Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20170517 : vi

MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports May 17, 2017

Arabia on friday with the president , will it be a highlight or is this noise going to muddle everything . Stephanie rule, thank you, thank you all of you for watching this hour of msnbc live. Right now, Andrea Mitchell reports. Right now on Andrea Mitchell reports President Trump at the coast guard economy in connecticut speaking for the First Time Since the news of the comey memo as the white house tries to down play the crisis. A tight rope, republicans on capitol hill trying to balance supporting the president and the political fall yoult from the chaotic white house. It is just an understanding, but unfortunately, we continue every now it is accelerating. Watergate took 18 months and it seems to be taking hours. Im sure we will want to hear from mr. Comey why, if this happens how he describes, why didnt he take action at the time. From rush that with love. Putin says he can prove to congress that President Trump did not pass classified records to them. Mr. Secretary, vumt is offering congress a transcript of that oval office meeting, do you think the russians were bugging the oval office . I have no way of knowing that. What do you think of his offer. Do you have any comment on the violent protests outside of Turkey Embassy . Good day, everyone, im Andrea Mitchell in washington. A big news day. Peter alexander is at the white house. Peter, lets talk about the comey memo, the white house push back against that, and why did james comey wait to reveal all of this . To be clear right now, the white house is lurching from one crisis to another. A memo kept by james comey. Were told he kept memos after every phone and in personal conversation person conversation he had with the president. This one says the president asking him to back off of the investigation of Michael Flynn. The white house is pushing back on that vigorously. They say it is not truthful or accurate. They say at no time would or has the president doesasked for an investigation to be shut down, but it was striking in a conversation that i had here earlier today, they did not deny the memo exists, but they say this is simply the way the president speaks. Not that he was trying to shut down an investigation, but he was trying to express his personal affinity to james comey for Michael Flynn saying dont pile on her, and they are trying to push back the idea that james comey sat on this information saying if he had it for so long, why didnt he communicate it to the acting fbi director who testified about this last week saying tlfls here was no effort impede the investigation. Was he keeping memos because he was trying to write a book or advance an investigation . A quick question about the fact that netanyahu spoke with the president , is there any readout yet on that important conversation as the president did reveal classified information to the republicans. The white house has publicly not provided any readout. It was a senior aide here who confirmed to me it was a conversation between Benjamin N Netanyahu or President Trump. That is as this explosive allegation was coming out about israel and it being the third party source. Here at the white house they are pushing back on the leaking of the classified information. Focussing on the leaks and not the leaker. Senatoor laihee is joining m now. You have seen this before, where do you stand on what the president did with president james comy, could reach the level of obstruction of justice . I have seen this movie before. I came here at the time of watergate, but the revelations almost hour by hour, if you were to submit a script for a movie like that, they would say its too preposterous. It is not, it is real. And when the president has everybody go out and say no, we never discuss classified material with russians, he has all of his people put their neck on the line saying that then they find out the russians take the meeting, and then the president tweets of course i did talk about classified matters, who is running the show . Russia or the United States . Do you think there was a tape . I know that Vladimir Putin said in a use Conference Today there is a transcript, but he could be been referring to a notetaker. We know both sides had note takers, but did he notes from that meeting. But when i was a child i believed in the tooth fairy too, but i assume they made a full recording of it. But its just like the president kept the American Press out of his meeting because he did not want to be seen with the ambassador after all of his meetings with the leading to the firing of general flynn. He says even though i was under oath, i gave you the wrong facts, so they did not want american facts in there. You saw it on every single newspaper in our country, they shipped that around the world. Again, its a case, amateur hour at the white house, and the russians pulling strings. They have invited james comey to testify, should it be in an open hearing to the American People get to hear his side of the story . I want him to testify in an open hearing. They talk about the memos he made, well that is tradition. Any age of the fbi, certainly when i was a prosecutor, any time they interview someone, they immediately wrote a long interview afterward for what was said. James comy did comey did the same thing. I would take his version toe the trump one that seemed to change by the hour. And there was a request to andrew mckab for all of those comey memos that are the property of the fbi. I think i want to see the memos. And i dont care wra thhere the i want to see them and the American People ought to see them. If youre going to try to tell the fbi director you to be loyal to me, not to the rule of law, we have a real problem in this country. This is something where republicans and democrats align should unite and say is the white house being dangerous . Is the white house spending too much time planning with the russians and not worrying about our process. He wants to sue the media, he went off the federal courts, he went after Law Enforcement and anyone that may disagree with him. Hements to set a religious test. This is not america, and this is a threat to america. And it is being dangerous. I think the republicans and democrats are going to say hold on a minute, lets find out exactly what happened. I think we have that duty to the American People. I know you to go vote, a quick question now, the body guards for erdogan were beating up protestors right there on embassy road, no comment yet . I saw those pictures on your network this morning, of them beating them up. It is outrageous. We ought to stand for something in our country. We ought to stand for peoples rights. We ought to stand for the right of decent. And we should say very strongly that is not the way we do things in america. A dictator in turkey may do it, but thats not how we do it in america. We have to come back to american values. Thank you so much, senator, i know you have to go vote. Thank you for taking time to be with us. Now lets take a deeper dive into the legal issues. Justice and security analyst matt miller who served as chief spokesman and pete williams, our own correspondent. Thank you, both. Lets take a big view now, take a step back, there is a lot of murkiness about this. We know what james comey has supposedly written. We have not seen the memos ourself, neither has the New York Times, but they were read in part to the reporters of the New York Times. A lot more questions to be annalsed. They will want to see the memos, talk to mr. Comey. They asked him for any other memos he wrote about his interactions with the president. Well see how the government responds to these. If there is an assertion of privilege or if they just turn them over. But there are all of these requests now for him to appear. Since he was fired he made the decision not to say anything in public. He already said no to one request to talk about the russia investigation. I dont know what his response will be to this one. I know he is eager to tell his story at some point whether he thinks this is the point now or if he wants to wait till later i dont know yet. You were predicting last week there would be memos because of the way fbi agents and career people operated. It is to write a memo after something this critical. Why did the president , you think, is there any way town fer from what the president did asking attorney general sessions and others from the Justice Department to leave that meeting. Rob rosenstein i guess it was, to leave that meeting and speak one on one with james comey. It is a very good question and if a prosecutor was going to make an obstruction of justice case, that is one thing that you would say the president was trying to conce his acons. He knew what he was doing flwas inappropriate and he didnt want any witnesses. Were going to see what jim comeys take is on this. We know there are other memos. Is rod rosinstein and states attorney general sessions going to allow these to be turned over to congress. I think the political pressure in this instance, given this goes to personally a hugely inappropriate act by the president , i think it will be very difficult for them to assert those privileges. And they proceeded that critical offense meeting and it was the day after mike flynn was fire fire. I think the First Respond is to resist turning it over to congress. The Justice Department hates to share with congress and they never like to change that long standing thing. They may may put up a fight. I suppose in theory they could also exert sective privilege. And the question is suppose the conclusion is that the president did obstruct justice. And there is a wide divergence of the lawyers and the prosecutors that prosecuted these cases about whether or not there is, a lot of it has to do with the president s intent, and they may be doing it for this guy that got canned. So it will be up to congress and it is the longstanding view that you cannot prosecute a sitting president. It becomes a decision for an independent council or more likely a commission if they go that route. As pete says, a sitting president cannot be diindicted. The final decision on that is the supreme court. But i dont think the way it is currently constituted will bring a case against the president. It is the only thing in theory you can see a special prosecutor bringing. It is the kind of thing you would see from congress. I think one of the questions that people asked about jim comey, why didnt he tell the president this is inappropriate. One of the Unanswered Questions is whether or not jim comey was trying to build an obstruction of justice case against the president. If he thought the best course of action would be to record them in case they were useful. Probably not in a criminal indictment, but to turn them over to congress in impeachment hearings. Does that create motivation questions about his impartiality. They didnt want to get involved because of how it may affect them. Coming up, fight or flight . Are republicans digging in to back President Trump or are they ready to break ranks. And the Senate Intelligence committee has a new invitation out to james comey to appear in a committee hearing. Stay with us. David. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. 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Lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. Okay . Awkward. Everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Look, there has been a lot of reporting that requires close examination. We need the facts. There are some people that want to harm the president , but we have an obligation to carry out oversight no matter what party is in the white house. That is paul ryan saying we need the facts. Where do you stand, senator, on what congresss appropriate role should be given the investigation. Lets get the facts and make sure that we go where they lead. The wall street journal now is also talking about the issue of the classified information that was conveyed to the russians. There is no denial that classified information was said, and they said this. The general has been very supportive all along editorially of the president. This is a turn. Do you sense the ground may be shifting among some of your colleagues . We have three investigations going on, one by the senate, house, age intelligennd intelli committee. Lets go through there, get the reports, and get answers to the questions made on facts and not on anonymous reports or something else. It is not just about looking at the allegations, but also these leaks that were seeing in the Intelligence Community and other places. So that is why for everyones benefit, lets go through the process, go through the checks and balances, get the reports and understand what the pacfact are. On the face of it, the quotations from the jim comey memo, the day after mike flynn was fired, all of the things the president said publicly, including to our own lester halt last week, are you disturbed that the president was even bringing mike philip up wiflynn fbi director in the white house alone. Why didnt director comey go back and make that part of the investigation. Why did Andrew Mccabe testify there had not been any interference. We have to be careful in this case about an anonymous source readi ining part of a memo, get memo and get the temperature. Understood. One thing that is a bit inconsistent, that we general mcmaster said it was appropria what the president said. He was very sensitive, one that involves a human agent, and it is very hard to invert agents into isis. All of that being said, he said it was still appropriate that the president can legally declassify anything he wants. If that is the case, why have we now confirmed is the administration asking the Washington Post, us, and at least four other news allegations to not publish everything we know, and the Washington Post is withholding. Why is it not okay for american journalists to published . That is why we have to go through property accescess. Those are the questions we have to answer. Im very impressed with hr mcmaster, but the questions have been raised, lets make sure we get the answers. Senator, thank you very much for being with us on a busy day. Lets take a quick look at the market, down triple digits throughout the morning. It is investors concerns over the latest wave of problems in the white house. The dow is dn about 2 points. Coming up, taking note, what the secretary of state had to say about Vladimir Putins claim that he has proof, a transcript, he said, that President Trump did not pass classified information to the russians. Ready or not, here i come. Ek. anyone can dream. Making it a reality is the hard part. Northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. And were looking for a few dreamers to join us. Tech when your windshield trust safelite autoglass. Our exclusive trueseal Technology Means a strong, reliable bond. At safelite, we stand behind our work. Because the ones you love, sit behind it. parents whisper jingle safelite repair, safelite replace. Brtry new Flonase Sensimists. Allergy relief instead of allergy pills. It delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. Most allergy pills only block one. New Flonase Sensimist changes everything. Mr. Secretary, Vladimir Putin is offering congress a transcript of that meeting, do you think the russians were bugging the oval office. I would have no way of knowing that. What do you think of his officer . Rex tillerson responding today. Bill nealy is joining us. You know the russians well. Vladimir putin has a press conference in sochi, and perhaps it is lost in translation, perhaps he just means notes. Youre asking the secretary of state a question as a result of what he said, he is projecting his own power reminding everyone, including President Trump that the russians, just like james comey keep records of any conversations they have with him, records that could be used against him, it is also a little perverse of putin offering himself as some trustworthy help. He is insisting that trump didnt pass on classified information. How would putin know what is classified and what is not. The investigation that trump disclosed was secret enough not to have been shared with allies like france and so on. I think she also mocking the whole incident. He is recommending lavrov did not share the secrets with the rest of us, he said it was very bad of him, and there he was in the front row laughing his head off. Also seriously though, he is criticizing once again what he calls the histeria about russia saying it is damaging

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