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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  August 27, 2018 9:00am-10:00am PDT

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referred to canada about five times. this wasn't a deal with canada. they want to tax canadian car companies. there are no canadian car companies. >> good to see you, my friend. time now for "andrea mitchell reports." >> and right now on "andrea mitchell reports," john mccain remembered. the nation mourning the death of statesman and war hero, senator john mccain, with flags at half-staff on capitol hill but no longer at the white house. the maverick, former presidential candidate and vietnam prisoner of war remembered by those who knew him best as a modest man who would have been embarrassed by all this attention. >> he would have been very touched. when we left his beloved ranch in cornville and made the drive to phoenix -- i'm sorry. the roads were lined with people who spontaneously showed up to
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put their hands over their hearts. >> his co-author mark salter and former secretary of defense bill cohen, another close friend. standing by their man. with the midterms looming, a new poll shows the president's base is still solidly with him, even after his worst week yet on legal setbacks for his inner circle. >> look, at this point if there's no russia and no goods on russia, doesn't -- base doesn't care. >> and wake-up call in the grim aftermath of the mass shooting in jacksonville. calls are growing louder for more security anywhere that crowds gather. >> we have faced this occurrence all too common. it will require us to continue to do the hard work of public safety to make sure that people are safe. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington.
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president trump as you just saw announcing a preliminary nafta deal moments ago with mexico, not with canada, though. while here at home, the nation begins a week of mourning today for john mccain. we'll have a lot more on both stories throughout this hour. the flag at the white house is back at full staff today, a break with protocol. the flag at the u.s. capitol, of course, remaining at half-staff. luckily until the senator's burial on sunday, which is traditional. tributes for mccain are beginning in arizona today where he'll lie in state wednesday ahead of a memorial service at north phoenix baptist church. then his casket will be flown here to washington where senator mccain will be only the 31st american in american history to lie in state at the capitol rotunda. the memorial service for the senator at washington's national cathedral is saturday with eulogies expected from the two men he ran against for president, george w. bush and barack obama. the family has quite awhile ago requested that president trump
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not attend. finally, there will be a private burial on sunday at the navy cemetery in annapolis. next to his naval academy classmate and life-long friend admiral chuck larson. also senator chuck schumer has suggested the building named for richard russell, lifetime supporter of segregation from georgia, where mccain had his office throughout his long tenure in the senate be renamed in john mccain's honor. nbc's kelly o'donnell is in arizona where she's been all weekend. and kelly, you covered him longer than anyone, and i know you've got a lot of thoughts. talk to us first about what we expect in arizona in the next couple of days. >> well, andrea, we are here at the state capitol where john mccain will be honored by the people for whom he represented and served for three decades. the governor has made arrangements for the capitol to open its doors on wednesday.
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the people of arizona can file past the casket and pay their respects. the governor, i had a chance to speak with him. people in arizona, we're used to seeing john mccain at a diamondsback game or even at the starbucks. this will be their chance in a solemn way to say thank you for his service and to acknowledge him and to comfort the extended mccain family which, of course, is home here in arizona. and john mccain never really had a rooted home base as the son and grandson of navy admiral. when he married cindy mccain in 1980, this was her home, and it became his. and he embraced it in such a powerful way. really falling in love with parts of arizona in terms of the majestic scenery and the way he was respected and seen here. even in times when the republican party was in a very different place than john mccain. heess
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he's a beloved figure here. his national stature is what it is. his global reach is what it is. here he's described as the favorite adopted son of arizona because he was born in panama on a military base. lived in many places, but arizona has been home. and so there will be that way for the public to honor him. then the church service that you indicated. and then arizona will say good-bye for the last time, and it will move on to washington and annapolis. but here in arizona, everywhere we go, the flags of the state and the nation are lowered. people are talking about him wherever we go. and this has been a place that is prepared to say good-bye in a way that they think will be fitting of john mccain who was not someone who liked a lot of things -- there's not much named after john mccain. he was not that kind of a lawmaker who put his mark on things. his mark was different. so people here want to say good-bye in a proper way, and they'll have the chance to do that this week. >> kelly, let me ask you quickly
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because you did talk to the governor. and there will be a decision after the burial. this is already getting involved with arizona politics where jeff flake acknowledged yesterday that in the republican primary, nobody wants his endorsement because he is not a trump republican. and you've got two very, very conservative republicans running in that primary, plus the congresswoman who, if she was named to the mccain seat for the next two years, until the special election, then that would leave two very strong trump republican contenders for the -- you know, to run for the seat and it would change the dynamic of arizona's representation for sure. >> absolutely. and governor ducey was very, very clear he did not want to talk about any of that until john mccain's burial. but that doesn't mean others haven't been talking about it. and he told me he considers this
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a solemn responsibility that he'll take seriously. as you point out, john mccain in a six-year term that would have ended in 2022. the law here says the next jenc general election, so 2022 when president trump would stand for re-election, that seat would be filled until then. because jeff flake is leaving office, the governor will appoint the new senior senator for arizona. a very different political dynamic at play now. john mccain, of course, followed barry goldwater, another kind of architect of republicanism. so this is a hot, hot contested political environment. and the governor will have a big responsibility to carry out. andrea? >> thank you so much. and that primary is tomorrow, as you say. joining me now, former defense secretary william cohen. secretary cohen served with john mccain in the senate. and john mccain's best man at his wedding to cindy mccain. and a longtime speechwriter, co-author to senator mccain, former adviser to his 2008
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presidential campaign and co-author. of course, the final book from john mccain published this year. let's take a listen first to senator mccain's message to america from the audio version of that book. >> what an ingrate i would be to curse the fate that concludes the blessed life i've led. i prefer to give thanks for those blessings, and my love to the people who blessed me with theirs. the bell tolls for me. i knew it would. so i tried, as best i could, to stay a part of the main. i hope those who mourn my passing and even those who don't will celebrate as i celebrate a happy life lived in imperfect service to a country made of ideals whose continued success is the hope of the world. and i wish all of you great adventures, good company, and
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lives as lucky as mine. >> and to bill and to mark, mark, you're part of the mccain extended family. condolences to you, to both of you. i wanted to open with that excerpt. the closing paragraph from that extraordinary book because it was so many different threads of senator mccain's thoughts, his hopes, his aspirations, his dreams. the hemingway reference, of course, to whom the bell tolls and the fictional hero and also, of course, him saying imperfect service. talk to me about what that captures about john mccain. imperfect service. >> yeah, well, he was always wanted the details in perfections for you. he was a fundamentally modest man. doesn't mean he didn't have ambitions or an ego, but he kept himself in perspective. you know, what he wanted to get
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across in that book was that what a wonderful life he'd been able to lead by serving his country for 60 years. it was a big purposeful, eventful, exciting, adventurous life. and he loved every day of it. he used to say, even the bad ones, and that's -- i think that was all encapsulated in the last paragraph which he really loved that paragraph. >> and we've read about his courage in the face of so much adversity. how did his spirit hold up through the diagnosis and this terrible disease, mark? >> very well. you know, he's stoic, but very grateful. kept insisting that all his friends and family not to be sad. celebrate his life. he had loved it. and they should celebrate it. he died a very happy man. >> bill cohen, you knew him through foreign policy, through your work as defense secretary and through your work together
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as senators. you've seen the evolution of john mccain over these years. your thoughts? >> well, it's sort of come full circle for me. one of the happiest days of my life was to stand next to john when he was married to cindy. and now one of the saddest days of my life will be this weekend during the time when he will be buried. but i always remember john as being just fun loving, exciting, determined to use every bone in his body and spirit in his soul to further the cause of patriotism. and mark has captured in all the books that john has written with mark, mark has captured the essence of john mccain. his spirit. i was looking at some of the words that might be appropriate for john, and i went back and reread tennyson's ulysses and i thought of john as i went through the poem. and john was one who was a not
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to go unburnished, not to shine until the end, to seek, to strive, to find, not to yield. that's who john was. he was always passionate. he was fun to be with because you knew you were on a journey of importance. someone who had that leadership quality you wanted to be in his company always. good times and bad times. you wanted to be with him. and so the bell tolls for him. it also tolls for us. and that's part of the message in hemingway's works as well. that a thing well done can make all the difference. and i would say that a life well lived has made all the difference. certainly for me, for america and for much of the world.
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>> i wanted to hear from you today was, many people may not know the former defense secretary, and house member is also an accomplished poet and novelist as well and shares with mark salter the literary enjoyments of john mccain who was one of the most -- yeah, go ahead. >> i was just going to say that john was such an inspiration to me. that he is, in fact, the central character in most of the novels that i've written. i sat down with him -- >> really? >> he never talked about the injuries he suffered or what happened to him. for almost three years i tried to get him to talk to me. he refused to do so. one night we were together i said i'm writing a novel. i need you to tell me what happened. we sat there for an hour or two and he gave me the details. and i included that in one of the books. but he was always a central character for me because of his idealism, his combative spirit,
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his irish temper, his desire to do well to help those less fortunate, and to be fighting for the underdog. he was born to fight. and he fought until the very end until it was time for him to say good-bye. >> that is something that i have never realized so thanks for sharing that with us. mark salter, one of the things about john mccain is that he loved as you and nicolle wallace and other people who worked with him knew he loved not only hemingway but read aloud, showing his enjoyment of these literary heroes. >> he did, indeed. he was quite an avid reader, fiction and nonfiction. lots of history, of course, and lots of biographies. but he loved hemingway. he loved trevor, scott fitzgerald. he loved short stories and he
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had a very good memory. he was always reading at all times. he was on a plane almost every week, obviously, back and forth to arizona. and he would read newspapers and magazines and consume books. pretty rapidly. and he was well informed and had quite a -- quite a sharp literary sensibility, i think. i think secretary cohen probably agreed with that. >> let me ask both of you about what we're agreeing to among many things that we will be without. and the laoss of this voice in foreign policy. you wrote, mark, this weekend in "the washington post" about his support of his relationship with political equivalents, with victims of human rights around the world. particular incident in myanmar.
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he said to the myanmar political prisoner, the harassed belarusan dissident or ukrainian captive, i know what you've suffered. the most marvelous of human achievements is not to lose hope when experience has taught you hope is for fools. he hated putin because he sided with putin's victims. the oppressed in russia and the nations living under threat of putin's nostalgia for empire. if you can talk about that. >> yeah, well, he had a saying that a fight not joined is a fight not enjoyed. and he loved fighting nothing or no one better than a bully. he fought bad guys to help the little guys. he felt a deep core of him, i think probably he had -- before he went to prison, but it was certainly solidified when he went to prison. and i think what i tried to explain was he had this fatalism -- i said cynicism about the world, because i think
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of that experience in vietnam. but he also had this determination, this hope that you can make progress. you can be liberated again because he fought his way through it and experiences the best and worst of humanity in the very same moment, the same experience, and it gives you a very unique sensibility. >> andrea, if i could just add. >> yeah, please. >> to what mark was saying that john was also -- he may have been a cynic, but he was a great romantic. one of his favorite movies he loved because zapata was fighting to overthrow a corrupt government only to find out that the government that he replaced that corrupt government with became corrupt itself. but he still thought the fight was worth waging. and that's how john was.
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fighting for justice, for equality. to help, as mark said, the little guy. and he wanted to continue that. that's his legacy. that's his legacy. fighting for the united states, for what we represent to the world. and it's really interesting how many people -- how many war leaders are commending john's life and legacy because he touched people around the world. so the bell is tolling for all of us. >> bill cohen, let me just say, the one world leader who has not commented in full, other than one tweet and an instagram that showed his own picture, not john mccain's is donald trump. and bill cohen, what about that, and the fact that the flag over the white house is back at half-staff, which is a violation of all protocol for a week of morning. >> it's not at half-staff. that's part of the problem. >> i mean back at full staff i should have said. >> i've been on your program a
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number of times and talked about the president a number of times. but today is a day that i don't want to merge the two. i can only quote a latin phrase. and it means "the thing speaks for itself." and beyond that, i don't really have any comment. >> fair enough. mark salter, your thoughts as we enter this week of mourning and think about john mccain's legacy? >> i'll just say ditto to what secretary cohen just said. but in terms of all the people around the world who have gotten to know him, it's not just heads of government or important political people but those little guys that he fought for. and i think i told a story in that op ed, i have a daughter in the peace corps in a third world country. she was talking to one of her native counterparts who was complaining about the autocratic government they lived under in that country, and he said we need freedom and we're not
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getting enough help. but john mccain will help us. he had no idea my daughter had a connection to senator mccain. he's just a guy who not only knew john's name but knew him as a friend who would help him if he could. that's an extraordinary tribute, i think, to the global importance of john mccain and his inate decency. he personified the values of this country was founded on. he was their greatest champion. >> mark salter, thank you so much, and thank you for your thoughts. our thoughts are with you, with the friends, the family, roberta mccain at age 106, who has lost her son now and, of course, cindy mccain, megan, jimmy, all the kids and grandchildren. bill cohen, thank you both very much. and coming up -- nafta fix? the president saying the u.s. and mexico have made a deal on
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president trump this hour taking credit for a preliminary agreement with mexico reached offer the weekend to revise the nafta treaty. it always shart of a comprehensive new treaty that would require getting canada to agree and the senate to ratify again if that's substantially
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changed. that's so far not likely. let's get the inside scoop from msnbc contributor peter baker and ann guerin. welcome both. ann, first to you. you and i covered nafta in the past. you can't just negotiate one part of a three-way deal. i know they would like to and they can do a side deal with mexico, but that isn't nafta. he's now saying that he's renaming it because he, of course, campaigned against nafta. >> so three things. trump hates nafta. always has. he said he would be willing to have a look at it to see if it can be redone to his satisfaction. but it's always been clear his preference would be somehow to do away with it, something he cannot do unilaterally. this is the next best thing. this is a pressure tactic against canada and his former friend now not so much friend justin trudeau. and it's also a way to change the subject from john mccain and
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trump's relationship with john mccain because now we're all talking about nafta. >> and in fact, that was a very awkward photo opportunity. it was a phone call where penieto spoke at great length. the president waiting through translation. not exactly what he expected. and 20 minutes later, he's basically announcing a deal without canada having signed on to it. peter? >> yeah, no, that's exactly right. and it's -- it reminds me of several moments in his presidency before where he's claimed victory before the victory has actually been won. you remember the south lawn celebration when the house passed the bill to repeal obamacare, never mind the senate hadn't yet and wouldn't actually ever pass that bill. similarly after his meet with kim jong-un in singapore. the north korean leader. he says he solved that problem. we now see obviously in recent days that that problem remains far from being solved. similarly here, he's taking a preliminary step, one that's important and one that could be
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an important breakthrough, but making it out as if this was somehow a final deal. it's not. the president has only five days to get notice to congress about whether there will be a deal in order to start a clock that would allow them to sign this before pinieto goes out of office. otherwise he has to start over with his successor. canada doesn't seem ready to go on board in the next five days. >> as you just mentioned, also north korea. the president declaring victory in singapore. there's no longer a nuclear threat. then, not so fast, discovering that absolutely predictively, the chinese no longer were going to take seriously the trade embargo because the president declared victory, and there's no longer a nuclear threat. so no pressure from china and kim jong-un was not going to comply. all of the intelligence in our reporting and "the washington post" and "the new york times" reporting is that they have not complied. they are not denuclearizing. and now -- i don't know if we've
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ever seen anything like this. but 24 hours after mike pompeo with great fanfare announces a new special envoy appointed for north korea and that he's leaving for pyongyang, supposed to leave on sunday, yesterday, the president tweets, not so fast. we're canceling the trip. >> yeah, our reporting suggests strongly that the white house pulled the rug out from under the state department on this one. the state department was rolling toward a big pompeo trip. certainly the announcement of the special envoy. all that that implies, which is a big diplomatic push in the sort of traditional state department way where they roll out lots of extra staff and plan on having discussions and negotiations going forward. and the president wasn't happy that the -- that mike pompeo probably would not see chairman kim. he thought that was a snub and it would be the second time in a
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row that that would happen. and he believed that, rightly, that north korea had not yet fully demonstrated that it was committed to this deal. so they said, mike, you're not going. >> and peter baker, we know that, first of all, mike pompeo does not announce a trip on camera unless he plans to be taking off and taking that trip. we also know that the president has canceled a summit before with kim jong-un and then put it back on. so we should all kind of hold our breath. but this is the first acknowledgment by the president, not by his intelligence community, but by the president that what was promised in singapore has not come to fruition and that the last two meetings that pompeo had with his north korean counterpart did not go well. >> well, that's exactly right. of course, these things are all mixed together. we're talking about trade, nuclear diplomacy. in the case of north korea, they're mixed because he's at war with china over trade, over these tariffs he's imposed on
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them. he wants them to help pressure north korea to live up to the conceptual idea they came up with in sung poingapore. that's why these are so complicated and we don't see easy solutions. >> peter baker, ann guerin, thank you so much. trying to parse what's going on in the white house. thanks for the help in doing that. coming up -- chaos in jacksonville. a mass shooting at a florida gaming tournament leaving two victims dead and authorities searching for motive. you're watching ining "andrea l reports." can be relentless. tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i'm ready. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® works better
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police in jacksonville, florida, still searching for a motive behind the deadly mass shooting at a video game tournament that killed two people and injured 11 others. officials say the gunman, david katz, a gamer from baltimore attending the event, fatally shot himself at the scene. a live stream of the tournament caught what is believed to be the moment. players and announcers can be heard chatting when the first shots ring out. i want to warn you what you are about to hear is disturbing.
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>> not an easy out. holy -- [ gunshots ] >> [ bleep ]. >> what are you shooting with? >> maia rodriguez joining me now. what do we know about the victims of this shooting? >> they were 22-year-old eli clayton and 27-year-old taylor robinson. both of them killed by the gunman yesterday. at this point, investigators are still trying to figure out whether they were specifically targeted by the gunman and, if so, why were they targeted. another thing we're learn is about some of those heroes that first responded to the shooting yesterday. there happened to be a sheriff's deputy going by this area, along with a number of firefighters at a nearby fire station that were doing training on sunday. they saw the chaos going on here at the landing. people running for their lives. and they decided to go into the facility to try to help those who were wounded. they had no bulletproof vests,
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no protective gear, but they did get inside the facility and started treating some of those gunshot wound victims. we are hearing from a local hospital today that did take in six of those who were injured. some good news on that front. four of those individuals have been discharged by the hospital. one remains in the hospital in good condition, but unfortunately, another one remains in the hospital still in serious condition. andrea? >> thank you, maia rodriguez. coming up, deep impact. did the president's tumultuous week have any effect on his approval ratings? that's next right here. hey there people eligible for medicare.
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president trump escalating the public face-off with his own attorney general after jeff sessions issued a rare statement of defiance amid the president's continued attacks saying on friday that he is in command of justice while president trump firing back over the weekend tweeting jeff sessions said he wouldn't allow politics to influence him only because he doesn't understand what's happening underneath his command position. who has the last word? joining me, barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor. msnbc justice and security analyst matt miller, former justice department chief spokesman and msnbc political analyst rick tyler, former spokesman for newt gingrich and ted cruz and all around good guy. thank you very much, rick. i mean, want to talk to you about the polls also. you are the polling maven here. what is happening with the
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republican base? first, barbara, how can the justice department continue to operate this way when jeff sessions is under not only constant attack but now you see the first cracks in the republican senate support for him. other than senator cornyn and some of the others, you have grassley and lindsey graham now saying, well, you know, we could hold hearings and replace him and maybe his time is limited. >> the relationship between president trump and attorney general sessions is really unusual. but many of us, former doj employees were actually cheering attorney general sessions for finally defending the department because we see it not as just a battle between the president and the attorney general. but between the president and all of the people who work for the department of justice and work so hard to protect the rule of law. we see it as an attack on the independence of the justice department and trying to inject partisan politics into it. it is concerning that leadership in the republican ranks are now not so protective of their old
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pal jeff sessions the way they were before. so if he is replaced, i think it will be a very up hill climb for a confirmation hearing and one would hope there would be pointed questions about how any new attorney general would be sure to uphold the independence of the department of justice. >> but rick, correct me if i'm wrong, he does not have to be confirmed. they can make a recess appointment this fall or this winter when congress goes out for the recess. and that appointee could be the acting attorney general for a year and rod rosenstein could be fired as could rod miller. >> it seems to me as the walls -- the only wall being built now are the ones closing in around donald trump. as that happens, donald trump is looking more and more for a way to end this investigation. he keeps calling for the investigation to end. it's not going to end. there's a lot of witches now who
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have been convicted. and so donald trump, he's got to find a way to, i think, he's worked for over a year. i said this a year ago. he has an active campaign. the way you run against an opponent is over time change the perception about them. that's what he's done with the republican party and robert mueller. he's not doing press conferences or putting up statements. he's not on cable television at all. we've heard nothing from him. so he -- the president has had free rein to define robert mueller. the republican party has come to believe that it really is a witch hunt and they believe the president. >> matt mueller, matty davis has completely backed off his previous claim that his client michael cohen knows that the president had prior knowledge of the trump tower meeting, which is, obviously, a critical meeting. where does that leave us? >> it's an embarrassing moment for lanny, obviously. i think it's a reminder of one of the things rick just
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mentioned. the investigators are not out talking to the media. when you see reports in the press, they typically come from the lawyers in the case, the subjects in the case and have mixed motives. some of them are trying to defend their client. some of them are trying to point the finger at others. some of them are trying to angle for a better deal, and they're not always being completely forthright and honest with what they tell the reporters. i think when you back up, it's an unusual strategy that lanny davis has been pursuing for his client from the beginning. it's one thing to go out and defend your client if there are things being said about him or her that are untrue that you think misstate the facts. it's another thing to be out aggressively promoting things and sharing, you know, facts about the case nor this case things that aren't factual at the same time trying to seek a better deal for prosecutors. >> it's the sort of thing rudy giuliani -- >> i also think lanny davis realized he got himself in conflict with previous testimony michael cohen had given.
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>> to the senate intelligence committee, exactly. >> none of the committees like to be lied to. so that could be potentially explosive and a big distraction for him so he wanted to back off of that statement. >> our latest poll taken after the bad news of last week on the manafort case and also michael cohen still shows very strong approval. 46% given the fact that his base is even stronger. the 44% approval, i should say rather, and 52% disapproval. that's within the margin of error. it really didn't shift during the week. >> it didn't. sometimes you look at a poll, approval and disapproval reads two different things going on. so a lot of these republicans may not like all trump is doing and acting but underneath it is, do you want to impeach and remove this person or prosecute them or indict him or all the things they're hearing about. and i think their answer to the republican party would say no.
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and that's also reflected in this poll. they don't want -- they don't want the justice department going after the president and that's a narrative the president has been telling to them quite successfully. >> that narrative seems to be taking hold. rudy giuliani trying to set the clock in some way that's unique to him, but is there some sort of a psychological or political clock for mueller to do something before labor day? >> i don't think necessarily. rudy giuliani has tried to set expectations that there's a 60-day rule and therefore, any action robert mueller wants to take has to occur before labor day. the 60-day rule exists in lore. it's not written anywhere. because president trump himself is not on the ballot, i don't think there's anything binding about that. so generally, the department of justice tries to act as though not to influence elections through its investigative contest. i would think as that date
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approaches, he may tread softly, but i don't think that labor day is a magic date for robert mueller. if he wants to do something, after that date, i think he's going to go ahead and do that. >> thanks to you, barbara, matt and, of course, rick. and coming up, honoring john mccain. we'll be right back. ahoy! gotcha! nooooo... noooooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent. bounty, the quicker picker upper.
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he was the son of the four star admiral. he volunteered himself for combat duties in vietnam. on saturday in washington at the national cathedral. for more about senator john mccain's life and legacy. we have michael besslar of the new book entitled "presidents of war." >> withone of the things that's significant to me covering john
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mccain making peace with john kerry, a former p.o.w. making peace with a veteran, they're working jointly on recovering the facts rather than the fantasies of prisoners of war in a highly politicized environment on the senate and taking a lot of heat. >> he did. >> his friends in the p.o.w. community for trying to report that there were no survivors. >> that's exactly right. he and john kerry and others came together to help bill clinton restore relations in vietnam in the mid 1990s. that's the kind of large mindedness you would like to see in a president. >> he had been in the hanoi prison and he was tortured.
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you would imagine someone been through that experience would e be -smfs i can't take that as anything but a move by donald trump that is vindictive and vicious and not becoming a president and the kind of thing we don't want to teach our children. >> petty in the extreme. here he was going back to the hanoi hilton and bringing with him a 1993 on memorial day if you will. john kerry and talking there he is with his son, jimmy, talking through the whole speerms that they shared going to the museum there that they shared. at the time i was reporting on that day, bill clinton, was facing ferocious operations from various groups because of his own record of 1992 when it came out that he had arguably tried to evade the draft.
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>> absolutely. >> i want to play a little bit of our coverage that night. >> wonderful. >> on nbc nightly news. >> clinton surrounded himself with heroes of vietnam but it was no shields against those who refuse to forgive and for get. >> i want to welcome and introduce you to the commander in chief of the armed forpces o the united states, our president, president bill clinton. >> get out of here, you coward! >> get out of here! >> to all of you who are shouting, i have heard you and i ask you now to hear me. i have heard you. >> they were trying to shout him down. they were so close to him. it was an extraordinary moment. john mccain wrote a letter to bill clinton, saying he would have shown up that day and releasing that letter trying to
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silence the criticism and saying i will stay with you and help you make peace with vietnam which they did two years later. he lost a lot of his friends. >> it shows john mccain qualities which qualities that we want our children to be like. it shows political courage and ability to rise above partisansh partisanship. nowadays, willingness to work with the other side and even if it may give the other side some temporary political advantage. that's something that goes right back to the founders. that's what the founders wanted. they do not want the war against all that we have seen nowadays. >> michael beschloss. we are talking about the broadway giant, neil simon. he was an author and known for his hit productions of the "odd couple barefoot in the park" and
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so many broadway and on the small screen. broadway and tv and cinemas and earning oscars and tony no, ma'am mitigatima tony nominations. >> he was 81. we'll be right back. >> this is taking the culinary world by storm. impossible foods is changing the way carnivores think and it is a delicious solution to one of the world's most destructive problems. for more, watch "your business," sunday morning at 7:30 on msnbc. >> sponsored by the power backing of american express, don't do business without it. you're from ir
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that's it for today, thanks for being with us. follow us online and on facebook and on twitter @mitchell reports. >> tomorrow, join us on a special program discussing habit habitat. and remember the life of senator mccain and we'll have a lot more tomorrow. right now with craig melvin. >> andrea, thank you so much. craig mediclvin here in new yor city. president trump says he crafted a new deal with mexico to replace nafta. it is a win for president trump but what about canada? and what's really in that deal? critics calling out president trump raising the flags back to full staff less than two days after senator mccain's death. mccain is a frequent critic of the en