they say the streets is watching because you never know when you will watch bill owe the street. billy eichner is amazing and tomorrow he will be on "the beat." billy eichner on "the beat," billy on the street. i can't wait. "hardball's" next. >> caught on camera. let's play hardball. ♪ ♪ ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york where tonight we're seeing again the builty plea of former campaign george popocatepetl louse, high-ranking trump officials knew the campaign was in contact with russians during the election campaign has already tainted paul manafort and sam clovis. now it appears that attorney general jeff sessions who attended a meeting with papadopoulos and the president. there's the picture in march

2016 was at least aware that papadopoulos wanted the campaign to make an overture to russia. according to a source close to sessions, quote, attorney general jeff sessions rejected a proposal by a junior campaign aide who offered to use his russian contacts to set up a meet between donald trump and v lead mir putin himself. he was not aware of anyone on the campaign who had communicated with russia. here's what he told al franken in his confirmation hearing in january. >> if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. more recently we saw sessions was careful to avoid a direct answer to this question posed by senator lindsay graham just last

month. >> did you ever overhear a conversation between you or anyone on the campaign about meeting with the russians? >> i have not seen anything that would indicate a collusion with the russians to impact the campaign. >> very careful there. very careful, attorney general. anyway, separately senator al franken sent a letter to the attorney general today asking him to address the information that papadopoulos gave to investigators. franken wrote sessions saying this is another example of in which you the nation's top law enforcement officer failed to tell the truth under oath about the trump team's contacts with agents of russia. the ranking democrat on the senate judiciary committee has been asked to return to capitol hill for more questioning. >> joining me right now is senator al franken of minnesota, a member of the senate judiciary committee. what do you make of this sort of indirect claim by attorney general sessions now that he

shot down the idea by papadopoulos to do business with the russians? >> well, that's what's being reported that he said something to the effect in that meeting which was of the foreign policy group that was meeting with trump and they met with trump that day and there is a photo of this with sessions there sitting two away from papadopoulos and that sessions said i don't think we should do this and i don't want -- no one should talk about this again, and papadopoulos had been meeting with russian contacts. so when he was asked first in that first confirmation hearing in january, he said he hadn't met with any russians and he didn't know of anyone meeting with russians and that turned out -- at least the part of him not meeting with russians turned out not to be true. he met with kislyak, the

ambassador, three times and as recently, rather, as the last hearing with him in the judiciary, he said he still didn't believe that anyone had met from the trump campaign with russians, and you know, i asked him if jared kushner, do you know about donald trump jr., paul manafort who all met with russians in trump tower. >> yeah. >> and he -- but he still claimed then that he didn't think that anybody from the trump campaign had met with russians and now it turns out that papadopoulos in his guilty plea said that he had been meeting with his russian contacts and told them that in this meeting and said that i think i can arrange this meeting between putin and trump and

sessions reacted to that, strongly enough, to, i believe, remember that. i have a lot of questions. >> yeah. >> for the attorney general, and they're in my letter, and i agree with patrick leahy that he should return to the judiciary committee and answer some questions before us. >> well, how could the attorney general say now through an intermediary, i suppose, to the press that he told this young guy to shut it down and not to have any more communications with the russians because he saw it was dangerous politically and perhaps in terms of national security, he shouldn't be doing anything like that stuff, and yet he didn't ever have a conversation like that. either he did it or he didn't. if he did say shut it down kid, and then he remembered there were contacts with russians. >> exactly. look, he has contradicted himself so many times in the last -- since january that it

really is hard to believe that he's been telling the truth at any one point. >> yeah. it seems like he's an old enough man to know what the cold war felt like, what the kgb acts like to be smart enough to say stay away from those damn russians. he seemed to be smart enough to say that when papadopoulos raised the idea and if i deny all contact with russia i'll be safe. >> he denied contact with russia in his confirmation hearing and he met with kislyak three times and met with the ambassador three times so that wasn't true. so then he changed it. he said i didn't meet with any russians to discuss the campaign. then it turned out that he had kind of talked about some campaign issues with kislyak at the mayflower hotel and then he changed it to, i didn't meet with russians to talk about interference with the campaign. so he's been moving the

goalpost. this is very, very hinky, and he needs to testify and needs to answer my letter, as well. >> one thing i keep reminding myself is that watergate ended with evidence, and the president of the united states in that case obstructed justice because we had the tapes. do you sense that mueller is moving along consistently in a way that he has something in mind at the end? does he seem to have what you might call the smoking gun at this point? does he have it? >> i don't know. what i think he's doing is doing a very serious and thorough investigation and i think that the revelations from this guilty plea and that's how a lot of things get unearthed during these investigations is people plead guilty so they don't have to spend a long time in prison. >> so the way they get truth is to promise people 0 to six

months in a minimum security prison situation and they probably don't have to serve and you do that and work your way up the ladder. >> yes. that's what i believe happened. i mean, i believe john dean spent time in prison, and i do also believe and a lot of the nixon -- >> they did. >> but dean cooperated, obviously. i don't think he spent a terribly long time in prison, and i think it was in a very minimum security prison. >> there was adequate tennis facilities and new tennis balls. >> i think they were old tennis balls. >> okay. >> at the prison. >> we'll correct that for the record. thank you very much, senator al franken and a member of the senate judiciary committee. >> i am joined by barbara mcquade, former nsa prosecutor and ken vogel, a reporter with the new york times, and, and we

have papadopoulos pleading and there were discussions over the table with the president and with the future attorney general presse present, and we're getting progress and now we got the break that through an intermediary and through a flack of some sort, the attorney general is now admitting that he did have a conversation about russian help and he shut it down. he told this young papadopoulos no more. what do you been that and where is that taking us in terms of this developing story? >> chris, you have to figure a lot of these revelations that are coming out now that seem to be voluntary and seem to be sessions people trying to get in front of something are, in fact, prompted by what muler is doing and papadopoulos and people going back through looking and figuring out hey, what is my exposure here and it's more than what we've seen and the guilty

plea from papadopoulos and manafort and gates. you see mueller is showing a little bit of leg in some of these ways that are not necessarily in the four corners of the cases. for instance, in the supplemental material that was submitted in the manafort-gates related to their bail they just dropped in there that oh, by the way, they've been paid millions of dollar by russian oligarchs and they have these bank accounts that co-beneficiary is a russian national and you're, like, huh? why wasn't that in the indictment as if he's signaling there's a lot more to come. >> sam klovitz has withdrawn his nomination for the top job at the agriculture department. these people know they're not going to get through any confirmation hearing and they know they've been tainted because of the way the testimony is coming out under pressure of a possible long-term prison sentences. >> i think the sam clovis withdrawal serves not only his interest, but maybe others in

the trump administration. imagine the kinds of questions he would be asked at his confirmation hearing under oath. this would be not only a huge distraction and an opportunity for members of congress to ask him about all of the matters in those emails, who are these other people identified only by title in the emails that were revealed in the statement by the case in the george papadopoulos case. so i think that he and others in the trump administration thought there was no choice, but to withdrawal the nomination. >> let's look at how the story is directing in various directions. you just pointed out the honest testimony under pressure with papadopoulos, a guy we didn't know about is now opening up a lot of doors. carter page, when you start hearing in these conversations oh, go over there on your own dime, and you think, wait a minute, nobody goes over there on their own dime. these guys are expense account people and they always get someone to pay their way and they're consultants and lobbyists and somebody's paying and when somebody like one of these top guys like clovis says,

young man, if you want to the go to russia and get dirt on hillary clinton. are you kidding me? someone's picking up the tab and my question is what about carter page? this cato kalin character who is always present and his role is unclear. they want us to think that both he and papadopoulos were minimal players and were doing this as you have suggested on their own volition, but what sort of makes it harder to take at face value their characterizations is that they tried to minimize manafort's role, when it first became when manafort was a target. you remember sean pricer at the podium, he played a limited role for a limited period of time. that is simply false. when you hear them making an excuse about other people, and you wonder if you can take that at face value or not, and even as it appears as it does with carter page that he was not a central player.

you have to think that mueller is looking more closely at this and that we shouldn't necessarily take them for their word when they say this guy is a nobody. >> it's a mob thing. i don't know anything. i don't remember that guy. carter page spoke to the house intelligence committee today just days after he told chris hayes that he might have had correspondence with papadopoulos about russia among other things. let's hear him. >> were you guys on email chains together, you and papadopoulos? >> look, there's a lot of emails all over the place when you're in a campaign. >> yeah, but yes or no. were you in email chains with papadopoulos? >> probably a few, yeah. >> were you in email chains with him about russia? >> it may have come up from time to time. >> you travel over the summer to moscow. >> yeah. >> are you the person they're talking about? >> i don't think so. and if you listen to the audio of all or the transcripts of everything i said i was always there just as a private citizen, and i've spoken at universities

in moscow and russia and asia and europe many times and it was totally separate. >> he's a very important man and here's what he said about the trip following his testimony. >> [ inaudible question ] >> no i had nothing to do with any of that. >> i'm sorry, barbara. this guy seems ditsy to me. i don't get it. he should be on "fox & friends" regularly. i don't know why donald trump would invest capital in him. this is the strangest group of people. the one thing they have in common is the word russia. i've never seen so many russian connections. what is your sense of how the prosecution is proceeding? prosecutor mueller has begun with a very small person and let him off the hook with a zero to

six-month prison sentence that may be nothing and he's moving toward clovis and other guys in a chronological, even, way. >> this is the methodical process of right out of the prosecutor's playbook. start with smaller-level people and people whose names we are not familiar with, as you said, a week ago and find a crime that they've committed and exchange for leniency and in the initial complaint papadopoulos was charged with obstruction of justice which carried a higher prison term for altering his facebook page. that charge ultimately was dropped and he is providing information. it also says in those documents that they wanted to seal his document for a while so as not to tip off others in the investigation so that they can conduct interviews and engage in proactive cooperation. that means he may have worn a wire and recorded phone calls. so i'll bet there are a lot of

administration official shaking in their boots? >> does that mean wear a wire, basically? >> it most often means wear a wire or record phone calls. >> wow. once they accused w. of wearing a wire, and that was strange and this is much more serious. it's great to have you on, and have an expert on. coming up, trump says the suspect in this week's terror attack in new york should get the death penalty. what is this guy? the judge imperial or what? why is president trump commenting on a criminal case considering his comments could end up weakening, in fact jeopardizing the whole prosecution case and plus, trump promised to hire the best people and why is he giving plum government jobs and one that was a cabana boy, and do they prepare for the jobs trump gave people. and joe biden's spirited attack

on donald trump and whether trump can resist the right-wing urge to kneecap special prosecutor robert mueller. let me finish today with trump watch. this is "hardball" where the action is. and this guy is just trying to get through the day. this guy feels like he can take on anything. this guy isn't sure he can take it anymore. unwavering self-confidence. stuck in a 4-door sedan of sadness. upgrade your commute. ride with audible. dial star star audible on your smartphone to start listening today. when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe.

yeah, my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. what?! you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. most americans will be able to file taxes on a single sheet of paper. what do you think of that, kevin? are you still there? or will it be a paper and a half? oh! great job. thank you very much. i didn't know i was going to be given a prop. >> that was my only copy. >> it's yours. [ laughter ] >> beautiful. thank you. >> do you think that's funny? stay with us here. welcome back to "hardball." republicans are new revealing their tax plan and it slashes the rate to 20%. it cuts the individual taxes of

upper income people and gradually eliminates the estate tax altogether and adds $1.5 trillion to the debt in ten years. democrats characterize it as a giveaway to the wealthiest americans and people like donald trump itself. >> this is a shell game and a ponzi scheme that corporate america will perpetrate on the american people. the republican bill written in secret, designed to be raced before it's truly understood ran sacks vital benefits for the middle class. >> the republicans know the more this bill is exposed out there the less people like it. in short, the bills like a fish. if it stays out in the sunlight too long it stinks. >> you know what? this is something that should be taken seriously, ali. >> yeah. >> what we are getting here is stafford and -- >> it should be taken seriously. >> ali velshi. one of the big winners here,

let's start with stockholder because the cash will flow down, and the corporate tax cut from 25% to 35%. >> so this is key. nobody pays 35%. that's the statutory rate. you can look at this a million ways and come out to 18.6% because there are so many loopholes -- >> why is the market discounting this big flush of money? >> because the market's doing it and ignoring everything unless donald trump completely reverses things and adds regulation, the market's going to keep on going. so what you've got is 20% without a big change in loopholes which means the effective rate the companies will pay is even less. this was a very, very big giveaway to businesses and the wealthy and a small giveaway to the middle class, and many of them will get a small tax cut. between 250 and a million. that's a lot of people and a lot of money. it's a -- we're all going to like him for this. >> it has relatively broad appeal and the concept that this is a middle-class tax cut is

largely false and it increases the deficit. this doesn't achieve a whole lot of goals. >> you go to latin america, and there are a few zillion airs that own the farmland and they own everything of any value and then masses -- you know why? they don't have estate tax because you can accumulate wealth over generations and generations. you don't have to work or do anything. that's why you have an estate tax. who wants that done? >> we've run the numbers and just in donald trump's estate, according to the numbers that forbes has on what his waetealt it would net his kids another $525 million. >> there will always be trumps. >> there say philosophical argument about whether or not you should tax people's estates, but the concept that this is a middle-class problem is entirely false. in 2017 the number of estates that will be subject to estate tax is 5,500 in total. >> the oligarchs. >> the number of those that are

businesses and family enterprises that the republicans keep talking about is 80, 8-0. this is not a middle-class thing. >> it's a rich person's tax cut and we weren't surprised. >> i like the way you deliver the facts. >> justice trump style. the president tweets that the new york terror suspect should get the death penalty, he says. doesn't he know this could jeopardize the prosecution's case. nixon did this with charles manson. he almost got the guy off. you're watching "hardball." belu actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. you're working in millions of places at once with iot sensors. analyzing social data on the cloud to create new designs. and using blockchain to help prevent fraud. so get back to it and do the best work of your life. and using blockchain to help prevent fraud.

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welcome back to "hardball." prosecutors are beginning to lay out their case against a suspect. yesterday they brought terrorism charges against sayfullo saipov. >> a man consumed by hate and

twisted ideology attacked our country and our city. >> if this suspect is convicted on terrorism charges he could face the death penalty. president trump welcomed that news tweeting that the terrorist should get death penalty. there is something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. death penalty. again, he said it. the president took a swipe at the american justice system itself. let's watch. >> we need quick justice and we need strong justice. much quicker and much stronger than we have right now because what we have right now is a joke. it's a laughing stock. >> for more, i'm joined by paul butler, former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst and michael caputo, former trump campaign adviser. michael, i want to hear from you first, what's the case for the

president to call for the death penalty. >> i think i've heard you and most of the media complain about the president's tweets now for about 18 months. >> what about the death pen atty? >> i understand that. what you're alleging here is that donald trump crossed what they call the manson-nixon line. >> right. yeah. >> and you look at what the president did. you -- i've heard people talk about how the president may have messed up the bergdahl prosecution. the judge there said that the president's tweets about it -- he would take them into consideration as mitigating circumstances, but he didn't think that it changed anything in the case. he didn't think it soured the public on the veracity of the military justice system. so i think some of this hand wringing over the president's tweet say little bit over the top. >> if you were an aclu lawyer or public defender and you were given this case, you wouldn't use the president's comments in terms of tainting the jury pool to try to get a better commute

to lighten up the sentence to say life in prison. wouldn't you use those very words for your client? >> i see where it's been done in the past. i see what it's done in the bergdahl case. it didn't seem to have an impact on bergdahl. in this case, this guy has been singing about his own guilt for quite some time now and i don't think it will affect the sentencing phase all that much when you realize -- >> right. we realize that he's totally guilty and he's admitted to it and he's killed people outright. it's complete confession and he wants to hang an isis flag in his hospital room. i don't think the president tweet will have much impact on this. >> let me ask, as michael mentioned in 1970, president richard nixon weighed in on an infamous case declaring charles manson guilty of murder even though the trial was still under way. let's listen. >> noted, for example, the coverage of the charles manson case when i was in los angeles. front page every day in the papers that usually got a couple

of minutes on the evening news. here was a man who was guilty, directly or indirectly of eight murders without reason. >> within a half hour of making those remarks, nixon's press secretary was forced to issue a correction saying the president failed to use the word allege. it did not stop manson's lawyers to seek a mistrial. manson guilty, nixon declares. there it is the sketch from the courtroom sketcher. despite that, a mistrial was never granted. let me go to paul butler. it's something presidents should be told not to do and here's on the list when you become president. don't get involved in criminal trials. you're not a judge. you're not a juror. you're an observer and a citizen. that's it. >> you know, chris, most presidents don't have to be told that, but like a lot of other things that donald trump does, it's unethical and

inappropriate. it's unpresidential and it's not exactly against the law. if you care about things like the due process, and equal administration of justice, the president shouldn't be doing these things. president nixon had the grace to apologize, to withdraw. how do we know that donald trump isn't going to do that? because he has a history here. the central park five, the people who were ultimately exonerated of a notorious crime in new york. when the crime happened president trump took out an ad in the four daily newspapers in new york calling for the death penalty, when those young men, african-american men ultimately were exonerated, the president refused to apologize. again, it's almost like he thinks that he should be like they used to do in the old days and skip the trial and legal lynching and that's not how we administer justice in the united states of america. >> your response to that because

of course, president trump has been responsible in the past for these kinds of comments and he talked about the bergdahl case. he called the guy traitor and no-good traitor, blah, blah, blah. he should have been executed. he doesn't mind getting involved in capital cases, either. we talked about the manson-nixon line. we look back on that now and some analysts say nixon was doing it to stay ahead of the curve in the cultural war and that was an astute analysis and that might be the kind of analysis we're looking for here. the president sends these tweets and does things -- >> it's my analysis is what i think and nixon was trying to roll up the score in the '70 election and that was the agnew election where they went hard to hate the press and hate the liberals and the long hairs and that was the culture war back then, as well. you're right. >> and also, you look at this just as the numbers crunches and the campaign person and the political addict like you and i both are.

the president now is in a lot of trouble and in a precarious position, but he's not for a good reason because the respect reps in the house and the representatives in the senate are behind him. the reason why, any poll that will tell you, even the worst poll will tell you that 80% to 90-plus% of republicans back this president and one of the reasons why they do, you might postulate is it echoes the sentiments they feel he resonates when he agrees that this person needs to have the death penalty. >> you know what? >> here's the problem with that argument -- >> you may think we have different politics and everything you say is true. i have real skepticism paul. i have real skepticism whether this republican congress next year has to face an impeachment trial, may not even report out articles of impeachment no matter what mueller does, because i can see them just basically see them doing jury nullification and you might have a case here mr. smartypants. you might have a case on

obstruction or collusion, but you know what? we the people of the republican party will not act on it because we like to cut at this guy's jib. michael, you may have something. it's fe fairious, but you may have something. up next, president trump says he only hires the best. how does he explain the resumes of some of his administration officials? this is not going to be condescension, but he's picked strange people for some very important jobs. this is "hardball," where the action is. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for those who know what they're really building. always unstoppable. aswitch to new pantene light as air foam conditioner,

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welcome back to "hardball." president trump promised during the campaign that he would hire the best people for the country. here he goes. >> we're going to deliver. we're going to get the best people in the world. you know, we have the greatest business people in the world. we don't use them. >> we will use our smartest and our best and we're not using political hacks. they're the people that do these deals. >> we want experts and our finest people. we don't want b-level, c-level, d-level, we want our absolute best. >> he hasn't followed through on that promise rigone bit. he nominated sam clovis. he's not a scientist and former talk show host, nothing wrong with that and a trump campaign adviser. clovis withdrew his nomination due to the ties to the russian

investigation. sid boughridge, and he has been fired since his anti-muslim tweets were uncovered. >> victoria barton worked as an office manager and bar manager. a confidential assistant was a cabana attendant dealing with chairs and towels as recently as 2015. joinings me is dana, a columnist with the washington post. how did you get the back grounds of these people, i remember when w had the head of the arabian horse association run the federal emergency management that dealt with katrina. that was a laugh. where did he get this cast of characters? >> terrific group called american oversight forwarded all of these resumes and overlaid it with whose been appointed and who worked in the trump campaign and it was quite funny. there's nothing wrong with meineke muffler. i would take my car there, but

does the guy who ran the meineke muffler branch in new hampshire work with energy policy? i don't know what he knows about energy policy and americans could be confident that as long as he was there they wouldn't pay a lot for the muffler. >> what about sid bownidge? >> the cabana boy has gone to the usda, and the bartender has gone to hud and that's very important because a bartender would certainly be able to help the hud secretary who happens to be a retired brain surgeon. all of these people may be qualified in their own rights. they don't seem to be qualified for the positions that he's put them in. it's a little bit like we're watching an episode of "the apprentice qwest qwe apprentice" and has gone haywire. >> today's secretary of energy rick perry said that fossil fuels play a role in preventing

sexual assault. >> from the standpoint of sexual assault, when the lights are on, when you have light, it shines the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts. so from the standpoint of how you really affect people's lives, fossil fuels is going to play a role in that. i happen to think it's going to play a positive role. >> is he speaking metaphorically in it sheds righteousness. this is chancy gardner out of being there. this is the secretary of energy. this is the guy who couldn't remember the three departments he was going to get rid of and here he is saying he's figured out the metaphysical connection between light and avoiding evil. this is like something out of genesis. >> it is so easy to say oops, i'm not going down the path of suggesting that the secretary of energy is a dim bulb, but he didn't have a whole lot of

background. at least he was the governor of texas so he had some experience. think about it, we had a secretary of education who does not have a lot of knowledge about education, but has talked about the danger of bears attacking public schools. the treasury secretary is most recently known for the lego batman movie and we have ben carson, the brain surgeon at the housing and urban development and you've got a guy like mattis at the pentagon who is superbly qualified and trump keeps stepping all over him and contradicting him so you wonder why they don't have more experts. >> let me say something about rick perry. rick perry has said some stupid things, and i have to say back during katrina, back when the people in new orleans were under water, a lot of african-americans, he offered refuge in his cities like houston. they offered those people a place to go and live and stay there. it was an unusual act of

generosity and welcoming, i thought, from a conservative republican governor, and i've always remembered i liked the guy for one reason and the way he responded to in the lives of those poor people that had to leave their city back in katrina days. he looked a lot better than w ever will. thank you, dana willbach to how cruel some of us can be. >> the hardball takes on the conservative crusade against special counsel mueller and joed by know's fiery attack. you're watching "hardball." and we covered it, july first, twenty-fifteen. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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welcome back to "hardball." the white house says president trump has no plans to fire special counsel robert mueller, but nicholas christoph of the new york times wrote that mueller finds himself in the crosshairs writing we may shortly be facing a national crisis. president trump's base is egging him on to undertake his own saturday night massacre. in fact, some of the president's allies have not only called for

mueller's ouster. they've called for an investigation, big surprise, of hillary clinton again. let's bring in the hardball roundtable. megan murphy ed are to of bloomberg businessweek and eddie claude is from the center of african-american studies at the prestigious princeton university and the huffington post contributor. it's not quite a roundtable, but it's a table. i think it works if you want to check with fox and friends and sean in the evening and they all begin to sing the greek chorus. let's go back to the uranium and whatever. it will not stop mueller, one inch, one step. >> of course, it will not stop robert mueller. you only have to look at the indictment and how methodical he's been in the process and the first set of charges and the outline to know how serious and how great this is, and all of our reporters show inside the white house while they're trying to project an image of calm and coolness and distancing

themselves not only from the players involved but from the entire teener of the investigation, let's go back to hillary and uranium one and whether cfius looked at this deal and let's look at the clinton connections, and it's ludicrous and what the american people in particular focused on is his uranium dealings. >> it seems to me that it's easy to feed people talking points and offense than talking points for defense. >> absolutely. i'm thinking of two converging factors and one it seems to me that there is in some ways his belief that trump can't be wrong, that there is an absolute loyalty to it. >> okay. professor, explain that. why do they believe whatever he says? >> some people believe there is an absolute session in maintaining power. there are folks who don't think he can do anything wrong and there are others willing to hold

on to the reins of power. >> do you think if mueller comes in with a hard case of obstruction of justice and collusion with the russians that the republican-controlled house judiciary committee will move? do you think they will? >> i think so. there is a piece written by david roberts just today saying that he could come in with the facts and show that there's collusion, but the breitbarts and the fox news and those folks that they can actually say it's not true. >> they're trying to get rid of them. former vice president joe biden took aim at the president saying that the president has preyed on the fears of the middle-class voters. let's listen to joe biden. >> we are seeing forces here in the united states seek to manipulate and exploit the legitimate concern that people feel. these people aren't prejudice. they're realistic. they're realistic, and they become targets to charlatans and look what happens. like most charlatans throughout

time who seek to aggrandize themselves and consolidate their power by always blaming the other. >> peter, he looks like he's trying to interpret in some sort of mythical way this president's ability to shape minds to move people who feel under assault because of what's happening with muler and the information that keeps coming out in the front page. that may be one version of life, but this other version we'd like you to think about, the sean hannity at night and steve ducey in the morning and the talking points and it's all about hillary and the idea that was made that never did send uranium to anywhere in the world except here, but we should investigate her. >> well, the republicans understand better than anyone else that the primary rule, the primary tool in advertising and marketing is frequency and consistency and they're doing it over and over and over again very effectively and so all of their platforms and all of their voices are as everyone has said at this table driven either

against mueller to discredit him and bringing up hillary and the uranium and whatever, whatever, whatever. ultimately though, what biden did not do was name the president specifically. he said charlatans in an indirect way and what i'd like to see is obama. i'd like it see biden. i'd like to see bush be direct rather than -- paul revere did not run around hundreds of years ago and whisper they're coming, they're coming. you know who i mean. he was very explicit. >> anyway, i guess they're avoiding getting into a mano a mano situation because trump can be very dangerous and lethal. he can throw -- a quiet old man, retire -- i can see it being quite personal and brutal to joe biden. we'll see. it's coming, peter. it's coming. up next, the three will tell us will there be more scoops? i want news for tomorrow. this is "hardball." on your medicare part d prescriptions, switch to walgreens.

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how'd that go? he kept spelling my name with an 'i' but it's bryan with a 'y.' yeah, since birth. that drives me crazy. yes. it's on all your email. yes. they should know this? yeah. the guy was my brother-in-law. that's ridiculous. well, i happen to know some people. do they listen? what? they're amazing listeners. nice. guidance from professionals who take their time to get to know you. ltry align probiotic.n your digestive system? for a non-stop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. get 24/7 digestive support, with align. the #1 doctor recommended probiotic brand. also in kids chewables. when i was too busy with the kids to get a repair estimate. i just snapped a photo and got an estimate in 24 hours. my insurance company definitely doesn't have that... you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war,

and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer, and like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger who's mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. and they do nothing. join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's political and start doing what's right. our country depends on it.

we're back with the roundtable. ing he megan, tell me something i don't know. >> the other day's big political news, robert mercer, renaissance technologies, big trump donor, stepping away from that hedge fund and telling a stake in breitbart. he's planning a come back, he's going to look at starting up his own separate organization where he can raise money and spend more time on the causes he wants to push. >> i can't stand hearing spoken by the way, go ahead. >> the past, 142 years ago today, was a coup d'etat in the state of mississippi. the democrats of the state of mississippi overthrew the reconstruction government. it shows us today that we have to be vigilant about democracy. >> because there were blacks getting elected to high office in the senate and the congress, it was great. >> donald trump is going to demand of the president of china to pay up and stop exporting contaminated building materials. there's a state-owned company that owes hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to americans whose homes were destroyed by bad drywall and trump's going to say, you play

by the rules in america as businesses do in china. >> caveat eliminate tore, buyer beware of chinese goods. we'll be right back with "trump watch." hello this is joey, walmart online grocery. this job that they created to do online grocery and to have that one-on-one experience with the customers, he's meant for it.

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excuse me, grant likes beethoven! uh, the beethoven festival. pure. love your insurance. "trump watch" thursday, november 2nd, 2017. i speak often about the corrupt political practice known as rolling disclosure, when a politician tells you the truth after you already know it, after the politician and his minions

have worked round the clock to keep it from you. so when a young trump campaign aide pleads guilty and accepts a small sentence for telling the truth, we find out that he was talking with the russians about getting dirt on opponent hillary clinton. we find out for the simple reason that that young campaign aide was threatened with a far longer prison term if he didn't tell the truth about those dealings with the russians. we have that truth because robert mueller's prosecutors were able to tear that truth from the hands of a young trump aide fearful of having his life ruined, having to sit in a federal prison for a long time thinking about what a terrible mistake he made in opening up a conversation with russians on getting dirt on a political opponent. now comes the rolling truth. faced with a photograph of himself sitting with -- two seats from that young aide in a meeting to discuss that young aide's conversations with the russians, the attorney general of the united states now confesses through an intermediary, that yes, he was sitting in that meeting when the russian offer was discussed. rolling disclosure. we better get used to it because

we continue to learn the only time we get the truth from the trump boys is when it's pulled from their teeth. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> have you talked to president trump since your adocument? >> as the man who ran the trump campaign returns to court -- >> you worried at all about going to jail? >> the attorney general suddenly remembers more conversations about russia. >> i have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the trump campaign. >> tonight, new trouble for jeff sessions. robert mueller's new questions for jared kushner over the comey firing. and new reporting about paul manafort's ties to the russian mafia. then a marine veteran calls out chief of staff john kelly. >> i'll apologizefy need, to but for something like this, absolutely not. >> never mind the mueller probe. >> i really believe we'lha