>> i was told that it was voodoo economics. joy, nicolas, michelle and jason johnson, thank you so much. that is all in for this evening. the rachel maddow starts right now. pop quiz. how many people have held the position of president of the united states? how many people have had that job? if you answered 45, it is understandable that you would answer that way. everybody, including our current president calls donald trump the 45th president of the united states. but you know what? if we're counting him as 45, technically that means we're counting grover cleveland twice because he was the 22nd and 24th president of the united states. and i'm sure that grover cleveland loves to be counted twice. but if we're talking about individual people, only 44 people including the current president have actually held that job. here's another item on our quiz.

how many presidential elections have we held in this country. the answer to that is 58. a lot of two-termers and one four termer. we started having them in the 1700s, 1789. in terms of which american presidential election has been the most contentious, that is up for debate and every century has its candidate. which one was heavily scrutinized after the fact, that is pretty clear that we're living it right now. there were hints before the november election that something was off, something was going on in this one that was different. it all seemed almost too big to grasp at the time, in the middle of what was already this incredibly interesting campaign, this incredibly volatile campaign. but in the middle of all of that there was an external foreign

dynamic at work. beginning with the news last summer that the e-mail servers of the democratic party headquarters had been hacked by russian hackers. and the news that voter registration systems in at least two states or maybe ten states or maybe 20 states had been probed or breached to some level by again, hackers. by october, a month before the election, the united states intelligence agency came out and said while they couldn't agree that it was definitely the russians behind the voter registration hacks, they said they were confident that the russian government had definitely directed the hacking of the dnc and other american political organizations in order to quote interfere with the u.s. election process. so the bizarre story out of all of the weird stuff that's happened in american elections,

this story, our story, our generation's story of the bizarre russian hacking of our election, that story was at least starting to emerge in the weeks before the election. but at the same time, you know, as usual, as normal, there was a super contentious fascinating presidential campaign going on. and that was very engrossing at the time. and it was not until after the election that the extent of the russian involvement in our presidential election really came to light, and that started with a startling report from the "washington post" that came out the evening of friday, december 9th. a report that kind of blew all other news right out of the water. so we had a whole show planned tonight that had honestly nothing to do with this topic. but then the "washington post" just dropped this astonishing bombshell.

if you haven't seen this yet i'm going to put the headline on the screen so you can see it. i'm going to quote the lead directly. the cia has concluded that russia intervened in the 2016 election to help donald trump win the presidency. rather than just to undermine confidence in the u.s. electoral system. they're citing officials briefed on the matter, quote, intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connection to the russian government who provided wikileaks with thousands of hacked e-mails from the dnc and others including hillary clinton's campaign chairman. this is stunning stuff. all right. and this has just broken within the last hour in the "washington post." they're reporting that the cia not only concluded that the russians intervened in the election, stole information, publicized stolen information to help donald trump win the presidency, but the cia gave its information about russia to the leadership in the house and the senate. and the white house wanted to

make a big public bipartisan stand against it and republicans said no. mitch mcconnell specifically said no. no. don't tell the public. and so we held the election with the leadership in congress knowing full well what russia was doing and we all went to vote while they sat on that. until now. until the post published this tonight. that was friday night, december 9th, 2016. breaking news from the "washington post." the first of many friday nights when i would have to work late. basically since then, since december 9th we have been in kind of a sustained period of very distracting, very engrossing political crisis. this has felt like a sustained political crisis. as since then we've learned more and more and more after the extent of russian involvement the election and the investigations into the trump campaign's contacts with russia. but during and after the campaign. watch the date stamps on these as they fly by.

just as we're coming on the air we got news the former cia director james woolsey tonight has abruptly quit the trump transition team with no explanation. tonight after saying for weeks that there would be no senate or house investigation of this matter, the senate intelligence committee finally said, yeah, we'll look into this. all of a sudden this is starting to feel like the most important political story certainly in the world. with one week to go before we are supposed to swear in donald trump as president of the united states. the "the new york times" has just published a story titled "intercepted russian communications part of inquiry into trump associates." this is obviously a very inflammatory, very hot story. these new details coming out the eve of the inauguration is a bombshell. okay we have major breaking news this evening.

we have just been notified within the last minutes while we were in our commercial break that the acting attorney general of the united states has just been fired. okay we've got breaking news, a national security story just post bid the washington post about national security adviser michael flynn and his contacts with russia. we have breaking news tonight that goes to the question not just of whether or not the national security adviser is about to be fired, but it also goes to how many people in the new administration knew the kind of trouble that national security adviser michael flynn was in. how many people knew about that and when they knew it. i want to bring you some breaking news that the "the new york times" just posted. this has just gone up since we went on the air. i've been marking it with my trusty highlighter. let me tell you what they've reported directly relevant to what we need to talk to congressman schiff about. trump campaign aides has repeated contacts with russian

intelligence is the headline. the operative word being campaign. this is during the campaign. this is during the election. there's brand-new breaking news now from "the wall street journal." can we put this article on the screen please? did he make a full screen out of this? yes. thank you. you see the headline, spies get intelligence from president trump. they're not showing this him that because they're not sure if he can be trusted with it. he's the president. the washington post breaking news just this evening that will frankly tie your socks in a knot if you were thinking that maybe the whole trump sheriff russia thing was going to be investigated impartially and aggressively by congress. the two republican chairman of the intelligence committees in the house and the senate, they have both admitted to the "washington post" that they have been calling reporters off the

record at the request of the white house to tell reporters that there's nothing to these stories. we interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast for some breaking news tonight regarding attorney general jeff sessions. we've agreed that jeff sessions has agreed to amend his testimony. in his testimony at his confirmation hearing at the senate in january, he failed to disclose meetings that he had with the a russian government official when she was asked about trump campaign meetings with the officials. he told the senate that he didn't meet with any russians but he did. he will now change his testimony. we're following the breaking news tonight that the fire national security adviser retired attorney general michael flynn was fired from the trump administration after 24 days on the job. tonight he's asking for immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony in the trump-russia scandal. we have to start tonight with breaking news which has just been published by the washington post. the washington post reports that a fisa warrant was issued last summer to monster carter page's

communications. i'm never going to get another friday night off in my life. i'm telling you. friday nights are very news heavy in the trump administration. according to night's front page scoop in the washington post, mike flynn was warned explicitly that his conversations with russian officials was quote undoubtedly being monitored by the fbi and the nsa. there are interesting questions about what's happening with the department of justice and paul manafort. is jeff sessions involved in any work at the department of justice concerning paul manafort or is he recused. we can report tonight that the justice department will not say. we started asking yesterday. we asked throughout the day today. we have asked it five times in five different ways including me making the request myself personally multiple times in as many different ways as i could think of it. they will not say whether or not

he's recused. he has recused on flynn they say. he is recused on things related to the trump campaign broadly. they won't say about manafort. so we have news to break tonight. another subpoena has been issued as part of the ongoing investigations into president trump's associates. again nbc news reporting exclusively that federal investigators subpoenaed records relating to a $3.5 million loan taken out by paul manafort last year. we've got much more to come tonight. and because this is our life now, new substantive breaking news has happened in the last couple of minutes. because no night is complete without breaking news stories about the new administration. we've gotten this reporting from the times. quoting from the times, michael flynn told president trump's transition team weeks before the election that he was under investigation. all set to do a specific show today, a block, b block, c block, people booked, ready to go, scripts in. we know we're reporting.

had it all planned out. new breaking news. throw everything out the window. this is the new schedule. this is how we work now. you wait long enough into the evening without getting too drunk to pay attention to the news and you'll find that something breaks and changes your plans. monday evening it was president trump passing on classified intelligence to the russians in the oval office. tuesday night it was the existence of a memo from fired fbi director james comey describing a conversation if which he says the president asked him to back off the fbi investigation of former national security adviser mike flynn. last night it was the appointment of a social counsel to take over the trump-russia investigation. now it's the fourth day of the week and so now we've got a new one. tonight's scoop comes courtesy of michael schmitt at the "the new york times," a sorry that

he's broken tonight. the front page of the "the new york times" website, in addition to the alleged direct pressure on by the president on director comey, apparently the president called the fbi director and pressured him to put out public word about trump not personally being under investigation. nbc reports tonight that jared kushner is under scrutiny in the trump-russia investigation. those officials saying that jared kushner is a person of interest. >> welcome back to another friday night of what seems like extraordinary news from the trump-russia inquiry beginning with robert mueller taking over the grand jury inquiry in the lobbies that flynn did for turkey without registering as an agent of the foreign government. required under law.

the a.p. would report that mueller could expand the probe to including jeff sessions and rod rosenstein for their roles in firing. the a.p. reporting that muller is taking over the probe of the former campaign manager paul manafort. >> talk about dot connecting. we've been bush whacking through the forest for a long time and we came out into a clearing and we can see where we are. it's a landmark moment in terms of understanding this investigation, i think. >> great to be back. and because we have to begin tonight naturally the universe has welcomed me back with late-breaking trump-russia news, news that has just broken in the "washington post" with the last hour. according to night's "washington post" yet another senior serving national security official in the u.s. government has reportedly now told associates

that the president directed him, the president told him to intervene with the fbi to try to stop the trump-russia investigation. the new reporting from the "washington post" just out in the last hour concerns not james comey but the director of national intelligence, appointed by president trump. former senate dan coats. tonight we have this brand-new reporting from the "the new york times" about cia director mike pompeo and trump national security adviser mike flynn. it concerns the question of what happened in the 18 days between the time when the acting attorney general, sally yates, warned the white house that mike flynn was vulnerable to russian blackmail. what happened in the 18 days between when yates gave that warning and when the white house finally fired him. this is your life, america. this is what your life has been

like since december. do you wonder why you've been a little stressed out over the past few months. have you been following this news? it has been a long but gratifying seven months for journalism, particularly the nonstop, feels like nonstop breaking news from our excellent national treasure world class american newspapers like the "washington post" and like the "the new york times." we have -- as a country we've covered a lot of ground over the last seven months or so on this show, covering these breaking news updates every night as these stories have broken night after night after night. for the rest of this hour tonight, we're going to be, not just looking at where we've been and what we've learned over this remarkable seven-month period in american history, we're going to zero in on the major things to look out for as the investigations into the current administration continues. happy independence day. stay with us tonight.

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right to the white house where president trump is speaking. >> i don't know what that means, but it's not bad. and happy fourth of july. great honor to have you with us. melania and i truly appreciate

and celebrate america's independence with those who courageously defend our country, the men, women and families of the united states military. it is because of you that well over 300 million american citizens can live in freedom. there is one military family here today i am especially excited to recognize. our great vice president, mike pence, and our second lady, never heard that term before, but that's what they say, and she is some lady, that, i can tell you. of the united states, karen pence. are here along with their son, marine first lieutenant michael pence. where is michael? great. it's great, michael.

michael, not only are your parents proud of you, not only am i proud of you, but america, michael, is very proud of you. thank you. and america is proud of all of the brave men and women who serve in every branch of our great military. we have outstanding representatives of each service, each branch. they're with us today. we have army. we have navy. we have air force. we have marines. we have coast guard. we love our coast guard. representing the united states army is captain genejean guan. she served 14 years and today, she is company commander in support of old guard where she oversees the 120 soldiers who

protect the tomb of the unknown soldier. the it's beautiful. captain guan is joined today by her husband, captain james falwell. thank you both for your service and to every soldier here serving our nation and serving us all around the world. you're truly the army of the free. marines, we have marine sergeant yannick tomukande. he's with the marine helicopter squadron one, an outfit i've come to know and admire very much since arriving at white house. the sergeant is senior te technician and trainer for the entire squadron. thank you and thank you for being here and also we lay claim

to a very special title. you are a united states marine. that is a special title. thank you, sergeant. from the navy, we have lieutenant commander alyson mabry. navy ocean grapher. her leadership has improved the atmosphere and really what she's done is so incredible, having to do is is sensing, modeling and predicti inin ining e trek toe capabilities of various countries that hopefully we won't be thinking about too much, but she's there and she's got the information like nobody has. we thank her and her husband, michael, here with their children, emma, lily and ameila. our incredible sailors embody the navy credo, not for sefls,

but for country. thank you. from air force, we have technical sergeant ralph bernell. he's responsible for leading 50 security forces personnel that protect the president, the vice president and visiting foreign heads of state. a big job, a very important job, we want to thank you to raffle and to your wife, patricia and thank you to every member of the air force who gives our nation total sue per yperiority in the striking fear into the hearts of our enemies and inspiring hope in the hearts of our friends all around the world. finally, representing the coast guard, we have petty officer first class tony franklin. tony is a gunner es mate and is directly responsible for the armament of 17 units. he has led countless gunnery and

pyrotechnic demonstrations so i don't think the fireworks are going to impress him very much, but i will tell you they're going to impress you. thank you, tony. i want to thank every one of the coa coast guard. i have at the academy this year, gave the commencement address. it was an amazing, incredible group of people and a really great day. thank you, tony, very much. each of you here today representing that rare combination of patriotism, virtue and courage that our citizens have always and i mean always admired. and that our enemies have always feared. at this moment, your mothers and sisters in arm are posted around the globe fighting our enemies and standing watch to protect our nation. they're fighting for us. we are thanking them, praying for them and saluting them for their self-less sacrifice.

there could be no greater privilege than to serve as your commander in chief. i pledge my unwaivering support for you, your families and your missions. i will always have your back. i will always under all circumstances, you'll be coming back here and i will always have your back and i want to just tell you that our country is doing really, really well. no matter wr you look, the economy is blazing. and on every front, we're doing well and we do have challenges, but we will handle those challenges. believe me. you're part of a new and a truly great generation. two days ago, a spoke with lieutenant colonel dick call who served as the co-pilot of the lead b-25 bomb er pilot and piloted by lieutenant colonel

jimmy doolittle during the daring 1942 raid. after the attack on pearl harbor. lieutenant colonel call and the rest of the doolittle raiders launched their aircraft into the sky, knowing that they would not have enough fuel to return to friendly territory. that's not a good feeling. that's a lot of courage. our servicemen and women are preserving the legacy of courage and self-less service they inherited from lieutenant colonel dick call and so many others. may god bless you all. may god bless our military. may god bless forever the united states of america. thank you very much for being here. happy fourth of july.

thank you very much. thank you. happy fourth of july, everybody. thank you very much. >> president trump addressing military families holding picnic at the white house. making no comments about the north korean missile test. north korea launched missile test overnight our time. it was announced it was intercontinental ballistic missile. an icbm. department of defense saying this morning they knew north korea had launched that test, but did not initially confirm it was an icbm. they have now done so. the important part there is the missile has a range of about 4,000 miles. meaning it could be capable of reaching the continental united states. now, there are a lot of issues with accuracy and with whether or not they can arm that missile with a nuclear warhead, something we know north korea is working toward the capability of. no comments from the president.

he did tweet about it early this morning. but he had made no comments today about what action if any the united states will take in response to the north korean launch of a missile. we're going to go back to regular programming with rachh maddow. noo introducing the easiest way to get gillette blades text "blades" to gillette on demand

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night of mike pence's public life, the night he was chosen to be donald trump's vice presidential running mate, that's a night that was a sudden dramatic coup attempt in turkey, a major american ally. and that surprise bizarre intense news, that pretty much swallowed up all of the other news in the world. and if the turkish coup itself was dramatic news, which it was dramatic enough, i have to say the aftermath of the coup attempt has been even more dramatic. turkey's president has been trending autocratic but after the coup attempt he started rounding up people by the tens of thousands. started building hundreds of new prisons to lock those people up. the guy he blamed for than anybody for the coup attempt was this imam. he has since become a permanent

resident of the united states. lives in the poconos. turkey's president after the coup attempt demanded that the u.s. hand this guy over so he could be dealt with back in turkey. and while i'm sure that turkey's president feels strongly about that, this guy is a legal permanent resident of our country now. we don't hand people over because other countries say so. other countries don't get to demand that we hand them over. but interestingly on election day, on our election day here in the united states in november, we learned in a strange way that somebody who was about to become very very powerful in this country was apparently totally on board with that demand to hand over that turkish guy to the turkish government. on election day this week, on tuesday, donald trump's top military and intelligence adviser wrote an op-ed in the hill saying basically, you know what? we should hand that guy over. he called this iman who's living in the poconos a shady islamic mullah and he said this, this is

nice. quote if he was in reality a moderate he would not be in exile. you know what? honestly right now there are 100,000 journalists, professor, mayors, politicians, freaking libraries who have done that. he's building 174 new prison to lock up tens of thousand os people who he has rounded up in a gigantic purge. the hand them over guy, this guy that says we should hand this guy over, he probably deserves it, that' general mike flynn, the top adviser. he was named to the executive committee of donald trump's new transition team. that was the friday of the u.s. election this past november. that was the day that we first learned that michael flynn's lobbying firm was on the payroll

of the turkish government. three days after the election and red flags were already going up. but just one week later president-elect trump announced that in fact mike flynn would be his national security adviser. at which point when that announcement happened during our show on the air that night, i went into an extended ad lib about mike flynn. at this point in the show i had something i wanted to cover but i scrapped it. there's something i need to say about the mike flynn national security adviser announcement. it's an announcement. it's done. all a president-elect has to do to get a national security adviser is ask somebody and have them say yes. this mike flynn thing is done. that means it will the not be discussed compared to people who have to go through the confirmation process. the choice of mike flynn is a kettle of fish other than

anything we expected from the trump campaign. mike flynn calls islam a political etiology hiding behind a religion. calls islam a malignant cancer. he has been a frequent quest on russian state television and sees no difference between russian state television and for example, msnbc. he will now be the closest person to the president of the united states on a day-to-day basis on all foreign policy issues, on all military issues, on all national security issues. and he is way outside anything that anybody on the left, right or center might consider to be the mainstream either in thought or temperament in terms of national security issues. and it's done. and trump gets him unless he has some change of heart or you know awakening of conscience about

doing something like that for a key position. i would also say that mike flynn has been on the payroll, his intelligence firm has been on the payroll of turkey including the trump campaign without disclosing that while he was on the trump campaign. i know he's not going to get as much coverage as the other people that have to get confirmed over the next few days. stick a pin in that. it's a really important really worrying announcement. i'm not the kind of person who ever says i told you so, but imagine somebody else who looks like a lot like me, sounds like me, dresses cheap like me saying i told you so. the first evident trouble with the choice of mike flynn to be national security adviser came even before the inauguration. came about a week before the inauguration. "washington post" reported that mike flynn called the russian ambassador several times on december 29th, which is a key day because that's the day that the obama administration announced retaliatory measures against russia for them hacking or election. so reporting that flynn called the ambassador several times

that day. that led to several days of sean spicer insisting there was no call by mike flynn to the russians on december 29th. then he said it was a call on the 29th but nothing but holiday pleasantries. but absolute lit it had nothing to do be sanctions. that explanation held for almost three whole weeks until the washington post broke that story wide open. and in breaking that story the post found the answer to something that had been nagging people ever since the obama administration had expelled those russian diplomats and seized the russian compounds. there had been a nagging question. why didn't moscow retaliate when obama did that. that's how these things are worked out. we kick out a whole bunch of their guys, they kick out a

whole bunch of our guys. but putin didn't respond in kind. obama took over his long held russian compounds in the united states, seized them, kicked out the russian spies and diplomats. putin responded by doing nothing. it was weird. but then here's where the washington post picks up the story. putin's muted response took white house officials by surprise. triggered a search by u.s. spy agencies for clues. one former senior official told the post that something happened in those 24 hours between obama's announcement and putin's response. officials began pouring over intelligence reports, intercepted communications and diplomatic cables. they found evidence that trump national security adviser mike flynn and the russian ambassador to the united states had communicated by text and

telephone around the time these sanctions were announced. so we've got u.s. intelligence and law enforcement agencies bugging the russians, right, listening in on this russian officials calls. and what they hear, according to these multiple corroborated reports is the man who's going to go on to be trump's national security adviser calling the russian government and essentially telling them don't worry about these sanctions that the u.s. government is putting on you. he's calling russia to undermine the sanctions that the obama administration is putting on them. told them don't bother reacting to these sanctions. once trump is sworn in, we'll fix it. we'll take care of it. working secretly with a foreign power to undermine the actions of the u.s. government, that's kind of a big deal. even the trump folks recognize

that somebody doing that would be kind of a big deal. they recognized it enough that they took great pains to deny the heck out of this for weeks now. >> the subject matter of sanctions or the actions taken by the obama administration did not come up in the conversation. >> they exchanged logistical information on how to initiate and schedule that call. that was it, plain and simple. >> they did not discuss anything having to do with the united states decision to expel diplomats or impose a censure. >> either they all bluntly lied about mike flynn and what he was doing about russia or they lied unknowingly because they were saying something that they thought was through. because mike flynn told them a lie and they passed it on thinking it was troupe. either way that can't stand. that seems like a big deal for the top people in a brand-new administration. that was february 10th of this

year, not even a month into the new administration. less than four days later mike flynn was out. late last night in the middle of the night the national security adviser to the president resigned, was fired, resigned, resigned, was fired, we don't know. but he's out. national security adviser michael flynn. we now that the justice department, including sally yates, she went to the white house at the end of january and they informed -- she and another sean your career justice official informed the white house counsel that mike flynn had had contacts with the russian government that were not only undermining u.s. government sanctions against russia, these were contacts that he lied about and they told the white house that he had done it. and we know that the white house knew about that for weeks and they took no action. why did they take no action?

why did they continue to let michael flynn have the access to the president and the access to classified information that he enjoyed up until the night he was fired. "the new york times" and the washington post have both reported citing multiple sources that his contacts with the russian government didn't start once she was national security adviser, they didn't start once trump was elected. michael flynn was in contact with the russian government during the campaign, before the election, while russia was interfere in the u.s. election in multiple ways trying to tip the election to donald trump. did michael flynn help them with that? did mike flynn or anyone else collude with the russian government in their efforts to elude the election? it's a serious charge, an absolutely unanswered one at that point. that is still an unanswered

charge. since mike flynn left the white house he and his businesses and business associates have reportedly been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating collusion between the trump campaign and russia. mike flynn is a focus of robert mueller's investigation which is reportedly looking into not only flynn's russian contacts but also his work lobbying for turkey. mike flynn's activities during the press den campaign, during the transition, his very brief tenure in the white house itself, those are turned out to be right at the center of the ongoing investigations into this new administration and the russian attack on us last year. and those ongoing investigations have ended up putting a spotlight on one particular member of the trump administration and the specific question of whether or not he knew what mike flynn was up to. that spotlight is now on a very high ranking currently serving member of the administration. one who never got a fist chance to make a first impression. and that story is next. that they are endowed by their creator

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election day published a weird op-ed praising turkey's government. that all happened right after the election. but it wasn't until four months later, long after flynn had become national security adviser and then lost his job as national security adviser. it wasn't until months later that he finally filed paperwork to retroactively declare he had been acting as an agent of a foreign power while serve in the trump campaign. mike flynn may be long gone from the white house now and may be reportedly under all kinds of investigation. but you know we never did get a straight answer from the trump administration about how and why they installed someone as national security adviser who really was acting as an unregistered paid agent of a foreign power. mike flynn has finally retroactivity registered with the justice department as a foreign agent. he's admitted that he took hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby for the government of

turkey last year, between august and november. but again this filing is retroactive. it as not like he's filing now saying he's about to start to take money to lobby for the turkish government. he's filing now to say that he was lobbying for the turkish to report he was lobbying while he was working for trump. the white house said today that president trump had no idea. no idea that mike flynn was an agent of a foreign government while advising the trump campaign and leading the national security part of the trump transition and, honestly, while he was sitting on the presidential daily brief and all the other things he did as part of trump effort. maybe, maybe amazingly that's true. that trump had no idea mike flynn was a foreign agent while he was doing that. maybe the president consumes no news and information that is publicly available to the rest of us. maybe he didn't notice anything

on cable news. maybe he didn't notice anything on cn thrn or bloomberg or anyt. just a week after we did that segment on michael flynn working for a foreign government, democratic congressman wrote to the trump transition team to alert them to these credible news reports to the transition and the in the president was lobbying for turkish interests. notification from congress. now, today, the associated press has confirmed that the transition team beyond the letter from elijah cu mammings,e transition team was formally notified by mike flynn's lawyers that he was on the payroll of a foreign government. lawyers told them that flynn might need to register as an agent of the foreign power.

if the president had no access to that public information we know the white house is confirming even if they still saying the president didn't know, they are confirming that the transition knew. the transition team was informed at the highest levels that mike flynn maybe needed to register as a foreign agent. even if the president somehow was completely immune to this information, the white house confirms the transition knew. that the head of the transition inform informed. who is the head of the transiti transition. mike pence. >> michael flynn has filed with the department of justice as a foreign agent for making more than $500,000 as a lobbyist for turkey. your reaction to that considering that doesn't that mean, mr. vice president, even if he didn't lie to you about what the russian ambassador said or didn't say, you would have had to fire him any way?

>> let he say hearing that story today was the first i heard of it. i fully support the decision that president trump made to ask for general flynn's resignation. >> your disappointed by the story? >> first i heard of it. i think it is an affirmation of the president's decision to ask general flynn to resign. >> first of all, brett at fox asks the question perfectly. he lays it out accurately. let me get your reaction to this. basically saying is this not a significant scandal. how does mike pence respond to that? play that bit again. >> let me say hearing that story today was first i heard of it. >> that was not actually the question you were asked. nobody asked when you heard. twice without being asked when he first of this, twice he volunteer this is is all news to

him. >> disappointed by the story? >> first i heard of it. >> it is impossible that this is the first time that mike pence has heard of it. it's impossible. mike pence was the head of the transition. while all those news stories about mike flynn being on the turkish payroll, he was the head of the transition when congress formally notified the head of the transition that mike flynn appears to be on a foreign government's payroll. when he was the head of the transition when mike flynn's lawyers told the head of the transition that mike flynn need to register. mike pence explanation is he never heard of this. >> that's the first of it. >> that cannot be true. >> that cannot be true. the mike flynn scandal in this white house, the inexplicable

hiring of flynn, the national security advisor being forced out of that job just 24 days into the new administration because of his secret foreign ties, the mike flynn matter is also the mike pence matter. his behavior and account of his own actions, these thing es don't add up and they never have. vice president pence adviser to keep a low profile in this administration but he's made a number of blunt, direct, false statements related to the trump-russia investigation. he assert thad the trump transition had not apply for security clearance for mike flynn's son. they had. mike pence also boldly asserted

that james comey was not fired for anything having to do with the trump-rush scsia investigat. the president admitted that's exactly why he was fired. mike pence has asserted there were no trump campaign contacts with russian officials during the kpanl. that's not true. he has bluntly asserted he had no idea that mike flynn had a paid relationship with any foreign countries government. that would seem to be impossible. mike pence formed a political action committee in may, which is an unusual thing for a vice president to do. that was may. in june, he hired an a list private lawyer to represent him personally in the russia probe. then after weeks of speculation and reporting to the contrary and the vice president's office refusing to confirm one way or the other, the private lawyer said mike pence will not use the new pac he set up as a vehicle to raise funds to cover his

legal fees but he could if he want to. the mike flynn story, the mike flynn story is unprecedented in american history. it's incredible. it also is the vice president's story now. unlike mike flynn, mike pence, is still in office. watch this space.

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and germany. he has planned a special meeting with russian president vladmir putin, in person, first time. i wonder if they'll get along. that does it for us tonight. happy fourth of july. it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> this is a search for facts. >> the fbi is investigating whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> that's a ruse. >> these are not hoaxes invented by democrats. >> it should be over with. >> has the dismissal of mr. comey impeded any investigation? >> you cannot stop the men and women of the fbi from doing the right thing, protecting the american people and unholding the constitution? >> what trump will find out eventually is the rules do apply