Embattled cabinet member betsy devos. And an important update on a significant story we brought you on the beat, the trump baby blimp, and whats happening in london that may not stay in london. Its a story that were committed to. Im bringing you that later in the show. We begin with Donald Trumps former campaign chief fighting to not only get out of jail on those russia related charges, but Paul Manafort has been in jail for three weeks. Hes been faced with solitary confinement, locked in his cell 23 hours per day which makes it effectively impossible for him to prepare for trial. Of course, that would mean its impossible for many, many poor defendants around the country to prepare for trial. Muellers team has a response that manafort actually is exactly where he should be, in jail because he allegedly tried to obstruct justice by coaching and tampering with witnesses, and that the limits hes dealing with are, there you go, common for incarcerated defendants pending trial. Manaforts lawyers also arguing today to move his virginia trial from alexandria to roanoke, arguing theres been too Much Negative press coverage for him there and the voters in the d. C. Area may be biased against him because of his links to donald trump. Of course, donald trump has played down those very links. Now, meanwhile, Paul Manafort is under all of this strain. This is who donald trump is talking about. We won by 44 points over a democrat. Now it was crooked hillary, but still, shes a democrat. She gets special treatment under the justice department. Lock her up, lock her up. And as trump eggs on that lock her up crowd, theres another person worrying about being locked up and its not a Hillary Clinton aide. It is Donald Trumps longserving former lawyer Michael Cohen who is in the middle of this strain and this stress that weve been reporting on. And hes hired someone to help him with all this. Hillary clintons most one of his most wellknown lawyers and allies, lanny davis who served bill and Hillary Clinton to handle this onslaught, quote unquote of whats expected from team trump. The context on this is significant. Weve discussed this immediately since the news broke. This is not any lawyer. There are all kinds of lawyers you could hire to do all kinds of legal tasks. This is a serious and wellknown Hillary Clinton surrogate. If theres one thing lanny davis has had plenty of practice, its defending someone against the likes of donald trump. Have you no sense of shame left, mr. Trump . Donald trump did not apologize to a gold star mother and he didnt apologize to the women that he bragged about sexually assaulting. The reckless, volatile, unstable judgment of donald trump he put out a Financial Disclosure form. Why are you evading my question . Here, not to evade any questions, emily jane fox, the Senior Reporter of vanity fair who have covered Michael Cohen for years. Shes the author of born trump without the trump family. And the former counsel to the mayor of new york city. Maya, the significance of lanny davis in this highly unpredictable legal fiasco. Well, its a very smart move. Hes got guy petrillo, an excellent criminal tone who was the head of the Criminal Division at the United StatesAttorneys Office for the southern district. What hes added in the form of lanny davis is someone whos literally been a fixer for the clintons during the ken starr investigation who actually his job was to be the public spokesperson. In essence he was a volunteer for the clintons who was essentially out there to be the person who pushed back very hard on the narrative and created narrative about ken starrs poor judgment. Something really interesting about lanny davis is he did an interview in which he talked about first making the mistake of going after ken starr as an idiolog, and learned to shift after having a conversation with john mccain to making it much more about judgment. This is very interesting because my guess is this is going to be a role hes going to play for Michael Cohen, although in this instance possibly helping to restore some credibility to Michael Cohen if and when he flips. Because if he flips, one of the things that any good defense attorney is going to do is rip his credibility to shreds. Well, when you put it like that, is it like an organ that you can have a credibility transplant. You cant. You cant . You can just have a theyve made it a noun. Steve bannon made it a noun in the white house. You just need a lanny davis. You need a lanny davis. Listen to lanny davis talk about the issue of the relationship you have with your clients and whether theyre liars or not. What we saw in very unusual public form was the breakup between trump and cohen. Oh, and he infamously said on air force one, hes still my lawyer, you go ask him, putting more heat on him. Lanny was speaking on the beat about the relationship you have with a client and truth. Take a look. Ive never worked for a client that has lied to me or that i could trust not lying to me. Thats the reason he cant find a great lawyer. Its because he has lied to the american people. We know that. But hes also lied to his own lawyers. And no lawyer will take a client who lies. Which goes to the problems donald trump has had getting his own lawyers. What do you see as the key relationship for michael, someone that you spent time with . This is a very Important Role to michael personally. The thing that has rankled him the most in all this, of course, is the effect on his family. I think what has rankled him second most is his inability to be able to speak on this. His former counsel refused to let him speak to the media. I think wisely. Hes entering a new phase in which he, again, will not be able to speak to the media on his own accord. We saw that on the record interview with george steph nota its something that i think michael is very much looking forward to, hes been pretty much silent for about a year now. Isnt that small fry compared to being worried on the going to jail. I dont think theyre mutually exclusive. Yes, the major concern is if hes going to end up indicted or charged with something, whether or not hell flip. Michael cohen has for years been a pit bull, an attack dog for his former boss and someone who has defended himself. Something thats been on his mind is when am i able to defend myself . And i think now he is breathing somewhat of a sigh of relief to know there will be someone defending him for once. That goes to the psychological strain, maya, where some of these stories they involve people, and if youre a human being you care about how it affects people, even those who have made mistakes. But the character side of it, the remarkable soap opera, in Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, we have people who have fundamentally lived highly privileged lives, multimillion dollar townhouses and travel and this life, their highly connected friends and all this money who in a very short time face the seismic defenestration that most people dont feel. Theyre falling faster, harder farther than most people ever will. Its a big drop from the top of trump tower. Part of what were seeing with having lanny davis part of this story now is, remember that lanny davis actually did also represent two dictators. We should just say that. He would defend himself and say that he was representing them in order to bring greater democracy to the countries that they were actually behaving very badly. But i guess this is the point is that while these folks are falling hard and fast, they havent hit the ground yet. Right. They havent hit bottom. And so what were seeing is the efforts to pad that fall. Thats what lanny davis represents, i think, for Michael Cohen, for Paul Manafort going in to try to get himself out of prison, out of his pretrial detention and solitary confinement in order to prepare his trial. And still defending themselves. Right, and youre saying its a hard fall. Its a very hard fall. I think it was jimmy cliff who said the harder they come, the harder they fall. Dont do the crime if you cant do the time. One and all. If you dont do the crime, you cant do the time. Anything . No, im not going to go there. Youre not going as to jz. Emily emailed me about kanye once. I did. Were going to turn to a member of congress, im not going to ask him for music quotes. When you look at the legal fallout from this russia probe, donald trump also set for a 101 meeting with putin on july 16th. Now, last night trump addressing his critics who say putin will get the upper hand. And i might even end up having a good relationship. Theyre going, will President Trump be prepared, you know, president putin is kgb and this and that. You know what, putin is fine, hes fine, were all fine, were people, will i be prepared . Totally prepared. Ive been preparing for this stuff my whole life. Rhode island congressman, thanks for making time for the beat. Your view on the substance, whats at stake on these types of meetings and the bizarre optics of the clip we just played, donald trump i guess sorts of trying to have i dont know fun with it for the people at the rally. Its very disturbing. Vladimir putin is not fine. This is someone who led an effort to interfere with the american president ial election. Just this week, the Senate Intelligence committee, republicanled committee confirmed that, that this was a russian effort led by Vladimir Putin to help donald trump and under mine the canada da this is a significant meeting. The fact the president makes jokes about it, his last meeting with a dictator when he met alone with him is apparently when he agreed to stop exercises with South Koreans without the knowledge of the defense secretary, the secretary of state and the South Koreans and got nothing for it. Im very concerned hes going to have a summit with someone who he doesnt understand is a adversary of the United States, a brutal thug, undermining the western alliance, undermining National Security interests around the world and hes going to walk out of that meeting and getting nothing in return. He ought not to be joking about it at rallies, he should spend time studying and preparing for a challenging encounter. He also has a quality of spinning together everything with the bias that he brings to it, and as you know, his own loyal supporters do tend to listen to him. So take a look at what he said trying to tie the trade war, which even conservatives and republican economists have criticized into the russian issues last night. Were paying for anywhere from 70 to 90 to protect europe. And thats fine. Of course they kill us on trade, they kill us on other things. So they want to protect against russia. Yet they pay billions of dollars to russia, and were the shmucks paying for the whole thing . Is that right . Its this idea of conflating all the issues into one and undermining our relationships with key allies and important trading relationships we have with key allies. He has this incredible fondness for dictators and strong men. Hes called kim jongun an honorable man. He says Vladimir Putin is fine and he attacks people he has strong alliances with and important trading relationships with. This is part of a larger effort to distract and confuse and bring a lot of chaos so that people wont focus on things the democrats are fighting for, to create good paying jobs, to drive down the cost of health care, drive down the cost of prescription drugs, rebuild the infrastructure of our country, and make america have the best infrastructure in the world. There are a lot of things we should be focused on. But every day its more chaos and confusion, unwinding important alliances we have around the world, and hes in this speech put it all together. He attacked the me too movement, he praised Vladimir Putin, attacked our trading partners, doesnt make a lot of sense, theyre not completely connected, but its speaking to this base of the party. In an effort to distract from whats not getting done, to raise family incomes, reduce the cost on peoples lives and make sure folks have the skills necessary for jobs in the 21st century, what we should be focused on. Youre hitting a lot of issues on why it matters. Thanks to my panel on all of these issues. Coming up, the access hollywood president attacks the me too Movement Last night. We have an exclusive interview with trump accuser and now political candidate Rachel Crooks next. Also, scott pruitt out, the focus turning to betsy devos, our special report on americas schools. And an important update tonight on the trump baby blimp in london and why it may be going global. Plus rap star big sean is here to talk about renaissance for jobs in the american inner city. Im ari melber. Youre watching the beat on msnbc. Anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. They wont hike your ratest over one mistake. See, Liberty Mutual doesnt hold grudges. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. And back pain made it hard to sleep and get up on time. Then i found aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid, plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. Im back. Aleve pm for a better am. The wonderful thing about polident is the fact that its very, very tough on bacteria, yet its very gentle on the denture itself. Polidents 4 in 1 cleaning system consists of 4 powerful ingredients that Work Together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. It kills 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria and it helps to remove stains. Polident should be the first choice of every person that wears a denture, to clean their denture. Donald trump addressing the me too movement directly for the first time last night in that speech, and using it as a punch line. So in a moment i turn to an exclusive interview with Rachel Crooks, one of the 19 women whos accused trump of Sexual Misconduct. First, i want to show you exactly what happened. This is a story that you can imagine any president doing would be a very big deal. Here is the president of the United States mocking alleged victims as a way to take a political jab at senator elizabeth warren. In the middle of the debate, when she pro claims that shes of indian heritage, we will take that little kit and say but we have to do it gently because were in the me too generation. So we have to be very gentle. And we will slowly toss it, hoping it doesnt hit her and injure her arm. More on responding, my criticizing trump for the testing of dna of migrant kids and being too incompetent to reunite the families. He took an action many people in the movement feel is very disturbing. Giving a Top White House job to bill shine, a fox executive ousted over accusations that he enabled or stood by during multiple reports of Sexual Misconduct in that office by roger ailes, as well as bill oreilly, both of whom were also, of course, defended by trump. In an interview with the new york times, trump called oreilly a good person. Trump said i think he shouldnt have settled, adding i dont think bill did anything wrong. Finally, roger ailes, is he helping you . Is he advising you . I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, i know how much hes helped them. Hes a very good person. Ive always found him to be just a very, very good person. Im joined by Rachel Crooks who accused trump of forcibly kissing her without consent in 2005, and she is now running for office in the ohio state legislature. Rachel, first, your reaction to what the president said last night. Well, thank you for having me, ari. You know, of course, nothing that President Trump says anymore shocks me. But i think its truly despicable, you know, that he would mock the me too movement and, of course, say many of the other egregious things he made comments about. But yeah, nothing shocks me. He, of course, would make fun of it. He hasnt been held accountable for his own actions so he would make light of the me too movement. That makes perfect sense to me. What does your candidacy say to this how the world is changing, but in other ways see this kind of behavior at the top of the federal government . Yeah, i mean, the Silver Lining to President Trumps tenure has been that women are uniting and resisting and we are fed up with this behavior. That is what me too is. My candidacy is built on this idea that politicians, though, seem to not be held accountable. And President Trump is the epitome of that. So i will continue to speak out so that i can be a voice for women who, you know, dont feel like their voices are being heard. Im curious, before we turn to our wider panel, what kind of reaction do you get from voters . How many people see this as a positive or important thing that youre doing, and how many, i imagine, because any local race can be about local issues, see this as an aside and are focused on what youre going to do for ohio . Yeah. Mostly locally, everyone is very focused on what i can do for the district. But of course i thi