massacre. as long as trump longs to knock off the guy coming at him, its only a matter of time before trump's fuse reaches the bomb. one thing we've learned is donald trump has a very short fuse. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the rachel maddow" show starts now. on this show we have president trump's white house counsel. i'm looking forward to that. we have a lot to get to. first i wanted to update on this strange and now bad story off the coast of japan tonight. this is the uss fitzgerald. it's a u.s. navy destroyer. that's a large ship. it's about 500 feet long. there's nearly 300 crew on board. as can you see from these images, the fitzgerald has sustained some pretty serious damage. it got that damage when it

collided tonight with this other ship. this is a japanese container ship, a commercial vessel. you can see it's addition the damage to the container ship is comparetively lighter. it's to the front left side of the contair ship. the port side of the bow. these two very large ships apparently collided with each other about of 60, 65 miles off the coast of japan in the middle of the night local time, 2:30 a.m. local time. that's about 1:30 p.m. east coast time in the united states. we're not sure exactly why this collision happened. things like this do not happen very often. i mean, it's a big ocean. and these are two immense and modern ships. but nbc's excellent pentagon producer, courtney cuby, who has been on this story since it first broke, she tells us the fitzgerald suffered significant damage, as you can see, on its right side, the starboard side, and the damage is apparently

both above and below the water line, which is bad. just for reference, for visual reference, let me show you these pictures here. can we actually drop the banner for a second -- there we go. this is what these two ships look like on a normal day before this collision. that's the container ship on the left, the navy destroyer on the right. that's what they look like on a good day. this is the damage both of them have sustained after this collision. now, we're told that another u.s. navy destroyer of the same class as the fitzgerald, destroyer called the "uss dewy" has been dispatched to the scene to go help. we've been told two navy tugs have been dispatched as soon as possible to the scene. in terms of injuries and potential loss of life here, the news is worrying. we're told that at least one u.s. service member on board was medevaced off the fitzgerald via helipter. beyond that for a long time after this happened today and into tonight, we have been having a hard time getting a clear indication as to whether

there were other u.s. navy sailors hurt or missing in this incident. we know that japanese coast guard and the u.s. navy have both been very actively involved in what is a pretty beg response effort. but just in the last few minutes, a u.s. military official -- excuse me, a u.s. official has told nbc's courty cuby that in addition to that u.s. navy sailor who was medevaced off the fitzgerald after this incident happened, an additional seven u.s. sailors are unaccounted for. and that is very worrying news. again, this happened off the coast of japan, about of 60, of 5 miles off the coast of japan. it happened in the middle of the night local time, about 1:30 p.m. east coast time in the united states. we are several hours into this rescue effort now. you can see some of the damage. you can see the damage. it appears clearly on the container ship. the damage on the fitzgerald is both above and below the water line. it's turning into a large response. again, that very worrying news

about those unaccounted for u.s. sailors. we'll keep you posted on that over the course of the evening as we learn more. nbc's pentagon producer has been reporting aggressively on this since it happened. we'll be in touch with courtney over the course of the hour as we get more. i should also tell you tonight we are also keeping an eye on the twin cities of minneapolis and is the paul this evening. this afternoon a jury returned a not guilty vdict in the case of a st. anthony police officer who was charged in the death of philando castile. this is a case that got a lot of nationwide attention. fill l philando castile was killed by an officer doing a routine traffic stop. the officer was acquitted and immediately after the not guilty verdict was announced, the police department announced he was fired from his job. we're keeping an eye on possible proceed tesses tonight in the twin cities.

you see a live shot there as people start to gather in response to that verdict. we'll keep you posted on that developing story as we learn more over the course of the this evening. i should also tell you, we are going to be joined in a few minutes by minnesota senior senator aklobuchar. there's a lot going on in the news tonight. this is not a night to check out because it's friday. this is a night when the news is going to keep happening late into the night. that said, because it is friday, if we're being honest, because it is a day that ends in "y" in this era, there's a lot of news coming out of washington as well. in terms of the washington news tonight, i need to tell you the a story that starts with bill clinton who went to college at georgetown university in washington, d.c. bill bill :to be as a young man

got there as an dergraduate in 1964. graduated in 1968. one of the stories about bill clinton's college career ends up being sort of relevant. legend has long had it at some time during bill clinton's early college years, when he was at georgetown, when he was a young man, maybe when he was about 19, maybe when was a freshman, young bill clinton went to a party in massachusetts that was a beach party. and political legend has it that at that beach party he was swimming in the ocean and he basically got grabbed by a rip tide and got pulled out to sea. and when that happened another young man, another 19-year-old man, a harvard student, came to his rescue. the man who came to his rescue in that near drowning story was a man named fife similarington.

he was a harvard student and went on to be a famous politician in his own right. he ended up becoming governor of arizona. bill clinton, of course, was a democrat who became governor of arkansas and the president of the united states. i have heard this story a million times. i have always suspected that the 1960's beach party/bill clinton rescue story might be holy or at least in part apocrapful. but i heard it a million times. it's one of the things people talked about a lot years later in 2001 when he issued a presidential pardon to fife similarington, the guy who safd him from drowning all those decades earlier. in 1997, fife simming ton was convicted of seven felonies related to his business life as a real estate developer. he was charged with a raft of corruption charges. he was ultimately convicted of filing false financial

statements, basically he was convicted of bank fraud. ultimately an appeals court would overturn his convictions and later in 2001 he would get a presidential pardon from bad swim erbil clinton. but when that case was brought, which those convictions happened that was a big, traumatic legal case. in the country broadly but specifically for fife similarington. he was a popular figure in republican politics. people were looking at him as potential presidential timber. it ultimately ended his political career. his lawyer as he went through that trauma and those convictions was a guy named john dowd. john dowd also represented arizona senator john mccain. in the keating five scandal. john mccain called his own involvement in that scandal the worst mistake of my life.

john mccain politically survived that scandal. he ultimately didn't get criminally charged like a lot of other people, or thrown out of congress for his involvement in it. but it was bad for john mccain. the ethics committee in the senate ripped him for his involvement in that scandal and ripped him for his poor judgment. they basically said they didn't go after him further was because mccain was in the house at the time he did those things and the senate ethics comttee didn't feel they had jurisdiction over him for his wrongdoings. so, john mccain survived the keating five scandal but by the skin of his teeth. and his lawyer in that matter was the fife similarington guy, this guy john dowd. john dowd is also famous for this case from 2011. this is a case that went very badly. i will just read you the lead sentence from the "new york times" report on this case the day the ruling came down. quote, the fallen hedge fund

billionaire received the longest prison sentence ever for insider trading on thursday. that fallen hedge fund billionaire, his lawyer when he got the long es prison sentence ever for insider trading, his lawyer was john dowd. john dowd, fife similarington, john dowd, john mccain. longest insider trading prison sentence ever. that same lawyer, john dowd, is now going to be donald trump's new lawyer president trump reportedly had a hard time finding namebrand d.c. law firms to investigate him in the russian attacks and the question of whether or not his campaign might have helped in that russian attack. those investigations have now also reportedly expanded to include potential obstruction of justice by the president himself and maybe by other people in his administration that resistance

from big d.c. lawyers and big d.c. law firms, him calling them, looking for representation and firm after firm telling him no, that has meant that the president's legal team, as he asell belled his legal team for these scandals is unorthodox for someone facing scandal as serious as this president is facing. the first lawyer he signed up is marc kasowitz, who has done things like real estate law and divorce law for the president in the past, but he has never done anything like any of the washington legal trouble the president finds himself in now. in addition to marc kasowitz we got indirect notice the president signed up a notable litigator from the religious right. a guy who started off representing televangelist, a guy who does cases about like displaying the ten commandments and stuff like that.

he's a very good lawyer but known for a specific kind of law. we got indirect notice the president signed up jay sekulaw. when he started appearing on tv shows and defending him, that's the way we found out he got that job. well, now to that unlikely presidential legal team, the president has apparently today adding john dowd, who at least, at least he has been involved in some high-profile political scandals in the past. and mr. dowd is well regarded in his field for his stuff. even though his clients did not come out well at all. this teamf lawrs the president. is putting together to defend him, this is a team the president will end up paying for himself, or at least we the taxpayers won't end up paying for those lawyers. these are private lawyers who are totally separate and apart

from the official white house counsel whose salary we do pay. i imagine, though, the matter of paying for his private lawyers is like the least concerning element of all of in for president trump, right? if only because he is so personally wealthy. we got a reminder of addition and a lot more detail about the extent of his personal welt when the white house released new financial disclosure forms for the president himself. we'll be talking about those later on in hour. i have toll you, as we got new evidence of the president's wealth and new news about the president adding to his legal team, we also in the past 24 hours got news that another senior member of the administration, someone who is not welgty at all, has also just hired himself a top dollar, very well-regarded lawyer to represent him in these ongoing scandals. right now as we speak, vice president mike pence, who just hired that new expensive lawyer,

he's back home in indiana tonight. specifically he's although the marriott hotel in downtown indianapolis because he is holding a fund raidser there. mike pence is not holding this fund-raiser for the republican party. he's not holding a fund racer for any subsidiary -- he's not holdg a fund-raiser for like, you know, that republican candidate in next week's congressional election in georgia. no, it's interesting. tonight vice president mike pence is holding that fund-raiser in indianapolis for his own political action committee, his own pac. never before in the history of the country has a vice president set up and operated his own political action committee while he was still serving as vice president and not technically running anything. the people attending mike pence's fund-raiser for his pac tonight tonight in indianapolis paid a lot of money to go for it it. anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000

in the plate for something they call the leadership executive roundtanl, which is speak for, i paid more money so i can be in a smaller room. fife people are paying 5,000 bucks a pop to go roundtable with mike pence tonight in indiana. on top of that there's in intriguing question as to how mike pence is going to pay for his very expensive private lawyer, who he just announced the hiring of yesterday. i mean, this is the person who's going to defend mike pence and represent mike pence in anything having to do with the trump/russia scandal or obstruction of justice scandals. this lawyer gets paid a lot per hour and is probably going to be working a lot of hours is it possible this fund-raiser for mike pence's pac tonight in indianapolis, is it possible that's going to be a way for people to fund mike pence's legal defense?

we called the vice president's spokman tonight to ask whether the money the vice president is raising right now for his pac, whether that money might be used in the future for mike pence's legal defense. the vice president's spokesperson would not say exactly but this is the exact response we got from him. quote, his legal fees will be paid by nontax dollars. quote, that's all we are saying. we have not discussed it except to say, it is not tax dollars. that was in response to us asking whether this fund-raiser for his pac is going to raise money for his legal defense? it won't be tax dollars. that's all we're seeing. so, we don't know if that means donations to mike pence's pac will be used to pay his legal defense. if that's now how he spends his time as vice president, using it to pay for his lawyers. the only assurance we have from

the vice president's office, he's not going to have a taxpayer funded defense. i knew that already. he can't have a takt paired against. there is a person who's listed on their fec form as contact person for the pac. we spound out tonight, spoke with her and find out if it might be used to fund the vice president's legal fees? she said she forwarded the appropriate matter to the appropriate contacts. he we don't know what that means and we haven't heard anything further. that may be a part of how the vice president spends his presidency. the family does not have deep pockets. we has to raise money to pay for his legal fees. a lot of the focus on the

scandal surrounding the white house has shifted this week to potential obstruction of justice. this week will be remembered for blockbuster reporting that the special counsel, robert mueller, has now made the president the subject of an ongoing fbi criminal inquiry as to whether or not there was obstruction of justice by the president to thwart the ongoing investigation swut russia deal. the media focus has shifted to that question, it's shifted to obstruction of justice. the original question about whether or not the trump campaign colluded with rush, colluded with the russian government in the russian attack on the election, that's still the xral question. that's still at the enter of the bull's eye in terms of -- they are rook looking at both in congress and although the fbi. that came back into very sharp focus with the other big news that just broke tonight. that's next. before fibromyalgia,

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tonight cnn was the first to report that he's about to called to testify before the house intelligence committee investigating the russian attack on our election and the question of whether the trump campaign colluded. that's really interesting. i think it's also a sign of what's going to be coming down the pike in the next couple weeks. in general, i should tell you over the next week or two it looks like we're about to get back to a focuonhat collusn issue and on the next week on wednesday, the house intelligence committee committee is going to hear from jeh johnson from homeland security secretary in the obama add m. the intelligence committee committee on the senate is going to take testimony from a bunch of experts and elections officials who are going to be talking about the russian hacking attack as they experienced it, as it targeted state and local election

systems. beyond that russian hacking attack on state and local election systems which we're learning more and more about all the time and beyond the russian hacking attack on the democratic party and the clinton campaign, the other prong of the russian attack last year was, of course, their open source social media stuff. russia appears to have had paid operatives and automated bots. using propaganda and dis information to disrupt the messaging of the pro-trump, anti-clinton news disinformation. if cnn is right in this report tonight in the investigating committees are now going to start questioning donald trump's digital campaign chief from his presidential campaign about that part of the russian attack, it

would seem the investigative committees are starting to focus intently on that original basic question of whether or not anybody associated with the trump campaig was a confederate. an american confederate helping the russians mount this attack on our country. cnn describes it in their report tonight, quote, the committees are interested in how russian bots were able to target specific messages in specific districts in swing states. the senate intelligence committee said were the russians on their own have the level of sophisticated knowledge of the american political system if they did not at least get some advice from someone in america? again, cnn reporting tonight that trump digital director, trump presidential campaign, trump digital director will be called before the house intelligence committee, quote, soon. they also report that the --

they also note the executive in charge of data operations overall for the trump campaign was trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, who keeps circulate -- whose name keeps surfacing in all sorts of reports about the ongoing investigations. now, in terms of the investigator to committees in congress, we were the first to report today that although its the judiciary he cans in the house and senate who has overall addition judiciary contest would be investigating credible allegations of high-level obstruction of justice in the white house. the republican chairman of the judiciary committee in the house is named bob goodlatte and judiciary committee staffer gave us this statement, which is very vaguely worded but i'll give you the bottom line. they're not doing any investigating into obstruction of justice in the house.

now, in the senate, they certainly are. boy, howdy, are they. dianne feinstein, chuck grassley, the top two senators on that committee, the two of them have been exchanging increasingly detailed public letters about all the things they want to investigate related to potential obstruction of justice. senator feinstein sent a letter yesterday in which she explained to senator grassley that these are all the people she wants to testify. as that committee starts to dig in. she says she wants testimony from the attorney general, jeff sessions. she says she wants testimony from fired fbi director, james comey. if he keeps saying no to their asking them -- to their asking him, she wants him to be subpoenaed. she also wants director comey's memos. she also wants to question all the senior phish fbi officials comey said he told about the conversation with the president. she wants to interview the deputy director of the fbi and the chief of staff to the fbi

director and the general counsel of the fbi and the number three person at the fbi. and she wants to interview the national security branch of the fbi. she wants to interview dana boente. the number four person in the justice department. she wants to interview dan coats, the head of the nsa, mike rogers and she would like to do all of that very soon, please. and i don't know if republican senator chuck grassley, the chairman, will agree to that list, but she has made her list public. she's argued her case publicly for why that committee needs to hear from those people, if we are ever to get to the bottom of the obstruction of justice allegations. one point here. even with that giant list of people that that investigatory committee apparently wants to talk to, there is one name that is not on that big, long list. that puzzles me for not being there. part of the reason everyone wants to keep talking to the director of national intelligence, dan coats, he gave hours much testimony in open session last week.

he apparently gave three hours of testimony in classified session yesterday. three hours alone in classified session with the judiciary coittee. sorry, with the intelligence committee. now the judiciary committee wants to talk to him, too. it has been reported by "the washington post" and the "new york times" and nbc and the "wall street journal" that robert mueller also plans to interview dan coats sometime soon. if he hasn't already. and part of the reason everyone wants to talk to him, part of the reason dan coats is so important to the question of obstruction of justice is because the obstruction of justice thing isn't just about firing james comey. nobody thinks coats was involved in the firing of james comey. there is a question beyond that of whether or not the white house, the president himself maybe, tried to pressure the fbi into dropping their investigation beyond just the threatening and firing of james comey. "the washington post" reported on march 22nd, president trump asked dan coats, the director of national intelligence in person

in the oval office if he could contact the fbi and try to get them to drop the russia investigation. if that reporting is true, if the president said that to dan coats, if that's what's driving all of these interest from the committees, the special counsel in talking to dan coats, if that's what's driving the imteartive, it should also be noted in the report from "the washington post" there was a witness to that consideration between the president and the dan coats. there was somebody else in the room when president trump reportedly made that request. it was cia direcr, me pompeo. with all these gigantic lists of people who've been advised to get lawyers and told to get ready for their interviews with the special counsel and be prepared to be interviewed if not subpoenaed. mike pompeo was reportedly an

indirect witness to one of the most overt alleged acts to obstruct justice in this case, but nobody seems to want to talk to him. tonight we can reported that at the end of may, chuck grassley and dianne feinstein sent him a letter. they sent a letter to mike pompeo to tell them what he knows about whether white house officials tried to directly or indirectly pressure the fbi about the russia investigation. they sent him that letter on may 26th telling him they needed his response by june 9th. that was a week ago. we can report pompeo never responded to that. these investigations are as red-hot as they've ever been. we're going to be talking tonight about the speculation, i would even sat indications that the president may be gearing up to try to fire the special counsel. and maybe other senior justice officials on his way toward that goal. but stick a pin in this thing about the cia director, mike pompeo.

i mean, maybe -- i don't know. maybe there's something magic about being cia director meaning special counsels don't interview you, don't call you a witness even though you're in the middle of something they're investigating. but unless there's some magic cia rule protecting him from being questioned, it does seem strange so far that mike pompeo appears to have like a little force field around him, deflecting any concerns about his actions and what he knows and what he saw while everybody else around him, up to and including the vice president and the president, start lawyering up. we'll be right back. garfunkel (instrumental) [ snoring ] [ deep sleep snoring ] the all-new volkswagen atlas.

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the president woke up this morning and made a public statement on twitter, which is not the sort of thing that would usually grab my attention. this one has ended up being important because something appears to have gone wrong in his lawyer's response to it. the president's statement this morning started with these exact words. quote, i am being invested for things went hinky shortly thereof. after the president made that statement with those four words, we got this at nbc news. a source close to trump's outside legal counsel tells nbc news that the president definitely was not confirming that he is under investigation when he made that statement on twitter this morning. that statement again, i am being

investigated. now, i am not a lawyer. and i know that sometimes lawyer talk is magic talk that regular humans can't understand. but when you say, quote, i am being investigated, that is not a subtle thing. that's not open to a lot of interpretation unless they're trying to say that being investigated is something different than being under investigation. maybe that's the -- i -- is that a distinction? is that a difference? look, unless the president's lawyer is trying to make us believe something that insane, he appears to be already having some basic trouble handling even the basic public utterance. he says, i am being investigated. his lawyer says, my client never said that. with the news today that the president added another lawyer to his personal legal team, it does look like the president's private counsel will be getting some help, but jeez, this is not

the way you would expect a very serious multipronged investigation into a sitting president to be unfolding in the modern era. i think it is unfolding the way you might expect on the prosecutor's side. but not so far on the president's side. not at all. and i'm not sure that's good for people who like the president or people who don't. joining us now for the intervi is bob bower, who is an excellent lawyer. he was white houseounsel to president obama bomb. thank you for being with us tonight. >> pleasure. >> as a legal matter, it's, of course -- i mean, its of interest to us nonlawyers. it's of interest that the president confirms that he's under investigation. is there a legal reason why his lawyer would try to dispute that? is there legal consequence to the president admitting publicly he's under investigation? >> no, lawyer is going to want the client to be shouting from the rooftop that he's under investigation. that certainly would be true for the president of the united states. there was another aspect to the

tweets this morning that was quite striking. another attack on law enforcement. that, too, would have to concern the president's counsel. the president, after all, is worried that he's being investigated for obstruction of justice. for him then oddly enough to begin attacking the people who are conducting the investigation is not the presentation he wants to make. after all, the whole point is he doesn't want to appear to impeding the administration of justice. not by tweet, not by any other actions he takes in the oefl office. so his communication strategy does not seem to be aligning very well with his legal defense. >> let me ask you, though, coming at this from a nonlawyer perspective, the president's argument made in twitterese, 140 characters or less, is that he's under investigation for firing the fbi director by someone who advised him to fire the fbi director. he's obviously referring to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein there. does the president sort of have a point that if the comey firing is being looked at as potential

obstruction, nobody who had any role in that firing should be overseeing that investigation? >> that question came up today. there were reports that deputy attorney general rosenstein was thinking about recusing himself. later in the day his office put out the word that, in fact, he wasn't prepared to do so. that opinion could change at any time. as the investigation proceeds, he'll have to make a judgment about whether he's going to be drawn into this obstruction investigation as a witness, perhaps, in a way that makes it impossible for him to supervise the investigation. and if he recuses, it goes to another departmental official to take over the responsibility of sprfsing the special counsel. >> so, are you saying that if the obstruction investigation does come to focus on this issue of the firing of the fbi director, the special counsel might have an option whether or not to call on mr. rosenstein as a potential witness if he doesn't -- if he chooses to

leave mr. rosenstein's involvement outside the scope of -- or outside the bounds of his investigation, that might protect rosenstein in his role and allow him to stay on board overseeing the investigation overall? >> its difficult to see he'll never contact mr. rosenstein. i think what deputy attorney general rosenstein is waiting to see is what precisely is the line of questioning he'll face, how deeply drawn in, and what role in the investigation and it may be othat basis he'll decide if he's required to recuse himself. if the role is minor, that might be one thing. it may be on that basis that he decides whether he's required to recuse himself. if the role is minor that may be one thing. it's not clear how exactly he's going to apply the recusal standards in this case. >> we're all learning about the order of succession. they are now political figures in terms of their political leanings and what people think about them in the legal profession.

it's all hypothetical at this point until that recusal happens. on the other side of this, mr. bower, i wanted to ask you about the legal team that the president has started to assemble thus far. i don't want to ask you to be personal about any of these lawyers. but do you think he's got the right kind of counsel to give him the best possible defense? >> well, he's adding different lawyers with different experience. what is most notable is that the lawyer he has at the pinnacle, the one in charge doesn't have any washington or meaningful white collar criminal experience would be brought to bear in a case like this. in the end, the team is really defined by its leadership. but, perhaps, the lawyer will find the appropriate balance and he'll build sort of in lego-like fashion what he needs to represent the president effectively. >> bob bower, former white house counsel to president obama, thank you. i hope you come back and talk to us soon. >> thank you. i have more questions on

this topic. particularly tonight on the senate investigation side of this, which seems to be heating up very fast. luckily, we've got a member of the senate judiciary committee on this show tonight. that's ahead. plus lots more. stay with us. oscar mayer is making changes so big... hot dogs will never be the same again. we went back to the drawing board. and the cutting board. we never stopped tasting... and tinkering. until we had... a line of the world's best hot dogs. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites waved goodbye to by-products. and got rid of the artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. for every. single. one of you. what else would you expect from oscar mayer. we eat, sleep and even drive hot dogs.

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they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ♪ >>so, with the scandal surrounding thtrum presidency in washington, the investigative focus on capitol hill has shifted sharply in the lass couple of days to the senate judiciary committee. senator amy klobuchar is a member of that committee, and triple at the center of the news we're covering tonight because in the senate she's been a staunch advocate of lifting the embargo with cuba. today the president partially rolled back president obama's efforts in that regard.

also, amy klobuchar is senior senator from minnesota and proceed tesses are taking shape in minnesota. we've been expecting that tonight in the twin cities region after a controversial verdict acquitting the police officer who killed philando castile in a st. paul suburb last year during an otherwise routine traffic stop. joining us is senator amy klobuchar who is at home in minnesota. thank you joining us. >> thank you very much, rachel. >> let me first get your reaction to this verdict today in the philando castile case. a 32-year-old african-american man shot by police after being pulled over in his car last year. there's been a not guilty verdict in that case. we're seeing protests in the streets. >> i can tell you, he was loved by so many students. he was a cafeteria worker for a number of years.

and a lot of people from that school miss him dealer. so, this is going to be a hard day and a hard weekend in the twin citi. hard for our community. i will tell yo tre were top-tch prosecutors assigned to this case from not just the ramsey county attorney's office but also the u.s. attorney's office. and as the st. paul mayor has asked for this son of st. paul that was addition that died, that we have peaceful marches. we have a large history of activism and social activism in minnesota. and our hope is that we'll have peaceful marches this evening. people certainly have a right to express their views. >> do you have fate in local authorities and local police that they are capable of policing large, even angry large demonstrations and keeping order without things -- without things getting violent? >> we hope so. this had been planned.

we knew the verdict would come out and the plan had long been from the community to go to st. paul, to go to the capitol the day the verdict came out, not knowing what it would be. so far, they are peaceful proceed tesses. we hope that will continue. it's very important that people have the right to express their views. >> senator, let me also ask you about a controversy you've been very outspoken on. international matter of the embargo with cuba. president trump -- i don't mean this in a mean way, but he hasn't accomplished much in terms of -- >> you be mean? no. >> i know, i try never to be mean to you, minnesota, nice. he obviously got neil gorsuch confirmed in the senate. they had to change the senate rules in order to do it. he hasn't really passed any substantive policy at all. the republicans haven't passed anything. they have, however, rolled back a number of initiatives from the obama administration, including today, taking a big whack at the

policy change president obama initiated towards cuba. what's your reaction to that? >> well, this made no sense to me. 73% of the american people believe we should continue to open relations with cuba. here you have a policy that he announced today that while is not a full rollback, which is no surprise, it's a setback, not a roll back, and it basically chills tourism. it makes it harder for people to visit. there are talks of auditing them within the next five years. you don't know if you'll be asked, why did you go to cuba? you're supposed to show the treasury department your records. i don't think this is a positive development. we now have 5 senators on the bill to lift the ban to travel to cuba. 55 senators, including a number of republicans. we have many senators on my bill to lift the embargo with senator enzi, a republican from wyoming. my concern is it's going to slow that momentum down at a time

when russia is starting to invest, china is starting to invest, the spain -- the spanish companies are building hotels. it makes no sense to me at all. the way you change human rights in cuba, as the pope believes, is rest of the world. >> senator, you're also on the judiciary committee. i said you're in the middle of all of our different stories that we're cering tonigh the judiciary committee is now taking a newly assertive role in the investigation into these scandal surrounding the russia attack, the potential collusion by the trump campaign with the russia attack, and specifically, on your committee, the question about whether there has been an effort to obstruct justice. trying to impede those investigations in any way. do you support that move by your committee? do you think it would be better to handle it all in intelligence rather than spreading it out among the different committees and all their jurisdictions? >> intelligence is playing a very important role here. they are looking into a foreign

power influencing our election. and they've done it in a bipartisan basis, and they must move ahead. but remember, the jurisdiction over oversight of the fbi and the justice department is squarely in the senate judiciary committee. and i think it is very important that senator grassley has agreed with senator feinstein to move forward with our own hearings. because we're going have the new fbi nominee before us. we have to determine what happened with this firing. senator sessions, it's unprecedented that he would go now attorney general sessions before the intelligence committee, which is fine. but do do that before a judiciary, we not only want to ask about russia and his meeting with the ambassador, we also want to ask about what they're doing with the refugee order, with voting rights. what is happening with the criminal justice reform or the lack thereof. there are a lot of things that the attorney general must come before the senate judiciary committee to discuss. >> senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. looks like it's going to be a tough night tonight in minnesota with the big protests and people very upset than verdict. good luck tonight. and stay in touch with us over

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we got one more story we're going to close with tonight. before we get to that last story, i want to mention something msnbc is going to do this weekend that i think is going to be kind of awesome you. might have seen the promos for this, but trust me, it's really good. we're going to be airing this

thing "all the president's men" we visited. all the president's men is one of the greatest american politics movies of all time. it's about the watergate scandal and the reporters who broke the story. but this thing that we're doing saturday night puts together that amazing movie and the real life story that it's about. it fits together all the president's men and the actual watergate scandal. the real stuff and to the movie about the real stuff together. and it's really good. this saturday night, airing at 9:00 p.m. here on msnbc. i have seen it. it's really good. you should watch it. there. we'll be right back. what do you have there?

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before lawrence takes over for the night, i just want to update you on the story we started with this hour, that u.s. navy destroyer, the uss fitzgerald, that collided with a japanese container ship off the coast of japan today. we have now confirmed that seven u.s. sailors are unexpected for after that collision. we're told by the navy that the ship itself and the japanese coast guard are looking for the seven missing sailors. and i had said earlier that one sailor was medevac'd off the ship after the collision. we can now report based on the statement from the u.s. navy that the person who was medivaced off the ship was actually the commanding officer of theship, commander broois benson. we're told that other injured sailors are being assessed. and again, there are seven sailors unaccounted for. as for what we know right now, the commanding officer of the "fitzgerald" is at the naval hospital in japan reportedly in stable condition.

he was removed from the ship after the collision by helicopter. so serious situation off the coast of japan tonight. we will continue to monitor it rough thevening. that does it for utonit. for this hour. we'll see you again on monday. msnbc live is next. good morning, everyone. i'm dara brown in new york. it's 7:00 a.m. in the east here .4:00 a.m. out west. here is a look at what's happening. the battle over the russian investigation intensifies as president trump hires another lawyer and there's fallout from one of his latest tweets. including whether the deputy attorney general will have to recuse himself and will robert mueller get fired? the jury in the bill cosby case, what could be the holdup? this as the judge could make an important ruling at 9:00 a.m. there are new at the tails this morning on the u.s.