You dont believe that to be the case . We acknowledge the threat, it is real, it is continuing. And were doing everything we can to have a legitimate election. If you dont catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it is very hard to say who did the hacking. With that being said, ill go along with russia. Could have been china, could have been a lot of different groups. Make no mistake, the scope of this foreign influence threat is broad and deep. Ive seen it described as two administrations. John mclaughlin says were seeing orwellian. You have senior advisers saying over and over again as you heard there. And then you have the president saying something entirely different. What do you make of it and what is the lasting effect of that . One thing that we didnt see in that clip is even john bolton said that the president supports our efforts and top priority. Exactly. But that is not true because the
of law, but court of public opinion. And he is really good at that about tapping into his base. And they are all too willing to consume things that are clearly not based in fact from Police Twitter account, Sarah Huckabee sanders echos his lies. He has 24 Hour News Network in fox news that will repeat things that are not fact all. And on the other side, people are just tired of hearing about it. If you ask the average person what do you think about that noon jez peop mo nunyez memo or the manafort trial, they are like what . And he wants to fight it in the public opinion. I think liberals have to start understanding that what trump is doing is absolutely working. There was a poll last week, 70 of republicans believed the Mueller Investigation is a politically motivated witch hunt. They are using his actual words. It is working. Trump is betting on the American People being just that dumb. And so far he just keeps winning. Like he has never lost that bet that the American People are in fact that dumb that they will believe anything he says regardless of its relationship to the truth. Lisa, there was an exchange this week about the tweet regarding the directive to Jeff Sessions and what you heard from the Press Secretary and Rudy Giuliani was this is the president expressing an opinion. This is the medium in which the president expresses his opinion. We all know that, how could this be perceived as a directive to the neil gorsuch attorney gener investigation. It is a lot of verbal gymnastics to try to persuade anyone that that looked like anything but a blatant attempt to stop the investigation and obviously the president s lawyers were trying to get ahead of the mueller team. Remember whether or not that interview with the president actually happens, everything the president has tweeted, every utterance he makes at a rally is
all potential evidence. So it really is lard to argue if you are a lawyer or just a civilian anything but the plain meaning of that treat is that i want the investigation into myself stopped. And a word in defense of team mueller, politics aside, one of the types of cases he has been sending out are these cases about whether americans have properly registered, stay with me, i know it may sound dull, as foreign agents, working for foreign agents. That is significant because we americans under the law have a right to know if people are trying to work with others from outside the country on matters political. So trying as har hard as we can to leave the Bright Lights aside, that is a significant potential prosecution, making sure that those laws are followed and finding out what happened when they werent. And a variation on this theme i alluded to at the top, a report about jb gordon, adviser
to President Trump. The post reporting that he had a relationship with knew Mariia Butina identified as a russian agent. He extended an invitation to go to a concert and party. I dont think she went to either. But another odd wrinkle in this tale. Yeah, i suppose the styx concert. Yeah, why she didnt go i cant imagine, but yeah, it is odd sort of in the broader context of American Politics over the last 20 years or so. But it is not odd when is it comes to this campaign. Mariia butina was in contact with all kinds of republicans as she infiltrated the Conservative Movement. And gordon points out i was one of plane. That doesnt excuse any potential wrongdoing or poor judgment on his part. But he was one of many. And she i believe we will find and we do know already was also one of many. I mean she wasnt the only russian touch point to the Conservative Movement im sad to say and to the Republican Party and to the trump campaign. This was a broad effort, she was a small piece of it. Jd gordon was only one of many republicans who had contact with Mariia Butinatype players. And to that point, i want the American People to stay focused and not get distracted like you said. Right now our democracy is under attack by a foreign adversary. And just this week the Republican Controlled Senate rejected a measure to give the states more money to fight foreign adversaries attacking our democracy. This is why donald trump keeps parading out everybodys least favorite angry old female white man and Rudy Giuliani to come out and say these asinine things because that will keep the attention off of what is actually happening. This is why he tweets about lebron james and nfl players and
all these distractions because if were looking at the squirrel, were not looking at how the bff and sometimes lover Vladimir Putin is attacking our Voting Process which is the blood line of our democracy. And that is the issue that who stay at the forefront. And if could i jump in on that, i want to underscore that point because i think it is so important. The president wants to divide americans so that they cant unite even enough to hold him accountable. Think about that. In the same way Vladimir Putin wants to divide americans so that we cant defend our own country against russias attacks. It is divide and conquer, that is what is happening here. The president stoking racial tensions, Dividing Americans along cultural lines, it is all a strategy so he can hold himself unaccountable to the law ultimately. And it is working. Well leave it there. Coming up, Paul Plmanafort On Trial and prosecutors wants
his lavish lifestyle front and center. Are you ready to take your wifi to the next level . He was with the campaign for a short period of time. I feel badly about it, they went back 12 years to get things that he did 12 years ago. Paul manafort worked for me for a short period of time. What, 49 days or something . Very short period of time. Conversations with himself, President Trump talking to President Trump there at one point praising Paul Manafort and then distancing himself from his former campaign chairman. Man fort now in manafort now in a virginia jail as his case heads into its second week in alexandria. My panel is back with me and eric tucker, reporter, is joining us. He has been inside that courtroom. Well get into the high end real estate in a second, but i want to ask you about the prosecutions case regarding the books. What did we learn from the
accountants . I would say the biggest revelation yesterday was from a tax keeper, an accountant for Paul Manafort who said that she helped disguise 900,000 of foreign income as a sham loan and the goal of that of course was to reduce Paul Manaforts tax burden. And this was fairly damaging testimony for the government and she is a fairly significant witness and this is on the heels of testimony from other Financial Experts who said that manafort had disguised or concealed from them his use of Foreign Bank Accounts which would be in violation of u. S. Law. Eric, trying to get a feel here for what is going on in the courtroom, sketches only giving us so much. Lisa has a question. Im wondering about the jurys reaction both over the course of testimony ranging from like really interesting to my mind discussions of landscaping to maybe tougher discussions about numbers. And also judge ellis known to everyone to be a fairly active voice in the courtroom. How did the jurors respond to him . The jurors have been laughing periodically at his Ent Interruptions and i think judge ellis has shown himself to be determined to prevent the trial from becoming too dry and he has repeatedly scolded the government to move it along. Once he feels a point has been made, he encourages them to row to something else. And the jury does seem to be kind of getting a kick out of that. They do seem to be tracking the proceedings following them closely. It is a document heavy case, a numbers heavy case. But given all that, they do seem fairly attend difference as does pa Paul Manafort. He exchanges notes with his lawyer, watching the witnesses. Really paying attention. Are this court moves fast. The Jury Selection just a few hours. What explains the urgency . You cover this court. You know where it fits in to the
screw additional syst judicial system. Why does judge ellis want this case to move along so fast . That is a great question. He hasnt really explained that. But it does seem as someone observing this that judge ellis does seem to be suggesting that the case is simpler than people might think at first blush. And he sees this as documents that potentially do establish what the governments case might be and so he is trying to help them streamline it effectively for the jury to say if you have a document that those x, yy, z, put it up and discuss it and then move on. I think hes made a decision that there is other testimony that he didnt see as relevant to the allegations of the financial crimes at hand. So he has worked hard to keep out certain salacious details about Paul Manaforts lavish
lifestyle. I think his belief is that might not be rely vachevant at all. And we have moved from our studio from 30 rock into the virtual closet of Paul Manafort. You see behind me all the expensive jackets and the like that Paul Manafort picked up in Beverly Hills and new york is it i. Honing in on what eric was saying there, there is a distinction the prosecution having to make between living lavishly and showcasing income. How do you see that playing out . All the prosecution is trying to do is to prove that manafort was rich. That is all like these jac t jackets are not here just to embarrass him. If they want to do that, they would talk about his hair, right . These jackets are here to prove the point that Paul Manafort was rich and then next week they will prove the point that Paul Manafort paid no taxes. And once they do that, game, set, match. That is the case. Manaforts defense isnt even his defense has mainly been the government doesnt have the right to ross cute me, they are only doing this to try to get at donald trump. And if i did commit a crime, i mean like who Doesnt Launder Money for russian oligarchs, come on, man. Like that is his actual defense right now. So all the prosecution has to do is stick to the facts, stick to the actual income that he has, stick to the way that he was using his income and then again next week or week and a half show that he didnt pay any taxes. And they are also focusing on his long time partner, rick gates. There is some question if he would testify yesterday afternoon. It didnt happen yet. What do you make of that Defense Strategy to cast so much doubt on rick gates, somebody with whom Paul Manafort was teamed up with for so many years . Two words, good luck. Rick gates might call him a star witness, ill call him a critical witness. And a friend of mine who is a former federal prosecutor calls him an impeachment pinata. The defense wants to come after gates who after all pleaded guilty to lying and say how can you believe a word this witness will tell you. And what gates whether do with the help of the prosecution is lay that out right away. Admit that happened. Point out that he is under scrutiny and if he were to lie now, his plea deal would go away. And then what i expect he will do through testimony, but also email and other documents, show how closely he worked for manafort, emifphasis on the wor for. I love the pinata line. Take a whack at this. The focus is squarely on the financial dealings and tax fraud, but there is political import. And i think im more interested in the end game because i think if Paul Manafort is found innocent, then you will have donald trump saying see, i told you this is all a witch hunt. If he is found guilty, donald trump will say that Means Nothing because it had a nothing to do with me. I with an everybody to know dont fall for the okeydoke,
this is not true. When manafort and roger stone started their firm in the 80s, guess who their first client was . Donald trump. He is very mixed up in this. And this is somebody that the trial has shown he should not have been within a mile of anybodys president ial campaign let alone running it. And these are all things that i think if nothing else will validate the Mueller Investigation. So i think i want to see how it plays out at the end of the day. I do think that it will have implications for Donald Trumps long term political goals. And turn with me if you would to this closet. I know you didnt recognize the python jacket or ostrich jacket, but i want to get a sense from you the effect of this. We were talking earlier about how you get americans to focus on what is at issue here. This seems to me like a very vivid way to get that to happen. S that whos that whole thing proceeds, the need touch points becomes more important. I think it is very important proceeds, the need touch points becomes more important. I think it is very important. Where did these come from. In Paul Manaforts case, he obtained these things through doing russias work in the United States and in ukraine. And elsewhere. This is a man who became wealthy at least at some point by, yes, laundering money, evading taxes, but the core of his work was to do russias bidding in ukraine and again here, promoting their candidates, russian backed parties. This is a very important parallel for the American People. And i include all of us in this. We are climbing a learning curve, were understanding how our democracy is being attacked. And it is being attacked through people like Paul Manafort who are wearing python and ostrich jackets. Were getting a lesson in bad expensive fashion as well. And you of course remember
ja huge trials that touches on d. C. Shady lobbying and this one takes the cake. You were talking about the impeachment pea pinata. It only takes one jury to say this is all about trump and hes off. Ive watched too many cop trials to have faith in our jury system. It takes one juror to let him off the hook. Well leave it there. Thanks to you both. Coming up, the president breaks his 2017 record for the number of falsehoods told in a single year. Yes, there are still five months to go. Plus omarosa makes the case for trumps mental decline, next. Ive always looked forward to whats next. And im still going for my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im up for that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. So whats next . Seeing these guys. Dont Stop Taking Eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an Artificial Heart Valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis, the number one cardiologistprescribed blood thinner. Ask your doctor if eliquis is whats next for you. July, the average is up to 16 a day. President trump made remarks at a rally in wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania On Thursday and after the post report was published and falsehoods just kept coming, here are a select few. So i raised 44 b 44 billion year and nato funding was going down. Republicans just passed the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. Ill tell you what, russia is very unhappy that trump won, that, i can tell you. We saved our family farms and our Small Businesses from the estate tax also known as the death tax. I believe 80 farms benefited from that change to the tax cut. My panel back with me. Evan, your reaction to that. A da