Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. You just heard his account of the tape. Did you actually hear the tape . I did. Did you miss this girl, did you read my book . A few other highlights from the book, she claims she walked in on President Trump and his lawyer, michael cohen, and the president was eating a piece of paper as if trying to hide it. She also says he had a tanning bed installed in the white house. The president himself has not commented on the book but his administration dismissed it out of hand saying in a statement yesterday, this book is riddled with lies and false accusations. Eddie, let me start with you. Here we are talking about this book. How much import do you give this, what shes alleging in this book, the racist components to this presidency . Its just the latest evidence, but i wants just salacious talk. We shouldnt give omarosa toosm
credibili too much credibility in this regard. We know shes selfinterested. We know what shes trying to do. Its ironic shes spent a lot of time around donald trump and this is the first time shes come to the realization he uses the n word and what he thinks of her. Im still trying to square her current understanding of donald trump with that earlier comment that everyone will bow down to him. So its just salacious stuff. Were in the world of tabloid america right now and this is just the latest instance of it. Go ahead. This is unfortunately, we have a president driven by Public Opinion and reality television, so when you have youre being generous saying shes selfinterested. I would call her a hustler. Unfortunately, these type of things detract from flint, puerto rico, all these other major structural Policy Decisions we should be making as a nation if we had a real president who didnt actually just wake up in the morning, watch television, and think about people who are thinking about him. Omarosa has been with donald trump for well over a decade. Theyre more alike than they are different. We constantly give this woman oxygen where she is just a selfinterested hustler. She is a salesman just like the president. Whatevers in the book, we already know about the president. Were about to talk about charlottesville where he says both sides. We know who he is. Hes exposed who he is time and time again when hes talked about blacks, the nfl, muslims, mexicans, immigrants in general of color. So theres nothing new unfortunately about what shes going to say in any capacity in this book. We talk a lot about tapes and this president. Hes raised the specter of there being tapes. There was the access Hollywood Tape. The narrative of the book is she thinks these tapes exist. Does it change the picture we have of him if we have these tapes . If you look back on what happened after that access Hollywood Tape that came out, the way people reacted to it. Would this make any difference . I have learned to lower my expectations in trumps america. I think one of the great tragedies of this president is that we as americans are forced to talk about omarosa. I think thats not like a good thing for us in terms of our culture and our politics. And he has proven an ability to get away with crimes, behaviors, alleged crimes i should say, to be technically and legally accurate, but disgusting parts of his nature that no other president would be tolerated. Ask yourself if barack obama we cant play that game. We cant play that game. Ask yourself if bill clinton, ask yourself if george h. W. Bush was on tape acknowledging paying off an adult model for an alleged affair that his lawyer taped. Would we still be referring to this person as mr. President. And your third wife is pregnant. So, no, i dont expect very
much. Talking about how far things are removed away from the norms. I was reading some excerpts from omarosas book. It was more of a little breakdown and some notes on it, but she even said we should stop kind of enabled White Supremacy and the way that he is, you know, in many ways kind of instigates and manipulating peoples emotions and fear into blaming others, especially people of color. This is a really important point. One of the reasons why this particular excerpt stands out is because he allegedly used the n word. And the n word is the marker of the bad villain, right . Signifier. The signifier of the bad villain. Here we have clear evidence of the racist, just as the White Supremacists in charlottesville are the clear evidence of racism, of the bigots, right . So were always looking for the obvious villains, because thats american medrama. We need them to have our heroes and happy endings, when in fact its the forgotten americans, the silent majority, the folks who are pining for Suburban Bliss thats really the oil in the engine thats driving this thing. You see . So we have this n word on the table. Oh, hes an obvious racist. See . Then you have immigration policy, you have flint, you have puerto rico, you have devos and education, you have all this stuff happen, right . You have Ingram Basically Echoing what donald trump said in europe. All this stuff is happening. I think some people need the smoking gun of the n word. If you need to sort of hear or believe omarosa the president
actually said the n word, you havent been paying attention because in my estimation hes been saying it since he rolled down that gold escalator and declared his presidency. Every time he talks about the nfl hes saying it. Every time he talks about lebron james or Maxine Waters or don lemon or any person of color in this country. This is who he is, who he was, this is when he put c on top of the applications of people of color when they tried to get into his buildings. We dont need the smoking gun. This is his lifes work. Its him. Its everyone. So its like if youre still waiting for this big reveal, then you havent been paying attenti attention. So donald trump is effective at laundering White Nationalism and White Supremacy. Wonderful phrase. And giving it a cleaner look. You have the policies with immigration, reducing illeglega
immigration, all to make america whiter. No one wants to be consciously a racest, so as long as you can say he never said that word, he never carried that flag, even though hes enabling people across from his front lawn to carry confederate flags today and tomorrow, he leapts people walk away with this idea that hes not doing what he wants them to know what hes doing. You brought Up Charlottesville and were at this anniversary moment. Talk about strong signifiers. I want to play a little bit of tape about what the president said with regard to race in the last year. Im going to point out looking at the president s schedule this week, nothing there, no statement planned, no indication hes going to say anything about the anniversary. Lets look at what the president has said in the course of the last year. Were closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. We condemn in the strongest
affectionately of course as pocahontas. Pocahontas. Pocahontas. How about that . I said it the other day, yes, she is a low i. Q. Individual, Maxine Waters. I said it the other day. I mean, honestly, shes somewhere in the mid60s. I believe that. During a meeting in the oval office this afternoon President Trump referred to haiti and other countries as, quote, shole countries, and told lawmakers more people from places like norway should be invited in. Were stopping a lot of them, but were taking people out of the country. You wouldnt believe how bad these people are. These arent people. These are animals. The President Lashing out at lebron james, and in doing so, he praises michael jordan, saying in a tweet that lebron james was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, don lemon. He made lebron look smart, which isnt easy to do. I like mike. As i say often, i am the least racist person that
anybodys going to meet. Plenty to despair about there in that montage of clips. Back to the first thing we heard, him talking about both side, two sides. There is such division in this country, and this president sees things in such a binary way. Look at where weve come or havent come in the last year, what do you think . Again, hes missing an opportunity here this weekend to make any attempt at unifying the country in any way. Back to what i was saying about the president enabling White Supremacy. He can claim all he wants hes not racist, but if you are saying that at a white supremacist rally there are good people on both sides, then you are in essence promoting it and saying its okay and you are encouraging it. Thats a problem this president has had, is hes never actually stood up straight and gone against the wave there. But i also think kind of going to what we were saying earlier, we keep having this, like,
aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. Serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be lifethreatening. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. Tell your Healthcare Provider if youve had depression or other Mental Health problems. Decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. The most common side effect is nausea. I dont think about cigarettes anymore. Talk to your doctor about chantix. Were back with the latest developments in Robert Muellers investigation. Investigators appear to be closing in on Longtime Donald Trump confidant, former Campaign Aide roger stone by going after some of his associates. Just yesterday, a judge held Andrew Miller in contempt for refusing to testify before the Special Counsels grand jury. This morning, it remains unclear what exactly the socalled Manhattan Madam testified about when she appeared before the grand jury yesterday. While the president s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has been reapplying pressure on the Special Counsel to end the investigation by september the 1st, we are now learning that another stone associate expects to comply with the subpoena. His Attorney Says hell testify before that grand jury on september the 7th. Back me, our panel. Want to talk about this interview still looming large for the president here. Dan, let me ask you first of all about what seems to be happening with regard to roger stone. You look at those three principals. What do they tell you about Robert Muellers interest in roger stone . These are people peripheral folks to roger stone, people in his circle so, its no Surprise Mueller wants to subpoena them, get their testimony, or have an interview. If they refused an interview, The Next Step is mueller would subpoena them. And these are people that can provide a picture into roger stones business, his finance. The Manhattan Madam apparently ran his website. Theres a lot of data that passes through these i. T. Folks possession, their eyes, so even if she didnt witness with her own eyes something bad, she has knowledge about data and where data goes and where its stored. So these are all relevant inquiries. They may not have dramatic testimony, but they will be pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. Your take on this rogues
gallery. Talking about the Manhattan Madam a few years after she was involved in the Eliot Spitzer scandal. Did you think wed be talking about her again . Really hard to keep track of who and where and how theyre all tied together and where the dots connect. It just raises more questions than it provides answers and thats been the problem all along, right, with the way any Trump Administration official acts, which is always kind of making people feel like you have something to hide, is there something youre guilty of. I dont know, with watching this trial, im not a legal expert, but, again, you know, even when it comes to Andrew Miller, like is there a defensive position for him to take if he wants to be held in Contempt Of Court . Is that something so in a way, miller wants to be held in contempt because that allows him to appeal that issue. You dont always get to appeal everything a judge does. There are only certain things. Essentially by upping the ante, millers team is saying hold me in contempt, now i can appeal it, now i can challenge some of the things that went into that
original grand jury subpoena. Go ahead. Possibly appeal the jacket that roger stone is wearing . It looks like he stole something from pee wees play house. Kind of ridiculous. And the president promised to surround himself with the best people. If this is his best, were in a load of trouble because everyone he seems to touch has so much scandal, so much ill repute, so much bad behavior. This is not what we expect out of our oval office. Lets talk about a few more people hes surrounding himself with. Jay sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, the president s attorneys. There were some amazing media moments this week. Jay sekulow interviewed Rudy Giuliani, a coup having his cocounsel on the show. At the end of the week, the two filled in for sean hannity on his radio show. Take a listen. I think if i were the Attorney General i would point an independent counsel and id appoint the independent counsel for two purposes. Purpose number one to appropriately prosecute the
people who violated these laws. Comey clearly leaked a document that he wasnt supposed to leak. If you look at the scope and nature of this inquiry, the way it started, the corruption at the outset. It surely looks like an i illegitimate investigation. The president of the United States said a long time back its a witchhunt. I see two guys hungry to be in a courtroom i guess. Theyre waging this argument in the public square. Theyve been doing it week after week. The tenets of the argument havent changed. Theyre right where they want to be. This is not about a legal strategy. This is about a Public Relations strategy. The whole aim is to Dele Mitt LegitimaDelegitimize Mueller and the investigation so no matter what happens, what comes down, right, in the broader public, there is a sense of deep skepticism about the conclusions drawn. So if donald trump is found to have conspired or colluded, if
hes found to have obstructed, theyre setting the stage for those conclusions to be undermined. This is in the court of Public Opinion. Rudy giuliani im not a lawyer, danny, but any Legal Standard he has fallen on his face over and over and over gn it seems to me. I dont see that as a legal strategy. One question, danny. Do they get to charge trump by the hour when theyre on the radio for three hours talking about his case . Everything is billable. The question is whether or not he pays. But, yes, in 0. 6hour increments, sixminute increments. Im billing david right now. 0. 2 hours. When theyre not doing talk radio, these two guys are pen pals to Robert Mueller, going back and forth with him on the terms of this interview of President Trump, whether or not thats going to happen. It to put up on the wall behind to me here, we know from the New York Times these 44 questions that Robert Mueller is interested in asking president
trump if he were to get him to sit down. You see them there. The latest back and forth between the president s Legal Counsel to Robert Mueller is they dont want to answer any questions about obstruction. So there are those 44 questions. If you were to take away all of the questions that had to do with look at that with obstruction, youre left with fewer. I think 19 questions. What do you make of this back and forth . We talk about this being waged in the court of Public Opinion. This is extraordinary to have the sense that these counsel have as much agency in this as they think they do. Its a good graphic because its important for us to separate collusion, russian interference, and obstruction, because, again, im a biased defense attorney, the Chief Complaint with Obstruction Of Justice is it is created by the very investigation into the original thing. And even if theres ultimately no underlying crime, you can obstruct justice, and thats what Rudy Giuliani is truly afraid of, because who ultimately determines if youre being false or misleading to agents is the agents themselves. And if theyve already developed a view of the case, its a very difficult decision to decide to sit down your client with u. S. Attorneys because if they have a different view of the case than the investigators, then the investigators have already decided whos liable, whos done what, and they will think your client is lying. So its very important to keep the obstruction separate from the underlying investigation. I also think its important to remember th