tv MSNBC Live MSNBC May 27, 2017 1:00pm-2:01pm PDT
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an leatod death. find your rhythm and keep on grooving. ♪ let's groove tonight. ask your doctor about toujeo®. ♪ share the spice of life. we can'twhy?y here! terrible toilet paper! i'll ner get clean! way ahead of you. (avo) charmin ultra stro. it cleans better. it's four times stronger and you can use less. enjoy the go with charmin. very good day to you. i'm richard lui in new york city. thanks for joining us on this saturday. president trump ends his first foreign trip today with major controversies abroad and at home, all revealed in the last 24 hours. three new major reports on
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russia awaiting his arrival. "the washington post" reporting son-in-law jared kushner sought secret back channel communications directly to the kremlin. then reuters that cushikushner three undisclosed contacts with russia and "the washington post" again this headline, senate intelligence committee requests trump campaign documents. meanwhile, the president faces domestic policy questions next week on the budget and health care and jobs. trump saying today his new arms deal and trade stances mean lots of new jobs. nbc's kristen welker has the latest from italy on his busy nine-day trip. kristen. >> reporter: hi, richard. president trump is traveling back to the u.s. and he left without holding a news conference with reporters. this is striking because typically presidents when they are on overseas travel particularly a major foreign trip like this one hold a press conference so they can answer questions about their trip. the president's top advisors asd about this. their response washat he was very busy and had a number of
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meetings. of course his predecessors had similar schedules when they went on foreign trips of this magnitude and still managed to hold press conferences. so look for that to get some scrutiny in the coming days. president trump did deliver a speech to u.s. troops who were serving here in sicily before he took off. and he touted what he sees as the accomplishments of this trip. he says many nato countries agreed to pay more in defense. and he is still talking about that arms deal which he struck with saudi arabia about a week ago. he says it's going to bring jobs back to the united states. that's of course a familiar talking point for this president. but this all comes as there are mounting controversies back at home. today "the washington post" reporting that his son-in-law and top advisor jared kushner tried to set up a back channel of communication with russian officials. "new york times" adding that that back channel had the goal of trying to create dialogue about the syria strategy moving forward. so the white house pressed for a
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number of questions about that. the president's top advisors, h.r. mcmaster, gary cohn held an off-camera press briefing earlier today where reporters peppered them with questions which they dodged. take a look at one exchange. >> this issue that you're talking in general about is not one he's spending time with on this trip. >> are you saying no foreign leaders are asking him about his relationship or his staff's relationship with russia? it hasn't come up at all? not once? >> no, it hasn't. >> so can we assume hs goi to retain that position for planned future trips -- >> we're not going to comment on jared. we're just not going to comment. >> so president trump bracing for more tough questions when he gets home. in fact, some of his top advisors already setting up a war room that's going to be led by reince priebus, steve bannon and his son-in-law jared kushner all as that special counsel gets underway, richard. >> kristen welker with the president. thank you so much. joining us right now, co-author
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of politico's playbook and on the phone former cia operative. david, i'll start with you, avid reader of the playbook, first words in your headline, chaos. is that what you're seeing in the white house right now? >> yeah, we said there's kind of a drum beat of these very damaging scoops. kushner's perch in the white house is secure, but he's getting tired of the constant scrutiny. according to reports he and ivanka talk every six months are they going to stay in d.c. or are they sick of this bad publicity and this reputation which has taken a hit. so they have told friends privately that they're not guaranteed to stand by the president's side for all four years. >> they could potentially one of those six-month cycles could reconsider what is happening on the outside, the chaos you're reporting in the playbook. michael, to you on this, with those three developments in just the last 24 hours, it has been said those who've been critical
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of it if they were to be confirmed and they were to be true that at this moment jared kushner should lose security clearance. from your perspective as an intelligence expert, is that what should happen in normal processes? >> well, again, it depends on who was authorizing the discussions and who was aware of that -- there's a lot of speculation going on here. part of this is definitely the fact came into the office into the new administration with a lack of discipline, lack o awareness, the importance of protocols and processes. and so, you know, they started out with a number of self-inflicted wounds. and that has allowed for this constant drum beat. but i would argue that, you know, part of it is public theater in the sense that i suspect in the previous administration coming into the obama administration for instance if somebody had said the obama administration --
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somebody in there was trying to set up a back channel with the russians to try to find a way towards peace in syria, probably the response would have been fairly tepid and along the lines of, well, that's a very sort of nuanced and sophisticated way to try to find peace. and isn't that impressive. so, you know, i'm not dismissing it. we should be looking into these things, but part of it is perhaps i'm just getting exhausted from all the oxygen that it's taking. every day there's supposedly a striking contrast and drama. he doesn't hold a press conference when he leaves on this trip and suddenly it's the death of the republic, or he asks nato allies to pay more. >> how should the intelligence community, how should the cia, the fbi deal with this development if it were to become true? again, we don't want extremes as you were suggesting, but what is the next best step, you believe? >> well, the next best step i
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think is for them to just come out and say this is what happened. again, they could have done this on any number of these issues. you know, probably put some of it to bed. i'm sure we would have marched onto another issue or self-inflicted wound, but i think what they need to do is button down their internal discipline and their communications and their messaging. and when they have something like this, come straight out and say this is what we were trying to do. and this is, you know, who was aware of it. and by the way, you know, there is something to be said about this conflict supposedly between the intel community and the white house. and i've spent a long time in the intelligence business and maintain good friends and contacts there to this day. you know, everyone would like to be patted on the back and told what a wonderful job they're doing, but at the end of the day the operators inside the intel
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community don't care. they get on with their task regardless who's leading the administration. >> they do their job day in and day out as we know the fine institutions we have here in intelligence here in the united states. back to you, daniel, part of that reaction michael's intimating here coming from the white house was going to be a war room or at least a place to handle all of these questions and potentially handed them in very concerted and focus and had in ways that michael's describing. and one of the questions if that were to happen is who would lead it? >> yeah. so steve bannon and reince priebus are kind of -- they return early from the trip a few days ago to lead discussions about setting this up. because you want to kind of wall off part of the white house to deal with this russi vestigation. and then have another part of the white house actually carry out the domesti agenda and get things passed through capitol hill. two of the names that we're hearing that could lead that war room corey lewandowski, former
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trump campaign manager early on, also david bossi, kind of a clinton antagonist and also close trump outside advisor. these are war dogs. they are attack dogs. they would protect the president and his staff from this russia investigation enveloping it and making that nothing can actually get done. so they want to continue having accomplishments for the american people. >> let's bring in msnbc contributor christopher dickey, going to join conversation right now. chris, as you look at this, some of the reports right now that you're very well aware of happening in the united states in the last 24 hours, now at the top of if you will the news cycle is the perception there in paris, in france and in europe at the moment that potentially the europe trip it's already done with, we're now moving on to the issues back in the united
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states? >> well, i think the feeling is -- i won't say a complete lack of confidence, but there's a terrible lack of confidence in the abilityf president trump both to govern and to make valid decisions that affect the future of the world. i think that's part of what we saw going on at the g7 summit in sicily over the last couple of days. those were very unpleasant conversations. german chancellor angela merkel made that very clear. and then to know that on top of his trurekals trans important t all the european leaders and then look at an administration almost fatally weakened about the stories that have come out about not only russian involvement with the american elections last year, but now more and more information about
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apparent contacts if not collusion between the people in the trump administration. in fact, the people closest to president trump and the russians, all of that is extremely unsettling for the europeans. at a time when there's a lot going on in the world where they would hope to have clear leadership from the united states. and in fact they're getting something like complete confusion from the united states. >> right. chris, very quickly here, what would be the headline, the takeaway from president trump's visit to europe at this moment? are relations better or worse or the same before he arrived? >> i'd say basically they're worse. his lecturing nato didn't go down at all and didn't seem to understand what nato financing is all about. and then the g7 winds up the headline's very simple, it's g6 versus g1 on climate change. >> and follows through with what a lot of the schematics were
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leading up to his visit and that was the thought as you were telling us. chris, thank you so much, daniel, michael. britain has reduced its terror threat level as police in manchester conducted more raids. they made arrests earlier today following monday's terror attack we've got some new details. ♪
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two more people with ties to monday's suicide bombing. progress on that investigation leading britain to drop its terror threat level from critical to severe. let's bring in from manchester nbc's louucy cavanaugh with the latest. >> reporter: good evening, good afternoon, richard. although the threat level has been brought down, it's still a highly likely possibility of an attack, so we're not in the clear quite yet. this investigation is still underway. there's at least 1,000 police officers working around the clock. and we had seen more arrests. 11 people in total now in custody. another raid this morning. investigators trying to close in around the suspected terrorist network behind salman abedi. and the uk top counterterrorism officials today saying they do expect more arrests and more searches as that investigation continues. new questions emerging now over what authorities could have done to prevent this attack. we know now that salman abedi was a person of interest, a known person of interest to uk
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counterterrorism authorities. why he wasn't pursued that's definitely something folks will be asking. if you heard some noise to my left actually there is some applause taking place at the moment. this is a live tribute location, a live memorial location. people have been coming here to pay their respects. and to my left a few moments ago a man representing the islamic community was speaking here talking about how islam is not a religion of hatred. a lot of people here basically come here to come together. this is a city obviously changed forever by monday easter richl attack, but it is also a resilient city that is standing strong. people bursting into applause here, people laying down candles, flowers, crying, expressing their emotions, but very much continuing to go upon their lives as normal. a big race taking place tomorrow, the marathon. folks are going to be coming out for that. they are not going to be c
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cowerring in the face of danger. >> thank you so much, lucy. the political world is keeping a watchful eye on georgia. an important special election will prove to be another early test for republicans. how democrats are looking to tip the balance of power and build momentum for the 2018 midterm elections. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means
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in less than a month a special election in georgia could determine the momentum for either party heading into the 2018 midterms. democrat john ossoff and handel faceoff. new poll shows ossoff with a 7-point lead against handel. in the three special elections since the presidential election 538 finds that the democratic candidates have on average outperformed expectation by 16 percentage points. georgia's runoff is coming on the heels of this week's montana special election which went to the republican candidate greg gianforte. gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault for
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attacking a reporter on the eve of the election. he addressed the controversial incident head-on in his victory speech. >> last night i made a mistake. and i took an action that i can't take back. and i'm not proud of what happened. i should not have treated that reporter that way. and for that i'm sorry, mr. ben jacobs. >> ben from the hill joins us right now. ben, when we look at this, some pressure here given the amount of resources that are available for the democrats as well as the republicans, where do you think this is going to turn out? >> yeah, i know, it's going to be really interesting to see how this shakes out. like you said there's a ton of pressure. democrats have really circled this date on their calendar. this is the best chance that they have to flip a sea in this special election cycle that we have in these first couple months of 2017. they really want to use this to
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send a message that there is an anti-trump growing resistance movement and that resis tans movement can lead to changes at the ballot box. i think what we're going to have to look for is see what the narrative is coming out of that whether democrats do get their man or if republicans can help push back on that momentum. >> one of the things i was bringing up in the introduction was what five thirty-eight was finding the percentage points key number to look at based on the special elections happened since november. the numbers out of montana that again based on that idea that the republican gianforte underperformed because he only won by six percentage points which may portend then more difficulties in georgia. would you apply that strategy as well and that thinking? >> well, i think that's why we're here in the first place. i mean, this is a historically red district in georgia that republicans have had no problems holding. newt gingrich held this seat. this is a republican seat. however it's filled with a lot
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of types of republicans that did not really like backing trump in 2016. the education rates are largely higher, it's outside of atlanta as sort of the suburban mix. so there's a lot for democrats to like in this district, but the interesting number obviously democrats have been outpforming the past ballots now that trump is in office. but they keep getting just so close. so i think here the real big question is can two end up just as too close or can they actually turn this into a victory. >> one of the headlines on the "new york times" above the fold is reading party versus base. like that was the clear distinction and the discussion happening not only in montana but also in georgia. what does that mean? >> yeah, so there's been a lot of angst. like i said there's a lot of angst that's leading to democrats outperforming, but they haven't flipped any seats yet. so the question for a lot of these anxious democrats is, okay, when are we going to start flipping these seats?
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you know, the danger for the democratic party is the longer and the longer that it takes for their seat to flip the progressive base angling for a fight gets frustrated. you've seen some questions about how much spending the national parties have decided to spend in a lot of these previous races. however, all of the guns and everything is being poured into atlanta suburb and district. so there won't really be any excuses. we'll see how these two candidates and how these parties can fight strength for strength. >> all the king's men and all the queen's women converging at the moment in georgia. thank you. appreciate it. >> coming up, who is jared kushner? a deep dive into his life before the white house. as well as what the russia investigation could mean for kushner going forward. and packages.
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welcome back. i'm richard lui live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. we're following three major developments in the russia investigation. first off, president trump's senior advisor and son-in-law jared kushner under fbi scrutiny. "the washington post" reporting that during the transition kushner sought a secret back channel to communicate directly with the kremlin. according to reports by reuters, the second development kushner had at least three contacts with russia during and following the campaign that he did not disclose on his security clearance forms. the third development, "the washington post" reports a senate intel committee now asking trump's political organization for all russia related documents, e-mails and phone records dating back to the start of the trump campaign in 2015. all of these things happening as president trump boards air force one and is on his way back after a nine-day foreign trip to europe and the middle east. sad news from the world of music as well that we're watching.
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gregg allman has died. the rock legend passed away at his home in georgia according to a message posted on his website. he was one of the founders of the allman brothers band, he was 69 years old. more now to this story on those gathering storm clouds over washington, d.c. various reports saying that the investigation into ties between russia and the trump campaign now focusing on his son-in-law and senior advisor. the 36-year-old senior white house advisor and heir to a wide ranging real estate empire, jared kushner a political novice, a mediocre student whose father made a $2.5 million donation to harvard before his admission to the university. kushner made -- may be desperately out of his depth in the biggest beltway cage fight match in 45 years. and an unrelenting pileup of recent headlines about kushner that means that the investigation is gaining some new ground, breaking into trump's inner circle where perhaps the most vulnerable here, his family. it also raises awkward questions about the white house's ability to withhold secrets from foreign
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governments. >> why would he want to covert his communications from the u.s. government? that right there alone is covert communications. that is indicative of espionage activity of an american citizen that is working in league with a hostile government. >> mr. kushner's attorney has released a statement about her client's relationship with russia. it says that, quote, mr. kushner participated in thousands of calls in this time period. he has no recollection of the calls as described. it all raises questions of just who exactly is jared kushner. this week we got a look through a special window onto that private closely guarded world of the man some people call the princeling. people who knew him from his real estate days in new york says that beneath the unflappable golden exterior is someone unafraid to bungee jump or to counterpunch when he feels slighted. joining us now is david freelander, author of the piece on jared kushner's pre-white
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house history, he's also senior political correspondent at "the daily beast." david, if you can, what do you think is happening right now with jared kushner based on these reports that have been out there now for, oh, about 20, 21 hours at the moment? what is going through jared kushner's mind? >> i think he's preparing how to fight back. i mean, that's sort of wa jared kushner does. you know, you have to remember his father, one of the biggest scandals in new jersey political history, which is saying something, and jared crawled his way back to sort of, you know, to respectability and to the white house. i think they are preparing -- they're not going to give an inch on this. >> the other question we have right now as they put together this quote/unquote war room reports of that who might be able to lead it. before it was either steve bannon or jared kushner at the moment. it seems that the question might be would he be the right person with all of these swirls that are around him?
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>> yeah. i mean, i think that's a fair question. i mean, it looks like somebody from the outside may be better at this point, you know, to be in that sort of innermost inner circle war room as you describe it. >> knowing his bkground so well as you do here, david, what's the sense of what the strategy might be to mitigate what is now a very troubling couple of days, at least the last couple of days? >> well, i think it's hard to know. i mean, facts end up getting on the ground in such a way that they're really hard to kind of come up with a different narrative. you know, i think they're going to tell their story that all of this was fairly innocent. >> yeah. >> that it was due to naivete at worst. >> does that fit -- does that fit in from what you know you know the idea that he's new and inexperienced politically in this close-knit team? >> that's not what we know of him at all. from what we know of him he's someone who's really able to
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create his own reality. largely because he comes from such a wealthy family and is strategic about how he advances his own interests. this is a big stage he's playing on now. this isn't a real estate dispute or a small new york media dispute. >> yeah, we brought up real estate because the question might be is he a good business thinker, is he a good businessman? >> i mean, i think the record is actually fairly mixed on that. a lot of people they were sort of kind of second tier real estate company in many ways. when jared took over they tried to make a big splash in new york. i don't think it's really panned out in quite the way that they hoped it would. it's raised his profile, that's for sure. but i don't know if it's meant success in real estate terms. >> wt have we missed on the story of jared kushner? what's the headline that's not been put out there yet? >> well, i think a lot of it is he's assumed to be this sort of quiet, elegant, force for moderation in the administration. and more and more i think we're seeing that's actually not who he is.
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he's someone who encourages many of trump's more pugilistic instincts. he's willing to counterpunch. and he's mixed up with a lot of folks i don't think people realize he would ever get mixed up in. he's not sort of the pure golden haired, golden boy many thought him to be. >> how come we haven't heard him? >> well, i think he knows well enough to know that if you don't really know what you're talking about, if you're not an expert on it, that you don't speak. and if you don't speak, people sort of assume this air of mystery around you. it's really been this way for a long time. even in new york people would say the same thing about him. he's quiet. >> he may have achieved a part of that. david, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> a quick recap now of all the headlines focusing on jared kushner and his possible ties to russia. first off, russian ambassador told moscow that kushner wanted secret communications channel
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with kremlin. that's one headline from "the washington post." then there's this one that also came out last 24 hours, trump's son-in-law had undisclosed contacts with russian envoy sources. then the third headline that ca out last 24 hours, senate intelligence committee requests trump campaign documents. it's a triple order that all adds up to a rough homecoming for donald trump, the president and his family. joining us now is mika oyang, vice president third way for national security. thanks for being here right now. i want you to put on your hat if you can being on the hill and being part of the house intel committee and knowing how they think, what's the reaction? because we've got investigations, four ongoing in congress right now. >> yeah. these are very serious investigations. and the more stories we see there are sort of two layers to this. one is the substance of it themselves. this is a very serious allegation, the secret channel that suggests if it were anyone else this would absolutely be espionage and you would really be worried about having a mole. but the second piece is why is all this information coming out
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now? are people concerned that they can't trust that the administration's going to do the right things with the information that it's going to make its way to the special counsel and that it will really get acted upon and maybe that's why it's coming out through the press. >> from what you know in the operations there on the hill, when these sorts of reports come out, will this be, well, they already know about it they're just not disclosing it, just made it to the press or will it be we didn't know this, what are we going to do next to get more information on it? >> so it's a combination. we don't know exactly what they've already seen on the hill. some of this information they've seen, but if they're finding out information from tress that the administration's held back, that's one of the things that makes members of congress on a bipartisan basis infuriated and they will go much harder at the administration if they think they've been stonewalled. >> is your sense leading up to this friday we don't know the reaction as of yet necessarily on the record, were they getting closer to bipartisan efforts here of moving forward after mueller was named? it seemed like the energy had
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shifted. >> i think that's right. and what you saw after they removed nunes from the house intelligence committee investigation they were starting to move forward and build trust between the two sides. they were starting to put more document requests out there. and then the more they get stone wauled the more you'll see senators saying, no, we really have to do this. we can't let them get away with telling us no. >> you used the words espionage and mole. we have not heard words from anybody part of these committees. is it something that might be said or being discussed behind closed doors? >> i think that's the worst case scenario that people are very concerned about. and they need to find the evidence to find out if it adds up to those kind of charges. >> what would be the evidence needed, you think? >> so in things like this you'd wantd communications that indicate the russians were e exerting control over an asset getting them to do their bidding. and then you're going to want to see that the person has agreed to it, that they are knowing about what the russians are asking. >> so they're going to ask those questions. in the meantime malcolm nance, one of our contributors here as you know intel expert, was
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saying one of the considerations here for jared kushner and those that may be working around him is they need to reconsider security clearance. >> yes. well, one of the challenges we see in the trump white house is they're not even making the people finish filling out their security clearance forms bore granting them access to very sensitive information. this is unheard of. this is more damaging than anything we've seen in previous administrations where they're just waving a wand and giving people access to the crown jewels of american intelligence. it makes the community very nervous. >> you heard david freelander discuss this and describe jared kushner as saying this is not most likely naivete, but that's certainly a possibility. inexperience naivete in terms of what he may have been doing during the transition to ask for these back channel potential communications with the kremlin. >> if it is naivete, what this shows you is the real problems of having a presidential candidate who's not trusted by the national security establishment of his own party. you remember during the campaign most of the republican national security officials were signing
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these never trump letters. so he didn't have anyone with experience who was going to advise him who would have said this kind of behavior is beyond the pale. >> we were speaking with a former cia operative and he said let's be careful here. we don't know all the details yet. we shouldn't be thinking of espionage or being calling him a mole or removing security clearance. it could be that he was moving forward in an honest and direct way. so let's be careful. what would you say to that former cia operative? >> i think it's possible, however, if you are moving forward in an honest and direct way, you don't ask for a secret channel in the russian embassy. if you're moving forward in a direct and straightforward way, you're willing to have those conferrings on the record. and that's not what we see happening. >> what's the expectation of what the house and senate committees will be doing when they do return from their one week of vacation? >> well, in the meantime the staff are furiously going through all the paperwork they're provided. >> so we've heard. that's right. >> even if the members aren't there the staff are moving forward. when members return they'll do
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more witness interviews. we still have to hear from director comey who said he would testify before the committees about these concerns over obstruction of justice. we have a lot more still to go. >> what are you hearing from your former colleagues on the hill? >> i think that they are really overwhelmed. we haven't seen the committee staff up the way that you would want them to be staffed up for this kind of a major investigation. they need more hands. >> thank you so mu, former staffer for the late senator ted kennedy. also understanding how the house intel committee operates in a detailed way. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> as graduation season gets underway, one teen is graduating, hey, why not twice. up next the amazing story of a girl who graduated from college before graduating high school. yeah. we can't stay here!
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msnbc savannah joins me with a story of one young woman who's determination of discipline in two hats. >> that's right. raven osborn and several other students at her high school in indiana took advantage of a unique program they had access to and it helped them take their education to the next level. >> raven osborn like many 18-year-olds just graduated high school. but there's something -- raven received her bachelor's degree technically before her ged. >> i enrolled at purdue university northwest. >> reporter: she was able to do this as a sophomore in high school because she attended 21st century charter school in gary, indiana, which is run by what's called the geofoundation. >> we seek to provide quality schools in challenging communities. >> reporter: t organization has udents take the accuplacer exam as early as middle school.
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once a student passes one of the sections of the exam, gee oo foundation uses funds from public schools to cover the cost of college tuition rather than spending the money on more courses within the high school. >> spanish 101, french 101, whatever. you can take those courses at the college level and i kill two birds with one stone. you get the language and you get the college experience. and it doesn't cost me the teacher. >> this also means it doesn't cost the student anything to attend college, motivating the students to take the courses. something that is particularly important in a city like gary, indiana, where graduation rates have historically been low. in 2005 when geofoundation joined the community, gary had 50% graduation rate, the city now at 85% while 21st century charter school maintains a 100% graduation rate. the school goes above and beyond to get the students to their classes ensuring transportation is taken care of. >> my principal would take me. his name is mr. cherry.
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then ms. gray, ms. murphy. >> reporter: raven isn't the only one who pulled double duty during high school. six other students are graduating with their associate degree this year and heading off for their bachelor degree at schools like indiana state university and columbia college. as for raven she'll be returning to 21st century charter school as a reading interventio teacher working with students from first to third grade earning a salary of $38,000 a year. close to what others will be paying to attend a private university after high school graduation. so, richard, what's really interesting is this is not an extreme case of just skipping high school. it's essentially doing them at the same time, taking the accuplacer exam which gets you into community college. once you do enough credits, have associates degree you're able to apply at any major university. >> how cool is that? >> amazing and free for thiez e these kids which is awesome. >> great story. thank you so much. president trump visiting u.s. troops in italy before heading back to the u.s. what he told those soldiers, we have that. and with the president proposing
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we are getting our first look at a man police in portland, oregon, say is behind a stabbing in oregon. police and eyewitnesses say he went on a racist rant before stabbing three people who tried to intervene, killing two of them. christian was charged with two counts of aggravated murder and other charges. he's being held without bail. a federal judge ordered new sentencing for d.c. sniper shooter lee boyd malvo. he killed ten people and wounded three others in the washington, d.c., area in 2002. malvo was 17 at the time and is currently serving life without parole. in 2012, the supreme court struck down life sentences without parole for juveniles in
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2016. the court then said holding applied retroactively to cases on appeal. a federal judge ruled friday that because of those two supreme court decisions, malvo must be resentenced. british airways is canceling all flights from leaving from heathrow. a massive global computer glitch affected check-ins and that's to blame for today's cancellations. thousands of passengers took to social media to describe chaos in terminals, long lines, a sea of luggage on the floors at the airports. british airport says there was no evidence of a cyberattack here. the airline is offering full refunds for passengers unable to fly out today. president trump is heading back to the united states right now closing out his first overseas trip as president. before he left, he spoke to u.s. troops stationed in italy and promised reinforcements. take a listen. >> to our friends and allies, you are the ultimate reassurance.
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to our enemies, you are the ultimate deterrent. you are the metal forged out of the -- are you feeling how much stronger we're getting? >> the army is on a recruiting blitz following years long draw down in troops. rising threats around the world are prompting the need to replenish ranks. jacob soboroff found out one of the army's toughest challenges is finding recruits who are fit enough to serve. >> reporter: this is the cull mopation of all this training. is this as close as it gets to real combat in basic training? >> for these guys, yes. >> reporter: the u.s. army puts would-be soldiers through nine weeks training here at ft. benning. transform civilians into soldiers. >> all of us here have enlisted during a time of war. >> you need them to be thinking
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about this likelihood they'll deploy. >> if they come in here not thinking to deploy and they do, it will destroy a good soldier right away. >> are you feeling a little nervous? >> of course, sir. >> what does it feel like? >> it feels like freedom, sir. >> what's this the beginning of for you. >> serve in the army for six years. get out and become a pilot. >> a commercial pilot? >> yes, sir. >> let's take a look. what do you think? >> it's nice. >> pretty good, right? >> after years of draw downs, the army is in the midst of a troop build-up signed into law last year by president obama. president trump has called for an even greater increase, one that would bring total active duty troop numbers to around 540,000. but the army's already working hard to hit its current goal of 476,000 this year. spending $300 million to recruit just 6,000 more trainees by october. that's because a whopping 70% of
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military-age people don't meet the physical or mental requirements to serve. >> why do you think that it is a small fraction of eligible americanthat ultimately are qualified to enlist. >> there's a fraction of our society that physical activity kindf dissuades them away from it. >> i joined recruits to experience some of the obstacles they're trying to overcome here. physical on the ground, mental -- >> you can do it. >> 30 feet above ground and respiratory in the tear gas chamber. >> take my glasses off? >> absolutely. >> all right. it's the real deal. >> let's go. >> take a deep breath. take a deep breath. >> the tear gas is coming thoift canister here. all of them are going to have to take their masks off. >> eyes open. >> how was that? >> it was worse than i expected,
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but we survived. >> why do you sign up for this? >> i did it to better my family and my fiance when i get back home. >> and this is worth it? >> oh, yeah. >> over a lunch of mres, soldier trainees get a rare moment to let their guard down. >> i've had people tell me, you joined at the wrong time. the leks just happened. >> i don't know if they are just afraid something is going to happen. we'll have to be overseas, given the case, or here. >> are you afraid? >> i mean, it is what it is. >> what's going on with north korea and syria? >> what's going on with north korea and syria? >> still a lot of tension. the president is talking about sending people back to afghanistan. >> we have no phones, no computers. >> our drill sergeant said whatever happens here, doesn't matter to us. we're in the no zone. >> and facing a future that today is in the hands of president trump. >> nbc's jacob soboroff reporting. and if you are home tonight, watch "the greatest generation" reported by tom brokaw at 9:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc.
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that wraps up this hour. i'm richard lui. stay with us for news and updates. find mon twitter and inagram @richardlui. rachel maddow is next. have a great night. swings. sure we could travel, take it easy... but we've never been the type to just sit back... not when we've got so much more to give when you have the right financial advisor, life can be brilliant. ameriprise
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is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience try super poligrip free. ♪ rachel is a bit under the weather so we're giving her the night off. we begin with brand-new blockbuster breaking news from "the washington post." first, a report on the bipartisan expansion of the scope of one of the inquiries into possible trump campaign collusion with the russian attack on our presidenti election. the senate intel committee has asked trump's political campaign to gather and produce all documents, e-mails and phone records going all the way back to when the campaign began in june 2015. we want to note for you, this is a bipartisan request from the republican chair and the democrat ranking member of the committee. we're going to tell you a bit more about this news breaking late tonight a little later in this show.
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