Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson 201808

MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson August 22, 2018 14:00:00

Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. Allegedly had affairs with, in order to conceal that information from the public in connection with the election. What i think a critical difference is, is the timing of this and how closely related it to the election and concealment of bad information. That differentiates it from the obama case. If i could just go back to the tweets for one second, hallie. Please. I prosecuted Organized Crime Cases in the Southern District of new york. I supervised that unit. The way that donald trump is talking, and i cant help but think about this, is the way mob bosses talk. When you are loyal, youre a standup guy, and you take the rap in the mob world, you get benefits. If you break and you cooperate, youre a rat, which is another term he used. It is a little jarring to see out in the open, the president of the United States using this language, and saying that someone who was just convicted of serious federal felonies is a good person, a good person, a good guy, standup guy, and that, to so many of us, is very distressing. One hopes that the country will begin to see that, too. As far as manafort and cohen, after tuesday, after yesterday, the risk that both of them, either or both of them, will decide that the time is right to cooperate with the government has to be at the front of the president s mind. Paul manafort now looks at a significant amount of time in prison. He faces an additional trial. It is a now or never moment for him, if he intends to cooperate with the government. Similarly for cohen, whose lawyer, lanny davis, is involved in this interesting public call to the Special Counsels office over their cooperation, seems to have information he would like to provide, as well. This will hit increasingly home to the president as we continue forward. Dan goldman and joyce vance, up early and up late for us, thank you. Another piece of the story moving forward. The piece going down on the hill. Our teams have just talked with multiple senators, including some supporters of donald trump. While some may be waking up today hoping, wishing, praying yesterday never happened, the response publicly has been kind of tepid so far. You have House Speaker paul ryan, who did say something, something short, in two sentences, saying he is aware of the guilty plea but needs more info. For mitch mcconnell, his senate counterpart, nothing so far. John cornyn said people who do bad things need to be held accountable. Adding that this has nothing to do with russia. Kasie hunt, i think, has sneakers on today, chasing people around the hall today. Whats going on this morning . Reporter hallie, it is clear this story does have something of a different tenor than some of the other conversations that weve had. Let me tell you, a lot of these members of congress are really sick of all of us running after them in the hallways, asking about the latest trump tweet. This is different, right . Reporter this is all together different, exactly. I spoke just briefly to Senator Toomey of pennsylvania, who said this is very serious. This is not, you know, something to be taken lightly. He wants to see the judicial process play out. Youve heard echoes of that from other republicans who have been willing to support President Trump in other areas. Take a listen to what senator orrin hatch said a few minutes ago. These are serious charges, and they cant be ignored. Is it high crimes and misdemeanors . I wouldnt go that far just yet. Do you think this opens up the president to being indicted while sitting in office . No, i dont, because i dont think he can be indicted while sitting in office. Well just have to see where this all works out. Reporter if anything, you heard a little bit of resignation in orrin hatchs voice there. This is a drama that, you know, republicans are tired of having play out. I will say, on the flip side, hallie, democrats are obviously talking about how serious this is. Theyre being very careful to avoid the i word, impeachment. I asked Elizabeth Warren about that earlier on morning joe. What i think we should be doing in congress is we should be passing laws to make sure that donald trump cannot fire the special prosecutor. Thats where the real threat is to trump. It is powerfully important that we protect the special prosecutor. Reporter that, of course, is a big question that republicans could answer. Mitch mcconnell could put such legislation on the floor. There are, of course, constitutional debates about exactly how it might work. They can send a signal. So far, they havent done that. Hallie . Kasie hunt there on the hill. Come back if you get more. Thank you. On set with me in the studio, bureau chief for vice news tonight, shanna thompson. National politico reporter, sahill kapur. Both friends of the show. Reaction to what you have heard over the last six minutes, all this new stuff. Reaction for the last 24 hours. I mean, thats another can of worms. Anotherish shoo y isise eint impeachment, there is a fear in the Democratic Party that if you push this too hard, youll rile up President Trumps base in such a way that could affect the midterm election. I think it is interesting, one of our correspondents was in West Virginia, as many of your people were, too, and talking to people. One, she talked to people there who hadnt heard anything about what was going on, as everything was falling apart yesterday for President Trump. Two, when she did explain what was going on, they were like, well, that makes us madder at washington, d. C. And more likely to show up and vote. There is an interesting sort of counter to be careful about how much you push impeachment when you cant do it as democrats in the house after representatives. Then you dont want to necessarily get more people, more republicans, coming out to vote, when democrats are super energized right now. To this point, and i want to get your take on this, because this is a newsworthy moment in time, of course. Right. This is hugely important. We have been covering it a lot. We know reporters had a conversation with folks familiar with the president S Travel Schedule for the next six weeks, as he goes ahead of the midterms. Hes heading to seven states, at least, right, some of the states, but we know of at least seven. We looked at the front pages of the biggest newspapers in the seven states. Five of them did not have cohen or manafort on the front page. Yeah. They all mentioned the president is coming to campaign. Theyre very heavy on, you know, which states are electing senators. The democrats packed the senate majority, running through the rural republicanleaning voter who supported trump, in states like north dakota or tennessee. May have a role to play if the voters dont bite on this. We live in a posttruth world here. The response from republicans in congress dont depend on the facts of the situation. It is how the voters respond. This is a rule of law president. This is happening these are both these things that just happened happened in a court of law. This was not in the political theater realm of things. This happened with law and order. It is different. It is no longer theoretical. There is actual evidence of a crime here that the president is implicated in. It feels like a pivot point going forward. The problem is weve heard that before. Didnt we hear that after the access Hollywood Tape and different in a moments, that this was the pivot point . It never was. I mean, thats exactly what i was thinking last night when i got home and had any glass of wine i tweeted about after a long day of work. I had the question of, how like does this matter . Legally, this matters. For paul manafort, this matters. For Michael Cohen. For the country, i think it matters. Politically, when were talking about an election, if trumps supporters believe that he is being unfairly targeted, that it is a witch hunt last night, fox news, a lot was about mollie tibbetts. Also an important story. Incredibly sad. It is also part of the narrative of undocumented immigrants doing bad things in the country. Right. Then maybe it doesnt matter to trumps supporters. Lets leave it here, with the idea that practically every rally i went to around the campaign, people chanted lock her up. Five people close to the president s campaign or to him himself have been convicted of breaking the law. Well have much more to come on all of this coming up. We take a look at the possibility of a president ial pardon. Well ask legal scholar Alan Dershowitz whether itll be a good idea for the president. Spoiler, alan, that question is coming your way. Omarosa manigaultnewman said everyone knew about the hush money paid. Who is everyone . Omarosa is here live. Tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Im ready. With tremfya®, you can get clearer. And stay clearer. In fact, most patients who saw 90 clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. Tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. Tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Before starting tremfya® tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. Ask your doctor about tremfya®. Tremfya®. Because you deserve to stay clearer. Janssen wants to help you explore cost support options. That was candidate donald trump in the final stages of the 2016 campaign. Now, under his administration, the presidency may actually be facing its most troubling most since watergate. You can see the nbc News Analysis there. Just like dean, under nixon, cohen is promising the goods on President Trump, that is, unless the president decides to pardon him, but that is something cohens attorney tells nbc news he would flat out reject. Not only is he not hoping for it, he would not accept a pardon. He considers a pardon from somebody who has acted so corruptly as the president to be something he would never accept. Listen, heres the thing, we have no idea if a pardon for Michael Cohen is or will be under consideration by President Trump. To be honest, it seems pretty unlikely, based on what we have heard from the president today. Based on what lanny davis is saying, how might the president s legal team be reacting . Joining me now is Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Professor and the author of the case against impeachment trump. Thank you for being back on the show. To be clear, you are not a member of the president s legal team. Youre somebody who has spoken freely about your opinions regarding the president s legal strategy. Well, not only am i not a member of his legal team, i was very active in opposing the lock her up, hillary, and opposing all the Nonsense Trump was espousing during the campaign about all of hillarys crimes. My interest is in not expanding the criminal law and weaponizing it against either democrats or republicans. I want to ask you about that. Before we get there, let me ask you this, because lanny davis just said Michael Cohen wouldnt accept a pardon. Individuals can do that. It is allowed. If you are a member of the president s legal team, or if you were advising the president , what is your reaction to that . First of all, lanny davis has to go back and check a Supreme Court decision written many years ago by holmes that says you dont have to accept a pardon. The president has the power to grant a pardon, and nobody has the right to reject the pardon. It is a hypothetical. Nobody is giving a pardon to cohen. Cohen is the enemy. Cohen is being attacked as being noncredible. It is manafort who might get a pardon. The president said he is a good guy and worked for other republicans. He felt sorry for him. That pardon would be much like the pardon given by president george bush i to weinberger and the five people facing charges. It would be a political sin, but probably not an impeachment offense. Can i ask about a couple things, alan . Things you said since this news broke that i think are worth getting you on. You said last night, quote, all cohen has to do is say the president directed me to do it. Thats the kind of embellishment people put on a story when they want to avoid dying in prison. Are you suggesting cohen lied under oath . We dont know. Seems like that is what you were suggesting. No, no. What judge ellis said is when you put pressure on somebody like cohen, there is an incentive to embellish the story and make it better. Hes now facing four years. If he comes up with strong evidence against the president , that will be reduced to two years or three or one year. There is the risk. Thats what judge ellis said. A risk of perjury. I have no idea whether cohen is telling the truth interesting t a catch22. The president is entitled to pay hush money to anyone he wants during a campaign. There are no restrictions on what a candidate can contribute to his own campaign. If, in fact, the president Directed Cohen to do it as his lawyer and was going to compensate him for it, the president committed no crime. If cohen that seems awfully convoluted though, alan. The law is convoluted. Prosecutors have said Michael Cohen broke the law. Michael cohen says, the president told me to do it. You said last night, as well let me you believe every president breaks the law during an election. Does that make it okay . No. I said your quote is every candidate violates Election Laws when they run for president. Let me tell you what i said. Candidates violate Election Laws. I told you. You can get back any campaign. Does it make it okay . It doesnt. Let me be very clear isnt that moving the goalpost. Go ahead. Youre not letting me make my point. All yours. The president doesnt break the law if, as a candidate, he contributes to his own campaign. If he gave 1 million to two women as hush money, there would be in crime. If he directed his lawyer to do it, and he would compensate the lawyer, hes committed no crime. The only crime is if a thirdparty, namely, cohen, on his own, contributed to a campaign, that would be a campaign contribution. It is a catch22 for the prosecution. If they claim that the president authorized him to do it or directed him to do it, it is not a crime for anybody. If cohen did it on his own, then it is a crime for cohen but not the president. This is going to be a very difficult case for the prosecution to make, precisely because the law on election are so convoluted. Lanny davis is making the opposite argument. We have to leave it there at the moment. Thank you for coming on. Come back so we can continue what is always a feisty conversation. Appreciate it. Sure. What did the president s aides know and when did they know it about everything thats going down . The Big Questions about the Campaign Season payments that we just talked about to those women and who was aware of them . Omarosa manigaultnewman said they were no secret. Well ask her about that when she joins me. Dear greatgreatgrandfather, you turned a Family Recipe into a Brewing Empire Before prohibition took it all away. I promised our family id find your lost recipe. By tracing our history on ancestry, i found the one person who still had it. Now, im brewing our legacy back to life. Im david thieme, and this is my ancestry story. Now with 100 million family trees, find your story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com. Now that we have your attention. Capri sun has four updated drinks. Now with only the good stuff. Do you know how to use those . Nope. Get those kids some capri sun today, lifechanging technology from abbott is helping hunt them down at their source. Because the faster we can identify new viruses, the faster we can get to stopping them. The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. We are back now with a look at this mornings headlines. The man who confessed to killing University Of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts is going to be in court today. Were talking about an undocumented immigrant, cristhian rivera, facing first degree murder charges, after Police Spotted his car on Security Cameras near where tibbetts was last seen jogging. He led police to tibbettsbody. He certainly wasnt known to the local Police Department there with the sheriffs department. So we, through our interviews and conducting a number of different Canvas Interviews throughout the community, we werent aware of him until we were able to locate the vehicle. It is not like he was on anybodys radar throughout the investigation. Police have still not released any information about a motive, but this is a story we are following closely. Well bring you updates throughout the day. Overnight, have you heard about this, facebook removed 652 pages and groups from russia and iran. They have one goal, to mislead users here in the u. S. And around the world. Mark zuckerberg, facebook ceo, is telling customers the company is committed to strengthening operations. New details on the allegations against me too activist asia argento, after a photo of asia and Jimimy Bennet was posted on tmz. It shows argento and bennet, who who you have been 17 at the time, laying in bed. The photo comes two days after the New York Times reported that argento arranged to pay bennet nearly 400,000 in hush m

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