Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Government had informed state Election Officials that russians tried to target Election Systems in 21 states in the leadup to the 2016 election. Of course, the other thing we know the u. S. Deterrence campaign isnt working based on the reporting of the daily beast that russians trying to infiltrate the emails of staffers of senator claire mccaskill. They were sunsuccessful. Thats why they say there need tos to be a coheercherent strategy can i ask you, though, about the mood in that building behind you there, geoff. In terms of the headlines that involve former trump Attorney Michael Cohen and the Trump Tower Meeting and russia and his allegations that President Trump knew about that meeting in advance. Whats the mood there . Reporter well, a source close to the president described
that is a crime. And it also opens up all sorts of possibilities because, if the president knew that the russians were doing this, what else did he know about the russian operation in 2016 . Thats why we need these investigations to continue without any political interference. In terms of congressional investigations the more events we learn, really the stupider the House Intelligence Committee looks when they shut down their investigation prematurely and whitewash what happened. And im curious given their conflicting relationships with the truth, who has more, the president or Michael Cohen . The Washington Post has been tracking the president s statement as well as the New York Times. Theyve documented thousands of dpauls statements that the president of the United States has made. Theres no question that Michael Cohen has more credibility. Is that in your mind because he has tapes, notes, conversations, that kind of thing . Certainly a tapes backup what
they tend to be lying. The first story is none of this is true, and the second was Michael Cohen did it himself. And then we know that donald trump was in on it. Now that we have multiple women, it looks like a pattern of practice what donald trump was doing the entire time, silencing these women. We need to continue to have investigations thats why representative Kathleen Weis and i called for an investigation by the fbi into this issue. How certain are you, as you alluded to before in this conversation, how certain are you that the president knew before the june 2016 meeting that it was going to transpire . In terms of the Trump Tower Meeting, it would seem highly unlikely that the president had no idea. Why would trump junior not tell his father . Why would Jared Kushner not tell his fatherinlaw . This seems like a pretty significant meeting you got the russians offering dirt onHillary Clinton. Then youve got the president going on national tv telling the russians to hack Hillary Clinton. Theres a not of coincidences that only make sense that donald trump now about this in advance. The president as talked about on television saying big news is forthcoming, didnt he about Hillary Clinton and nothing was said a few days later . That is also very coincidental timing that again makes more sense that donald trump himself knew about this meeting in advance that he might get dirt on Hillary Clinton that looked like it might not have materialized at that specific meeting. Because youre a member of the Foreign Affairs committee i want to ask you about your take on Vladimir Putin inviting trump to moscow. This is after he said he was going to delay the meeting in washington which originally was going to be in the fall and now its going to happen next year, allegedly, because of his plan. Whats happening here . Let me first say, until putin accepts responsibility for ordering the Russian Military to attack the american elections in
2016, and until he stops attacking our elections, the u. S. Commander in chief should never set foot in russia. Im very disturbed that donald trump is thinking of going to russia. Until he gets russia to acknowledge what they did to our elections he should not go to moscow. Youre meaning the russian intelligence . Thats right. The gru. The arm of the military. What about putin wanting to interrogate a dozen officials are you getting any sense that republicans are willing to take a more aggressive approach despite the president s wording and actions on this matter and really delve into Election Meddling . Somewhat. Having served in active duty i never thought the u. S. Commander in chief would go to helsinki and kowtow to a foreign power. And i never contemplated that
the Commander In Chief would contemplate giving up. These americans. And im pleased its bipartisan, and we did see a number of republicans speak up about what their pled did in helsinki. Before i let you go, sir, i want to get your take on the status of family reunification. You have the Senate Judiciary committee scheduled for a hearing on tuesday on overnight of the matter. Do you think the hearing is going to answer the question about why there are hundreds still separated from their parents . I applaud it. Its long overdue. We know the Trump Administration missed the deadline for reunifying kids with their parents. We know from public reporting some of these kids have been assaulted, including sexually assaulted at some of these detention centers. And second, the trump
administration has said that some of these kids may never be reunified with their parents. And if theyre not, that is the functional equivalent of kidnapping by our government. Thats completely unacceptable. Thats why Secretary Nielsen needs to resign. Representative ted lieu, thank you for the conversation. Coming up next, hes being called President Trumps Worst Nightmare but will Michael Cohens secret recordings come back to haunt him . Psoriatic ar. As you and your rheumatologist consider treatments, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. Xeljanz xr is a oncedaily pill for psoriatic arthritis. Taken with methotrexate or similar medicines, it can reduce joint pain, swelling, and significantly improve physical function. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma, and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines,
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very beginning, the federal government has taken a somewhat ingenuous approach to the emollmeemoll me emollyouments loss. Saying that the court can go forward with discovery and that trumps Business Records have to be preserve and that this case can progress fairly speedily against trial and may ultimately be very damaging to the president and private business efforts. In fact, the judge said that the constitutional framers understood the team to have a broader meaning applying to any profit, gain, or advantage whatsoever. I want to go back to the press conference. Im sure you remember that one that happened about ten days or so before the inauguration. When the President Elect stood next to those stacks of folders with all of the details showing how hes going to avoid the emoluments clause. Its all smoke in mirrors since then. So what kind of information could be requested in this case, joyce . The private investigators will be entitled to seek in discovery any information that will help them to show that the president is benefitting illegally. That president conference, alex, was really interesting, it was this sort of show piece, lots of paperwork and files. The allegation is being made that the president is handing his business over to his sons and would no longer in any way benefit from it. But this was very different from the blind trust that we saw earlier, president s create clearly the president is still is engaged in what i think can be fairly tellered as emoluments. An experienced team of Trial Lawyers will have access to records. Theyll be able to go through them, take depositions and ultimately expose whether or not this conduct is illegal in the conversation of the judicial system. Just to offer details, among
the Foreign Governments that have patronized the trump hotel about four blocks from the white house, kuwait, philippines, malaysia and romania all have done so, and patronize it because of the president S Association with it. We should also say the state of maine has similarly done business with the hotel. So, its not just Foreign Governments but i do want to get to nbcs reporting about Michael Cohen. That hes willing to tell that the president knew in advance about the Trump Tower Meeting in june 2016. If this is corroborated, joyce, would this be cohen flipping on trump . Is this what flipping means . Well, its important to make the note that you make, if its true portion of this. What weve heard so far is that cohen is willing to say that trump knew in advance that the Trump Tower Meeting between donald trump, jr. , Jared KushnerPaul Manafort and a number of people from russia would take place with the supposed outcome of the meeting being offered by
the Trump Campaign to the russians which would violate u. S. Law. So, we havent actually heard what michel cohen has to say. How did he know it . What did he know . And does he have any information that corroborates the testimony hes going to give here. There are a lot of questions here. What seems to be happening in an unusually public way because these are usually private conversations between operators, were seeing the type of information that cohen might be able to provide to prosecutors if they were willing to cut a deal with him, giving him better treatment on his personal exposure, in exchange for whatever testimony he might have involving President Trump. So is it clear who stands to benefit from a leak like this . If you look at lanny davis who spoke on msnbc, he said, i have to wonder why the trump people would put that out. It was not from us. Its really hard to see who
benefits here. Pretty clear that the leak didnt come from mueller. That investigation has been locked up tighter than a drum. So, the idea that cohen would leak this, you know, it doesnt make it impossible for him to cooperate with prosecutors in the Southern District of new york. But its not just a brilliant opening move for someone trying to engage in cooperation. No reason to believe that would come from cohens side. So that does pretty much leave us with the idea that the leak came from the trump side of this equation. We have seen Rudy Giuliani in the past try to get ahead of damaging stories by leaking this kind of information. And at the same time, taking advantage of that opportunity to get this side of things out. But here its difficult to see how they benefit unless perhaps giuliani is trying to speak to either the public or the prosecutors. And to put forth this story that cohen is a liar, hes not
credible. We heard this from giuliani yesterday, perhaps its an effort to float that sort of a narrative. How does a Prosecutor Figure out in a he said he said type case that the president is telling the truth the President Tweeting out he didnt know about the meeting his son took with the operatives. How do you prove the truth . So, this happens more often than not. And one of the great mysteries that trump has engaged the public on these issues, he simply says i didnt do it. There was no collusion. As though were supposed to except it at face value but thats not what prosecutors do. Prosecutors take a painstaking process of working with investigators to back up one of those sides of he said he said. For instance, over here, we hear that donald trump, jr. Made a phone call to a blocked phone number right around this time he was scheduling this meeting with russian interests. Prosecutors could get phone
records. Almost certainly have already done that. And see whether that phone call was in fact made to his fathers blocked phone number. Theyll be able to look at other pieces of corroboration. Of course, we have the president s own statements before the meeting where he announced hes going to have a dramatic News Conference about the clintons. He didnt have that News Conference but the timing is suspicious. And july 27th, the followup where he publicly calls on russia to deliver Hillary Clintons emails. These are all interesting pieces of evidence to put on a time line and see whose version of events they ultimately support. Joyce vance, appreciate your insights. Coming up evading the press President Trumps war against the main treatment media. How will this end . Well talk about this with
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