Which george h. W. Bush was. And by not going partisan, george w. Bush helped remind us just how starved we are for decency in American Public life. And im going to leave you with that picture, get ready to put to rest one of our points of light, one of my points of light, the 41st president. Thanks to nancy, brett, nick, elise. Thats it for this hour. Im any coko nicolle wallace. Mtp daily is next with chuck todd. Good evening, im chuck todd here in new york. And welcome to mtp daily. Moments ago, president george h. W. Bushs remains arrived by train in college station. Next is a Burial Ceremony at the george bush president ial library. We will be keeping an eye on these proceedings as the 41st president is officially laid to
rest in a few minutes. Well take you back there, but were going to begin tonight with yet another piece of reporting that raises questions if the trump administrations Foreign Policy is for sale. It raises other questions about whether bob mueller might be investigating something much bigger than just russian interference, but a massive pay to play scheme involving the president. According to the Washington Post, saudifunded lobbyists paid for 500 rooms at the president s Hotel In Washington after the 2016 election. They racked up a bill of more than 270,000. Now, fast forward to the president S Redecent Decision T side with the saudis of the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. It would appear to be an example where the saudis could appear to have paid and the u. S. Played. Making matters worse is how blatantly the president is seemingly trying to cover up his personal business ties to the saudis, which appear to extend well beyond a few hundred rooms
at his d. C. Hotel. We are with saudi arabia, were staying with saudi arabia. And by the way, just so everybody i have no business whatsoever with saudi arabia. I like is saudis, theyre very nice. They buy all sorts of my stuff. All kinds of toys from trump. They pay me millions and hundreds of millions. Just so you understand, i dont make deals with saudi arabia, i dont have money from saudi arabia, i have nothing to do with saudi arabia. I love saudi arabia, the people are very nice to me. They buy my apartments, you wouldnt believe it. Its true. Theyll pay me anything. They have nothing but money. Well let you decide which trump to believe, but heres where the saudi connection might be of interest to bob muellers investigation. And this certainly adds to the appearance that multiple foreign governments tried to buy access to the president s Foreign Policy, and there is the appearance that some were successful. Just last week, we learned that mr. Trump was being briefed during the election on a possible deal with the russians to wild a trump tower in moscow,
which included the consideration of a 50 million penthouse for putin, which was going to be used as marketing. And just jeyesterday, mueller disclosed information that his National Security adviser was working as an agent for turkey. Im joined now by tonights super panel. Kimberly, let me start with you. Here, this saudi story, on one hand, its it feels separate from what muellers doing and on the other hand, the larger picture here is, who has leverage with this president , suddenly seems as if that might be the greater question needing to be asked. I think thats exactly right. I mean, you have this case, which seems to be a textbook
example of what the Emoluments Clause is about. There should not be foreign officials, foreign nationals, buying influence when it comes to the president of the United States. And here we have an example of where foreign nationals spent large amounts of money at a trump property, ostensibly to curry favor with the president of the United States. The trump administration. This is something that is not exactly new, we have seen since the election foreign nationals, diplomats saying, going to trump tower saying, yes, this is a great way to try to curry favor, to try to gain access to the president. The same thing with maralago. But with respect to the mueller investigation, from what the unredacted part of the flynn of the Flynn Sentencing Report we saw, there are other investigations going on, aside from just the straight russian interference investigation that
we dont know about yet. We dont know if this is something that mueller is already looking into. Well, susan, i want to play for you, the irony in all of this is, of course, candidate donald trump was excoriating the clintons on a pay to play scheme quite a bit. Take a listen. Its called pay for play. Pay for play. Pay for play. Pay for play. Pay for play. Really, really bad, and illegal. 100 illegal. Pay for play. If you are outraged by the clinton foundation, and plenty of people i think legitimately were, because it was a question of, what are you doing here, youre at least hanging out a sign for foreign governments to try to influence then Secretary Of State clinton. What is the difference . There isnt. Because both are based on perception. If the president was serious about wanting to at least put this issue aside, he would have
gone into a blind trust. Of course, he should have shown his tax returns and everything else. But why didnt he go into a blind trust . Because he still wanted to have control over his business. Which means his business is a way to get to him. And thats whats so concerning about what we saw with the candidate, giving, you know, offering a 50 million apartment to putin or when it comes down to the saudis. Lets not forget, everyone knows this president s transactional. He said he brags about it. He said the reason not to go after saudi arabia with khashoggi, the journalist who was murdered, was because they buy our military goods. I guess thats always what trump referred to as toys earlier, i dont know. But its thats the Big Fu Fundamental Problem with trump, is that he becomes not just transparent, but translucent. You can see just right through him and where to go. Let me play for you the s. O. T. That basically, the soundbyte from the president that essentially is
rationalizing the saudi arabia decision and listen to how he rationalizes it. Take a listen. Theyre Buying Hundreds of billions of Dollars Worth of things from this country. It means hundreds of thousands of jobs. Im not going to destroy the World Economy and im not going to destroy the economy for our country by Boeing Foolish with saudi arabia. If you want to see oil prices go up to 150 a barrel, all you have to do is break up our relationship with saudi arabia. Well, Lindsey Graham had something to say about that today. Take a listen to that. We tolerate bad behavior, thats part of politics at times, but this is an ally. If you get in the orbit of the United States, if you want to buy our weapons and integrate your economy into ours, theres a certain price to be paid, dont chop somebody up in a
consulate. Thats not too much to ask. Eugene . No, its not too much to ask. And you heard the rationalization. The saudi relationship is all about the money, according to President Trump. And really, its even more about his money. And in a sense, if you step back, i mean, this was always going to come down to money with donald trump. With everything we know about him. I you know, one assumes, and actually we know, or we think we know, that, if not mueller than the Southern District of new york and new York State AttorneyGenerals Office and maybe the Manhattan District Attorney are all looking at various aspects of trumps money. Theres and the Trump Organization, trump foundation, theres a lawsuit going on about the Emoluments Clause, about involving the states surrounding states here, and its you know, so, this is all sort of closing in, i think,
or closing in on some truth about trump and his Business Interests that potentially could be explosive. Noah, wheres the you think there should be more outrage about this on the right . I dont know, frankly. Im not entirely sure that another presidency would act any differently with regard to the Saudi Arabian would another presidency have put their businesses in a blind trust . Almost certainly. But establishing that theres some sort of quid pro quo here, unless theres a paper trail, would be very difficult do his words create the paper trail, though, in some ways, the president s transactional bragging about, hey, they buy our oil, they buy our gas. Yeah, thats why its strange, because our genuine interest with the saudi government is in geopolitics and security. And thats what the president should be saying, is that we use them as a means s to contain iranian influence. And that is where our relationship is. Saudi arms purchases from theUnited States wouldnt shave a point off gdp. Their oil exports, while important, are nowhere near as important as they were a decade ago. The president uses these explanations, rationalizations, but our Trust Interest is in geopolitics and no administration would jettison that relationship. Why does he jeopardize it, by not showing the public what his interests really are with saudi arabia . When they start when they gave the donations of the income they received in the hotels, they made a donation recent it will for x amount of dollars and said, take our word for it, this is what we believe we have to donate. Any other administration would give all of the information out there because they had nothing to hide. And by not doing it, at least makes you think they must have something to hide. Thats the thing. Its the perception, that was always the concern of the clinton foundation. Were going to actually, i believe, sneak in a quick break here and then were going to come back oh, no, sorry. We are moving towards it, sorry,
we are the president , theyre about to take him to his Resting Place, his final Resting Place at college station, at texas a m. Im switching conversations here a little bit. This is obviously, we want to follow this. Im just curious, noah, what should Young Conservatives take away from george h. W. Bush . They should perhaps take away that there was a particular code of conduct that was valued by a generation past that is no longer valued. That is looked upon as naive, as perhaps a little dated, as not sufficiently cynical, enough to navigate the world around you. That is something that, i think, is particularly lamentable. In part because, and weve talked so much about it, john meachum delivered a Spectacular Eulogy in discussing the codele of conduct how george h. W. Bush navigated life, and it is one
thats lost. His presidency, his legacy of a president is debatable. His character is not. And character counts. And if we take away anything from the trump era, it should be that. Eugene robinson, it struck you, you were on the news side of the post for quite a bit of the bush presidency. Yeah. One of the things that struck me the most yesterday was how we were talking about how shocking it was that he worked across the i aisle, or how extraordinary it was he had a relationship with sonny montgomery, a longtime democrat from the south, and you say, you know why back then, that wasnt extraordinary, that was just washington. Yeah, it was nothing extraordinary about it at all. You know, at that point, people certainly had fresh in their memory the friendship between Ronald Reagan and tip oneill. And the way washington had worked, really, for our entire lifetimes until recently. It just Wasnt The Case that washington was so tribal that
there were not relationships across the aisle. It wasnt until fairly recently that all republicans were very conservative and all democrats were liberal. It was there were liberals and moderates and conservatives in both parties when i was growing up, and, really, to the through the reagan years. It things changed. But so, you know, this is a chance to sort of remember those earlier times. I dont know that, i mean, we dont immediately recapture them, we dont go back immediately to the way things used to be, but i think its very useful to know, as noah said, that theres a different model for all of this. Theres a different model for personal conduct. Theres a different model for political conduct. That, you know, many people remember and think was a much
better model than what we have now. I was struck by something today, someone wrote a brilliant line, i apology, that the real end of an era was that the president should be all consuming. And we have made the presidency all consuming and smaller at the same time, when george h. W. Bush was president , it was not all consuming and yet larger. It was so much bigger than him, and i just think, one of the things i take away from his presidency, but thats where i entered into politics. I assume this was your first professional person. Exactly. It was that he believed that your political principles can guide your policies, but they must not dictate how you govern. You always have to put interest of country first. And that was thats what stayed with you, and now looking at where the country is, i dont think anyones willing to sacrifice their political beliefs to put their country first. Kimberly, have we part of
this is, have we helped make the presidency too all consuming . I think so. I think its good this week to have this reminder that the presidency and american politics in general has not always been this scorched earth, all or nothing, brutal battle. People have always had political differences, of course. And president h. W. Bush was not perfect. But it does he did govern in a way and at a time where there was a sense of personal responsibility, a sense of patriotism that didnt equal tearing down the other side. And i think having that reminder, i hope, that that leaves some lasting mark on washington after this week, that reminder that working together doesnt have to be a dirty word. Eugene, george h. W. Bush
wasnt interested in being a celebrity. And im not saying that the last that the one and the last three president s before them, im not going to sit here and say that obama, w and clintons wanted to be celebrities, but they became bigger than the presidency itself, sort of in the reverse. Do you think how do you how do we can you change that, or are we forever sort of stuck on this model until somebody gets elected and says, you know what, im shrinking the personality of the presidency. You know, i chuck, i think its possible that just the media and communication and the Information Age and all that potentially has changed things to the point where, at least a certain degree of celebry if i case is evidentable. Thats a hypothesis, im not sure thats certain. One thing that could change, successive president s, republican and democratic, have
sort of, Enlarged The Powers of the presidency, have grabbed power from a congress that became increasingly gridlocked and dysfunctional and unable to, you know, to do its job, basically. And some people would say thats the demise of the seniority system, which was, you know, had its problems, but did work. Some people say, you know, bring back earmarks, that allowed things to happen. Even though, you know, it wasnt necessarily the fairest system, but whatever you want to trace it to, congress isnt working, and because congress isnt working, it the power sort of devolves to president s, and so the presidency becomes more important than the founders intended it to be, and probably more important than it should be. Why dont we step aside here, just watch. Theres, for some reason, it feels theres a finality of
this. After the week, theres a finality of this, i think we ought to step back here and take a listen. The family heads to what will be a private service for the final burial of the 41st president. Well take a quick break, be back right after this. Minimums and fees. They seem to be the very foundation of your typical bank. Capital one is anything but typical. Thats why we designed capital one cafes. You can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. And one of americas best savings rates. To top it off, you can open one from anywhere in 5 minutes. This isnt a typical bank. This is banking reimagined. Whats in your wallet . But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In Clinical Trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. The full value of your new car . Youd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. Im gonna regret that. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Thats why ive got the power of 123 medicines with trelegy. The only fdaapproved 3in1 copd treatment. Trelegy. The power of 123 trelegy 123 trelegy with trelegy and the power of 123, im breathing better. Trelegy works 3 ways to. Open airways,. Keep them open. And reduce inflammation. For 24 hours of better breathing. Trelegy wont replace a Rescue Inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Trelegy is not for asthma. Tell your doctor if you have a Heart Condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Do not take trelegy more than prescribed. Trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. Call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling,. Problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur.