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tv   The Rachel Maddow Show  MSNBC  June 28, 2018 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

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in the senate office building today. senator hart outside doj. on saturday i think you'll see tens of thousands, if not more, people around the country marching on this issue in d.c. and elsewhere. laura pena and lee gelernt, thank you both. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. good evening. >> good evening, chris. thank you, my friend. much appreciated. thank you at home for joining us this hour. we are going to have a live report from annapolis, maryland, in a moment. we are continuing to follow the story of the mass shooting at the newsroom of "the capital gazette" newspaper company. the basics have been clear since this afternoon. a single shooter apparently not speaking to police about why he did what he did. he is in custody. he used a long gun, shot his way in and murdered five people. wounded several others. we know the police response was
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very fast to this mass shooting. we know the death toll is absolutely horrifying. they have just released the first details about the suspect who is in custody, but there are many more questions about the mass murder today. because the suspect is in custody there is an expectation that our understanding of what happened here is going to continue to evolve over the course of this evening and into the overnight. we'll continue to have live reports in a couple of minutes on the show. also today in washington, nearly 600 women were arrested in a mass protest that started with the march from the u.s. justice department. it shut down traffic in parts of washington, d.c. it went past the trump hotel in downtown d.c. as you see there. where that march ended up was at the main office building of the united states senate. you know, protests happen in washington all the time.
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nearly 600 people getting arrested in a single protest in washington? that's not an everyday occurrence. this was massive. a mass act of civil disobedience. it was all women protesters. it was against the trump administration's treatment of parents and their kids on the border. with the trump administration still holding more than 2,000 kids apart from their parents now up against a ticking clock from a federal court that has ordered them to return those kids to their parents forthwith. today's protest was big and it was big enough and striking enough that it really did bring things to a standstill for a good part of the day today in that part of washington. but you should know that that big protest today is probably just a taste of what you can expect from this weekend. this is something chris hayes was talking about last hour. on saturday this weekend, more than 700 different protests are
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planned in all 50 states, including what's expected to be a large demonstration, again, in washington against what the trump administration has been doing to these families. these parents and little kids on the border. these protests about the border policy, the immigration policy were already going to be a big deal this weekend. this saturday. before supreme court justice anthony kennedy announced yesterday that he's retiring. that announcement and the gigantic fight it sets up with democrats trying to prevent a new nominee from being named to the court until after elections in november, the supreme court nomination that has happened -- excuse me. the resignation that's been announced since the saturday protests were first planned, that resignation will only add fuel, i think, to the already large protests expected this weekend. so we'll have more on that coming up. you should know we are in for a few days of a lot of intense news and intense conflict and
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big demonstrations. also, the "wall street journal" reported in the middle of the afternoon today that white house chief of staff john kelly may be the next senior trump administration official to quit. the journal reported that president trump is asking around to try to figure out who he may want to replace john kelly as his third chief of staff in only his first year and a half in office. whether or not john kelly was already planning to quit, presumably president trump asking around about who should replace him is designed to make john kelly quit. so far that's just the "wall street journal's" reporting. so that remains a watch this space story. you should know there was a rip-roaring showdown on capitol hill today over republican members of congress attacking the justice department and the fbi and specifically the mueller investigation. >> we need to see the evidence. if you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the trump campaign, present it to
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the damn grand jury. if you have evidence that this president acted inappropriately, present it to the american people. there is an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied. i think right now all of us are being denied. whatever you've got, finish it the hell up. >> this from the man who kept the select committee on benghazi going for two and a half years. kept it going until right after the 2016 presidential election whereupon he lost interest and quietly wrapped it up. two and a half years trey goudy's investigation. he's now demanding that the 1-year-old robert mueller investigation which resulted in lots of indictments and lots of guilty pleas and even jail time, he's insisting that one has gone on way too long and it must be -- what was he saying? must be finished the hell up.
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i should mention the guy who led the real benghazi attack was sentenced yesterday to 22 years in federal prison. i mention it because you may not have heard anything about it otherwise. republicans really turned out to be not that interested in it at all. unless it could be used to attack hillary clinton somehow and try to hurt her chances in the presidential election. but today, for whatever reason, republicans in congress really popped the cork on trying to shut down the special counsel's investigation into what russia did to mess with our last presidential election in order to try to elect donald trump. that included some members of congress really screaming at the deputy attorney general of the united states who they now apparently want to impeach. everybody knows what the game is here. right? this is interesting. the top democrats in congress, all the democrats from the gang of eight -- so nancy pelosi, the house leader for the democrats,
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chuck schumer, senate leader for the democrats, and the top two democrats on the intelligence committees, adam schiff and mark warner from the house and senate. the four wrote a letter to the fbi and justice department expressing concern about how republicans in congress are right now trying to shut down the mueller investigation. they released this publically, i think, to sound the public alarm. this letter to the fbi and justice department says the president's congressional allies are applying pressure on your agencies in line with the president's improper demand for total transparency to disclose sensitive information and material that's not usually shared with congress and that relates directly to the ongoing investigation into president trump, his own campaign, and his associates. given the pending nature of the special counsel's investigation these unrelenting document requests are not for legitimate oversight purposes. rather sensitive information shared with congress has been selectively seeded into the public domain to advance the
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president and his legal team's strategy of undermining public trust in the justice department and the fbi and attacking the special counsel and his ongoing investigation. as the attacks on the special counsel intensify it is imperative that you with stand pressure on the justice department and the fbi to violate established procedures and norms. your role in preserving the integrity of the special counsel's investigation and our justice system has become ever more vital. so that's the top democrats from both houses of congress, the top democrats from both intelligence committees saying to the fbi and doj, we know what the republicans are trying to do here. you must stand up to them and not give in. more vital. what republicans are doing now at an increasingly frantic pace is demanding information from the mueller investigation that they can provide to the white
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house to help the president's defense. they also appear to just be demanding stuff and screaming at the justice department and the fbi for the age old pleasure of working the refs, trying to put the special counsel's office and the fbi under unbearable pressure to do what republicans want which is to, of course, let the investigation go. >> mr. rosen stein, did you threaten staffers on the house intelligence committee? media reports indicate you did. >> media reports are mistaken. >> sometimes. but this is what they said. having the nation's number one law enforcement officer threaten to subpoena your calls and e-mails is downright chilling. did you threaten to subpoena their calls and e-mails? >> no, sir. there is no way to subpoena phone calls. >> well, i'm just saying -- [ laughter ] >> -- i'm reading what the press said. >> i would suggest that you not rely on what the press said, sir. >> i don't know why the republicans in congress are boiling with such froth right
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now about the mueller investigation. but congressional republicans really do appear to be trying to pull out all of the stops all of the sudden right now. i don't know why right now. something has got them very upset. they passed a resolution today that they really might use to try to impeach the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, not because they have proven any misconduct or even discourtesy on his part. they are after him basically because he is in charge of overseeing the special counsel's investigation and that is apparently enough. more on that later this hour. big picture, it's important for everybody to know that for some reason congressional republicans right now are running down all paths at once. they are exercising every option they think they've got to try to undercut, undermine, defame and pressure the special counsel's investigation in order to protect the president. why it is hitting a fever pitch now, i don't know. but have you met alexey repik?
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that's him on the right with mike pompeo on the left. he's angling his selfie like he's posing with donald trump. another photo he posted on line which he said shows him actually shaking hands with donald trump. these are all photos from trump inauguration weekend. mr. alexex repik got these photos with trump and pompeo. he was close enough to get good shots of vice president mike pence. in this one he was apparently close enough to be in conversation with eric trump, one of the president-elect's sons. here he is with then white house chief of staff reince priebus, soon to be replaced by john kelly who is now soon to be replaced by who knows who. alexey repik is a russian pharmaceutical tycoon. that's him on the right and his wife. they attended the trump
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inauguration. we don't know why this russian pharmaceutical tycoon's interests might overlap with the trump inauguration. we don't know who was there or who invited him and his waife t attend the inauguration. they posted an immense video library of their experiences online once they got home. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> ivanka, donald jr. and barron. [ singing ] [ speaking in a foreign language ]
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>> now, again, we do not know why this russian pharmaceutical tycoon and his wife attended the trump inauguration. we do know the guy the really connected at home. we know that in part because of this photo of him meeting one on one with vladimir putin. this is a publicity shot from the kremlin. you can tell it's a kremlin shot because they follow a certain visual pattern. i will put up another one. on the left your pharmaceutical tycoon who went to the trump inauguration. that's him meeting one on one with vladimir putin. on the right is a guy named boris tetov also meeting with vladimir putin. boris tetov also attended the trump inauguration. vladimir putin technically had to run for re-election this year. theoretically he might have had competition in that election.
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a popular opposition in russia was very much opposed to putin. he announced he would run for the presidency of russia against putin because he was seen as a potential real threat to get even some minor percentage of the national vote. putin blocked him from running. they drummed up fake corruption charges against him which technically disqualified him from appearing on the ballot. he promised to keep campaigning. so russian courts soon ordered the campaign foundation to shut down as well. they wouldn't allow the real opposition guy to run against him, but putin still does want to look like an elected leader. so what he does is whenever he's up for election he handpicks people he's more comfortable running against. this year famously he picked a woman who is seen as the paris hilton of russia. she's a former reality star, a famous russian socialite and the daughter of one of putin's
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oldest political colleagues. he picked her to run against him and this guy. boris, a russian business advocate, whatever that means. boris tetov. this is what democratic elections look like in russia now. putin decides who gets to run and who doesn't. that's how he decides who wins and, surprise, putin always wins. do not congratulate. agreeing the run as one of putin's hand-picked stooge fake opponents in these fake elections they have now in russia, it's a special kind of favor to president putin. so boris tetov is one of those candidates in the russian election this year. here he is meeting with putin one on one. boris was hand-picked by putin to be one of the candidates running against him. he ended up pulling in a robust 0.6% of the vote in the russian presidential election. turns out that guy also attended
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the trump inauguration in january 2017. washington post has reported he was issued both a ticket to the inauguration and a ticket to one of the balls. when the post asked him which inaugural ball he had attended he said, quote, i don't remember what the ball was called. but people danced. trump danced. when the post asked how he got the hard to get tickets to an inaugural ball, mr. titov wouldn't say. why was that guy at the trump inauguration as well? this pharmaceutical guy who met with putin directly. he and his wife. why are you there? boris titov, a hand-picked candidate ran against putin in the last election? washington post had an interesting report on unexpected russian figures who ended up attending the trump inauguration. among the russian citizens attending trump's inauguration were the russian lawyer from the
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june 2016 trump tower meeting. she's the one who reportedly offered russian government dirt on hillary clinton to trump's campaign. also with her the russian lobbyist who attended the trump tower meeting with her. nice velvet tux, right? you clean up nicely. that's them at a trump inaugural event. so the washington post in january did this first reporting about all these well connected russians, people well connected to the russian government who just happened to pop up in d.c. on the day trump became the most powerful person on the planet. today, abc news advanced the story. they have obtained guest lists from exclusive invitation-only formal receptions that were held during the trump inaugural celebration. this isn't just for going to the inauguration, the big outdoor event where it rained at the capitol. these are vip exclusive black tie events you needed to get invited to and that not that many people got to attend. why were there lots of russian
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government connected russian citizens invited to and in attendance at those events? according to the abc report today among those invited to the exclusive 500-person black tie chairman's global dinner the night before the inauguration was a russian music mogul who had his previous donations to the republican party returned because of his ties to the russian government. but nevertheless there he was. another invited guest at a candlelight dinner held the night before the inauguration at union station, the train station was a kazakh mining mogul who's been hit with european money laundering charges. also at the candlelight dinner the night before the inauguration was a billionaire russian oligarch stopped at a new york airport by federal agents working for special counsel robert mueller's office. that oligarch is subject to sanctions now by the u.s. government. he's the same guy who put trump's personal lawyer michael
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cohen on a million dollar contract to do -- nobody's sure what -- right after trump was elected. so we had known before that there were at least a few well connected russians who inexplicably turned up at the trump inauguration. this new abc reporting gives us a bunch more names. and it gives us the knowledge that they were invited to not just the inauguration but exclusive events. according to abc news, three sources with knowledge of the matter tells abc news the presence of the well connected, government connected russianls s has attracted the interest of federal investigators probing russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. i wonder if that's unnerving the white house or the president's supporters in congress. i don't know. i mean, on top of that news a
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federal court in virginia has unsealed some of the search warrants against paul manafort. that's search warrants and the fbi affidavits have revealed an additional $10 million loan we hadn't known about previously from a putin-aligned russian oligarch named oleg deripaska to paul manafort. the tax returns for a company owned by paul manafort and his wife reveals a $10 million loan to the company from a, quote, russian lender. a court authorized search of a storage locker in virginia used by manafort revealed documents that show the identity of the russian lender was -- deripaska. misspelled. elsewhere in this fbi affidavit, quote, redacted, redacted, also told the fbi that deripaska helped fund manafort's ukrainian work in 2005-2006 when it began. deripaska isn't ukranian. he's russian and close to
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vladimir putin. he's only rich because vladimir putin has allowed him to be so. why would vladimir putin and russia and oligarchs there aligned be funding paul manafort for his work in ukraine? why was russia funding paul manafort to do that? what other kind of work did the russians fund him to do? did he still owe the $10 million to a putin-linked russian oligarch when he worked for the trump campaign and offered him private briefings while running trump's effort to become president and while russia was intervening to help trump win? i don't know. we're about to find out. one month from today the criminal trial of donald trump's campaign chairman paul manafort is due to start in federal district court in the eastern district of virginia. paul manafort late today announced he's adding another new lawyer to his defense team. special counsel robert rumuelles office said a federal espionage prosecutor will be added to the
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team trying the case a month from today in virginia. so, again, we don't know how things are going to work out for the president's campaign chairman. we don't know how things will work out for the president in the ongoing robert mueller investigation. the president today again cited vladimir putin's assurances that russia definitely didn't intervene in our presidential election. why don't we believe him when he says so? the white house also today confirmed a one on one summit between president trump and vladimir putin to take place next month in helsinki. hold on to your alaska. here at home, the trump administration and republicans in congress, for some reason, are vibrating with excitement. right? they are vibrating with excitement that seems negatively oriented in one way and positively oriented in the other. positive excitement is over the prospect of the president adding another justice to the supreme court. the country's discussion of that fact has not even really caught up to the possibility that if the president himself is alleged
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by the special counsel's investigation to have any significant criminal liability in this russia scandal, that as a matter of law will almost inevitably end up as a matter before the united states supreme court to which he is about to name a new member. can the president pardon himself? it will be the supreme court that ends up answering that. he's about to put somebody new on the court. but all these things are happening at once now. for some reason, republicans in congress are also at the same time really, really fired up and seemingly worried about the mueller investigation. they are pulling out all the stops right now, pushing it to the absolute limit right now to try to kill off the mueller investigation. something has got them more wound up on this than they have been in forever. as we said at the beginning of the summer things are happening fast now. that means we have to pay attention to a bunch of different things at once.
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. next week is the fourth of july which means your member of
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congress will likely be home, just in case there is anything you want to talk with them about maybe. more on that in a moment. in july 1776 when the declaration of independence was signed a paper called the maryland gazette was one of the first newspapers to publish it. they published the declaration of independence on page two because there was other local news that was more pressing at the time. the declaration of independence, page two. the capital gazette company in maryland publishes two of the oldest newspapers in this country. the maryland gazette is one of them. also the capital. they are devoted to mshoe leathr reporting. their offices this afternoon in annapolis, maryland, were the site of a mass shooting. a single shooter in custody now. five people dead. others wounded. does appear to have been a targeted attack specifically going after the newspaper.
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joining us now is hans nichols in annapolis tonight. he's been covering the story all day. thank you very much for your time tonight. i know you were there for the briefing with officials that just wrapped up a little bit ago. what can you tell us in terms of just the very latest on the investigation thus far? >> reporter: right now they are executing a search warrant at the suspect's home or a home associated with the suspect jarrod ramos. he's 38 years old according to law enforcement officials. what's clear here from spending the afternoon in talking to officials is just how much this paper meant to the community. you shouldn't describe it as a community newspaper. this was hard-hitting journalism. yes, they did local news but they did local news that mattered. they held local officials to account. they ran stories, as i was talking to a reporter, that would anger people. one of those people potentially was the suspect. talking to reporters here about that, reporters at the paper they are saying, well, our job
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is to aggravate, challenge. the link between the defamation suit and there was three years of litigation, and this attack tonight hasn't been fully linked. it appears to be coming closer into focus. you know, rachel, we have covered so many of these shootings. there is almost an inclination, a temptation to say, well, only five died. we should never say only. at this event today, five journalists got up in the morning, tried to do their jobs, made their calls, were calling their sources in the middle of the afternoon when a smoke grenade and a shotgun, a lone man came in and took five lives. now they are going to be searching for answers on just what the motive was, what the background and importantly if there were missed signals. officials are combing through social media trying to figure out what this individual's intentions were before and could they have been known. >> hans, there were reports today there may have been violent threats that came into
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the paper's offices today. is that nailed down yet? do we understand that's what happened? >> reporter: so law enforcement here wants to be very careful about drawing a direct link between this individual, those threats and what happened today. i would say those are unconfirmed. local officials haven't confirmed the name yet. nbc news confirmed it separately. local officials say they are aware of the individual's long history with the paper. a defamation suit. and the reporter that the individual had the issue with is no longer at the paper. talking to the reporter, an older gentleman who was at the paper for most of his career, i asked how he wanted -- thought his colleagues would want to be remembered. one word to describe them. he said newspaper men. he said, well, they were journalists. then he broke up in tears. rachel? >> hans nichols live from annapolis, maryland, tonight. thank you.
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again on this story, the basics you know. there is a suspect in custody. believed to be a single shooter. there does appear to have been a history of animosity of this individual toward the paper that included a defamation lawsuit. we've got five journalists dead and others wounded. it is believed to have been a single shooter. this is the kind of story we are still getting additional details on. we expect to get more over the course of the evening, especially as they execute the search warrant tonight at the suspect's house. if we get more information we'll let you know. y, who's already won three cars, two motorcycles, a boat, and an r.v. i would not want to pay that insurance bill. [ ding ] -oh, i have progressive, so i just bundled everything with my home insurance. saved me a ton of money. -love you, gary! -you don't have to buzz in. it's not a question, gary. on march 1, 1810 -- [ ding ] -frédéric chopin. -collapsing in 226 -- [ ding ] -the colossus of rhodes. -[ sighs ] louise dustmann -- [ ding ] -brahms' "lullaby," or "wiegenlied." -when will it end? [ ding ]
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mr. rosenstein, why are you keeping information from congress? >> congressman, i am not keeping any information from congress. >> i want to know why you won't give us what we have asked for. >> i hope your colleagues aren't under that impression. that's not accurate, sir. >> it is accurate. we have caught you hiding information. >> your statement that i am personally keeping information from you, trying to conceal information -- >> you're the boss. >> that's correct. my job is to make sure we respond to your concerns. we have, sir. your use of this to attack me personally is wrong. >> point of order. may the witness answer the question? >> it's not personal. >> i appreciate your saying it isn't personal. sometimes it feels that way. >> oh, it was definitely personal. today the deputy attorney general of the united states rod rosenstein and christopher wray spent about five hours getting screamed at by congressional republicans including
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congressman trey goudy yelling that he needs to, quote, finish the hell up with robert mueller's special counsel investigation. mr. gowdy is resigning reportedly because he thinks he has what it takes to be a federal judge instead of a member of congress. the only let-up from the roughly five-hour screaming match today was when the committee took a break so all republicans in congress could head over to the house chamber to pass a resolution demanding that the justice department turn over all documents that republicans are demanding from the ongoing open russia investigation. republicans say in their resolution unless they get everything they want from that ongoing investigation by next week -- friday next week, they might pursue impeachment of the deputy attorney general which would be handy if they find a way to remove him from office that way. presumably the president could try to install somebody new presumably to try to shut down the robert mueller investigation
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all together. it is clear what is going on here. republicans are screaming at the justice department and the fbi to hand over documents that those institutions know they can't or shouldn't hand over from an ongoing investigation but they are either trying to get the documents which they will then use to help the president defend himself in the investigation or they will use a refusal to get the documents as a way of continuing to try to tarnish the credibility of the fbi and the doj and the special counsel. the reason i say that's clear to everybody that that's what's going on is top democrats today called them on it in congress. >> this is not oversight. it is collaboration with the executive masquerading as oversight. >> wake up, my colleagues. do your jobs. because this is surely not oversight. it is not what oversight looks like. but it is what an attack on the rule of law looks like. >> you can force this fight with
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the leadership of the department of justice. you can demand documents that the department cannot give us and to which we are not entitled. you can attack the character of lifelong public servants like deputy attorney general rosenstein and special counsel mueller. you can burn bridges with your colleagues to speed this resolution to the floor. but you cannot stop the special counsel's investigation. >> joining us now is the top democrat on the judiciary committee. thank you very much for being here. >> pleasure. >> are you confident in the final statement i played that there is nothing that the republicans are doing now in congress that could result in the end of the special counsel's investigation? >> well, i don't think they will do anything -- i don't think they will dare do anything to result in the end of the special counsel's investigation. the members of congress can't. the administration would have to fire rosenstein and put in someone who would then either fire mueller or constrain the
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investigation in improper ways. that they could do. i would hope the political pressure would be too much for them to do it. the members of the house cannot do that. they can simply demand information which they know the justice department cannot possibly hand over. it is relating to an ongoing criminal investigation. they know that -- they have already gotten documents they shouldn't have gotten. that appeared on fox news. it's gone to the administration. and they have outed the identity of some fbi informants which is highly dangerous. this they should not do. the department of justice cannot aid them in doing it. >> is it clear to you the reason they are asking for the documents that they are asking for is because they want to use them to generate bad press around the investigation? or is it that they are looking for things the president could conceivably use or other people involved in the investigation could use to try to defend
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themselves? >> i don't think they really believe they are going to get this information. the justice department can't possibly give it to them. they know that. we had a letter i introduced today into the record from the deputy attorney general in 2000 to the then chairman of the rules committee saying why they couldn't give precisely the same kind of information and then are reasons why. i believe what they are doing is trying to lay the groundwork to defame the special counsel, defame rosenstein and to prepare the way so when the special counsel finally comes up with his recommendations or report, whatever it is, they can say we told you it was a witch hunt. we told you it's dishonest and disregard it. i think they are trying to sabotage the investigation. if by some miracle they can get some of the information, i shouldn't say by some miracle, but if they get some of the
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information it's clear how they'll use it. they gave it to the administration. mayor rudy giuliani told us they would do that. they could use it to harm people. >> watching the hearing today with multiple republican members of congress really cutting loose in terms of the way they went after the fbi and the deputy attorney general in particular who oversees the mueller investigation, i felt like there was something i wasn't getting about why they are at such a fever pitch right now. obviously they have been critical of the special counsel's investigation on a steadily increasing crescendo. it feels like something is broken and caused them to take it to another level. is that perception or do you think there is something new going on? >> i don't know of anything new going on. i think it is the next step. it is a steadily rising crescendo as you put it. they are ramping it up and the president is pushing this. it's a witch hunt, et cetera. i think they are trying to use it. they came out and said it today.
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they have been saying, you know, it's time to shut it down. it's gone on long enough, too long. i asked deputy a.g. rosenstein if it's gone on too long. he said, no, for this type of investigation they are going as fast as possible. it is a reasonable time period. in a year they have gotten 20 indictments, five guilty pleas and they are going as rapidly as possible. you look at other investigations of this magnitude and complexity that have gone on longer. >> the pressure from the republicans you feel like is being met by the justice department and the fbi protecting the special counsel? >> yes, it is. i think rosen stein and wray have bent over backwards and given them information you wouldn't normally give them. they are demanding millions of documents. they have turned over thousands. i don't know how many thousand. they are doing everything they can but they are not going to bend beyond a certain point to which they cannot defend the integrity of the investigation.
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>> congressman nadler is the top democrat on the judiciary committee. critical post. thank you very much. it all started when donald trump tore thousands of immigrant children away from their parents. we the people challenged him in court and in the streets. then trump was forced to admit that his policy was wrong. and he caved. the court just ruled that trump must reunite every family he broke apart. (clock ticking rapidly) time is ticking. these children must see their parents again,
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because better coverage means better protection always thousands of people, mostly women, protested the trump administration taking kids away from their parents. protests at the justice department that then moved down to the atrium of the senate office building. there the protesters wrapped themselves in space blankets like the ones at detention centers. congressman camilla jadpol was there. senator tammy duckworth with her baby as police arrived in the atrium so did senators like kirsten gillibrand, elizabeth warren. capitol police arrested 575 people. the number includes the congresswoman who was arrested today. in brownsville, texas, more than a thousand people joined an aclu protest outside the federal courthouse where parents were separated from their kids and
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faced prosecution. those separated kids ended up all over the country which made this an issue for d.c., an issue for the border, but it is an issue all over the country. the group families belong together counts more than 700 protests planned for saturday, all 50 states, probably somewhere near you. we are having a grassroots activism moment in this country for a lot of reasons. one of the brand new reasons we expect it to hit a peak very soon is because of the supreme court resignation that was announced yesterday. more on that in a second. stay with us.
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right after the 2016 election, way before the shock even wore off a protest movement started in this country, beginning with the women's march, continuing a week later with the airport protests against trump's iteration of the travel ban. one of the things we covered in the blooming of that protest movement was an organizing guide that sprung up in that moment submarine categorized and focussed to change national politics. it was an instruction booklet for people who felt helpless to affect their government who needed some practical advice on how to affect their governmentment. a few former congressional staffers put that guide together. very practical, it was based on the tea party tactics they saw
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used to such success to slow and block the democratic agenda when they held all the power after president obama was first elected in 2008. there are now chapters all over the country and they've been pressuring members of congress, one at a time, going to congressional offices, showing up to town hall meetings using art products whatever tools they can muster. it's protests like these that they scored the first big success of the trump era, which was block -- have been fighting for the last year and a half, is this a different fight? how is this one going to get fought? particularly in this moment when the country has been thrumbing
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like an emotional tuneup fork. joining us now is ezra levin, it's nice to see you again. thank you for being back with us. >> always great to be here. thanks, rachel. >> tell me about this moment in strategic thinking. we saw democratic senators saying this is going to be a fight over the anthony kennedy nomination. they don't want a vote until after the election. that said they're in the minority. how do you see this playing out how will indivisible be involved in this? >> i think back to a year ago leading into recess for july fourth a year, i know it seems like a decade ago, but a year ago we were fighting trump care and the question was were we going to be able to defeat the trump care bill, what happened
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was during congressional recess all over the country and in maine where susan collins was a swing vote we saw groups come out to a fourth of july parade and say we need you to stand against this bill and ultimately they won her over. at the time it was uncertain whether we could win that fight. as we look forward to the supreme court fight there is a pathway toll victory. it is tough, it isn't guaranteed but the exact same engagement from across the country with groups fighting this fight, that's the thing that's going to work. it's not hard to do. it's not complicated to understand, but it's going to take all of us joining together to really defeat this extremist nominee we think is coming down from president trump. ezra, tell me how this dove tails or whether it dove tails with the incredible energy, upset we're seeing all over the
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country with the parents and kids being separated. the government doesn't seem to be all that interested in finding a way to give them back. that has upset people and affected people's feelings of -- feelings about the government, feelings about what they can do, feelings about whether this is something important enough to get involved. this supreme court resignation comes at a time we're hitting people's upset over that too. how does that fit together? >> that's right. the fact of the matter is congress has the ability to stand up to trump and they have the ability to appoint, approve an justice he tries to appoint and not approve. they should absolutely exercise that authority. when we're thinking about the supreme court fight coming up, we need 51 votes there are 49 democrats in the senate. three of them voted for gorsuch, trump's previous nominee. we need those three on our side and we need to pick up another
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republican or two in order to defeat it. that's not enough. after that we have to retake the senate. if we fail to retake the senate in november that means trump is going to try to appoint another extremist. so the groups that exist in every district in the country and every state is congress works for you, they work for you. we've seen that work again and again, so what we need folks to do is make their voices heard. show up like they have been over the last year and a half and say don't be a doormat for president trump don't let him walk all over you. you ought to fight this nomination and be a justice that could be a good replacement for kennedy. we're confident it's possible that can work. it's not guaranteed but if we all come together, we can get it done. >> ezra levin, coexecutive director of indivisible. thanks for being with us here tonight. >> thanks. if you want to join up text
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doormat to 9779. we want you in this fight with us. it's led by everybody. everybody under the sun is part of the movement. let's get this done. >> thank you. we'll be right back. it. it. so i think about mouthfeel. introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase.
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so i think about the details. fine, i obsess over the details. introducing chase ink business unlimited with unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase. i mentioned at the top of the show tonight that we thought we might get more information over the course of this evening about the mass murder at the "capital gazette" newspaper offices in maryland we are about to get more information from authorities. that live briefing is going to start in a couple of minutes. it's going to be live on the last word which is hosted by joy reed. >> good evening we are going to take that press conference live when it happens. it's a story that's very hard to tell and personal. >> this one, in this business, in some ways we're all