Before you go. Beginning with the end of the discussion about mike flynn. That scenario that maybe Michael Flynn lied to the fbi in a way that surprised them so much because he knew these questions were coming, maybe he did that because he was directed to do that by someone. Who could that someone be . Donald trump. That is a scenario i had not considered before hearing it here tonight. And it puts a whole new cast on the gymnastics that the Trump Administration and now bill barr are going through to try to get flynn protected. I mean, he did cooperate to a certain extent with the mueller investigation. And then he stopped. And then he was going to go to prison. And then they intervened to make this thing go away so he doesnt have to go to prison. If he was lying to the fbi because he was protecting the president from being exposed for his secret communications with the russian government during the transition, i mean, thats a whole different thing. That would also put a very different cast on any effort by the president to pardon mike flynn because even though the president s pardon power is absolute, you cant pardon somebody to protect yourself, at least arguably. So the strzok book is really, i think, quite important. And that would also have possibly included some kind of communication to Michael Flynn that there is a pardon. There is something coming. Were going to help you work your way out of this. Pull out of that guilty plea. Because we saw the most dramatic change of legal strategy by a defendant that i have ever seen, a guy who makes it very clear a couple times under oath, yes, i committed these crimes to then changing lawyers suddenly and making another claim that had no legal meaning whatsoever to anyone other than attorney general william barr. Yeah. And the interrogation of that process is going to happen in open court in the Federal District of d. C. On september 29th, the day of the first president ial debate. That judge gets to interrogate this bizarre unheard of process that they went through to try to snatch mike flynn from the jaws of defeat. And i the fact that all these things are happening at the same time and the prospect that strzok is raising what Michael Flynn could be covering up for, hot stuff. He spent his lifetime studying these kinds of questions and has gathered a lifetime of information in an arena that you would think would give him some real insight into what is the grip that Vladimir Putin appears to have on donald trump. And it turns out that where we are now is he seems to be in the same place as all of the people out there in the country who have just had the feeling that it must be financial. Its donald trump. It is some kind of grip. It must be financial. But he doesnt know definitively anything more than we do because that investigation was never really conducted. He was never he was setting up that investigation, right . So we know who he was enlisting in terms of fbi fire power for that investigation. We know that they had initial leads set up to do that investigation such that they knew they had to put together what he described as a 60person team to go after this stuff. He references President Trumps financial ties to russia and russians going back to the 80s. I mean, he gives you a lot of the ends of the threads here. Obviously anything thats related to an Ongoing Investigation or something that might be an Ongoing Investigation he cant talk about. But the implication between this and what mike schmidt just reported in his book in the New York Times within the last two weeks is that the financial investigation into the president and what lev ledge they have, they might have over him has never been done, even though it was started and set up, it has never been carried out as far as we can tell. You know, and then weve got good old Michael Cohen saying in his new book and telling me two nights ago that when President Trump was doing deals during the Obama Administration, he completely believed, not through some sort of else toe ter rick analys analysis, but believes that he has transactions he was making during the Obama Administration was Vladimir Putin paying him. So you put these things together and you see the russian effort to try to reelect him, and its just its all in the open. It is just a question of whether were going to fight it. Rachel, something you just said that i didnt quite understand. You said Michael Cohen was on your show two nights ago. Why does that feel like two weeks ago . Is that just this news week . That was two nights ago. Wow. I have realized that time ceases to follow any linear cascade when you dont sleep between days, and so thats what i think i have been doing wrong. Rachel, we have Eric Swalwell joinings us. That means we will have tonight on msnbc, two people, including you, two people who have read the strzok book. Were also going to ask him something i know you are concerned about, the california fires. He represents the Congressional District in california. I want to ask him what the situation is there and what he expects to see there in the next couple of weeks. It is a really grim situation out there. My parents rlive in congressm congressmans district. We are all riveted by that news and very concerned, so i am glad you have got him on about that. Thank you, rachel. Thanks, lawrence. Lets go to straight to congressman swal wel. You have been able to read Peter Strzoks book already. First of all, what did you hear in rachels interview tonight that struck you . Well, thank you for having me back, lawrence. I am concerned that we dont know what we need to know about donald trump to protect the country from what russia has on him. We have deep suspicions and all of the arrows continue to point in the same direction. When i was a prosecutor, each new witness i interviewed, you would always chart out whether the information theyre giving you points more toward guilt or if it points toward innocent. And actually in the law you are told that if you can draw a reasonable conclusion that information may point in both directions, youre to give the suspect the benefit of the doubt and say that it points towards innocence. Here everything we learn in these books from Michael Cohen or Peter Strzoks or even Bob Woodwards book, it all points toward guilt. It points to a compromised relationship that the president has where he continues to act in their interest, and we dont know exactly what this is because he blocks us at every effort to try to find out what the financial relationship is. And Peter Strzoks identified basically a lie donald trump told publically about the financial relationship. Lets listen to what peter strzok said about that with rachel in the last hour. I think that the places that he has exposure, the places where somebody like russia can place leverage over him, some of those examples, many are classified still, but some have become public and some point to exactly the financial coercion things like his lies, frankly, on the campaign trail in 2016 that he had no financial relationship with russia that clearly isnt the truth. Congressman, we all remember that very clearly, him saying, no, no, no no financial ties whatsoever. Michael cohen telling him, oh, yeah, we were trying to work out a moscow deal during the president ial campaign. Thats right, lawrence. When you put the president in different scenarios, you dont have to do hypothetical scenarios. We have seen him standing next to putin. Who does he choose . He chooses russia for who is responsible for interfering in the election. You look at what happened with the poisoning in britain back in 2018. Other countries are asking him to condemn russia and who does he choose. He says i would rather follow than lead on this, which is to benefit russia. You look most recently at Vladimir Putins opponent who was just poisoned. What does he do . He chooses the russian side by saying we havent yet seen all of the evidence. This is not a hypothetical theoretical example of somebody being compromised and acting as an agent. He actually does it in every scenario, real life scenario that hes in. One of the most important points you found in Peter Strzoks book . Well, i think his faith in the men and women at the fbi that they are still going to do their job if theyre allowed to is reassuring. The problem that i see is that even if you have good natured, hard working people with integrity, if they dont have leadership at the top, meaning from the president and other folks, they are gonna do their job and keep most of this private and confidential and away from the American People. And we have to make decisions in the next 54 days about who our leader will be. So it really is going to take whistleblowers to come forward, lawrence, through the legal channels as we just saw with the department of Homeland Security if the person people will truly know the rot that is happening at the top of the administration. We have a couple minutes left. And i dont want to run out of time to discuss the california fires, and we may even have some time to come back to this, but you represent a Congressional District, rachel was just saying where she grew up, in northern california. What is the situation in california tonight and in your district tonight . Thank you for asking, lawrence. I was at home yesterday and back in washington now and its an orange glow in the bay area. Its an ominous warning that we have to act on climate. First thank you to the firefighters who are on the front lines. Tomorrow it is 19 years since september 11th and we saw the brooifly of firefighters there and we have thousands right now fighting these fires. In my direct we have an all clear right now as far as evacuation warnings. But we know were at the beginning of fire season, not at the end. Whats disturbing is people say, wow, i cant remember a fire season that has been this hot or this smokey, but im afraid that this may be the least hot and least smokey fire season in the next hundred years if we dont act on climate that each year will be not as bad as the year to come. So it really is a flashing visual warning for us that we have to act. Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you very much for starting off our discussion tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you, lawrence. Wait until you hear what donald trump did last night inted of leading the country in the fight against the coronavirus. Thats next. Thats next. Sure. Okay. Okay safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. 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And innovation is at the heart of it. Verizon 5g ultra wideband is the fastest 5g in the world, with speeds up to 25 times todays 4g networks. Its massive capacity and ultralow lag time is already available in parts of select cities around the country. Which means businesses both large and small can innovate like never before. Footnow i got one toquestion for ya. How great do you want to be . The nfl makes it long awaited return. Putting on that jersey this season will mean more than ever at our home, i need everything you got. Everything. We want to to be the greatest. Perfect way to kick off the season. Xfinity is your home for the return of football. Today clinging to the wreckage of his presidency, donald trump confessed why he has no idea how to be president of the United States. I watch some of the shows. I watch liz mcdonald. Shes fantastic. I watched fox business. I watched lou dobbs last night, Shawn Hannity last night, tucker last night, laura. I watched fox and friends in the morning. You watch these shows, you dont have to go too far into the details. They cover things that are its really an amazing thing. Last night the president of the United States watched five straight nonstop hours of fox lunacy, and then he started his day today by watching three more hours of the same stuff, and he admitted that today in a press conference where he was trying to recover from the things that he admitted on tape to bob woodward. And Bob Woodwards new book rage. Donald trump is always the most damning witness against donald trump as he was today when he told us what he was doing last night for five hours, instead of reading the Harvard School of public healths new report on the impact of coronavirus on households in major u. S. Cities. The harvard report studied americas four largest cities and says half or more households in new york, los angeles, chicago and houston report facing serious financial problems during the coronavirus outbreak, with issues ranging from depleting their savings to Serious Problems paying rent. Donald trump doesnt know that because he spent five hours last night watching fox, and three hours this morning as he does every night and every morning. When donald trump went to the White House Briefing room today to try to rescue his Reelection Campaign from being swamped by the bob woodward book, he finally faced a first question that should have been the first question to donald trump every time he has submitted to reporters questions since he became a president ial candidate and then president of the United States. We had to wait until the end of the fourth year of the Trump Presidency for the first question to donald trump to finally be why did you lie to the American People . Why did you lie to the American People . And why should we trust what you have to say now . Thats a terrible question in the phraseology. I didnt lie. What i said is we have to be calm. We cant be panicked. This is worst than the most strenuous flu. Okay. And then you went on to say its just like the flu. What i went on and said is very simple. I want to show a level of confidence and i want to show strength as a leader. For donald trump showing confidence and strength always means moving his hands very strangely and lying, because he has no confidence and he has no strength and he never has had either of those things. Donald trump now stands accused in the court of Public Opinion of being personally responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people who would not have died if donald trump had told america what he told bob woodward on february 7th. It goes through air, bob. Thats always tougher than the touch. You know, the tough, you dont have to touch things, right . But the air, you just breathe the air, and thats how it passed. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than your, you know, even your most strenuous flus. You know, people dont realize we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year here. I say thats the same thing . This is more deadly. This is five per you know, this is 5 versus 1 and less than 1 , you know. So this is deadly stuff. If on february 7th donald trump had told the American People it goes through the air. You just breathe the air. Thats how its passed. Its also more deadly than the flu. Its pretty amazing. This is deadly stuff. If he had said that to the American People on february 7th, thousands of people who have been killed by the coronavirus would be alive today. Thats why kristin said this last night. I dont know if this is the coronavirus any longer or if its the trump virus. Kristins father died of coronavirus in june. Kristin says his only preexisting condition was believing donald trump. Today joe biden said this. He acknowledges that you breathe it. Its in the air, and he wont put on a mask. Hes talking about its ridiculous to put on masks. What do you need social distancing for . Why have any of these rules . It was all making sure the stock market didnt come down, that his wealthy friends didnt lose any money, and that he could say that, in fact, anything that happened had nothing to do with him. He waived the white flag. He walked away. He didnt do a damn thing. Think about it. Think about what he did not do. And its almost criminal. Almost criminal. What do you call a president who doesnt even know that more americans are unable to pay their housing costs than at any time in his lifetime. He doesnt even know that. There is not a single republican in elected office who is trying to help those people who cannot pay for their housing in america. The family of our next guest has been hit by the coronavirus, senator Amy Klobuchars house tested positive in march and has recovered. And her 92yearold father tested positive in june and has also recovered. Joining us now, the democrat from minnesota. Senator k