Ght. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Were gonna hit our launch date scream thank you goodbye we help all types of businesses with money, tools and knowhow to get business done. American express open. Its a dark and stormy night in washington. Welcome to kasie d. C. Im kasie hunt. We are live every sunday from 7 00 to 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight a certain interview with a certain porn star. Well talk about Stormy Daniels allegations plus the new kids on the block. Well talk about the new trump Foreign Policy and legal teams. And a trump oracle warns of even more changes to come. And later, my interview with democratic senator Claire Mccaskill who has some frank
words for Hillary Clinton. And tells the National Party she doesnt care what they think. And from generation to generation, movement to movement, well talk about an Inflection Point of protest in washington with civil rights icon john lewis. But first we are awaiting the video of Stormy Daniels interview, but tonight cbs has released the transcript. Some of it is what you might expect, the claims of Stormy Daniels, a successful porn star who said she and donald trump had sex once in 2006. They met, she says, at a golf event in tahoe. According to daniels, they stayed in touch. Daniels claiming trump even made her watch shark week in 2007 in a hotel room with him. Flash forward to 2011 when danlds agrees to tell her story to a magazine, and according to her trump Attorney Michael Cohen threatens to sue. We were anticipating this story
from her attorney michael avenatti. Were you threat ened in any way . Yes. Was she threatened physical harm . Yes. Heres how stephanie clifford, which is Stormy Daniels real name, explains that chapter to 60 minutes. She says, quote, i was in a parking lot going to a Fitness Class with my infant daughter, taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the back seat, diaper bag, getting all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said, quote, leave trump alone, forget the story. He looked around at my daughter and said, quote, thats a beautiful little girl. It would be a shame if something happened to her mom. And then she says he was gone. Daniels said she took the exchange as a direct threat after trump won the republican Nomination Daniels says cohen reached out with that now infamous 130,000 offer of payment which came with a nondisclosure agreement. The story broke 15 months later
in Wall Street Journal hours before the president was sworn into office. The white house has always denied the allegations the president had an affair with daniels and when asked what she would say if the president were watching, danliels said, quote, he knows im telling the truth. Joining me politico author jake sherman. Managing director for hamilton play strategies Michael Steel. The New York Times political reporter ken vogel. Secretary to the secretary of defense and Nbc National Security analyst. And in new york civil rights and employment attorney nancy erica smith. We should mention that she represented former fox news anchor Gretchen Carlson in her Harassment Lawsuit against former fox news ceo roger ailes. Thank you all for being here tonight. It is quite a remarkable evening. And while all of us were as everyone in washington has been
talking about this offset before we all started, this is a story the details of which we largely they all lineup with this in touch magazine story, ken vogel. However, this is still an Adult Film Star on 60 minutes, a nationwide platform. It is in many ways what we would define as a seminal moment. The Trump Administration has not had many of these because they seem to fly by so fast. Put this is this going to matter . What does this mean . Short answer, i would predict, no, its not going to matter and thats because of what you just said. We have a scandal of the moment, at every moment, and trump largely seems to be immune from any serious repercussions and his supporters, the folks in his base, have shown a willingness to forgive all manner of indiscretions or behaviors or statements that would sink otherwise more traditional politicians. Im not really sure that this, despite the fact that it is real really a remarkable moment. Even though as you suggested the allegations are mostly out there will shed new light and extend the story, certainly the way that trump has denied this and the way that his lawyers have been aggressive in pursuing Stormy Daniels, have extended the story but ultimately i see it simmering at a low boil while all this other stuff swirls around us. Michael, youre laughing. I disagree. The real question here is whether there is a Campaign Finance violation. Okay. The president in matters of Public Perception has been able to skate by because people think of him as a celebrity, not as a politician, hes treated by as such by the public and not the news media. Its tough to see how this does president rise to the level of a Serious Campaign violation. Nancy, can i get you to weigh in on that perspective by Michael Wright . We know donald trump is going
to be deposed in the zervos case. Hes called Stormy Daniels a lawyer. I wouldnt be surprised to see him sued for defamation. These issues are important because hell be deposed under oath as bill clinton was. Under oath if he denies this and there is evidence that its true, now hes a perjurer, a criminal. It is dangerous for him. It is more important for our country to think about having a president who is able to buy secrets for himself, whether his friends in the media buy secrets to catch and kill stories, and then he can call the rest of the media fake media. Or whether hes just buying secrecy about information that he has already told us is important. How did he tell us . He had a Press Conference with all of bill clintons accusers at the debate with Hillary Clinton shaming his wife, shaming bill clintons wife. He shamed uma abedin about anthony weiner. He tweeted gleefully about al franken, who is no longer a
senator for doing much less than Summer Zervos alleges and women in this country are more than 50 of the population. So, even his base may start to chip away now that we know that he is possibly lying. Summer zervos is going to be able to depose him. Or that he you know, it fits that he doesnt treat women well. He admits it. He admits grabbing women by their genitals against their will, and he admits sneaking into the Miss Universe contest so he can look at young women getting dressed. Right. Why arent we surprised . One thing you said you talked about the idea that people might start to care. Just to go back to what we were just talking about, jake and evelyn, id like you to weigh in on this. We are waiting for the video. This woman is sitting down with Anderson Cooper and she relates a story, and the quote here says she picked up he showed her a
magazine with himself on the cover and she says, someone should take that magazine and spank you with it. She says this on camera. And then once she actually does it, which she relates and explains, Anderson Cooper asks her, well, what did he say then . And she says, he became more comfortable, quote, wow, you are special he told her. You remind me of my daughter. These kinds of things keep going. Anderson cooper asked, did he use a condom. She says no. This is the president of the United States. Are these clips of this really not going to impact the debate . I actually have a hard time processing all of this, but i think that i think i do, too. So, i do think, though, that if i am a democrat running against republicans for any seat around the country in 2018, i would run these clips and run clips of the President Firing Everybody in his sight and say,
listen, this guy is represents chaos. Our government is in chaos. We have a porn star coming out of practically all over the place saying the president had relationships with them. He fires people every week. And, say listen, i am democrat x and i am going to restore sanity to washington. I mean, its a compelling message when you have i mean, lets see this for what it is. A porn star and a play boy model at the same time accusing the president of affairs. So, i just think there has to be a way for democrats to capitalize on this. And, just to keep it a little bit in the moment, evelyn, id like you to weigh in, too. Melania trump staying in florida amid all this. There is a component for the family here as well. I think there are a couple things. I agree with jake the whole idea of bring us back to normalcy, normality, you know, no more of this chaos. The fact that his personal life has this element of chaos in it,
it will be disturbing to voters, especially female voters. The other thing that bothers me with this, if its true there is this muscle being applied to her right. To Stormy Daniels or stephanie clifford, that i think will be a problem. And if there is a pattern of muscle in addition to the, you know, trying to quiet these women with legal efforts and then, of course, the Campaign Violation, this added piece of potentially intimidating them, using the muscle, if thats happened beyond this one case, if indeed it did happen in this case, i think thats a problem. Okay. We are also learning this nugget from 60 minutes from the transcript of the Stormy Daniels interview and its from her lawyer michael avenatti. So, this is him being quoted. He says the nondisclosure agreement that daniels signed in 2016 when she was represented by another lawyer was sent to trumps attorney, Michael Cohen, at his office in trump tower. Avenatti reads the cover letter
and goes on to surmise what he thinks it means. Saying, quote, to mr. Cohen as executive vicepresident and Special Counsel to donald j. Trump, the Trump Organization, again listing the 5th avenue address this idea that there is a separation between mr. Cohen individually and the Trump Organization or mr. Cohen individually and donald trump, its nonsense. So, again, the lawyer is talking about the fact that in the wake of all of this and, ken vogel, Campaign Finance law is your area of specialty. One of the ways cohen has argued back against this is to say, essentially, look, i made this payment in my personal capacity, nothing to do with the president , nothing to do with the campaign, Nothing Official at all. What the lawyer is saying here effectively is no, actually, that money was paid in an official way. In an official way if it is done an official way through the company it is potentially problematic. Where you have you would have the potential finance Campaign Violation is if trump reimbursed cohen for the payment and did
not disclose it as a payment that he was making to benefit his own campaign, it wouldnt be illegal for him to reimburse he didnt disclose it, right . No one disclosed it that we know of unless there was some way that they passed it through an entity that is not indicating what its ultimate purpose is. We do know Michael Cohen complained, i guess its been reported the president complained, is that right . Michael cohen complained first of all, Michael Cohen according to the Wall Street Journal said he was trying to get in touch with the president before making this payment. And then he complained he hadnt been reimbursed, Doesnt Specify by whom for the payment after the fact. Once which get into this area of Campaign Finance law, you know, eyes glaze over, a, and b, there is not a whole lot of enforcement. The federal Action Commission is going to charge in here like the new sheriff in town. Not effective. Right. Theyll come down with a reconciliation agreement, 5,000 fine, you know. This is not i think the optics are more problematic than the Campaign Finance legal issues here. As i said, i think that the optics just feed into this narrative that would have brought down any other politician, could be helpful for democrats in the midterms, but its hard to see it really damaging this guy who has been so teflon for so many of these really youre shaking your head. Yeah, it feeds into this impression of lowrent thugishness and sleaze that surround the the entire Trump Organization prior to his election and continues to pop up in odd ways as we see his presidency, whether its financing from abroad, projects overseas, whether its continuing talks about hush money to play boy, play mates and pornographic film stars. Michael, you worked for boehner. Clearly theres been a certain level of assortedness in politics. We all have our flaws. But i do not recognize this as the Republican Party that i have
covered for many years. I dont recognize this as the american political system as weve known it. Exactly. For the entire two centuries of our country. We elected the first president in American History with no military experience, first Reality Tv President , weve been sucked into this cesspool of mall. Is there a point where republicans say to you and i publicly what they say in private . We are getting a lot of republican members of congress go home, and the problem isnt how much they stuck to donald trump. They get in trouble for not supporting him enough, which is a tough spot to be in. I do want to echo what mike said because hes right. Boehner pushed people out of the House Of Representatives for taking a photo with their shirt off and for things that were a lot more mild than hush payments to porn stars. So paul ryan is doing the same
thing now in the house. Hes pushed people out or has attempted to. Not as successful as boehner, of course. Mr. Farenthold is holding on for some reason. If it gets to a point i dont think its a useful exercise to guess about what bob mueller is doing. But if it gets to a point where there is a report or there is some information from mueller that indicates some sort of crime, i think thats when you see republicans Start Talking out. I think thats the only point. We have clearly a lot to talk about here. But we have to take a break. Still to come on kasie d. C. , we are going to talk about massive Staff Shake Ups in the president s orbit. Plus congressman john lewis, ambassador andrew young and senator Claire Mccaskill. And well have some Breaking News from congressman Ryan Costello. Were back after this. For all the noses that stuff up around pets. Theres flonase sensimist. It relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist. Hey, need fast try cool mint zantac. It releases a Cooling Sensation in your mouth and throat. Zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. Nexium can take 24 hours. Try cool mint zantac. No pill relieves heartburn faster. Have a 4yearold. Its a very challenging job serving in congress with a young family. I accepted that and had planned on running for reelection in the Congressional District that ive served for the past 3 1 2 years. What happened was the state Supreme Court then, in a matter of a week or so, decided to invalidate the map the first time in the history of the republic where a state Supreme Court has done that. And ultimately altered the district. Were going to have our full interview on that in our 8 00 hour. Well talk a little bit to jake sherman at some point. But i do want to get back to Stormy Daniels since i have a long list of things we havent even talked about. I want to take a look a little bit at this piece that came out in the New York Times today. It gimz you a behind the scenes color as to what daniels is as a business woman. The times writes, quote, Shes The Boss and everyone knew it. Anyone a heartily, one of the longest working performers said
about miss clifford. The renaissance porn star, said ron jeremy, once perhaps the most famous porn star of all, quote, she was a very Serious Business woman and a film maker and had taken the reigns of her career, said the director of her cameos in the comedies knocked up and the 40yearold virgin. She