted this, rather than putting treasure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council and strategy and policy forum, i am ending both. Thank you, all. Well, that was it for the
councils. So it was interesting to see who the president dined with last night. Some of those very same people who so admirably took a stand last year were add bt Bedminste Golf Club days before the ugly incident that the president could not Yun Runilaterally dis. Take the ceo of johnson johnson. He said, the president s most recent statements equating with those who are motivated by hate is unacceptable and changed our decision to participate in the white house manufacturing advisory council. Pepsi pepsicos ceo was who instrumental getting other Council Members to stand against the president tweeted one year ago this, she was heartbroken by the violence at the White Nationalist rally. The wake of racist violence, mike weinberger, ceo of accounting giant ernst young said bigotr