Interviews with political figures and news updates. Finish line in the special, or whether he actually inspired more democrats to turn out and whether it was john kasich coming in late that helped persuade people in the suburban districts, in jackson county, well, its okay to vote for him because governor kasich is popular and he says its okay. The fact of the matter is a race that is so close that it looks like its going to go to an automatic recount, there are many factors. For President Trump to take credit, theres no way for him or any of us to know that that was the decisive factor. I think what this race shows is two things. One, its that President Trump, because of his unpopularity and his chaotic leadership style and the constant drama and chaos around him, is putting into Play Districts that never should have been competitive in the first place. The second is that you just dont know how much of an asset trump can be to candidates, and not because of his lack of
telephone as he was, according to the indictment, according to records, calling his son and saying, sell, sell, before it was publicly known that this firm was being basically wiped out by the failure of a medication. I have to tell you, in my time with chris collins, he did not hide the fact that he was stumping for this company. It is surprising that a member of congress can be on a board and have fiduciary ar responsibilities and still be a member of congress. When i came into congress, i actually terminated all of my board service, presuming that thats what you had to do. I didnt know that you could still be on boards. I assumed that, because common sense tells you that you shouldnt, you know, be able to preside over and oversee work that could inure to your benefit. I think heres the environment for democrats, is that democrats, what you see in ohio, you keep your head down, you run
your district, you talk about reform in a meaningful way, you put out bulk proposals for reform, because if anything is uniting the country, it is this need to have washington cleaned out. And i think there, the attitude of donald trump is baked in with a lot of people, its even baked in with those of white house are vehemently opposed to him. Thats why its incumbent on democrats in all these districts, a much wider Playing Field, to play to their strength, which is on policy, on the concerns of their district, and making sure people know theyre going to come in and be reformers. I think thats a Winning Strategy for democrats. What donald trump demonstrated in ohio is that he opened the Playing Field for us come november. But i should quickly point out that democrats as well as republicans are not calling for him to resign pending the trial, while hes got this cloud of an indictment over his head. And nobody is calling for that
because most recently, their own Senator Menendez was, you know, cleared of these charges and refused to resign. So nobody is making that call. The only call that weve seen is the speakerer h ehas stripped h his membership of a house committee, and the poorly named house ethics people, i can say that now that lets first of all, all listen to what Rachel Maddows team uncovered last night, which was a surreptitiously taped Audio Recording of devin nunes at a fundraiser for catkathy mcmorri rodgers, she had a squeaker as well in that primary. If sessions wont unrecuse and mueller wont clear the
president , were the only ones. Which is really the danger. Thats why i keep and thank you for saying it by the way, i mean, we have to keep all these secrets. Hes basically saying in that clip that theyve got to win because thats the only way to stop mueller one way or the other. And thats the only way to protect the agenda. The Republican Party protect the president. Still supports the president very strongly. If the republicans lose the house of representatives its katie bar the door from investigations by democrats. This isnt just another member of congress. He is chairman of the Intelligence Committee. I mean, contrast this behavior with the more traditional role that senator burr has taken, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee on the other side. No question that the senate has a more bipartisan, and i agree, better model in terms of this investigation than the house does. Its become a partisan issue in the house. It was devin nunes who went
surreptitiously at night to the white house and consorted with people on mike flynns staff, the nsc, started accusing susan rice of all sorts of things that were completely unfounded. He has so politicized this. Then after being forced to recuse himself, still stayed in the middle of it and blocked subpoenas from being voted on for key witnesses. I lay this at the foot of speaker ryan and now Kathy Mcmorris rodgers. This is so disappointing, knowing her. It lays bare the agenda, which is to protect the president. What i want to know is where in the republican leadership, whether its from the speaker or from now their Conference Chair that says that our responsibility is to the people of the United States and not just to protect the president from an investigation thats closing in on him. Michael, let me just ask you, you mentioned the republican agenda. And im trying to figure out what the republican agenda is. Theres the trump agenda. But the republican agenda that paul ryan used to have is no longer deficit reduction, thats for sure, theyre outspending what democrats used to do. Yeah, i mean, we do need to make the distinction between the trump agenda, which on immigration, on trade, is very different from the republican agenda. Theres still protecting tax reform, increasing American Energy production. The things bringing us record Economic Growth and a strong economic situation, those are worth protecting. Lets talk about the reality tv star, omarosa, whose book is coming out. Theres talk there are tapes of whatever sort. Lordy. I mean lordy is right. First of all, her tenure in the white house, you covered that. She was fired. Barred from the premises. Although people from her camp
dispute that. Obviously she got on the wrong side of john kelly. Thats exactly right. Its also kind of this is so symbolic of the people that President Trump surrounds himself with. Somebody who is profiting off of the access to him. And youve seen that with the people who are now in a federal courtroom across the river. Youve seen that with people who were on his campaign, who are now lobbying, who are now running pacs. Its just, there is no culture of ethics around this president. Its all about personal enrichment. And i think omarosa, by going out and selling this book, represents that. Well have to leave it there for now. What an all star cast. Donna edwards, jeremy peters, susan page, michael steel. This just in, first lady melania
trumps parents were sworn in today as new u. N. Citizen. Their immigration spoke, assuring the public that the first ladys parents did not get any special treatment. They have travailed a wonderful journey, like most have, millions have in getting citizenship and waiting the requisite period of time. The application, the process, the interview was no different than anybody elses. And coming up, punishing putin. The white house hitting russia with new sanctions for using a banned Chemical Weapon against a former russian spy in the uk. We will have russias angry reaction, coming up next. Stay with us. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi. . A more powerful way to stay connected. It gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most Wifi Coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. Its the ultimate wifi experience. Xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. National security analyst. Juan, on russia reacting, this is dmitri peskov, kremlin spokesman, and he says such decisions taken by the americans are absolutely unfriendly and can hardly be somehow associated with the constructive, not simple but constructive atmosphere that there was at the last meeting of the two president s. Well, constructive for whom, the Helsinki Summit . The russians are reacting in the way thats predictable. They were hoping the summit at helsinki were usher in a greater openness towards russia. These sanctions signal two things, one, the u. S. Officially blaming them for the Nerve Agent Attack in london, and slapping on what are Even Stronger sanctions to isolate the russian economy and to affect even potentially the existence of russia u. S. Trade. The russians will not react well to this. Keep in mind, the russians have always seen the arena of
economic warfare as part of the competition with the United States. So they see this as a bit of an act of war, Another Act Of Isolation of the russian economy. Thats why theyre reacting the way they are. Theyre threatening no doubt titanium exports and other things the u. S. Needs. I guess i was not aware that we rely on russian government made engines for our rockets. I knew we were relying on them to bring our astronauts and supplies to the space station, but i didnt realize, clint, how reliant we were on them, or juan, first to you. Whats interesting is how entangled we are with russia, and a lot of this playing out in terms of sanctions, why theres delay. The state Department Says we have to make sure u. S. Businesses arent affected by these sanctions. I dont think anyone really knew the impact or how integrated our economies are in many ways. At the same time, when we talk about deripaska and the aluminum
industry in russia, some of the sanctions could literally destroy those industries over there, which is why you do these things. So im not sure these sanctions were thought through, but theyre a necessary step to combat russia. The president rhetorically seems to be on one track, certainly with his performance in helsinki with vladimir putin, but the rest of the administration, treasury and even the nsc and certainly the State Department, are responding to pressure from congress, from republicans in congress, and trying to keep the pressure on russia. Absolutely. And you saw this with secretary pompeo, making this official determination from the State Department that the russians engaged in this Nerve Agent Attack when then triggered these sanctions from a 1991 law that requires the u. S. Government to put in place what are in essence two rounds of sanctions. The first will happen in two weeks. Then theres going to be a 90day period. Thats where you have a menu of potential sanctions that the administration can choose from that are fairly draconian. And so this is a really important point that you make, because i think the u. S. Government continues to react to the reality of russian behavior and to use u. S. Tools and laws to effect it, while the president has obviously been using softer language and diplomacy, as we saw in helsinki. And i should point out for our viewers, for anyone who doesnt know, juan ran the sanctions program under george w. Bush, a very effective one, out of treasury and out of the ns krechl nsc. Thank you. Clint, theres talk that the white house is drafting an Executive Order possibly to preempt stronger congressional action to authorize the president to sanction foreigners who may interfere with u. S. Elections. This may be an attempt to broaden the scope beyond russia, we hear the president saying theres other countries, china and otherwise who interfere with elections and could be hacking. Yes, there are other hackers, but other than russia, we dont know of others who have hacked into elections. Thats right, andrea, theres no evidence to point to any other country. If it did happen, im not aware
of it. Ive not seen Significant Interest or influence coming out of any of these other countries. I think whats important to note from this is, you know, the repercussions of the helsinki disaster. We are seeing the white house essentially scramble over the last two weeks to maintain control of its own executive power. The legislative branch, congress, has essentially been the ones to push both these sanctions and the implementation of these sanctions. You saw congressman royce, a republican, really going at the white house about not following through on these sanctions. So i think the key thing to look at is, how do they keep control of Election Interference . The white house over the last week has had to demonstrate theyre serious about this. We saw that somewhat Bizarre Press Conference but at least a positive sign with all the agencies stating what they were going to do for Election Interference. Im sure the white house is trying to come up with something to point to to say theyll take it seriously for 2018. Secretary pompeo testifying before the Foreign Relations committee, dan coats in the white house that day, and also
of course in aspen, still saying nobody seems to know what happened during that twohour private meeting. But the kremlin has been repeatedly putting out, day by day, their version, including relaxing sanctions. So the president talked about a lot of things, including a referendum, you know, in it ukraine that he may not really understand the significance of, the danger, of course, of these oneonone meetings. Briefly, clint, senator bill nelson who doesnt usually speak, you know, without knowing what hes talking about, and i know that congress has been briefed on a lot of this, he is talking about florida having been infiltrated, their Election Databases were now, hes up for reelection, but hes also on the Armed Services committee. Do we know anything about the russians getting into the Election Hacking now in florida for the midterms . I have not heard anything substantial as of late beyond what we know from 2016. But florida is a key battleground state. It is one where we have significant competition, it will be very valuable in 2020. We have to look at this hacking and interference and what weve done to essentially protect the integrity of elections. What has always been i think a little misunderstood is people have said, how did the russians know how to do this . You can watch any Cable News Program and youll know what the swing states are and which states are the most valuable. Whether its 2018 or 2020, a simple hack in one of these contentious states, whether its florida, pennsylvania, ohio, these key locations, its creating great concern in this country. People cant believe their vote is actually being counted, they cant trust in the institutions. To secure democracy, its something we have to take far more seriously in the coming months. And this is of course theres a Key Senate Race in Eveand Everyf those Key Senate Races could determine who controls the senate. North korean officials are issuing another angry rhetorical blast at the u. S. In recent days, accusing Secretary Of State mike pompeo of Upping American demands for
denuclearization without sanctions relief they say they were promised. By all accounts, the talks are stalemated, contrary to President Trumps triumphant claims of success after the Singapore Summit with kim jongun. But there is one small gesture, a gesture from kims regime. Its not so small for the two sons of an american Sergeant Major who never returned from the korean war. A single dog tag finally making a long trip home. The Identification Tag of your father. Charles and larry mcdaniel, charles a retired army chaplain, larry a former football coach, were only 2 and 3 years old in August Of 1950 when their father, a decorated world war ii veteran, was suddenly deployed to fight in korea. They never saw him again. I think you grow up, you deal with grief and you push it aside. I remember as a boy, sometimes it surfacing a couple of times, and crying. That hasnt happened for many,
many years, obviously. You dont think its there, then someone calls you on the telephone and tells you a story about the finding of a single dog tag, and all of a sudden those feelings come back, rushing out from a very deep place. So i shed a few tears. I can say that. But its a mixture of feelings too. Theres some relief and some at least partial closure that actually my father for sure died. That seems much more probable. He simply represents a whole generation of people who love the country, were patriotic enough to go sacrifice their entire life for us. I think if anything comes out of this, it should be that, that people of generations that have followed should be more attuned
to what those who went before them have sacrificed. Their fathers dog tag may or may not be connected to 55 sets of remains returned in a solemn ceremony last week. The first returned by pyongyang in 11 years. And the pentagon now says that new Dna Technology provides some more hope that families like the mcdaniels may get answers in the coming months after waiting a lifetime to find out what happened in that battlefield half a world