Exploring issues that affect leaders in the U. S. And around the globe. Exploring issues that affect leaders in the U. S. And around the globe. Or distorted what happened in the election campaign. But what is Donald Trumps core point that he wants to say even more than no collusion, no collusion, no collusion . It didnt change a vote. So this is a problem. So if they had stepped up their game in 2016 and the Obama Administration was asleep at the switch, maybe they did change some votes. Trump is not stupid well, i wont say stupid or not. Trump wants to deny that russia could have had an influence in 2016 and theyre saying russia could well have had an influence. I understand that some of us are being too cynical about this briefing, but again without the president on it, how do you take it credibly. If makes a big difference. If it were the president , it would be Something Else. The white house continues to want to say and they say this repeatedly, this administration has been tougher on russia than any prior administration. Now, from a policy perspective, fine, make that argument. The problem is the dissidence
trump narrative. There was a disconcerting moment in there. Heres dan coats, three weeks removed from the trump putin meeting. He lives in washington, the president lives in washington. Hes the director of National Intelligence. The number one intelligence person in the country. Take a listen. In the runup to the helsinki summit, u. S. Officials, ambassadors to nato, ambassadors to russia said the president would raise the issue of the malign activity with president putin. He didnt discuss that at least at the Press Conference. Youre saying today that the president has directed you to make the issue of election meddling a priority. How do you explain the disconnect between what you are saying, his advisers, and what the president has said about this issue . Im not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened at helsinki. Lahnee, thats the director
of National Intelligence. That happens to be the truth, i guess. Kudos to director coats. He handed it off to bolton, but the director of National Intelligence doesnt feel like he can speak about what happened. This is another problem the president could solve. If the president wanted to, he could come out and say this is exactly what we talked about in helsinki. Maybe he doesnt want to, though. Whether he doesnt want to or yeah, but at least he could come out. Hes not even saying heres what happened. Part of the challenge is that were having this Press Conference, part of it is definitely smoke and mirrors, but if we actually had the wherewithal to protect ourselves against elections, congress would pass special acts to address it. I am struggling on this smoke and mirrors. On one hand it was definitely a pr stunt. On the other hand, im guessing the folks in charge of those agencies are panicked. Its sort of both things are true here. The coats statement is really amazing. If youve been in government,
theres a reason the director of National Intelligence needs to know what was discussed privately. Hes got to actually task people to find out certain things. Hes got to task certain people to go against russian Disinformation Campaigns and talk to foreign governments, so does the secretary of state. Its a real problem in terms of actually having a policy. Think about this. But that is policy. Both of you have been in government and so you know this. As weve learned, its possible our intelligence folks have already had an idea of what the president and putin discussed. The problem is our intel guys know. Dni may know. But because of russians that were surveilling, right, lahnee . Thats exactly the problem. Youre in a situation now where youre not armed fully with the information you need to combat the problem. We know russian disinformation. This is not a surprise. Oh, the russians are meddling in elections. They have been meddling in elections around the world for almost two decades. The fact that theyre trying to
disrupt our election in 2018, this should not be a surprise. Incidentally, if you want to stop them, whats the best way to stop them . The president of the United States says to putin, you do this, youre going to pay a serious price. A, b, c, d. That requires an intergovernmental process to determine what prices we could make them pay. The relevant agencies of the government that act on that. Do we have any sense that the president its nice that theyre doing this but if the president didnt say a word about this to putin in private or at the Press Conference standing next to putin, what does all this mean . The fact that coats said he didnt have a conversation with the president he didnt feel like he had clarity, we cant have those conversations back channelled and say were going to do a, b, c and d. What i took out of this is he doesnt have the power to say these are how were going to strike against russia if those conversations were even had. Paul nakasone, the new nsa director, this is the first time ive seen him in this since he replaced mike rogers. He said essentially he made it clear, were prepared to start going on offense. But it was almost like im waiting for the order. Thats what it sounded like to me. Well, this is the problem we have is that there actually is a unit at the state department, the Global Engagement center, thats responsible for countering disinformation and allowing us to sow discord in other countries if we wanted to. That agency, the funding was not utilized by secretary tillerson. Now the question is, is the administration going to push forward and do all these Different Things . Because they have the tools. They absolutely have the tools. Just go. Nobody is giving the order. And part of it is this definitely was a pr stunt for the american people. But part of it you start wondering, was this also a pr stunt for trump. This is the Briefing Memo from his security team. Or tonight he has his rally and he says, and by the way, i didnt need the russians to help me win. You know thats coming tonight because they said they ramped it up in 2016. What do you think, bill . Well see. The degree to which hes already undercut this message by his behavior in helsinki, both private and public i would say, is really a problem. And again, if there had been i mean thats why he had to personally come out actually to compensate, to fix begin to fix the problem of helsinki . What was he doing . My point is he could have been out there today. Did this follow from an actual meeting with the president where they spent two hours going over and talking about options . He chaired a meeting last week. Which was 25 minutes long or something, in the middle of which he sent a tweet, if im not mistaken. So john bolton got them on the phone and theyre professionals, theyre trying to do their best. But they do not have serious president ial leadership on this. Well, after this, he was able you do wonder if hes getting the best advice because he did tweet out something about
steve stivers primary campaign. Last i checked, hes already won his primary. Up ahead, President Trump says he wants to be interviewed by robert mueller. So whats the holdup . This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you new laptop with 24 7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I think he might need some support. Yes start them off right. With the School Supplies they need at low prices all summer long. Save 200 on this dell laptop at office depot officemax. Save 200 on this dell laptop sfx [cell phone dialing] no. No, no, no, no, no. Cancel. Cancel. Please. Aaagh being in the know is a good thing. Thats why discover will alert you if your Social Security number is found on any one of thousands of risky sites. Are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi. . A more powerful way to stay connected. It gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most Wifi Coverage for your home,
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sets of attorneys actually now. Giuliani has told nbc news that theyre making progress in the negotiations. We seem to hear that about once a month. Are the president and his legal team just trying to avoid being subpoenaed and having that public fight . And what are they so afraid of when it comes to this sitdown . Joining me now is somebody who knows about questioning a president under investigation, sol wisenberg. Welcome back. Thanks. In january is when the times first reported and john dowd, ty cobb were the lead counsel for the president , they were trying to negotiate some form of an interview and parameters of it. We are now in august and its always like ill gladly pay a you quarter tomorrow if we continue these negotiations today. Why . Well, i think a lot of people dont realize that if bob mueller goes into court to try to force the president to
issues a subpoena, the president s Team Challenges it and mueller goes into court to enforce it, it is not at all a gimme that he wins. This is not exactly a situation like it was in watergate with u. S. Versus nixon, because there you had both cox and jaworski, there were two separate tapes cases. They had very narrow subpoenas. They knew exactly what tapes they wanted and they already knew the tapes existed and there were incriminatory conversations on them. Mueller is not in nearly as strong a legal position. So its a Game Of Chicken here . It seems as if the trump folks dont want the bad pr of looking like theyre fighting a subpoena. Mueller is like if i go down that road and dont win, then what. So is that why these are sort of why it feels like this is dragging, because nobody is afraid to say no . I think its partly a Game Of Chicken, but also the danger forPresident Trumps team is that the longer it takes, since its going to be difficult for mueller anyway i think to win, the longer it takes, mueller presumably is Gathering Evidence all the time and he might be in a much stronger position to go in at a later time. Is there parameters look, you dealt with a president that was trying to set parameters and its actions in Office Versus actions out of office. Ive always thought if trumps team tries to say, hey, you cant not while hes president , so that was the argument for not asking about the obstruction part. You say thats his actions as president. But would mueller be on Higher Ground if he said im trying to interview about your actions before you were president. Does that make his case of subpoenaing him easier . It makes his case easier of prevailing against the claim of Executive Privilege. Because youre at the height of president ial powers when youre dealing with president ial communications. Theres a 1997 case from the d. C. Circuit, thats the controlling law, that says if you want to get president ial communications and overcome Executive Privilege claim, its got to be very important evidence to you and you basically you have to be able to say we cant get this anywhere else. Does an interview with the president fall under does it fall under that . Its a president ial communication in essence that youre trying to get your hands on . Well, no. The question is from mueller from my understanding of the questions, hes talking about what were you thinking right. When you sent this demand to jeff sessions. What were you thinking right. When you said this to jim comey. Thats president ial communications. Even though its not written down anywhere, its a thought in your head. Well, its a thought, so it goes to the heart of president ial decisionmaking and its also communications. So if mueller says then, fine, im not going to question you on obstruction for now, but i need to know this answer about the Trump Tower Meeting and this
answer about what Jared Kushner did or this answer here in the run runup, at that point does this then does it make it that much harder for the president s team to fight this subpoena . It makes it harder, but in these situations, in these Executive Privilege claims and counterclaims, there are no Blanket Assertions. The president cant make a Blanket Assertion, and Mueller Cant Say cant make a Blanket Assertion and say we demand we need all of this just because were running a criminal investigation. So he needs to say in each instance, this is why i need to find out about the Trump Tower Meeting. And hes in a much stronger position there, you know, before the election. On the obstruction part, does he really need the president . I mean hes putting together a it looks like theyre widening it out with the tweets, connecting actions, they have testimony of potentially Reince Priebus and don mcgahn of saying when they briefed him, for instance, on when did the president find out Michael Flynn was under investigation, things
like that. They have all of these other evidence. Does he actually need the president or is it just a nice addition . I think he needs the president because i think he doesnt have a very strong obstruction case. In my view, the idea that the firing of comey is an obstruction of justice, even if he fired him to protect himself, is not a correct explanation, analysis of the current law. So i think he has unless hes got Something Else, unless hes got Hush Money Dangling Pardons in exchange for not telling the truth. Something more than just sentiment. Yes. And really that all goes back to its not directly on point but the Arthur Andersen case which the mueller team should know about because Andrew Weissman was the prosecutor. The Supreme Court 90 rejected Andrew Weissmans broad view of what corrupt conduct is in the context of an obstruction statute. Thats a 90 opinion. Let me ask you this. How would you go about getting this interview . Youre seeing try to put yourself inside help us, how is mueller going about this. Would you be doing this the same way theyre doing it or would you have a different strategy to get the president to sit down with you . If he really wants them to sit down, i think hes doing the right thing because hes waiting and hes Gathering Evidence. The longer he waits, he actually gets more evidence. And also hes in a position to say ive been very patient with this president. Then he issues the subpoena. Even if trump ultimately wins in court or delays things in court, no president likes to be saying im defying a subpoena. It doesnt look good. Thats why when we subpoenaed finally president clinton, he immediately said, okay, ill come talk, but i need you to withdraw that subpoena. So it wont look good. But ultimately, is your guess that if do you think this happens . Do you think the president ultimately agrees to it . Do you think mueller ultimately has to threaten to issue the subpoena . I dont think hell ever talk to bob mueller. If i were his attorney, i would urge him not to talk to bob mueller, particularly about obstruction, because its a lot easier to prove that you lied to a Law Enforcement officer than to prove obstruction of justice. Sol wisenberg giving us a lot of wisdom today. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks for coming on. Up ahead, are republicans hitting the panic button . Why one closely watched Congressional District could spell bigger trouble than they thought for the gop in november. The fact is, there are over ninetysix hundred roads named park in the u. S. Its americas most popular street name. But Allstate Agents know thats where the similarity stops. If youre on park street in reno, nevada, the high winds of the Washoe Zephyr could damage your siding. And thats very different than living on park ave in sheboygan, wisconsin, where ice dams could cause water damage. But no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local Allstate Agents knows yours. Now that you know the truth, are you in good hands . These are the specialists were proud to call our own. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com woman it felt great not having hepatitis c. Its like a load off my shoulders. I was just excited for it to be over. Harvoni is a revolutionary treatm