The days biggest political and news stories, with interviews and reporting from around the nation. The United Nations taking on Donald Trumps attacks on the free press. The top story, The Closing Circle of pressure on trump from the manafort trial. Michael avenatti has popped back up with a dvd, doing some Breaking News of his own on who is in possession of it. Do you have anything else you can tell me about this dvd . As soon as we get it back from Law Enforcement, ill be happy to talk about it. That is new. The assertion that Law Enforcement are sufficiently interested in this dvd collected as evidence. We do not know, and this is important, if avenatti is alleging its in the possession of federal Law Enforcement, which could mean mueller or cohen prosecutors in new york, or whether it is some other local case which could be far less important. Meanwhile, the other news tonight is that mueller has completed interviews with another new roger stone associate, her name is kristin davis. Now, stone says tonight that she knows nothing about alleged russian collusion, wikileaks collaboration or any other impropriety alleged to the 2016 election. Today also marks the end of the first week of the first case bob mueller has ever taken to trial, interesting when you think about it, mueller putting his first cooperating witness on the stand against Paul Manafort and the accountant who worked with manafort and now today provided more evidence of alleged fraud to this jury that will decide manaforts fate. Prosecutors also say theyre going to put their star witness on the stand who everyone has been gossiping about, manaforts former deputy, rick gates, The First Time America will hear from my trump aide publicly implicating another trump aide. Manaforts attorney is not only throwing the blame onto all of this, the righthand man, theyre trying to reverse what the culpability is and also say that Paul Manafort, who has sold his services to many people around the world as an expert,
The days biggest political and news stories, with interviews and reporting from around the nation. Get a zoom in youre having a moment. Youre holding the congressmans hand. Congressman, you can move your hand anytime you want to. He wont. Sometimes Rudy Giuliani muddies things up, whether thats in their interest or not, other times we see rudy trying to fix the problems his client creates. Why is rudy so messy . He works for a really messy client. I think what Rudy Giuliani is trying to do is get in front of the American People with evidence he knows thats bad thats going to come out in ways. He executes in a very bad way and says things that are not true on national tv, ratchet that back, and his client undercuts him. He has the right idea. Are we all falling for his trap . Thats what hes doing, throwing sand. Hes throwing up as much confusion, were all talking about that rather than, you know, the important issues. Well, i mean, hes really framing the midterm, the key
theme of this midterm is going to be its going to be trumps interests, legal and financial, versus americas, and Rudy Giuliani and donald trump are saying choose my interests and not americas. Congressman, i want to play a bit of a fact check weve put together that shows some of the people who have an oath to the constitution who serve our National Security in their own way, somewhat measured and not enough according to what you and others have called for, in their own way putting out a flag that donald trump is hiding what happened in the putin meeting, which is suspicious, that he is wrong about denying russian attacks and saying theyre an ongoing hoax given the intelligence and the midterms. I want your view of that and whats to be done about that since youre in a coequal branch of government. Take a look . In hield sin key, i had a great meeting with putin. We got along really well. By the way, thats a good way. Not in a position to either
understand fully or talk about what happened in helsinki. Now, were being hindered by the russian hoax. Its a hoax, okay. We acknowledge the threat. It is real, it is continuing, and were doing everything we can. Ill tell you what, russias very unhappy that trump won. That i can tell you. Did you want President Trump to win. Yes, i did. Yes, i did. Of course the final answer from putin. Those are a lot of facts that completely undercut the president s claims. I served on active duty, i never thought i would see the american Commander In Chief go onto foreign soil and throw america under the bus the way he did. Not only did you have americans react, you had his own Administration Officials react. And you had dan coats, that same day, issue a Press Release that he didnt clear with the white house basically saying, yeah, the russians hacked us in 2016 and theyre going to do this again. You see his own administration pushing back against the president. Thats good for what i believe
is the america that i know, which is adhering to a law and making sure we stick with the facts. You put it starkly and mention your own service. To some degree is this a sort of Reverse Iraq War situation . Where you had a political white house putting pressure on the cia to say the threat from abroad may have been worse than it was to get what they want . Here as you just referred to, you have the people in intelligence saying theres a real threat, whether or not what we do about it, go to war or a cyberwar, but a very real threat thats been documented by all these Intelligence Agencies and the mueller indictments, and its oddly the president and the white house putting pressure on them to pretend there isnt a problem, isnt a threat. Thats a very good point. But i actually think really it is only donald trump that thinks there is no threat. Everybody else around him thinks that hes talking crazy talk. Which is why you have his own administrative officials to hold a Press Conference this week telling the American People, yes, theres a russian threat. Were trying to take care of it. Our framers were smart, they
allowed us to have 50 states, republican or democratic secretary of state, you dont want your elections hacked. We have people working on this issue. You make an important point. Federalism, how elections are run in this country. Pros and cons to that. With regard to Election Security its not all run out of the white house. This is one of those days, going to the midterms, that is one silver lining. Congressman lieu, stephanie miller, jay, thanks to all of you. Coming up, an interview with the man at the heart of democratic presidencies and campaigns for two decades, john podesta is here, im asking him about the Supreme Court and the midterms. Signs of a new civil war inside the gop, donald trump against the richest donors around. Sam nunberg is back. And a Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist Talks to us. Eddie griffin joins us
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former chair on trial. While podesta remains a victim in the related investigation into the russian hacking. That new association, though, only comes after many years where podesta was widely known in politics for being say center of every major battle. I am honored to name him today as the next white house Chief Of Staff. Working here means a great deal to me. To deal with the possible Impeachment Hearings in congress, the white house has put together a new Crisis Team Led by deputy Chief Of Staff john podesta. Ive also asked my counselor, john podesta, to lead a comprehensive review of big data and privacy. My friend john podesta ran my transition. John podesta has just walked in the room. Were still counting votes, and every vote should count. Today, podesta is part of a democratic vote counting operation for trumps Supreme Court pick, insisting his records from the white house are
a potential pandoras box. The hearing could come in september. Democrats say its past time to go on offense. First, let me welcome you, john, and say, you know, you look at the old footage, youre one of those people that looked older when you were young, and now you look a little young that youre older. I dont know how you did it. Its a fountain of youth, ari, and its good to be with you. By the way, given that introduction, i have to say, id rather be in this seat than Paul Manaforts seat right now. Thats true for most people. Its a testament to what everyone knows was an unusually harsh foreign attacked wild 2016 campaign. And you and him are in very different situations. I want to get to so many things including your view of the Mueller Probe where you figure into it. I want to begin with something youve been leading on and what democrats say is so important to the future of the nation and gets wiped away by trump drama. You say we dont know enough
about Brett Kavanaugh. Walk us through why that matters and what democrats should do about it. Look, ari, he served in the white house as Staff Secretary, the first position i served in for president clinton. Todd stern, who succeeded me in that job, and i wrote an oped piece in the Washington Post this week, noting that the republicans are really trying to cover up his record there. They dont want to go to the archives, look what advice he gave President Bush, calling him a traffic cop, a paper pusher, saying he didnt create his own documents. Thats nonsense. The role of Staff Secretary is not wellknown, but its a very important policimaking job. He was promoted from Senior Associate white House Counsel into that job. He carried the very top title, Assistant To The President in the white house. He was clearly a key policy adviser, at a time that President Bush was making important decisions around restricting abortion rights, trying to push for constitutional amendments to ban
gay marriage. He was there, being the last stop, really, on a series of Signing Statements that were very controversial, including on a bill that banned torture. He said that he was not involved in the legal advice that the administration had, the socalled bibey memo, but we cant know that unless we see those documents. As carl rove noted, everything that had to do with policy passed through his hands. It was very common to write cover memos to express your own views. And its time, i think, that the democrats demand to see those records as republicans demanded to see kagans records when she served in the Clinton White house. That was appropriate then and its appropriate now. Yeah. And you mention at least three important issues there. Ill tick them off, torture, abortion and gay marriage. Starting with torture and the bibey memo and the legal shi cannery that went on, your view
that he could have been a part of supporting that, and if he would support torture, what else would he support under trump . Well, it is clear that trump signed legislation that banned torture. That was bipartisan legislation, but said in the Signing Statement that if he believed that legislation was unconstitutional, he wouldnt follow it. And mr. Kavanaugh had the last stop on that Signing Statement, what his constitutional views were, that ought to be there. In that role youre saying your concern is he was the last legal line and he cracked the door open to more potential torture in the way he worked in the white house . Is that what youre saying . Unless you see those documents, you dont know the answer to that question. Got it. Thats why its so important to be able to access those documents. We do know, though, ari, that
hes a he is a very strong proponent of strong executive power, and hes written and spoken extensively about both his experiences investigating a sitting president , that was president clinton, and then subs subsequently his Change Of Heart about that and the notion that no sitting president should be forced to answer subpoenas. Hes gone so far as to suggest that even the unanimous decision, u. S. V. Nixon was wrongly decided. And so we know that after pursuing president clinton during the starr investigation. He had a Change Of Heart once he went to work for President Bush and subsequently. So i think those are let me ask you, is that the core, then, of where democrats are going with this, not that he is a traditional republican appointee that may do things
that shock many people, most Women In America would be against overturning roe, but not so much only that, you and the democrats are basically saying this person was picked by trump to protect trump, that he is part of a softer type of obstruction . Are you prepared to go that far . I think we have to you know, i think we have to examine his record and look at the context. President trump and mr. Giuliani have said hes going to decide whether to force a subpoena for mr. Mueller or whether hes going to voluntarily testify. Thats a decision that could easily go to the Supreme Court. Mr. Kavanaugh expressed his views already on that Subject Matter and saying that the president shouldnt be forced to answer subpoenas. And so, you know, you never know whats in Donald Trumps mind. But you have to know that he knew that kavanaugh was someone who wanted to protect the president in a context he finds himself in. And think of the constitutional crisis wed be in if he was the
deciding vote in a constitutional crisis where mr. Mueller actually issued a subpoena and the white house and donald trump refused to comply with it. I think it is a context for this nomination. Im not casting aspersions on the integrity of mr. Kavanaugh. He has well expressed views here. The democrats need to examine what he intends to do if, you know, faced with that choice. Right. I understand how precisely measured youre being while raising the fact that this is not a drill, were dealing with a president who seems to delight in breaking things. And the question of Whether Mueller can put him in the Grand Jury Box if he wont do the interview, unlike the clinton example where it was negotiated out, may go all the way to the Supreme Court. Youre saying something that our viewers know is a very real possibility in the near term. Speaking of the Mueller Probe, i want to get to that, play for
you donald trump who did promise to come out with all of this dirt on your side, and as with all things in politics, rough and di