The senate says kushner withheld emails about a, quote, russian back door over tour. And House Republicans pass the trump tax plan. I dont benefit. New Analysis Finds that the plan saves trumps family over 1 billion. I pay as little as possible. I fight like hell to pay as little as possible. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. The same president who has weighed in on everything from Meryl Streeps acting to Social Media Policies of espn tonight has no opinion whatsoever on the voracity of the allegations that his partys nominee for u. S. Senate in alabama pursued and sexually assaulted between age girls when he was an adult. Reporte reporters today his Press Secretary studiously avoided taking a position on whether the
white house refusing to take a stand on roy moore is the same white house that claims that every single one of those women, every single one of the president s accusers, is lying. Obviously, Sexual Harassment has been in the news, at least 16 women accused the president of sexually harassing them throughout the course of the campaign. Last week during a Press Conference, the president called these accusations fake news. Is the official White House Position that all of these women are lying . Yeah, weve been clear on that from the beginning and the president has spoken on it. Sabrina siddiqui. You wrote today about al franken. It seemed to me like it caught democrats flatfooted at first. What was the reaction on capitol hill among democrats . Well, i certainly think that they were shocked by the initial report when it surfaced. But at the same time, as you noted, they were pretty quick to be unequivocal in their condemnation, both of his conduct, as well as their
it may not be the medias hand that forces the white house to speak out. But republicans themselves, who believe that if moore is was elected, were to be elected later this winter, that it would be a burden for republicans next year running in the mid terms. And they want him out and theyre telling that privately, i know, based on my reporting to the white house tonight. You know, that point you make there, the sort of catastrophic success of a moore win is a good point, right . That you can imagine a situation which basically every democrat running in the senate basically opts to run against roy moore as opposed to their actual opponent, because he would be so toxic in so many parts of the country, right . He would. And they believe they would have to have immediate investigations. You already have the Majority Leader calling for him to possibly be expelled from the senate. And they also know that they have a 52seat majority now in the senate. If doug jones, the democrat, wins, its 5149. You have a lot of seats on the edge right now for republicans. Look at arizona in particular,
nevada. This is a danger zone as one republican operative put it to me. The latest polling, we should say this is a really remarkable poll, this is out of alabama from fox news. It has doug jones up by eight points. Thats the democrat in alabama, doug jones, up by eight points, 5042. Sabrina, it was a very interesting moment in the presser today when Huckabee Sanders was asked about roy moore repeatedly and asked about al franken. And the Al Franken Question in normal circumstances would be red meat for the white house to go right after. And you could tell she wanted no part of it. Why do you think that is . Well, its twofold. One is because theyre refuse to go take a position on roy moore. How are you going to take a position on roy moore, who has been accused by multiple women of Sexual Misconduct, including those who are saying he preyed upon them when they were teenagers. So how can you not take a position on that, and then in the same breath or the next breath, i should say, denounce al franken and make a big deal of the story that came out
today. The other issue is, as you noted in your own monologue, this is a president who himself has been accused of Sexual Assault by more than a dozen women. Those Access Hollywood tapes heard Around The World where he bragged about groping and kissing women without their consent. And republicans on capitol hill have been unable to say why roy moore accusers are somehow more credible than Donald Trumps accusers. What is the distinction between the allegations that are being made . And just one quick note about democrats, because were talking about potentially roy moore being expelled from the senate. I dont think theyre necessarily going to move to expel al franken but face a question about what their policy is going to be. Are they going to have a Zero Tolerance policy, call on al franken to resign or create some categories for the level of Sexual Assault that i dont think thats where they want to be. To that point, sabrina, and youve covered capitol hill for a while and i used to cover capitol hill. I mean, the senate at this committee is going to be very busy and rightly so, if they start getting referrals forSexual Harassment. Because that is not something that that is happening on capitol hill. I think anyone who has worked there will tell you. And not just staffers. Members, as well. To sabrinas point, robert, about the president s own accusers. Im really curious. Does that factor in the thinking in this white house . Theres two ways i can see them thinking about it. We beat it. We beat the charge. Im the president. Its never going to burn us again. Or that was really close. I never want to relitigate that again. Which of the two is it in that white house . The calculation, based on numerous conversations i had, is more political than about weighing in on these harassment the broader debate about harassment and Sexual Misconduct in the country. My point is this. They dont want to be embarrassed again in alabama. He got behind luther strange, the incumbent senator. They feel if they move against moore now, and he somehow wins that senate seat, thats a political disaster for president trump, with his own base, and in a state that he considers his own political base. So im sure there is some calculation, chris, inside the white house about not wanting to wade into an unfriendly territory for the president , to say the least. But at the same time, its more politics, politics, politics, in the conversations im having. I just want to note how remarkable it is that the president s people are thinking, well, this person stands accused of Sexual Assault against a 14yearold that she rolled out of the car afterwards. He stands accused of calling up a teenager in her trigg class to try to get her to go out with him. But, you know, if we come out against him, we might lose and end up looking bad. Sabrina sadiqy and robert costa, great to have you both. Thank you. Your writing has been phenomenal, if you dont mind my saying. Sabrina brought this up and this Morning You Saw in al franken, there is this question, is he going to resign. What is the were figuring out whats the proper punishment for the particular crime or
misconduct. What do you think it is in the case of franken . Well, i think the franken case is really complicated. I have a column out now that says he should resign. And i dont say that really lightly or happily. And i see the argument against him resigning. I think is also very strong, right . This thing that he has accused is the wrong word. This thing that he did does not rise to the level of, you know, sexually assaulting 14yearolds. Doesnt rise to the level of what donald trump does. I still think that just having this even though its a false equivalency, you know, kind of having now this thing hanging over the democrats, even though i think that al franken has been such a good senator, i thought he should run for president before this. But i just this idea of kind of slogging it out in an Ethics Investigation and then waiting to see what kind of penalty theyre able to concoct. And also what kind of investigation. I mean, does the senate now do an investigation into his
presenate sex life . Right. What does that even we dont even know what that looks like. Well, it also strikes me that part of the issue here, and we keep seeing this, where theres two, theres 20. That it has been the case that one allegation, it has not been often that there is simply one allegation. Right. So my what i and i dont say this lightly, and im not convinced that im right. I can hear you working through. But i do think that maybe the best thing he could do is just say, im resigning. We have to have a Zero Tolerance policy for this. You know. And draw a real clear distinction between how the republicans handled this, rather than letting it trickle out and trickle out and trickle out. And then resigning after that and forcing everybody to take a stand and decide whether or not to defend him. I mean, its just its such a painful process. The other option is just to bowl through. And we have seen roy moore do it. I dont know if you saw that Press Conference today. It was remarkable. It seemed disassociative and totally detached from reality. I want to play what bannon said
last week about how he counseled the president to get through the Access Hollywood week, because i think its quite illuminating in terms of the roy moore book. The bezos, amazon, Washington Post that dropped that dime on donald trump is the same bezos, amazon, Washington Post that dropped the dime this afternoon on judge roy moore. Now, is that a coincidence . Billy bush saturday we got kind of a high command, and everybody went around the room and they were telling some guy is going 60 minutes and crying on ivankas shoulder and do this and do that and apologize and apologize and apologize. Said we doubled down now. Right . Youre donald trump and theyre not. Right . I said, lets go have a rally. Thats what roy moore is doing. Right. And i think you can get away with that as a republican in part because theres not a consensus, i think, around
gender equality on the right. I dont think theres a consensus among a lot of the people in alabama that its really so wrong for a 30somethingyearold to pursue teenagers, at least as long as he asks their parents permission. And if something untoward happened, whose fault was it really . You have such a different set of ethics that people are trying to uphold, even if imperfectly and hypocritically among democrats, that i think just kind of he probably can. I mean, what al franken has done here is not so terrible that he probably cant just, like, gut it out if there are no other accusations. But he does so at the risk of kind of derailing this conversation were now having about Sexual Harassment and assault and accountability. And just sort of, you know, kind of putting this cultural moment, this really remarkable cultural moment to an end, possibly discouraging other women who
have had bad experiences with members of congress from coming forward. I think it just its a really again, it becomes then this sort of just like ugly yeah. You know, thing in which this ugly mutual fingerpointing. And the moment about politicians, i feel like, were at the forefront of that and there is probably more to come on that front. Michelle goldberg. Tonight the senate calls on Jared Kushner to come clean, alleging he withheld emails they know exist about wikileaks and, and i quote here, a backdoor russia overture. That in two minutes. Voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign. That was Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw and Senior Adviser after meeting with Senate Investigators this summer. Today senators Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, from each party, the bipartisan leaders said kushner did not provide all of the documents they asked for. In fact, in a letter to kushners lawyer, they write, we appreciate your voluntary cooperation with the committees investigation. But the production appears to have been incomplete. These are documents the Committee Says are known to exist, and they include but are not limited to documents concerning what the committee calls, quote, a russian back door overture and dinner invite. A December 2016 email communications to mr. Kushner concerning wikileaks, and communications with milian, be founder of a trade group. Grassley and Feinstein Say Kushner has until the 27th of this month to comply with their
request. Kushners lawyer released a statement saying in part, mr. Kushner and we have been responsive to all requests. We will be open to responding to any additional requests. With me now, Political Correspondent with business insider, who has written extensively about the trumps campaigns alleged ties to russia. First you start with the context. Jared kushner, man, just seems to be leaving a lot of stuff out of a lot of stuff. As we as we go through this year. Yeah. I mean, hes had to update his Security Clearance form at least twice, and the second time he had to add at least 100 foreign contacts he just accidentally left out the first time. 100 foreign counties. 100 contacts. He had a private email address he did not disclose to investigators which then they wanted more information about because he had testified and didnt mention anything about that. And now were learning he did not disclose these emails about wikileaks, about alleged russian back door overture. And about this guy, sergey milian, who is alleged to have played a really big role in this dossier. Yeah, who is milian . Whats his deal . So he is a belarusanamerican
and founded this Organization Called the russianamerican chamber of commerce. He has said he has close Business Ties with donald trump. Who knows whether or not thats actually true. He might have just been inflating himself for his own publicity. But he has worked for the Trump Organization in the past. There are pictures of milian and trump together. And essentially reports have suggested that milian is a source in that trumprussia dossier. That he is source d. E he essentially told an associate the kremlin was feeding damaging information about Hillary Clinton to donald trump. He was also the wow alleged source of the prostitute information. The alleged sex scandal that donald trump, you know, participated in when he was in moscow. So youve got milian now sort of tied in writing. Theyre asking about this. What does it say about what they know . Its sort of an interesting letter, right . Because theyre saying, youre busted. Presumably because they have emails from other people
knowing that he was copied on it. I think Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Grassley were frustrated. This is the reason why they released this letter to the public. They dont normally blast out letters like this. It was clearly an indication they are sick and tired of Jared Kushner omitting this very important information. And its also important to note that in terms of what the campaign knew, the contact with milian is interesting, because milian was actually telling people he was in contact with George Papadopoulos throughout the entire campaign. Huh. And through the transition. And George Papadopoulos, of course, is the one who had said that he received information from a kremlinlinked professor, sarg they had damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Including her emails. Including her emails. Which then papadopoulos may have told milian, which he then may have told christopher steele. So its all convoluted, but the pieces are starting to come together. So heres the other thing that really perked up my ears when i read this piece. Was that we sort of have forgotten about this moment. But the Washington Post reported that kushner tried to
set up a backchannel communication in the Russian Embassy. Remember this . Crazy thing that he sneaks kislyak into trump tower. He they have a conversation in which apparently he proposes, like, can we go to the embassy where we can have a backchannel communication with russia. If theres earlier intrigues about that before that happens, that would seem to maybe link something together. Exactly. So its unclear what these back channels were actually about in the emails. But what was my first instinct was that kushner had essentially followed up somehow to talk about this plan to create this back channel with russia via the Russian Embassy using russian diplomatic facilities in the u. S. Kushner says that it was to discuss syria. But the bring a piece to syria. He was so intent and so focused on bringing peace to syria. So concerned that normal diplomatic channels wouldnt do it, he thought of the extraordinary step of doing this so syria could be at peace. He felt he had to bypass the u. S. Intelligence committee in order to get this information to bring peace to syria. For an administration that wasnt even in power yet. He. Ed to go arou