ability, that's why. >> our promotional president of the united states to end our week and that is our broadcast on a friday evening. thank you so very much for being here with us. have a good weekend and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. happy friday. the newly appointed head of the u.s. department of justice, matt whitaker is not someone who you might have expected to ascend to the top law enforcement job in the united states of america. especially at this point in his life. he does not have a particularly distinguished resume. i don't say that as an insult. i am not -- i do not mean in a personal capacity. he just -- what i mean by that is he doesn't have the kind of experience, the kind of resume one usually associates with the job he currently holds. matt whitaker is from iowa in the early 2000s he joined a small iowa law firm. he also went into business in his home state.

he went to a whole bunch of different businesses, owned a day care center and a concrete supply business, also a trailer manufacturer called road husky. if you want a tough, depending trailer that will keep pulling long after the others have died, you need a road husky. now, if you haven't heard of road husky, it's okay. a banker who helped matt whitaker arrange the financing for that trailer business told "the washington post" this week, "it did fine. it was not a huge business." he never did anything that was a huge business or even a medium-sized business. but he did have a knack for making connections, political connections in iowa. matt whitaker, for example, volunteered on the george w. bush 2000 presidential campaign in iowa and he must have made quite an impression, not that many years later president george w. bush named matt

whitaker to be a u.s. attorney in iowa. now, he was not an obvious choice for that job and this becomes a theme in mr. whitaker's biography, in case you're wondering. when it came to george w. bush naming him the top federal prosecutor in iowa, you just -- you wouldn't have imagined that this guy would be first in line on the list of qualified people for that job. a quote, in a disclosure, submitted to the federal government for the post, whitaker was asked to list his most consequential legal work. one case involved personal injury litigation in which he represented a man whose leg was run over by a car. a second was a contract dispute between a dry cleaner and the grocery store where the dry cleaner operated. in another he represented a marble and tile company sued by a couple over their home remodeling project. when the post showed this material, showed that this was his resume, this was the experience he offered when he became u.s. attorney they showed

this material to a professor who studies the federal court system. that professor told the post that he "knows of no u.s. attorneys with resumes like matt whitaker's." this was an extraordinary ly weak and unusual background for a u.s. attorney. but he had connections and he got the job. and then matt whitaker tried for some other political posts. he ran for state treasurer and he lost. he ran for u.s. senate, he lost that too. he got just over 7% of the vote. so he's been kind of a small time iowa businessman, a main street lawyer, but a guy with some political connections and tons of political ambitions. and there's nothing wrong with that. but now all of a sudden, with that resume, he is the acting attorney general of the united states. and it's gotta feel good, right? this is a heck of a promotion. you just got promoted from car

wash to champion nascar driver all in one fell swoop. you just got promoted from sweeping up in the lobby to living in the penthouse and collecting everybody else's rent. this is a promotion like being shot out of a cannon. and so for his first trip since he was named acting attorney general, matt whitaker went triumphantly back to iowa, baby, how do you like me now? you knew me when, guess what i am now? for his first trip as the top law enforcement official in the united states of america he goes back to iowa and he gives this speech this week and he talks about how he played football in iowa and how he is raising his family in iowa and iowa is his home and how iowa has shaped his values. he has to get onto the business of why he is purportedly there. >> we're going to continue to provide our prosecutors and our state and local partners with the resources that they need. and we're going to keep putting

fraudsters in jail. i want to thank each one of you for your contributions to this effort. this room is full of the front lines of folks that are addressing this important priority issue for the department of justice and i cannot thank each and every one of enough for your efforts and your attendance here today. each one of plays a role, and certainly not just those of us in government. all of us can be on the lockout for fraud schemes and report suspected criminal activity. >> all of us can be on the lookout for fraud schemes. this is an important issue, priority issue for this justice department under this new acting attorney general, we're going to keep putting fraudsters in jail. you know it's funny that matt whitaker should tell the people in that room to be on the lookout for fraud schemes, it's interesting that he should choose fraud to be his inaugural topic on his hometown victory tour after being named to the country's top law enforcement job, it's funny because one of

matt whitaker's most recent jobs, shortly before he joined the united states department of justice was having to do with this. this is, as you see there in all caps, the masculine toilet. now, honestly, i don't even know if i'm going to be able to describe this on tv without getting in trouble. if it's any consolation, i will tell you that reading this press release about the masculine toilet, it's going to be just as embarrassing for me as it is for you. follow along, the average male genitalia is between -- blah blah. however, this invention is designed for those of us who measure longer than that. quote, i estimate that a 12 inch distance is adequate enough for most well endowed men, though i would not be surprised if there are cases who need a greater

distance. nevertheless for the time being this is a good starting point, an extra long, xl version can always be created if needed. according to a comprehensive university study brokered by world patent marketing, there is a strong likelihood of this product being successful in the marketplace. i'm sorry i couldn't read every word of that. you get the gist. but that company, world patent marketing, was not just in the business of these self-esteem toilets. world patent marketing also marketed time travel, with this video apparently showing the futuristic world you would soon visit with world patent marketing's forthcoming time travel technology, or i'm sorry, a theoretical time travel commodity tied to the price of bit coin. there was also the line of big foot related merchandise, marketed on the claim that dna

evidence found in 2013 proves the existence of big foot, world patent marketing said it was "developing a board game, a mobile app, knapsacks, toys, a clothing line for kids, and is planning a celebrity event called you have been squached. one curiously dissatisfied customer said he had been offered a marketing plan for his brilliant invention, a chicken and waffle sandwich maker, actually, just a chicken and waffle sandwich, he wanted to patent the sandwich. and forgive me, i'm just going to take you back to that press release for the mas ku cue lynn toilet, at the bottom of that remarkable document which has slightly scarred me is this, world patent marketing in the news, the appointment of matthew whitaker, former iowa u.s. attorney and republican candidate to the u.s. senate on

the advisory board. that's at the bottom of the press release. here was matt whitaker speaking about that appointment, world patent marketing has become a trusted partner to many inventors, that believe in american deem. it's an honor to join the world patent marketing board. world patent marketing was a fraud, a big serious fraud. a lot of very funny products that are hard to talk about on tv. but a big serious criminal scheme. how big? the federal trade commission shut the company down, fined it nearly $26 million. that fine was ordered just six mobts ago. as laid out by the ftc, two elements to the fraud, one that world patent marketing didn't do the work they promised their customers they would do. the company took money from their patsys, from these aspiring inventors, telling them they would patent their creations and get them made and

marketed and sold. but instead of doing any of that they just sort of gave them a bunch of junk and pocketed their money, like the guy, for example, who said he was a 60-year-old disabled veteran and he paid the company to patent and promote his ideas for innovative fishing equipment. he told the guardian newspaper "i received nothing for the $14,085 i paid to the company other than a bad quality drawing and a logo my grandson could have made." world patent marketing appears to have specifically marketed themselves to veterans, one of their target ed groups. that was the first part of the fraud, take people's money and do nothing for it. second part of the fraud is that when people complained, the company would threaten them with retribution and legal action if they went forward and went public with their complaints. we have since learned from victims of the fraud that the fbi, not just the fdc, but the fbi is investigating this as a criminal matter too, particularly the threat part of

it. and the threat part of it appears to have been carried out personally, in part, by matt whitaker. we had this initial report about him from the ftc suit about his threatening "serious civil and criminal consequences against disgruntled customers who dared complain in an e-mail where he con -- he noted he was a former u.s. attorney. matt whitaker also angrily threatened the owner of a consumer website where dissatisfied customers were posting horror stories including the guy that claimed that world patent marketing offered him a patent on his chicken and waffle sandwich. so matt whitaker appears to have been the proverbial hit man for this fraud scheme. he was the one who would call up and threaten severe penalties

against anybody who wanted to go public with any sort of complaint that they had been defrauded by this fraud scheme. this is a fraud that is currently under criminal investigation by the fbi and of course the fbi is part of the doj which means it's now overseen by matt whitaker, no public comments as to doj and matt whitaker whether he might be recused from that matter which directly involves him. this week the incoming democratic chairman of four different congressional committees, members of -- those four chairman announced they're opening an investigation into whitaker's involvement with that criminal fraud scheme. they started this week by sending letters requesting documents including to whitaker, to the founder and ceo of world patent marketing. in their letter to whitaker they write, because the senate was not given an opportunity to properly vet your background, serious questions are now arising about your fitness to

serve in this position. they note they are requesting documents from whitaker in his personal capacity, not official capacity at doj, they are investigating him personally. and that turns out to be just chapter one of the big fat book of problems that matt whitaker has now got since he got this big out of the blue promotion, well beyond the terms of his resume. there are already multiple lawsuits, including one brought by the state of maryland. questioning whether or not whitaker can actually legally hold this job. first there was the maryland lawsuit. then the next lawsuit to be filed, we think the second lawsuit against whitaker is from a texas businessman who was indicted by the federal government for what politico describes as an alleged "long standing conspiracy to secretly blend chicken feathers and bones to what pet food companies were told was higher grade chicken or turkey meal products." the material facts of the fraudulent pet food case aren't terribly important here unless

you're an avid student of federal codes. but because of a technicality and the way that case is being pursued, former attorney general jeff sessions personally is listed as a party to that fraudulent pet food prosecution. of course now that jeff sessions has been fired as attorney general, and matt whitaker has been installed in that role, that means that whatever you think of the pet food case, the guy who's the defendant in that case, the accused pet food adulterer, he can now throw a wrench into the government's case against him by challenging the legitimacy of matt whitaker's appointment. if you were a defense attorney trying every possible way to defend your client, wouldn't you try that? the attorney general is listed by name in your client's prosecution, in the court documents about your client being prosecuted. that attorney general has been replaced in a system, by no system, which appears to be an appointment of dubious legality,

wouldn't you challenge that while you're defending your client? one law professor tells politico there will be thousands of identical motions filed by defense lawyers across the country. one judge will declare matt whitaker is not the kting attorney general. that decision will throw the entire executive branch into disarray. the supreme court will have to resolve that as soon as possible. sure enough this evening brought a new one. this time it's the case of nevada man who's trying to keep his right to own a gun even though he's been convicted of certain crimes. his case is currently before the supreme court. as expected that guy's defense lawyer is asking the court to rule that matt whitaker isn't the real acting attorney general. just as part of defending his client, represent his client in this case, hey, charging documents here, the court documents on this prosecution, they list attorney general jeff sessions. that would make sense, that would be legal. this guy matt whitaker, never

vetted by the senate, just installed by the president, you sure that's legal? you sure he's the acting attorney general? so there's the fraud stuff, like oh that looks bad. and it's an fbi investigation. and the democrats are like, you know, we're going at you on that hammer and tongs, you ready? plus there's the lawsuits about whether or not the attorney general and everything he does as attorney general will be annulled and erased and all the chaos that will bring. we've already seen three of those lawsuits. we may be about to see thousands of those lawsuits. and now the top democrat on intelligence, top democrat on the intelligence committee in the senate has weighed in with a serious objection, specifically with matt whitaker overseeing the mueller investigation. there's been a lot of attention to the fact that mr. whitaker made all these public comments prejudging the outcome of the investigation, criticizing it, making it seem clear that president trump put him in there to dismantle or stymy the mueller investigation somehow. but senator mark warner is saying actually the issue is whitaker's close ties to

somebody right in the middle of the investigation, somebody called to testify before the mueller grand jury. sam clovis, he brought bont onto the campaign, both george papadopoulos and carter page, the subject of a secret intelligence warrant over his russian contacts and his contacts with russian spies. clovis has been interviewed by the special counsel. the special counsel's grand jury. and by congressional committees in the russia investigation. and he and matt whitaker are, quote, dear friends. whitaker chaired one of clovis's political campaigns in iowa. clovis says he discussed all kinds of work he did for the trump campaign with matt whitaker. he says during the trump campaign, matt whitaker was his sounding board. to the extent he's an important part of the mueller investigation, how can matt whitaker oversee the mueller investigation? the ranking democrat on senate intelligence is sounding the alarm about that. this is not a theoretical thing.

matt whitaker is in there now as the country's top law enforcement official, it's a live issue, right, i mean, last night robert mueller's prosecutors announced they were not going to make today's deadline in the case of trump campaign chair paul manafort. the dead rhine to tell the judge about the extent of manafort's cooperation. last night mueller's prosecutors asked the judge for a mysterious ten-day extension telling the judge that ten days from now, all will be made clear to the court as to why they can't move ahead with this now. but in ten days the judge will understand. prosecutors said the extension would "allow them to provide the court with a report that will be of greater assistance in the court's management of this matter if the court can just wait ten days." what's going to happen over the next ten days? that mysterious filing came just a day after lawyers for trump's deputy campaign chair rick gates and prosecutors of mueller's office told the judge in gates case that gates is no longer just cooperating with the

investigation, he's now cooperating with multiple investigations that are ongoing, prosecutors and gates' lawyers expect they will continue cooperation into next year. and the maria butina case, lawyers are now on both sides asking the judge for an extra two weeks to work on her case. they want that because the two sides are "in negotiations" regarding a potential resolution of this matter. so that's happening too, over a two-week horizon. something's going on right now, right? horizons have suddenly gotten very short. the stuff seems to be happening now. today the president announced he has completed answers to written questions demand by the special counsel's office. the president was asked about reports that his lawyers were working on these questions from mueller's team. the president told reporters today, i'm quoting here, my lawyers aren't working on that,

i'm working on that. i write the answers. my lawyers don't write the answers, i write answers. i was asked a series of questions, i've answered them very easily, very easily. the questions were very routinely answered by me, by me. it didn't take very long to do them. they were my answers. i don't need lawyers to do that. they're not very difficult questions. bragging that the questions were easy for him? this is not a test, right, you're supposed to like show where on the elephant the tail goes. this is -- these are not those sorts of questions. but we really have no visibility right now as to what's happening inside the justice department and whether matt whitaker has effectively hog tied robert mueller and the special counsel's investigation in this week and a half since he's now been on the case. but in american law and politics the thing that presidents don't tend to get away with is bluntly trying to subvert the course of justice in order to protect themselves. it's not that they don't try.

ask me history trivia questions about them trying. i have a pretty good grasp on that at this point. but it's hard to get away with in the end in this country because we do have a robust tradition of nonpartisan independent law enforcement. and that tradition does come under pressure all the time. but it doesn't break. we tend to find out when presidents do that and they tend to get in trouble for it. they at least tend to get caught. so there are a few ways in which this sort of untenable situation with matthew whitaker is going to end at the justice department. one of them is the long, slow painful way, which is that they're going to leave them in there as long as they can and he will manage whatever wrecking ball routine he can in there when it comes to the russia investigation. but, you know, thereafter, very soon thereafter the democrats will take control of congress in just a few weeks and then they will unspool and unravel all of that. and they will hold people to account for whatever happened in

the interim. so that's the long, slow painful way this could happen. the less long way, right, is that the white house could recognize that the long, slow painful way would actually be a worse end to this, and maybe they should try to speed this up themselves. maybe they should respond to the pressure that he was a bad pick, that he's going to go wrong for all sorts of reasons and they should get him out of there. the president has taped an interview with fox news' chris wallace slated to air this weekend, the day after tomorrow, this, for example, is an ad that's slated to run during that broadcast that gives you some kind of idea of the kind of pressure that even republicans might be susceptible to on the issue of whitaker. >> this is matthew whitaker, he's a political ally of president trump and now oversees the department of justice and mueller investigation. what does he think about the mueller investigation? >> the appointment of bob mueller, i don't think was necessary or appropriate. what i see is a president that is starting to figure out if i

want to, i can terminate you, legally there is certainly a way for that to happen. >> we need an attorney general who doesn't play politics. call your senator and tell them, whitaker must recuse himself from the mueller investigation. >> the group that made that ad is republicans for the rule of law, they're running that ad only in d.c. this weekend, which means they have a very particular audience in mind for that. and there is evidence that republicans in washington are feeling the pressure on this somewhat. politico today reports that senate republicans are really, really hoping the white house will nominate somebody to replace matt whitaker asap, somebody who is sort of more acceptable for the role, or at least just not a fraudster currently being investigated by the fbi. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell said this week that matt whitaker is likely a "very interim acting attorney general." you're seeing republicans now particularly in the senate saying this is maybe not a

sustainable thing. this guy maybe shouldn't be there all that long. so you're seeing that pressure build. i mean, they could keep him in there as long as you want and let the democrats clean this up once they're in control of congress. that will be very painful. republicans could take steps to push him out sooner than that. but the other way this could end is that honestly it could just end from sheer embarrassment because for all of the lofty concerns about the independence of law enforcement and this critical investigation into another country controlling our politics and taking over the elevation of an american president, all this other super serious stuff, for all of those very serious concerns, for all of the sort of intense gravity of this constitutional crisis that the president has caused by putting this guy in as acting attorney general, the guy he put in there is the masculine toilet guy. i mean, america and the nation's reporters have only known about him for a few days and look at all the stuff that has already

come up? the white house says they had no idea he was a key part of a criminal fraud scheme when they put him in there. did you know what the fraud scheme was about? did you know the toilet part? i mean, the time travel part? any of it? chicken and waffle sandwich? i mean, this crisis may soon become a constitutional crisis. it may string out for a long time but it may also die quickly from sheer embarrassment, especially if there is yet to learn more along the lines of what we've already scratched the surface of, of this guy's incredible, incredible iowa journey. ev-er-y-where. about to be parents. meeting the parents. and this driver, logging out to watch his kid hit one out of the... (bat hits ball) opportunity is everywhere. all you have to do to find it

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i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. tonight the democrat in georgia's governor race made her first on camera remarks since election night. on election night she announced she would not rest or concede until every single vote in her race against the republican former secretary of state brian kemp was count. stacey abrams has not made up enough ground since then to force a runoff in the georgia governors race. what she gave tonight was not a

concession speech, at least not as she understood it. >> i acknowledge that former secretary of state brian kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election. but to watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in this state baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people's democratic right to vote has been truly appalling. make no mistake, the former secretary of state was deliberate and intentional in his actions. i know that eight years of systemic disenfranchisement, this is not a speech of concession because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper. as a woman of conscience and faith, i cannot concede that. but my assessment is the law currently allows no further viable remedy. >> the law currently allows no

further viable remedy. this race was marked months ago by a bare knuckled no illusions fight over who's allowed to vote, who's allowed to register and who's allowed to cast their ballot and who's allowed to have their ballots counted. she's a long time activist for voting rights in georgia. brian kemp was georgia's secretary of state, the election officials who for years aggressively purged the voter rolls of hundreds of thousands of voters. he suspended tens of thousands of voter registrations over minor discrepancies in the record. when democrats exposed vulnerabilities. kemp accused the democrats of hacking into the system. after all that, abrams and kemp are separated by less than two points, barely outside the margin of runoff. abrams acknowledged tonight that kemp will be governor of

georgia. she named what she considers to be the elements of his malpractice in democracy, and she announced the formation of a new organization, a pac, called fair fight georgia that she said tonight will now sue the state in federal court for the systematic disenfranchisement of its citizens. and so, yes, now brian kemp is on the threshold of becoming governor of georgia, he will find stacey abrams and her continued fight on behalf of voting on the other side of the door. we will be right back. >> pundits and hyperpartisans will hear my words. i'm supposed to say nice things and accept my fate. they will complain that i should not use this moment to recap what was done wrong or to demand a remedy. as a leader i should be stoic in my outrage, and silent in my rebuke. but stoicism is a luxury and

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visit coveredca.com today. we have news tonight about the murder of jamal khashoggi. he was a "washington post" journalist, a u.s. resident of virginia. he was killed last month inside the saudi consulate in turkey, in istanbul, turkey. this case has been really uncomfortable for the trump

administration which has cultivat cultivat cultivated seemingly close ties with the ruler of saudi arabia, the crown prince. now it's been found today that the crown prince ordered the killing of jamal khashoggi. the accepted position is that there is no way this happened without the saudi crown prince being aware or involved. the cia reportedly coming to the conclusion that the murder was not, you know, some interview gone wrong or some rendition gone wrong or some accident with the cia saying it was an assassination not carried out by rogue elements of the saudi government, but rather ordered from the top of the saudi government, ordered by the country's leader. with that assessment now, not from the "washington post," but according to "the washington post" from the cia, that puts the news about what the trump administration has just been

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liberty mutual insurance. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ mike flynn was forced out as president trump's first national security adviser, three and a half weeks into the start of the new administration. he didn't even make it a month. after he got forced out in scandal, you might remember that mike flynn retro actively registered with the federal government for having been a foreign agent. he had been paid, turns out, about half a million dollars by a foreign government, by the government of turkey, while he was part of the trump campaign. when he finally, months later, retro actively registered as having been a foreign agent during the campaign, that made some other things make sense. we had known for example that on election day mike flynn had published a very strange over the top op-ed in the hill newspaper. it argued against a turkish cleric who lives in the united states, a legal u.s. resident, has a green card.

flynn's op-ed, published on election day, compared this guy to osama bin laden and said the united states should definitely hand him over to turkey. they blame the u.s. for all of their problems with this guy. they blame him for everything. so it was a little weird that somebody from the trump campaign was arguing, yeah, hand him over, give him to the turks. that was mike flynn. it was a little weird. then it got weirder. reports that mike flynn had meetings with officials from the turkish government in late 2016 at which they discussed basically kidnapping that current weather conditionsish guy, kidnapping him and flying him on a private jet to a turkish prison island. for this scheme, mike flynn and his son would reportedly be paid as much as $15 million. that was a side project he was working on while he was on the trump campaign, before he became

national security adviser. and now flynn's lawyer has said those allegations are false. then nbc news further reported that in the weeks following trump's inauguration, after flynn took office as a national security adviser a request was made to the fbi to, hey, let's look into sending that cleric back to turkey, that exiled cleric, he's got a green card to live in the united states. he's lived in pennsylvania for 20 years. the u.s. generally doesn't hand over political exiles who are legal permanent residents of this country who are not known to have committed any crimes in this country, we don't usually hand over endangered exiles to authoritarian regimes who are demanding their return because they blame them for the sun rising. but this week nbc news reports that the trump administration once again is going after this guy trying to send this guy over to turkey. trump administration officials

last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled turki turkish cleric in an attempt to sway -- looking for ways to placate turkey over the murder of u.s. journalist jamal khashoggi. nbc continues, quote, career officials at the agencies pushed back on the white house requests as one senior u.s. official described it, quote, at first there were eye rolls. once they realized it was a serious request, the career guys were furious. joining us now is somebody who knows how things are supposed to work inside the administration or inside any administration on an issue like this. he knows what normal looks like. in a circumstance like this. david loveman was a long time civil servant at the department of justice. in february he resigned as the head of the justice department's

counterintelligence and control section. thank you for being with us tonight. pleasure to have you here. >> good to be with you, rachel. one of the things i raised here was mike flynn registering retro actively as a foreign agent after the time he left the trump administration. the other issue here is the question of this u.s. green card holder, this man who is a legal u.s. resident, the government of turkey has been demanding that he be handed over by the u.s. to turkey so they can go after him for lots of different things. how are issues like that usually handled? >> a formal request for extradition by a foreign government would be put into a process that's well established within the justice department, career officials within the office of international affairs and elsewhere within the department would evaluate the validity and legitimacy of the request and determine whether it, in fact, reflects a lawful charge under turkish law and then an assessment would be made of whether that same offense

charged in turkey is also an offense under u.s. law because there has to be something called dual criminality in order for the united states to be in a position to extradite someone here to turkey. that wouldn't be the end of the process though if the individual could lodge something called a political offense claim, claiming that the request from turkey is really politically motivated then there are defenses that could be asserted to preclude extradition. >> in terms of this particular cleric, it's been widely reported that there have been multiple reports from the turkish government, multiple forms of pressure from the turkish government that they really want to get their hands on him, they want this -- they want him to be extradited, whether that's taken the form of formal requests or political pressure and lobbying depends on the account. but is this a specific person who the u.s. government has considered in the past in terms

of these turkish requests and tickerish pressure and that the u.s. in the past has decided no, he shouldn't be handed over? >> the reporting you described indicates that there already has occurred vetting by career officials who do this for a living and an assessment made there wasn't sufficient grounds for extradition. what appears now is that the white house is attempting to strong arm career officials at the department into manufacturing a ground to remove him to turkey or elsewhere. >> that is absolutely what the reporting says. if, in fact, this reporting is accurate. i just have to ask your assessment as somebody who's been there and dealt with these sort of things, how big of -- how big a deal is this? mine, how unusual is this? and how loudly would you expect people in the agencies, including the skrus tis department, to squawk over this kind of pressure from the white

house to reverse the decisions, reverse the views of career officials who work on these things as a professional matter? >> it would be unusual if the facts as reported are true. there's been a careful vetting of the validity of the turkish government's ". this is not even a second bite of the apple, but a third or fourth. it appears they're trying to create a pretext under some sort of facts to reject him out of the united states to placate the erdogan regime to soothe its current hostility toward the saudi government, to appease the fact that our own -- >> david loveman, always an honor to have you here, sir, thank you for your time. >> thank you, rachel. the framing he put on that there shouldn't be skipped over. i mean, what nbc is reporting

here is that if you combine this with the new reporting from the "washington post," that the cia says that the crown prince of saudi arabia ordered the murder of this u.s. journalist. crown prince orders that. u.s. journalist gets murdered. turkey raises the alarm about it and says we've got evidence that happened, happened on our soil, happened in our country, we think saudi arabia did it, now the u.s. is offering, what can we give you, turkey, in order to make you stop making so much noise about what saudi arabia did here? how can we placate you and calm you down and quiet you down in your upset about what saudi arabia did here? jamal khashoggi was a u.s. resident, worked for the "washington post," he was a u.s. journalist. we ought to be the ones who somebody's trying to placate here. we shouldn't be -- i mean, right? if it's -- if the saudis did this and if the cia knows that the saudis did this, we're trying to keep other people quite from complaining about

saudi doing this, and in doing so we're maybe going to hand over somebody we're pretty darn sure they're going to kill once he gets there? [ telephone ringing ] -whoa. [ indistinct talking ] -deductible? -definitely speaking insurance. -additional interest on umbrella policy? -can you translate? -damage minimization of civil commotion. -when insurance needs translating, get answers in plain english at progressiveanswers.com. ♪ -he wants you to sign karen's birthday card. it's a high honor.

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i mentioned at the top of the show that what we're seeing right now with the president installing this loyalist matt whitaker at the top of the justice department, there may be reason to sort of put that in historical context. there may be good reason to believe from u.s. history that american presidents, white

houses generally, they don't get away for long with efforts to pervert the course of justice. presidents have tried it. presidents do try it from time to time. they try to stop investigations that might hurt them, sway the course of law enforcement to punish their enemies or protect themselves. they try it. we've got instances of that in u.s. history. what happens is, they get caught. and/or it backfires. we see that in history again and again. i've done this podcast that we're sort of in the middle of now, a seven episode podcast, episode four is out right now. and a big part of what that is about right now is efforts in the early '70s by the nixon/ago knew white house to grab a hold of ongoing law enforcement investigations that threatened that white house and to try to pervert the course of justice. this tale of how they tried to do it, who they enlisted to help them in that effort, and why they didn't get away with it, why it didn't work, why they

weren't able to succeed is very relevant to right now. and there's some surprising cast -- there's a surprising cast of characters in this one, including some people who did some bad stuff who are still around. episode four is out right now. if you have not listened to it, get it at msnbc.com/bagman. there's something else i've been working on besides the podcast. in 1941, before the united states was in world war ii, before pearl harbor, president franklin dell nor roosevelt authorized a secret u.s. mission, no public pronouncement, but he directed mid-1941 that experienced u.s. military pilots should be secretly recruited and helped to unofficially get themselves into china. china and japan were at war. japan was an absolutely fearsome

military power at the time. the u.s. was not at war against japan, at the end of that year we were about to be. and in mid-1941 fdr authorized this quiet, unofficial, off the books u.s. air support campaign for china in its war against japan. and those american volunteer group fighters, those pilots would soon be crucially important to china in their own war. but they would also be crucially important and what would soon be america's war against japan and against the axis powers. those quietly recruited, quietly authorized, american volunteer group fighters, they soon became very famous, authorized in secret, but they very soon became internationally known. they became internationally known as the flying tigers. in that theater of operations, in that point in the world conflict, the flying tigers, ended up being militarily important.

they quickly became legend. their leader named claire shenault was on the cover of life magazine. national heroes, he was a national hero. in 1947 claire shenault met and married a young woman in china, very smart and ambitious, spoke excellent english. she ultimately became a really big deal in her own right. he died in the 1950s. but she became a big deal in anti communism, a hardline spokeswoman in chinese -- she became a businesswoman, a journalist, not only had lots of important international political contacts, rumored to have intelligence contacts as well. she became very well-known for her incredible social pull in d.c., especially in republican

politics and national security circles. she threw legendarily great pears, and a lot of them. her apartment was the penthouse at the watergate, yes, that watergate. she had the penthouse in watergate. she passed on, she died last year. but a story you should know about her, she ended up playing a scandalous role in u.s. history. one that hasn't been understood before now. she was the linchpin in a plan to extend the u.s. war in vietnam, to keep it going specifically in order to elect a republican president. in 1968 president lyndon johnson bowed out, didn't run again, but in '68 johnson didn't just announce he wouldn't run for reelection, he announced he wouldn't run for reelection and that he would end the vietnam war. he would start peace talks to finally end the war. the republican candidate for president in '68 was richard nixon.

nixon was horrified that democrats might end the war, that lbj might end the war before his vice president stood against nixon in the '68 election. nixon was happily churning, hanging the war around the necks of the democrats. the democrats were going to end the war before the election? so after some secret meetings, including a shady one in a tower on fifth avenue in new york city he put in place with anna shenault a plan to make sure the war would keep going. they put together a plan and they carried it out to win the election by collaborating, by colluding, if you will, with a foreign country to undermine the united states and thereby tip the election in the republicans' favor. it is kind of an amazing story. and parts of it that have never been seen or heard before, we just got. there's a file literally a file that's called the "x" file.

there is a president on tape talking about what to do with evidence he has in his possession that his successor as president has committed treason. treason is the word he it's a pretty incredible story, and we're about to do a special on it this weekend on sunday night. it's a special report called betrayal, airs this sunday 9:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. i think you should watch it. i think it's pretty good. that does it for us tonight. now it's time for the "last word" with joy reed. >> well, i cannot wait to watch that. and it takes a lot to not have me watch zombies on a sunday night. it is one of the most fascinating periods in history. thanks, joy. have a good night. all right, well, he's there. you can't see him, you can't hear him but robert mueller is