Im Chris Jansing in for stephanie ruhle. Right now, more news with hallie jacks jackson. Love that one. Chris jansing, thank you, my friend. Hallie jackson in washington, where this morning, it is all about the power of the presidency. Just how much control does donald trump really have, or really thinks he has, over our democracy . His new interview sending a shiver through the Justice Department. The president saying he could run the Special Counsel investigation if he wanted to. Yes, the investigation into his campaigns interactions with moscow. We have new reporting on What Don Mcgahn told the Special Counsel and the journalist who was facetoface with the president about all of this is here with us live. Yes, the investigation, by the way, is still happening, while attacks keep coming. One of the biggest names in tech, the kremlins latest target. Well break down what this microsoft hack attempt means for the midterms. The target for democrats right now, Brett Kavanaugh. You have democratic senators, women, lining up this hour to fight his nomination to theSupreme Court, while he gets ready to meet, in about an hour, with the republican woman, a senator who will be critical to his confirmation. Everybody knows it. What a source close to the process is tell meing me now. This is turning out to be a busy tuesday morning. I want to start out with breaking news. Kristen welker is at the white house. I understand you just spoke with the president s attorney, Rudy Giuliani. He has been on kind of a media blitz this last 24 hours or so, trying to clean up those truth isnt truth comments to chuck todd on Meet The Press sunday. Hes also now, kristen, talking about this idea that the president may not end up sitting down with Robert Mueller, right . Reporter thats right, hallie. Hes essentially putting pressure on Robert Mueller to wrap this up. This is something that you and i have reported on extensively. Hes trying to essentially move this process along. Rudy giuliani again this morning saying, look, We Havent Heard from Robert Mueller in two
weeks. We havent gotten a response to the counterproposal that the president s legal team submitted. Remember, we talked about that several days ago, when they wanted to essentially limit the scope significantly of what types of questions could be asked and what types of followup questions could be on the table. Giuliani saying this terms of an interview, it does not look good, but it is not finally decided. He also adds, it is time to put up, and they have nothing except a bunch of irrelevant charges. He says the charges have absolutely nothing to do with President Trump. Thats the new talking point today, as President Trump, as you indicated, hallie, in the new interview overnight, saying that he could take charge of the Russia Investigation. I tried to press giuliani on what the president meant by that. He doesnt seem to know. Officials here at the white house dont seem to know. Id point you to some of his past statements, in which the president has indicated he believes he has therosenstein, oversees the investigation, and
he has privately mused about getting rid of muehl llemueller. This idea that Rudy Giuliani is putting a time frame on the Special Counsel investigation, thats what giuliani and the legal team is saying. We dont know what mueller is saying because mueller is not talking about it. Hes really the only one who knows for sure. Reporter mueller is the only one who knows for sure and, yet, all the information weve been getting has been from the president s legal team. Robert mueller, his investigators have been pretty tight lipped when it comes to this investigation. Rudy giuliani several days ago saying, this all needs to be wrapped up by labor day. That was his timeframe, not Robert Muellers. Mueller speaks for himself. So far, We Havent Heard from him. Hallie . Whats interesting, kristen, too, is the new interview weve been talking about with President Trump, conducted, in part, with jeff mason, who is currently sitting next to me. Well get to him in a second. The president echoed something Rudy Giuliani has been saying for weeks, which is the idea that tennessan interview with r
Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Difference between what the president technically has the authority to do. The Justice Department is part of the Executive Branch. The president is at the head. The doj works for the president. That includes mueller. Technically, the president would have the authority to fire him. That doesnt mean it is prudent. That doesnt mean it wouldnt dramatically undermine the way the complex institution of the Executive Branch is poup tosupp work. Thats why the comments are galling to people in the Justice Department, everyone in the space. Jeff, weve been in front of the president before, asking him questions, interacting with him. It is different when youre in the room. Mmhmm. What was his demeanor like . Did he seem defiant or fiery or resigned . What was the mood you got . He wasnt fiery or resigned. He was a little bit when we first walked in, he wasnt super excited or e some of the othe interviews, hes offering drinks, excited to show if he pushes his button on the desk, an aide will come in and offer a
hill today. Hes been accompanying Brett Kavanaugh to the meetings related to the Supreme Court nomination. Jeff and betsy, you both have been reporting on this mcgahn fallout, right . The idea he spent 30 plus hours with the Special Counsel. The president said, i gave him my permission. It is all good. Is it all good . I was told the same thing. If mcgahn had been aware that something criminal would have happened, it is unlikely he would have stayed in the position. Are things all good . I wouldnt go that far. We reported months ago that mcgahns relationship with the president had grown increasingly frayed. Over the last six to nine months, they had half a dozen conversations oneonone. These are not men with an amicable relationship. Things between them are not warm. On top of that, we also know that mcgahn, over the last many months, has been making noise about potentially leaving the white house. Talking about how he wants to go back to private practice. He brought in a white shoe
lawyer into the counsels office, generating speculation that he is grooming fled to take over his position as white house counsel. The fact that this is the person who talked to mueller for 30 hours. 30 hours. Given that context is not something that should be comforting for the president. You can watch this show for 30 minutes. I ho hours. I hope you do. But with the Special Counsel, it is probably different. Thank you. A top senator, democratic senator, is talking about the white house or excuse me microsoft hack, the hack attempt. Were talking about senator warrwa warn warner. Leader on the Intelligence Committee speaking to reporters in the last couple minutes. Well talk through what this hack is all about, what microsoft has done, and what this means for the midterms. All of it, by the way, as we are now four days and counting with the Paul Manafort jury still Behind Closed Doors. Is this a good sign or a bad sign for the defense . Well take you live to alexandria later in the show. Chair, new laptop,
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elections. Joining me now, the former director of the National Terror center and the National Security and intelligence analyst. Jeff and betsy are here, as well. The headline, russia is still at it. What i took away from the reporting overnight was two things. First, it tells us it is Concrete Reaffirmation of what we already knew. We knew this from the director of national intelligence, dan coats, and chris wray, who said the campaign, the effort to mess with our politipolitics, is not historical but present and continuing. It is probably focused on the 2018 elections as much as anything else. The second thing i took away from the information overnight was the fact that it came from microsoft. What it tells me is that microsoft, the private sector, is prepared to work with the government to deal with these issues. Thats something thats going to be essential to devising an Effective Response to what the russians are doing. In the terrorism realm i was involved with for so many years, we looked to the tech sector to
help us when isis, for example, was using social media to recruit and gain adherents and all of that. We need the private sector to be an aggressive, Actor Partner in dealing with russian influence, as well. One thing important to know is one of the groups targeted is the International Republican institute. Theyre not a normal think tank. What they do, they help emerging democracies develop democratic institutions. They send people to cambodia, mongolia, teaching people to develop free and Fair Elections. Iri was actually kicked out of russia. Putin expelled them because he didnt want them there working on trying to help russia become more democratic. For the russians to target iri isnt just them going after sort of an egghead think tank group, which is troubling, but it is them going after an organization that is funded by congress to help promote democratic norms Around The World. If you look at the similarities of the typical domain names users get to, you can see what theyre trying to do here. This group of hackers, fancy
bear, which is a name that should be familiar, because it is the group whose members were allegedly part of the russian interference in the 2016 election. Sure. The effort to create the fake websites gives the russians a couple of opportunities. One, they can collect information from individuals who unwittingly go to the websites and provide their information, their contact information, the details of who they are, and thats useful to the russians in targeting their further work. It also gives them the opportunity over time, if they wish, to change content on the faux sites. Itll be interesting to see how President Trump reacts to this. In this case, it was republican organizations that were targeted. Now, the president often now, some of them though with views against President Trump, right . Indeed. Even so, aligned with conservatives who are more inclined to be alined with wanting a republican majority in the house or republican majority in the senate. That impact on the election, potential impact on the election
in the fall. Let me explain how microsoft described this whole scheme here, in this report that developed, again, overnight, middle of the night, came out. We woke up to it this morning. Attackers want their attacks to look as realistic as possible and, therefore, create websites and urls that look like sites targeted victims would expect to receive email from or visit. Somewhat standard strategy. What are your concerns ability whe about where the group might go next . Two months out from the midterms. Three months. You have to assume that this information, which is in the public domain, is the tip of an iceberg. My guess is, my expectation is, that the Intelligence Community is bringing forward a much more complicated and scary and dangerous picture forward in the Intelligence Briefings theyre giving to senior officials at the white house. They know more than what microsoft is telling us. Microsoft has one slice of this, their slice, but there are other Tech Companies and vectors by which the russians could be seeking to intexercise this influen
influence. Our Intelligence Community probably has a better handle on this than what theyre willing to say publicly. This is part of broad activity on the part of the russians in the lead up to the midterms. Nick makes an important point. There is certainly a lot more going on than we know. On a separate but related note, jeff, i want to play new audio obtained by the Pennsylvania Democratic party. It is of gob candidate scott wagner. This is sort of raising eyebrows. Listen for a sec. By the way, the russians are going to help me with tom wolf. If i have to use Paul Manafort, i will. Obviously a joke there from wagner. Right. His campaign is out with a statement. Well put it on the screen here. Saying, scott was obviously joking. He thinks russias interference in the 2016 election was real, and he pledges to work with the federal government to secure Fair Elections in pennsylvania as governor. That is the Damage Control Statement. It is a Damage Control Statement because it is not a joking matter. It is very serious. It was very serious in 2016. It is clearly going to be very serious in 2018. Okay. Betty, final thoughts . Remember, hes not the only highprofile republican to joke about this. When Jeff Sessions gave a speech at the Mayflower Hotel a couple months ago, he opened up by saying, are there any russians in the audience . Anyone who has been to russia . Which was a question of whether it was a joke or not, the comment President Trump made. It is fair. There was a sense the russia story is a source of amusement. In light of this, nick, how important is it, do you believe you signed onto the letter we talked about, condemning President Trumps move to yank brennan Security Clearance. Given this, how important do you think it is to let people like brennan, James Clapper and others, have access to the clearance . To me, the important point of the Security Clearance issue has been the fact that this is just a proce