tv Weekends With Alex Witt MSNBC November 18, 2018 10:00am-11:00am PST
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i am a techie dad.n. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. i think i'm doing a great job. look, i hate to do it, but i will do it. i will give myself an a-plus. >> trump boasting and battling
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in a fox tv interview. how does he answer the questions about the pesky mueller probe questions? >> i'm preparing written answers. it wasn't a big deal. by the way, it wasn't a big deal. they're very simple. you know why? i did nothing wrong. >> when will those answers be coming? also, trump versus the cia. why the president appears to be having trouble anticipating the agency's conclusion on the khashoggi conclusion. is the first lady gaining more influence in the white house? good day to you, i'm alex witt at msnbc headquarters. we begin this hour with the mueller investigation, the special counsel may be getting closer to making a legal move after it receives a missing piece. the president's written answers to mueller's questions. nbc news has learned president trump's legal team is planning to submit those answers by thanksgiving, but in a new fox news interview, which aired just hours ago, the president downplayed his answers. >> the questions were asked and
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answered. it wasn't a big deal. they act like i had meetings for many, mom -- got the questions. responded. we read them once, we read them twice. we made some changes. i answered this em. >> a new warning for matt whittaker to not undermine the investigation he has criticized publicly. >> he was chosen for the purpose of interfering with the mueller investigation. he auditioned for the part by going on tv and saying he could hobble the investigation. this is an attack on the rule of law. >> i think most republicans on capitol hill and democrats believe that mr. mueller should be allowed to do his job. and i have no indication he's going to be interfered with at all. >> president trump also addressed for the first time the content of the tape-recording that captured the brutal killing of jamal khashoggi. >> we have the tape. i don't want to hear the tape. no reason for me to hear the tape. >> why don't you -- why don't
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you want to hear it, sir? >> because it's a suffering tape. it's a terrible tape. i've been fully briefed on it. there's no reason for me to hear it. in fact, i said to the people, should i? they said, you really shouldn't. there's no reason. i know exactly what went on in the tape without -- >> what happened? >> it was very violent, very vicious and very terrible. >> almost two weeks for the midterm elections, this is how the president framed the historic victories by democrats. >> are you ready? i won the senate, and that's historic, too. >> but if you can't carry, and you certainly didn't carry it two weeks ago, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania, you're not going to get re-elected. >> i didn't run. i wasn't running. my name wasn't on the ballot. >> nbc whout correspondent jeff bennett is joining me again. this time the president also asked about media reports concerning his mood. what is he saying on that? >> reporter: hey there, alex.
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the president says those news reports suggesting that he is in a bitter mood, he says those are fake. that's perhaps no surprise that's how the president tends to handle news coverage of him that is less than fully flattering. so, the president is pushing back against headlines this one. the midterm election has left trump angry and pulled back. the president chose not to go to arlington national cemetery on veterans day. here's the thing, people close to the president say he was, in fact, upset by the gop's election losses. the republican party losing control of congress. he is, i'm told, unnerved by the mueller probe now that special counsel russia investigation appears to be reaching its end perform of course, we saw the president's fury burst out into public view this past week with that angry tweet storm. and this is all docoming to a hd with democrats set to take control of the house in
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congress. the president told people that could be advantageous because he could use democrats as a foil. this is what he told chris wallace on fox news earlier today. >> how dark is your mood? >> it's very light. it's fake news. i will tell you, i'm extremely upbeat. the white house is running like a well-oiled machine. it's doing really well. i have great people. i will make some changes but not very many. i'm happy with my cabinet with a couple of exceptions and even there i'm not unhappy. i will tell you that it's so wrong -- the reporting about me is so wrong. i'm loving what i'm doing. >> the president says he's upbeat. i can tell you at least as it relates to the russia investigation, that people close to him say a deep anxiety has set in now that mueller could be set to pounce with a slew of indictments targeting trump allies maybe even trump's family
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members. the president is taking comfort in the act fa the acting attorney general he installed, matt whittaker, he believes is an ally, is overseeing the special counsel russia investigation. >> jeff, stay with us. i want to have joining our conversation our panel. jacqueline of "the washington post" and john nichols, with a welcome to you both. do you think this is an accurate portrayal of the mood in the white house? what are you hearing on that front? >> i mean, all we have to do is look at the president's schedule. eli stokele of the l.a. times had a look at his nonexistent schedule. lots of executive time. and not a lot of interface. his few interactions with the media were pretty heat and bitter. this is a pattern we've seen time and time again with this president. when the media narrative is not going his way, when there's been a slew of unforced errors, this president lashes out, whether it's at staff, the media, you
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know, during interviews. this is a well-worn pattern at this point. >> john, the president also asked about the mueller probe, particularly on his answers to the special counsel and the issue of obstruction. >> you are submitting written answers to the special counsel about the issue of solution but not on obstruction of justice. >> well, there was no obstruction of justice. >> if i may, sir -- >>ible-i i think they probably agree with you. >> let me -- is that your final position, there's going to be no sitdown interview and nothing written or in person on obstruction? >> i would say probably. probably. i can change my mind, but probably. >> no interview? >> i think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt and the answer is probably. we're finished. >> can mueller complete his report without answers on obstruction of justice? >> well, you can complete a report, it's just a question of whether it will have every
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element in it you would want to have there. and so if we presume mueller is at a point where the answers from the president are the dotting of the is, crossing the ts, the final elements that have to be there before this report is submitted -- remember, the report doesn't necessarily come to all sorts of conclusion. it puts information together which then others will act upon. the president's answers become very significant. if he's saying that there are some areas he's not going to go to and it was a little unclear in that interview exactly where he was going himself, but if he's saying some areas he's not going to go to, that raises what is the heart of the president's anxiety at this point. he's had two years where the congress of the united states has especially been on his side, sympathetic to him. he's now facing the prospect of this report coming with some of his answers but perhaps not all of them and then the possibility
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that this report ends up in the hands of a house judiciary committee led by very, very competent people, like jerry nadler and congressman cohen from tennessee, who are prepared to find those areas that have not been addressed and either demand responses or make conclusions to begin to take the inquiry to the next step. i think that's why the president is, a, uncertain and, b, so very anxious. >> jeff, in terms of timing, the president said in the interview that he was going to submit his written answers by thanksgiving. does that square with what you're hearing as well? is that what his attorney are going to dot every i, cross every t and check things off for submission? >> reporter: yes. remember, i feel like we've been talking about this potential president q&a since january. now it appears it's finally upon us. a source familiar says the president's legal team intends to hand over those answers by thanksgiving. the president said he filled the
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questionnaire out himself and submitted it to his legal team for review. but there will be a crucial aspect of this missing when he turns those answers in. the president's legal team says there's not answering any questions related to obstruction of justice in part because they believe those questions fall outside of the special counsel team's mandate. they were only focused on questions having to do with russian interference or potential collusion. the president is now ruling down a sit-down interview where even a couple months ago he said he was eager to do it. he doesn't want to fall prey to a perjury trap. >> let's switch gears and hit to a discussion about the post midterm election and talk about some incoming democrats. incoming congresswoman cortez who's packing a campaign to primary fellow democrats with more progressive democrats. let's listen to this.
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>> all americans know that money and politics is a huge problem. unfortunately, the way we fix it is by demanding our incumbents give it up or by running fierce campaigns ourselves. and that's really what we need to do to save this country. >> first to you, john. is someone like ocasio-cortez a force to be reckoned with or is she getting off to a different foot with her colleagues? >> people don't like the fact you're supporting challenging races if you're an incumbent. ocasio-cortez has tremendous enthusiasm out on the campaign trail. when she's on the campaign trail for some candidates who have won and some who have lost, the crowds come out. there is enthusiasm. so, it's important for the
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people in congress to recognize that she's not just speaking for herself. she is speaking for an energy that's out there. and i'll also remind folks of something. two years ago roe kanna came in having defeated a relatively popular democratic incumbent. and roe kanna has established himself as a member of the house. he's working withal with all sorts of other people but he still suggest similar ideas that at times you may have to challenge incumbents. i think ocasio-cortez can say these things and can actually follow through in some cases and be an effective member of the house. i don't see that's going to be a huge challenge for her. again, i really want to emphasize, when you go out around the country and her name comes up, i do hear an awful lot of enthusiasm. >> true. i will say to you, jackie, i spoke with representative cleaver in the last hour and he
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suggests the only way you get something done in the house is if you work well with your colleagues. what are your thoughts on this? >> it's true. her colleague abigail spanberger made a similar point on a podcast that she didn't necessarily agree with ocasio-cortez's tactics and protesting outside of nancy pelosi's office wasn't spanberger's version of getting things done. as a political reporter, it is fascinating to see the way cortez has grabbed social media and used it to her advantage and talking authentically to her electora electorate, to voters to get her message out there. it will be interesting to see the way that these moderate democrats work together with progressives and how nancy pelosi is able to really everyone together. >> thank you all so much. happy thanksgiving. the deadline for the florida
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election recount is just past an hour old. it was at noon. the hand count was triggered by a slim lead for rick scott over democrat bill nelson. we're joined from rivera beach. there's been a change in the march dwin, i margin, i'm told. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: there's been a change in the margin because we past that noon deadline where all the recounting had to be finished by. now we can see rick scott and bill nelson still close but only 10,000 votes between them. of course, that's 2,000 or so down from where we were at the beginning of this process. so, yes, we saw several thousand votes come into play but not enough for bill nelson to reverse the way this was going. we know we'll hear from senator bill nelson at around 3:00 today. we'll wait to hear what he has to say. as we mentioned yesterday when we were talking with you guys is yesterday's front pages of florida papers were saying it was virtually impossible for bill nelson to come back.
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we're now seeing that's probably true. the key point is when you talk to the nelson legal team throughout the week, during this recount, they were relying on this over/under vote in broward county. that means votes that may have been filled out incorrectly and the machine may have picked up more than one vote in that race or less than -- no votes in that race. they were relying on a hand recount to bring out more votes for bill nelson. it turns out that's not exactly what happened in broward county. there were not enough votes put in play. albeit close, it's hard to reverse these kind of things when you're in these recount races. it looks like we're heading towards a senator rick scott. >> that would be the end of a four decade plus career for bill nelson in politics from florida. >> reporter: since the 1970s, yes. >> wow. ali, thank you so much from rivera beach and we'll wait for that 3:00 announced. secret indictments in washington. why there's growing speculation
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they could be linked to the russia probe. o the russia probe fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting. with drones to assess home damage sooner. and if a flying object damages your car, you can snap a photo and get your claim processed in hours, not days. plus, allstate can pay your claim in minutes. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? you'll make my morning, buty the price ruin my day.ou? complicated relationship with milk? pour on the lactaid, 100% real milk, just without that annoying lactose. mmm, that's good. whoa! presenting the iwhat's he doing? come on, let's check it out! nice. he's pretty good at this. hm! it's like a game! (gasps) woo-hoo! got it! which car should we get? all of 'em! ooh, yeah! that one! this one looks nice. yes, and yes. i like this game. i think we're winning!
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new insights into the mueller investigation as the president details cooperation and intention to not sit down for an interview. take a listen. >> is that your final position, that there's going to be no sitdown interview and nothing written or in person on obstruction? >> i would say probably. probably. i mean, i can change my mind but
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probably. >> no interview? >> i think we've wasted enough time to this witch hunt. and the answer is probably. we're finished. we gave very, very complete answers to a lot of questions that i shouldn't have even been asked. and i think that should solve the problem. but probably this is the end. >> join manage he are three former federal prosecutors. welcome to you all. matthew, i know you've worked with bob mueller before. you do think this is the end? >> i think that the -- i think mueller can't compel trump to give answers because trump in a sense is a target of the investigation so it's completely voluntary on trump's part about whether he and his lawyers decide to answer these questions. frankly, i don't think mueller needs the answers to go forward. >> interesting.
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you just heard, liam, the president say he's finished. do you think this decision not to sit down with special counsel, do you thinkist a decision that will end the investigation and do you agree with what matthew said? could mueller subpoena him or because he's a target of the investigation, no? >> no, i think what matt said is absolutely correct. i don't think this ends the investigation in any way. the investigation is -- there's still a lot more out there. we've seen news this week about what is possibly going on related to the investigation. but trump himself has been told he's a subject. not necessarily a target but probably leaning in the target range. i think it's right he couldn't be subpoenaed at this point otherwise he would be his own constitutional rights in jeopardy. >> weigh in on this, glen, because i know you worked with mueller before. do you think he tries to pursue answers on obstruction or is the topic of collusion, which the president said he answered, is that enough? >> i think you have a unanimous panel. i agree with both matt and liam that because the president is
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almost a certain target of the investigation, bob mueller would not subpoena him and compel him to answer. if he did, the president would just assert his fifth amendment right against self-indiscrimination. when i see this back and forth that we've heard about for months whether the president will answer any questions, i suspect the answers he's ultimately put together with his defense team will be so full of caveats and qualifications that they'll be largely meaningless and useless to special counsel. bu but it the will give the special counsel the opportunity to show to the american people, at the end of the day, the mueller did everything they could to bend over backwards to give the president an opportunity to be heard and get his side of the story out. we'll see what the answers look like. but i don't expect there will be much there there. >> you heard the president himself saying that the answers
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mueller gets are his words, not his lawyer's. do you expect that -- is it at all possible the lawyers would not have gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb before they sit send and submit these answers? >> it's hard to believe that any decent lawyer would ever let a client in a middle of a criminal investigation answer questions without having those answers fully vetted. i completely agree there's no way these answers haven't been combed over very thoroughly. i think there's one point here which is that trump is pursuing a political strategy. mueller is pursuing a legal strategy. in some ways these are just ships passing through the night. >> there are some new reports suggesting more than a dozen sealed indictments have been filed in a washington, d.c. court as part of the mueller investigation. your experience in d.c. federal court, give me insight as to how this goes down, these mueller indictments and do you think
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based on your experience it's a move mueller would, indeed, make? >> that's a great question. i spent 24 of my 30 years prosecuting right here in d.c. i have a little inside baseball when it comes to sealed indictments being filed in the d.c. courts. ordinarily what happens is there are two reasons that prosecutors might file an indictment under seal. the most routine reason is, let's assume we indictme a narcotics conspiracy and there are five defendants. we file it under seal so we don't alert any five defendants they're now being criminally charged. law enforcement will put in place five separate arrest teams so they can go out and simultaneously, as best they can, arrest all five people. then they'll unseal the indictment. that is the most ordinary reason that prosecutors will seal indictments. the other reason is because bob mueller may have been steadily returning indictments but he
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didn't want them to become public knowledge until after the midterms. i think the numbers we've seen reported indicate there are more sealed indictments on the federal docket than be we ordinarily see. that may be because mueller has been steadily returning indictments. but it may not. i don't want to put too much credence in the numbers. i think we have to wait and see. it's anybody's guess right now as to origin of all of those sealed indictments that are just sitting on the court docket. >> liam, the special counsel can only indict someone with the approval of the attorney general, right? if mueller already has everything he needs, how likely is it that the interim a.g. whitaker could challenge these indictments? >> the ones that are filed already are filed. those are ones they'll have to live with no matter what. i think he's stuck with the ones on the docket. if the sealed ones are related to this investigation. that's still an open question at this moment.
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any ones in the future, that's where you have the threat of whether or not he'll give mueller the same leeway that rosenstein has given him the whole time. >> i want to ask you all. is the special counsel always going to be one step ahead of the president and his legal team? >> mueller -- i worked with mueller for a long time. mueller is incredibly strategic, but i was saying before is that what you really have the president doing is pursuing a political strategy. in a sense he's trying to affect his jury pool. his jury pool being congress and the american people because he might go through a political process. mueller's pursuing a legal strategy. i think mueller is going towards bringing indictments against people who are very close to the president, possibly even family members. and then mueller is going to distribute those cases to other u.s. attorney's offices in new york and west virginia and other places to prosecute the cases. i think that would take the
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power out of the hands of the acting attorney general to interfere. >> do you agree with that, glen? >> i do. i don't think mueller is just one step ahead. i think he's probably a half dozen steps ahead. i've said before that the mueller team is playing three-dimensional chess. the president's defense team is still scratching out tic-tac-toe boards on butcher paper. >> wow. final word, liam? >> i fully agree as well. i heard the three-dimensional chess game before and i think that's correct. mueller has access to information trump's team does not have. and he has access to resources we don't know what he has. he's able to go through all this evidence and stay ahead of the president. the president is working with a whole different -- he's working with a different constituency, as matt said, but mueller has all the cards and the president doesn't even know what those cards are. >> very interesting talking to all three of you former federal prosecutors. thank you so much. happy thanksgiving to all three of you. coming up next, the might of
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melania. does the ouster of a white house aide show increased power? te hoe aide show increased power? i'm ray and i quit smoking with chantix. i tried to quit smoking for years on my own. i couldn't do it. i needed help. for me, chantix worked. it did. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. chantix, without a doubt, reduced my urge to smoke. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be life-threatening. stop chantix and get help right away
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i am a techie dad.n. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. a first for melania trump. the first lady is using her west wing influence.
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national security staffer mira ricardel was removed after mrs. trump publicly called for her dismissal. let's speak with nina, the author of "golden handcuffs: the secret mystery of trump's women." how does melania trump's move to demote a staffer fit with your somewhat special understanding of her given your book? >> i think that one thing we have to keep in mind is the woman she ousted is croatian. and there may be some kind of balkan war hangover. slovenia was part of croatia. i just throw that out there because i can't believe that it only had to do with what is reportedly a disagreement over airplane seating. but overall what this tells us is that the first lady has more power in the white house,
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especially, i think, post-midterms because i think the president's cape of fear has been ripped off a little bit. he's been shown to be vulnerable. it's in those moments that other people step up and i think that may be something that's going on. ivanka, who is, i think for my reporting for my book in competition with melania for the president's ear. has been quiet of late. i'm not sure if that has to do with jared kushner's issues with mueller or if she's just happy to burrow in at the small business administration where she's been doing quiet work. but in any case, the first lady is now showing herself to have an interesting in wielding power, which is unusual for her because my reporting and the research i did for the book indicated that she is somebody who's very focused on her own security and really wasn't
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somebody who was ready for a global role. i think you can see that in this move. this is not the move of somebody who's strategically planning to step in and make changes within the white house. it's a small act. and i think she's somebody who has a global stage but she's from a small slovenian factory town and nothing in her background trained her, taught her how to wield power and prepare her for the role she's in. it's kind of a small potatoes disagreement that has erupted. >> that's gone global, yes. we should note it is reported these two women never even met one another. it's an interesting take that -- what you think may be behind all of this. do you think the president respects the opinion of his wife to the point that he would listen to her with regard to
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political moves like this? >> boy, that's a good question. i think that he probably respects his daughter's opinion more than his wife's opinion, but i also think she has -- she wields some power over him. as i've written, i think he has -- you know, behind all the misogeny and the sexism there's a fear of women, especially of women's biology and kind of a e revoltion. he's got a wife with ma lelania. he's said he couldn't have sex with someone who's had children. it's a curious kind of attitude towards women, but i think she does wield a certain power over
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him. i think he fears women at some level and she's aware of that. >> it's a very interesting observation you make. i know you've done a lot of research for your book. thank you so much. the new tweet from the president next. xt your brain changes as you get older. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.
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assertions about so-called rampant voter fraud is the target to this late night laugh line. >> the president of the united states thinks you need voter id to buy a box of cereal. he must be referring to the many popular adults only cereals that require id, like porn flakes, turning trix and grape-nuts. here we go.
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new reaction from president trump today on a wide-ranging inther view the president address everything from potential new staffing shakeups to the mueller investigation. and that blue wave that swept the house. >> i'm extremely upbeat. the white house is running like a well-oiled machine. the reporting about me is so wrong. i'm loving what i'm doing. >> back? july you said that chief of staff john kelly will be here through 2020. >> john at some point is going to want to move on. john will move on. >> you have already made at least one big change, naming matt whittaker as your acting
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attorney general. he has a long record of speaking out against the special counsel and his probe. >> i didn't know he took views on the mueller investigation as such. >> your team is preparing written answers to questionings about -- >> no, no, not my team. i'm preparing written answers. i'm the one that does the answer. yes, are they writing them out, yes. i won the senate. you don't mention that. i won the senate. i didn't run. i wasn't running. my name wasn't on the ballot. tone is something that is important to me, but a lot of times you can't practice tone because you have people coming at you so hard, that if you don't fight back in a somewhat vigorous way, you're not going to win. >> let's bring in former director of new york city, and jonathan, and republican political columnist shermichael.
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jonathan, what did you take away from that interview? >> well, it's just wonderful when you watch the president of the united states lying. so, he says, i'm upbeat. it's a well-oiled machine here in the white house. i have nothing to hide. i haven't done anything wrong. what he's really saying is, according to a lot of reporting, he called it fake news, a but a lot of reporting, what he's saying saying, in truth, i'm in a lot of trouble. i'm freaking out. the wheels are coming off with things here at the white house. and, hey, i've got a lot to hide and i'm nervous about it. so, you have to kind of know that he's a liar who's told more than 6,000 lies already in his presidency. you watch that through that lens. >> what about you, what stood out to you? >> a few things that stood out. when you talked about matt whittaker not knowing his previous comments on the russian investigation or the mueller investigation, to me, that points out a huge problem.
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as someone that worked for three presidential candidates, i worked for ben carson, your objective as an aid, an operative, is to insulate the principal from unnecessary political damage. the folks around him are not doing that. i understand the president wants to give these interviews, but when you think about the magnitude of what's at stake here for him legally and what's around him, he should not give interviews until this is over. that's why you have people on cable news talking and defending the white house on his behalf. i think a lot of mistakes are being made here. i question the folks running that political shop in the white house. they need to do a better job at protecting their principal but right now they're not. >> what did you consider the most telling part of this interview? >> to go back to jonathan's point, one thing that stood out to me is the president seems shook to the extent that he could ever be, but he does seem to be a little shook. mike pence, barack obama and joe
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biden have one thing in common, oddly enough, and that's more of their endorsed candidates won in the midterms than donald trump's. i think in his mind -- clearly, he takes this personally. clearly, he's going to lash out at his staff. he's going to lash out, i think, to the public. you've seen how he's rebrought back the question about the caravan and immigration because he's trying to cling to something that he thinks might work to get to sort of resonate with his base. so, the concern now is, and this is something i've been saying quite often, is that while we had some great victories on the midterms for the midterms to just be mindful about how tenuous this coalition may be, and that democrats need to sort of stand fast here and be firm because this is the donald trump that seems injured. he seems like he's going to actually push back, perhaps, harder than he ever has. that's why we need to really
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hold the line. >> and we should say the president has just put out a tweet about the caravan and how the officials in tijuana are feeling overwhelmed and potentially for six months those that reached tijuana, you know, staying there for for a while. lastly, i want your thoughts as much as i want the guys thoughts. i should have started with you. lap ladies first. >> i'm out numbered. it's really rich for the president to be saying the white house is running like a well oiled machine. i'm not a mechanic but i know that no well oil machine leaks a -- at the pace this white house does. four to five cabinet member shake ups. he's doing anything he can to switch up the strategy as the other guests mentioned. to see what can stick. i think there was one point in this interview that stuck out for me is that he owned up to not doing enough for veterans day. that made me so sad. he really should have been there at arlington national cemetery.
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the down part, there's always a downside. it seems he thought calls were really important. i was on important calls. you can now call from cars. we can do that now president trump. it's just a really weird moment, if you ask me. he's acting like a school child. grading himself. you can any school child in america, they will give themselves a pluses. it's just rich. >> i want all of you to think about a grade that you would give the president based on this interview in just a moment. i want to go to something and this is going to be a little fun and a little dicy to talk about. there's two tweets that's been posted. one is from the president and one is from adam schiff. this is the one that was posted by the president a short while ago. clearly he's criticizing the congressman. he used, let's say, a misspelling there right. i'm not going to read that on tv
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but adam schiff, the two letters at the end of his word would be f-f. can we put up adam schiff's response to the president. i read that one. wow, mr. president, that's a good one. was that like your answers to mr. mueller's questions or did you write this one yourself. i have to say that was pretty clever for him to do that. just interpret this whole thing. >> look, the president realizes he's against a wall. what i'm concerned about is if it increases i think you'll see the president act out even more. i don't think that's a very good thing for republicans because not only did we not perform well in the house, you also keep in mind we did not perform well across the country as it relates to statewide elections. democrats won over 330 plus gop held seats.
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democrats will control 27 attorney general seat which is mean they can file lawsuits if they work together against this administrati administration. when you think across the board at the different variables that can hurt the president, you can see him acting out. >> will that be acting out via twitter. this tweet about little adam schiff and misspelling. you have to love the response. pretty quick. >> it was a good response. the main thing is the president of the united states is once again acting like an 11-year-old boy. kind of a dumb bully on the playground with dumb jokes who nobody respects even inside his own party even though they have to pretend to. we've got two years to put up with this. the question for the rest of us is how do we respond to him. not what does he do because we know what he's going to do. it's how do we respond to him. that's the character test that
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not only everybody in congress but every american faces. do you believe he's an a plus president or an f president? evidence is pretty clear that an a plus president even a d plus president doesn't make that kind of idiotic joke by twitter. that's not what presidents are supposed to do. unless you understand that, you have failed the character test. everybody in the united states fails the character test if they don't get that. >> the four of you on this panel right now, is there agreement in terms of character test here that jonathan is bringing up. you have two democrats and two republicans here. is the president failing the character test. i'm going to go to the two republicans. >> he failed the minute he came down the golden escalator if you ask me. to this day it boggles my mind that republicans, christians and evangelicals support him at the rate they do.
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i always think about the woman sitting if idaho and the core question is what does government do for me. what is this president doing that affects my every day? if the economy is doing all right, americans still have confidence and if that's going all right and with no large scale terror event, something that's been held back. they don't care what he says. >> you're saying that is out weighing character there. quickly to you on this real quick. i want to play a sound bite. >> i think i agree, he failed a long time ago. they need to do far better job at holding this president accountable. >> here's the deal. i have time to get your grade. what grade? >> i give him an f because he's failed every test that i think has been put to him and going back to jonathan's point, he
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asks like a child. let him come out and make the same statements with maxine waters and jerry nadler now that they are heading important committees. >> normally an f minus but this time an incomplete. >> that's worse. he didn't even do the work. >> jonathan. >> he's an f not only in character but terms of what he has accomplished. he has one accomplishment to his name. a tax bill that shoveled money at the super rich. is good economy is not as a result of him. it's not he's done on policy terms that's caused this good economy. he's an f straight across the board. >> thank you so much. good to talk to you. happy thanksgiving. i appreciate you. coming up, potential comings and goings at the white house. who will be first to hit the exit? whwio ll be first to hit the exit
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we hit the top of the hour which means i'm out of time. >> good day to all of you. i'm richard lui. thanks for stopping by. this hour for you, president trump's legal team saying he will submit written answers to robert mueller in the russia investigation by thanksgiving. what the president is saying about those questions and his
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