You know, if you wanted to hold a pageant to decide the president aes favorite Member Of Congress, i dont think any of us knows who the final winner might be. Might be whether the president insisted on a swimsuit contest or something scarier. Without any argument at all, i think almost all of us who paid any attention to the news in this era, we could all name a couple of the pageant finalists were this contest to happen. One of the finalists would undoubtedly be the Member Of Congress who started off today being taken into custody at the offices of the fbi in lower manhattan. Chris collins a Republican Congressman from new york, hes from buffalo, he was the first Member Of Congress to
endorse Donald Trumps president ial campaign all the way back in february, 2016. We know that is the kind of thing that really matters to this president. Congressman collins has since been among the most Faithful Visible Trump loyalists in washington. But now hes been arrested in an alleged scheme that also resulted in the arrest of his son today as well as the father of his sons fiancee. But the Chris Collins alleged Insider Trading scandal which burst into view today with the unsealing of his indictment, that scandal is one that touches is several other serving members of congress and also disgraced Health Secretary tom price who was the first trump Cabinet Secretary to resign in scandal. We have had our fair share of political scandals and public corruption indictments as a country. That is a history that includes todays date on the calendar in 1974, when president Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in
the wake of the watergate scandal. That was this day, 1974. But even so, even with that rich history under our belts it really is something when you wake up to the news of a sitting Member Of Congress being decided by federal prosecutors and the site of a sitting Member Of Congress being hauled before a federal judge for criminal arraignme arraignment. So, we will have more ahead tonight on trump ally Republican Congressman Chris Collins turning himself in and being indicted and arraigned on federal criminal charges today including talking to the intrepid local reporter at the buffalo news, who first broke the story that turned into this scandal and who himself, the reporter, gets a cameo role in todays indictment of the congressman he first exposed. That is all. Thats all coming up tonight. But, we have gotten an
exclusive story that weve got break ourselves tonight before we get to Chris Collins and the other stuff that happened today. Our exclusive tonight concerns another republican in congress who would definitely make the finals in our hypothetical pageant to choose the members of congress who is the president s favorite. Before donald trump was elected california Republican Congressman devin nunes was important but he was a low profile Member Of Congress, low profile to the extent that nobody really recognized him on sight. Definitely nobody knew how to pronounce his last name. Even though Congressman Nunes was a relatively anonymous Member Of Congress he had a big important job. Hes the head of the Intelligence Committee which is a very big deal. Since trump was elected, devin nunes, trumps supporter, a Senior Member of the trump transition, he has turned that important job of leading the Intelligence Committee into a fulltime crusade to try to derail the Russia Investigation by any means necessary and to
defend trump in that investigation at almost any cost. Congressman nunes has pressured the Justice Department and fbi into making unprecedented disclosures of Law Enforcement sensitive material and Classified Information actively being used in ongoing open investigations. Congressman nunes got himself investigated by the Ethics Committee for himself engineering an elaborate stunt from information he received from trump allies in the white house and then he called a Press Conference to announce that he was going back up to the Trump White House to deliver to them this shocking Classified Information that in fact they had just given him. The man has been acrobatic to the point of contortion in his efforts to make the Russia Investigation go away, and to turn the investigation of that attack into itself a bigger scandal than the attack in the first place. The president has been very appreciative of Congressman Nunes efforts in this area. A Great American hero. A true american patriot, devin nunes deserves everyones support. Vote for devin nunes. Tonight, we have some news about devin nunes. One of the republican members Of Kong Glows has an unexpectedly tough time in a primary last night is a senior lead area of the Republican House liedership from washington state. Congresswoman kath mcmorrisrodgers. Tonight, we have obtained an audiotape that was made at one of her final fund raisers before last nights difficult primary. We obtained this from a Progressive Group called fuse washington. Someone from that group paid to attend this cathy mcmorrisrodgers fundraiser and made this recording at this event. This fundraiser was held last week, on monday of last week. It was a closed press event. Because of that, what happened at this fundraiser has not been reported anywhere simply because reporters were explicitly not
allowed in when this thing happened last week. Tonight, we have obtained the tape of what happened at that fundraiser. On that tape, you will hear congressman cathy mcmorrisrodgers a little bit. You will mostly hear the republican chairman of the house Intelligence Committee, congressman devin nunes, who was her guest at that fundraiser trying to raise funds for her for her reelection battle. At this event, Congressman Nunes somewhat radically veers from the script where hes supposed to be raising money for cathy mcmorrisrodgers and encouraging her supporters to be enthusiastic about her candidacy, he veers from that script as you will hear and instead makes lengthy and controversial remarks about the Trump White House and specifically about the Russia Investigation. These are not the kinds of things devin nunes usually says in public. This was an event that was closed press. It was held Behind Closed Doorsfor these republican donors only. These remarks from devin nunes were never supposed to be public as far as he and cathy mcmorrisrodgers knew and presumably thought they would never become public. We have now obtained them. We believe these remarks are news worthy. We believe they are in Fact Reveller to in several instances. Im going to make those remarks public right now. Here goes. Well sort of go smaller to mediumsized to big here. First thing to know about the way congressman devin nunes talks Behind Closed Doors when he thinks there will be no Press Coverage of what he says is that for all of his very public, very fullsome expressions of fealty and support for President Trump, turns out when hes speaking Behind Closed Doors, hes willing to say hes actually a little embarrassed by President Trump that, the president s statements sometimes make him cringe. So this is the first clip from
devin nunes. This is in the context of Congressman Nunes criticizing the Russian Investigation and specifically talking about the recent news the president s statements on twitter might be cited as evidence in that investigation. Listen. They know its ridiculous to go after the president for obstruction of justice. But if they tell a lie often enough and they put it out there and they say, oh, were looking at the tweets because you know you have a mixed bag on the tweets right . Sometimes we love the president s tweets and sometimes we cringe on the president s tweets, but theyre trying to make a political this is all political from the New York Times on tweets. Congressman devin nunes, sometimes we cringe on the president s tweets. Substantively, who could possibly take issue with that, right. In real political terms, though, the president probably will take issue with that, especially given the way the president has used twitter specifically to hype up support for congressman devin nunes. Nunes we now know tells donors Behind Closed Doors at private events that the president s tweets make him cringe. More substantively the white house will also want to know while the congressman has been the single lead antagonist of the Russia Investigation in congress, while Congressman Nunes has done more than any other Congressional Republican to try to Monkey Wrench the Robert Mueller investigation and the fbi and Justice Department more broadly in order to protect President Trump and his campaign, turns out even Congressman NunesBehind Closed Doors is willing to concede that if anyone in the United States had anything to do with the release of emails and documents that were stolen during a campaign, that unequivocally would be a criminal act. Now, if somebody thinks that my campaign or cathys campaign is colluding with the chinese or you name the country, hey, could couldnt happen, it had be a very bad thing if kathy was getting secrets from the portuguese, lets say, just because im portuguese, my family was, so kathy was getting secret information from the portuguese may or may not be unusual. But ultimately say the portuguese brought her some stolen emails and decided to release that, if thats the case, thats criminal. Thats criminal. Just in case its not clear here, the reference to the portuguese here, you hear a chuckle here, not because Congressman Nunes is saying portugal did anything wrong, the congressman himself is of portuguese descent. Hes explaining hes using portugal as a hypothetical example of a country interfering in an election. Can we rerack and play the last part of that again . Lets say the portuguese came
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. During the campaign, it cannot help that the lead opponent of the Russia Investigation privately concedes when he thinks nobody is recording him that sort of activity, if proven, that would definitely be criminal. Now, we have a problem, right . Because if somebody stole the emails, gave them to cathy, cathy released them, if thats the case, thats criminal. How does that line up with the Trump Campaign and what they did with wikileaks and guccifer 2. 0 and dc leaks . Theres twos other statements at this closed door event that will make a little bit of news here. This next one includes audio cameo from the member of Congress Whose fundraiser devin nunes was speaking at. Kathy Mcmorris Rodgers is the flub four republican in House Leadership. Shes from washington state. This fundraiser we obtained this audio is from spokane, washington, held by her reelection campaign. This fundraiser was last week,
can we have that transcript to put up for a second . There have been these public statements by the Republican Leadership in congress theyre not pursuing this crazy idea of impeaching Rod Rosenstein. Despite those public statements heres kathy Mcmorris Rodgers appearing to agree that in fact, they are going to pursue impeaching Rod Rosenstein once the election is over and once they have got the new Supreme Court justice installed. Impeaching Rod Rosenstein has nothing to do with Rod Rosenstein. What it is, is the only option, the one option the Republican Congress has to really force the end of the mueller investigation. If they impeach and forcibly remove from office the man who oversees the mueller investigation, that is how they could arrange the installation of Somebody Else who could be put in place in that same job who would shut the investigation down. Its really the only thing Congressional Republicans could do to stop the mueller
investigation. Its their emergency brake, an extreme, even a crazy option and it has been seen that way, seen as extreme if not crazy fuss far in washington, at least in public statements by house Republican Leadership in washington. But heres evidence from this audio that the House Leadership is secretly on board with this plan. But for after the election. And they want to specifically sequence it so it happens once President Trumps nominee is safely installed on the Supreme Court. That may be just about wanting the Supreme Court nomination fight to take precedence over everything else. It may also mean theyre expecting the impeachment of Rod Rosenstein to precipitate some kind of constitutional crisis for which they want to make sure theyve got the new trump justice already ensconced on the high court. Hoarse one last one. Congressman devin nunes leads the Intelligence Committee, a
impede that investigation, or else, right . Or quote all of this goes away. Thats why they want to keep the majority. Thats the stakes for them keeping the majority. Theyre using the majority to impede the investigation. If they lose the majority the investigation might go forward, and then, quote, all of this goes away. So, again, we obtained this audio from a Progressive Group called fuse washington, someone from that group paid to attend this fundraiser and made this recording. We, of course, asked congressman devin nunes for comment. He has thus far not responded. We hope he will. We asked congresswoman cathy mcmorrisrodgers for comment. This was her fundraiser after all. Her office has not yet commented either. Although we hope they will. We will let you know if we hear back. We will post all this audio and transcripts online tonight. Stay with us tonight. More to come. Tech at safelite autoglass, we really pride ourselves on making it easy for you to get your windshield fixed. With safelite, you can see exactly when well be there. Saving you time for what you love most. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im Gonna Follow The Sun now im gonna tell my momma that im a traveller im Gonna Follow The Sun transitions™ light under control™ transitions™ heres a trip tip when you Search Hotels on tripadvisor. Enter your destination and the dates of your stay. Tripadvisor searches over 200 Booking Sites. To find the best deal on the right hotel for you. Tripadvisor. 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. Prosecutors pressing the case against the president s complain chairman Paul Manafort say th