. thank you. >> presidential. >> that's good. >> that's all in. rachel maddow starts now. >> as we get closer to the start of the primary. the word thunderdome gets used more and more often. >> a good model. >> eventually everybody will have a chain saw not just rand paul and all have them in the same room. amazing. thank you, chris. >> see you. >> thank you to you at home for joining us this hour. 1985, i was 12. 1985 was a big year. it was not because that's the year the falcon and snowman came out. an amazing spy movie. for nonfiction, pop culture reasons, 1985 was called the year of the spy. on may 20th, 1985, a chief warrant officer in the u.s. navy was arrested by the fbi after his wife basically narced him out to the u.s. government for spying for the soviet union.

his name was john anthony walker. he had been stealing classified information from the navy for years. selling it to the soviet union. he had been doing this for almost 20 years. by the time the fbi finally caught up to him and arrested him in may 1985. walker had roped his immediate family into helping him with spying efforts. paid a lot by the soviets for doing it. eventually his wife turned him in. when the john anthony walker spying arrest was disclosed in 1985 it was shocking at the time. it turned out that it was just the first of many, many such arrests and revelations that year. john walker was arrested in may, 1985. fast forward. cement of that year. edward lee howard. edward lee howard worked at the cia. he had started selling u.s. intelligence to the soviet union in the previous year, 1984. the fbi was apparently tipped off that he might be a spy inside the cia.

stealing secret information. might secretly be working for the russians. the fbi was sort of on to him. they were set to potentially arrest him. but he got away. he defected to rush yeah. -- russia. he lived in russia the rest of his life until he died almost 20 years later. that was cement. then in november, that same year, november 21st, they arrested jonathan pollard, then a civilian research analyst working for u.s. navy intelligence. arrested him for selling u.s. classified information for israel. then the day after they arrested jonathan pollard, november 22nd, the fbi arrest add noth cia guy -- arrested another cia guy, long time cia employee charged with selling classified information this time to china. then two days after that the fbi arrested a long-time employee of the nsa. ronald pelton. ronald pelton worked at the nsa 14 years. sold very highly classified u.s. information from the nsa to the soviet union.

those last throw arrests all happened within the same week. and the nsa, robert pelton case an incredibly damaging case. pelton worked at the nsa 14 years, gave over highly classified information to the ussr, ended up getting sentenced to three life terms in prison plus ten years. for how he sold out his country to russia. three life times plus ten years. is a long time. when they arrested pelton, 1985, sentenced 1986, the last any body heard of robert pelton. turns out the test of time has proven that the guy who was arrested three days before ronald pelton, jonathan pollard, the guy who worked in naval intelligence spying for israel. turns out of all of the traitors unmasked in the year of the spy, out of all of the reagan era, cold war, espionage cases this

one, jonathan pollard, one that is a constant source of news and high level intrigue for going on 30 years now. pollard went by the name jay. considered a smart guy. his dad a professor at notre dame. he went to stanford. at one point applied for a job at the cia. didn't end up working at the cia. got a job working at the naval intelligence command. his agreement, his area of focus as a research analyst for naval intelligence was supposed to be the caribbean and north american. some of his co-workers started to notice that he was going out of his way to access all sorts of classified information that didn't have anything to do with the caribbean and north america. particularly interested in top level information about the middle east. so there was some suspicions about his behavior at work among his co-workers. that led his co-workers to alert the fbi that they were a little worried about that guy.

in november of 1985, the fbi stopped jay pollard on his way out of work they questioned him about how he was handling classified information. ended up questioning him that night. a monday. they questioned him that night and the following tuesday and the following wednesday. and he did apparently admit to the fbi he had been mishandling classified information he had been taking classified documents and he had been handing them off to someone. he promised to keep talking, promised to get specific, help the fbi find other people involved in this plot. so the fbi apparently decided it was okay to keep sort of a loose leash on him. keep him talk. to hope that they could learn even more from him. hope he could lead them to even bigger fish. they also allowed him during the course of their questioning, they allowed him to make a few different phone calls to his wife. he wanted to let his wife know where he was. keep her from worrying abut him. so he asked several times to be excused to go make those calls to his wife.

one of the legendary things in each of the calls he found a way to bring the conversation around to the topping of -- cactuses. he told his wife, go see our friends and give them our cactus. note to self. if you ever need a code word, pick something you may reasonably talk about on the phone and not cactus. more like a safe word, less like a code word if you know what i mean. in this guy's case, he had worked out this code word, with his wife in advance. the word cactus, may or may not have been an acronym for a secret weapons system or something he had stolen information about. in any case he and his wife worked out this plan where he mentioned the cactus to her. she would know that would be a signal that she should go retrieve from their apartment, a giant suitcase he had stashed there full of classified u.s. intelligence documents.

so he gave the signal. he is being questioned by the fbi. let him make a phone call. he says cactus to his wife on the phone. she knows she is to get the suitcase and get rid of it. so the fbi has been tipped off this guy might be doing something fishy at work. start questioning him. he basically confesses a little bit he has been handing over classified information. the fbi lets him tip off his wife to get rid of some of the damning evidence. because he says he was going to lead them to others involved in the plot, they let him go. they started questioning him monday of that week. november 1985. they started questioning him monday. on thursday of that week, november 21st, 1985, he got into his ford mustang. he grabbed his cat, dusty. grabbed his wife. and he and his wife and dusty the cat they all drove to the israeli embassy in washington, d.c. and they knocked on the door and jonathan pollard asked at the israeli embassy for them to take him and his family in.

take them in. he asked for asylum. and the israeli embassy said, i'm sorry, who now? you want what? you are who? you want what? they turned him down. kept the door shut. and the fbi arrested him. and if people had not already been shocked by the john walker navy spying case and the cia guy defecting to moscow, well, the jonathan pollard arrest sealed the deal the 1985 would be the year of the spy. >> federal officials are saying tonight navy employee jonathan pollard admitted he was paid almost $50,000 for american military secrets he sa mrid to israel. israel apparently not his only skus myrrh. arrested outside the israeli embassy in washington. nbc's reporter, tonight he almost got away. >> reporter: jonathan pollard had top secret service in 1984 when heap is alleged to have starteded selling secrets to the

israelis. $25,000 over a year and a half. the navy is now frying to determine the extent of damage from this latest spy scandal. sources tell nbc news, that pollard almost got away. the fbi had questioned him wednesday, but after he offered to lead them to other possible suspects, let him go. thursday, pollard bolted and attempted to seek political asylum at the israeli embassy in washington it was then he was arrested and charged with espionage. >> once jonathan pollard had been arrested it became clear that though he had been spying for about a year and a half, only stealing information for a year and a half, heed been doing it on an industrial scale. the amount of information that he had stolen, and handed over was just epic. it also turns out he was demanding top dollar for what he was handing over. watch this. >> the evidence showed that he worked at this naval station, hauled out suitcases of classified documents as often as three times a week and delivered them to israeli embassy

officials including a graduate student. science counselor and secretary all working as intelligence agents. court documents said several people took part in photo copying the documents at the home of an israeli diplomat in maryland. pollard got $45,000 in cash and first install on a $300,000 bank account and diamond and safe fire ring. >> diamond and safe fire ring. now, the ring it turns out was an engagement ring. aw. aparentally at one of his meetings where he was offering to sell the classified military information to israel he not only negotiated cash payment and asked to be paid partly in jewelry. that meeting happened in paris which i am sure itself was nice for him. but then an exchange for the classified military information he was handing over he asked israelis to buy that nice diamond and saphire ring. to propose to his wife.

and yes he ended up going to prison too. >> reporter: prosecutors say pollard gave away more secrets than any other spy in american history. >> this case represents ape serious and i underscore serious, grave breach of national security secrets of this country. >> in a three-hour court hearing, pollard said what he had done was wrong he expected to be punished but asked for mercy for his wife ann henderson pollard saying he sacrificed her on an altar of political ideology selling secrets to israel. pollard given life in prison. his wife sobbed as she was sentenced to five years for helping. led to a hoeflding cell she could be heard screaming and pounding the walls. prosecutors think parole is unlikely. >> mr. pollard i believe will not see the light of day. >> jonathan pollard one of the highest profile, most lurid, and if you believe prosecutors, the

most damaging spying scan dauchlz the past half century. despite what prosecutors thought when they got him locked up for life 30 years ago he is about to see the light of day. arrested in 1985, year of the spy, pled guilty. life sentence for espionage, 1987, a life sentence for that kind of crime apparently means that you go before the parole board after 30 years. today the u.s. parole commission announced that they're letting him out. they're saying he is going to get out 30 years to the day from that night he was first arrested at the israeli embassy with his wife and his cat asking for asylum. november 21st, they're going to spring him. now this is not clemency or a pardon by president obama. this is a parole board decision at the end of i guess what is effectively the 30-year minimum time served in order to qualify for parole on a life sentence. but the obama justice department could have intervened with the patrol board could have asked

them to keep him in prison for a decade or longer. the justice department decided not to do that. that is a big reason why he is about to get out. and the israelis over time have lobbied so hard for him to be released. makes it a remarkable political thing he is getting out now. every american president since reagan has come under pressure from the israelis the u.s. should release this guy because he spied for israel. a remarkable political thing it is finally happening. particularly, jonathan pollard, the ultimate bargaining chip in middle east negotiations. under george w. bush, under president obama, under bill clinton, under bush, the release of pollard dangled, negotiated. floated, demanded as a way to try to achieve otherwise unattainable middle east deals. i mean here, not only one. i will show you. take this is an example.

take thises an example because it is amazing andrea mitchell reporting from 1998. bill clinton trying to negotiate, a deal, a difficult process. it is going along. swimming upstream. inch by inch, by inch. trying how to get the deal done. everybody thinks they know what is on the table. all sides. deep into the deal. this one ever loving spy case that never goes away it gets thrown into the middle of the deal. unexpectedly. this happened again and again and again. watch andrea mitchell here. >> reporter: like everything else in the middle east it was anything but easy. nine nonstop days and nights including 90 hours involving the president and final push from jordan's ailing king hussein. 7:00 a.m. the deal is done. handshakes all around. yasser arafat leaves to get ready for the signing ceremony. marine one gets ready to take the president back to the white house. israeli officials talk about how good a deal it is. >> this takes israelis and the

palestinians closer to achieving peace with security. >> reporter: suddenly 8:00 a.m., netanyahu takes clinton aside. u.s. officials say for the first time he says he won't sign the deal unless the president first releases israeli spy jonathan pollard. convicted of stealing u.s. military secrets for israel. aide say the president is shocked. he has twice denied clemency for pollard. for six hours they argue. finally clinton says he will review the pollard case. the summit deal is back on. >> that kind of thing happened again and again and again through every presidential administration since this guy was first arrested while ronald reagan was president. every president since reagan has reviewed this guy's case. has had studies to see if he could be released. the appeals for clemency, pardon, parole. it has been this incredibly high stakes negotiating flash point for 30 years until today. today they said they will let hem out.

recently as 2011, benjamin netanyahu was telling the obama administration they had to let jonathan pollard out he served 25 years. as recently as 2011, vice president joe biden quoted saying at the time that would happen over my dead body. but now jonathan pollard is being let out. how come? what is the u.s. getting for it if at all? how did this happen? joining us now managing editor of msnbc digital. covered the pollard case for years since a correspondent for the ap in jerusalem. great to have you here. >> thank you, rachel. >> did i get anything wrong? >> you got everything exactly right. you know even last year when kerry was making this last-ditch effort again with the israelis and palestinians, the pollard case was dangled out there. would obama release him early? of course it didn't happen. >> that's part of my question. so last year they're talking, they're still, once again, talking about jonathan pollard got to get him out, using this as part of a bigger negotiation. last year he want up for parole. the parole board said no.

this year today the parole board said yes. the obama administration is saying that it is like an inevitable thing about the course of the wheels of justice he would have gotten out today. this is no, politics here. not part of any deal. a stand-aloner to. inevitable because of the way the parole board works. doesn't make any sense. the parole board said no last year. >> that's right. though it is his release date this year. as far as when his sentencing occurred. they could still ask to keep him. it's an extraordinary case. they could come up to the parole board and say we don't believe he should be released and make a case for keeping him longer. this is really about politics and obama's legacy being able to say i'm the president after all of the presidents who said no. i'm the president who is not going to block this. i will be the president on whose watch jonathan pollard will be released. really ironic and for the administration too after the crazy and very difficult and very upsetting relationship that the united states has had with

israel, personal between netanyahu and obama for all sorts of reasons but especially the iran deal that now all of a sudden the administration can say, look we let him go. look at that. >> for years going after, in every possible way you can at the most fraught moments for 30 years. i will give tight you. here's my question. over the years when all of these other presidents have reviewed this, the intelligence community has said, the american intelligence community has been the force saying no. loudly. three former chiefs of naval intelligence, three navy admirals in the 90s, would set out writing op-eds. george tenet would resign if jonathan pollard were released. the cia and other intelligence said never let this guy out. has the that faded? is obama picking a fight with them by doing this? >> i don't think so. it was unanimous always. it was fbi directors. attorneys general. heads, directors of central

intelligence. they were unanimous. i think at this point with 30 years kind of passed the damage that pollard can do anymore with intelligence he received has receded. i think everyone agrees. let's let this go. let's not have israel having this chip with us, constantly asking for this release. let's kind of get it off of our plate now. >> well if it, if it does flare up as a fight between the obama administration. >> there is one coming. will he be allowed to go back to israel and stay in the united states. >> conditions of parole, he stays here. they want president obama to allow him to leave the country. a fight over this. i can't belief they're letting him out. managing editor of msnbc digital. great to have you here. lots more ahead including one candidate turning out to have a fairly awesome billionaire's fan club. and it's not who you think. please stay with us. thanks for calling angie's list. how may i help you? i heard i could call angie's list if i needed work done around my house at

a fair price. you heard right, just tell us what you need done and we'll find a top rated provider to take care of it. so i could get a faulty light switch fixed? yup! or have a guy refinish my floors? absolutely! or send someone out to groom my pookie? pookie's what you call your? my dog. yes, we can do that. real help from real people. come see what the new angie's list can do for you. if your purse is starting to look more like a tissue box... you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin®. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. muddle no more™ .

>> i will smash your face into a car windshield and then take your mother dorothy out for a nice seafood dinner and never call her again! >> threats like the dorothy mantooth seafood dinner threat are only supposed to be voiced by characters in movies like "anchorman." they're not supposed to happen in real live major party american politics. but today they did. and it was spectacularly disgusting. and i'm sorry to say that story ahead.

>> $38 million. $38 million. the ted cruz for president folks are due to report that super pacs supporting ted cruz raised $38 million to support his run for the presidency. now jeb bush is the republican candidate who raised the most pac money. jeb bush raised $100 million.

but second place to jeb in the money race is ted cruz of all people. that is surprising because ted cruz is really not a jeb bush level candidate. in the polling particularly in the early states. ted cruz is down more in like fiorina territory, perry, kasich, christie territory. not in jeb bush territory. the huge $38 million for his super pacs puts him in the top tier in terms of fund-raising. it's interesting. and now we know the very interesting explanation for why that is true. to get to that $38 million haul, cnn now reports that $15 million of that came from two brothers in texas, fracking billionaires, another $11 million from a hedge fund guy in new york, $10 million of that came from, this congressman's son. so, the son and a hedge fund guy and two fracking billionaire brothers have given ted cruz $10 $11 million, $15 million.

do the math. take your shoes off if you need to. the four guys have provided $36 million of the $38 million super pac dollars. $36 million of the $38 million. 95% of what ted cruz has raised is from four guys. two of them are brothers. and none of that has been enough off to keep ted cruz out of fiorina territory in terms of his polling in the early states. but those four individual rich guys, those four individual giant donations are what make ted cruz appear to be a top level contender for the republican nomination for president even as real live individual humans who are not able to write him $10 million checks seem considerably less susceptible to ted cruz's charms. $36 million is a lot of money to raise. but four people are not a lot of

people to raise it from. must be nice to have that kind of roladex. but that strange bit of ted cruz viability campaign math, that's not the weirdest set of numbers. the really weird numbers about somebody who people do like as much as they don't like ted cruz. that story is next.

>> this is bobby tufts, became mayor of dorsette, minnesota when he was 3 years old. undoubtedly america's cutest mayor.

after serving two term as the may your he was ousted by a low cull teenager who ran to replace him. now, i use the term ran, i use the election idea here loosely because the process in dorsette, minnesota. consists of picking a name out of a hat at a fair. town of 25 people. but still, the ousted former mayor of dorsette, minnesota, bobby tufts is throwing his support behind a new candidate for dorsette's next mayoral election due this weekend. turns out bobby tufts is endorsing his own little brother james. who is also now 3 years old. do you believe the nepotism? the vote will be held at the taste of dorset food festival sunday. when bobby was asked why he was passing the torch to brother james. he said because my mom said i have to. i am the oldest brother. the tyranny of the tufts

toddlers continues in dorset, my favorite dynasty story in politics ever. mostly because i don't like american political dynasty stories. in the big picture regardless of the day-to-day news of the campaign one of the deeply unsettling things about the presidential race. we are talking about the son and brother of former presidents, jeb bush against wife of former president bill clinton, hillary clinton. those two as the most likely nominees from their parties. right. i mean, throw in a dash of son of ron paul for good measure. and the oogieness of the dynasty trend in politics that feeling -- eh. it makes it all the more refreshing that today's big news is about a candidate whose father did not run for president, whose brother has never been president, never married to a president. not the next one up in a family dynasty. part of his political appeal has always been that he is the son of a mailman.

>> my dad carried mail on his back, john the mailman. and they loved him because he looked out for everyone in those neighborhood. i learned something from my father. do your best to look out for other people. >> an ad run by super pac supporting ohio governor john kasich. airing in support of candidacy in new hampshire. airing in new hampshire right. whenever you think about that ad, the choice run the ads is strategic. this year, iowa and new hampshire are not allowed to play their traditional role as the gatekeeper to the presidential primary field. right? in the, on the republican side this year that role of deciding who gets to be a viable candidate that role has instead been taken over by the fox news channel in new york city. which is only letting people into the first republican primary debate based on their

national polling numbers. that decision has changed the strategic incentives how to run for president this year. at least on some surface level it no longer makes sense for lower tier candidates to focus time and resources on places like iowa and new hampshire. it now makes more sense for them to be running basically on the fox news channel. in hopes of reaching republican voters nationwide. and thus helping their national polls. that's why our friend across the street at fox news have seen a nice big influx of ad dollars from the marco rubio of super pac running ads on fox news and rick perry super pac running ads on fox news, chris christie, super pac on fox news, chris christie campaign running ad on fox news. fox news set its rules for who is in and out of their debate. now they're ca-ching cashing in on it. john kasich, the governor of ohio isn't doing that. he has been doggedly running his ads in new hampshire as if this is a normal year. forget fox rule and their stupid debate rules. lo and behold it is working. john kasich's numbers are spiking in new hampshire which you can seen the two recent

polls, the poll out today, tied for third place with scott walker. this next one this is the nbc news marist poll sunday, showing him in fourth place which, based on where he has been that's really, really well for him. that's a surge. but whether it is the, the ads, or his, you know increasing popularity more broadly, or the good press bounce he got from his late announcement, late entry into the race, john kasich isn't just going up in the early states. isn't just going up in new hampshire. he is going of enough in the national polls that he appears to be leaving what i look to think of carly fiorina territory. if trends hold, john kasich is doing well enough in the national polls that he may be heading towards a spot on the first fox news debate stage. at least according to our calculations using the most recent national polls which are our best guess of the owe peak criteria by which fox will decide to who will debate for

the republican nomination. john kasich may make it, having both defied the new fox news dictated, fox news enriching rules for this year's republican presidential campaign. and also, not having a blueprint from a family member's previous presidential ground to use as his own. john kasich is turning out to be interesting. doing it on sort of different terms than everybody else. a lot of weird subplots in the presidential campaign. weird enough that a lot of republican campaigns are going to have their campaigns effectively ended next week. by a cabell news channel. this is turning out to be a year of unexpected story lines and hard to discern strategies. but the latest numbers for john kasich suggest that he-dasht this point in the race-may be the most unexpected one of all. joining us is casey hunt. casey, great to have you here. thank you. >> great to see you, rachel. am i unnecessarily overly excited by john kasich's surge in the poll numbers? >> i don't think that you are.

i am also excited by john kasich's poll numbers. the campaign thinks that kasich is for real. when he announced, the traffic privately. they're paying a lot of attention to what john kasich is doing. you are right doing it the old-fashioned way on the air in new hampshire, old-fashioned way on the ground in new hampshire too. a potential threat. he is from the perspective of people who are watching this in the traditional way, a serious threat. >> in terms of john kasich's role in this very large group of candidates, one of the things that he has been able to leverage in terms of his, national appeal and i think certain extent power in ohio he is well connected. kind of like mitch daniels. he knows everybody else in his generation in politics. doesn't seem to have enemies, high level, republican politics. knows people from washington. knows people on the party machine.

knows people in the ohio machine so important to republican primary voters. is, does that mean that people are going to be reluctant to pick on him if he doesn't end up being one of the guys to beat? >> he's been around a long time. fought the hard fights. fiscal battles in washington. clinton years in the 1990s. he represents ohio. who ever is the nominee is going to need him to work on their behalf. not to say he wouldn't, regardless of how things went down. the one thing i will say about kasich, you know, you were pointing out fox news. don't forget he hosted a show on fox news. for quite a long time -- "heartland with john kasich" he said i am going to bring the lessons of the heartland to the rest of america. he is hitting notes that are missing from the rest of the republican field. >> is there anything else going on now in the republican field? you being out there on the road, seeing a lot of the guys in person, how people are reacting

to them? is there anything you feel we should be watching for in terms of a dark horse, candidate, somebody underperforming overperforming what they're getting billed at in the national media. >> i think at this stage. heading into a debate next week. as i am talking to my usual sources. they're looking at how do i prepare my guy to stand on the stage with all of these people. and normally, you would have, iowa, new hampshire, candidates, win in iowa. candidates who have to win in new hampshire. normally candidates would be saying, scott walker leading in iowa. i need to go after scott walker. if i will make my mark. jeb bush is leading in new hampshire. got to go after him. donald trump scrambled that entire formula. and there are people who have been in politics for decades. who literally have no idea what to do. they have no idea what to say. what to tell their candidate. i mean in some ways, aside from trump could be the most boring debate we have ever seen. the rest of them are deciding look just going to have to take my four, five minutes and, sell my record while we listen to donald trump over here. the question, does anybody engage with him or put their hand up and stand back. >> msnbc political

correspondent, casey hunt. thank you for that. can't tell you how much i am looking forward to that. >> you and me both. >> the fact it is the viable candidates who have to count on new hampshire. donald trump leading by double digits in new hampshire. there is just take the silverware drawer out and shake it over your head. >> the playbook. >> thank you, casey. we'll be right back. stay with us. and when you bundle your home and auto insurance through progressive, you'll save a bundle! [ laughs ] jamie. right. make a bad bundle joke a buck goes in the jar. i guess that's just how the cookie bundles. now, you're gonna have two bundles of joy! i'm not pregnant. i'm gonna go. [ tapping, cash register dings ] there

you go. [ buzzing ] bundle bee coming! it was worth it! saving you a bundle when you bundle -- now, that's progressive.

so the candidate whose name has become a verb this year -- the guy who -- ha-ha, is a verb for what you can do to your cat to make it look like this. that guy and his entourage brought us to a whole new level i can not believe this is happening in american politic tuesday. on the way to the new level of shocking they left behind a really truly terrible factual error. and we are going to correct that here for them tonight. stay with us.

>> so the daily beast posted the story late last night about the end of one of donald trump's marriages. i do not want to talk about donald trump's marriages. you are welcome to research them

to your heart's content to the extent that you feel they are news worthy. what end up being important here is that in the course of doing this story about one of mr. trump's marriages and its failings, the daily beast reached out to donald trump's lawyer and campaign surrogate, a man named michael cohen to get his comment on their story. and then two things happened. the first is that michael cohen launched one of the longest, most involved, most movie scene unbelievable cascade of lurid threats at the daily beast reporter that i have ever heard in any context. quote, i will make sure you and i meet one day while we are in the courthouse. and i will take you for every penny you still don't have. and i will come after your daily beast. and everybody else that you possibly know. so i'm warning you, tread very bleeping lightly because what i am going to do to you is going to be bleeping disgusting. you understand me? i am going to mess your life up. for as long as you are on this freaking planet. you are going to have judgments

against you, so much money, you will never know huh to get from underneath it. what i am going to do will not only destroy you it will disgust you in the way that i do it. wow. that was cut from the sopranos for being over the top. and now, please elect mr. trump to be president of the united states. right? really. here's the thing, in the course of that tirade, which is being very widely reported for all the obvious reasons, what's also getting wide coverage as part of the story is something else that mr. trump's lawyer said in the middle of all of the f bombs and the threats. he also in the same exchange told the daily beast, quote, of course, understand, that by the very definition you can't rape your spouse. it's true, he said, you cannot rape your spouse. there is very clear case law. donald trump's lawyer and surrogate for his presidential

campaign tells a reporter it is not rape if the person you rape is some one to whom you are married. that is 100%, 1,000% not true. and propagating that as a lawyer is both astonishing and dangerous and wrong on a lot of different levels. there is no such thing as spousal rape, there is just rape. it's still rape regardless of whether the victim its the spouse of the rapist. that is not only very clear, it's very true. it's true in all 50 states. and in an unambiguous way, everywhere, christ al mighty. now thanks to donald trump being front rener for the presidential nomination covering the presidential primary means having to clear uppish use like that for the public because his campaign is conducted in such a way that we have to do that basically as public service. aw. donald trump's lawyer apologized

for an inarticulate comment he does not believe. we don't know if he means his threats about destroying the reporter in a way that the reporter will find f-ing disgusting, or maybe he regretted that or the denial that spousal rape is still rape. mr. trump's ex-wife ivana trump has come out defending her former husband to say saying the daily beast story has no merit, donald trump vehemently denied the story and distanced himself. donald trump disagrees with the comments his lawyer made about spousal rape. but now, covering republican presidential politics really does mean clearing up issues. you think you have hit the bottom in american politics and the the sewer has a whole another level that you never new things could descend to. quil and sleep like... you haven't seen your bed in days. no, like you haven't seen a bed in weeks!

zzzquil. the non habit forming sleep-aid that helps you sleep easily and wake refreshed. because sleep is a beautiful thing. does your makeup remover take it all off? every kiss-proof cry-proof, stay-proof look? neutrogena® makeup remover does. it erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. need any more proof than that? neutrogena. ♪ some neighbors are energy saving superstars. how do you become a superstar? with pg&e's free online home energy checkup. in just under 5 minutes you can see how you use energy and get quick and easy tips on how to keep your monthly bill down and your energy savings up. don't let your neighbor enjoy all the savings. take the free home energy checkup. honey, we need a new refrigerator. visit pge.com/checkup and get started today.

>> this was the bombshell headline. criminal inquiry sought in hillary clinton any use of e-mail. when you look at it looks like someone is seeking a criminal inquiry in to hillary clinton action actions. after published they quietly and without notice changed the first few sentences of the story. it was an investigation in to whether information was mishandled by someone but not her.

later they issued the first in what would be a string of corrections. ", an earlier version of this article and earl general headline using information from senior government officials misstated the nature of the referral to the justice department regarding hillary clinton's personal e-mail account. the referral did not request an investigation in to mrs. clinton. that was the first correction. then the second correction, issued the following day. even more of a jaw hitting the floor discovery. turns out that possible criminal investigation in to hillary clinton not only was it not a criminal investigation in to hillary clinton, there was no criminal investigation period. the senior government officials, whoever they are, they were wrong about that. there was no criminal referral. within a couple of days it goes from being how hillary clinton is the subject of a criminal inquiry by the justice

department to hillary clinton is not the subject of any criminal inquiry to there is no criminal inquiry. the times changes the headline, the lead, they publish not one but two corrections. over the weekend, the "new york times" public editor, the reader's advocate at the paper weighed in. "a clinton story fraught with inaccuracies." and then after that, today we get this editor's note about how the paper got a bunch of stuff wrong. how they mishandled even the corrections and still don't now how it all happened. this was a big high-profile disaster for the "new york times." it was also a reminder of the utterly bizarre relationship that the national media has with hillary clinton specifically. basically in the national media, everything hillary clinton does is a scan d.a. remember when she was super guilty in white water. she is covered as if a convicted felon who has to prove her innocence every time she is accused of something. even then she is still guilty. just got away with it.

that is the attitude of the press corps with hillary clinton for the phrase of they are political career. talk about the liberal press, maybe they are liberal but not democratic. this debacle with the "new york times" is a reminder of a dark period in the recent history of that specific paper of the "new york times." >> the intelligence sources we were talking to had never been wrong or led me astray and i went back to them in this book and said what happened, how did you and i get it wrong? >> judith miller the reporter from the "new york times," formerly from the new york times whose coverage of the iraq war relied on highly unnamed sources, faulty sources. many whom had an agenda and convinced the "new york times" to print their wrong factually

inaccurate case for war. the "new york times" published many journalism mea culpas over the years of how they crewed up their iraq war coverage. the explanation from the reporter at the center of it is she was only wrong because her sources were wrong. it wasn't her. it was supposed to be telling her true stuff but decided to tell her false stuff. i was wrong because my sources were wrong. that was judith miller. the new york time defense of the hillary clinton story this week, e-mail story, their explanation on what they got wrong here sounds similar, almost identical to the judith miller defense. they are saying "we got it wrong because our very good sources had it wrong." that's according to a "new york times" editor. the reporters and editors on the story are not at fault. their sources were wrong. anonymous senior government officials who told the times there was a criminal referral in to hillary clinton when there was none.

the times says they probably couldn't have done anything differently. not our fault, sources were wrong. what's our responsibility for that? the senior government officials whose names we as readers cannot know or evaluate the "new york times" is arguing their sources are to blame so they couldn't have known. except it is the job of a news organization to vet the accuracy of the sources and you are to blame for the fake stuff your sources get you to print. no, this is not a matter of war and peace like last time with the "new york times" and judith miller, just a matter of who maybe the next president of the united states. yes, the "new york times" is under a microscope and everything they do is analyzed. but that is because we need the "new york times," unlike any other news organization in the country or world. they are the paper of record for a reason. they are screwing this up in the same way they have screwed up even more serious stuff in the past and they should have

figured it out by now.

all the attention is on the republican side of the presidential nominating process for obvious reason because there are so many of those folks and weird thing whether they make the debate and it is a week away and all that drama. i get it. on the democratic side, there is something to watch tomorrow. bernie sanders has been drawing huge crowds wherever he goes. 11,000 people in madison, this week in red state, louisiana, he drew 4,000 people. in southern louisiana, huge crowds. tomorrow he is going to be in cincinnati, ohio. we found out the cincinnati, ohio, town hall venue for bernie sanders had to be moved to a larger event hall so they can cram as many people in who with have rsvp'd to see him. if you are planning to turn out to see him tomorrow in

cincinnati, something tells me you out to prepare for a long lineal may want to wear your comfy shoes. we'll see. many in as they can to see him. if you're planning to turn out tomorrow, something tells me you may want to be prepared for a long line and wear comfy shoes. "first look" is up next. it is wednesday, july 29th. right now on "first look," new revelations about tom brady and deflategate. the claim is that they destroyed evidence. the two that helped two convicted killers escape. a be bedentist kills a lion that's supposed to be protected. the zoo is in hot water. and how a