that story dropped tonight just in the last couple hours. we've got ali watkins here tonight to talk about that story much we've got her exclusively. you are going to want to hear that. we're also going to be joined by michael lighter. he's the former director of the national counterterrorism center. big show coming up tonight. a lot to get to this hour. one of the weirder stories is the revelation that jared kushner is in baghdad today. the u.s. secretary of state has not been the baghdad since the new administration started. but jared's there. that said, it's not totally clear what the secretary of state does in this new administration. i mean, take the president's special envoy for middle east piece. is a person that still been appointed to be trump administration's eyes and ears, the point person on middle east peace. that person doesn't report to tither president or secretary of

state. that person reports to jared. "the new york times" and the financial times report in detail today that the preparations for the critical meeting this week with president xi of china, those prepositions are being led by jared also. jared has been been put in charge with relations with china more broadly including preparing for the presidential meeting. he has been put in charge of u.s. relations with canada and u.s. relations with mexico, including building the wall. he has been put in charge of all trade deals. "the washington post" reported last week he's in charge of re-imagining the veterans administration. he's also been put in charge of the national broad band policy and criminal justice reform and the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure. he also sits in on national security council principles meetings when it comes time to discuss the nuclear threat from north korea. and now today, baghdad.

busy young man. hopefully he was adequately prepared for all these enormous responsibilities by his vast life and work experience which consists entirely of him inheriting his father's real estate business. he also did have to run business himself for a time while his dad was in prison. but he has this remarkable portfolio, maybe an unprecedented portfolio of both international and domestic responsibilities within the administration. and that portfolio is made all the more remarkable by the fact that his wife, the president's daurks will get a senior white house job. we know she's already sitting in on many of the most high-profile visits by many foreign leaders to the united states. between her and her husband, their experience and expertise in the world lies in the fields of real estate and jewelry

marketing. but the two of them will be now in charge of the most important and sensitive stuff in the government of the richest and most powerful nation on earth. incidentally i should mention we learned that the administration has now found a new job as well for laura trump. who? lau laura. laura is eric's wife. the firm that ones the digit side of the campaign will ploy laura, eric trump's wife. i have no idea what her work experience is, but i'm sure she's the best qualified person in america for that job, whatever that job is. in the past we've had like, you know, a first lady who worked on health policy. once had we had a president who hired his brother as attorney general. but we've come to think of those things as exceptions to the rule. we never thought of ourselves as a country where you day and

kusay get to be whatever they want. now that's what we are. and here is a rude consequence of that for our new ruling family. this remarkable consolidation, beyond that backgrounds just a remarkable thing in itself, today this new thing that we've got as a country, this skolgts of american government power in the nuclear family of the president, today that potentially started to become a liability for the administration and for the government in terms of the most serious scandal that looms over the new administration. this is fci ukten.

federal correctional institution. it's a low security prison in ohio. 200 male prisoners there. this weekend, that particular prison released a russian spy. technically his release date was not until the end of july, but they let him out on friday with time off for good behavior. that said, this russian spy was not released back into the community at large when he got sprung from federal prison on friday, the federal prison system released him to immigration and customs authorities because as part of his plea deal, he agreed held immediately agree that they would deport him back to russia. this guy who was just sprung from prison, yes, i have geni bureau i can'tkov. when the fbi busted the spy ring

he was part of in 2015, there were three alleged spies who were named in the criminal indictment, the indictment was brought by preet bharara's office in the southern district of new york. but he was one of the three people named in this ring. he's the one they kauchlgt they arrested him january 2015 at a spectacular in river dale new york. by the time they brought those charges, the other two guys had fled back to russia all right. one of them has been employed as a trade representative for the russian federation in the united states, and the other was a attache at the united states. they both went back to moscow. they both escaped being arrested by the fbi. but this guy who got caught, who's been in prison until this weekend, this guy who they

actually nailed, he didn't have an official government cover job like the other two did. they were all named in the indictment. the other two had cover jobs working for the russian government his cover job was a nonofficial cover. he was an employee of a russian bank called the v.e.b. he was the number two at v.e.b. when he was arrested and charged with being a spy and put on trial, his employers, this russian bank paid for his legal defense. and that wasn't all they paid for. on the day that he got arrested at the supermarket, his wife and two kids reportedly fled their home and went to the the building that houses the russian mission in new york. associates then reportedly ran sacked the apartment the family had lived in. he's in fbi custody, the what kind of and kids have gone to the russian mission.

associates tore the apartment apart, smashed up the wall board, broke the place apart. they're looking for anything he might have left behind or listening devices that the fbi might have hidden in his family apartment. apparently the fbi had put both cameras and microphones all over the family apartment. but by the time his so he talks were tearing the place apart, the fbi had reportedly taken them all back. this is like amazing spy movie stuff, but think about the practicalities of it. you can imagine how his landlord felt about the state of the that apartment when he found out his tenth's going to prison, the rest of his family has fled, and now he's got this literally mess

on his hands. once again, the bank came to the rescue. in addition to financing his legal defense, the bank reportedly settled with the landlord for about $45,000 to cover the cost of the damage done to that house when his friend tore the place apart after he got arrested by the fbi and charged with being a spy. all the stories of how he handed off intel to the other russian spies who were in this ring with him and the drama of his arrest and family fleeing in the dead of night into the residentura, but that bank and that spy scandal are turning out to be a pesky asterisk that keeps getting affixed to lots of things about the new trump administration, because that bank where he was secretly working as a russian spy, that

is a state-run russian bank. russian prime minister medvedev is on the supervisory board. the chairman of that bank started his career by going to the kbg school. that fsb-trained chairman of the bank was hand-picked to be chairman of the bank by vladimir putin himself last year. that bank for a million reasons should have a flashing red light when it comes to russian operations here in the united states. it was a matter of public record that bank harbored a high level spy who was working there as cover and paid for his defense and cleaning up his apartment. that's why it was astonishing news a week ing a today when the "new york times" reported that

jared kushner had not disclosed a meeting he too during the presidential transition with e chairman of that bank, with the putin hand picked fsb chairman of the spy bank who apparently met in person with jared kushner in december. jared kushner never closed that meeting despite all the other troubles that have playground this young administration about their undisclosed contacts with russian officials. for whatever reason, jared kushner did not disclose that meeting until it was reported in the "new york times" today. that alone is sort of problematic enough when it comes to someone with a portfolio with a desk and international portfolio that he's been assigned by his father-in-law in the new administration. troubling enough. but now buzzfeed adds their new scoop tonight. as i mentioned, this spy ring that got busted by the fbi, three russian guys, one guy who

had what they call nonofficial cover who worked at this bank. the other two guys, their cover jobs were official government positions. one was a trade representative for russia. one of them worked at the russian mission to the u.n. when it came time for at home feed their stolen documents and intel from their spy ring back to moscow, what would happen is these two guys who had official cover, they would take care of that part of it. not the guy who worked at the bank because he had no relationship with the russian government. but the other guys who had official cover and russian government jobs, whenever they had anything though transmit home, they would go to the residentura, a secure facility where they could make encrypted transmissions back to moscow center, back to spy headquarters

in russia. the fbi ranged to have somebody feed these guys sensitive stolen documents. and they handed these documents over in binders. and these russian guys, these spies, they took the binders with this juicy intel into the residentura in new york and the fbi had hidden microphones inside the binders. and he got the listen to everything these guys said, even though they thought they were in the most secure environment. inside the russian mission they thought they were essentially on russian soil. they certainly had diplomatic immunity, they were in russian space, but the documents they had were bugged. there were microphones in the binders. so the fbi got hours and hours of tape off those microphones in the binders of these guys talking when they were sure nobody could hear them.

one of the things those guys talked about was the other guy in their spy ring who worked in the bank. that's how they got him. another thing was their repeated efforts to recruit americans for their spying efforts. when this case broke open in 2015 and they released the indictment, a lot of the news coverage was about the facts he wanted to target college girls in new york to be russian assets. that had a nice tabloid appeal to it, even though the indictment didn't indicate they had too much success with the college girls effort. where they did have success was with male number one. a quote from the indictment here. quote, arbitrator april 8th 2013, the defendant discussed efforts working as an intelligence source. what i will quote you is a conversation wean the two

russian spies, the guys who got charged but already fled back to moscow. this is the two guys who are now back in moscow who never got arrested. this is them speaking at the residentura having no idea they're being sur veiled. this is the fbi translation. male one wrote that he's soifrmt he went to moscow and forgot to check his inbox. but he wants to meet when he gets back. i keep he's an idiot and forgot who i am. he writes to me in russian to practice the language. he got hooked on gazprom. it's obviously he wants to earn lots of money. spy number two says, without a doubt. then he says they've new project right now. it's about to take off. i do not say anything fornow. the other spy says, first we'll

spend a couple borrowed millions. and then the first spy laughs. and then says this, quote, it's worth it. i like that he takes on everything. for now his enthusiasm works for me. i also promised him a lot. i have connections in the trade representation, meaning you, that you could push contracts. i will feed him empty promises. and then the other spywaerz, hes bleep, no, then he'll write me, or write to our clean one. meaning he will write to the trade representatives office and accidentally not talk to a spy. helmeted talk to a real trade rep. wouldn't that be terrible for their recruitment efforts? the first guy says don't worry about it. i did not even say this was connected to a government agency. how else to work with foreigners?

this was a conversation sur veiled by the fbi through their magic microphone in the binders trick. that conversation happened in april 2013. they are talking about an american citizen. they're talking about recruiting an american asset if their spying. that happens in april. in june the fbi decides to act. they paid that american guy a visit. quote, on or about june 13th, 2013, agent two and i interviewed male one he said he first met the defendant on january 2013 at an energy symposium in the city. during this time he gave him his business card. they changed e-mails about the energy business and met in person on occasion with male one providing the defendant with male one's outlook on the energy industry. male one also provided documents

to the defendant about the energy business. so forget the college girls thing which didn't work out for them. this is what the russian spies were after. this is start of h they cultivate northerns betray the united states. start off friendly with a business relationship or an academic relationship. start off with could just let us know your own thoughts on specific industries or specific things in the u.s. government. maybe you could help us by showing documents from those industries. let's stay in touch and start a transactional relationship. i'd love to see those documents, what else do you have? this is how they did it, right? maybe it turns into something, maybe it doesn't, but you cultivate assets. this is why they're here instead of working at home in moscow. buzzfeed news reports tonight

that male 1 in that indictment is the trump campaign foreign policy adviser carter page. he was recruited by russian spies in new york city in 2013. he was successfully recruited. he handed them documents and information to help them and was enthusiastic about their relationship. that adviser carter page met with a russian intelligence operative named victory who was later charged along side two others for acting as unregistering agents of a foreign government. a former campaign adviser met with and passed documents to a russian intelligence operative in new york city in 2013. the adviser met with the russian intelligence operative named victor with two others. quote, a court filing by the u.s. government contains a transcript of a reported

conversation in question he speaks with one of the other men busted in the spy ring, igor sporchev. here's my favorite part. buzzfeed news has confirmed -- how did they confirm he's male one? quote, carter page confirmed to buzzfeed news on monday that he is male 1 in the court filing and said he had been in contact with podobney. so jared's in baghdad at the i object have itation of the joint chiefs. there's nothing too sensitive for jared to be involved in, let alone to be refund in this new administration. he is leading u.s. preparation for the china meeting. he was at the table for the decision for launching the yemen

raid that killed a u.s. navy seal. at a scary time in terms of north korea's nuclear capabilities, he's at the head. he will have to make time in his incredibly busy schedule to testify to the senate intelligence committee about why, during the presidential transition, he met with the fsb-trained official who vladimir putin% hand stloektd lead a russian state bank that the currently sanctioned by the u.s. government and that harbored a russian spy network in this country that among other things crude a trump foreign policy advisor as a russian intelligence asset just a few years ago. amid all the worry and focus and scandal and investigations about the russian attack on our election last year and contact between trump campaign and russian firms, amid all that, he

took that meeting in december with the guy from the russian bank and he never said a word about it until a newspaper reported it. buzzfeed reporter, ali watkins, joins us next. look closely. hidden in every swing, every chip, and every putt, is data that can make the difference between winning and losing. the microsoft cloud helps the pga tour turn countless points of data into insights that transform their business and will enhance the game for players and fans. the microsoft cloud turns information into insight. why pause a spontaneous moment? cialis for daily use tats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension,

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morning with us? >> well, i hand thought in terms of doing it. but if you want i can give you some of the names. i might mind. do you have that list? i'll be a little more accurate with it. okay, ready? with a lid phares who you probably know. ph.d, counter terrorism expert. carter page. >> who is he? that's what everybody said at the time. then-candidate said he was the number two list on his foreign policy advisors for his campaign. now, buzzfeed news that among many other things that carter page turns out to be, he was also recruited in 2013 as apparently an unwitting american

source for a russian spy ring that was operating out of new york city. joining us is ali watkins. she's a national security correspondent for buzzfeed news. thank you for being with us wuss. >> thanks for having me. >> can i ask you about one detail that strikes me as weird? we were like scrambling, that's the v.e.b. case. let's go back and look at the indictment. we're putting it together. just out of curiosity, i wonder if that guy is in prison in ohio. i googled him in the federal prisoner locator thing and was shocked to find out he had just been released on friday. >> total coincidence. he actually gets out in 48 hours. and i was ke, wow. that's really strange. weird one just timing wise. >> we expect he's probably back

in moscow right now. >> a condition of his deal. he was here on an expired visa. i don't think they necessarily knew that the intention was to go back. >> do we know anything about what he hand over, what he gave these russian spies? >> there's a couple things we know. page was not in the government at that time. there's nothing to indicate there was anything sensitive. there would be really -- it's hard to imagine him having a lot of access to sensitive information at that time. he was not in trump's orbit. he was a private sector employee. >> that was 2013. >> he didn't have access to anything sensitive. it does not appear he handed over anything sensitive. >> that's not unusual at least

the way the prosecutors and fbi explained it at the time. when we cultivate assets, they start small, they don't necessarily start with people that have access. they just start a relationship that results in the turnover of documents, get that pump priepd and cultivate people for the long term. >> absolutely. it's making that connection. it's a long game. you can check in in five or ten years. >> why did carter page confirm this to you and what was his affect towards this information and it becoming public? >> he was very forthcoming. i had been doing a lot reporting on it. so i knew it was him in the d. when i asked him about it, he said, yes, i'm male-1. he confirmed he's the anonymous male in the document.

>> you figured out this. we just heard then candidate donald trump there naming him as one of his foreign policy advisers, the second person he came up with. isn't this the sort of thing that should have turned up in vetting. >> that's the question moving forward, right, is what did the trump administration know and when did they know it essentially. this was three years before page had any kind of connection to the campaign. doesn't appear there was anything sensitive. clearly that was a known fact in certain corners of the bureau. certain corners in new york. page was very forthcoming with it. i think that is the question tomorrow, is what did the trump administration know and when did they know it. >> the fbi went and told him

that's what happened when they interviewed him. had he been vetted even being directly asked have you been in contact, he would have had to say, yes. >> presumably. >> weird way to get to be a top foreign policy adviser to a presidential campaign. congratulations on this. i appreciate it. it was fun to follow in your foot steps. ali watkins, national security correspondent for buzzfeed. allergies with nasal congestion? find fast relief behind the counter

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sitting in on the president's meeting today with the egyptian president was the deputy national security adviser mac farnld. of at his the number two official on the national security official makes sense she was in on that meeting, compensate for the news she's on her way out. reportedly she's not going to be deputy national security adviser for long. she's off to be ambassador to singapore. ambassador to sponsingapore if a great gig if you can get it. unless the gig you have to give up to take it is national security adviser. that's like being coo to deputy of pencil sharpening. a source says mcfarnld preferred

to tay on the some capacity in government in barbiturate such as a possible role at state. state as in the state department washington, not the city state of singapore which is 10,000 miles away from d.c. staffing has been a real issue for this mchlgts besides michael flynn being fired as national security advisor after 24 days on the job, another deputy position getting unfilled as soon as it got filled. there was also last week's reporting that two national security staffers were involved in the sharing of classified intelligence reports with the white house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes. shared those reports reportedly on the white house grounds in the middle of the night for reasons that still haven't been explained and that the white

house is only partially copped to but not really. one of the staffers has been named at 30 year old ezra cohen watt nick. he was elevated to a fancy job, senior director for intelligence at the national security council while michael flynn was still there. i have to tell you, we have now reviewed the resumes of what we believe to be the nine people who held that job prior to ezra cohen watt nick getting it in this administration. we have found that none of the prior people who held that job had fewer than 12 years intelligence and military experience. ezra cohen watt nick only graduated from college in 2008. he has vastly less experience than every person who has ever had that job before on the national security council. what was he doing there in that job? what's he still doing there? when mike flynn was fired, home run mcmaster came on as his

replacement. he was blocked by jared kushner and steve bannon. mcmaster was told they had to keep this guy on. why? fars cohen watt nick he's being cited today by conservative news out lets that former obama nabls adviser, suzanne rise asked for persons to be unmasked in u.s. intelligence reports. there's nothing illegal or improper or unexpected about a national security desires unmasking those names. there's no allegation that she leaked those names if she did have them unmasked. by makin those allegations about susan rice, the national

security council itself appears to be operating at a political level to shape a conservative friendly alternative to the russia scandal. however you feel about that story itself, what does this mean in national security terms. national security council is there for any reason. is it weird that this is what the narms council is being used for right now? is it dangerous? hold that thought. it's an important question you ask,

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today "the new york times" reports that north korea is trying to market the kind of lithium that would help you make a hydrogen bomb. today the financial times reports that the chinese president's meeting with our president later on this week is expected to be a very high-stakes event and that wile the chinese government is bringing the full force of their diplomatic power to bear on that meeting, the person who's heading up preparation for that meeting on behalf of the united states is the president's 36 year old son-in-law. choose your adventure right now in terms of national security things you want to worry about. right now there's something strange going on with national security and how it's being handlinged in washington. the national security council among other things, they're caught in the middle of what appears to be an tophet manage and politically shape the sandal around the russian attack on our

election last year and the trump campaign's potential contact with russia. we all expected there would be a political effort to shape the response to that scandal or even to shape the way the intelligence about those matters is received, escalated, and politicized. i'm not sure everybody thought that would be run out of a national security council though. how weird is that? how worrying is it in terms of the opportunity cost for the other stuff the national security council ought to be worried about right now. joining us is michael lighter. he worked closely with the national secury uncil staff. michael, nice to see y thank you for being here. >> good tbe her. >> let me as you a big picture. when i take to other national security professionals, particularly people who have had big jobs like you have, they do not seem to be widely alarmed at the trufrmgs's national security capacity. there does seem to be faith in people like defense secretary mattis and the national security

adviser mcmother and fathskmars. is that your view? >> there are some who understand the issues, are mature, worked within the national security establishment. generally people think they've got good, solid judgment and will seek out expertise. i think the big question and the reason i'm not as confident as others sha the struggles we see within the administration suggest those individuals, while important to their departments and agencies, aren't actually central players at the white house in national security decision making and aren't shaping policy and aren't helping the president set his priorities. it's great if you have a strong team. but if you're not talking to that team or using their expertise expertise, then it doesn't matter who's on the bench. >> the news that general mcmaster may have wanted to fire this young man who's been named

senior director for intelligence and national security council, i find it unusual in that job. i don't mean to talk about him in personal terms. i'm comparing his resume and length of service and experience compared to other kinds of people who have had that job. it's strange to me he's in that job. it's very strange to me and worrying to me that general mcmaster wanted to get rid of him and the white house told him he couldn't. >> anytime you run a government organization, you run a show. you want to be able to choose your team. if the boss said i don't have confidence in that individual, and the boss says i don't care he's staying, it's worrisome. you point to mcmaster being one of the adults in the room but can't choose his own team, it makes us question the degree of power he has. he's on the junior side of this. he hasn't had the multitude of agencies in the field 20 plus years of intelligence

experience. and i fear that some of that youthful indiscretion, if i can use that phrase, may well have led him down a path with chairman nunez which honestly just throws up smoke and keeps anyone from getting to the reel issues that you identified and it's diverting us from the important national security issues that we face around the globe. >> the diversion factor that, the thing that's most interesting to me is is not mow diverted are we, are we able to row focus on the important issues. the thing that worries me, i have no expertise in this field at all, but i worry that the national security council, someone operating as senior director is involved in political smoke making, is involved in political diversions. i worry about that in terms of the other stuff the national security council has to do. i also worry could they stick their hands into the middle of

an ongoing investigation? do they have access to stuff where they could do real harm? >> first of all i would say there is some history at the national security council putting its knows or hands into places it shouldn't be. i don't want to suggest wve gone this far, i have this lieutenant colonel oliver north. there is some risk when you have inexperienced staffers on the national security counsel who may not fully appreciate what they should and should not be doing because it could implicate the investigations being done by the fbi. it starts with a tweet from the president saying i just saw something on tv. there is illegal, unconstitutionally political motivated surveillance. that's a big deal, rachel. >> it's a big allegation. >> and in any other world, the

president one of you actually turned o his national security adviser and say i just saw this. get me the director of the cia, and fbi. i want to figure out if there's any truth to this and it would start there. and it would be handed to the staff of the national security council to investigate and they would know what's going on. what we have here is a president tweeting. that tweeting then leading to his request to congress to investigating the executive branch where he could have figured it out in a ten-minute meeting. and then you have the national security council feeding information back to congress. it is beyond a hall of mirrors. it is simply confusing the issue. it's diverting us from those real issues. equally important, it makes our allies worried. whether you're talking about north korea or china being more aggressive, all these issues are ones we have to focus and our alliance needs our focus. if we're focused internally,

they don't believe we have the time and attention to do that. >> it's one thing that political hacks do that work. it's another to have the national security staff at the highest level working on that d of the national counterterrorism center. good to see you again. thank you. >> good see you. >> all right. lots more ahead tonight. stay with us. (vo) pro plan bright mind adt 7+d mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. (ray) the difference has been incredible. she is much more aware. she wants to learn things. (vo) purina pro plan bright mind. nutrition that performs.

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thought he would find peace and contentment at home in california, well, it wasn't exactly a homecoming celebration for him in fresno. right down to an anthem, which you may not recognize. ♪ mixing anger with humor, protesters greeted san joaquin valley congressman devin nunes with a rendition of the russian national anthem. but nunes snuck into a back door of the banquet hall where he changed the subject, speaking to an agricultural group about water issues in the valley. >> hey hey, ho ho, devin nunes has to go! >> reporter: but outside, several demonstrator, some of them holding signs with russian insignia are upset with how their congressman has handled the investigation into possible collusion with russia to influence the election outcome. >> this whole investigative committee is just devolved into a joke. he needs to recuse himself or to

take it seriously. we want to find out what happened with russia. ♪ ♪ nunes, nunes >> that was what congressman devin nunes came home to this weekend in fresno, california. his angry constituents singing "listen or we'll throw you out", both democrat and republican, that is turning out to be a surprisingly big and interesting factor. in the very big fight that democrats just picked in washington. that story is next. >> he did speak. that's progress.

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it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. in denver, colorado this weekend, people rallied to call on the state's two senators to vote no on judge neil gorsuch for the supreme court. democratic colorado senator michael bennet says he won't support the filibuster against neil gorsuch. and cory gardner is a yes vote for gorsuch all the way. we'll see if either pays a price for that stance on gorsuch in gorsuch's home state of colorado. but, you know, even without michael bennet, democrats do have the votes to mount their filibuster against neil gorsuch, to stop him from being confirmed to the court unless he can get 60 votes that showdown is going to happen later this week. it's going to be a huge drama as the republicans decide how they're going to respond to that. today every democrat on the judiciary committee voted against neil gorsuch's nomination. but that was just a signal of

the bigger fight that will come over this in the next few days. here is one thing to stick a flag in, though. in this news today. and as you're looking towards the rest of the week. while democrats on the judiciary committee were taking this unified stand against judge gorsuch today, they did something else that got a lot less attention. in addition to advancing judge gorsuch's nomination today, the judiciary committee also voted to advance the nomination of this man. his name is rod rosenstein. the white house has nominated him to be the number two official at the justice department under attorney general jeff session. now who is the number two in the justice department is particularly important in scandal terms right now because the attorney general jeff sessions has recused himself from any investigatis into the trump campaign's contacts with russia. that means any justice department investigation of such things would be overseen by rod rosenstein. if he is confirmed. unless he chooses to appoint an outside special prosecutor instead of overseeing things

himself that would be his call as well. during rod rosenstein's confirmation hearing last month, asked which of the avenues rod rosenstein would likely take. with he oversee or appoint an outside prosecutor? rosenstein refused to answer. today senator blumenthal became the only member of the judiciary committee to vote against rod rosenstein for this crucial job. every other democrat voted to advance his nomination. the vote was 19-1. so stick a flag in this one. democrats have to choose their battles. they will win nothing if they can't stick together. they're mostly choosing to fight on gorsuch, but not entirely. they're not choosing to fight on the number two job under jeff sessions who will run the russia investigations. we may look back on this as a momentous strategic decision by the democrats. stick a flag in this one. note this one for the record. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the