Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 201

Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20171215 09:00:00

And what im concerned about is someone who doesnt want to try to relitigate 2016, but wants to make sure our country is protected in 2018 when you dont have someone in the white house whos kind of leading a whole of government approach. It means that our response to these kind of actions by russia and for that matter other nations that may try to copy russias efforts, those National Security efforts are undermined by this kind of aversion in the white house to face the reality. Also tonight, another Washington Post report says that music promoter Rob Goldstone who set up that june 2016 trump tower meeting with the president s eldest son and several different russians offered to broker a meeting between donald trump and Vladimir Putin right after mr. Trump announced he was running for the white house. President trump has been outspoken about his admiration for putin. The russian leader dismissed the what stood out to you most . What was your largest takeaway as coauthor of this . I think the big takeaway is over the last year, President Trump has been reluctant to publicly accept the intelligence conclusions of his own government. Hes been skeptical of their findings and hes felt that any admission that russia actually did interfere in the election to help him win delegitimizes his presidency and also threatens his ability to forge a friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin, which he sees as critical to a number of Foreign Policy challenges around the world. And its not just the president s ego here thats at the center of this story, but there are efforts and sensitivities throughout the government to deal with this. His intelligence briefers are sensitive about bringing any russia matters to him orally in their daily Intelligence Briefings. Officials at the National Security council are doing work at the staff level to try to figure out how to safeguard the u. S. Electoral system, our democracy, but they too are sensitive about bringing that to the president ial level. There has been no cabinet meeting. There has been no full National Security Council Meeting convened by the president on this issue. And we just see this trickle down throughout the entire federal government. Almost a paralysis that many view as a National Security threat of a possible future attack from russia. Jeremy bash, because you are a veteran of cia and the pentagon, what stands out to you most . And what is the real risk to our security . To ours, to our childrens generation . I was astounded by this reporting, brian, that cia briefers and other intelligence analysts actually changed their briefings so as not to bring the president the truth. A president ial daily brief without the truth is not an Intelligence Briefing. Its story time. Its fiction. And if youre going to give the president only part of the truth, a Commander In Chief is not going to be able to defend the country and protect us. And i fear that this issue is a major National Security crisis, brian, we have issues from irans Missile Proliferation to north Koreas Nuclear program that demand and require truth, facts, and intelligence and if a president of the United States is unwilling to hear it, he is incapable of protecting us. Susan, you have lived and worked in russia among other places, how is Vladimir Putin reading his particular copy of the Washington Post, this story specifically . Well look, the fact that the story came out on the day of Vladimir Putins annual Press Conference, a fourhour long grueling affair if you can imagine that. President trump doesnt even have Press Conferences anymore, never mind fourhour long ones, of course Vladimir Putins is sort of a pa temp kin Press Conference. I was amazed that he was so wellbriefed it seemed on how to flatter and even to suck up to donald trump that he was talking about what a great job donald trump did with the stock market as if they are sharing each others talking points. For trump to have called putin after that Press Conference to have thanked him for the positive mention. This is an extraordinary example of why phils excellent reporting in the Washington Post is not just a backwardlooking affair, were not just looking back at the election of 2016 and this sort of puzzling historical question about donald trump and why he doesnt accept the evidence of russian intervention. This is very much a story, i think, about trump trying to proceed and overrule in effect his entire National Securityteam and continue in personal diplomacy to make this opening to russia that no one else can really understand why he persists in it. To me, thats right into today. I think its also very important evidence that the Quote Unquote Access Of Adults around donald trump is very limited in what they can accomplish. And theres this incredible ive written about it as a schizophrenia in our russian policy today. You have on the one hand, trumps very more establishmentminded team saying hey, actually, were not doing too badly. We still have tough sanctions on russia, were working with the ukrainians. On the other hand, look, trump is waging his own Mutual Admiration Society with Vladimir Putin and that has not changed. Phil rucker, take another swing at explaining to our viewers the importance of whats become a part of the job of being president , the pdb, the president ial daily briefing, its important to the functioning of government, the various agencies that give their information to funnel into it how much of a staple its been and what it means to soften it. Yeah, well, brian, this is the briefing. The classified Intelligence Briefing that the president receives almost every morning and it is not a political affair. Its delivered by intelligence officials. In this case, for President Trump its actually often delivered by mike pompeo, the director of the cia whos a Trump Appointee who trump has a very good sort of chemistry and rapport with. What is is our intelligence what are we gathering . Its not a briefing about russia, but a lot of times there are elements there are actions and events that involve the russian government that come up in the briefing. And our reporting shows that when there are issues, when there are pieces of intelligence related to the russian interference in the election, for example, that that will sometimes be tailored specifically so it doesnt hit a nerve with the president. Sometimes it will only be in the written part of the briefing instead of whats presented to him orally. With the chance that maybe he may not read it. He may not get to the bottom of that document or if he does, it wouldnt be in the back of a forth of an inperson meeting where he could have an exchange and potentially erupt or get angry. Jeremy bash, do you want to take as cut to the question as to why the president wont accept a briefing on intelligence findings from his own government and all the other subsequent questions this article raises . Yeah, i think the big question, brian, as you noted from phil and his colleagues, excellent reporting is, what could explain the president s reluctance to hear the truth . It cant just be his insecurity. It cant just be hes sensitive about the election. Why . Because one of the other things that phil reported on was that the president s strenuously opposed any congressional sanctions against russia. He delayed signing that bill for five days and pushed back on his aids who say you have to get behind the sanctions bill. Its not just about the election. There is something about the president s approach to russia that shows that he is beholding to russia, he does not want to confront russia, that he wants to support and back russia. That cant be explained insecurity. There appears to be something much more serious much more concerning about the way the president feels indebted to russia and i think that has to do with the fact that he knew they were assisting him during his president ial campaign and he has a very long history of Business Relationships and other ways of other matters of indebtedness to russians and the russian federation. Susan, listening to you tonight, i wanted to come back at this. So our viewers really do get the point, did you, susan, think in your lifetime you would hear a russian president compliment the performance the United States stock market . Well, you know, not in the current atmosphere. I have to say, remember, i was there in russia when george w. Bush and Vladimir Putin met each other for the first time. And that was in a different era before 9 11 and there was mutual admiration going on. Remember, george w. Bush looked into Vladimir Putins soul, Condoleezza Rice groaned in the audience. We had a much better relationship at the beginning of putins tenure than we do right now. But this egregious Mutual Admiration Society is its something thats Pretty Amazing when you look at the context of the world right now. And i just i think jeremys point is an important one. If trump wanted to put our questions to rest about his admiration for this autocratic leader to russia, hes had chances to do so and chosen not to. Phillip, you get the last question because its your work were talking about, do you get the feeling that those around the president truly do view him as the outlier . Do you get the feeling that that my term and not susans, that kind of council of adults around the president knows exactly what time it is . I do, brian. And i get the feeling, especially on the russia matter that the other experts in the government, at the National Security council are taking a slightly different approach. Fiona hill is the top russia advisor on the National Security council. Shes a very experienced russia hawk. She wrote a biography of putin. She knows this subject inside and out. And shes developing a lot of work at the staff level of the nfc to deal with this in the way that the u. S. Government ordinarily would deal with a threat like this. It is just not advancing to the president ial level because the president is the president and he has his own views and his own priorities when it comes to forging a much friendlier partnership with poout. Heres how it works in our newsroom, when we go a few days without seeing phillip rucker, we know something is happening today. Thank you for being with us. Terrific conversation. Our thanks to all three of you. Coming up for us here, more on tonights explosive russia news, including the real fears among democrats that republicans may be trying to stop various investigations. And later, the pressure to get something to the president s desk for a signature while the calendar still reads 2017. What are the chances the tax bill wont be it . That and more when we continue. Without acting out that the calls that he was making to congress to shut down the investigation are gaining traction. You could see that in the hearing where the republicans were trying to shut down mueller. We see that now in a very worrying way in our investigation. And i think the strategy is they cant shut down mueller before they shut us down. Otherwise, how do they explain why congress is continuous investigation if they think mueller should be finished. That moment right there happened on tonights broadcast of hardball with chris matthews. Democrats in congress are sounding the alarm because they fear some republicans are trying to discredit Robert Mueller and shut down the various russia investigations. In the latest move, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, and well have a word on this in a moment, interviews of two of President Trumps oldest and closest associates have been relocated to new york. They will be conducted in the field and away from the usual infrastructure of Congressional Committees. Felix saider is a republicanborn trump business associate, rona graph was trumps Personal Assistant for almost 30 years. Those are the interview subjects. Importantly these interviews are taking place at a time when congress is in session and is in washington. Its a move democrats say is an attempt to rush this investigation to some sort of premature conclusion. With us for more, former u. S. Attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. And sam stein back with us as well. A veteran political journalists, now politics editor for the daily beast and political analyst. Counsellor, you get the first question, whats the significance of this interviewing people here in new york in the field as opposed to having them come to washington whether its to be questioned by staff or members . Its very unusual these would be the first two witnesses for whom this courtesy has been provided. The reporting that i saw indicated that the lawyer for one of these two witnesses had had a medical issue and it would be more convenient for him to be in new york. That doesnt really explain why both of these witnesses are going through this process, and heres the real implication of it, this means that none of the congressmen will be able to travel along with staff for these interviews. And particularly when youre talking about mrs. Graph who is then with the president for about 30 years, shes a confidential secretary. So she knows the day in and the day out, its unlikely that she would have personal criminal exposure, but she will have a lot of information to provide to investigators. And i think well see pushback from congress, and i think that these interviews ultimately will not happen in new york. Joyce, why would you normally do it because someones in firm or unable to travel for some reason . Sure, you know, if it werent so that the investigators could be there and you could provide this as a courtesy to the lawyers, thered be nothing wrong with it, but the reason for this investigation is to permit the folks on this Congressional Committee to have access to these witnesses. This committee isnt investigating russia for the convenience of witnesses lawyers. And so this is disturbing, it looks like an excuse, not an actual reason for moving the interviews. Sam, whats your read on the real amount of fear . How many people truly think this is an effort to shut down Robert Mueller or so damage his work product that itll have less value when he goes public with it . Well, theres two things here that im picking up from my own reporting, theres the Mueller Investigation and then theres the house intelligence investigation. And the fear is palpable on the hill that a move is under way to impede or end the investigation entirely. Its not just the fact that these interviews are taking place in new york although that is abnormal as joyce laid out, but the fact that as ive been told, there are no interviews scheduled for after the year. Which is caused a lot of anxiety on the democratic side of the aisle. So there is as the chair, as the Ranking Member chair schiff said a lot about the fear about meeting a quicker conclusion than expected. Now that can bleed into the Mueller Investigation. Separate from that, there has been this whole to do about these Text Messages with fbi investigators, on conservative media, you can pick up a Huge Campaign to go after the people who have been assigned to it for their previous political affiliations or donations, and so the credibility is clearly under attack, and the prujs from schiff and others is that if you end the intel investigation, you can then lay the predicate for going after the Mueller Investigation, but you cant do it in reverse. Joyce, a lot of people believe is if mueller say fired by the president , a levelheaded people in the u. S. Senate would come forward and protect him and rehire him in effect the next day as a Special Prosecutor with special orders. If no one thinks thatll actually happen in the real world, how would you fortify, protect, and Wall Off Mueller and his investigation . It seems likely that mueller is thinking through these sorts of issues and protecting the investigation in the event some sort of a Saturday Night Massacre Style Firing Of Mueller happens. But one interesting aspect of this whole problem is that even if the special counsel investigation is shut down, you now would have u. S. Attorneys who would have jurisdiction over these same sort of claims. And so if there are existing indictments, u. S. Attorneys can go ahead and prosecute those and that, ryan, is why we go back to this entire issue of trump personally interviewing u

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