Hes made comments about the assassination of journalists and hes joked, his Administration Says it was a joke about murdering somebody whether he he was younger. This is somebody who is not a traditional leader ally like you might see in other parts of the region. Yet, the president and white house have talked about this friendly relationship between the two. I think you saw that here in manila. The two toasting. At one point duterte singing a love song in honor of the president , getting up on stage and delivering this duet with lyrics like you are the light of my life, the half of my heart. So clearly the two of them working on this relationship. The president seeming to hope the Good Chemistry leads to good policy. Again, questions on why no mention of Human Rights Abuses here. That is similar to what we saw from President Trump in china, for example, and on past overseas trips. Im thinking of the one, for example, over to saudi earlier in the year. Back in may. The White House Administration officials will say to me privately listen, we think its
and fat it is incendiary language that frankly the president avoided when he was in seoul. Remember that speech at the National Assembly earlier on on this trip . He won praise for the tone of that delivery, sort of that sober assessment of the threat from North Koreaing that very direct message to both kim jongun and the north Korean People laying out the contrast what is and what could be if the world were to confront the threat of north korea and take more action against pyongyang. You had that in the beginning half of the trip. The latter half of the trip, you saw the tweets that took some of the spin off of that speech or took some of the teeth out of that speech perhaps in the eyes of some critics. Thank you so much. Hallie jackson in manila today. Joining me now, New York Times washington Investigations Editor mark mazzeti, Michael Carpenter, and former Foreign Policy advisor to Vice President joe biden and nbc senior national
security analyst Juan Sderotty. We have a Powerhouse Panel here. First to you, mark. So much going on including i should point out this Big Exclusive Story Headlining the New York Times today on a huge breach at the nsa. Talk first about Vladimir Putin and the take away of the president s criticism calling the former intelligence chiefs political hacks. Right. And this, its something that doesnt go away. Its been going on for almost a year now, the sort of battle between the president and the intelligence world over the assessment that russia had hacked the election. It had gone away for a while. But it came back when the president said that he essentially believed President Putin in that in saying that the russians didnt hack the election. Directly at odds with the widespread assumption that the conclusion of the Intelligence Community and he attacked directly the former spy chiefs. So its not something that wins him any favors with the Intelligence Community and its certainly something that is going to continue to linger because you know, the whole issue of russia and the election isnt going away. And taking a look, Juan Sderotty and Michael Carpenter, you both worked in intelligence for different administrations, different president s. But this is, if we cos scroll up to exactly what the president said on air force one, we have audio. Were not permitted to use the audio. Theres no cameras. But what he said was, i mean, give me a break. They are political hacks. You have brannan, you have clapper, have you comey. Comeys proven now to be a liar and hes proven to be a leaker so you look at that and you have President Putin very strongly vehemently says he had nothing to do with that, meaning is the election. Now the president after a lot of pushback, juan, did try to fix
resurrected that takes us away from the substance of what should be the focus of the trip and the future threats from russia. And Michael Carpenter, this is what the president had to say when he was trying to sort of fix that record. He got to hanoi and he said that he basically was saying that putin believed it. Not that he necessarily agreed as juan was just saying. He did at least endorse what pompeo said. Then on the today show, joe biden was asked about this, about how to handle what the president said on foreign soil. Lets play that. Im reluctant to criticize the president when hes abroad. I dont believe putin. I dont believe putin at all. They did meddle. He was responsible for it. Do you think the president is being naive or worse with regard to putin . I dont believe putin. Hes being very careful about
it. I would say, i would like to disabuse people of the notion that the president is either gullible or naive. This is a conscious strategy. Is he bending over backwards to try and placate putin and engender some form of too ration. We saw with a Statement Released on Syria By Trump and putin, this is laying the groundwork for some sort of ill conceived common collaboration in the syrian theater which would be a disaster. You have to remember russia partnered with hezbollah and the iranian cuds force. This is a very conscious messaging strategy by the president to try to get the United States slowly to engage in some form of collaboration or closer relations with putin. Hes doing it for reasons that only he knows. But this is not gullibility or naivete. Just to play devils advocate to all of you, we had the reset button with hillary clinton. We had john kerry trying are lavrov to get negotiations going for the future of syria acknowledging that assad is going to play some role if not
at least in the short term and that russia has to sign off on any exit of assad. So mark, how long is this different . Well, i mean, certainly people think you should try to have constructive relationships with the russians. The big significant difference in this case is that there was this is attack on the election. There was the hacking and this as i said widespread belief in the Intelligence Community that the russians tried to disrupt a president ial campaign and are probably going to do it again. Thats the backdrop of this and why its different i think because the Intelligence Community is assessing that the russians basically did this offensive cyberattack. And the president doesnt want to the acknowledge it or doesnt seem to want to acknowledge it. And than and, of course, as we know the other added issue is theres this is ongoing federal investigation by the Special Prosecutor into whether any of mr. Trumps associates had any
knowledge or any coordination with the russians. And whats lost in all of this juan, what he should be talking to the russians about on top of Everything Else is north korea. Hes in asia. Russia has not closed the backdoor. They arent cracking down. Weve got Satellite Pictures from vladivostok of russian ships in continuing supplies and the Military Buildup if not the cyber, as well to north korea. Right. There has to be colder more sober confrontation of russian policy, not just with the north korea but even with iran which is a major focus for the administration. In the context of syria and the role that theyre playing with iran and trying to retake territory. The Human Rights Violations theyve engaged in there, then the cyber dimension which is very important not just again for whats happened in the past but what for russia setting up for in the future. Part of this challenge is i
think the president wants to create these personal relationships, this chemistry. You saw this with president xi. That has led him not to want to confront, not publicly and openly has led to some mistakes. And mark mazzeti, if you can quickly explain what has happened to the nsa as far as this big hack is concerned. My colleagues had a pretty extraordinary story today about the nsa and the work of the Shadow Brokers which is this group that hacked the nsa, stole a lot of their offensive cyber tools. They report about the really the mole hunt inside the nsa to sort of determine who did it and just how much damage was done to this agency which is the largest and most secret of the Intelligence Agencies. And the sense that they were violated so much by this hack that was hen had real damage. Other governments were hacked. Other companies, Foreign Companies were hacked with the very tools that the nsa had
created. Wow. Mark mazzeti, all of that on the New York Times website. Thank you so much. Mark, Michael Carpenter and juan, thanks to all of you. Breaking news out of alabama. Mitch mcconnell calling for roy moore to quit the Alabama Senate race amidst allegations of Sexual Misconduct with a minor. Latest from the alabama right here on Andrea Mitchell reports only on msnbc. Accused of Obstructing Justice to theat the fbinuclear war,
and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down News Organizations that report the truth. If that isnt a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president , then what has our government become . Im tom steyer, and like you, im a citizen who knows its up to us to do something. Its why im funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. Yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a Clear And Present Danger whos mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. And they do nothing. Join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing whats political and start doing whats right. Our country depends on it. Thanks for the ridealong, captain ive never been in one of these before, even though geico has been
ohhh. Ooh ohh here we go, here we go. You got cut off there, what were you saying . Oooo. Oh no no. Maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years . Is that what you wanted to say . Mhmmm. I have to say, you seemed a lot chattier on tv. Geico. Proudly serving the military for over 75 years. You ok back there, buddy . I think he should step aside. Are you encouraging a writein campaign with senator strange . Thats an option were looking at whether or not there is someone who could mount a writein campaign successfully. Would it be senator strange, do you think . Well see. Were just about time. Is the burden on moore to prove these false versus someone to prove these are true in this situation or do you believe these allegations to be true . I believe the women, yes. I believe the women, yes. Thats the Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell in kentucky now calling for Alabama Republican Senate candidate roy moore to step aside saying he believes the women and that they are considering a writein campaign. Among the options which would be presumably Luther Strange, the sitting is appointed senator. Joining me now nbcs Vaughn Hillyard has been covering all there from the beginning. Me alcindor and jonathan
capehart, msnbc capehart. Vaughn, youve been following this. You were in gadsden his hometown where there was support for roy moore even those saying if he did it whether he did it nor ot, hes better than a democrat. What are you finding now that youve gone onto birmingham . Is there more diversity of opinion . Yeah, on the ground, andrea among voters, the ones he has to target in suburbs here. Al well educated millennials, women. Some republicans is ive talked to specifically have suggested that they could potentially go as far as voting for a democrat, voting for doug jones. But whats interesting is we heard about the potential of a writein candidate. The fact is were hearing is something opposite on the ground here among the alabama gop officials. Theres seven Republican Congressman in the state. None rescinded endorsement of roy moore. The governor is not going to
change the date of the election. Perry hooper was the trump chairman for the Campaign Last year, originally a strange backer, still backing roy moore now. Rnc committee flan alabama said unless there also inrefutable evidence against roy moore, the party is not going to remove him from being the republican candidate and if there is somebody like a Luther Strange who tries to run and potentially costs the republicans a ticket they should pack up their bags and move north of the mason dixon line. And jonathan capehart, what we heard last night from the roy moore and this was an event closed to the press. There is some video and audio of it where he threatened to sue the Washington Post. Lets play that. Just three days ago, the Washington Post published another attack on my character and reputationing in an attempt, a desperate attempt to stop my political campaign. These attacks that i was involved with a minor child are
completely false and untrue and for which they will be sued. Well, hes certainly a public figure and certainly the Washington Post reporting shows a lot of careful, careful work with four women on the record. Now other women are coming forward, as well. Temporaryiously saying they were aware of such reports about moore at the time. I know that youre on the editorial page which is very separate from the News Gathering Page but lets talk about the bigger issue of a lawsuit now threatened against the Washington Post for their reporting. Look, i think my colleagues here on the news side at the Washington Post and our Executive Editor marty baron are not afraid of any lawsuit coming from roy moore. As you said, in your question, the key thing is, the four women in the story named in the story went on the record with what
happened to them and their interactions with roy moore. So if the former judge wants to take the Washington Post to court and deal with all of the legal processes that are involved in that, then im sure our attorneys here wore welcome the chance. I think the public would welcome the chance to hear what he has to say when it comes time for when it comes time for discovery and deposition. Anya meesh, theres new facebook posts today i wanted to share those with viewers, as well. One is fromary jo west. Shes a friend of the moore accuser, a friend of the family and her quote is that leighs mother told me and others the roy moore story in the mid1990s because her daughtering are finally unburdened herself after years of silence. That burden lay dark and deep on a mothers shoulders and in her heart. I listened to the same details as those that are printed now. While some of the story has faded with time, several facts are seared into apply brain. One the attacker was attorney roy moore and the victim was then teenager leigh corfman. Theres another tweet from the teresa jones. She was a deputy d. A. In gadsden did, the town where moore was then the prosecutor and she said as a deputy d. A. In gadsden when roy moore was there, it was Common Knowledge about his propensity for teenage girls. Im appalled these women are being secured for the truth. Raising the question as to whether or not this is a classic blame the victim. I think that both the Washington Post in their reporting on roy moore and i would say the New York Times on our reporting on harvey weinstein, reporters take very carefully these accusations. As a result, thats why you have the reports and stories of the people around these women saying yes, this really happened contemporaneously. I would say that that also was the case when we were doing reporting on now President Trumpand talking about the women accusing him of acting inappropriately. In each of these cases not only did these women go on the record republican risk their reputations and reporters pushed them to find people who could say what was happening. Whats remarkable is not so much that Mish Mccobble is calling for royal moore to leave the race because mcconnell was not a fan of his before this, but the tact that the people in the state and the