Up next, alex witt has the latest. I do. And how fun to get you device on twice on the weekend. On sunday, i love that. But this time thank you for the gospel according to aretha. That was beautiful. Im alex witt here in new york. High noon here in the east. 9 00 a. M. Out west. And here is what is happening. John brennan speaking on camera for the First Time Since his security clearance was revoked. New reaction this hour to the implications of what the president did. He is drunk on power. He really is. And i think he is abusing the power he is of that office. To take away the clearance, it is just punishment. This is not the deep state. These are the team thinkers. And we should not be pulling these clearances for political purpose. And steve bannon on what to expect in november and the one word he says that, quote, will get all the gdeplorables out to vote. And the special counsel recommends six months in jail for a Trump Campaign adviser. The message Robert Mueller might be trying to send to those on the fence about cooperating. And right now reaction from john brennan in his first tv appearance since President Trump revoked his security clearance telling Rachel Maddow why he thinks the president is targeting him. I think this is the thing that lawyers and courts and others will be looking at in terms of whether or not mr. Trump is doing any of this in order to obstruct justice or to try to silence critic. Whatever. But the fact that he is using a security clearance of a former cia director as a pawn in his Public Relations strategy i think is so reflective of somebody who quite frankly, i dont want to use this term maybe, but he is drunk on power. He really is. And i think he is abusing the powers of that office. I think right now this country is in a crisis in terms of what mr. Trump has done and is liable to do. And so are the republicans on the hill who have given him a pass, will they wait for a disaster to happen before they actually find their backbones and spines to speak up against somebody who clearly, clearly is not carrying out his responsibilities with any sense of purpose and common sense from the standpoint of National Security. Meanwhile a growing number of former intelligence officials standing in solidarity with director brennan, in fact more than 6 on of th0 of them signinr yesterday. Also this morning, the president leveling new criticism against the former cia director. Kelly odonnell is following the president in new jersey. I expect it is all in the form of a tweet and maybe other ways. What is he saying . Reporter youre right, twitter is the megaphone for the president and he used it today against john brennan. Clearly having seen parts of the interview, watched it in its entirety or saw clips about it, which were certainly playing on fox news today and we know that the president has so frequently watched that especially fox and friends on weekend mornings where he was also tweeting about one of the hosts today. But when it comes to john brennan, the president very frustrated by the way in a brennan has in a systemic way criticized the president on policy issues on the way he has conducted position in office, and his temperament and capacity to be president. Very personal in that sense avey broad criticism from john brennan. So the president tweets has anyone looked at the mistakes that john brennan made while serving as cia director . He will go down as the worst in history and and he has become, and this is the heart of the most recent criticism, he has become nothing less in an a loud mouth partisan political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets to our country phenomen. So to suggest that because brennan is a critic he is somehow not able to contain what he no hes about National Security, sort of embedded in that tweet, but the broadest part of what the president is saying is really about the political criticism that john brennan has leveled for a considerable amount of time. He is an analyst here at msnbc and has been an outspoken critic. He served both democrats and republicans during his time at the cia and we see that as well in the list of former directors and the five dozen other officials of the cia who had worked there in the past who have come out and have raised concerns about the president s use of his authority over security clearances. So this is the kind of back and forth weve seen. If the president feels threatened or insulted by someone, he punches back. Today it was against brennan on twitter with the stinging criticism about him being a loud mouth political hack. Alex. Kelly, what about the new concerns that the special counsels name could be added to the list of those whose security clearances could be revoked . Reporter weve certainly heard the president be skrit cal of mueller in a more gentle way, saying that the investigation has conflicts, that mueller himself is conflicted because of miss friendship with james comey, also over time he has said that there are business conflicts, mueller was once a member of one of the president s golf clubs and there was a dispute over fees. We have not seen anything rise to the level where the president would revoke muellers security clearance. Just friday he said mueller needs to finish his report. And remember, the special counsel, the end product of the special counsel, is a report to congress with a summary of everything that he finds. Of course weve seen indictments along the way against figures who they believe they have enough evidence to charge. When it comes to the president , we expect that there would be some description at the end in a report of what the mueller investigation, his team, finds about what the president did or didnt know. And of course a big question, will the president submit to an interview. That looks very unlikely at this point. But no direct threat against mueller in terms of that security clearance. Kelly o. , thank you. Well look forward to seeing you again. Joining me now, beth fouhy and jo nick john nichols. Beth, your reaction to the latest back and forth. Wow. Well, one could never really imagine this in another presidency that the president of the United States would be going after a former cia director in a tweet as he did as you were discussing with kelly calling him a partisan hack who cant be trusted with our secrets. I mean were in un3res departme unprecedented territory here. But for the president this is very personal. He claims that he doesnt watch anything other than fox new, but he obviously watched Rachel Maddows interview with john brennan last night and that has to get him actual stimmed up again. He decided to take he revenge and what better way to do that than for a guy who is a spy master to take away that power, the thing that has given him the juice in his chosen profglgs pr. But john brennan is not taking it sitting down and he will continue with his challenge. And is there any National Security justification for the revocations of these skurcurrend former officials and their security clear answeances in. No. Sarah Huckabee Sanders read that statement about why he was threatening to do so and the rationale was how they were talking on television, the fact that the statements were quote unquote partisan. She never once said anything that they had done that was in any way jeopardizing National Security to justify it. So john, timingwise, the Washington Post has a report that white house officials acknowledge that the step against brennan had been prepared in late yjuly and when sanders first said the president was considering it, but the decision to take the step was to divert attention from all the nonstop coverage of a book released by omarosa manigaultnewman. Gauging by the president s reaction, is this what it is all about, just trying to divert attention from things that are really troubling him . Well, i dont think so. I would suggest that this administration often tries to divert attention and i wouldnt be surprised if that was a part of it, maybe the part of why it is timed to the specific day or days that a it oit occurred. But in a broader sense, i think the president and the people around him are concerned about john brennan and other former intelligence leaders, officials, because i think the president is quite conscious that an accountability moment is coming, that at some point in the none too distant future there will be a serious discussion about his actions and the actions of people around him. And frankly, i think he is looking forward and preemptively trying to discredit and disempower people who would be very serious chommentators shoud his own troubles become much more the center of focus rather than something with omarosa. So my sense is that we should be looking at this brennan move and also at some of the threats hes been making toward bruce ohr at the Justice Department as more preemptive acts rather than reactionary acts. And you think perhaps making john brennan like the face of his opposition, because he loves to have someone to punch up against. I think that is very true. And john brennan remember, john brennan who he is calling a partisan hack has reached republican and democratic president s. He was really central to a lot of modernizing of the cias intelligence gathering and integrati integration. This is a guy who knows everyone in washington and around the world. And so threatening john brennan or pulling John Brennans clearances is way of signaling that this president will go hard against people who criticize him. And hard enough, beth, to do what i was talking with kelly o. About, to potentially strip the security clearance of Robert Mueller . What are we hearing about that, is that plausible, could that happen . Well, he has made a lot of very negative comments about mueller throughout the last several months. I mean really the criticism mass gone from fairly mild to quite stepped up recently. I mean calling it the rigged witch hunt, talking about how compromised he is, talking about how this is a hoax and phony. But lets face it, he has complained a lot on twitter, but he doesnt actually we havent seen him take any steps to curtail this investigation, to fire mueller, to fire Rod Rosenstein who is muellers boss. He seems to sort of revel in these threats but hasnt actually taken action because he knows that this is stepping in to a territory that maybe even republicans on capitol hill who have been very rece they say enough is enough. They want the investigation to continue, they believe that it is legitimate and they realize that we would be getting into a National Crisis if trump were to take any of these steps. So i see this still as basically threats and nothing real. Okay. I want to play a bit more from brennans interview with rachel last night. He stands by something that he wrote in a tweet back describing the president S Performance in helsinki as treasonous. I didnt mean that he committed treason, but it was a term i used. You didnt mean that he committed treason though . I said it was nothing short of treason. So nothing short shoof treas means that it is treason. When you say i know what the russians did. And knowing what the russians did observing the president s behavior, you go to the word treason suggests that you think the president may be serving a foreign country rather than our own. Well, yeah. I think he has crossed the line repeatedly in terms of his failure to fulfill the responsibility of the office. And to look Vladimir Putin square in the eye and say this should never happen again. So john, brennan has gotten a fair amount of criticism for that word treasonous. Rachel gave him an opportunity to explain it. How did he do . Not so well. I think that was a bit of a dance there. I think that what brennan was trying to say, and it is nothing short of treasonous, was a term of art. It sounds as if he is trying to communicate that he wasnt saying this was treason, but it was kind of right up to it or getting into that zone. And i think that rachel did a really good job there pressing him on it and i dont think that weve got an especially clear answer. But the important thing is at the heart of that discussion, and that is this question of how President Trump is responding to foreign leaders, to challenges around the world. And his politicization of that response, his tendency to respond perhaps not in league with a foreign leader, but, rather, in an expression of his own political needs. Remember, when you are pulling the security clearance of a former cia director, when you are threatening Justice Department lawyers, when you are playing all these games that do have an effect on National Security, if you are doing that for political reasons, that is a very serious matter. John nicol, beth fouhy, thank you for discussing this very serious matter. The jury in Paul Manaforts trial wrapped up for a second day still without a verdict. Next well ask a defense attorney if this is a good sign for manafort. 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Hes only going to be here for like a week. Like a month, tops. Oh boy. Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. I think the whole manafort trial is very sad. When you look at what is going on there, i think it is a very sad day for our country. He worked for me for a very short period of time, but you know he what, he happens to be a very good person. And i think it is very sad what they have done to paul manafort. President trump there commenting on the trial of his former Campaign Manager paul manafort, this as the jury wraps up its second day of deliberations. They will head back monday morning on the 18 charges that manafort faces and his attorney sees another day of deliberations as being a good sign. Can the long deliberation work in your favor . I think it does. What was your reaction to the president today . We were happy to hear from the president and that he is supporting mr. Manafort. Joining me now, ashley merchant. So do you agree, do you think that longer deliberations are a good thing for the defense . Not necessarily in a trial like this. Years ago we used to think that the longer the jury was out the better for the defense, but now with the advent of media and with the advent of jurors coming out and talking to the media after the trial, juries are really taking their time trying to consider all the facts, making sure that everybody did they job be. They dont want people saying you only deliberated for an hour or a day. They with an everybody to know that they actually did their job and they went through all the evidence. And in a case like this, we have so much evidence. I mean weeks and weeks of evidence, lots of different pieces of this puzzle. And so they have a tough job, they have to go through all of those pieces of the evidence. They have to sit there and decide which witnesses they will believe. Which evidence they believe. What they think of the charges that were brought. And these are confusing charges. Anytime you have federal cases like this, the jury has a really tough job even just reading through these charges. So i dont necessarily think that it indicates that this is good for the defense. There is a lot for them to get through just in terms of the paperwo paperwork. So usa today reports that some of the things that could sway the jury include the credibility of rick gates, the defenses decision not to present its own case, and also Public Opinion of Robert Muellers case. How about other things, what do you think could sway this jury . I think that it will come down to whether or not they believe mr. Gates, but also whether the government has put forth enough evidence to sort of counter his testimony, to give enough credibility to his testimony. And i really think that the jury is not going to like manafort. And a lot of times we see jurors convict because they dont like the defendant. They are not going to like the fact that he was that there is evidence that he was defrauding the government to try to get these loans and that he lived this lavish lifestyle when the average american is working very hard to make their own mortgage. So i think that it will come down to the fact that the jury may not like manafort. What about the president . He comments on this trial and yes judge ellis has said that they may not read newspapers, dont go on the internet, but if you go to the airport this weekend, you see any manner of Television Screens with headlines blaring and red flashing lights as to breaking news an backers. You can walk anywhere in new york city and see a ticker underneath a giant july are bmbd read the news. Should sequestration have happened in this case . Donald trump is definitely trying to influence the jury by making these comments. It is inappropriate and wrong. He shouldnt have said that. Because like you said, anytime a juror picks up their Facebook Post or instragram, someone could Say Something and repost something, showing what donald trump said. And it is awful because it could influence the jury. So definitely inappropriate. It could be considered jury tampering. And he