Transcripts For MSNBCW Deadline White House 20170717 20:00:0

MSNBCW Deadline White House July 17, 2017 20:00:00

Our shoppers and Shopping Centers. If you look at Shopping Centers and jobs in stores its been very, very tough for them. They have had a hard time closing at numbers and records that have never been seen before. So we have to stop that. The online predatory practices. Since the beginning of the year, we have already created over 50,000 brandnew manufacturing jobs. And were just getting started. We will lift our citizens from welfare to work. We will turn boarded up communities into new outposts of american commerce. And we will once again rediscover our heritage as a manufacturing nation. We used to be a manufacturing nation. Not so much anymore but i will tell you, you look at michigan, you look at some states that have really moved, you know, in pennsylvania, two weeks ago they opened a mine the first mine that was opened in decades. Industry and much of that comes at the border. George washington encouraged americans to produce their own goods so that our young nation could become truly independent. President James Garfield said of our nations manufacturers that to them the country owes the splendor of the position it holds before the world. Meaning, protect us. Theodore roosevelt declared in his first message to congress that reciprocity, my favorite word, reciprocity, because we have countries that charge us 100 tax on a product and when that product is sold by them to us we brilliantly charge them nothing. People say thats free trade. No, thats stupid trade. Thats really stupid trade. Incredible. That was the president trying to stay on message at the white house. That was a Made In America some mining jobs are back Shopping Centers are in trouble farms are losing their land event. By trumps standards on message but he started to tweet about his sons meeting with the russians guaranteeing that the perm acloud will hang over his presidency. Most politicians would have gone to the meeting like the one don jr. Attended in order to get info on the opponent. Thats politics. Heres sean spicer on the same topic. Look, you know im not going to get into the specifics of this. But its quite often given for people in the heat of the campaign to ask what that is. Thats what he did. The president s made it clear through his tweet and there was nothing as far as we know that would lead anyone to believe that there was anything except for a discussion about adoption of the Magnitsky Act. Except, sean, for the email from Rob Goldstone that i read on don jr. s twet feed, in their meeting they offered to provide information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia. This is very high level and Sensitive Information but its part of russia and its Government Support for mr. Trump. End quote. For you mr. President , that is not politics. In fact, it looks like an awful lot like collusion with a hostile foreign power. Something you repeatedly denied. Your news story thats just politics and that most politicians would have attended the meeting. Well, well dissect everything wrong with your tweets. But first, to the reporters. We have hans nichol at the white house, along with New York Times julie Herschel Davis and a former Chief Of Staff for the cia. Hans, that was the president trying to be on message at a Made In America event. But as the brilliant Frank Bringny said the teleprompter is his quiver and all the others are his tributaries. A great way to get into his mind. But what did you make of the days communications starting with the tweet about the meeting that his son took and book ended by this address at the white house . Well, the address to the white house he did take one detour from the Made In America event and that is to talk about health care. And he seemed to be expressing renewed optimism almost as if theres an urgency to this, it could get done quicker than many are expecting. From what i heard from the president , the news that he thinks the vote can done. He thinks they have the votes. They have to do a little horse trading. Our colleagues on capitol hill arent exactly reflecting that in their reporting. It seems to be a much more difficult swath. The president looked at mike pence, mike, its up to you, you have to get this across the line. We learned what his favorite word is, reciprocity. Good to know. Nicolle, something you can agree with, he referred to the senator current senator from arizona, john mccain, as a crusty voice. Youd agree with that, do you think thats accurate . Crusty voice . Its certainly better than the prior descriptions of john mccain so im sure that john mccain who has the thickest skin of anyone in politics will take it as a compliment. I suspect youre right on that. But he said he needed mccains vote and he wished him well and said he needs to get back soon and suggested that hes going to be coming back much more quickly than others expected. I didnt know if that was inside information that President Trump has, that mccains recovery is going at least as publicly reported. I think those are the two bits of news. The rest of the briefing earlier today was really focused on sean spicer reverting back to the earlier Trump Defense and the don jr. Defense. Why would he do that . I listened sean is one of the most tragic figures in american political history, but why would he trot out the adoption story today . Its mid july and youre asking me why questions about the Trump Administration . I cant answer why questions. What happened i can do and how they might plan to do something but the why is beyond my far power of words to describe. Thats what thats what the kind of line was from sean today. And that the trump tweet speaks for itself, which is a circular response we get. Any reasonable observer would look at that meeting he had with the russian lawyer and say it was about the Magnitsky Act which cant be true as you pointed out because the pretext for the meeting was on something other than the Magnitsky Act. It was sharing information that could be helpful to Donald Trumps president ial aspirations. Again, the why, im going im going to kick that over to jeremy bash. He used to be in the cia, maybe he has some intel. Jeremy, take your cue from hans there and tell me why the white house spokesperson would use the podium to revert back to a nine day old i was on vacation but i kept track with the story of the day. And that it was a meeting about adoption was the story nine days ago. Because heres the deal, nicolle. I believe the president s favorite word is reciprocity. Because that meeting in june was about reciprocity. If russia and the Government Of Russia came forward with incriminating information on Hillary Clinton then the reciprocity would be support for relieving the Magnitsky Act. In fact, theyre very consistent and they tell exactly the story of what happened that i believe at that meeting. What do you think happened at this meeting . Well, i believe that the russian government dangled that lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya, into that meeting. Shes too well connected to have done this as a freelancer. She was there accompanied by a former soviet officer, who has strong connections to the kremlin and to the russian government. They went in there to test the waters to see whether or not in offering support by the russian government the Trump Campaign would bite. Of course don jr. s response i love it. And the response in meeting were interested in this. He didnt shoo them away and thats taken as a greenlight by the russian intelligence. If youre pitched by the russian intelligence, you dont alert the authorities, youre willing to play and it seems they were willing to play. The excuse is now not that collusion is illegal. Not that the russians were anyone other than just a Friend Offering helpful oppo. But that it didnt work out. That it was bungled collusion. But bungled Collusion Is Still collusion, isnt it . Well, yes. I mean, far be it for me to try to get inside of sean spicers head but it seemed like what he was saying today was trying to somehow assert that the meeting didnt there was no discussion in that meeting of the reason for which it was billed and if the damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Instead, they just talked about the Magnitsky Act. Even if that were the case, the fact that donald trump jr. Accepted the meeting as jeremy said its sort of the nut of the problem here for them. Even if it never did come up in the meeting and of course we dont know what happened and its difficult to take their word on anything that happened during that meeting given the changing and evolving story line they have given us for whether it even happened. If theres no promised dirt during that meeting at trump tower the fact the meeting was accept and that don jr. Was willing to have that conversation and willing to not alert authorities and then it wasnt disclosed by him or by anyone in the Campaign Including Jared Kushner being one of those, makes this an issue thats not going to go away. So julie, i talked to west wing folks today and outside advisers to donald trump and the defender of this meeting could not be found. They thought it was a stupid meeting to take and they all thought that had read through the email from goldstone would have seen it was a clear quid pro quo and i really have a hard time imagining how theyre going to continue to deal with the president tweeting about a meeting that no one will privately defend, a spokesperson telling a different story than jay sekulow and the president. Its like three people juggling knives and someone is going to get hurt pretty soon. Well, thats true. I mean, the president s tweet this morning was inexplicable for that reason. The fact he brought the conversation back to the meeting cant be really defended and his own fbi Candidate Director last week said it was problematic and lawyers should have been consulted and the fbi should have been called in. Its clearly just a bad set of facts for them. Don jr. Himself in his interview about this last week actually admitted that. He said in retrospect i would have done it differently. Theres no good way to explain it away. The best thing they can hope for which seems unlikely is that people will forget about it, not focus on it. I think bob mueller is very focused on it. And there are hopes that the public might forget about it is being crushed daily by the president himself who continues to tweet about it and to talk about it in that context. Jeremy bash, what does mueller make of the president s tweet this morning and the continued inability to come clean about a meeting that now the whole world knows about, thanks to don jr. Tweeting out the email chain himself. Well, every week explanation looks like an effort to cover this up. If youre the Special Prosecutor charged with investigating this matter youre looking very carefully not just at this meeting but also about conversations that happened inside the Trump Campaign around this meeting. In the runup to the meeting what were those three individuals representing the Trump Campaign discussing among themselves. When they walked out what did they discuss, are there emails about that . Who else did they talk to . I think bob mueller wants to interview every Single Person who parent participated in the meeting an find out what the followup was. Thank you for spending a little bit of time for us. Jeremy is sticking around for the hour. Real Life Campaign operatives on what real life opposition looks like and when you should call the fbi instead of the ad makers. And the russia cloud is having an impact on Donald Trumps agenda and his Approval Ratings. Hes the most unpopular president in the history of polling. Well look closely at the most troubling numbers in all the data. Ahh. Where are mom and dad . saved money on Motorcycle Insurance with geico goin up the country. Love mom and dad im takin a nap. Dude, you just woke up im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. Going somewhere . Whoooo. Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more than 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. Lets take a look at some numbers 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom. Is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and Heart Disease . Preventable. And 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health. Were life line screening. And if youre over 50. Call this number, to schedule an appointment. For five painless screenings that go beyond regular checkups. We use Ultrasound Technology to literally look inside your arteries. For plaque which builds up as you age and increases your risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease. And by getting them through this package, youre saving over 50 . So call today and consider these numbers for just 149 youll receive five screenings that could reveal what your body isnt telling you. Im gonna tell you that was the best 150 i ever spent in my life. Life line screening. The power of prevention. Call now to learn more. vo living with ammonia odor . Not a pretty picture. vo luckily, tidy cats lightweight with new Ammonia Blocker tackles tough odor, even ammonia. So long stankface vo ammonia like that . Theres a tidy cats for that. You know, maybe concrete evidence to all the stories i had been hearing about, but probably underreported for, you know, years, not just during the campaign. So i think i wanted to hear it out. Hes actually right in thames of people are always whispering ive got opposition here. Ive got information there. And sometimes people want to aggrandize their own position, they wish to be helpful. If it wasnt about russian opposition research, that goes on all the time. Its a big part of campaigning. Up o opposition research, what it is and is not. With a couple of folks including myself who have dealt with the Mosten Seemly Aspects of president ial politics. Joining me is frank bruni, a fellow at harvard shoren stein center. Joel beninton, a Senior Adviser to the Clinton Campaign and joining me by phone is msnbc contributor, Steve Schmidt and jeremy bash is still with us. Steve, let me get you to weigh in on two things since youre on the phone. First, the president s tweet this morning saying that anyone with a would have taken the meeting that don jr. Took. Well, you and i wouldnt. Neither would have joel bennett or any other loyal american with a sense of rectitude. This was an attempt at conspiracy, a part of a hostile foreign power. The most senior level of a political campaign. This has nothing to do with opposition research. This was an intrusion by the russian government, by its Intelligence Services to the highest levels of the republican nominee, and i think one of the things that would be interesting that we dont have a good answer for is why is it that the only sweat equity at the republican platform, that the Trump Campaign put forward was on the issue of arm sales to the Ukrainian Government which the russians wither on the opposite side of . There are so many unanswered questions, but chiefly the notion that anybody would do this is just could not be more wrong. Most everybody on the campaign, democrat and republican, in fact, would not do it. They would go to the fbi. Joel, does this strike you i mean, i think we had this conversation during the campaign on television together. The asymmetry of the way donald trump ran against you and secretary clinton was almost in hindsight unbeatable. I mean, there was no moral compass. There was no adherence to norms. There was no i mean, ill let jeremy weigh in on saying i love it to a foreign adversity is illegal. Jeremy, quickly, is that illegal to say i love it to a foreign adversary promising dirt on Hillary Clinton . Depends on the context. Go back to joel and ill give you a more complete idea on this. In hindsight, how could you have adjusted to his to have defeated someone like this . I think you have to go back to the premise and recognize he was an unconventional candidate from the beginning. He went further than a lot of people thought even in the republican primary, took a long time for that to sink in. And then you have to still try to run your campaign. You cant get caught up but the question but the question gets confused, to you, to jen palmieri, how did you lose to this guy . I think that when we see the sort of lengths that i went to, how could you beat someone who was willing to accept help from a foreign adversary . Look, if 40,000 voted differently we would have beat him fair and square. Do you think thats a lot has unfolded and we thought that russian was meddling in the summer of last year. We thought all the evidence pointed to it. Hillary clinton brought it up in the e debate. Whether it got enough attention remains to be seen. Its tarnishing his presidency. It is tarnishing his

© 2025 Vimarsana