A recap of the days news. A recap of the days news. Human b presumably because they donated to democrats or registered as democrats. Well, you know who else was previously registered as a democrat and donated to democrats . You guessed it. President donald trump. So that brings us to his key his reality show tease. Warning. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Exclamation point. Is the president going to try to shut down the probe by Firing Mueller or rosenstein . Will he sit down for an interview with Robert Muellers team . Hes been all over the board on that one. Are you going to talk to mueller . Im looking forward to it, actually. Mr. President , would you like to testify to Special CounselRobert Mueller, sir . Thank you. You would like to i would like to. Have you changed your mind at all about being willing to sit with Robert Mueller . Is. I would love to speak. I would love to. Nobody wants to speak more than me, in fact, against my lawyers. Undermining the investigat n investigation, like lay thats part of a master plan, create lots of doubt so no one knows what to believe. Thats probably why the president s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said this on fox. No surprise there. I think if it isnt over by september, then we have a very, very serious violation of the Justice Department rules that you shouldnt be conducting one of these investigations in the 60day period. That is absolutely false. Its hard to believe giuliani ever worked for the Justice Department. There is no 60day rule. It doesnt exist on the books. Theres a longstanding custom at the department requiring caution around elections, but thats it. Muellers free to keep his investigation going but the real point is, giulianis already made his bogus claim public, muddying the waters. Hes also trying to tell mueller how to do his job. The reality is, he doesnt need to ask a single question on obstruction. He has always answers. Theyre not going to change. The president s not going to
change his testimony, to stop nonsense. You are trying to trap him into perjury because you dont have a case. Team trump trying to limit potential questions from mueller about possible obstruction of justice. But they should rib that the president is not above the law. And that makes comments fromin interesting. Nunes is the chairman of the House Intel Committee who scuttled l the house russia investigation. Hes close to the white house. So thats the reason why. In an audio recording, he tells supporters its imperative that republicans keep control of the house to protect trump from mueller. If sessions wont unrecuse and mueller wont clear the president , were the only ones which is really a danger. Thats why i keep. Thank you for saying it. Have heres a chairman of the House Intelligence Committee whos supposed to be seeing to the oversight of the executive branch, not aligning himself in some sort of conspiracy. The objective of which is to protect the president from the Mueller Investigation. So, you know, this is kind of a microcosm of, you know, what you put together here, don, in your opening statement. I think representative microcosm of this administration from its beginning. Well, let me ask you about this, because this seems to be ramping up and im wondering if you think it is, because its not the first time weve talked about the strategy behind the web of lies and Conspiracy Theories coming from the president and Rudy Giuliani, his attorney, when it comes to the russia investigation. Do you think its ramping up . I do. And i think its this is a manifestation of, frankly, the anxiety about this whole thing coming to a head. And what the what the
implications could be for the president. And i think that is i think an explanation for this unbelievable tweet. Director clapper, i want to play some of what we heard from Rudy Giuliani who spoke to hannity, an example of giuliani muddying the waterwaters. Here it is. He knows the answers to every question that he wants to ask. Hes going to ask him, did you tell Comey To Go Easy On Flynn . The president is going to say, no, i didnt. Hey, bob, you know it. Why do you want to get him under oi oath . You think were fools . You want to get him under oit. You want to trap him into perjury. Were not going to let you do that. Does it strike you even the president s lawyers seem to know that he cant keep himself from lying under oath . No, i think, exactly. I and i think thats why i think in the end, by the way, i dont think the president will ever silt down with mueller to talk about anything. For exactly that reason. I just dont see that happening. I think this is a lot of theater and posturing right now so that later on, somebody can point fingers. This is just kind of a theatrical situp for that. Does Stalling Help the president you think . Is this all about the electoral chances in the midterms and minimizing damage . Thats a great question, don, and i honestly dont know. I think whatever comes out of the Mueller Investigation is simply going to harden the positions that people already have. Whatever comes out. Its not going to change anybodys mind in the rabid base, certainly, and those who are not big fans of the president , it will certainly, i would guess, reinforce their reservations about him. So i what impact that would have on the midterms is, for me, very difficult to say. I go the to ask you
something, director. You can answer it if you want. Its a bit personal so i understand if you wont. You and i are both in the same club. The president attacked both of us on twitter and said things publicly about me, at least, that are not so nice. Im not sure about you. When we take a step back from this, is it unbelievable a person in the most powerful office in the world spends his time making personal attacks . Well, it is. It is it is amazing that he would single out private citizens, you or me or anyone else, that are critical of him. And to me, this is unprecedented and i just although ive begun to get a little jaded about it, at least, you know, when he says something negative about me. I thought his comments about you were absolutely and lebron
james were absolutely reprehensible. That was a very classy interview, and i thought reflected what very classy people both you and lebron james are, whos a great citizen of this country. And for him to say what he what the president said, i thought was despicable. And by the way, its an honor to be interviewed by one of the smartest people i know on television. Thank you for that, director. I appreciate it. And i love interviewing very smart people like you. One of the smartest people i know. I have to say, those you said youre getting jaded about it. Those insults or jabs, whatever, it doesnt make me feel bad. It just makes me feel sad for the country when i say this is well, exactly. This is where weve come, to this . Its embarrassing. It is. Not for me, but for him. Its embarrassing. Its embarrassing Around The World. You know, i watched jim acosta on Stephen Colbert last night and i thought jim in his
exchange in the white house pressroom there, showed the passion that i hope actually the passion that reflects how all of us care and when i say jaded about the remarks, they dont bother me, but i think it we have to keep speaking up about them. Yeah. Thank you, director. You know, money doesnt buy class. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Thanks, don. Up next, is donald trump the president the Founding Fathers feared . One prominent writer says, yes. Is he right . Well talk about that, next. With i get rewarded explowherever i go. Going out for a bite. Rewarded going new places. Rewarded learn more at theexplorercard. Com the first thing that was important for me to change was the culture of the company. And i think that had to shift to responsible growth. Second thing i wanted to change was the leadership of the company. And the third was for us to start listening. Listening to our riders. Listening to our driver partners. I think listening is ultimately going to make us a better company. 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. President Trump Railing against the Mueller Investigation, calling it an illegal and rigged witch hunt. This as the republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee is caught on tape talking about how Congress Needs to save the president from mueller. I want to bring in now cnn contributor frank bruni and senior Political Mcommentator david axelrod. Good evening to both of you. The nunes thing is just unbelievable. We will talk about that. I just want to talk about this Washington Post article by richard cohen. And its an Opinion Piece and the headline is, trump is the president the Founding Fathers feared. Okay . And it talks about his ignorance, his dishonesty, his contempt for Civil Liberties and on and on and on. Is there some truth to that . I think theres a lot of truth to that. I thought it was it was a
fascinating opped because it pulled back in a way that we sometimes dont and sort of listed the whole laundry list of what donald trump has done as president , how hes debased the presidency. And when you pull back and you look at it, you realize were not, you know, talking in too frightened a fashion when were here at this table tonight. If anything, were not alarmed enough because he really has been a sustained and profound insult to the presidency. As far as the Founding Fathers, i think what richard was getting at there was they set up a government with checks and balances. They set up institutions meant to retrain any sort of kingly impulses in a president. And i think hes saying that donald trump is just knocking up against all those restraints. I think one of the big narratives of this presidency is the test it is giving to our institutions. To the way the governments setup, to checks and balances and how will were doing on that test. You know, are we now, and as we go through the trump presidency, however long it lasts, are we going to be able to contain, you know, his autocratic impulses in
the way the Founding Fathers wanted us to be able to when someone like him was in the job . David, you worked in you helped elect a lot of people. You know a lot of mayors, governors, president s. And you know how they normally behave. We have a Chief Executive now who lies, bullies, stokes racial tension. How much does trumps Divide And Conquer strategy, how much is it testing the limits of our democratic institution, as frank says . Well, this has been my concern from the beginning. We should say parenthetically, everything youre describing was on display in the campaign, don. So he got elected that way and he, i think, felt affirmed by that. That he succeeded that way. And thats the way hes continued to govern. But he has no regard for democratic institutions. He considers them a nuisance. I think its one of the reasons why hes so fond of autocrats Around The World and so
disdainful of our allies. You know, he, i think, has some envy for people who can cast aside all of the encumbrances of democracy and rule as they and rule as they please. But i want to make one point here because i agree with everything that frank said, including the last point, our Founding Fathers set up a system because they had thrown off a monarchy and they didnt want another one. So they set up a system of checks and balances understanding that Human Frailty and failings and weaknesses were such that you could have a situation like this and one of those checks was the congress. The congress was supposed to keep to provide oversight over the executive and now we have, you know, an admission of something that we already knew which is that Congressman Nunes is in a very sensitive position, believes that the its his responsibility to protect the president , not the country. To block oversight rather than provide oversight. Hes making a mockery of what our Founding Fathers had in mind. And the constitution to which hes sworn an oath. Im glad you mentioned that because i just want to play a part. This is what w devin nunes, a leaked video. He is speaking at a fundraiser. List listen. If sessions wont unrecuse and mueller wont clear the president , were the only ones, which is really the danger. Thats why i keep, thank you for saying it, by the way. If we dont keep the majority, all of this goes away. All of this goes away. Its remarkable to hear a congressman, the chairman of the House Intel Committee, frank, saying that its their job to shield the president. Right. Like this. Is that their job . I mean, what the hell is going on here . No, what david said is
absolutely correct, the job of congress is to provide oversight. Theres a separation pof powers. Checks and balances. Congress supposed to be a balance on the executive branch. What devon noon yiz is saying in the tape, we defend the president at all costs regardless of anything. Whats so scary about what she say hesays, if mueller wont clear the president. Theres no concern in his statement about what mueller finds. Regardless of what mueller finds, regardless of what donald trump did or didnt do, they are going to protect the president because they see their function, he sees his function as purely tribal. As a party, do you think the party is buying this hook, line, and sinker, david . Because i remember when conservatives were strict constitutionalists. Lets go by the constitution. The Constitution Doesnt Say protect the president. It says you protect the constitution. You know, youre absolutely right. But, you know, lets lets be honest, i mean, the partisanship
has been a strong, now its been a growing element of governance in recent years. I mean, weve had episodes in our history of that. But i will recall watergate when there were people like devin nunes who were defending Richard Nixon to the last to the last degree. But ultimately, it was leaders of his own party who went down to the white house and told them that he had to resign. Ill tell you what the difference is between now and then, and its really concerning. There was no fox news then rallying the base. There was no social media spreading spreading lies and misinformation and propagada. I often wonder whether Richard Nixon would have been forced from office if he if he had if he hadnt if he had those kind of tools. So, i think what you see is aRepublican Party thats deeply in the thrall of this president. You can see in the elections tuesday and as weve seen throughout this campaign. What he says goes in the Republican Party right now. While i think there are many who may be privately troubled by whats doing, i think theyre also concerned about keeping their jobs and keeping their jobs at this point within the Republican Party means not stepping out of lean relative to donald trump. Thank you, frank. Thank you, david. I appreciate it. And davids last comments bre b us to our next thing were going to talk about. When we come back, the racist stereotypes being propagated by fox news that are so absurd that theyre even reportedly being endorsed by former kkk grand wizard. Were breaking down whats becoming a troubling pattern, next. This is not a bed. Its a revolution in sleep. The new sleep number 360 smart bed, from 999. Intelligently senses your movement and automatically
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more multicultural. The america that we know and love doesnt exist anymore. Laura ingraham is now twenditwend i trending on twitter. On wednesday, she channeled her audiences concern i