The one thats most annoying i think in our present culture is people saying right at the end of the sciencentence, you know i mean . I dont mean to get off on a small rant at the top of the show is thats annoying. I guess what im saying is i have no annoying verbal ticks. Jonathan la mere, of course our annoying verbal tick right now is the red sox suck, lost again to the yankees last night. Not the red sox themselves, but well just say some of of the decisions they made over the past year when they decided that, well, winning the world series wasnt really all that important to them. Certainly with what they did to the trading deadlines. Happier news last night, we actually had a guy that came out and pitched the opening pitch which actually was actually a better pitch than anything that porcello threw all year. He it was great to see david ortiz again last night in the is his first public appearance since he was shot back in his home, the dominican republic, a few months ago. He had a difficult recovery. You know, weve seen some instagram photos of him recently, but this is the first time out among the masses and at fenway park. You can see the ovation he received. As far as the team, they didnt look good at all this season, joe and mike, its over, its been over for a while and now were dealing with the aftermath of general dave dombrowski, the general manager who helped lead them to a world series title last year but did nothing to improve the bull pen, made a bunch of questionable decisions, seems to have lost support of the manager, ownership and clubhouse. So when you put all that together, i guess it was time for him to go. Mike, a wonderful moment last night. By the way, the red sox players, i loved the team. They were just let down by, you know, dombrowski and everybody else this year without getting a pitcher. Just a great group of guys. But that was a great moment last night, wasnt it . Was a great moment and it was nice to see him out there. Obviously as jonathan indicated, hes back healthy. Throwing the way he always throws. Could never throw left handed, little popsicle throw. Didnt have to. Thats right, youre right, willie. It was a great night. Listen, we know what happened this year, we knew it early on and the dombrowski firing was clearly because the team was upset he seemed not to do anything and did nothing at the trading deadline at the end of the july. But baseball is such a wonderful game that its therapy still being out there each night. I got to say, i was watching last night and, i mean, even knowing that were out of it its so wonderful being able to watch. I was i was already mourning the passing of baseball season because it is. Yeah. It is just such a part of our lives, just even if mika even loves it in the background. Its wonderful. I mean, i could do a James Earl Jones speech from field of dreams right now. But instead, jonathan, im going to ask you to tell us about the rally last night in North Carolina. Over the summer, of course, really the start of a prec precipitous decline for donald trump. North carolina, of course, the place where most commentators said trump led the crowd in what could only be described as fascist chants. Thats what a lot of them are saying, send her back, send her home. What about last night . Was it a calmer affair last night in North Carolina with donald trump . So we were in fayetteville, North Carolina, last night. I was part of the press pool that traveled there to cover the president s rally. It was. We were only about 100 miles from the site of the previous rally in greenville where the racist send her back chants about those four democratic congresswomen of color, in particular omar who was born in somalia, though chants were heard and really set a tone for an ugly year and a half of campaign fought along the lines of race and he divisiveness. We didnt hear that last night. The president did not mention any of those congresswomen so there was no moment for them to start with that chant again. Weve now had a few rallies in a row which we have not heard it. But last nights rally is still potentially an interesting moment for this president because of todays special election in North Carolina where he is trying to push a republican candidate across the finish line to win an open seat there. And its being viewed sort of as a referendum on his political clout right now. The district is part of it is the suburban areas are outside charlotte where he has struggled in the past. Its a seat republicans held for quite some time. The polling indicates its close. And we saw from the president this is the first time in his rally setting where he likes to recent and air his grievances, this is the top end of summer for him when we saw his poll numbers slip and economy slowing cow down. We saw a nonsensical balt over hurricane forecasts. But he largely stuck to the script last night. But he made it clear, he painted a bleak picture for this nation if democrats were to win according to him it would be overrun with crime and poverty and Illegal Immigrants. He made it clear, if you want to keep what we have, you need to keep me ideally in office and ideally send this republican to the house. Before we get to our top news story of the day, willie, you saw a poll that david put out on twitter last night that showed the democrats actually had an advantage in 2018 on Party Identification and it wasnt really even close. Now a year later after the first three democratic debates its even as far as Party Identification, you know, would you support republicans or do you support democrats, its now down the middle. And so much of that is not because of donald trump whose numbers have fallen precipitously, its those debates where democrats are ridiculing obamacare as being too conservative, attacking barack obama on immigration, talking about decriminalizing illegal immigration, talking about giving healthcare plans to Illegal Immigrants, talking about forgiving all debt, medical debt, student debt, 22 trillion in debt as a nation. For a lot of americans this just doesnt add up. Yeah, thats why youve seen joe biden remain where he is, because he hasnt gone into that territory. For all the problems hes had and the mistakes hes made and the misstatements hes made on the campaign trail, he hasnt gone to that place of eliminating privacy insurance and providing healthcare to people who are here undocumented. Thats the central concern. If you let donald trump just do his thing, democrats feel like they can beat him because hes going to bury himself. But they have to be develop careful not to bury themselves in their own debate process. Youre down to ten coming up on thursday and, you know, the democrats will have to look very carefully at the way they behave in the previous two debates. You cannot attack this guy joe biden in the way that theyve done that. You cannot attack barack obama. Thats right. Perhaps the most beloved figure in the Democratic Party in the country at a time when youre trying to defeat donald trump. Yeah, mika, attacking bah brack obama is being too conservative. Yeah. Being too harsh on healthcare and immigration. Most americans remember that barack obama actually helped pass a law that gave coverage to those with preexisting conditions that took care of their older children, that lowers the uninsured in america. They also actually now that donald trump has made such a mess of our immigration policy. Yeah. Remember that under barack obama illegal border crossings were at a 50year low. That is the case. That is the truth. Okay. So if you want more of the same, here are our top news stories this morning. Several bombshell reports reveal that in mid2017 the United States successfully exfiltrated one of its top spies from russia over fears he was in danger of being caught. The New York Times reports that the cias russian informant who was outside of Vladimir Putins inner circle but saw him regularly and had access to highlevel kremlin Decision Making was instrumental. Decision that putin ordered and orchestrated the interference campaign in the 2016 president ial election. The times adds that the source was the governments, quote, best insight into the thinking of and orders from putin and was key to the cias assessment that putin favored trump and personally ordered the hacking of the dnc. Putin later confirmed in a 2018 News Conference in helsinki that the kremlin favored trump. Nbc news has not confirmed that the russian fed the cia information about the russia election interference but for reasons that nbc is withholding, he fits the profile of someone who may have had access to information about putins activities and who would have been recruitable by american intelligence officials. Current and former government officials tell nbc news that a former senior russian official who had access to government secrets is currently living in the Washington Area under u. S. Government protection. Nbc news has not confirmed that this official is the cia asset mentioned in the New York Times and cnn reports, however, to former fbi officials tell nbc news they believe set source referred to in those reports. President trump was asked about the story yesterday. The report today that say that you have mishandled classified information from russia . I know nothing about it. I see the cia responded perfectly. So whatever the cia said is find with me. But i heard they responded perfectly. I know nothing. So, clint, obviously this is an extraordinarily disturbing report. You have the times going a bit further than others suggesting that actually this spy that was so highly placed im sorry, it was cnn who went further that this spy who was placed in putins inner circle was actually pulled out because of fears that donald trump would refeel hr reveal his existence. Others have pulled out because the heat was getting too high with what was in the media and there were concerns about donald trump. But if you go back to i think it was february of 2017, donald trump revealed classified information from an ally in the white house to russias foreign minister and ambassador of the United States. So obviously the prudent move, regardless, given the fact that he was trying so hard to pass along and theres a picture where he pass aid long very sensitive, highly Sensitive Information to the russians in the light of day, in the oval office, suggests that no source in putins inner circle would be safe with this man as commander and chief. Yeah. I wanted to add to that cnn story is what else started may, 2017 . That was the special counsel investigation. I think that is maybe a little bit less discussed in these articles but should be put in context. As soon as you launch an investigation like that we know theres going to be expensive amounts of intelligence thats going to come forward thats almost impossible to mask. What did we see from american congressional leaders . Once the special investigation started, there was discussions of fisas, leaks about all sorts of classified sources, people battling back and forth. Thats spilled out in the public for more than two years. When we look back over the last four to five years, lets look at what putin did if the we talk about 9 11, pearl harbor, he interfered in our election, he helped elevate a candidate of his choosing. He launched a Public Inquiry which has been a quagmire for more than two years, and expunged one of the top sources inside russia, from russia, back to the United States. It will ultimately go down historically as one of the biggest defeats of america, particularly in terms of the intelligence business. And now when you look at it, we have lost allies, weve lost stature around the world. Were not seen as a trusted source. Our intelligence sharing, i dont know who would share with us at this point the way our country as a whole has been operating, the way things have spilled out into the media. And how would you ever recruit a source that could be replaced . This doesnt speak to the taxpayer costs in terms of labor, man hour, resources that have gone into protecting this individual bringing him back out. I think they absolutely made the right decision, but it just is a devastating loss for our country. And, willie, if you look at what our fbi director that donald trump nominated, selected, our cia director, the National Director of intelligence, if you look at the United States military and their intel officials, theyve all warned the president of the United States, all of them, all republican appointees, all confirmed by Mitch Mcconnell senate, they have all warned the president of the United States, including Kirsten Nielsen which when she was still the director of Homeland Security that russia is still interfering in america democracy and we must do something about it. And if you have moscow mitch of the senate pilg killing all bills to protect america from russia interference and a president that denies its existence, what choice do you have but to remove valuable assets from russia . Because whether he is or not, most intelligence officials would have to conclude that is he somehow compromised for not responding to their dire warnings about protecting american democracy. We understand why donald trump wants to deflect from this story, because it cheapens his victory in 2016. The Mitch Mcconnell side of it, the congressional side of it remains more curious to me why they wont take these obvious steps to protect our elections today and Going Forward from here. Clint, this is obviously an extraordinary step to slip a russian asset out of the country, provide protection in the United States. In your experience, what would be the circumstances under which the cia would like and say weve got to get this guy out of here . Was there an immediate threat to you think to this guy . I imagine there i dont know, but i imagine there was not. But when youre looking at the public reporting, you see consistently reports about, hey, everyone went to talk to donald trump and say russia interfered in the election and theres some wobbling about that, right . Right. Theres not trust in the sources. Youre seeing the dossier surface. That has all sorts of sources listed the when you see that you know to russia now internally inside russia is going through all their ranks and start cleaning up messes and assessing people. And the cia, im sure, the cia, fbi, the whole intelligence community, when they saw there was going to be a Major Investigation with a public disclosure, its time to wrap up your sources because thats your last chance to protect them. Now this. New reporting from the New York Times contradicts the president s claim that he has nothing to do with the scottish airport where air force crews have been refueling and staying overnight at his nearby resort, nothing to do with it. The times citing documents obtained from the Scottish Government. Reports that the Trump Organization and trump himself played a direct role in setting up an arrangement between his golf resort in glass could you prestwick airport. The partnership set up in 2014 was meant to provide private air traffic to the region. But part of the agreement accord to the times worked to get Trump Turnberry added to a list of hotels that the airport would routinely send air crews too even though the turnberry resort is 20 miles from the airport, farther away than many other hotels and has higher advertised prices. The times reports the number of such stops by air force planes at prestwick rose from 180 in 2017 to 257 last year and 259 so far this year. The 259 stops this year included 220 overnight stays since october of 2017 records show 917 payments for expenses including fuel at the airport worth a total of over 17 million. Heres the president speaking about the issue yesterday. I havent found out other than when a plane stops at a Massive International airport and gets fuel, i dont own the airport. Every time you find a person landing an airplane within 500 miles of something i own, mike pence as an example, his family lives in doonbeg, ireland, and hes actually told me that he stayed there many years ago. I bought it years ago. But he was there before i bought it i believe, he said, a long time ago. But he was in ireland so he said, you know what ill do . Ill see my family. I didnt know about that. But i can say he has good taste. That is what you call verbal pore ridg poridge. I dont know if thats what you call it but thats what you should call it. Mike, were sitting here going we wonder what saudis are staying at the trump hotel in washington, d. C. Lets go through the records to figure out who through qatar is its the United States air force. Like, we need to look at the United States air force and see how they are now direct i mean, directing millions and millions of dollars trumps way for this airport that actually helps donald trump out, helps helps his business out to a tune of what . What did they say . 17 million. 17 million in refueling. Thats taxpayer money. Its like mike pence decides to go to the other side of ireland in a meeting and what . Take 250 room nights . I dont know if thats the exact number. I thought i read that somewhere. But piling, again, a ton of money into Donald Trumps properties. Yeah. Its a scam. Its the Great American scam from scotland to ireland to pennsylvania avenue. Everywhere this guy touches. And now its the United States air force. You know, joe, it doesnt get a whole lot of