The days biggest political and news stories, with interviews and reporting from around the nation. Why would the American People believe what youre saying about the fbi when the president says that the investigation on the Special Counsel is a hoax, and the Press Secretary yesterday said there was a lot of corruption within the fbi, do you have any respondent to those statements coming from the white house . Well, i can assure the American People that the men and women of the fbi, starting from the director all the way on down are going to follow our oaths and do our jobs. That wasnt an answer to the question asked. The fbi director sidestepping the question about trumps attacks on the mueller probe, attacks that have been escalating as the pressure appears to escalate. The Manafort Trial is under way. Reports indicating a trump mueller interview is looking more likely. Well get to all of that tonight. Start with the warning from trumps very own intelligence officials, a warning that late today the white house said trump had asked his officials to make, but not revealing why trump asked for the statement when he asked for it, or why he has never said the clear
there is a very Important Role for them to play in terms of monitoring and, in effect, policing their own platforms. Were sharing with them actionable intelligence in a way that wasnt happening before. Okay, frank, im glad theyre doing that. But the fact is, this is not the allgovernment response we were hoping for, the one that dni coats warned the red lights are blinking like they were in the summer before 9 11, and now im supposed to feel better because the fbi tells me facebook is on it too. Yeah. So good news, bad news, good news, we had this Press Conference today, bad news, this is an incredibly complicated problem with regard to social media and has tentacles throughout Silicon Valley and through all the internet providers. And a president who still to this day maintains arms length from this problem. Its nice we had the agencies out there today, but our electoral process is under attack, make no mistake. If were under attack, the president should be out there in front saying im leading this,
im making sure were not having the meddling, and heres what were doing about it and we still havent seen it. With regard to Silicon Valley, facebook, google, twitter, and all the others, let me assure you theyre still not stepping up and doing what they need to do. Correct. This close to an election. Theyre doing what they have to do when forced mostly by the European Union and england to do it. E. J. , you know, dan coats Secretary Nielsen said democracy is in the cross hairs, we had the nsa director out there saying my men and women stand ready to fight whatever attack is there. And then coats comes out and says were doing the best we can to keep the elections safe. Were all agreed, were glad they had that Press Conference. But in the end, hearing from the director of National Intelligence that were doing the best we can doesnt necessarily make me feel like were as safe as we should be. That exactly right. The 2016 election happened a long time ago. We have known this was a problem
for a long time. And because the president has not wanted to act, even when his top officials have said things before, this Isnt The First Time this group of experienced officials, members of this group have said weve got a big problem here, but the administration has chosen not to act. And i think its really striking that when you look at the messages that are coming out of what seemed to be theyre not established yet, but what we learned this week from facebook, what seemed to be russian sources, they are trying to divide the country along racial lines, along cultural lines. And i think what makes this difficult is that the president s own strategy, as we saw recently, for example, in that speech in florida where he instructed us about Buying Groceries with ids, thats his strategy too. So i think its like the old kremlinology days where you have factions inside this administration who clearly take this seriously. Its not clear the head guy does. So evelyn, taking that point, what happened today . Did these the president didnt tweet ahead of time that im sending my intelligence chiefs out there, my Security Chiefs out there to Say Something. They went out there. The president then said he had instructed them or asked them to do so. Still without a fullthroated declaration of his own that russia did it, we know that, russias doing it now, we know that, and its going to stop. What did that represent to you . Do you think some of these chiefs of departments got together and said we need to go out there and develop some kind of allgovernment strategy even if the president isnt with us . Yes, ali, i think youre Reading Washington pretty well. You can come join us. I think thats absolutely what happened. I think that theyre becoming increasingly alarmed that, look, they admitted today they dont know what the president talked about with President Putin in helsinki. That must be alarming to them. I heard a lot of talk about
insider talk about the president and his attitude towards nato. We saw today coming out of congress a draft bill, a piece of legislation that Lindsey Graham and bob menendez put together. This is a piece of legislation addressing a lot of same issues. So the senate very clearly was in cahoots, almost, allied with these cabinet members. Theres probably a lot of discussion behind the scenes and the president maybe knows this and felt like he had to Say Something to he wouldnt appear completely out of sink. Frank, think back to the summer of 9 11, all the things the fbi and the cia and what Everybody Knows now they didnt know then that some, argument, may have prevented the attacks or mitigated some of it. Why would we hesitate now when the director of National Intelligence says all red lights are blinking in the way they were before that summer, someone
is going to be held to account for not doing the right thing ahead of the 2018 election. Yeah, all the Warning Signs are there. And i hope that we are not Holding Hearings upon hearings. Right. As we did after 9 11 trying to figure out why the dots werent connected and whos accountable. The Man Accountable is our president. He needs to fully embrace the notion as russia as threat. Why is he not doing that . Because it doesnt serve his selfinterests. If he embraces the notion of russia as bad guy, then hes in a trap. This is what hes thinking through. If i say russia is bad and the Special Counsel comes out and confirms that, and confirms Campaign Officials were engaged with russia, then im buying into all of that, and im confusing my base. So hes got to stay straight on message, keep his distance from briefings like this morning and
allow other people to do this work, sit back and hold them accountable if theres a mess in november. E. J. , the dust cloud of confusion that is the president of the United States last night said something, as you mentioned, needing id to buy groceries, i dont know where he shops, but this is also the guy who after the last election thought there was voter fraud going on in america. Set up a Blue Ribbon Commission that amounted to a hill of beans as well. What does success look like for you here for the president , putting people in charge, a tasks force, a Cabinet Secretary whose job it is to secure american democracy in elections. Im not counting on success. I guess i have to say that. But success would have been to do this six months ago and to say were going to take this seriously and do everything we can. I thought you were spot on in your 9 11 metaphor. Because when 9 11 happened, we did all kinds of things we
hadnt done before, some of them were controversial. Some of them we still argue about. But we sure as heck took seriously the need to try to avoid another 9 11. What youre seeing here is we dont really seem, or at least parts of our government, dont really seem to feel that strongly about protecting our election system. And we have almost entirely fallen down on this job. And youre really seeing it come out of some of the private companies who are doing it only under pressure from journalists and others. So we are just nowhere close to taking this as seriously as we took 9 11. For some reason in the election doesnt feel the same as a vote being switched, doesnt feel the same as a physical attack of airliners and bombs, but we have to broaden our minds they are all in some fashion an attack. There could be a threat to our Voting Systems eventually. We know that State Election Systems were hacked and names were given out. E. J. , good to see you. Thank you as always. Evelyn farkas, thank you. The secret talks about a trump interview with bob mueller. Big news about the Russian Pop Star who set up the Trump Tower Meeting and made a bizarre music video spoofing the dossier. Also, Senate Republicans reveal new plans to rush through hearings for Trumps Supreme Court nominee. Talking about to stephanie schriock, the president of emilys list. Im alley velshi in for ari melber. Youre watching the beat on msnbc. In supermarkets all over the world. I think about the details. Fine, i obsess over the details. Think about every part of your business except the one part that works without a thought your ink card. Introducing Chase Ink Business unlimited with unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase. Chase for business. Make more of whats yours. To help support digestive health. Before you can achieve a higher standard of craftsmanship, you need a higher standard of craftsman. See for yourself at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. 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, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. Its the ultimate wifi experience. Xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. Day three of Trump Campaign chief criminal trial, today Paul Manaforts bookkeeper testifying for hours, including that manafort was struggling to pay his bills in 2016 as he worked for trump for free. And muellers Team Fighting today to show jurors more evidence of the lavish lifestyle that manafort was trying to keep up. More pictures like this, show it to you, these, of manaforts suits, including a 15,000 ostrich jacket. I just didnt know that was a
thing. I like clothes. And this, an 18,500 python coat. Jurors have seen a few photos, not many. Prosecutors want to show them things like manaforts closet, his pool house, and a flower bed in the shape of an m at his house in the hamptons. The judge is pushing back, saying it besmirches the defendant and would engender some against rich people. Thats right, he had a coat made from an ostrich, which explains the states first witness. And is the man who did this to you in the courtroom . Can you point him out . All right, with me now, tim obrien, Executive Editor of Bloomberg View and author of trump nation. And the how manafort is acting in court. Frank, let me start with you, Paul Manaforts demeanor and the way hes been acting prior to the trial got him into hot water, why he ended up in jail, there are some basic, simple rules you should follow if you are under federal investigation and about to be tried by the federal government, and he didnt bother with any of them. The idea this trial is off to a somewhat unusual start shouldnt be a surprise to anyone. No, of course not. I mean, the evidence against Paul Manafort is pretty crystal clear. You see this in witness after witness, able to describe this Goldberg Contraption of finances that he set up that involved extensive laundering of money from cypress. Paul manafort himself is an imagemaker, and he understands hes got 12 people sitting in a jury box and hes got to put on somewhat of a show for them. And so the image that hes projecting to them as he flashes them smiles and as he poses at the Defense Table is an image of selfconfidence. And so hes posing like one of
the senators that he advised before. So theres this dissonance between what jurors are hearing on the stand from all these other witnesses which is very damning and what manafort is himself. I love that moxie. Let me show you pictures of the home, a description of what the landscaper described in court that he maintained 14 foot hedging, lawns, a bed of hundreds and hundreds of white flowers, and another with flowers in the shape of the letter m. Some jurors dont respond well to that, as we remember from enron. What was that m carved out for, manafort, Money Laundering or must make more money . The odd thing that emerges in this testimony today that, you know, he loses around 600,000
in 2015. He loses over a million in 2016. Yet hes continuing to spend like king midas. You get the sense, like many people that tried to hitch their way gones to tru wagons to trumps star that they saw him as a profit center, and they saw this as a shortterm way to make money. It would seem thats what Paul Manafort was thinking. The other great thing about the case today is that the bookkeeper testifies, and as a journalist i love it when they testify. You get a fact pattern around money. The bookkeeper is based in southern california, even though most of manaforts Business Operations are in new york, virginia and florida. Shes at a distance. Shes not seeing the transactions that are being presented during the trial. Why isnt she even though she presents prepares his taxes every year . And on and on. The bookkeepers testimony today
was very damning. Frankly, the bookkeeper testifies she didnt get any information about the fact he had foreign accounts. The whole thing is whack. Hes not making money, selling himself as an Influence Peddler to some remarkably rich people. What in the end is the narrative here that were looking for jurors to take away . I think one is the sense of impunity with which Paul Manafort operated, that he was willing to fabricate documents, he was willing to offer people jobs in exchange for loans, that he was desperate, that he was in such a tremendous hole, despite having this massive amount of money flowing to him from ukraine. There were memos that he wrote to the president of ukraine where he was pleading with him to pay him more money, even though hes paying him millions and millions of dollars a year. Tim, manafort was working the bookkeeper also pointed out, working for free for donald
trump while not having money. Nobody works for free. Right. So this becomes part of the argument to the jury, right, that Wasnt Working For Pay from donald trump, but, dot, dot, dot. Selling influence somewhere, Something Else was happening because you cant support the ostrich and the crocodile or python jackets while working for free when youre heavily in debt. Thats right. And some of the Court Documents that have come out so far, he processed around 75 million through the business in a relatively short period of time, around 60 of that accrued to him personally. So heres somebody who has 60 million coming into his accounts, and is still going into hock. I think he was somebody who was very, very desperate. So its not that the prosecution is trying to pick on the rich, theyre trying to illustrate, how does this rich guy, who doesnt have any money, spend as much money as he has, where is the money coming from . Tim, good to see you. Frank lynn foer, thank you for joining us as well. This Russian Pop Star admitted to setting up that secret tower meeting with russians, his father is linked to putin. 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 the other top story tonight, were learning that bob mueller wants to talk to the man who set up the Trump Tower Meeting between don jr. And a russian lawyer promising dirt on hillary clinton. The man in question is a Russian Pop Star who met with Donald Trump In Moscow in 2013. His father is an oligarch, very close to vladimir putin, appeared to embrace his notor