the v.a. secretary about getting fired by the president and carter page about the mueller investigation but don't worry, you can listen to the show as a pod cast. perfect for nights like tonight. available wherever you can get your pod cast. that's it. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. >> i've known you for a long time. i've never before wanted to sclupt you but the look on your face where trump did not mention he was about to fire him talking about policy, said good-bye and had somebody else do it a minute later. >> can you imagine? >> i mean, it's one thing to imagine him experiencing that, it's another thing to see that as a management tactic. >> i felt like i got a window into the level of dysfunction we're dealing with that was pretty astounding. >> if you were a manager at a company that found out that a middle manager had behaved that way, you would be like we need to do some house-cleaning around here. >> absolutely.

>> that's remarkable stuff. incredible work. thanks, chris. >> thank you. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. super happy to have you here. happy thursday. today's news is full of surprises. we have carol lee joining us tonight. she's got a big scoop and the single best reporter in the country on veteran's issues joining us tonight. big show tonight. a lot going on. one year ago when president trump fired the u.s. attorneys, the federal prosecutors across the country, that got a bunch of attention for two reasons. first, he did it suddenly and with no warning and over the years, lots of presidents have decided to replace all the previous u.s. attorneys but nobody has ever done it this way with the demand that they all get out of office that day hand in your keys, get out, no hand over plan, no time to wind up any cases or set up on going management arrangements. so it made a lot of news one,

because it was very sudden. item soed to be an impulsive decision, did not seem to be a well-planned out thing talking about federal law enforcement. that move made news because some of the u.s. attorneys were high-profile people. the u.s. attorney for the south er earn district in new york was high profile and had been publicly assured of the right to keep his job. the president and the attorney general said he would be able to stay on in the trump administration as u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york. so when pete was fired, that was a real point of focus. so it was a year ago that shock decision came down to the sudnesud ne suddenness of it made all the news.suddenness of it made all news. in the year since the firings happened, while those are interesting, what turned out to be super interesting in the long run, even though it was a mass firing out of the blue last

march, there was a tiny hand full of u.s. attorneys the president decided he would hold on to. none of them was famous at all at the time. they have all become famous since. they include rod rosenstein with the time u.s. attorney in maryland. they didn't get rid of him. he ended up becoming the number two official in the justice department, deputy attorney general in that role. he is the direct supervisor of the robert mueller special counsel investigation so rod rosen ste rosenstein has been attacked. he was brought on to be acting attorney general after the president fired sally yates and acting department attorney general and head of the national security division at the justice department. and then mysteriously dana was fired. or at least he was ousted from the justice deputy with no warning and no explanation. that still remains a mysterious

turn of events. if you have information that can explain what happened to dana boente, that remains an unsolved mystery of the trump era. if you know anything about that, we would love to hear from you. www.sendittorache www.sendittorache www.sendittorachel.com. there is rod rosenstein, there is dana boente and john w. hubert. unlike almost every other federal prosecutor, he still has that job to the day. u.s. attorney from utah.

he's a respected, non-high profile career professional and he's about to have his time in the spotlight, as well. jeff sessions last year made a very high profile and consequential announcement about recusa recusal. not long after he was confirmed as attorney general, it was discovered that he had not told the truth during his confirmation hearings about contacts with the russian government during the time he worked on the trump campaign after issuing fierce blanket denials, jeff sessions had to concede that yes, he had had those contacts and basically had lied about them. a lot of people expected at that point he would have to step down as attorney general but instead, what he did was he announced a broad recusealrecusal. he would stay as attorney general but recuse himself and pledge to not involve himself

with anything at the justice deputy or fbi that related to the 2016 campaign including anything related to the trump campaign and also the clinton campaign. >> i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign, the exact language of that recusal is in the press release that we will give to you. i've said this, quote, i have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaigns for president of the united states. >> any matter relating in any w way, attorney general jeff sessions a year ago after he got found out lying about his own contacts with russian government officials during the campaign and that announcement of his recusal is the reason why not jeff sessions but rod rosenstein

is the russia investigation related to the trump campaign. but it should be noted that that recusal should have taken him out of involvement in anything involving either of the campaigns and that's on top of the commitment he made during the confirmation hearing that he would stay away and not involve himself in any investigations that involved hillary clinton that were raised. >> how they contentious campaign about the issues in the campaign with regard to secretary clinton and some of the comments i place my objectivity given that thought. i believe the proper thing for me to do recuse myself from any problems involving those investigations that involve secretary clinton.

could otherwise be connected to it. >> involved to secretary clinton or raised to the campaign or otherwise be connected to it. >> he's supposed to be recused from anything in the justice department or fbi that involves either the presidential campaign during the last election and any of the hillary clinton investigations that the trump campaign made hay out of during that contest. broad recusarecusal. the fact he is supposed to be recused raises questions about his involvement in the firing of the fbi director and deputy fbi director. james comey and andrew mccabe was fired because of their actions related to hillary clinton investigations during the campaign. so what's jeff sessions doing being voing involved with aeeit firing? on top of that there are calls from republican members of

congress demanding that the fbi's handling of any invest gages should itself be reviewed. republicans insisted that the fbi was wrong in the way that it pursued those investigations because secretary clinton was let off the hook. they want to investigate the fbi for not locking up hillary clinton and the fbi investigated russian interference in the 2016 election and investigate the fbi for investigating that. they want to investigate the fbi for them getting a court to approve multiple search warrants to surveil a russian foreign agent. they think that's the real scandal. that's the real problem the fbi ever looked into that or pursued that and so they want the fbi itself investigated on those matters. well, attorney general jeff sessions today announced that he has asked utah u.s. attorney

john huber to lead that investigation of the fbi. john huber one of a handful of u.s. attorneys not ousted by president trump a year ago when he issued the blanket firing of all federal prosecutors. apparently, this is not a new probe being lead. john huber according to jeff sessions already been conducting this investigation of the fbi for sometime. but for some reason, attorney general jeff sessions decided he would make it public today. and again, john huber is a respected prosecutor that worked under democratic and republican administrations. nobody is quite sure why attorney general jeff sessions decided to make this public today. nobody is quite sure what to make of it overall because this is weird. we're in new territory. we've never seen anything like this before. and this announcement today comes one day after the justice department's inspector general announced he will review that

application for that surveillance warrant on trump foreign policy advisor carter page and the inspector general announced he will conduct a review of the fbi and justice department relationship with christopher steele, the former mi 6 agent that wrote the trump dossier in the republican controlled congress. why is this happening now and why are we learning about this now? we've learned about both inquiries and jeff sessions has gone out of his way to say publicly he requested both inquiries. the inspector general review and this other review by the prosecutor. jeff sessions set both in motion and they are both happening at the same time. and i think there is a couple of important things to know about that from today's news. one of them is about jeff sessions.

one of them is about christopher steele but let's do the jeff sessions one first. this morning this letter was made public from republican senator chuck grassly and democratic senator diane feinstein. a letter to the trump campaign that's bipartisan. that's a republican and democratic senator signing the same thing. cats and dogs riding the same goat. we never see anything bipartisan anymore. this is like a circus trick. here it is, they today sent this letter to the trump campaign reupping a bipartisan demand that the trump campaign hand over to the senate judiciary committee documents and communications from the campaign related to russia and there are a few elements of wonder here. one is that this is a bipartisan request. two, they are alive. a congressional inquiry into the russia scandal. what? the request is also quite literally wonderful. it is cause of wonder because of

its one footnote. has one footnote in the met ele and acknowledges a spelling difficulty for the last five months since george papadopoulos was charged in the special counsel's investigation. look at the very bottom of this letter. the whole point is they are reupping a document request. hand us documents that contain these keynotes related to the russia investigation. footnote, while your search terms included the word papadopoulos, we ask you to include pop -- asterisks, p-a p-a-d and anything after that to account for possible misspellings. think about it. if you only ask for e-mails in the trump campaign that correctly spell the word papadopoulos, you might imagine you won't get many documents

handed over. number one, they want the search done again including common misspellings of george papadopoulos' last name and communications from two people, rick deerborn and a man named john mashburn. i know they both sound like fake names you would invent for a burner hot mail account but these are real guys. john mashburn, his name is obviously unfamiliar because he rarely if ever surfaced in the high profile scandals afflicting the trump campaign and trump administration. the one place he does turn up is as a point of contact for the campaign on a mirky incident that took place at the republican national convention in 2016. where still to this day, nobody really admits who exactly

insisted that the republican party's national platform needed to be changed to go softer on russia. that mystery is where both john mashburn and john deerborn make the announcement where they were consulted on the changes to the platform while it was being negotiated. so why today are chuck grassly and dianne feinstein inquiring about them but a couple hours later, bingo a scoop from investigative reporter mark at reuters. mueller probing russia contacts at republican convention. quote, investigators probing whether donald trump's campaign colluded with russia have been questioning witnesses about the events of the 2016 convention. one issue they have been asking

witnesses about is why and how language was deleted from a party platform. maybe they dynamic partisan duo believe they can shed light on this for the senate investigation, as well. that's the place where they both turn up in the russia scandal as best as we can tell. but here is the thing, mark today also goes on to report that mueller's investigators have been asking witnesses about several matters that specifically relate to jeff sessions. quote, mueller's team has been asking about a convention related event attended by both russia's u.s. ambassador and jeff sessions. quote, investigators asked detailed questions about conversations that sessions, then a campaign advisor had at a campaign event attended by russia's ambassador to the united states. mueller's team is asking whether jeff sessions had private

discussions on the sidelines of a campaign speech that trump gave at washington's may flower hotel. this new reporting is correct, this means a couple things. first, and most importantly, it means that in current inquiries by the special counsel's office, what they are asking witnesses about now is about the central matter under investigation. it's not just obstruction of justice. they are asking about the question of contacts with and potentially collusion with russia. that's what they are asking witnesses about and that's supported by the court filings we got from mueller's prosecutors where they described having evidence that trump's campaign chair repeatedly had contact with someone with known active ties to russian intelligence during their work on the campaign. so part of what is important about mark's reporting is that collusion is clearly still in

the mix in terms of what mull ser loer is looking at, anybody will be alrmed by these reports about what mueller is asking witnesses about now.armed by these report what mueller is asking witnesses about now. that's the attorney general you're talking about there. the currently serving attorney general of the united states is the subject of active inquiries in the mueller investigation on multiple fronts while he's serving as attorney general which involves him setting up multiple inquiries and whether or not the fbi should have been investigating the russia matter at all and whether they have been too bias in favor of hillary clinton. he's the subject of inquiries by the mueller investigation, meanwhile sicking these two investigators on the russia investigation? this is a rat's nest. and boy, does that purported recusal seem to be sagging under

its weight these days. so serious new questions about the attorney general. but i mentioned there were important new developments that relate to this in the news today about jeff sessions and also about christopher steele. well, the one about christopher steele comes in the form of an alarming brand-new scoop tonight from nbc richard engel and that's next. 58,007 steps. that's the height of mount everest. because each day she chooses to take the stairs. at work, at home... even on the escalator. that can be hard on her lower body, so now she does it with dr. scholl's orthotics. clinically proven to relieve and prevent foot, knee or lower back pain, by reducing the shock and stress that travel up her body with every step she takes. so keep on climbing, sarah. you're killing it. dr. scholl's. born to move.

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richard engel had this scoop tonight. >> tonight new clues that could solve what's been a week's long mystery, how were former russian spy and his daughter poisoned with a nerve agent that left them critically ill. we reconstructed the movements on march 4th. at 1:30 they set out from home for drinks at this pub. followed by lunch around the corner. at 3:35, they left the restaurant and soon collapsed on a nearby park bench. chemical weapons expert walked us through the crime scene. >> heading towards the center of

town. >> he thinks the fast-acting poison was likely smeared on something they touched. >> if breathed in can kill you instantaneo instantaneously. if absorbed through the skin, which i think is the case in this attack, within minutes if not hours. >> british authorities say they think the poison was left on the front door. the kremlin denies it but another russian spy turned double agent has no doubt his former bosses were responsible. >> this is your kgb id card. >> he says just last month he got a call from a friend still on the inside. >> he told me look, be careful. look around. >> his source told him he was one of eight on a hit list. it includes christopher steele, author of the infamous trump russia dossier. >> nbc's richard engel just

tonight reporting that christopher steele, also u.s. investor and whistle blower and at least five other people besides sergey turned up on a hit list three weeks before he was on a park bench suffering from the effects of a rare rougroug russian nerve agent. richard will have more on this story and stay tuned to anything richard says over the next couple days, promise me. he was attacked with his daughter. there is a bit of good news today. watch this from the news in britain tonight. >> this is itv news at ten. >> good evening. there were those who said that no one could recover from the nerve agent poisoning that left the former russian spay sergey

and his daughter critically ill but there was remarkable news today. she is improving rapidly and no longer critically ill, though her father still is. if she's well enough to talk and there are suggestions that she is, then this slow-moving investigation may get a new and rapid lease of life. >> it has taken weeks of investigation for experts to be able to say with confidence that the house where sergey lived is the place the assassins tried to kill him. the concentration was found here on the front door. police built a metal wall, a crime scene attracting attention. if the former spy and his daughter were twin targets for assassination, it seems the plotter at least partially failed. sergey is still critically ill, but his daughter's condition

changed from critical to stable while she's by no means well it is a remarkable turn around and the hospital says she's improving rapidly. given the fears about the po powe -- potency of the chemical. >> although it been around for a long time they are relatively new. we don't have as much information about those compounds. we don't know if the problems could reoccur but in terms of long-termfe feceffects, it's poe she will have memory loss, concentration, breathing problems. >> sergey is in critical condition but stable. his 33-year-old daughter yulia skripal.

we're seeing a diplomatic fight. 27 countries expelled more than 150 russian officials of various kinds. today the russians started precr precip tating. russia says they may go further but so does britain. britain is insisting they might not be done with their response to what they see as a chemical weapons attack. teresa may is considering actions potentially looking at what is a large problem with russian money laundering in london and she's been pushing hard in publish and parliament. >> when faced with the evidence, we gave the russian government the opportunity to provide an

explanation but they did not do so. they did not explain why russia has the weapons program or lost control of the nerve agent and no ex plplanation how this agen used but instead, they have come back with sarcasm and defiance and deployed 21 arguments and suggested they never produced it. or they produced them but then destroyed them and tried to climb their ageblts are not covered by the convention and pointed the physical injurier at other countries including slovak slovakia, sweden and the czech republic and tried to climb the united king do united kingdom was responsible to such contradictory theories is unworthy of their people and

great history. >> here is the interesting thing, over the last couple weeks, our country has taken action against russia. the u.s. finally implemented some of the sanctions congress required against russia for their attack on our election. the trump administration said they would sanction the people indicted in russia by robert mueller that under cuts the president's claim the mueller hunt is a big witch hunt and expelling a bunch of russians and closing down the seattle consulate. russia retaliated and threw out 60 american officials, a direct punch back taken against russia officials a few days ago. that's interesting given the investigation swirls around the president and campaign and given

the previous difference to vladimir putin but the second big scoop of the night. headline, trump tells aids not to talk publicly about russia policy moves. quote, president donald trump's national security advisors spent months trying to convince him to sign off on a plan to supply new u.s. weapons to ukraine to aid in that country's fight against russian back separatests yet when the president authorized it, he told aids not to publicly tote his decision. trump argued doing so might agitate vladimir putin. he doesn't want us to bring it up. it's not something he wants to talk about. that happened in december. policy change made but trump doesn't want anybody talking about it. it might upset putin. that same dynamic is with the

policy moves we've seen recently. the white house announced monday that the u.s. would excel 60 russian diplomats, the largest number since the cold war in response to the nerve agent attack in the u.k. but the president did not comment on it and he quote insisted that the white house's message include the idea he still wants to work with russia. quoting nbc news' story tonight, trump was similarly silent today after russia said it would excel u.s. diplomats and close the consulate in st. petersburg. nbc news tonight describes a similar thing at work to put sanctions against russia in response to actions in our election. at times nbc news reports the president has directed aids not to talk about those sanctions. been a lot of surprises in the news today. this counts as like a surprise in your lifetime of news, right? because this isn't about like

action by the u.s. government that they want to keep quiet. this isn't stuff the u.s. government is doing in secret. these are public actions by the u.s. government designed to have a public effect while the president is refusing to verbally acknowledge he's doing these things. you're not keeping it secret. just be quiet. okay? this is a weird day and a weird dynamic. carol lee joins us next. no. just some mind-blowing engineers from the ford motor company and pivotal who developed fordpass, allowing you to reach out to your car from wherever you are to check your fuel level, unlock your doors and start your engine... so when you're ready to go, your car is, too. magic can't make digital transformation happen... but we can. that's the power of pivotal, part of dell technologies.

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quote, trump tells aids not to talk about policy headline news. that's from carol lee and courtney and kristen welker. thank you for joining us tonight. congratulations on this. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> you have this remarkable reporting tonight as the white house started to take policy actions against russia including sanctions and expelling diplomats, the president is not just keeping silent about these himself, he's trying to keep other people in the administration from talking about these things. did your reporting turn up any credible information of why he's doing that? >> yeah, well, officials we talked to basically summed it up to two things. one is, which is interesting, is that the president doesn't want to be seen as apiepeasing the

distric critics including the media. that the one reason and another is that he just, he wants to still have better relations with russia. he oholds up hope and in his mid if he speaks negatively about putin or really aggressive in what he says publicly, that will anger putin and hopes for a better relationship will not happen and one of the interesting things that we learned is that part of what the president's team has started to do is motivate him to take policy action, which as you mentioned are getting increasingly tougher and the way they do that is say okay, if you want really good relationships with russia, putin responds to strength, so you need to be stronger and you need to be tougher on him and they say that the president kind of bought into that and gets that argument and at the same time he'll take the steps and aids are left not really knowing what to do, whether they should talk about it or not and often times he'll

say he doesn't want to talk about it. >> your reporting today comes in the wake of the do not congratulate story where the president was reportedly advised in writing by his national security aids he should not congratulate president putin and called up president putin and congratulated him right away. is there concern the president's behavior towards putin, the personal level, the way he's talking to him is under cutting the policy impact of the increasing increasingly tough measures? >> there is particularly on that phone call. we were told the president may not have seen them but the aids decided not to brief him on that orally because he was going to do what he wanted to do anyways and so there is concern that he's, you know, he's not being tough enough in his rhetoric and that somehow diminishes the

policies but in the president's view, he feels that he doesn't need to be tough rhetorically on putin and in fact, according to his advisors, was tough on nut poo -- putin in the phone call and russia had and showingputin in the phone call and russia had and showing images and called the leaders of france and the u.k. and germany and said what is with this guy? we got to stick together. he's dangerous. who knows how their reaction was but something along the lines of like yeah, we've been trying to tell you that. so then he gets on the phone with putin and he says, you know, look, if you want an arm's race, we can do that but i'll win and he posted i just got this $700 billion defense budget. it's the biggest ever. you don't want to mess with me. that's a private conversation and he said they had a very good

call and he hopes to meet with him. >> if we believe the aids he was secretly being tough with him. if that's true, what we know from the president's own words is what he also said was congratulations, you did great in your fake election and come visit. this is a weird subject for this white house. carol lee, thank you very much. congratulations on this. >> thanks, rachel. >> much more to come tonight, stay with us.

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♪ next chapter ♪ from the earliest days of this white house, we seen an enormous amount of turnover. we've seen a lot of people leave. most of the people go away quietly, some of them profess to love the president still. maybe, maybe we then get anonymously sourced reports about what might have happened that led -- very, very few of the people fired by this president or enforced to leave this administration have gone away kicking and screaming saying publicly they were done

wrong, they got a raw deal and have been pushed out for malign reasons. that's a rare thing but it just happened here tonight and that story is next. your top-rated thing. that five stars, two thumbs up, 12-out-of-10, would recommend thing. because if you only want the best thing, you get the #1 thing. directv is rated #1 in customer satisfaction over cable. switch now and get a $200 reward card. more for your thing. that's our thing. call 1.800.directv

want us to do about what woulthis president?fathers i'm tom steyer, and when those patriots wrote the constitution here in philadelphia, they created the commander in chief to protect us from enemy attack the justice department just indicted 13 russians for an electronic attack on america. so what did this president do? nothing. he's failed his most important responsibility - to protect our country. the question is: why is he still president?

it will be implements, right, david? better be david. [ applause ] >> we'll never have to use those

words. you'll never have to use those words on our david. >> we'll never have to use those words on our david, the collective dade. we'll never use those words. you're fired on our david. yesterday somebody used those words on our david. but tonight, our david told chris hayes that those words didn't end upcoming from the president. >> when is the last time you spoke to him? >> i spoke to the president yesterday. >> what was that conversation like? >> we spoke about the progress that i was making, what i needed to do from a policy perspective to make sure that we're fixing the issues in v.a. very focussed. he was very inquisitive about the things that we're working on making sure that we were focused on the job at hand. >> wait, that's before you were fired? >> that's correct. >> you spoke to him, he made no mention of the fact that he was about to terminate you? >> that's correct. >> and then you found out via tweet? >> right before that the chief

of staff kelly gave me a call, which i appreciated, gave me a heads up so that was much after the phone call. >> president speaking to him pleasantly talking talking with about policy, expressing no problems with what he's doing. hangs up, can you call that guy and fire him? joining us now is a person you should read any time there is veterans news in the country, leo shane, thank you for being here tonight. appreciate your time. >> thank you, rachel. >> so david shulkin has gone out with a bang. he says the reason he was fired is because he was opposed to abolishing the va, so people used personal scandals about him and other means to push him out but that was the real reason. does he make a compelling case? >> we heard multiple reasons. the president in ohio said he forced the secretary out that he was upset about wait times even

though we've heard from the president many times he's been happy with the progress. this issue of prooifization, overhaul of the va has been one since trump came into office and one shulkin has had to fight against his term there. so we've seen a real internal power struggle here. some folks disagreeing on the policy how much va care should go outside of va, how much private funds should go out. shulkin has really become one, and the veterans groups saw him as one that stood up against privatization efforts. >> he said he was going to speak out, as a private citizen, there are veterans against privatization, even though they want full funding and support for the va, they've been strong

against these efforts to privatization. almost nobody admits they are trying to privateize or abolish va health care. but the saga of shulkin by the way he's going out is saying this is something that's being actively worked for. is it your sense there's support for that in congress that could make it happen. >> it comes down to your definition of privatization. there's a couple proposals in congress that would increase the amount of veterans that go out for care. we've seen democrats and republicans say there needs to be more of a partnership, there's not enough capacity at va, it doesn't make sense to have veterans go to va hospitals for routine care. the question is where does that line come down.

what secretary shulkin was backing and said he was backing is some sort of plan that leaves va at the center of the care and there are forces in the white house that said that's not enough, veterans should be able to choose what they want. this is what veterans are concerned about, can people make that decision, what does this mean, how far does it go and does it end up siphoning dollars from the va. >> let me ask you about dr. ronny jackson, the next nominee. everybody i talked to, he's beloved by everyone who knows him. he's the most universal liked person in washington, but he clearly has no experience running any large organization of any kind and there's this crushing perception that he's not capable of doing this job. i'll show you a couple reactions, one long time republican lobbyist gave a

two-word prediction for dr. jackson's chances of senate confirmation, hair yet mierss. and my first reaction was omg, that's still my reaction. and the replacement has no experience. va is the hardest to manage. we think the white house has aal order ahead of it. the "new york times" reports privately several white house aides acknowledge his lack of experience could be problematic. even john brennan said i know and respect dr. jackson, terrific doctor, navy officer however he has knighter experience nor credentials to run the very large and complex va. this is a misguided nomination that will hurt both a good man and our veterans. this is how it's being received for a guy who everyone loves. >> not a great vote of

confidence there. >> what do you think his chances are? >> i came from a veterans event up here in d.c., and a lot of the veterans groups don't know anything about this guy. they're not at the point of condemning him because they're unfamiliar with him. he's a blank slate. as we look to the confirmation process there's going to be tough questioning from the democrats on his views of privatization, health care, his familiarity with benefits and the hundreds of other things the va does but right now it's tough to handicapped because we don't know what people can be opposed to with him because we don't know anything about him. we know by all accounts he's a very good white house physician and several presidents and their staffs liked him in that role. so, you know, it's a big question mark to see what is he going to say? how can he survive the confirmation process and when he faces these tough questions, when he's grilled on what does

privatization mean, how many taxpayer dollars should go outside for health care, what do you know about education benefits for veterans, is he going to wilt or come with stellar answers? >> leo shane reporter for the military times. appreciate your time tonight leo. i wanted to talk to you about this as soon as i heard it went down. >> any time. have me back any time. >> will do. stay with us. almost think of the note prior to it

as being your most important note. so ave-ma. if you nail that then you're golden. i look where the rim and the net meet. put that basketball right on those hooks, and that's what i lock in on. let's talk about the equation of cooking. ingredients and execution. ingredients are controlled by somebody else. execution is all about you. you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. one last thing about the firing of the va secretary.

he said he was fired because he's standing in the way of an effort to privatize the va. they say, no he was fired because of a travel scandal. here's how we know he wasn't fired about a travel scandal. scott pruitt took a trip last year, and part of the reason it cost the taxpayer so much is because it wasn't just scott pruitt, it was first class tickets for himself, his head of security, and staffer, all on the taxpayer dime. it sounds like that should be the worst part of the story but keep reading. the reason pruitt went to morocco in the first place was to pitch the benefit of lick kwi fied natural gas imports on moroc morocco's economy. he's the epa administrator, that

is so far out of his lane he's driving on the wrong side of the road. what we do know is at the time he's waxing poetic about natural gas, there was only one in the united states owned by shaner energy and we know scott pruitt was living in shaner energy's lobby's house. the lobbyist firm specifically lobbies on issues related to the export of liquefied natural gas. so today he was living in his house while he was traveling on your dime to go