tv MTP Daily MSNBC July 24, 2018 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT
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>> absolutely. we saw from our own eyes this was not based on a bogus dossier. >> and the evidence grew stronger and stronger against page. >> correct. will i be crushed tomorrow for having hoped for five minutes? >> probably. >> you always tell the truth. that's it for our hour, i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts now. >> you are my unicorn riding across the rainbow. >> we'll talk about spicy later, i didn't get enough of it later. >> nicolle wallace, thank you very much. if it is tuesday, all roads lead to russia. tonight, autocratic instincts. by the partisan outrage grows as the president weighs stripping security clearances of some of his critics. >> it's banana republican kind of thi-- banana republic kind o thing.
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>> plus the president bets the farm on his growing trade war. >> just be a little patient. >> and crisis at the border. can the feds reunite families after hundreds of migrant parents have already been deported? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. ♪ good evening, i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." more fallout from the trump/putin summit. yes, we're still talking about this. we're getting a look at one of the first reputable polls taken entirely after the president's disastrous press conference with vladimir putin. the results are not very good. quinnipiac has the president's approval rating dropping to 38% and his disapproval rating
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rising to 58%. aprove is down two, disapprove is up three. donald trump's numbers didn't really change in the gallup poll. still more from this poll in a moment. the president is being criticized for acting like a dictator or the leader of a banana republic, seemingly to distract you from, you guess it can, russia. that criticism isn't some liberal attack line. it's what a top republican senator said today after the president threatened to revoke the security clearance of former intelligence officials who have all been critical of his approach to, you guessed it, russia. >> i can't even believe that somebody at the white house thought up something like this. when you're going to start taking retribution against people who are your political
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enemies in this manner, that's the kind of thing that happens in venezuela where i was just recently. so you just don't do that. i can't believe they even allowed it to be aired, to be honest. it's a banana republic kind of thing. >> corker raises the question, can you believe this president's behavior. well, can you believe that pretty much everyone the president is threatening happens to be a former intelligence chief, wondering if mr. trump has been compromised by russian intelligence. can you believe the president is basically telling us that the sky is green today when it comes to russia's motivations for attacking our democracy. quote, i'm very concerned that russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming election based on the fact that no president has been tougher on rush than me. they will be pushing very hard for the democrats. they definitely don't want
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trump. there is so much to unpack with that tweet, which we will do later. but can you believe he would claim that russia definitely doesn't want him to win? just one week after vladimir putin, standing next to president trump, told the world that he definitely does? >> did you want president trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that? >> translator: yes, i did. yes, i did. because he talked about bringing the u.s./russia relationship back to normal. >> and can you believe that this president has raged against the russia investigation by threatening his political opponents with jail time. he has undermined his own fbi, tried to shut down mueller's investigation. he's sided with putin over our intelligence community, then walked back his walkbacks. so can you believe that a majority of the country, 51%, says yes, the russian government
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has compromising info on this president. just 35% says no, they don't. hard to believe, isn't it? jeremy bash is an msnbc national security analyst and a former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon. he joins our panel. jonathan lemire is a msnbc political analyst and ap white house reporter. robin gaye and jonathan podohoretz. >> bob corker's analogy is apt, because what donald trump is doing is he is emulating the authoritarian instinct that he admires in vladimir putin. we still don't know, katy, exactly what the two men talked about. but one of the standard attack lines by the kremlin against the united states is that we are too beholden to our own intelligence
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professional cadre. and why is that? that's because the intelligence community actually puts forward facts. and facts sometimes contradict the conspiracy theories and sort of the international relations theories that the russian federation has wanted to advance. the big picture here, katy, if you look over the last month, starting with the g-7 in quebec, in brussels, and now the helsinki summit with putin in which the united states was embarrassed on the world stage, there's a fundamental realignment of american foreign policy against our traditional allies in europe and canada and with the russian federation. and that is what intelligence community professionals have been warning against. that's why it's in donald trump's interests to undermine those professionals. >> facts are stubborn and can make you be uncomfortable and make you say it's unfair when you don't like the answer to the question. it's interesting this is coming out today, the idea that he wants to punish these intelligence officers that are critics of him by taking their security clearance.
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it's interesting that today of all days, and 1234 banana republic" is being thrown out, jeff sessions decides it's the first day he should repeat the "lock her up" chant and laugh about it. look at jeff sessions at an event with high school students. >> i like this bunch. i got to tell you. you're not going to be backing down. go get 'em. go get 'em. rather than moaning. [ audience chants "lock her up" ] >> ha ha ha. "lock her up." well, so -- i heard that a long time over the last campaign. >> is that uncomfortable law enforcement? what is that, jeremy? is it too much to wonder why the top law enforcement officer of the united states, the attorney generals, -- the attorney
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general, is laughing along to that? >> that's nothing more than a shameful suck-up to the president who wants his attorney general to fall in line on the russia investigation. it's really shameful because it is part of this trumpist approach of using the apparatus of the state to punish political opponents. that's the reason why he wants to remove security clearance access for those longstanding members of the professional intelligence cadre, people like retired four-star air force general mike hayden, retired three-star air force general jim clapper who has served for decades in the service of our country. he wants to use the apparatus of the state to punish them even though he's only hurting his own administration when gets advice from former officials, because that's the way he exacts retribution on his political critics. >> anyone uncomfortable at the white house with this? was there talk about whether they should announce this before they did? was there talk afterwards, hey, maybe it's not a good idea to have this look?
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>> this is rand paul's suggestion at first, about the security clearances. he had raised the idea and said he wanted to talk to the president about it and the house seized on it, saying this is a good idea, let's pursue this, at least let's talk about it. we saw sarah sanders yesterday at the podium announce it, drawing sharp rebukes from both sides of the aisle. >> some republicans. >> some republicans. that it's being done specifically to people who have criticized the president. yet this seems like a way to -- i think our conversation can be overblown sometimes about the president being calculating, trying to change the subject, but this one feels like it does fit the bill. >> you think so? >> it comes eight or nine days after the helsinki summit with
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the white house still reeling from this. this seems like an effort to change the narrative summit, and do what donald trump loves to do best, payback. >> but he's going after intelligence officials, ones criticizing him for his meetings with vladimir putin, the ones criticizing his approach to russia, is that effective at changing the subject? >> i think jon is right that it does look like an attempt to change the subject. yet we're still talking about not only essentially russia but we're talking about the president, as you said, using the apparatus of the state to punish his political enemies. and that does not exactly look patriotic. one might draw those connections between, you know, someone who didn't look very patriotic when he was denigrating our intelligence services in front of vladimir putin. >> paul ryan is calling this trolling. it's hard to take one thing at a time with this president because there's so much evidence of how
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he feels. in april, when james comey was on his book tour, trump was tweeting that james comey should go to jail. he was tweeting about hillary clinton going to jail. susan rice going to jail. what's this deal with all of his critics or his opponents, they should all go to jail, or people who are in a position to reveal uncomfortable information about him, go to jail? >> you cited the quinnipiac poll showing a decline in his support. >> yes. >> other polls show flat support. his impulse when he feels put-upon or attacked is not only to attack back but also to retreat into the comfort of his base. so what they want to see is, you're going to attack me, i'm taking away your security clearance. jeff sessions laughing about hillary clinton going to jail. all of that is very appealing to a certain segment of the electorate that's already in his pocket. it's a very strange impulse if you think about it. once again he's showing that he
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has no taste for expanding beyond his base. and his numbers are in the low 40s. republicans have to run in a ditch political atmosphere in november, in the midterm elections. and when he feels put-upon, rather than trying to find a way to appeal to the people who aren't necessarily turned totally off to him but aren't with him, he goes way back into his own base. >> is it fair to ask, does he not have a taste for democracy? i ask that not just with this and his affinity for strongmen, affinity towards vladimir putin and jailing his opponents. today with tariffs, he decided with a stroke of his pen to give a big bailout to farmers. >> the tariffs thing, using the pen from the white house, sort of suborning legislative authori
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authority, we have to go back to obama who really accelerated this process, and he is simply using it to his own ends. it was terrible when obama did it, it's terrible when he does it. do i think it's an offense against democracy? not exactly. >> or just the idea that he can fix everything himself, i alone can fix it is something he ran on and that he seems to believe in. that's why i ask the question. >> he wants tariffs. congress is not supportive of tariffs even though republicans are supportive of tariffs generally speaking. he's going to do it on his own. where he got the imbecile from is obama and putin. >> i'm not so much focused on the executive order aspect of it, but "i can do this all on my own." today he's trying to change the narrative or completely obfuscate or lie. he's tweeting today that the russians are going to meddle in the election, suddenly he's saying that, he wasn't saying it before, but now he's got a new line, they're going to meddle in
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the election and will be pushing hard for the democrats. >> today he had an event in kansas city at the vfw and he said this line, he said, just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> that's crazy. >> it is a window into how donald trump looks at the world, a window at how he's always tried to assert his own reality that he and his supporters can believe. s in -- this is a perfect example. vladimir putin said i want donald trump to win. the intelligence community has declared unanimously that the russians wanted donald trump to win. donald trump has never acknowledged that. when donald trump had the opportunity to tell the russians not to do it again, he stayed silent. >> we talked about paul ryan, on capitol hill today he said
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security clearances weren't in his purview. we went back in the wayback machine, back to july 2016, when security clearances seemed to be in his purview. listen. >> i think the dni, clapper, should deny hillary clinton access to classified information during this campaign. i think that's something that the administration should do on its own. but we'll look into seeing if that's something we can do as well. >> so jeremy, did he look into it and realize that congress doesn't have it in their purview? or was that just blatant politics? >> his standard move is when he doesn't want to answer an uncomfortable question about the head of his party, is to basically say that's not in my job chart, i'm merely the speaker of the house of representatives, third in line to the presidency. he loves that dodge, but in fact, as you referenced, he's oftentimes talked about national
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security. on the hill of course there are many staffers who have security clearances, it's a frequent issue that comes up about who is going to get read into what classified programs. so it's not a very compelling dodge, in my view. >> jeremy bash, thank you so much for joining us. jonathan, mara, john, stick with us. ahead, will the senate push back against president trump's tariffs and will those tariffs hurt him in farm states? senator amy klobuchar joins me next. plus migrant families separated by the u.s. government are even farther party, hundreds of parents deported while their children are still here. (♪ ) okay you gotta be kidding me. hold on, don't worry, there's another way. directions to the greek theater. (beep) ♪can i get a connection? ♪can i get can i get a connection?♪ ♪ohhh can i get a connection?
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was justified, the fisa application for carter page? >> listen, i've said before there are things that should never find their way in the public domain. fisa applications are one of those. i think it's an awful precedent. if the american people learned anything from it release, it was that there was great justification of the courts as to why the fisa application was approved. >> richard burr. joining me now is minnesota senator amy close into share. thanks for joining us. >> thank you, katy, great to be on. >> what do you make of senator burr saying that, that the fisa application process for carter page which many in the republican party have been using as an example of why they believe this investigation is politically motivated and why it's not fair to the president, what do you make of senator burr on the senate intelligence
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committee, who has access to all this information, coming out and going directly against what the house intel committee has been trying to say? >> it really doesn't surprise me, because from the beginning, the senate intelligence committee, with senator burr and senator warner, have been trying as much as possible to do things on a bipartisan basis, because the way we figure it, a number of us over here, this is about the security of our democracy. and election security is national security. and allowing this investigation, including the work that director mueller has done here to figure out what happened, including with carter page, should be allowed to move forward and they should stop messing around in partisan politics. and i appreciate senator burr's role here. >> is senator burr a lonely voice on this in the republican party in the senate? >> not if you look at senator mccain's statement after the meeting between vladimir putin and the president in which he called it disgraceful. or you look at some of the things that you've heard out of senator graham or senator flake, senator corker, others, who have
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really believed that we need to step back. senator rubio knows this. the election in 2016, the russians were messing around and staging cyber attacks in the republican primary. that hurt him. so it isn't just about trump versus clinton. it is also happening on the republican side. so i have appreciated their support on moving forward on our secure elections act that i have with senator lankford, we're going to have a markup in august in the rules committee. we've also worked to get some money out there and we would like to get more to the states. the state of arkansas or the state of north dakota isn't going to be able to defend themselves from a foreign power attacking our elections. >> there is also a sustained effort, though, that continues on behalf of some republicans, especially in the house, to tear down this robert mueller investigation, to tear down the credibility, to say that it's politically motivated. that's what devin nunes was trying to do with this carter page fisa warrant, senator burr
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obviously breaking from him. do you think your republican counterparts in the senate are doing enough to make sure the investigation is protected? would you like to see them do more? >> well, i would always like to see them do more. i think it's been a bit slow. but what i have appreciated is those who have been willing to step out. and as you know, on this special counsel's statute, the bill that we are trying to strengthen, we got some republican support on that and we were able to pass it out of the judiciary committee. i would love to see it come for a vote on the floor. you have the president, as you pointed out so well, all over the place. trying to talk about iran in all caps in a tweet while we're trying to figure out what happened with russia. i love the tweet you just put up where he literally now said that the russians definitely don't want trump. okay, that is so far-fetched from what all of the security
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people have found, all the intelligence people. and so that is why having republican voices and getting them to speak out, which hasn't always been easy, but when they do, that shows we're standing up for democracy and it's not just a partisan game and a bunch of tweets with the president. >> are you concerned that that message won't be getting through to voters, that they'll just see this all as a big partisan fight and they'll read a tweet like that and maybe they'll be fooled? >> well, that's what he wants to do. as he said today at the rally, he wants to create an alternative reality. i'm the kid of a reporter, and i believe that facts matter, and that you can be entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. and i think we need to keep getting that out there to people every single day. secondly, people have a lot of faith in our intelligence community, in our law enforcement officers. and when they are telling the american people that this happened regardless of where they are politically, i think that matters. so our job is to make clear that it's not just democrats that are
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talking about this, not just elected officials. it's front line prosecutors. it's fbi. it is people that are really looking at the numbers from both previous administrations under democrat and republican presidents. >> talking about the senate pushing back or senators pushing back, senator lindsey graham and bob menendez have an increased sanction bill that would ramp up sanctions on russia. it would also require senate approval to withdraw from nato. and it bolsters cyber defenses. if this passes, and that's an "if" still, if this passes, do you think the president will sign it? >> i would hope so. we're getting strong support, i've been working with senator graham on part of that bill, and i think we'll get strong support for it. as you know, we got a 98-2 vote last time on russian sanctions. you have time and time again now people coming out and saying that they believe this wasn't just meddling, this was a cyberattack. that's why the two things we
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have to do is, one, allow the mueller investigation to continue so we go after the wrongdoers and figure out exactly what happened, and then secondly and equally important, with the election about 100 days away this week, 100 days away this week, that we have security in place to protect the state election equipment in every county in this country. >> the president wants to send billions of dollars in aid to farmers. where is that money coming from? >> that's money that exists in a usda department of agriculture account for help for farmers when this kind of thing happens. coming from an ag state, i know how much they're suffering. i hear from my soybean farmers, corn, you name it. these tariffs are very, very difficult for our farmers all over my state. so while i appreciate that they're trying to help, they're basically trying to fix the problem that they caused.
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i'm going to be meeting with some canadians tonight. they walked away, the administration did, from negotiating with mexico and canada, an agreement that most of our farmers and states want to see, fair trade, not just trade, fair trade. they want to see trade. they don't want to get a bunch of aid. they want a consistent agreement that creates consistency into the future, not just for a year, not just a few years, not a one-shot deal. that's how they do business. and so, yes, is it good that they're helping them out? sure. but is it the right solution policy-wise in the long term? no. we need to have fair trade agreements and we need to have consistent policy and message coming out of the white house. we are in an incredibly difficult global trade environment and we have to be strong and work with our allies and not be criticizing them all the time. >> do you think this sort of bailout is akin to corporate welfare? >> i think you have a situation where decisions by the white
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house, not just with china, but with all of our allies, and i think there was general agreement that we needed to push china, have hurt hard working people. and that's why we have a lot of programs in place to address that when that happens. but again, i don't think this is the ideal solution by any means. i would like them to be working with the rest of the world, to be realizing that american is stronger when we have trading partners and allies. it is very difficult for us to compete with china when we -- when the president goes out there and disses some of our major allies that are not just trading partners but stood with us like the canadians in the fight in afghanistan, they were there. after 9/11, it was the canadians who came into new york and did a major event to raise money for the victims. the canadians have been our friends for a long time, they're the embassy with the sign that says "friends, partners, allies." that's the problem with this approach. i think you're starting to see the other foot fall with the
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help they're going to have to give out because of their approach. >> senator amy klobuchar, senator, thank you very much. >> thank you. ahead, if you can't curb your appetite, you could end up curbing your enthusiasm, am i right, john kelly? and everything into the cloud. it's all so... smart. but how do you work with it? ask this farmer. he's using satellite data to help increase crop yields. that's smart for the food we eat. at this port, supply chains are becoming more transparent with blockchain. that's smart for millions of shipments. in this lab, researchers are working with watson to help them find new treatments. that's smart for medicine. at this bank, the world's most encrypted mainframe is helping prevent cybercrime. that's smart for everyone. and in africa, iot sensors and the ibm cloud are protecting endangered animals.
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that's confident. but it's not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel and airline sites to find the best flight for me. so i'm more than confident. how's your family? kayak. search one and done. welcome back. a heaping helping of dissatisfaction was on the menu at the nato summit earlier this month. remember these pictures of chief
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of staff john kelly grimacing as the president spoke? sarah huckabee sanders then told "the washington post" that kelly wasn't upset with what the president said but it was because he was expecting a full breakfast and there were only pastries and cheese. "curb your enthusiasm" creator and star larry david, a self-described big breakfast fan offering kelly some mock empathy. "i've learned he's always been a big breakfast guy. legend has it he made his first bacon and eggs unsupervised while standing on a chair when he was 2 1/2." we cannot corroborate david's reporting on the general's breakfast habits. but we did uncover this secret audio recording of this inner monologue. ♪ this is not a bed.
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i'm contessa brewer with the cnbc market wrap. u.s. stocks closing mostly higher on a wave of strong corporate earnings. google parent alphabet hit an all-time high following solid quarterly results after the bell. the internet giant shrugged off eu regulatory concerns as analysts' confidence grows over alphabet's emerging businesses. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "mtp daily." welcome back. the trump administration faces a thursday deadline to reunite thousands of migrant kids with their families. there is a problem. the government may have already deported up to 463 parents. and the already complicated reunification process is now even more formidable for those
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families. the justice department says that many deported parents willingly chose to leave their kids behind to seek asylum. yet it's unclear they fully understood what they were agreeing to. the trump administration says it's reunited some kids who were forcibly taken from their parents. 58 of the 103 toddlers have been reunited. what is next for these families? will these migrant kids, now stranded in the u.s., ever see their parents again? i'm joined by msnbc correspondent jacob soboroff, who has been following this story from the start. jacob, is the government confident that all of those kids who have been separated are going to get reunited, especially the kids whose parents are already gone? >> already gone. no, the question almost answers
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itself. the government has this entire category -- and let me back up. we're two days away from they unification deadline for kids who were forcibly separated. the strategy failed, the president didn't like the imagery coming out of south texas, where you saw the kids in cages, and they decided to reverse this. they've already admitted there are 917 parents, out of the 2,551 kids, who are ineligible for any form of reunification so far. we already know potentially up to 463 of those parents are already outside the country. and you can't be reunited in the u.s. categorically if you're already outside the country. >> what are they going to do? do they have a process in place to find the people they've already deported? if they left them with a phone number to call, that has, i
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don't know, a spanish speaking person on the other side? have they given them sort of identification or number that they will be able to use to find their kids? >> you're asking all the right questions that not only we're asking but the aclu is asking as the plaintiff in this lawsuit that's basically forced the issue here. if you are deported and you've signed a waiver that the aclu says some of these parents were force book d into signing or di know they were signing, the only recourse to get your children back is to go to your consulate and try to undo the process. the frantic situation that's going on right now at the court in san diego. we should have a hearing or update later today. the aclu wants to make sure there's a seven-day buffer to make sure that anybody going forward who is slated for
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deportation, if you still do have a legitimate claim for asylum, an attorney can get to you and protect you. >> sounds reasonable. why does the doj not want that to happen? >> that's a good question also. the government says we're too full, we have too many people here, we need the bed space, there are too many migrants in these facilities. we know that's not true. and the judge said in a court hearing, it's not really an excuse, you guys, the government, were the ones to decide to separate these children, and you've created this crisis that's on your hands. figure it out, get the resources, get the bids so we don't get into another layer of a man made crisis. >> so the kids who can't get reunited either because they're not eligible for reunification because their parents have committed crimes or something, serious crimes, or the kids who can't get reunited because they can't find their parents any longer, what happens to those children? >> so those children will go
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through essentially the normal process that you would go through if you were an unaccompanied minor and you came into the united states and went into the custody of hhs. you might go with a family member that's already in the interior of the united states. if you don't have a family member, you'll go with what's called a sponsor, a suitable sponsor that the government decides would be okay for you to go live with. >> are you saying the government wasn't clear or maybe was shading some information from the parents by saying that if you leave, you'll be able to seek asylum but not telling them they're going to leave their kids? >> that was certainly the choice, that certain attorneys are saying their clients were ultimately faced with. they say their clients were handed an old piece of paper, ultimately being deported and separated from their children, thinking that was the best scenario for themselves and their children at the time. the new form, which we've just gotten access to today, is a lot different, a lot more clear and
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sort of lays out that you have many more rights as a class member, as a member of this suit, to protect yourself and stay with your family. it is an enormous mess. it didn't have to be a mess. it was a mess because of the way it was implemented and then undone in such a clunky, wonky way, because it shouldn't have been there in the first place. that's the bottom line. >> jacob soboroff. you're staying on this. you're watching the court hearing tonight. >> 6:00. >> thank you very much. ahead, is the blue wave actually coming this november? one of the top analysts in the business is finally saying it sure looks that way. 'cuz his new 2018 ford f-150 has blis with trailer coverage. it's brainiac smart. not only does it watch your f-150's blind spots, it's got your trailer covered too. just another reason why ford f-series is america's best-selling truck for 41 straight years.
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that's more ways to discover new relatives. people who share your dna. and maybe a whole lot more. order your kit at ancestrydna.com welcome back. tonight, meet the midterms. polls close in just over an hour in georgia and we'll soon know who comes out on top in the gub. there is no real ideological difference between the two, but kemp may have a tougher time winning over moderates with some of the provocative ads he's run in the primary. >> i've got a big truck just in case i need to round up criminal
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illegals and take them home myself. yep. i just said that. >> the winner will take on democrat stacey abrams who has had the general election trail to herself since winning her nomination outright in may. georgia has not had a democratic governor in 15 years. so the republican nominee will likely be the favorite. but remember, anything can happen in a midterm year. back with more "mtp daily" right after the break.
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time now for "the lid." the panel is back. larry sabato has a prediction. usually when he talks, most of us listen, i imagine. he predicts a blue wave is coming. that's kind of a big deal. house tilting towards the democrats, democrats being able to take over the house. jon? white house nervous about something like this? >> the white house is nervous
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about this. certainly some trump allies are. the president himself of course is being very bullish and thinks they will win. those around him are far less confident. and i think there are people -- it's not just that the chamber could change control. it's the ramifications not even further stalling the trump agenda. it is, as someone close to the white house said to me recently, it would be a parade of trump officials marched up to capitol hill to testify in front of committee after committee and the democrats could run that clock. could that backfire? perhaps. but that's what the white house fears, the spectacle of investigation not just on russia but on corruption issues, emoluments issues. and that is one of the many reasons why they do not want this to happen. you'll see the president out there more and more trying to campaign. >> i find it interesting, when trump was tweeting, we talked about this earlier, he was tweeting today about the russians wanting to see democrats win, it made me think, this is a great way to actually
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delegitimize an election that you might lose or that your people might lose. and that's perhaps very pernicious. but it made me think people are actually worried about this. ultimately we don't know what's going to happen until ultimately, we don't know what's going to happen until you know what the turnout is. >> are you saying the president is actually worried about a democratic wave and this is the way he will undercut it the same way at the end of the 2016 election he started screaming about a conspiracy, and everything was rigged because he thought he was going to lose in 2016? >> i think that's what i'm saying. >> huh. >> so a wave generally means that at the end of the election, the end of the election cycle those seats that are close all tilt in one direction. so in 2014, when republicans and -- republicans end up winning nine senate seats because everything broke their way as the election came. >> yeah. >> so democrats don't have a hard haul here to win the house. they need 23 seats. the numbers should be there for them because that's not a big
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deal in a mid-term election. the question is, could it be way more than 23 seats? everyone is being very cautious about that. some people, i think, who want it to happen are worried about, you know, giving the evil eye to it. i would say that with everything that's going on, if democrats don't take the house that will be a political calamity for liberals, the likes of which i don't know that we've ever seen, and i don't think we know exactly what the ramifications will be. >> do you think it will be a calamity? >> i do. i completely agree. >> why? >> i don't think it will be a calamity for liberals as a group. it will be a calamity for the rule of law at this point. we've seen that with republican control complete of congress they've been entirely unwilling to hold the president to count on anything. when you look at jeff sessions today, complicit in laughing as american citizens talk about, you know, jailing a former political opponent, that's more disturbing to me than the president himself. the president's going to do --
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he's one person. the question is, why aren't the other checks and balances showing up? why isn't congress showing up? and given where the republicans have been, you know, yes, some change would be good. >> look at this nbc poll on congressional preference among swing voters who dislike both parties. july 2018 democrats, 55%, gop, 25%. those are big differences from 2014 or 2010 when -- in 2014 it was 24% democrats, 2010, 23% democrats. those are some big numbers. but, again, everyone looks at polling now after 2016 and says i'm not so sure about polling. i don't know if i believe any of it. what do you guys think? >> this is what gives you the reason to say that a blue wave is coming. and a blue wave should come. i don't mean morally. i mean politically. republicans are in charge of the senate, the house and the presidency, and there should be -- there should be kickback -- not kickback, whatever you call it, there
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should be pushback from the electorate. >> usually there is. >> the opportunity is there, no question. the democrats have this. i agree, i think if they don't seal the deal here, if they don't rule the house or the senate, i think they will be second guessing everything they did, and it will plunge the party into just complete turmoil before 2020. >> two quick things. richard burr, we showed you this a moment ago, richard burr has come out and said he doesn't believe the fisa process was done nefariously. that goes against devin nunes in the house, this is the reason the president can call it a witch hunt, the whole investigation. there's also this, trump allies weigh last ditch bid to punish rosestein, the headline in politico, a group of house republicans still considering trying to punish rosestein, despite what leaders want.
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there is a disconnect in the republican party that's being undercovered? >> i think the story is, that certain cohort of house republicans has doubled down on the idea that the russia investigation is illegitimate and that things happened along the way, including the fisa warrant against carter page, that discredit it. and so last week the -- all these documents were released showing how the fisa warrant -- these fisa warrants were gotten, this special warrant was gotten to surveil an american citizen, carter page. all the evidence that -- so there's hundreds of pages of redacted stuff. >> my question was very simple, there more of a disconnect in the republican party when you have richard burr saying no, there's no issue here, and devin nunes saying there is, and then a bunch of republicans in the house saying i'm going to try and punish rosenstein, despite the leadership?
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>> there is a disconnect, but it's small, and the people who hate rosenstein and hate the investigation have more energy and enthusiasm behind them. >> thank you very much. it wasn't yes or no, but i'll give it to you. guys, thank you. and ahead, nutty by nature. ♪ a hotel can make or break a trip. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts
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are you ready to take your then you need xfinity xfi.? a more powerful way to stay connected. it gives you super fast speeds for all your devices, provides the most wifi coverage for your home, and lets you control your network with the xfi app. it's the ultimate wifi experience. xfinity xfi, simple, easy, awesome. in case you missed it, a legend is retiring, a legend who
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cannot be tethered by any single identity. she's an adventurer, an athlete, a medium sized mammal. the world knows her as a trail blazer. we know her as twiggy, her handle ler says after 39 years the time has come for a tiefina tiny lap around the tiny pool. despite her small stature, she gained fame on local tv newscasts across the nation and on the silver screen. >> what you're about to see is a channel 4 news exclusive, his name is nutty the squirrel, he's 3 years old. how about that? that squirrel can water ski. oh. >> indeed, ron, that squirrel can water ski. also the name is twiggy, come on. now, some might say twiggy's
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feet were not that great. the skis were fixed together on a platform, is she was afforded extra stability for an aero dynamic tail. reject the nay sayers. some are born great and others have greatness yanking them around. twiggy, we send you into retirement with our gratitude and admiration. of all the nut jobs out there, your job was truly the nuttiest. that is all for tonight. we will be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." the beat with ari melber. ari, you got beat out to be -- >> i have a question for you. >> i bet you do. >> what is going on over there? >> what, twiggy is retiring, it's a big deal. she was advocating for water safety, always wear a life vest. >> how long have you been interested in this particular story? >> since i saw anchorman. >> and that's a long
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