Indepth interviews with leading newsmakers, plus discussions with Americas preeminent political minds. Indepth interviews with leading newsmakers, plus discussions with Americas preeminent political minds. Indepth interviews with leading newsmakers, plus discussions with Americas preeminent political minds. Havent read the Washington Post story, part of that is that donald trump has become enamored of the new Talking Point from his tv lawyer Rudy Giuliani that collusion is not a crime so they have gone from no collusion, no collusion, no collusion to collusion isnt a crime and give us more about whats reported about his mood and raging. He privately has been raging about whats happening vrnl hes upset about the News Coverage, about why isnt he getting more credit for what he views as the good works hes done and as the post reported on friday on the front page, 4,229 lies in the first six month of the this year alone. The reason hes not getting the favorable News Coverage is because the press spends an inordinate amount of time reporting what he says and at the same time Fact Checking what he says. Let me read from the story. This is the Washington Post. Trump has confided to friends and advisers he is worried the Mueller Probe could destroy the lives of what he calls innocent and decent people, namely donald trump jr. Under scrutiny by mueller for his role organizing a june 2016 meeting at 20trump Tower with russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. The president does not believe his son purposefully broke the law but is fearful nonetheless that trump jr. May have wandered into legal jeopardy. Let me bring in joyce vance and a about that in just a moment. Donald trump is now saying whereas his previous denials said this was from the New York Times a year ago he told according to the New York Times trump said we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children that was active and popular with American Families years ago and was since ended by the russian government but it was not campaign and theres no followup. That was trump jr. In a statement dictated in part written by his father on air
would have taken such a meeting. He said the New York TimesStatement Wasnt Given to a Court Meaning there was no legal obligation to be truth informal that statement. However, this morning he still is contradicting that statement. Is that a legal problem for donald trump or donald trump. As is often the case during this administration, i find myself studying a tweet by the president like its a religious text and as i read this taex i can see it capable of more than one interpret decontamination because trump said this was a meeting to get information on an opponent and i do not know about it but when was that lack of knowledge . In fact, the interpretation that is most favorable and im thinking like a Defense Attorney here, the one most favorable to donald trump would be if he
didnt know about it until yesterday. If thats the case that means he authorized or approved of statements that were false which means that somebody either duped him or maybe he did know. So this tweet is very problematic because it contradicts whats been said before but depending on the timeline interpretation, and its vague as to when he did not know about it, it could be either a worse problem or a super worse problem. Let me put this up for our audience again and again. We dont normally read his tweets any more on this show because it isnt that edifying for the audience to do so but in this case this is a significant statement so im going to read it. This is what donald trump was up tweeting this morning. From vacation. Fake news reporting a complete fabrication we dont need to read that part. Im concerned about the meeting my wonderful son donald had in trump tower. This was meeting to get
information on an opponent, totally legal and it went nowhere. I do not know about it. Let me bring in david jolly, former republican congressman from florida because what donald trump seems to be doing now is adopting the Communications Strategy of his Television LawyerRudy Giuliani because the line from republicans is that collusion is not a crime. So hes gone from no collusion to collusion is not a crime. I wonder how what we call the committee to defend the president reacts to a shift in the president s explanation to i did it but it Isnt Criminal to the meeting was about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. Sure, its the final chapter in the gaslighting of the trump base and the Republican Party. You will see no reaction from the Republican Party in this case. Joy, look at what happened from the historical and political perspective. The president of the United States says my son met in my building with russian agents who wanted to influence the
election. That is a declarative by the president this morning. Legally whether or not there was collusion or not if you take a less conservative view, we see a president continuing to become mare careless in his defense and what begins to come on the table is questions of Public Corruption and Honest Services. There may be as joyce said a contributi contribution, an inlegal contribution and the final thing i would say, you read a statement, a tweet from the president suggesting the president is concerned about good people getting hurt, that is the last chapter in a criminal conviction, when they ask for empathy, that these are good people who didnt know they were doing wrong. I want to play for the audience jay sekulow, whos another one of Donald Trumps attorney, a tv attorney on abcs this is week with george stephanopoulos. Hes asked why the explanations for this Trump Tower Meeting keep changing and heres what
it was a meeting about gathering dirt, what would be the crime theoretically. This is one of the easiest crimes in this entire range of electionrelated crimes to prove, its the crime of a u. S. Person soliciting or accepting sis answer t assistance from a Foreign National and we have Foreign Nationals connected to the russian government, although the law doesnt make that distinction, its still a more compelling case so trump has cast himself in the role of a witness against his son, his soninlaw and former Campaign Manager who he is saying went into a meeting where their goal was to solicit something of value from russians that they could use to assist them in the electi election. There might be other crimes, weve had the suggestion of bribery or Honest Services fraud. Those crimes could only have
taken place after trump was in office so not as early as the Trump Tower Meeting but there is a full range of what ill characterize as Public Corruption type claims that we could be looking at as a result of this series of actions. Danny, as a Defense Attorney, how much of a mess is donald trump creating for his legal team this morning . Building on what joyce said, of those elements, the violation of the federal election law, perhaps the only one that is arguably hazy would be anything of value. People think of assistance as a bag of cash or something tangible but its clear under the law that and this has come up in the past, canada wanted to donate pamphlets to aid in an election, that violates the law so its not a stretch to say data or information or emails would be considered anything valuable. It doesnt have to be a big of
illgotten cash. And Something Like this, dirt on an opponent would probably fit to some it would absolutely fit the definition of anything of value so with this admission, assuming that information on an opponent equals anything of value satisfying the criminal statute then you could make an argument with just a few sentences donald trump admitted either to a crime by his himself or at minimum by those around him arguably. And david jolly, im old enough to remember when republicans used to fulminate about president clinton, Vice President al gore, when they talked about chinese donors, renting out the Lincoln Bedroom when they had a sense it was corrupt to deal with a Foreign Government or entity when it came to elections. What happened to the Republican Party . Its hypocrisy of historical proportion. We have corruption in plain sight. Whether it crosses the line of criminal culpability we will find out but this is a president who still has not released his tax returns. We assume there is exposure to people who could have leverage over him and he could settle that question today but refuses to do so. I think one of the things were seeing in the escalation of the president s rhetoric is we are entering a window where hes under serious consideration as to whether or not have rosenstein dismissed and mueller dismissed. Congress is out for two months, now is the time the president might move. This is a big development. Jonathan, david, and danny will join us later in the show. Joyce vance, thank you for your time. Appreciate you calling in. Up next, donald trump Goes To Lebrons Home State but he doesnt even mention his krit schi criticism of the king. Details coming up. Including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist. Well, esurance makes it simple and affordable. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Paying too much for insurance that isnt the right fit . Well, esurance makes finding the right coverage easy. In fact, drivers who switched from geico to esurance saved an average of 412. Thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Your hair is so soft e company. Did you use head and shoulders two in one . I did mom. Wanna try it . Yes. It intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. Manolo . Look at my soft hair. I should be in the shot now too. Try head and shoulders two in one. Anchor don lemon. Instead, he trotted out the same old Campaign Hits attacking Congresswoman Mackshi congresswoman Maxine Waters and the news media. Why didnt he go after james . Perhaps because of the backlash. Nba legend bill russell, current nba stars like steph curry, carl Anthony Towns and bradley beal all voiced their support of james. Nba Hall Of Famer and Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan who was mentioned in trumps tweet also offered his support. Even First Lady Melania Trump issued a tacit rebuck to her husband. Her spoke woman saying in part, it looks like lebron james is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation and just as she always has, the first lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today. Even if he didnt dare repeat in the front of his rally fans, trumps attack on lebron james and other prominent africanamericans is another sign he plans to use his familiar slate of dog whistles to try to keep republicans in
power. They talk about the elite. The elite. Do you ever see the elite . Theyre not elite. Youre the elite. You are the elite. [ cheers and applause ] youre smarter than they are. You make bigger incomes, youve got everything going. Back with me, david jolly, joining now Politics Editor for theroot. Com Jason Johnson and nationally syndicated columnist connie schultz. Donald trump went to ohio because the Republican Party is worried. Theres a race there with a republican who should be well ahead in ohios 12th congressal district. Theres a guy named Troy Balderson running in that district against a democrat named Danny Oconnor and if you look at the poll, its neck in neck except it should be like seven points for the republican. Whats going on in ohio 12 . It looks like Danny Oconnor could win this but its already a loss for the republicans in that way and they know it. They think theyll make a big statement about this if he preveals, the republican candidate, but theyve lost the argument. Which is why hes there. It was interesting that they moved the venue, you know, to a gymnasium which was smaller according to the reports i saw this morning than the original place. They wanted to make sure there were no empty seats because donald trump hates that and im glad you quickly acknowledged Whats Going On with the attacks on lebron james because its racist. He went after a black athlete, again, he went after a black newsman and then he went after Maxine Waters again and in each case he refers to their intelligence and calls them in different ways calls them stupid and its important that we acknowledge that, at this point, that that is what the president
is doing. What is he saying about his own voters if he thinks its a tactic that will get his base out . He is appealing to a certain percentage of his base. But ive decided im not going to mock Trump Supporters because this responsibility lays with the president and he is working them up, mobbing them up, he wants them to attack journalists, its only a matter of time. We saw from the tweet this morning, he wants to endanger the lives of journalists and i hear the criticism from some, now you care, journalists, because youre the target of population and thats a fair critici criticism but when the president is going after journalists hes going after america because specials should be able to count on journalists to hold the president accountable. Hes making this so personal and is not listening to his critics
in the white house who are telling them you must stop calling journalist the inenemy the people. Donald trump tweets a good game but when it comes to who hes willing to vocally attack, he will go after women, hes gone after Maxine Waters over and over and over again at these rallies, he didnt, actually, though mention lebron james at that rally. Let me play a clip in which he went after republicans of a certain kind. Listen. How do you get 100 of anything . I you always have somebody, i dont like trump, i dont like our president. He destroyed my career. I only destroyed their career because they said bad things about me and you fight back and they go down the tubes and thats okay. Sorry, i wanted to also play donald trump going after congresswoman Maxine Waters at the same rally. Take a listen. Okay, never mind. Jason, what he didnt do is go
after king james in his home state, right because the president s is a coward. He attacks people he thinks he can get away with only in siafe environments. At net roots there are shirts people are staying that is dont test the waters. He would never say this to Maxine Waters in person. Im the last person to say there arent some racist white people who hate lebron james. But at the end of the day the president seldom has the strong go after individuals who can fight back where there may be boos in the crowd so hell go after lebron james through twitter but he wont run the risk in a crowd because there may be people who boo or people in lebron james jerseys. Thats how this president operates, hes a coward and a punk and he doesnt know how to truly confront people. Also, hell go after lebron but not gregg popovich. Hell go after Mackshine Waxinet not steve kerr. He wont go after eminem. Hes afraid of going after white people because that will expose how racist his attacks on black people are. We have that attack of donald trump on Maxine Waters. Lets play that really quick. Theyre talking about this blue wave. I dont think so. I dont think. So mackshine waxine waters is l. Maxine, shes a real beauty. Maxi maxine. A seriously low iq person. Seriousl seriously. Same question, david jolly. Donald trump feels quite flee to go after a black woman, esteemed congresswoman by california by name at his rallies and cause his audience to taunt her but he did not have the dourj renew his
attacks on lebron james. What do you make about that . Donald trumps a weak man with no courage so he would not attack lems in front of a you in ohio but on the issue of race and Donald Trumps view of race and his manipulation of the social construct, you can draw a direct thread from his comments about the central park five to his co