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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  September 30, 2017 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT

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such poor leadership ability by the mayor of san juan and others in puerto rico who are not able to get their workers to help adding they want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 federal workers now on island doing a fantastic job, the president said. this morning the mayor told my colleague that the focus should be on the relief operation, not name calling. >> i am not going to be distracted by small comments, by politics, by petty issues. this is one goal, and it is to save lives. more than a week since hurricane maria ravaged puerto rico, the situation is dire. many of the islands 3 .4 million people still don't have access to basic necessities. for more, i want to bring in kelly o'donnell near president trump's golf resort in new jersey. kelly, puerto rico is facing a humanitarian crisis. why is the president making the
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disaster personal? >> reporter: all we can say, because we have not had an explanation for the president about the motivation behind the tweets for from senior advisers commented to us despite our request to understand a bit more about where this is coming from. the president has a history of taking situations and making them very personal. and at times he has seen the blowback in other times and places and circumstances that were more typically political. this, because of the dire nature, the emergency that's involved, the life and death with real people involved, makes it all the more striking that he would take an issue with one official asking for more federal help, not even calling out the president by name, but saying more needed to be done. overshadowing the fact that there's a federal response beginning. there has been days of criticism about whether it's been enough or what needs to be done differently, and the president has chose ton make it personal through his tweets. the latest one that you read, keir, again, alleges that the
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news media and democrats are somehow aligned to not give an accurate report of the president's efforts in this area, looking for a report card more than dealing with the situation. we do know that as scheduled in the last hour, the president was due to peek with officials in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands, and to talk about the kinds of needs that would typically be there. we have not yet had a readout of requests or things the president may have been able to offer. we know he plans to go and travel and be there with the first lady on tuesday. we don't have an itinerary yet. these are kept highly secure when the president is traveling into a disaster zone. the intent is for him to be on the ground to show the expression of the federal government for the concern for the puerto rican people. these tweets are a distraction from other issues that are more
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pressing and the president making it personal, fighting back, and drawing attention away from some of the things going on in the ground. he talked about wanting to rebuild and wanting to be of help to the puerto rican people. just yesterday, speaking in tones that were much more about trying to bring help and resolve and to be with the people of puerto rico saying that the florida governor is going to step in and be another sort of hands on person trying to help with the relief effort, but these tweets are certainly drawing our attention today and not in a way that's helpful to the people on the ground. >> and briefly, kelly, one of the questions the correspondents hate. he's tweeting from a golf resort. does he care about the optics of that? >> well, the president has a home that is on the grounds of his golf resort. so they don't tell us if he's golfing. he's at home. they will say he's working because he's doing these phone calls. the president has dealt with that issue of optics from really the first time we -- i mean, i
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am in new jersey frequently, as you may know or in florida with the cold winter months. i think the president is immune of whether or not spending time at his personal home is taking him away from the work. they always argue to us that he is doing things while at home. so that's something that people will judge. voters will judge. he gets a lot of criticism for that, and in this case, of course, the juxtaposition of his very comfortable luxurious personal life and the dire needs, that's something that certainly the public can assess what they think of that. >> kelly o'donnell answering the tough questions. thank you. the official death toll at puerto rico is at 18 but many puerto ricans on social media are doubting that number. they believe more bodies will be uncovered once roads are passab passable. we have more on the unfolding humanitarian crisis with dr.
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john torez. >> reporter: i'm seeing in the big city of san juan, things are starting to happen. hospitals are are getting water and electricity. the big hospital is trying to take care of the huge amount of patients. doing fine in this area, and there's a lot of people. when you go to the smaller communities, yesterday we went to a town that desperately needs help this. may have a hospital. it's a town of about 30,000 people. almost half the people in the town live below poverty levels. they can't get to the hospital because of transportation issues. the roads are blocked. a lot of private agencies are trying to take care of them. on top of it, the hospitals are running on generators. if they run out of diesel fuel, they can't help people. the deaths you're talking act, i asked the mayor and she said the number you see is just the official count, but there's a lot. bodies that aren't being counted because they're in small communities either they haven't
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been found or they aren't able to communicate them with san juan. she thinks they're the tip of the iceberg. >> thank you, dr. torez. keep safe. >> i want to bring in our panel, rule riaz, aaron mcpike, and jonathan allen. and bob cusack, the hill's editor in chief. jonathan, let me start with you. trump is headed to puerto rico on tuesday. is it too little too late or is this just to improve the optics? what's the purpose of his visit? >> well, the president has been planning this for some time that he wanted to go to puerto rico to show the commitment and resolve of the federal government to helping puerto rico. some of his tweets over the last 24 hours notwithstanding. but also wanted to go at a time when he was less likely to impede the recovery effort
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there. presidents always sort of struggle with that when's the right time to go in and you're not diverting so many resources to be an impediment. he wants to bring attention to the situation. it's been a little confusing with the tweets where he's fighting with the mayor of san juan. obviously that's not delivering water or food to anybody. >> what do you make of that twitter battle or at least on his side, he's on twitter, that the president now is having with the mayor of san juan? >> it's so unnecessary and honestly, it's tragic. when we look at this situation where we have a president who is so thin-skinned at a time when lives are at stake that he regards the mayor of san juan begging for help, he takes that as a personal attack. it is truly staggering. and you have to remember, there were other things he said on twitter. he criticized basically the people on the island expecting
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the government to do everything for them. >> that's the stunning thing. >> whether this was intentional or not, this plays right into stereo types of puerto ricans, in particular, wanting the government to do things for them or being lazy or depending on handouts. those are the type of comments even on an ordinary day are offensive. in this case, they're really despicable, and he's also created create problems for all the republican leadership. starting tomorrow every lawmaker will also be asked where do you stand in the feud between the mayor and the president? will you distance yourself from his comments and meanwhile the death toll will continue to mount, and we'll uncover more defization on this island. >> aaron, there was a tweet in response to trump attacking the mayor. she's been working 24 /7. you have been golfing. you're going straight to hell. fastest golf cart you ever took.
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fair criticism? >>. >> look, i think what is happening with the mayor there is she is trying to raise awareness. and by the president questioning her leadership, i mean, that's just not fair. this woman is trying very hard to get more attention, more supplies, more help to puerto rico. and i think that's a very important thing for her to be doing. i think a lot of this criticism is quite fair, and last weekend the president was not doing much to help, and instead, was in the middle of this fight with the nfl. so that at the end of the day is going to look incredibly bad for him. >> is there any calculation here on the part of the president? i mean, despite puerto rico being an american territory, he's taking a kind of us versus them approach at a time of catastrophe. is he trying to signal something
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to his base? what are your thoughts? >> this is trump. you saw him on the campaign trail and president he's always going to be counterpunching. i don't think it's a move toward his base, i just think his reacting toward criticism of the federal government's response. >> but there's a sort of sense of racism in it, isn't there? would you agree? >> i've talked to the members of the congressional hispanic caucus. they said if puerto rico was a state, the response would be different. the perception is a reality in politics. this is going to take forever to clean up, because remember, before the hurricane hit there was a massive debt problem in puerto rico. this is only going to make it that much worse. so the administration and puerto rico will have to work together for months if not years to solve all these problems. >> raul, i see you nodding there on the question of whether there is a racist undertone to the way that president trump is dealing with this?
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. >>. >> we have to remember this president did not start in a good place in his relationship with the latino community. he's given about a 67% negative approve rating in terms of his job. now that he's picking this fight, it shows how unfit he is in a sense for this office. even at a time of national crisis, he is comfortable in the role of our national bully. and i think whether or not you even pay close attention to politics or politics on the island, is there anyone who thinks this would be happening if this crisis were taking place in utah or in iowa? both of these states have fewer people than puerto rico. does anyone think those things will be happening if we were talking about a state on the mainland? most people would not. it's created terrible optics for his administration, and the crisis will only get worse as we get to the rural areas of puerto rico with high numbers of senior citizens living there. many who need medications to
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live. >> there seems to be a disconnect from the realities on the ground in puerto rico and what the administration perceives as a fantastic job. does president trump just not get it? >> well, i think there are two things going on here. i think at one level there is a massive federal response to what's gone on in puerto rico. that is to say a lot of resources have been deployed there, are continuing to be deployed there. there's a lot of belief some of that was way too slow, the moving of the ship, the comfort going in. many days after it was first suggested. but also what you're seeing on the ground in addition to a massive federal response is that federal response is not addressing the needs of the people in puerto rico. so if you do not have water, if you do not have food, if you need dialysis or insulin or other forms of med system assistance and are not able to get it, no matter what the federal response is right now, it's not being effective. i think that's the disconnect between a president who believes
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his administration is doing a lot for puerto rico at the moment and not getting credit for it. and the mayor of san juan who is seeing people who as she says are dying as a result of not being able to get the resources they need. >> and our guys on the ground are just working to try and give people the best picture of what's really happening. raul, jonathan, aaron, and bob, thank you. >> thank you. all right. tom price resigns in the midst of private plane scandal. a look at the other cabinet members accused of abusing taxpayer dollars. and why it won't be so easy for professional basketball players to take a knee in protest. but it's time for your medicine, okay? you ready? one, two, three. [ both ] ♪ emma, emma bo-bemma ♪ banana-fana-fo-femma
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zblmplt the white house is
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grappling with another cabinet shakeup. tom price resigned after it was learned he spent more than is $1 million of taxpayer money on his travel. a revelation that infuriated his boss, president trump. the president campaigned on the promise to eliminate the waste and prupcorruption crippling d.. price slammed spending when he was in congress. >> i think we made it halfway, cut it from eight to four jets. now we need to cut it from four jets to zero jets. this is just another example of fiscal irresponsibility run amuck in congress right now. >> irresponsibility run amuck. let's bring in former senior adviser to the bush chainny administration, robert. let me chart with you. the question you'll be expecting
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is can you explain the gap between draining the swamp and spending more than a million dollars on both personal and military travel combined? >> no. i can't explain it except one that either you're a hypocrite or you got so used to the perks of flying commercial. i'm sure it's very nice to be able to have the plane wait on it. i'm sure it's nice to be able not to have a whole bunch of people sitting next to you, strangers sitting next to you. it's very nice. that becomes addictive. it's easy as a member of congress or for anyone to criticize that. but when you get into power and have all of those luxuries, if you will, i guess you forget what you said a couple years ago. >> in this case, the president campaigned on drain the swamp months earlier. >> of course. well, that's the irony of it all. i'm a conservative, and i'd like to think i practice what i preach. when it comes to things like that, you would think purely from a pr standpoint, take
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philosophy aside, this would have been gotten out and secondly when it does, it'll look really bad. number one, to the president, but also to yourself, because you're on record as we talked about of saying this is a bad thing and that this is a waste of taxpayer dollars? >> it's been revealed the va secretary spent much of the recent work trip to london site seeing with his wife. and ryan sin can i hadmitted he took three quart charter flights totaling $12,000. a spokeswoman for his administration says it was approved by ethics officials. are these ethics corruption or is it simply a mistake? >> it's definitely not a mistake. i think it is in the mildest terms, an example of corruption.
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and in a sort of loose ethics i think that probably runs amuck in the white house. i think at worst they are doing this because the example comes from the top. look, we see president trump every single weekend go to m mar-a-la mar-a-lago, and bed minister, hold meetings at his hotels and government courses where he's not just doing it at taxpayer expense but profiting from it. i think one that's the example set from the top, no kidding. and no surprise that the millionaires and billionaires he's stacked his cabinet with feel free to emulate that example. >> there's a new poll by cnn that just came out. it shows that 37% of americans approve of trump's handling of the presidency. and 49% believe that pro athletes should stand for the national anthem. christy, does that 49% number on the anthem mean the president is on the right side politically on this issue? >> well, there's a deep, deep
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divide between democrats and republicans on this issue. we're seeing i think it as sort of a proxy for do you stand with donald trump or do you not? and, therefore, it's almost evenly divided in a partisan way. look, i think -- >> there's no way of this ending, is there? once you start the protest, you can't stop it and the president has made clear that he will continue to voice his opposition. >> that's right. because he sees this as a winning fight for him. when i hear him talk about collin kaepernick and see the thing about get the sob out of here, you should tell him that. it echoes for me during his allies when there were primarily african american protesters and he would say things like i wish we could go back to the days where you could take them out on a stretcher. get that guy out of here. what he's really saying, the heart of his appeal, obviously, is going back to a time where white men were in charge, and
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you did have sort of -- and people of color and women knew their place. that's what i hear. i think for maybe not every trump supporter, but those who also sort of hear the appeal of steve bannon and crew, this is something that they want him to say. when he said it, he was in front of the alabama republican wherein alabama republican rally. i think he could be pretty sure that saying these sorts of things was going to be an applause line, not something that was going to be controversial there. >> robert, it feels like sport now is a kind of a microcosm of the polarization we're seeing across the country. and that, again, it's hard to see how that division is resolved. does that -- how do you see this moving forward? >> well, let me just back up for a second and take issue with the poll you showed a few moments ago.
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it's more nuanced than that. this is not about the national anthem. i think that's the trap that we're all falling into that the president has done a very good job of trying to shift the conversation. this is about african american lives. this is about african american lives that are being shot by unfortunately a very few small group of police officers at will. so what collin kaepernick did about a year ago was to give a knee because of that. let's not conflate the two here. and that's the issue that i have with that poll there. i think the question is very, very broad. and it doesn't talk about the nuances of what this really is. and what we've done is as i said before, we have fallen to the trap where the president has made this about the national anthem. it is not about the national anthem. >> once again, attention moving away from perhaps where it should be. robert and christy, thank you. thank you. >> the truth about the president's new tax plan, it's a big win for the wealthy, but what about the middle class?
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we'll break down the facts next.
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you wouldn't benefit from your tax cut? >> i don't benefit. in fact, very strongly, as you see, there's no -- i think there's very little benefit for people of wealth. >> president trump is pushing ahead with his next major agenda goal. tax reform. while his claims, while he claims his plan is getting great reviews, it's also showing contra di contradictio contradictions. we look at the true imfact. >> what what about the president's claims this is really a tax break for middle income and working people and his big claim that there's little benefit of people of wealth, people like me, he says. the proposal to eliminate the estate tax alone only benefits the super rich because this year the estate tax only gets paid by
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estates that are worth more than $5.49 million. if you have $5.5 million, you ain't the middle class. the wealthy benefit. the top tax rate is reduced to 35%. this is an amount you only pay on your highest part of your income. so the bottom line is that definitely helps the rich. in addition, business owners who report their business income on their individual returns, think about it as pass throughs as most do, would see their top tax rate go down from 39.6% to 25 %. let's say a an employee but i'm a contractor, i can write off my extensions, i pay 25%. here's another one that benefits the president. the alternative minimum tax largely has an impact on people earning between 2 00,000 and a million. there are exceptions and the alternative minimum tax should be fixed but to suggest this
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helps the middle class is disingenuo disingenuous. the president also claims he won't benefit from the plan. we had that one tax return from the president in 2005. according to that he saved 31 million -- he paid $31 million because he had to pay the alternative minimum tax. if the amt were gone, the president in that one year alone would have had 31 million more. repealing the estate tax is likely to save his family $1.1 billion, probably more than that. we just don't know how much the trumps are worth. and capping the pass through business tax, making that money taxable at 25 % because donald trump has so many of these pass throughs is estimated to save him act 16 billion in a year, cutting the highest tax rate from 39% to 35%. probably save him $500,000 or more. it's not all good news for the
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president. eliminating certain deductions would probably cost him between $3 million and $5 million according to work done by "the new york times." that's a drop in the bucket compared to 1 $.1 billion, the rest of the savings to the president. when the president says this doesn't help the rich, and he doesn't benefit from it, for facts sake, it's simply not true. >> millions of dollars. would be nice. our thanks. don't miss v . >> the struggle for survival no water, no electricity and no food or medicine. we're not ground in san juan, puerto rico, where flies are limited and the situation is dire. i no longer live with
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moments ago president trump tweeted his praise to puerto rico's governor calling him a great guy and a leader who is really working hard. that after criticizing the mayor
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of san juan. and we have this video just in from san juan showing a flooded neighborhood. it's been almost two weeks since hurricane maria devastated the island and the majority of people are still without power and basic necessitienecessities. you can see it from the pictures. nbc is in san juan with more. >> reporter: keir, we're in san juan, puerto rico, where the lines for gas are in every street corner practically. these people lucked out. they actually found a gas station that is pumping these buckets that they have here, and this lady is just telling me the line has been here every day. she has been told they cannot ration the amount of diesel people need to get. let's corroborate that information with her. you're giving out as much as people need? >> yes. >> okay. sir, you're getting your gas today? >> yeah, i am.
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>> we've seen these lines everywhere. have you had to stand in line other days? >> six hours. >> how bad is the situation in puerto rico? >> very bad bad. very bad. >> reporter: do you have power at home? >> nope. no power. no water. >> reporter: no power. no water. and you've been standing in line some days six hours for gas? >> six hours. some days six hours. for ice about four hours. >> reporter: what do you need that for? >> keeping meat and medicine fresh. >> reporter: how old are you? >> 64. my wife is diabetic. she has to keep the insulin on ice. every day is survival here at this point? >> every day. thank you so much, sir. i'm glad you're getting your gas today. i appreciate you talking to us. keir, lines for gas, for ice, for medicine. it is literally a race of life and death here in puerto rico.
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11 days after hurricane maria. back to you. >> a race of life and death. thank you. joining me now senior digital ed nowhere for npr's latino. when president trump says puerto ricans want everything done for them. what do you think latinos across the u.s. are hearing when he says things like that? >> it's a distraction. i'm more focussed on because i'm a puerto rican journalist born and raised. i'm for focussed on the bigger news no one is talking about. that's the rising death count. you mentioned it, but that's the center of investigative journalism. they came out with a story on thursday. the reporting is legitimate. the numbers are -- the official government tally is 16 when, in fact, it's not. and the sources are there.
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i'm just wondering -- >> what are the numbers? what do you think the number is? how many deaths do you think there's been so far in your view? >> as conservative, conservative we're talking around 100. i'm hearing reports and i have contacts and reporters on the island who are telling me that could be in 300 to 500 people. not direct impact also from the hurricane. because what happens after when you have no communication with parts oh of the island. i mean, we're in the 11th day, and the federal government and the puerto rican government is not in communication with municipalities in this island? it's just shameful. and you can see the pictures that just were shown, and that's just in san juan. san juan is a metro part of the island. there is a mountainous region, a country side region, and i know you guys have sent some people out there, but it is bad. and we are past the rescue and
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the tweets and donald trump and the politics. we need a massive air lift in puerto rico, and i wrote about this in nbcnews.com. you need to see the might of the u.s. military coming in and rescuing people and going over these towns that have no communication and literally air lifting these people out of this island. that's the reality. that's the reality right now. >> i can hear from your voice, my friend, the way it's affecting you. >> i'm -- i was born in puerto rico. i'm born and raised. i've been covering this situation pre -- three or four days before the hurricane. i saw little interest by the federal government, and there were. i can remember the national hurricane center said there was a big red circle right directly over puerto rico. where was the federal government? how did they not know this was not happening?
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i have talked to many people both that it was a mess, and i'll tell you one thing. here's the big problem. the dhs, i e-mailed them yesterday. they are already acknowledged that the death toll is going to rise. the federal government said we hope it doesn't rise. i spoke with the first lady of puerto rico last night. she's eight months pregnant. she's telling me that people are helping each other. they're just frustrated. they all want to leave. they really are trying to work together. they have no hope, and when you have that feeling in day 12, you're going to get day 13 and 14, where is the help? where is it? that is the problem here. we're beyond this. like the military has to come in
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and we have to start all over again. >> a powerful message, my friend. i think people have heard it very clearly from your words and from the way you're saying it. thank you. we'll be right back. >> thank you. this is the story of john smith. not this john smith. or this john smith. or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana medicare advantage members. no, it's this john smith. who we paired with a humana team member to help address his own specific health needs.
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the u.s. relationship with c baa taking a turn. the embassy staff is being pulled by nearly half. the u.s. government has advised americans against travel to cuba and stopped issues visas to cubans wanting to come to the u.s. the new measures follow a series of mysterious so-called sonic attacks against several u.s. diplomats. the symptoms ranging from diz dizziness to impairment of cognitive functioning. investigators have not been able to find the source of the attacks. for more on that, i'm joined by
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vickie huddleson. ambassador, we don't know exactly what happened here. but we do know that there can be underhand tactics in diplomacy. is it fair to blame the cuban government for the attacks against u.s. diplomats? >> absolutely not. we have no idea, and that's quite clear. the cubans have allowed the fbi and the cia to come to cuba. i think we have to look at motive, means and opportunity. and it seems to me that this situation benefits, first of all, a rogue group in cuba, hard liners who are against the obama castro opening and foreign powers such as russia. just look. russia provided cuba with over 200,000 barrels of oil which amounted to about $100 million. in the previous four years cuba -- russia only presented
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cuba with about $11 million worth of oil. so what's going on with russia and cuba? all this is to say that there's no reason to believe that the cuban government is behind this. we need to work with the cubans to figure it out. >> and presumably, inf it is th russians or a group within cuba, their intent,s a u as you sugge to undermine the relationship between cuba and the u.s. so if president trump kind of reduces that relationship or walks back the obama reforms, then that will be doing exactly what whoever did this wants? >> well, that's exactly true. it seems as if we've already overreacted. at least to me the idea of pulling 60% of our diplomats doesn't make any sense at all.
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first of all -- >> but if you're in the state department, you can't just let this be. can you? if you know your diplomats are being attacked, you have to remove families and start pulling people out. >> you can remove family, but you don't have to remove so many diplomats. and let's look at it a little more logically. most of the hacks happened eight months ago. the last attack, and it was only one, was in august. so it appears to me that there are not going to be any additional attacks. so why pull out the diplomats now? but i think worst of all is the warning to americans. no americans other than american diplomats have been targeted. yet we're warning americans that it's dangerous to go to cuba. that doesn't make any sense at all. it seems to me we're trying to push the cubans so we get additional information from
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them. but i don't think we should use our travel warning system to do that. or we're trying to cater to senator marco rubio, a cuban american, who is very hostile to the obama/castro opening, and he has pushed the state department into making this warning in order to cut down on the relationship, because over 600,000 american tourists visited cuba last year. >> okay. the sometimes murky world of diplomacy. ambassador, thank you. first facebook and twitter and now google. social media giants are now at the center of the russian election mettling probe. next, we'll discuss how the testimony from the companies could influence the investigation. a trip back to the dthe doctor's office, mean
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russia investment, we learn that jared kushner and five other advisers close to the president reportedly used private e-mail servers to conduct white house business. executives from facebook, google
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and twitter have been asked to testify in public hearings and outspokesperson trump adviser roger stone made an appearance on capitol hill testifying before the house intelligence committee and told reporters was not involved in any collusion with russia and is aware of no collusion between russia and anyone involved with the trump campaign. joining me now is former federal prosecutor around ald omary otty, could you begin by connecting social media and the law. because presumably unless a conspiracy could be proven and by that i mean lots of russians working together on social media to influence the elections, the law is not of much use here. >> well, i think what we do know is that robert mueller obtained a search warrant to search facebook for evidence of a crime. so that means he presented evidence to a federal judge and the judge concluded there was good reason to believe a crime has been committed and evidence
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of crime existed on facebook. >> and what kind of crime would that be? >> sure. that would be a contribution by a foreigner in -- in connection with the united states election. so when you contribute to a candidate here in the united states, you actually usually have to check off a box that says that you are a u.s. citizen, right. >> right. >> so these russians who were engaging in independent expenditures of a sort on behalf of a particular candidate were not checking off that box. they were spending very substantial sums of money and in support of a candidate and that is against the law. so that is the crime that mueller will be looking at. and we don't know yet whether an american would be caught up in that. but if somebody new about that criminal activity and helped make it succeed, then they also could be charged along with the russians. >> and i'm a foreigner. the accent gives it away a little bit. so if i was overseas and i got
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on facebook and said things about the election, at what point am i committing a crime? >> wow, you are asking a very good question. that is very insightful. you have the freedom of speech and obviously if you are debating online i'm not suggesting that whenever you post a message online that you've made a contribution. but i think -- and i don't think that a federal prosecutor would charge somebody in that case. but if you had, for example, if you were spending a substantial amount of money on advertisements on behalf of a particular candidate or against a particular candidate, in a federal election and i was your lawyer, i would tell you you should not doing that. that is a very bad idea. >> i really want to talk about the revelations about white house officials using private e-mail servers. aside from the simple question of how can that happen, when it was such an issue during the election in relation to hillary clinton, what is the legal position? >> so it is certainly against
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the law to be using your private e-mail accounts if you are working in the white house. there is something called the presidential records act and that would violate that as long -- unless you are forwarding every one of those private e-mails in a fairly short time period, back to your official e-mail account. now it is not really a crime. things could be against the law and not a crime, but it is a violation of civil law. so no one should be chanting lock them up, just like it was silly to be talking on the other side about locking somebody up but it is a serious thing and the reason it is so serious and one reason is because the private devices are not secure. and a foreign government, foreign spies and others could hack into those devices and so there is a series security risk. >> and if you have made comments about private e-mails, during the election campaign, and then you are found to be using a private e-mail, could those comments be used -- quite often
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in the law, motivation and knowledge are a crucial factor. >> well for sure. i think here this is not something that i think will ultimately result in some court case being brought. typically if a typical employee was doing this, they would be reprimanded and disciplined and sometimes dismissed or they would have their clearance taken away. i don't know exactly what will happen here. but frankly although i don't always do this, i will applaud the fact that there is an investigation because there have been reports that the use of private e-mail is widespread and that really gives an opening to our foreign adversaries. >> roger stone said that paul manafort should be indicted and ari melber said they could use an anti-corruption law, the practice act to force cooperation from manafort. the foreign corrupt practice act is a very powerful piece of law, isn't it. >> well, for sure. and a lot of -- of lawyers like myself represent companies who are under the watchful eye of
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the government for those issues. so the foreign corrupt practices act is certainly an important law. but what i would say is that i think -- what we've heard from paul manafort and also from others is an indictment is forthcoming and i think it will be for a number of violations. >> we have to stop you there but thank you, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> as we head to the break, we want to show you the pictures out of toronto. barack obama and joe biden joined prince harry at the invictus game and dr. biden was joined by jill biden and cheered on u.s. and milania trump led during the games during the opening ceremony last week. how about that?
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coverage. >> i leaned into your shot by accident. >> i like that. >> any chance to be on television. >> we shared a moment. i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc health cares in new york. president trump spending the weekend at his golf club in bedminster, new jersey amid the latest tweet storm slamming the mayor of puerto rico and suggesting that workers rnts -- aren't helping enough, saying they want everything to be done for them when it should be a community etch f community effort when they are dealing with a growing humanitarian crisis following hurricane maria. >> if anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying. and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy. so mr. trump, i