Wouldnt or why it wouldnt be russians. Sort of a double negative. So you can put that in. And i think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself. My people came to me, dan coats came to me, and some others, they said they think its russia. I have president putin. He just said its not russia. I will say this, i dont see any reason why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. Ive said this many times. I accept our Intelligence Communitys conclusion that russias meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. Theres a lot of people out there. Whats the big fuss . He didnt understand what the big fuss was about. I meant to say wouldnt, not with. Hes not a guy, as you know who likes to correct himself or likes to admit he made a mistake. I thought this was a big enough one he simply had to stop and set the record straight. Im glad he clarified it. I cant read his intentions or what he meant to say. I think he realized he made a mistake. Well he said he misspoke. And um, i know thats something that human beings do occasionally. Im glad he clarified his comments today. I dont think the International Community is going to buy it. I think the dang was done at the time. I wish he would have come out and said president putin and i had a very frank conversation. I give these comments about 24 hours before he once again slams the investigation and sides with authoritarians. The president is fighting back against critics tweeting some people hate the fact i get along with Vladimir Putin. They would rather go to war than see this. Thats not at all the issue that has democrats and republicans releasi releasing scathing statements. Its the fact it took nearly 36 hours and multiple miss the opportunities to finally clarify the remarks. Having heard it i dont know if its much of a clarification. He gave two interviews immediately following in which he didnt change his statements. He didnt say he misspoke and followed on the idea the russia investigation is a witch hunt. The press core shouted questions to the president as he boarded air force one in helsinki. Not this time. So strangely, tuesday morning, the white house sat silent as criticism mounted until the president sfifinally spoke to t press on tuesday afternoon but not without qualifying his remarks. I have great confidence in my intelligence people. But, i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. I accept our Intelligence Communitys conclusion that russias meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. Theres a lot of people out there. He was consistent on one point. Not criticizing Vladimir Putin and russias attack on the 2016 election. Would you now, with the whole world watching, tell president putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 . And would you warn him to never do it again . Let me just say we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the fbi never took the server, why havent they taken the server. Mr. President will you publicly condemn Vladimir Putin . Mr. President . Will you publicly contem Vladimir Putin . All right. Joining me now is nbcs hans nichols. Live at the without and gabe sherman. Again, i want to be careful here, hans. We were talking yesterday when it happened. I truly dont believe the president clarified anything. He further muddled it. Because if you were listening to the whole press conference, its no the believable that if the president meant to say wound instead of would, as katie said to you and me yesterday afternoon that would assume the rest of us were listening to the press conference with ear plugs in. Theres nothingdp what he s about russia not being responsibility was consistent with Everything Else. He reviewed that press Conference Transcript once and watched the tape. So by implication, the president has endorsed Everything Else he said in that press conference. Lets take a look at some of the sames th statements that came out. Do they believe President Trump has clarified the position. When you say i hold both countries responsible, i think that the United States has been foolish. Theres one on the mueller probe. Its a disaster for our country, i think its kept us apart and separated. Then theres the one about the servers. You played that. Groups that are wondering why the fbi never took the server. Why havent they taken the server. And then on hillarys emails, what happened to them, 33,000 emails gone, just gone. I think in russia, they wouldnt be gone so easily. I think its a disgrace we cant get her 33,000 emails. I could go on, but the idea that the only way that the president could cure that press conference of what he said was by changing a would to a wouldnt doesnt actually make a whole lot of sense if you review the entire transcript and the way the president said, no the only review the transcript, he watched the clip. That is the only issue he found out for. It seems like something that could be a congressional story as lawmakers are asked where are not they think President Trumps other statements in there actually make sense in the context of what theyre claiming is a little bit of clarification. Lets talk about what happened prior to the president doing whatever he did yesterday afternoon at about 3 00 p. M. There was an unscheduled principals meeting. We also know that secretary of state mike pompeo got involved, as did the vice president. We know the subject. We know the subject was helsinki, it was russia. We dont know if the president was there, and we have strong suspicion he wasnt because he wasnt in the west wing yet. That meeting happened likely in the morning. Now i got to tell you. I just walked past the west wing. Always that telltale sign if the marine guard is outside that means the president is in. At 11 00 the president was still apparently in the residence. Gabe is here. Youve been reporting on one of those principals. John kelly. Apparently, he took this matter very seriously and got involved. Yes. I mean as we know, kelly traveled with the president to helsinki and from the home the president stepped off that stage, kelly was in fact he told the president as my reporting said this will make it worse for him were the Robert Mueller probe by feeding this notion that youre somehow in the pocket of russia. Furthermore, i reported that kelly took it upon himself to make private phone calls to republicans up on capitol hill to tell them feel free to speak out and rebuke the president , so let him know these comments are out of line. As we saw, both House Speaker paul ryan, senator Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell did give public statements these comments were out of line. They didnt go after trump personally but did break with him on the russia issue, saying yes, its an undisputed fact that russia meddled. As we saw the pressure surrounding the president causing him to do something he has almost never done is walk back the comments. Even then he mangled it as he was walking it back. Made another reference to it could have been other people. In the past hes talked about the 400 pound hacker. The fact is i dont know whose brainchild this was, but they gave conservatives and republicans on congress the smallest bit of cover under which to stand in a rain storm, and say oh, he clarified it. Im glad he did that. Its misrepresentative for us to suggest that that was a correction. It was just stuff. The issue is the president didnt want to walk it back. As we know, people have talked to president it el moo he he will not give an notch inch on issue because to acknowledge is to acknowledge he somehow got help in withininning the electi. His advisers this was the smallest concession. There are reports that Russian Military said an agreement was reached in the sphere of International Security between President Trump and pupten. What do we know about this . There seems to be an issue on translation whether there was an agreement or an understanding. Now, as someone whos made a lot of translation mistakes in his life, im not. Ing ing going to criticize that. There was a report from mattis open to any sort of agreement with the russians te closer cooperations. It bears noting there is cooperation on a daily basis in syria. Its basically to make sure planes dont fly into each other. At the military to military this is usually at the colonel level. There is cooperation. You do hear general dunford on occasion meets with his counterpart. There are contacts back and forth, but the idea this is an agreement and this is something thats almost going to be all by ready to go announced seems a little premature. Thanks for your reporting. New questions over President Trumps Supreme Court nominee and his views on the president s constitutionality authority. Newly unearthed video shows Brett Kavanaugh saying quote he would put the final nail in a ruling upholding the counsel. Your hair is so soft did you use head and shoulders two in one . I did mom. Wanna try it . Yes. It intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. Manolo . Look at my soft hair. I should be in the shot now too. Try head and shoulders two in one. Lets get the party started. Its going to be a beautiful night. This whole place is awesome. Having the time of your life woo to the woman of every hour. Youre too kind. They mean sophie. I know that. Dig in the Dancing Queen rated pg13. Month nation nay g a significant moment in the past could be kucoming back to haunt the nominee for the Supreme Court. Two years ago the judge was asked if he could think of a Supreme Court case that deserved to be overturned. He hesitated to comment and then gave this answer. I was going to say one. Morrison v olson. Thats the independent counsel statute case. Its been effectively overruled but i would put the final nail in. Here, here. Okay. Now, let me tell you a little about this. On morrison vs. Olson, the Supreme Court decided back in 1988 that the independent counsel act was constitutional. There are lots of interesting points to debate but they did decide it was constitutional. This is important because right now President Trump and his campaign are being invited investigated by a special counsel, Robert Mueller, and kavanaugh has already said he doesnt think a sitting president should be indicted. Now, there are distinctions between an independent counsel and special counsel but there are important similarities, joining me is an attorney an former u. S. Congresswoman. She was one of the authors of the ethics in government act, which governed this whole idea. While that has evolved and changed, this particular case, this law expired in 1998 or 1999. But, the special counsel is based on a similar concept, that someone other than the president can appoint a prosecutor. Right. Well the basic idea is government in ethics act. Grew out of watergate, the idea was a president cant investigate himself. Right. And president cantk in charge of investigations of people close to him. So its really an ethics issue. If the public is to have confidence in the department of the justice and in an investigation, the person being investigated cant pick the prosecutor. Some pl. In 1988, the argument scalia made was the power to prosecute is executive authority housed in the office of the president of the United States. So no one else can take that authority away. By the way, he was the only dissenter, remember that. There were plenty of republicans on the court. His opinion, in my view, is just nonsense, because there are many reasons. First of all, we have Court Appointed prosecutors all the time. For example, u. S. Attorneys, when their office is vacant, and its not being filled, the interim u. S. Attorney is appointed by the courts. Right. Nobodys challenging that. Thats going on constantly. Definition of prosecutor not appointed by the president can do its job. Theyre not confirmed by the senate. So here you have two problems. Not appointed by the president. Appointed by the courts, no the confirmed by the senate. And yet every time a u. S. Attorney is out of office and theres no one immediately to replace him, the interim u. S. Attorney is picked by the court. This hasnt caused in he consternation. The problem is the people im troubled to see kavanaughs one of them wants to say that the president has total power. This is like, you know, a dictatorship view that only the prosecutions only can be housed in the white house, and in the presidency and thats just wrong. So the interesting part here is we had heard, Brett Kavanaugh had said he didnt believe a president could be indicted. This is one step further what were hearing today at what he said at the American Enterprise institute. Hes saying the president or those around him shouldnt be able to be investigated by somebody not appointed by the president. Investigate. And not confirmed by the senate. Correct. So what were seeing is a president were seeing kind of a des nation of the idea that the president can pick his own investigator. We associate that with kings and dictators. The idea nobody can investigate a president. Nobody independent of the president. The president cant be indicted in office. I think thats a separate discussion. Correct. Than the fact that they cant even be investigated. Independently, of course. Thats very scary. What do we have then if we dont have an independent person reviewing president ial misconduct. We then were into dictatorship land. Thats not what the framers intended. Do you think this will have any impact on anyone right now . Because the people who get to vote on kavanaugh probably have made their minds up. Well, whether they made them up, this seems to be kind of an esoteric point but it goes essentially to the integrity of our government and whether we have a system of checks and balances. Whether the constitutional limits on president ial power exist or not. And this sounds like kavanaugh is for the president s expansion of power. And thats dangerous. Lets listen to what Chuck Schumer said about this. Judge kavanaugh, particularly after this interview, needs to recuse himself from anything having to do with the mueller probe. So thats one answer. That if he is condition confirmed he cant be involve in this. Yes, but he can be involved in dealing with a challenge to mueller. Or if he recuses himself from everything, i guess he wouldnt. But do we know whether hes going to . Is. In watergate that did happen. We had one recusal. Renquist. But he worked in the administration. Correct. But dick cheney had gone gun hunting with scalia and was a friend of his and scalia didnt recuse himself. We cant, at this point, force Supreme Court justices to reduce themselves. It depends on their own sense of integrity. Assuming this goes to the senate before the midterms, senator jeff flake of arizona is going to get a vote. He was asked how he would consider this. Washington post looked at this. Talked about the tenuous and gave it to pinocchio, the assertion what he has written about this would somehow impede his ability to consider this if something got to the Supreme Court. So that doesnt you dont think his feelings on that are problematic . I dont. That will certainly be explored in hearings we have. But nothing on its face. Sort of a non answer. Right. It will be explored in the hearings. As you said, it may not have the impact on those shows where his philosophy is coming from. It shows a real lack of standing up for the government in ethics act and concern about integrity of government operations. We had the perfect person to talk about this. Thank you so much. President trumps trade war hitting American Farmers hard, but will it affect their view of trump. Were live on capitol hill with an iowa farmer and a trump voter lobbying. President trumps blustering got him in trouble. Heres candidate trum talking about his own words. I used to use the word incompetent. Now i just call them stupid. I went to an iv league school. Highly educated. I know words. I had the best words. I have but theres no better word than stupid. Right . There is none. There is none. vo i was born during the winter of 77. I first met james in 5th grade. We got married after college. And had twin boys. But then one night, a truck didnt stop. But thanks to our forester, neither did our story. And thats why well always drive a subaru. The nations largest seniorliving referral service. For the past five years, ive spoken with hundreds of families and visited seniorcare communities around the country. And ive got to tell you, todays seniorliving communities are better than ever. 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