Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20181115 : vi

Russia investigation. Tonight, congressman adam schiff on matt whitaker. I dont know matt whitaker. Protecting Robert Mueller and the whiff of indictments in the air. Then, meeting the new class as more races are called for democrats. Th guys, there are secret underground tunnels. Between all of these government buildings. Where we stand after the di midterm rejection of Donald Trumps bigotry. And the latest on the California Wildfires as the trump delegation sidesteps the president s attacks. Not pointing fingers. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. News from the Mueller Investigation into roger stone on multiple front seat tonight. Nbc news has exclusively obtained Text Messages between Trump Campaign adviser roger stone and his friend Randy Credico showing once againstones foreknowledge of those wikileaks email dumps. Big news, according to the Text Messages provided by stone, now pretend you dont know me. You died five years ago, stone replied. Create, he wrote back. Hillarys Campaign Died a week later. And this was not the only roger stone news today. The wall street journal and the latest on the California Wildfires as the trump delegation sidesteps the president s attacks. Not pointing fingers. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. News from the Mueller Investigation into roger stone on multiple front seat tonight. Nbc news has exclusively obtained Text Messages between Trump Campaign adviser roger stone and his friend randy onfissrniacaiesonce gos. Againstones foreknowledge of those wikileaks email dumps. Big news, according to the Text Messages provided by stone, now pretend you dont know me. You died five years ago, stone replied. Create, he wrote back. Hillarys Campaign Died a week later. And this was not the only roger stone news today. The wall street journal reporting the special counsels office is now looking into possible witness intimidation by stone of that very witness, Randy Credico, something stone denies. Stone who has already said he expects to be indicted went on Laura Ingrams radio show to try, once again, to rewrite history. To date there is no evidence whatsoever of russian collusion or wikileaks collaboration, or any proof or evidence that i knew in advance the source or the content of allegedly stolen or allegedly hacked emails published by wikileaks. I never predicted anything of the kind, nor heard any such thing from jerry corsi who is a great researcher and a writer and a friend of mine. So its a witch hunt. Witch hunt. Get all that . He didnt know what, he didnt know, quote, in advance the source or the content of stolen emails published by wikileaks. That is, one should note, quite different from not knowing it was coming. Those texts provided by stone to nbc news ostensibly to vindicate himself show he knew it was coming. Quote, i think its on for tomorrow. October 3rd, 2016. Later that day, why cant you get trump to come out and say that he would give Julian Assange asylum. Muellers investigation is still firing on many fronts. Today it was in court where prosecutor from the special counsels office said they were not ready to yet sentence trumps former Deputy Campaign manager rick gates because he continues to cooperate with respect to several ongoing investigations. And this comes two days after Michael Cohen was in washington to meet again with the mueller team. It comes just one day after roger stone associate jerome corsi who was referred to above, abruptly cancelled an interview. Corsis lawyers stopped him from Going Forward with the interview, while at the same time fielding a call with the office from the special counsel. Theres an open question at this moment about how much latitude Robert Mueller has to operate and follow the truth where it leads since he is now reporting, lets remember, to this man, acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker who today received a ruling from the office of Legal Counsel inside the Justice Department stating his appointment was lawful and valid, this despite the fact that the only time in American History that an attorney general was even remotely appointed in this way was back in 1866, when he held the position for six days. But whitaker is not out of the woods yet. House democrats are preparing to investigate whitakers role on the Advisory Board of a company accused of scamming millions from its customers. Congressman adam schiff of california joins me now. Schiff and his democratic colleagues sent letters requesting information on whitakers involvement with that companys Advisory Board. Lets start there, congressman schiff. What are you asking for . What are your concerns about whitaker . Well, our concerns are that at a time when he was a paid Advisory Board member, this company is alleged to have been engaged in criminal conduct, were talking about the chief Law Enforcement officer of the country, if he was aware of this criminal conduct or implicated in any way, or failed to uphold his responsibility, that is something that we ought to know of the chief Law Enforcement officer of the country. And certainly it raises another recusal issue. Theres no way that he can or should be involved in any of the aspects of that case given that he was had such a close tie to those involved. Is it your understanding, its been publicly reported, is it your understanding as well the fbi has an ongoing criminal investigation into the activities of that very company is this. I dont know the answer to that. Thats not information generally they share with the congress. Let me ask you this. Maryland has filed a motion basically asking a court to declare Rod Rosenstein the real attorney general, basically saying whitakers appointment is unconstitutional. Do you agree with that argument . Or what remedies or courses of action do you want to see happen here . I do agree with that lawsuit, and i think that his appointment does violate not only constitution, but other statutes as well. He is a principle officer, the top Law Enforcement officer in the country. The fact that he is serving it for a temporary period doesnt make him somehow inferior. We look at both the letter of the constitution, which requires that that position be senateconfirmed. But we also look at the functionality. That is, if you interpret it the way the Justice Department is, what does that say about the function of that office by somebody whos an acting attorney general as compared to someone whos a permanent attorney general . And by that test there is no difference in the function. He has no greater, no lesser responsibilities than if he were the permanent attorney general. Theyre identical. So it makes no sense to treat them differently. And finally, and i think this is very persuasive, it was also pointed out by the Maryland Attorney general, and that is we have a succession statute specifically for the department of justice. In other cases, with other agencies that have a succession statute, they specify when you can also use the vacancy reform act. Right. This statute does not do that, and the strong implication is when Congress Passed this statute and said this is the succession, it meant what it said. And when you have a conflict between a specific statute and a more general one its the specific statute that governs. So theres a situation right now, the special counsels office is doing its work, it now reports up to, as far as we know, mr. Whitaker, the acting attorney general, theres a question about what is happening in those interactions, what can you and the Democratic Party do once you gain control of the gavel to find out whats happening and ensure that theres no untoward interference . Well, the first thing we can do is bring mr. Whitaker before the congress. I think thats exactly whats going to happen. And we can demand answers in terms of what actions hes taking in the investigation, what communications hes had with the president , whether he sought an ethics opinion, what that ethics opinion told him to do, whether he is violating the terms of the ethics opinion. Now, i would fully expect that on some of these questions the white house is likely to fight us. But nonetheless we are going to persevere, and the truth is going to come out. Theres just no way to avoid exposure if mr. Whitaker does anything unethical. And we ought to expect everyone in the Justice Department to abide by the highest ethical standards. That includes particularly the attorney general. Theres been some theorizing, a miss was written the other day on this, that essentially the Mueller Investigation is far enough along that it will find what it will find and that at this point theres not that much even a can do to stifle it. Not my view at all. That presupposes all the work has been done. Lets remember that he cannot only in this position interfere with what bob mueller is doing, he can interfere in what the Southern District of new york doing. To the degree bob mueller has more work to do, lets say the mueller team has decided it needs to subpoena the president to force him to testify, thats something that can be prevented. That may very well be the best evidence, an interview with the president on the issue of obstruction of justice. Theres a great deal he can do to harm the investigation. We in congress are going to do everything we cannot only to protect the investigation, but to assist where we can. And, you know, in light of what you were discussing earlier, one of the things we ought to do immediately is provide the transcripts of these witness interviews to bob mueller because in light of the disclosures in the last 24 hours of these Text Messages that mr. Stone apparently had provided to nbc news, both the existence of these Text Messages and their content raise a very substantial question about mr. Stones truthfulness, under oath before our committee, and that evidence should be provided to the special counsel. I should note in the other house of congress in the senate today jeff and senator flake are attempting to bring to the floor a bill that was written and cosponsored, and they were objected to by leader mcconnell. See how that goes. Congressman adam schiff, thank you very much. Lets bring in jill winebanks, and nick akerman, nick, ill start with you, what is roger stone doing, to your mind, watching his behavior, the interviews sort of selectively leaking different, you know, messages, changing his story, whats he doing . I think hes he knows hes in trouble, he knows hes a key target of this investigation. I think he knows hes going to be indicted. Hes definitely going to be one of the people. Hes already been named by virtue of his messages with the 13 russians. Roger stone is a little bit crazy. Like a fox. Exactly. This is more of a pr thing because roger stone is directly connected to only one person in this entire thing, and that is donald trump. Hes the one that basically talked trump into running for president , has been friendly with him in new york over the years. He put up this big charade of being fired from the Trump Campaign so he could go under cover and do all of these things that he does in the campaign. He is out there so you think hes a direct connection. Thats the key to me. He is. Jill, heres where i see this going. Theres going to be an effort, if, in fact, stone is indicted, and again that is what he expects. Jerome corsi expects it, theres lots of evidence. Theres this effort to say donald trump barely knew the guy. Do you anticipate that . Is that a similar play that was used back in the watergate days . Its not so much that it was used in the watergate days is that its a traditional pattern for donald trump. I know him well. Until think get indicted, i never met him. Thats his pattern. He does it every time. He said it about every single person. Whitaker, he knew. Until he didnt know him. And so we can expect donald trump to say that very much. The thing that does remind me of watergate really goes back to the fact of the attorney general. And you mentioned the acting attorney generals under investigation for a scam for a board that he was on. And the watergate breakin was planned in the office of the attorney general. He was also serving as the head of the committee to reelect the president as the Campaign Manager but he was still the attorney general. So the actual planning happened in the attorney generals office. Thats crazy. Which to me is really crazy. I hope we arent seeing a repeat of that. Well, having gone through the saturday night massacre and watching whitaker now theres this battle over him, news the white house is surprised by all this, active fbi criminal investigation into the company, not clear that he is part of that investigation. But he was advisor to it. What do you see her in terms of his grasp on power and his legitimacy . First of all, he is a political hack. Donald trump put him in there for one reason and one reason only, as a get out of jail card free. I mean, this is precisely the problem that Elliott Richardson and ruckles house foresaw before the saturday night massacre occurred. They preplanned to make sure that a political hack wouldnt be put in charge of the department of justice. They both knew that they had to resign, but bourque was prevailed upon to fire Archibald Cox so they wouldnt put in some hack from the white house whats so striking, the doomsday scenario we had with the saturday night massacre is what we have with whitaker. Dont let nixon just put in some guy to run the department. Exactly. Trump has just gone all around that. Hes basically circumvented the whole succession law and hes put in a guy who he thinks is going to get him out of jail free. Wall street journal reporting, jill, as i mentioned earlier that one of the witnesses before that grand jury, the mueller grand jury was asked questions about roger stones intimidation of Randy Credico, this person he has a strange relationship with, hes a new york radio host who stone claimed at one point he was his sort of connection to assange, who was then berated publicly and privately, trying to apparently intimidate him, or the supposition here. What do you make of that . Well, knowing roger stone, and ive had the pleasure of being on a panel with him where he is quite charming in person, but if you look at his history in an odd way, but yes. Definitely in an odd way, yes. But i would say based on everything that weve seen and heard and everything that we know from the days of watergate on, he is very likely to be a person who thinks that he can get away with anything and that he would intimidate witnesses without even thinking that he was doing it. So i think its quite possible that thats something that has happened. I think everyone underestimates how much mueller knows. Yes. And so they go in there giving their story, not realizing that everything that they say, there is some contradictory statement under oath by someone else or some document. I mean, all of the Text Messages and emails contradict what roger stone says. And people need to really Pay Attention to all of the things that get triangulated in any investigation. Yeah. Thats what we do as prosecutors. We take conflicting statements and we triangulate and then you come to the truth. I think that thats going to catch roger stone. What you just described is what jerome corsi by his own words happened to him. They went in to talk to investigators, all sorts of documentary evidence contradicting things hes said. In his own telling thats precisely what happened. Jill winebanks and nick akerman, thank you both. Thank you. I want to give you this news from los angeles tonight, the lapd is confirming at this hour that michael avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels and others has been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. In a statement avenattis wife said she was not involved in the alleged incident. Senior Law Enforcement officials tell nbc news avenatti is expected to be booked into a local jail later this evening, meaning he is currently in custody, as i understand it. Avenatti has been exploring quite vocally a 2020 president ial run as a democrat. In a statement tonight he calls the allegations quote, completely bogus and said he would be exonerated, adding i have never been physically abusive in my life, nor was i last night. Any accusations to the contrary are fabricated and meant to do harm to my reputation. Where america stands after the blue wave midterm election, plus, block buster New York Times reporting on the insane Tactics Facebook used to navigate the russian interference scandal. And next, congressman Hakeem Jeffries in a remarkable first day for a remarkable freshman class orientation in the house. Guys, there are secret get closer. Start listening today to the Robert Mueller<\/a> and the whiff of indictments in the air. Then, meeting the new class as more races are called for democrats. Th guys, there are secret underground tunnels. Between all of these government buildings. Where we stand after the di midterm rejection of Donald Trumps<\/a> bigotry. And the latest on the California Wildfires<\/a> as the trump delegation sidesteps the president s attacks. Not pointing fingers. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. News from the Mueller Investigation<\/a> into roger stone on multiple front seat tonight. Nbc news has exclusively obtained Text Messages<\/a> between Trump Campaign<\/a> adviser roger stone and his friend Randy Credico<\/a> showing once againstones foreknowledge of those wikileaks email dumps. Big news, according to the Text Messages<\/a> provided by stone, now pretend you dont know me. You died five years ago, stone replied. Create, he wrote back. Hillarys Campaign Died<\/a> a week later. And this was not the only roger stone news today. The wall street journal and the latest on the California Wildfires<\/a> as the trump delegation sidesteps the president s attacks. Not pointing fingers. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. News from the Mueller Investigation<\/a> into roger stone on multiple front seat tonight. Nbc news has exclusively obtained Text Messages<\/a> between Trump Campaign<\/a> adviser roger stone and his friend randy onfissrniacaiesonce gos. Againstones foreknowledge of those wikileaks email dumps. Big news, according to the Text Messages<\/a> provided by stone, now pretend you dont know me. You died five years ago, stone replied. Create, he wrote back. Hillarys Campaign Died<\/a> a week later. And this was not the only roger stone news today. The wall street journal reporting the special counsels office is now looking into possible witness intimidation by stone of that very witness, Randy Credico<\/a>, something stone denies. Stone who has already said he expects to be indicted went on Laura Ingrams<\/a> radio show to try, once again, to rewrite history. To date there is no evidence whatsoever of russian collusion or wikileaks collaboration, or any proof or evidence that i knew in advance the source or the content of allegedly stolen or allegedly hacked emails published by wikileaks. I never predicted anything of the kind, nor heard any such thing from jerry corsi who is a great researcher and a writer and a friend of mine. So its a witch hunt. Witch hunt. Get all that . He didnt know what, he didnt know, quote, in advance the source or the content of stolen emails published by wikileaks. That is, one should note, quite different from not knowing it was coming. Those texts provided by stone to nbc news ostensibly to vindicate himself show he knew it was coming. Quote, i think its on for tomorrow. October 3rd, 2016. Later that day, why cant you get trump to come out and say that he would give Julian Assange<\/a> asylum. Muellers investigation is still firing on many fronts. Today it was in court where prosecutor from the special counsels office said they were not ready to yet sentence trumps former Deputy Campaign<\/a> manager rick gates because he continues to cooperate with respect to several ongoing investigations. And this comes two days after Michael Cohen<\/a> was in washington to meet again with the mueller team. It comes just one day after roger stone associate jerome corsi who was referred to above, abruptly cancelled an interview. Corsis lawyers stopped him from Going Forward<\/a> with the interview, while at the same time fielding a call with the office from the special counsel. Theres an open question at this moment about how much latitude Robert Mueller<\/a> has to operate and follow the truth where it leads since he is now reporting, lets remember, to this man, acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker<\/a> who today received a ruling from the office of Legal Counsel<\/a> inside the Justice Department<\/a> stating his appointment was lawful and valid, this despite the fact that the only time in American History<\/a> that an attorney general was even remotely appointed in this way was back in 1866, when he held the position for six days. But whitaker is not out of the woods yet. House democrats are preparing to investigate whitakers role on the Advisory Board<\/a> of a company accused of scamming millions from its customers. Congressman adam schiff of california joins me now. Schiff and his democratic colleagues sent letters requesting information on whitakers involvement with that companys Advisory Board<\/a>. Lets start there, congressman schiff. What are you asking for . What are your concerns about whitaker . Well, our concerns are that at a time when he was a paid Advisory Board<\/a> member, this company is alleged to have been engaged in criminal conduct, were talking about the chief Law Enforcement<\/a> officer of the country, if he was aware of this criminal conduct or implicated in any way, or failed to uphold his responsibility, that is something that we ought to know of the chief Law Enforcement<\/a> officer of the country. And certainly it raises another recusal issue. Theres no way that he can or should be involved in any of the aspects of that case given that he was had such a close tie to those involved. Is it your understanding, its been publicly reported, is it your understanding as well the fbi has an ongoing criminal investigation into the activities of that very company is this. I dont know the answer to that. Thats not information generally they share with the congress. Let me ask you this. Maryland has filed a motion basically asking a court to declare Rod Rosenstein<\/a> the real attorney general, basically saying whitakers appointment is unconstitutional. Do you agree with that argument . Or what remedies or courses of action do you want to see happen here . I do agree with that lawsuit, and i think that his appointment does violate not only constitution, but other statutes as well. He is a principle officer, the top Law Enforcement<\/a> officer in the country. The fact that he is serving it for a temporary period doesnt make him somehow inferior. We look at both the letter of the constitution, which requires that that position be senateconfirmed. But we also look at the functionality. That is, if you interpret it the way the Justice Department<\/a> is, what does that say about the function of that office by somebody whos an acting attorney general as compared to someone whos a permanent attorney general . And by that test there is no difference in the function. He has no greater, no lesser responsibilities than if he were the permanent attorney general. Theyre identical. So it makes no sense to treat them differently. And finally, and i think this is very persuasive, it was also pointed out by the Maryland Attorney<\/a> general, and that is we have a succession statute specifically for the department of justice. In other cases, with other agencies that have a succession statute, they specify when you can also use the vacancy reform act. Right. This statute does not do that, and the strong implication is when Congress Passed<\/a> this statute and said this is the succession, it meant what it said. And when you have a conflict between a specific statute and a more general one its the specific statute that governs. So theres a situation right now, the special counsels office is doing its work, it now reports up to, as far as we know, mr. Whitaker, the acting attorney general, theres a question about what is happening in those interactions, what can you and the Democratic Party<\/a> do once you gain control of the gavel to find out whats happening and ensure that theres no untoward interference . Well, the first thing we can do is bring mr. Whitaker before the congress. I think thats exactly whats going to happen. And we can demand answers in terms of what actions hes taking in the investigation, what communications hes had with the president , whether he sought an ethics opinion, what that ethics opinion told him to do, whether he is violating the terms of the ethics opinion. Now, i would fully expect that on some of these questions the white house is likely to fight us. But nonetheless we are going to persevere, and the truth is going to come out. Theres just no way to avoid exposure if mr. Whitaker does anything unethical. And we ought to expect everyone in the Justice Department<\/a> to abide by the highest ethical standards. That includes particularly the attorney general. Theres been some theorizing, a miss was written the other day on this, that essentially the Mueller Investigation<\/a> is far enough along that it will find what it will find and that at this point theres not that much even a can do to stifle it. Not my view at all. That presupposes all the work has been done. Lets remember that he cannot only in this position interfere with what bob mueller is doing, he can interfere in what the Southern District<\/a> of new york doing. To the degree bob mueller has more work to do, lets say the mueller team has decided it needs to subpoena the president to force him to testify, thats something that can be prevented. That may very well be the best evidence, an interview with the president on the issue of obstruction of justice. Theres a great deal he can do to harm the investigation. We in congress are going to do everything we cannot only to protect the investigation, but to assist where we can. And, you know, in light of what you were discussing earlier, one of the things we ought to do immediately is provide the transcripts of these witness interviews to bob mueller because in light of the disclosures in the last 24 hours of these Text Messages<\/a> that mr. Stone apparently had provided to nbc news, both the existence of these Text Messages<\/a> and their content raise a very substantial question about mr. Stones truthfulness, under oath before our committee, and that evidence should be provided to the special counsel. I should note in the other house of congress in the senate today jeff and senator flake are attempting to bring to the floor a bill that was written and cosponsored, and they were objected to by leader mcconnell. See how that goes. Congressman adam schiff, thank you very much. Lets bring in jill winebanks, and nick akerman, nick, ill start with you, what is roger stone doing, to your mind, watching his behavior, the interviews sort of selectively leaking different, you know, messages, changing his story, whats he doing . I think hes he knows hes in trouble, he knows hes a key target of this investigation. I think he knows hes going to be indicted. Hes definitely going to be one of the people. Hes already been named by virtue of his messages with the 13 russians. Roger stone is a little bit crazy. Like a fox. Exactly. This is more of a pr thing because roger stone is directly connected to only one person in this entire thing, and that is donald trump. Hes the one that basically talked trump into running for president , has been friendly with him in new york over the years. He put up this big charade of being fired from the Trump Campaign<\/a> so he could go under cover and do all of these things that he does in the campaign. He is out there so you think hes a direct connection. Thats the key to me. He is. Jill, heres where i see this going. Theres going to be an effort, if, in fact, stone is indicted, and again that is what he expects. Jerome corsi expects it, theres lots of evidence. Theres this effort to say donald trump barely knew the guy. Do you anticipate that . Is that a similar play that was used back in the watergate days . Its not so much that it was used in the watergate days is that its a traditional pattern for donald trump. I know him well. Until think get indicted, i never met him. Thats his pattern. He does it every time. He said it about every single person. Whitaker, he knew. Until he didnt know him. And so we can expect donald trump to say that very much. The thing that does remind me of watergate really goes back to the fact of the attorney general. And you mentioned the acting attorney generals under investigation for a scam for a board that he was on. And the watergate breakin was planned in the office of the attorney general. He was also serving as the head of the committee to reelect the president as the Campaign Manager<\/a> but he was still the attorney general. So the actual planning happened in the attorney generals office. Thats crazy. Which to me is really crazy. I hope we arent seeing a repeat of that. Well, having gone through the saturday night massacre and watching whitaker now theres this battle over him, news the white house is surprised by all this, active fbi criminal investigation into the company, not clear that he is part of that investigation. But he was advisor to it. What do you see her in terms of his grasp on power and his legitimacy . First of all, he is a political hack. Donald trump put him in there for one reason and one reason only, as a get out of jail card free. I mean, this is precisely the problem that Elliott Richardson<\/a> and ruckles house foresaw before the saturday night massacre occurred. They preplanned to make sure that a political hack wouldnt be put in charge of the department of justice. They both knew that they had to resign, but bourque was prevailed upon to fire Archibald Cox<\/a> so they wouldnt put in some hack from the white house whats so striking, the doomsday scenario we had with the saturday night massacre is what we have with whitaker. Dont let nixon just put in some guy to run the department. Exactly. Trump has just gone all around that. Hes basically circumvented the whole succession law and hes put in a guy who he thinks is going to get him out of jail free. Wall street journal reporting, jill, as i mentioned earlier that one of the witnesses before that grand jury, the mueller grand jury was asked questions about roger stones intimidation of Randy Credico<\/a>, this person he has a strange relationship with, hes a new york radio host who stone claimed at one point he was his sort of connection to assange, who was then berated publicly and privately, trying to apparently intimidate him, or the supposition here. What do you make of that . Well, knowing roger stone, and ive had the pleasure of being on a panel with him where he is quite charming in person, but if you look at his history in an odd way, but yes. Definitely in an odd way, yes. But i would say based on everything that weve seen and heard and everything that we know from the days of watergate on, he is very likely to be a person who thinks that he can get away with anything and that he would intimidate witnesses without even thinking that he was doing it. So i think its quite possible that thats something that has happened. I think everyone underestimates how much mueller knows. Yes. And so they go in there giving their story, not realizing that everything that they say, there is some contradictory statement under oath by someone else or some document. I mean, all of the Text Messages<\/a> and emails contradict what roger stone says. And people need to really Pay Attention<\/a> to all of the things that get triangulated in any investigation. Yeah. Thats what we do as prosecutors. We take conflicting statements and we triangulate and then you come to the truth. I think that thats going to catch roger stone. What you just described is what jerome corsi by his own words happened to him. They went in to talk to investigators, all sorts of documentary evidence contradicting things hes said. In his own telling thats precisely what happened. Jill winebanks and nick akerman, thank you both. Thank you. I want to give you this news from los angeles tonight, the lapd is confirming at this hour that michael avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels<\/a> and others has been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. In a statement avenattis wife said she was not involved in the alleged incident. Senior Law Enforcement<\/a> officials tell nbc news avenatti is expected to be booked into a local jail later this evening, meaning he is currently in custody, as i understand it. Avenatti has been exploring quite vocally a 2020 president ial run as a democrat. In a statement tonight he calls the allegations quote, completely bogus and said he would be exonerated, adding i have never been physically abusive in my life, nor was i last night. Any accusations to the contrary are fabricated and meant to do harm to my reputation. Where america stands after the blue wave midterm election, plus, block buster New York Times<\/a> reporting on the insane Tactics Facebook<\/a> used to navigate the russian interference scandal. And next, congressman Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> in a remarkable first day for a remarkable freshman class orientation in the house. Guys, there are secret get closer. Start listening today to the Worlds Largest<\/a> selection of audiobooks on audible. And now, get more. For just 14. 95 a month, youll get a credit a month good for any audiobook, plus two Audible Originals<\/a> exclusive titles you cant find anywhere else. If you dont like a book, you can exchange it any time, no questions asked. Automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you dont use them. With the free audible app, you can listen anytime, and anywhere. Plus for the first time ever, youll get access to exclusive fitness programs a 95 value free with membership. Start a 30day trial today and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime and your books are yours to keep forever. Audible. The most inspiring minds. The most compelling stories. Text listen27 to 500500 to start your free trial today. The most compelling stories. I am a techie dad. N. I believe the best technology should feel effortless. Like magic. At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development<\/a> at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Guys, there are secret underground tunnels. Between all of these government buildings. Alexandria cortez, giving her soon to be constituents an insider looking at the capital. Documenting her freshman orientation on instagram as she and others learn how to navigate congress. While eight races are still to be called, theres at least 87 new incoming house members. 87. The republican freshman, soon to be taking office on the republican side, look at that for a second and then here are the new democrats, yes, more democrats than republicans, theres another difference in case you need help, here are the two incoming groups of freshman side by side, the republicans overwhelmingly white and male, the democrats look more like, well, america. Here with me now is somebody who will be returning to Congress Come<\/a> january and who had a hand in getting those new people elected. How does it change to have this many new people in your caucus to have this many new different backgrounds. Its a phenomenal thing. We will clearly represent the gorgeous mosaic of the American People<\/a>. Were black, were white, were latino, asian, men, women, were young, were older, were gay, were straight. Let me stop you there, say young ask older, spoken like a true politician. Seasoned members and weve got newer members whove never served in elected office. Its been a great combination. Many of these individuals, chris, as you know, theyre veterans, National Security<\/a> professionals, super moms, theyre nurses, theyre activists, it really runs the gamut. They will supercharge and energize the new Congress Next<\/a> year. Is it strange . Youve got the House Republican<\/a> caucus is now i think 90 white men and the Democratic Caucus<\/a> is going to be 38 white men. There is something striking about the demographic fissures of american politics being so replicated in the your workplace. We absolutely represent the face of america in every facet possible, which is consistent with what the congress should look like, particularly the peoples house here in the house of representatives, which as you know the Founding Fathers<\/a> envisioned as the most direct representatives of the American People<\/a>. When you look at the other side of the aisle, its like a country club that is pretty exclusive. And i think that is the direction that weve seen our colleagues in the republican go and theyre going to need to reverse course or theyre going to lose america. Theres all sorts of leadership talk, leadership elections, i think youre running for house caucus chair, if im not mistaken, other folks running for that position as well. What do you make of the theres a letter out today of a bunch of democrats saying they dont want to vote for nancy pelosi, 15 or 20 of those. Is there a serious challenge to her speakership or not . Well, i think that shes got the votes to be the speaker designee. Im certainly going to support her effort. And on her path toward 2018 i will be one of the people that support her. She led us into the majority once in 2006 and has now led us back into the majority. But of course there is a desire, chris, as you know for generational change and for that to be reflected in the leadership in some way, shape or form. Hopefully well be able to work this all out in a manner that will allow us to then focus on the things that we promised the American People<\/a> we would do, Lower Health Care<\/a> costs, increasing pay, cleaning up the mess and corruption here in washington so let me stop you there. You said the desire for generational change. I have a hard time figuring out what the argument for nancy pelosi is, is it personal, about what she is, or is it ideological, political, because people are on the trail and shes been turned into this heightening rod by conservative media . Or is it the generational argument . Is that whats driving all this . There are people of good will who have legitimately concluded that our leadership moving forward and in terms of how we run the house has got to allow everyone to be on the Playing Field<\/a> so they can contribute and elevate the aspirations and dreams of the districts that they represent. But i do believe that theres a way for us to work this out. And the bottom line, as youve pointed out, the other side, right wing conservatives tried to weaponize nancy pelosi to stop us from seizing the majority, it didnt work, weve seized the majority. Its a pretty good political argument. Also weird if after losing in 2010, 2012 and 2014, reelecting nancy pelosi and after winning in 2018, to dump her. Yeah, no certainly and that is the case thats being made. And that we shouldnt let the other side dictate to us how we proceed. Yeah. I think youll see a more inclusive congress in the next congress in terms of how we provide opportunities to newly arriving members. Thats interesting. To fully display their talent and ability. All right, congressman Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> of brooklyn, thank you very much for your time. Thank you, chris. Coming up, shocking new expose from the New York Times<\/a> on facebooks attempts to delay, deny and deflect their way through the backlash following the 2016 election. We have a reporter on that article and he joins me next. Tonight, disturbing new details on the length that facebook executives were willing to go to in order to defend the company. An extensive report based on interviews with more than 50 people the New York Times<\/a> says the company knew about russian activity on its platform during the election long before they went public with the details. Reveals a range of unsavory tactics the company used to fight its growing list of critics, including hiring a Republican Opposition<\/a> Research Firm<\/a> to discredit activist protesters by linking them to the liberal finance er soros. Joining me now one of the reporters, and also an msnbc political analyst. Great piece of reporting. I think all this stuff is new. It was hard to tell. I want to start with the stuff in there that seems new, the extent to which facebook knew what was going on in 2016 on their platform and did not disclose to the public and slow walked their disclosure. Facebook first saw stirrings of russian activity on their platform in the spring of 2016. Thats a long time ago. And it wasnt until the fall of 2017, after they had done more study, but also tried to fend off some of the emerging criticism, that they finally told the public and their own board, which sparked a major confrontation in the board room between Sheryl Sandberg<\/a> and some others. You report that when they come to the board, bowls who is on the board, an investor, in and out of politics, there was a furious fight over it because he felt and others felt like this had been hidden from them for a very long time. It was kept from the executives at first. Everybody clamped down and didnt want to go public until they had to. When they had gone public, they said its not that bad. And they kept having to revise it over and over. No one saw it, it was 100,000 worth of ads and every one of those statements were untrue or massively misleading. Were in trouble, what to do. There you see more of the classic playbook of the Big Corporation<\/a> in washington trying to get trouble off its back. You had calls to senators, Sheryl Sandberg<\/a> put in a call to amy klobuchar, sponsoring a strong bill on ad disclosure. Whats going on here, heated conversation there. They were hiring lobbyists, obviously, which everyone does and they also hired a pr firm, this pr firm had done a lot of work, theyd done some media monitoring, theyd done press releases and press calls. But finally they were pressed into service to do Campaign Style<\/a> research and to try and get stories written about facebooks critics. Didnt they create a website with alternate news . Its not a secret because its all on the masthead. But the definers is co located with a conservative news site that happens to write a lot of articles that attack the enemies of their clients. So in this case you saw that tim cook was blasting facebook over privacy. In an interview with yours truly, actually. And other articles that were saying cook was a hypocrite, and articles say google does things like cambridge analytica. Theyre trying to spread the blame, saying its a big tech problem. There was a public face, private face, one of the themes here. Publicly theyre minimizing, privately they have engineers saying this is a big problem, publicly, were working it out, connecting everyone. Privately theyre on war footing and going after their enemies. They dont want regulation they cant get around. Saying look weve taken all the best ideas already and well do them ourselves, but in public theyre saying we are ready for regulation, it is time. Its a twostep. The Incoming Democratic<\/a> chair of the house antitrust had this to say, its stunning to see that facebook will always put taste book chose to turn a blind eye to hate speech and russian propaganda on its platform. Top executives did everything they could to hide it from the public and propagating theories. Thats a searing press release from the congressman. While facebook is worried about privacy rules, for example, what theyre deathly afraid of is antitrust. The thing that would really end what theyre doing is to be broken up into smaller companies, theyre petrified of it, but until now they were worried that the risk was coming from republicans. Great reporting, thank you, sir. Were going to talk about the midterms, and tonights thing one, thing two is next. Thing one tonight, you can see all sorts of crazy things on the channel we like to call trump tv, especially as they and the boss struggle to deal with the terrible Election Results<\/a> this week. Here was a gooner from last night, laura ingram using a nugget she found on the New York Times<\/a>, so slam the incoming class of house democrats. Something that is good for the economy will not be good for the socialists led by ocasiocortez. Immigration reform will be objected unless it abolishes i. C. E. Nancy pelosi has inherited a load of unruly children. Good luck to her getting anything passed by her own people. Interesting bit of analysis from the New York Times<\/a>. Wonder who wrote that. No, it actually isnt analysis from the New York Times<\/a>. Theyve gone deep into the website comments section to bring you autumn leaff with the perfect ingram angle. If you think its just the people on the air youve got to see whats been going on in the commercial breaks. Storm a coming, you cannot defeat the storm. I am the storm. The Great American<\/a> grizzly, the original trumpy bear. The truth about trumpy bear is thing two in 60 seconds. Customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services<\/a> of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again take care of the hands that take care of you. Thats me in back in 1987, when i gave isotoner gloves to all my teammates. Now i have a different set of teammates. My family. And they all want isotoner gloves for christmas because they keep getting better. Theres smartouch. For selfies whenever, wherever. Then theres four way stretch for flexibility. They even have smartdri. See . Stays dry. So get isotoner gloves for the whole family. Take care of the hands that take care of you. Trump is the Service Channel<\/a> for maga cultists. What happens between the segments is even wilder. Consider this ad for trumps pick for speaker of the house. Jim jordan, how great is he . Jim jordan is great and we need him to be our next speaker of the house. Its time for House Republican<\/a>s to pick a new speaker who will support President Trump<\/a> and fight for his agenda. Please call 8008252663 to sign the National Petition<\/a> supporting jim jordan for speaker. My question is, were they running the ad because jordan was trumps favorite or was it the ad that convinced trump that jordan was his favorite . Kevin mccarthy was elected to lead the party today. But at least we still have trumpy bear. Storm is coming, you cannot defeat the storm. I am the storm. The Great American<\/a> grizzly. Introducing the original trumpy bear. Find the secret zipper and pull out the american flagthemed blanket. Then wrap yourself in the red, white and blue for comfort of warmth. God bless america and god bless trumpy bear. Heim a former ma veen and im proud to have trumpy bear ride by my side. When i ride with trumpy bear, he makes my golf game great again. Place him in his favorite chair. The toughest guys will love trumpy bear. Horde for two payments of 19. 95. Yes, that is a real commercial for a real product airing on trump tv. A spokesperson for the company that owns the trade mark on trumpy bear told snowplows no, this is not a joke, what is also not a joke is that all that weird storm is coming is the exact language of the conspiracy cult qanonwhich has embraced trump. If youre lucky enough, you might be disappointed by information disclosed on the tag. First, of course, its made in china. But also trumpy bear is not for children under 12 years. Ing in trumpy is. Get stronger. Get closer. Start listening today to the Worlds Largest<\/a> selection of audiobooks on audible. And now, get more. For just 14. 95 a month, youll get a credit a month good for any audiobook, plus two Audible Originals<\/a> exclusive titles you cant find anywhere else. If you dont like a book, you can exchange it any time, no questions asked. Automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you dont use them. With the free audible app, you can listen anytime, and anywhere. Plus for the first time ever, youll get access to exclusive fitness programs a 95 value free with membership. Start a 30day trial today and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime and your books are yours to keep forever. Audible. The most inspiring minds. The most compelling stories. Text listen27 to 500500 to start your free trial today. Dont miss the deadline. Theres only days remaining in the enrollment period. Funny thing about health insurance. You dont think about how much you need it. Until you need it. Hes not going to be okay. From emergencies to just regular life. Having the right plan for you can mean all the difference in the care you get and how much you pay. Dont worry, sweetheart. Its going to get better. silence thats why i love Health Markets<\/a>, your insurance marketplace. They guarantee you wont find a lower price anywhere for the plans they offer. They search thousands of plants from over 200 leading companies, both on the exchange and off, to find the plan that saves you money. You may even qualify for Free Health Insurance<\/a> with no monthly premiums. Call Health Markets<\/a> right now. Hi, im dr. Thomas stackhouse. Too often i see patients paying more than they have to because they dont know what theyre entitled to. New health plans are now available that can let you keep your doctor, get better coverage, and save money. Dont go it alone. Call Health Markets<\/a> one call to Health Markets<\/a>, and they do it all. Evaluate your needs, offer objective solutions, and even handle the enrollment process for you. You can enroll today, but you must act now or you may risk paying thousands more than you have to. Dont get stuck using the government exchange, either. Health markets can find you the right health plan and make sure you get all the subsidies you deserve without all the hassle. They even have new alternative options most dont even know about, that can save you thousands. They work to help you and do it all for free. Let Health Markets<\/a> take the confusion away. Health markets, its your insurance marketplace your insurance marketplace Health Markets<\/a> find out if you qualify for Free Health Insurance<\/a>. Call the number on your screen only days remain before the deadline. Call this number now the president has backed down from waging rhetorical war with california as it burns. After reported phone call from california congressman and soon to be minority house leader Kevin Mccarthy<\/a> on monday trump dropped his threat to withhold federal funding from california as it suffers the worst wildfires in history and instead approved the disaster declaration for the state. Then today the white house released this photo of trump receiving the latest update on the devastating wildfires in california while his interior secretary ryan zinke surveyed the damage with jerry brown. He blamed the summers wildfires in california on environmental terrorist groups he claimed were preventing the government from managing forests and largely responsible for the severity of the fires. Tonight the camp fire, the deadliest wildfire in california history is just 35 contained. At least 48 people have been killed, dozens of people are still missing, unaccounted for and in Southern California<\/a> three people have lost their lives in the woolsey fire. When youre not strong and ill be your friend. Ill help you carry on. Lean on me. Get stronger. Get closer. Start listening today to the Worlds Largest<\/a> selection of audiobooks on audible. And now, get more. For just 14. 95 a month, youll get a credit a month good for any audiobook, plus two Audible Originals<\/a> exclusive titles you cant find anywhere else. If you dont like a book, you can exchange it any time, no questions asked. Automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you dont use them. With the free audible app, you can listen anytime, and anywhere. Plus for the first time ever, youll get access to exclusive fitness programs a 95 value free with membership. Start a 30day trial today and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime and your books are yours to keep forever. Audible. The most inspiring minds. The most compelling stories. Text listen5 to 500500 to start your free trial today. It is a fact of american politics right now that one party, the Republican Party<\/a>, is overwhelmingly white. At least in its representation and its voters and institutions one party is not. Its also a fact that one of the main thrusts of the Republican Party<\/a>s midterm strategy this year was rooted in bigotry and racism. The president spent the six weeks before the midterms fanning the flames of racial fears by representing immigrants as marauders. Is this the start of something new in american politics or just a classic midcourse correction . Joining us is that is tanehisi coates. I feel like were picking right up. In some ways its a checkin on a bunch of the theses in that essay which is that this is a man who harnessed the power of whiteness in a way that nobody had before because nobody had succeeded a black president. Where is that project now after the midterms . I think its probably exactly where im trying to think of how to say this without sounding arrogant. Its about what i thought it would be. In some ways its a checkin on a bunch of the theses in that essay which is that this is a man who harnessed the power of whiteness in a way that nobody had before because nobody had succeeded a black president. Where is that project now after the midterms . I think its probably exactly where im trying to think of how to say this without sounding arrogant. Its about what i thought it would be. Yeah. I thought theres quite a bit that bears it out, quite a bit of research, michael tesslers book. All of the research has pretty much undergirded that. More importantly, the history was already there. It was quite clear. So the expectation that trump would be anything else i think is quite naive. It goes against the data, goes against the history, goes against his biography. Michael tessler is a political scientist, i talked about with him on the podcast, who talked about how trump cultivated white peoples racial anxieties and racial fears. I dont think obama activated it. He activated it by breathing. Yes. And being president. He did not cultivate it. Right. Which is very different than what trump did, which was an active attempt to stir it up. In many ways there was a kind of genius to trump in the sense that for years, you know, it was this notion that the Republican Party<\/a> was all these other things, it was a party of principled conservatism, free market politics, religion. And there are people who legitimate people who believe in that. But trump said, no, youre this, this is your essence right here. And thats what we see right now. Someone made the point, a conservative writer, there is this sort of argument about whether trumps base is racist or not. Trump clearly thinks they are, it is clearly trumps judgment that these people are racist, because look at the way he campaigns to them. Its quite clear. Its a mistake, its not a shock. I think though maybe, like i feel like when i published that piece, there was still some debate. I think the debate is disappearing. I agree the debate is disappearing. But what i think is interesting about the midterms is it also shows there is a limitation to the electoral efficacy of that appeal. Well, right now it is. Right now it is. I was looking at the results, you know, ive been very encouraged, no matter what happens in florida or georgia, the campaign that abrams ran and that gillum ran, a very, very encouraging campaign. They stood and said, this is who we are. And no matter what happens, came damn close, like really, really close. I think its a statement for folks of our political persuasion for how to proceed. But you cant guarantee, if those governorships go the other way, that the election laws will be the same the next time. We just dont know. Ive been a skeptic of believing in demographics and saying, well just run this again. You just dont know. You dont know if it will be the same. Its also the case that nothing stays fixed in politics. Thats right. One of the things in the south, this was remarkable, Stacey Abrams<\/a> has 200,000 more votes than the last person to try this. A white man james jason carter with one of the most famous names in politics in the state. You cant mobilize black voters without doing something else, which is mobilizing a lot of white voters too. Thats exactly it. The optimistic piece of this would say, every year we get a little more browner, a little bit more blacker. But again, you cant assume that the laws are going to stay fixed, though. And i think like when i think back to 08, how excited a lot of folks were about the president , the first black president , one of the great mistakes that was made was not to assume that there was going to be a response to this, that some people and other people were watching how close gillum and abrams got. And are thinking. And are thinking about how to respond to that. I think folks should not sit pat. The other part of that too, and this is encouraging me about the midterms, backlash works in both directions. Its also the case that there is a contingent of americans who watch donald trump, and theyre the majority, if you look at the majority. Right. Theres millions and millions of people who watch this and think, this is awful, this is awful bigotry and racism, not just people color but white voters too. I have to tell you, i wonder if this is how bigotry and racism in particular, to some extent, always works. So you need a Critical Mass<\/a> of deep believers, you know, who are hard core racists. But you dont need the majority to be hardcore racists. What you need is for the majority to be able to look the other way. You talk about, say, segregation in the era of jim crow, you didnt need the whole town to go to the lynching. You just needed a hard core group that felt lynching needed to happen. Im not saying youre wrong, i think it deserves some pushback. Whats unnerving in some ways is the way he seems to recognize you can cultivate a powerful 38 of the country, 40 of the country, predominantly white, the data shows predominantly with Racial Attitudes<\/a> that are fearful and prejudiced and skeptical, and wield that power. He seemed to get that. So the question i have, Going Forward<\/a>, and i know youve dealt with this question quite a bit, is what does it mean for us as a democracy, when you only activate a minority, and nevertheless you can, you know, be in a situation where you get a justice kavanaugh, you know . Like there are results to this, where you can affect the supreme court, you know, in such a historic way. This is what republicans have chased for years. By activating the minority, and i agree with you, its not the majority. Its the power of the minority. What does it mean for how were set up as an actual government. Theres a story about how hes street certain journalists, like black women, this week, disgusting even for him. This is him talking to Yamiche Alcindor<\/a> and his response to her. Take a listen. On the campaign trail you called yourself a nationalist, some people saw that as emboldening white nationalists. I dont know why you would say that. Its such a racist question. Some people say the Republican Party<\/a> is now supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. What do you think of that . Why do i have my highest poll numbers ever with africanamericans . Thats such a racist question, honestly, i know you have it written down and youre going to tell me let me tell you, thats a racist question. Excuse me. But to say what you said is so insulting to me. Its a very terrible thing that you said. Its a racist question. Whats going on there . Well, i mean, it combines Donald Trumps<\/a> two great loves, racism and misogyny. Thats the first thing going on. The second thing is one of the highlights of White Supremacy<\/a> as a force and racism as a force is this kind of truculent approach, how dare you imply im racist. Its typical trump. For yamiche and the other black women who have been insulted like this over the past week, while it is, you know, completely predictable, i still think its absolutely outrageous and disgusting and i think that needs to be said. Tanehisi coates, thank you so much for coming in. Thank you for being our first guest of the first ever live recording of our podcast, even though tickets to the event are sold out, sorry about that, were hoping to do more shows like that in the future. Well pulse that conversation in the coming weeks, along with great guests we have lined up, including one of our most requested guests ever, make sure youre subscribed now. Well talk to maya sen and math through blackwell. As always you can find it wherever you normally get your podcasts. Thats all in for this evening. Tonight, as an angry president makes bizarre new accusations about voter fraud and people wearing disguises to the polls and whats required to buy groceries in america, the first lady appears to have hit her target as a white house National Security<\/a> official is taken out. Plus, the increasingly isolated president prompts warnings the u. S. Is surrendering its Critical Role<\/a> of global broker as other World Leaders<\/a> step up. And class photo day for incoming members of congress as the size of the blue wave becomes now more clear. The parties pick their Leadership Teams<\/a> for the perilous two years ahead. 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