russia? and we don't know the answer to any of those. >> we don't, but we're so happy to have you and have you take a stab at it. my thanks to you gene robinson, evan mcmullen and reverend al sharpton, and i'm micole wallace and see you back here monday for deadline white house at 4:00 p.m. conspiracy. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews. in washington we begin tonight with bombshell news that special counsel robert mueller's probe of russian interference. putting in black and white something president trump has denied for more than a year, that a group of russians interfered in the 2016 election to help his campaign and hurt hillary clinton's. it came in a federal grand jury indiekt of 13 russians and three russian companies. the defendant's operations included supporting the

presidential campaign of then candidate donald j. trump and disparaging hillary clinton. among the charges, conspiracy to defraud the united states. the indictment provides a comprehensive blueprint of that conspiracy, detailing exactly how the russians conducted information warfare against this country starting back in 2014. those methods were described today by the justice department official who oversees the special counsel's probe, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. >> the defendants allegedly conducted what they call information warfare against the united states. they used stolen or fictitious american identities, fraudulent bank accounts and false identification documents. the defendants posed as politically and socially active americans advocating for and against particular candidates. they established social media pages and groups to communicate with unwitting americans.

the russians also recruited and paid real americans to engage in political activities, promote political campaigns and stage political rallies. according to the indictment the americans did not know they were communicating with russians. >> well, the 37-page indictment alleges that the russian influence operation was more expansive than we previously knew and it even involved intelligence gathering here on u.s. soil. the indictment alleges that while posing as americans these russians obtained information from unwitting u.s. citizens. in one case, for instance, the defendants and co-conspirators learned they should focus on purple states. and while it does not allege they actively participated, it shows some unknowingly talked to russians who posed as u.s. citizens. despite this explosive

development in the probe it's unlikely these russians indicted today will be extradited to face trial. however, alleging that a conspiracy took place and laws were broken special counsel robert mueller has now established the underlying crime of this investigation. joining me now is ken dilanian, chuck rosenberg, a former u.s. attorney and former fbi officials. and mieke eoyang. and let me go to our friend ken. in this case we have a crime. >> right, and that's important for two reasons, chris. one, mueller has established a complex conspiracy at the heart of this russian interference campaign, and he's laid out a road map for how that happened on the russian side. but now what that means is that anybody in the trump team or any

american that helped that conspiracy by what's called an overt act can be charged as part of it, even if that overt act wasn't a crime. that's my understanding of the conspiracy law. as long as they agreed and knew about this agreement to interfere in the election the actual act is not necessarily a crime. now mueller has laid out the underlying criminal offenses at the heart of this russian election meddling, which is conspiracy to defraud the united states and also to violate u.s. election law, chris. >> let's go to chuck on that. the question i have is didn't we all know beginning by the late summer of 2016 there was russian efforts to meddle in our campaigns? >> we knew it, chris, but we didn't know it was this extraordinary. >> in other words, the trump people already knew the russians

bu were helping. >> cudeokudos to the investigat and prosecutors that put this together. >> there's so much more to this investigation by the mueller operation than what we know here on television. the fact they were able to gather all the information on these different -- more than a dozen russians and russian interest organizations, this was all going on. and nobody said on thursdays this was coming on friday. there's a lot going on there. >> they're running sound, and through every now and then the subsurfaces. you saw this in the manafort indictment as well, an extraordinary amount of detail. here involving social media platforms, stolen identifications and the like. >> john, tell us from your expertise about being able to gather all this stuff from social media, all these rallies

being held in different places i didn't know were happening, hillary in a cage and all this crazy stuff going on and they've been able to track it all down. >> the rugs have been doing these kind of political and informational warfare against us for many, many years. but the advantages they have against us this time, but the ability to weaponize social media, create bots that can amplify divisive material and push it out, they showed real skill here. and one thing we didn't know is they were coming to the states and setting up events -- >> when someone comes in with a russian accent, how come they weren't picked up? someone shows up at politico with a heavy russian accent. >> if you walk out on the street there's lots of accents out there on the street.

>> but russian? >> yeah, there's lots of russians out there as well. they have a lot of people who speak well. they train them very well. >> the indictment alleges that despite their massive social media campaign their coconspirators also created false means of identification including fake driver's licenses. furthermore they established various russian bank accounts and credit cards often registered in the names of fictitious u.s. personas to pay for their activities. and in some cases they paid real americans who unwittingly participated. one asked one u.s. person to build a cage, as i mentioned in a flatbed truck and another to wear a costume portraying secretary clinton in a prison uniform. they paid these individuals to

complete the requests. tell me, if people are cooperating with these russians and they don't know that they're working with propaganda, with stuff that's reel a out to undermine our democracy, what did people think they were doing? >> what you have in a country like tis is wide range of political opinions. and what the russians here are trying to do are boosting the moe most divisive. >> so that's why push at a jill stein candidacy -- >> right. and also pushing minority groups to not vote in the election. they were trying to make us more divided. >> that works, by the way. when we get the message minorities don't vote, there's something wrong in our system. we take that to harm. it didn't take long for the president to claim the indictments somehow cleared him. quote, the results of the election were not impacted. the trump campaign did nothing wrong, no collusion. trump also released an official

white house statement saying we cannot allow those seeking to sew confusion, discord to be successful. we must unite as americans to protect our integrity of our democracy. this is from the guy who claimed that the president of united states was an illegal alien and snuck in from africa under false pretenses. let me and you about how did trump for months, in fact ever since we started talking about the russian involvement said it's a democratic hoax. there is no russian involvement. and he convinced pretty much half his party, republicans, there was no russian involvement. because he was afraid, the people who do psycho babble, he was afraid they threw the election to him. if they're involved, they throw it to him.

>> the notion, chris, this vindicates him is crazy. and here's why. i mean it's just an indictment. and indictments only charge people. if you look to the section here, there's an introduction, there's what's called a manner and means. there's no vindication section in this indictment. we're going to take a break now. right now president trump is visiti visiting broward hospital. let's see if he speaks to reporters in that corridor. >> the doctor was amazing. we saw numerous people and incredible recovery. incredible. and first responders, everybody, the job they've done is incredible and i want to congratulate you. incredible job. >> did you see the victims, mr.

president? >> yes, i did. and it's sad something like that could happen. but the nurses, the doctors, the hospital, first responders, law enforcement, really incredible. the speed that they got the victims over to the hospital was like record speed. in one case 20 minutes and one case 19 minutes from the time of shot. it's an incredible thing. >> do more gun laws need to be changed, mr. president in. >> that's of course president trump and first lady melania trump at the hospital meeting with the victims of the shooting this week. let's get back to this question. what deyou extrapolate from this indictment today? we're talking about -- let me get back to ken on this, it establishes an underlying crime of further indictments of people that cooperated one way or another with this. is there any tease in this as to what's coming? >> well, we know that from the

fact there was a guilty plea of a man named richard punieto, someone no one had heard of until today, there's a potential robert mueller has other cooperators. and he's continuing to investigate this question whether on the trump campaign or other americans wittingly colluded on this matter. he was acting very presidential there, comforting the nation at a time of kriesds. but it's such a great contrast to way he is not acting presidential in responding to an attack on our country by a foreign government because that's what this is. and he's viewing it entirely through the lens of how it affects him as a potential defendant presumably in this case. he's talking about the fact it shows no collusion and vindicates him. in fact, it repudiates what he's been saying for months that the russia investigation was a hoax. >> it seems he's been so sensitive to any mention of it

russian wheres that anyone in his cabinet is afraid to mention it. it's almost like a mob kind of thing, don't mention it to the boss. don't say russia in front of him. >> he's very concerned. and when you look to the indictment and the operation undertaken, you have to wonderful he himself is concerned he couldn't win without the russians. >> what gives you the sense of magnitude like that, that they were able to move thousands of votes? >> that they were able -- >> these gimmicks they pulled and the dirty tricks and the cage of the person attending hillary and the social media -- how much drive is that? >> i think it's hard to know. it's a very sophisticated influence campaign. it's not like we're saying they got into the voting machines. but given the margins in just three states, it's hard to know especially when you're talking about a combination of depressing votes in minority communities, trying to divert people to third parties, having

those come back to major party candidates could have made a difference. it's very difficult for trump to continue to say these are regular russians given who's indicted here. one is one of putin's favorite oligarchs. and he was the one funding and directing this information. >> to what effect? what's haze interest? >> he's basically vladimir putin's dirty tricks guy. he's the guy putin goes to when he's looking for difficult things to do. >> okay, the way we're getting here, john, is some in the summer of '16 they went to let's screw this up because we're

invee s i invi >> however, it was more clear in what we've seen from the intelligence community and now also from the justice department, for example, that they were working to help mr. trump by the summer of 2016. and that is very clear. >> chuck? >> and by the way, remember the central tenant of the steele dossier was what? that russians were interfering in our election. and now you have 37 pages of an indictment that say precisely that. >> in addition to targeting hillary clinton the indictment also alleges that the indictment denigrates other candidates. it was all tied to encourage u.s. minority groups not to vote in the 2016 presidential election or to vote for a third party presidential candidate like jill stein. you were making that point, mika. >> that's right.

and i think it's hard in our system to have that diverted. you can question whether that's the best system, but it's the system we have. >> thank you nbc's ken dilainian. sir, you're not here but you're always here in spirit. coming up reaction from the trump white house. today's news is like the moment barack obama produced his fuel length birth certificate. now that robert mueller has indicted 13 russians for election interference trump can no longer dismiss it as fake news. it's real mr. trump, it happened. and mueller thinks he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt all about it. that's ahead. plus trump's denials help fuel the republican fog machine. and lot of republicans are following trump's lead. are they still going to deny that tonight? also tonight the president's in florida as we saw with the community in parkland, florida.

calling out for help and an end to the gun violence we saw this week. he's not doing anything on the russian front or on the gun front, nothing. this is "hardball," where the action is. e health of our communities. which is why we're helping to replenish the mighty rio grande as well as over 30 watersheds across the country. we're also leading water projects in more than 100 communities. and for every drop we use... we're working to give one back. because our products rely on the same thing as we all do... clean water. and we care about it like our business depends on it. when it comes to travel, i sweat the details. late checkout... ...down-alternative pillows... ...and of course, price. tripadvisor helps you book a... ...hotel without breaking a sweat. because we now instantly... ...search over 200 booking sites ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want.

don't sweat your booking. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. so now that robert mueller has answered the question about russian election interference once and for all top democrats want president trump to finally enact those sanctions against russia that congress overwhelmingly passed. today chuck schumer issued a statement saying given these indictments president trump should implement these sanctions that congress has passed immediately. the indictments are also reminder that russia will continue to try to interfere in our democracy. well, those sanctions passed both houses of congress by a combined vote of 517 to five. how's that? we'll be right back after this. e driving bonus check

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welcome back to "hardball." special counsel robert mueller's indictments today outline a vast russian conspiracy to win the presidential election. while none of those indictments will face an american trial judge, it will stand as a comprehensive documentation how far russia went to help trump. president trump has always been skeptical. "the washington post" reports that when donald trump finally acknowledged publicly that russians had hacked democratic e-mails and interfered in the presidential election, the then president-elect admittedly regretted admitting it. well, today's news knocks down one of president trump's stance on interference.

>> they've had a phony cloud over this administration, our government. and it does hurt our government. it's a democrat hoax that was brought up as an kpus for losing an election that frankly the democrats should have won. the whole russia thing is what it's turned out to be. this was the democrats coming up with an excuse for losing the election. they didn't know what to say so they made up the whole russia hoax. no, russia did not help me. i call it the russian hoax. one of the great hoaxes. actually, that's the thing. i was thinking about it. that's the thing that democrats did best. honestly, it's the thing they did best. they did a rotten job of running, but to quin people about this hoax, that was probably the thing that they did best. but it is one great hoax. no, russia did not help me. that i can tell you, okay? we didn't win because of russia. we won because of you. have you seen any russians in

west virginia or ohio or pennsylvania? they're trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us. >> well, that's great showmanship but let's talk about the facts. former cia director john brennen tweeted joe statements and indictments claims of a hoax is in tatters, my take implausible. the russian actions did not influence the views and votes of at least some americans. and today a source tells bloomberg news that the special counsel has not concluded their investigation into whether president donald trump or any of his associates helped interfere in the 2016 election. i'm joined by susan page. i'm making a personal observation. i hang out with a lot of people, a lot of progressives, and pretty good complainers and they can wine. and i've never heard any of them

say they lost the election because of the russians. they understood the campaign didn't reach the right states like pennsylvania, wisconsin, hawaii. th they know that. someone like davis will blame comey. of course that hurt dramatically. so i'm just going to take that off the table here. but trump, i'm told, almost like a mobster if you're in his cabinet and say the word russian he goes ballistic because any mention of russian involvement he takes as a statement that the russians gave it to him. >> a question of his legitimacy as president. and yet while he's hailing to some of these findings today as exoneration, which is at least premature. what this does is show that he can no longer call it a hoax. and when he says did you see any russians in pennsylvania, yes, he did. >> they know how to talk west

virginian. >> sitting over in moscow trying to figure it out, i wonder how these people are able to figure it out. the jill stein voter was not going to vote for trump but probably would have voted for hillary. pretty smart. african-american votes that don't vote could have voted probably for hillary. that's a reasonable assumption. get them not to vote. they know what they're doing. >> look, there are two stories today. one is we finally saw the deep detail. but, chris, we also saw in plain display the demonstrated erosion of the presidency under donald trump. and what i mean by that is in his reaction. he responded today more like a defendant than he did a leader of the country. he blamed obama saying it started in '14, they didn't

impact the win and it was no collusion. any other president today would have excelled russian diplomats, imposed sanctions and coordinated with the dhs and attorney general and spoken to the world stage in response to what was found today. this president can't do it because bob mueller's on his doorstep. and what he's shown today is the weakness he's created. >> are you saying he's too self-centered and narcissistic or he's aware they're common form? >> i think it's more grave than what russia tried to do. the grave matter here is we have a leader of the country, a president who's not responding to this. and in fact what we also saw today was the confrontation, the adversarial reacti adversari adversarial relationship. >> the president defending against the russian involvement, he's sort of siding with them.

it's a weird thing. why would anybody say i'm with them, they didn't get involved at all. >> he's saying it doesn't matter too much. >> and he's previously said he believed putin, when putin told him he didn't meddle, he was inclined to believe him. i think it gets harder and harder and i think it very much strengthens the position the special counsel is in. these indictments go to the fundamental charge which he was tasked to do, to investigate russian meddling. he's found this incredible network of meddling and now he has kind of a stronger basis in which to go and look atikalut t collusion, e-mails and the issue of obstruction of justice. >> the fact that i'm learning all the time like most hof producers here, learning about the fact that once you've established what they can do through these indictments and convicks, even an absentia, an

underlying crime, any actions sophisticated or not, any actions taken by carter page or manafort, any of these people, rick gates or any of them, may involve collusion they don't want to know about was that's supporting obstruction of justice and covering it up. >> and it gives him a huge tool to use in trying to force people to talk to him, make deals with him and tell him what really happened. >> i have a sense we're going to see more where we're seeing people being lined up, being threatened with long-term imprisonment. i mean serious imprisonment. and those people are not going to do this for donald trump. there was no love there. >> the president of the rnc today says this proves no collusion. it does not. it doesn't allege collusion but doesn't exonerate anyone of collusion. we can't overlook tonight the contacts that flynn had, the contacts kushner had in trump

tower and the contacts papadopoulos had. and all of this is going to the collusion. >> we know all the way from the oligarchs and putin on down, every meeting they had was guess why we're here, right? >> that's exactly right. >> let me and you about the politics. right now i checked the latest polling on this. it's pretty recent. 49% of republicans don't believe the russians did anything to get involved in our election. is that going to change? >> this is going to become an issue people very much see through their partisan filter. i guess i do think as you get pass the allegations or sources say, or there's one source that alleges this or that, when you actually go through the legal process of indictments and perhaps trials, that becomes more persuasive even for people

who are inclined to believe one side or the other. >> rod rosenstein doesn't strike me as a political type. and i mean that positively. he looks to me like a public servant. i watched him tonight. he didn't do it with any zeal or political joy. he very deliberately came out with the facts. >> i heard it maybe a little bit differently. he did say there is no evidence in this indictment, within this bracket, no evidence that it affected the election, no evidence within this indictment of evidence of collusion. it's to keep his job, absolutely. >> that's the way i heard it, too. you've got good ears. i heard this guy wants to stay around for a few more months. thank you former u.s. congressman david jolly. i'm glad you are a former u.s. congressman because you can talk to us candidly like this. up next will he try to use

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flonase sensimist. welcome back to "hardball." president trump's denials of russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election has fueled the republican smoke screen over the russian investigation itself. and republicans seem to be buying or had been the president's argument. a recent university poll found that nearly half, 49% of

republicans don't believe that russia tried to influence the 2016 election. in other words, clean hands, they did nothing. mueller's indictment today outlined definitive actions. can republicans keep refusing to admit russia did what they did in 2016 with this elaborate new evidence? tonight the president is meeting with law enforcement officials in broward county. let's bring in the "hardball" round table. in that order tell us will this news be new to people? will it impact their thinking about the whole russian role? >> i don't think it will right now because republicans have worked so hard to discredit the mueller investigation, discredit the fbi. and polls show that that's working, that republicans believe that this is some kind of a bias witch hunt. >> that the russians didn't do

nothing? >> i think historically and as we move on this document -- >> i don't know-nothing, how long can the republicans say i don't know nothing about them in our elections? >> they have laid out in 37 pages exactly what went on, so they can no longer say they didn't know. well, the fbi said here are all the states they visited. so, yes, there were russians in those states. >> i still -- okay, this sounds very chauvinistic, but how did they go bopping around these states and nobody notice they were showing up? are they perfect american accents? >> that's what i'm thinking. i watched americans. i don't think you can walk into

west virginia and georgia and hide your accent. people are going to figure it out. >> i can't hide my philly accent. >> i think it's impossible. we've heard this before, the narrative is just going to shift. remember it was no collusion happened and then collusion is illegal. >> the goal line is changing. >> moving goal posts. >> i think they're done with no collusion. i think you already see republicans -- >> you notice how trump wouldn't give in on president obama's birth certificate and then he sort of pulled back and then then he was like oh, this is bull shit. >> i think it does show there were efforts to meddle in the election and to donald trump to historically -- >> let's lay out the serious

strategic question. most countries would be focused less on the guy named trump and his narcissism and really focus on america really does believe in democracy. not everybody votes but you're allowed to vote. i wonder is this going to affect people how they look at the next election, on their way to work and they go there, are they thinking now, you know, i'm voting but is somebody else playing a hand in this? >> i think that's going to also impact how people interact on social media. you're going to wonder where you're getting your information from. hopefully people will then say i'm not going to read the headline on facebook, i'm going to go out and read other thing. they were trying to hurt ted cruz. so this a little bit larger than

donald trump. i think in the mid-terms you're going to say i really like sis senator and i don't like this senator. you start thinking at home when i am i voting for this person. >> by the way, i sort of apologize for that word, bs. i usually say bs. it does seem strange. we have the school shootings. the president won't do anything about the ar-15. nothing about these in the hands of kids. >> that's the thing. we have both domestic and international concerns and our president doesn't seem to care or president consistently wants to deny these things. we have the head of the cia saying the russians are trying to do what they can in the 2018 election. and what concerns me is

fishing e-mail. >> they can watch cable news or say these are the places we need to be focused on and they know the issues of america. race is something, immigration is something, wages. >> we've got buttons. >> we've very clear buttons that russians can press. >> i think it's a fairly good bet, and i think about this all the time that 2018 is going to be close in the house. i don't think the democrats are going to walk away from this. and i also think unless they get a message, which would help. but i think the 2020 election is going to be close. i don't see a strong democratic contender emerging yet. so if the russians press a few

buttons they can affect the election vote again. >> with all this stuff it's hard to determine definitively, did they make an impact in this state or that state. frankly, i thought it was sophisticated, but the fact they were willing to put together this kind of sophisticated effort you don't know at the margins how much something like this could affect the results. >> i've got to say this at the end, we've got to remember we have 13 indictments. remember last year when we had nine russian diplomats magically disappear? clearly someone over there might be concerned about this issue as well. i don't think the fact we found 1 people mueller wanted to indict is the it the end of

this. >> establishing the underlying crime and anything henceforth is going to be conspiracy to obstruct or collude. anyway the round table is sticking with us. you're watching "hardball." i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure. always be you. the things we do rising before dawn. sweating it out. tough to do it all. but we can always find time to listen to great thinkers and explorers whose stories take us places our hamstrings can't. all we have to do is listen. download audible to start listening.

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well, president trump's in florida this evening visiting victims of wednesday's school shooting in parkland that left a community calling out for help and an end to the gun violence we saw this week. and as we saw this hour the president said it's very sad that could happen. a lot of talk about mental illness, although i've been thinking ahead about this trial, this young guy. i don't think he's going to be disqualified from facing criminal charges and possibly capitol hill. just speculating there, i don't think anybody is saying you're off the hook saying mental or emotional illness is an active

guide kind of stuff, i don't think anybody's going to buy that in a courtroom and therefore it's about the gun. >> it's right ovens don't kill people -- look, we all know it's the guns. if we get into this territory of saying any mental illness prevents you from getting a gun, i'm sorry if a woman who's been abused and gets away from her husband and wants a gun to protect herself, i think she would be able to protect herself. >> at least get ahold of a frying pan. >> yeah, exactly. at the end of the day it's a red herring. we have to talk about how people get radicalized. we don't know what made him so mad, but we have to look at the roots of this because we have to figure out what gave you the attitude it get in this behavior. >> we restrict so many things, booze, cigarettes. a kid can't have a cigarette.

but we have all kinds of laws about what you can't do. restricts on voting, you have to be registered, go to top, all kind of our restricts on our rights except for guns. >> i talked to gun advocate who said i don't care if you restrict bump stocks, which essentially turns them into more automatic weapons, but there's this idea once you start talking away one right -- >> who told them that? >> it sounds like an nr a-line quite frankly. >> next they're going to wake us drive 45 miles an hour. no, we're used to earestriction in our lives. >> we have this conversation usually when we're talking about white men. and the idea he was also this leader of this white national group as saying yes, he was one of us, that's a part of this. it doesn't mean he went out there and targeted people when

they were white -- >> remember a little pro gun control -- remember, you were too young? >> i read about it. >> it was the '60s. >> the grass roots of the republican party and the conservative government -- >> the black panther. >> not the movie. >> they're mobilized around this issue and they're going to fight around any politician that's going to impose any efforts at gun control including one seen as more moderate like like the bump stocks because they see it as a steppingstone -- >> if the nra -- this is so boring. i've said it a million times, you can't by a tommy gun, the fact is they had tommy guns and people said mobsters have tommy guns, we're going to take them

away. no more tommy guns. where was the nra back then? >> it wasn't as powerful and as effective at mobilizing voters. there has to be a receptive audience and there is in this country and particularly in some of these purple states where we see competitive senate elections coming up. that is road map you can look at to determine the course of this debate. >> clara mccaskill has been very courageous here and bob casey, they're up for re-election and drawing these lines that nobody needs to hunt with or target practice or anything else. these are guns for rapid killing of people. >> there are people who say don't touch my gun. this is sad they need to figure it out, but of course we can add to that the fbi seems to have admitted they missed following up on a tip. >> what were they supposed to do to the guy? >> what it does is give people

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we're back with the "hardball" roundtable. ken, tell me something i don't know. >> well, on this indictment that mueller handed down today, there were no charges -- >> handed up. >> handed up, down. there were no charges for violating campaign finance law. rather, there was a charge for conspiring to prevent the enforcement of campaign finance law. but we learned that the federal election commission had actually been investigating this very troll farm and some of these officials sending letters to them, highly unusual stuff, last year. and we understand that there may have been some coordination between the fec and the doj. >> you probably know a little bit about this but a former playboy playmate said she had a nine-month affair with president trump. the "national enquirer" paid her $82,000 for the story but then never ran it. so it goes to this idea that president trump was cheating essentially on melania two years into their marriage. >> and it's something called grab and catch -- >> catch and kill. >> go ahead, jason. >> in the midst of all the

scandals, a lot of times you like to see keep the training running on time. that's going to be a problem from this administration. railroad officials went to congress and said it's going to take us another two years to implement the kind of air brakes for safety to prevent some of the train tragedies we've been having and it's an even longer process because they lost the head of the division. >> we're back after this.

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trump watch, friday february 16th, 2018. we find ourselves this friday night a country under assault but with a leader refusing to take action. our justice department today found that nationals of the russian federation interfered in

our 2016 lx yet the president himself remains unmoved. his reaction today was to focus on his own defense, deny his own collaboration in this assault. he's incapable of considering the country's defense. as to the assault on the home front, he's also unable to perform. he remains protective of the as. this serves as a guarantee on the a. >> reporter:-15's future. why not purchase the weapon that is as in many states as easy to buy as it is to shoot. with an american commander refusing to defend his country, what stops vladimir putin from engaging again this election year in what the online thugs pulled off in 2016? two years ago russians supported donald trump for president and disparaged hillary clinton. as the mueller indictment cites, they created bogus internet postings, posed online as american political activists and fraudulently purchased advertisements all with the strategic goal of sowing discord

in our country. shooting up our schools and killing our kids is another way one could sow discord, so is having a president unwilling to stop either the kremlin or the next killer casing out his old high school. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. ♪ this is something that you watch "dateline" for, about somebody else. not about your friend. not about someone you love. >> she was completely defenseless. she reached out her arms and simply said "help me." >> my heart dropped. i want to know why. why? >> it's a baffling case of murder, millions and a mystifying piece of tape. at the center, husband and wife, self-made millionaires. >> he was very caring and loving.