w wave, and whoever doesn't get on, i think they would be left behind. just one more way we go beyond at&t. right now get fast, reliable internet and add wifi pro for a low price. comcast business. beyond fast. that's a wrap for me on this hour of "weekends with alex." we will see you at noon eastern. stay where you are. it is time for "up" with david gura. david gura well, this is up, i'm david gura, more political turmoil in virginia, as a second woman accuses justin fairfax of sexual assault. now some state democrats are calling for impeachment. if the lieutenant governor does not step down. >> i believe these women. he needs to resign immediately. >> and fireworks on capitol hill. as the acting attorney general appears before the house judiciary committee.

>> mr. chairman, i see that your five minutes is up, and so -- >> plus, federal prosecutors investigating jeff bezos's claiming of extortion by the national enquirer, as amazon ceo tries to find out how the tabloid got a hold of salacious texts. >> a government entity might have gotten hold of his text messages. >> it is saturday, february 9, a week since virginia's governor last tried to explain himself to reporters in richmond. >> he's been trying to tough it out after admitting to wearing blackface in the '80s to enter a dance contest as michael jackson, and now ironically, everybody is telling him to beat it. >> that would be felipe ryan, former deputy secretary of state and fran chessa, glenn kirshner, a legal analyst and ally vitale

a legal reporter. >> and the political crisis in virginia deepening with another bombshell accusation, a second woman has accused lieutenant governor justin fairfax of sexual assault and that has led to new calls for his resignation from every top democrat in the commonwealth of virginia. meredith watson clanls justin fairfax raped her while they were undergrads at duke university back in 2000. her accusation comes just days after another woman vanessa tyson says fairfax assaulted her in 2004. this week has revealed layer upon layer upon layer of scandal in virginia. if the governor were to resign, and lieutenant governor were to step down, the state's attorney general would be in charge, and he has admitted to wearing blackface at a costume party in 1980. if he were to leave his position, the consequences for virginia democrats would be dramatic. republican speaker of the house cox would be next in line. but let me start with you first,

and spent some time in virginia, went to college in virginia, your reaction over the course of the last week, it was egregious, it was mon men us to when we were at this table last week at this table last week looking at governor northam. what do you make of this? >> virginia politics needs a do-over. because so many people seem to have disqualified themselves, albeit in a couple of different ways. i want to focus for a minute on the justen fairfax allegation, i have prosecuted rape cases, among other, and delayed reporting is the norm quite frankly. and so any time i see a victim come forward, i don't care if it is days, weeks, months or years later, because there has been something that sparked, late reporting that has to be taken deadly seriously. and you know, it feels like now, we're going to be in a kavanaugh scenario all over again, where one side is going to be pitted against the other side. but i'll tell you, having seen this for decades, as a

prosecutor, i urge everybody to stand with the victim. give fairfax his due. let this play out. i was heartened that he actually encouraged and invited an investigation. >> ally, let me ask you about that, you have justin fairfax essentially buried under statements from democratic politicians. there is a letter in support of vanessa tyson, the accuser, the first accuser of justin fairfax, 700-plus academics have signed that lert, she is a professor in california. what do you make of his deafness to this call, yes there is a call for an investigation but the calls is getting louder and louder. >> he is in a mix of three other democrats in the state who are under their own kind of problems so when there are so many calls to step down from all of these positions there is a little bit of strength in numbers, unfortunately and i think it allows all of them to buy themselves a little bit of time. i know you referenced vafb gnaw

a , kavanaugh and i think we will be be in a kavanaugh-esque situation but this is the trump factor of all it, i think the bar has raised the bar for what is offensive and a little bit of them, for the ability to hide in that and see how they can parse out their political futures so i think it is interesting to see if democrats can do what trump has done so well, which is let such big controversies roll off and just kind of keep on going. we haven't seen that from democrats really. >> and kind of a very cynical calculus here on the part of the governor of virginia. he sent an e-mail out to staffers in virginia yesterday. i will read a little bit from it. it was excerpted in the "the wall street journal," quote our commonwealth is in uncharted waters and many of you are undoubtedly left confused and uncertain what the future holds. you have placed your trust in me to lead virginia forward and i plan to do that. so he is digging in, and again, it has been a week but who would have thought a week ago, that the governor of virginia would be couching himself as the model of stability here in virginia. >> you know what? i'm not surprised. even if nothing else had

happened, even if there had been no revelations about list lieutenant governor or about the number three, i'm not surprise in the day of trump, people say why would i leave, this guy is so much worse, i'm booing to gut it out and by the way, he is the governor, more one can fire him, he has no boss. in a world where hopefully where we'll return to, these three people will not be serving in their positions. in the world we are living in, i think we're in a place where any number of combination of them can gut it out, starting with northam, and i would like to think whether it is 30, 60, 90 days from now, we are going to look back and all three are gone and they will be gone in large part because of the unanimous voices far and wide from within the democratic party, as opposed to the silence on kavanaugh or the silence on steve king or frankly the silence on donald trump. and that is the, what really is making us, what will make us different than the republican

party. >> francesca, do you see this as a pivot point? i do back to the statement that john buyer co-signed with other delegates from virginia, so many pivot points during the course of the week, but we're talking about a cultural shift here and do you think the democrats are re-evaluating the stance? >> i think there is a pivot point culturally for democrats to get back to some of the things that ally was saying, i do think that in the 2020 presidential race will, is a political element to this, right? if you're a 2020 presidential candidate, and you're being faced with a me too situation, where you stand on these issues will be very, very critical moving forward, because so many of the candidates have proclaimed to be like the, you know, the me too movement, and i will also say, it is quite interesting that we didn't open up the show this week talking about the state of the union address, or the spending fight, because this has gotten so much bigger than all these issues, and we're talking about being able to hide in political

controversies, while the white house has been able to have this, this political controversy, and not something that president trump has done. and it's noticeable that he has not called on any of the people that we're talking about this morning to resign. because the white house seems pretty content to sit back and see how this completely and totally plays out. and they've suggested at resignations but they are letting democrats figure this one out for themselves because of what you were saying, which is that if you're going to call on any of these people to resign, then what about brett kavanaugh, what about steve, and all of the republican party programs. >> let's put that up there. you have duncan hunter, under investigation. steve king. chris collins as well. just looking at a few of the member was the republican side. where things are a little bit different in terms of the approach of scandal. is a scandal a scandal a scandal? are we willing to treat them with various gradation? >> i think you have to, because

democrats without consequence are able to come out and say, northam should resign and we should believe the women coming forward against justin fairfax. and you are not hearing that very loud from mark warner and tim kaine which are in much different positions as senators from that state. and i think what is interesting when you bring trump into the equation, it is not long ago when corey stewart won over 40% of the vote when he ran to challenge northam in 2017, not that long ago he ran for senate, and he is someone who espoused alt-right views and defended kofrd statues in virginia. i think when you think about the way that trump has reacted to things like this in the past, he backed corey stewart. he worked on his campaign. i remember when he worked on his campaign. now that the shoe is on the other foot, i think it is interesting that trump can't really weigh in against. it and i'm not saying that corey stewart was wearing blackface or things like that, it is not apples to apples necessarily, but trump has already pigeon-holed himself as okay

with those things. >> i want to ask your position about the new south and you went to college there, and i'm curious if you think we put a pin in the worst parts of its legacy a little bit too early and i keep coming back to that comment made that tim kaine made after barack obama was elected, the days of old virginia were gone, they're dead. what do you make of the reckoning. it is a political reckoning. but the cultural reckoning that is happening as well. >> i hope in the long run that we have a spasm of growth as a result of what we're seeing now. and i want to circle back to northam. because he should not be allowed off the hook here. because these are medical school photos. on his page. in the yearbook. then we learn that he also had another blackface incident. i will tell you, i don't want him being my doctor. i don't want him being my governor. you know what i am really hartened by, the democratic party is standing up and taking responsibility and taking a principled stand and the republicans have chose not to. and i think that tells us a lot. and i hope the electorate remembers this come 2020. >> it is hard to play

clairvoyant, looking back on what happened since last week but i want to turn to jeff bennet on perspective on what might happen next and he covers the white house here at nbc news and he has been in richmond for the better part of the week covering the story in and out. how do you see things playing out? >> what are members of the governor's administration telling you about the plan going forward? >> setting aside of the substance of the second claim against justen fairfax, politically he is in an untenable position. you have the entire democratic establishment calling on him to resign. he so far is resisting those calls in part because i'm told he thinks if he were to step aside now, it would be an admission of guilt. and as you know, he categorically and vehemently denies both allegations. we can set that aside and move to governor ralph northam. from the very beginning, he has been saying he wants and needs more time to clear his name and in a bizarre way he apparently has that considering how both of his would-be successors are

facing scandals of their own. very separate scandals. i think mark herring acquitted himself rather well with the statement he put out. you heard cory booker and some other democrats say he has been contrite, he has done the work he needed to do in reaching out privately to democratic lawmakers both at the state and national level. so he seems safe for now. but i mean it is a rather stunning turn of events that the guy who admits to wearing blackface to impersonate some rappers is of the three the safest one. governor northam in part because there is no mechanism to remove him from office. he still holds all of the cards here and at the moment he says he is not going anywhere, david. >> i'm curious what you think this says about the relationship between states, politicians at the state level, and the national level. again, the chorus is so loud of national politicians saying that several of these men need to step aside, and yet they're not. what does it say to you the role of the national party, the role the national democrats are playing? >> i would say first off, it has

only been a week and i know in this day and age, it is an eternity and you're thinking what the hell are these guys still doing in office but i wouldlike to think we are looking at a period that they did the right thing. i'm frankly afraid that what actually happens the two white men who are racist stay in office and the black man who suffers for it and i'm not saying that jordan fairfax should say, i am suggesting that all three of them should leave but to your question, it has become one big blob, and we're in a state now, we're in a situation now, where it is constant campaigning, it has become so ibilitier twine, intertwined, so we came off the midterms where everything everyone did, and the special elections, roy moore, in alabama, and there is going to be a very quick chorus every time, and we saw that this part week, with the 2020 candidates. and i think it is a good thing. i think it is a good thing that it pretty much accelerates the, basically the judgments, and the indictments on these folks. >> we're going to come back in

just a moment. jeff bennet, thanks for joining us. thanks for the reporting this week as well. coming up, allegations ami attempted to extort the richest man in the world seemed to have caught the attention of federal prosecutors. how this could affect the company's nonprosecution agreement. the company's nonprosecution agreement. umonia -a potentially serious bacterial lung disease that can disrupt your routine for weeks. in severe cases, pneumococcal pneumonia can put you in the hospital. it can hit quickly, without warning, making you miss out on what matters most. a single dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from pneumococcal pneumonia. prevnar 13® is approved for adults to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumococcal pneumonia. don't get prevnar 13® if you have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. adults with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects were pain, redness and swelling at the injection site,

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amazon's jeff bezos, the owner of the "washington post," called the national enquirer on its bluff, alleging blackmail and extortion in a jaw-dropping post on medium. ami, the national enquirer parent company, threatened to publish more embarrassing texts and below the belt selfies unless jeff bezos agreed to end an investigation into how the tabloid had acquired the lewd photos and messages the national enquirer used to expose the extra marital affair last month. the national enquirer says it has acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of mr. bezos. and at the time of the recent allegations made by mr. bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with limb. and federal prosecutors are also interested in whether ami acted lawfully. more legal scrutiny for david pecker and more questions about his relationship with president trump, in a mu piece reported to the "washington post," asked the question on everyone's mind this morning,s what the tabloid

expose of bezos's affair juicy gossip or a hit job? >> and we have the host of npr "on point" david, let me start with you, in this piece on "medium," jeff bezos says he prefers to stand up and roll this log over and see what crawls out. what are you watching for? what are you watching for now that this has happened? >> it is an incredible move. in full control of what happened and what could have been an incredibly humiliating scandal, here you go, but we will take this to you guys and what he will try to figure out, are the ways in which these embarrassing photographs and texts were obtained, and i think more to his point, figure out the motivation, why they did this, was this as the question has been raised, was this because of the national enquirer's clear allegiance to president trump over the years, even though they have this agreement with federal prosecutors, not to do bad deeds, not to act on his behalf. was this motivated by foreign actors? was this motivated about adesire to hurt the "washington post"?

which mr. bezos owns personally. why did american media, why did the national enquirer do this particularly against the wealthiest guy in the world? >> i want to ask about the white house reaction about this francesca, and the deputy press secretary was asked about it yesterday. and let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> is the president aware of the bezos situation? what is the white house reaction? >> i'm not sure if he is aware of it and we're not going to get into a conversation between jeff bezos and a tabloid magazine. >> this is the president of the united states, so sorry to hear the news about jeff bozo being taken down by a competitor whose reporting i understand is far more accurate than the lobbyist newspaper the amazon "washington post" and hopefully it will be placed in better hands. hard to square those two things. >> i'm laughing because by the president's own admission, he is definitely aware of what is going on in this story and i think we all know that he spends a lot of time watching television. so he is definitely aware. but yesterday, he was going to

to his physical and he was coming back from his physical, and it was open press, and he had to walk right by reporters, both times. and the first time, very, very far away by the way. but the second time, he had to walk right by us to get into the residence of the white house. and he heard people shouting, when was the last time you spoke to david pecker and things like that and he looked at us and kept walking and did not answer those questions. he could have stopped by if he wanted to and addressed this personally. however, i wanted to point out something else that you said, too which is that the reason why this is so problematic is because they have agreed with the department of justice, they have this immunity agreement, to not do any criminal activity for three years. and that is a big point. because it's not good, i guess, to, with the president, not good, when the reason that something could be problematic for you, you promised not to do criminal activity for three years, and now you might be engaging in -- >> i see the nonprosecution agreement that you brought in here. help us with that.

>> a perfect set-up. so here is extortion in ten words or less, right? give me a thousand dollars or i break your thumb. they did the equivalent of that in the white collar arena. extortion is nothing more than threatening someone to obtain a thing of value. they threatened harm to bezos. it can be harm to your reputation. it doesn't have to be thumb breaking. the thing of value is they were trying to suppress investigation and reporting of something that sure sounds news worthy. here is their nonprosecution agreement. it says you can't commit crimes for three years or else guess what, we can charge you, and everything you told us you did, because in this agreement, david, they admitted they engaged in campaign finance violations. they can now be prosecuted using their own admissions. because this goes like this. done. so i mean it couldn't have been more foolish. and i think here to your point, what in the world would motivate

them to commit these crimes in plain sight, in writing, knowing how much they had to lose? it must be something powerful. >> i was trying to say, you shouldn't necessarily have to be warned. remember, you promised not to commit crimes for three years. >> it wasn't long ago. >> david, you're so good on the history here. you look at this incident, as much of an outlier it is am terms of how jeff bezos has approached this but when you look at the approach of this tabloid to people in power, how much does it stand out? >> it is very textbook. it is textbook way, it is an extraction of information, or a suppression of information, depending on what serves less of a journalistic impulse, but what serves their interest as an organization. they tied in with trump. you know, this plea agreement is in part because of campaign finance violations because they basically paid off or searched served to pay off, served as a conduit to pay off two girlfriends of the president. and they were other times they

paid off people to get the information. tom arnold would famously scream about the tabloids reporting about his marital strife with roseanne barr. and the canceled check was held up that it paid to tom arnold. this is a tabloid that keeps information when it wants to do a headline or releases it. and you can't forget that as you watch this bizarre thing play out after all, theoretically they're watching with prosecutors against donald trump. here is a very weird action to take at this time. >> let me ask you about these two individuals, d. david pecke one hand, long time friend of the president and jeff bezos, who has pilloried on twitter and speeches and gone after the postal service because of what amazon is doing as he sees it. help us understand those two relationships. >> i think the question that we posed at the beginning of this, is this juicy gossip or something more politically nefarious here is, the way the line of questioning has to go from here on in.

of course there is the stuff that is going on with the d.o.j. and how pecker and ami dealt with cohen and the stories you were talking about. but i also think it can't be understated, president trump, you can't talk about jeff bezos and what trump levelled against him, and "the new york times" and other news outlets get under his skin because he doesn't like things that get reported out there. when you talk about trump and the latest thing about bezos, it is at the heart of it. this is obviously not someone the president has been very found of, he has been out there talking about he is no fan of jeff bezos. the "washington post," same thing. and long time friend david pecker at the center of this again. it makes you wonder, are all of these things connected sore it gossip? >> we will talk about the connection to saudi arabia, and david, quickly, looking at this, if i were a staff at the "washington post," i would feel pretty good, jeff bezos, saying this is the proudest achievement. >> he is saying i will take a personal hit to defend the integrity and independence of the reporting of the "washington post."

he has already provided that financial cushion and that sense of strength. and resurgence or the post in recent years. now he has done it in a most personal and humiliating way and saying i will not be pushed around. i will not be corrupted by any interest on behalf of the "washington post." i think it is a very proud moment. >> when we come back, the trump administration has its first taste of midterms, with house democrats grilling the acting attorney general for the first possibly the last time, trying to get to the heart of some big questions. >> we're all trying to figure out who are you, where did you come from, and how the heck did you become the head of the department of justice. the department of justice. be right back. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications.

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because we know mom wants what's best. more beverage choices, smaller portions, less sugar. balanceus.org welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. it was a blockbluster. the first big hearing convened by house democrats, president trump's acting attorney general, matthew whitaker questioned for roughly five hours by the house judiciary committee. topic a as pete williams put it was russia investigation, and whitaker insisted he has not spoken to president trump about the probe and he has not interfered. >> are you overseeing the witch hunt? >> it would be inappropriate for me to talk about an ongoing investigation. >> this is nothing more than a character assassination. we're going to have plenty of theatrics, bring your popcorn, i'm thinking about maybe setting up a popcorn machine in the back. >> in your capacity as acting attorney general, have you ever been asked to approve any request or action to be taken by

the special counsel? >> mr. chairman, i see that your five minutes is up, and so -- >> i'm sorry what was your, i don't know if your time has been restored or not. >> mr. attorney general, we are not joking here. and your humor is not acceptable. >> a quick note, matthew whitaker is likely in the job just for a few more day, the senate is poised to approve william barr, the president's pick to hold the job permanently next week. glenn, i am going to start with you. i know you were watching this closely yesterday. you heard what he had to say about the mueller investigation in particular. i just want to bring up an excerpt from the special counsel, as the attorney general may request the special counsel may provide an explanation for any investigative or prosecutorial step and may have to review, conclude that the action is so inappropriate or unwarranted under established departmental practices, that it should not be pursued. a lot of people, yourself included, were concerned about that. that whitaker would be yielding undue influence over this investigation. what did you make of what he had to say yesterday about this point in particular?

>> david, i'd like to answer that question but i think your five minutes is up. i mean -- >> i knew that was coming. >> i mean that kind of disrespect -- >> a doughnut, this is yus ji stuff. >> that kind of disrespect to representative nadler and the entire committee, not to mention the department of justice and the american people, is both inexcusable and unforgivable. it really was at times a clownish performance. he answered relatively few questions. i'm going to find two bright spots though. one, he's gone in less than a week. and i think barr will be preeshbly better and that is probably an understatement. two if he can be taken at his word, and even though he's under oath, i'm not entire sure he can be taken at his word, but he said, i have made no decisions in the mueller probe. i basically gave him free reign. i didn't cut his funding. i didn't deny him any requests he made. i think the fact that whitaker did nothing should give us all a

certain level of confidence. but i was most disappointed for the department of justice employees and for the american people. >> i want to ask you about heat and light, francesca, i will start with you, and ally to you afterwards. let me start with you francesca. let's play the congressman from california questioning the acting attorney general. >> can you say right now, mr. president, bob mueller is honest and not conflicted? >> congressman, i'm not a puppet to repeat what you're saying? >> you are able to say it or do you not believe it? >> i have answered your question as to what i believe about the special counsel. i stand by my prior statements. >> will you say it to the president though? >> congressman, i am not here to be a pup pet to repeat terms and words that you say that i should say. >> i've covered house hearings, there is nothing so unsatisfied is the five minute question and answer, so little can be accomplished of significance or

real rigger. on the issue of light, did we learn anything from the testimony that we saw yesterday or was it a chance for others just to make statements in the way that congressman swalwell did. >> i think we did learn a few things. i think we learned he hen spoken to the president before or after or ever and he wasn't trying to choke off the special counsel's funding. i think though that was a really trump-esque performance because the president didn't answer questions we didn't get a chance to ask him how he felt about it but however of all of the performances of the cabinet members or acting cabinet members, he came out and did exactly what the president would have wanted him to do under questioning like that. and you mentioned that he is about to be out of there. what does he have to lose? he is only going to be there for a couple more days. and i think the trump administration, i would guess, is looking at that, saying, okay, senate democrats, how do you feel now about bob barr, do you really want him to be in there or do you want him to continue? >> help us with the case though. a lot of people comparing the way that barr purported himself

to what we saw yesterday. walk us through the differences you see. >> first of all, welcome to the next two years. obviously there is no love lost between these two faction, between democrats, both in the house and in the senate, but also the trump administration, right? and i think that although the president didn't weigh in on this yesterday, if he has a problem with hill testimony, he is more than shown us he is willing to tweet about it, and he did so when his intelligence chiefs were on the hill, whether it was last week or two weeks ago. and so i think that bill barr is within the position of, i have to get confirmed, right? there is the obvious partisanship that comes to these now confirmation battles. he was there comporting himself like trump, having something that he needed from the people in front of him. with whitaker, he has nothing to lose. you're absolutely right. if he is out of a job in a few days, what is the worse that could happen? that he continues to impress the president of the united states and nothing was lost with his short tenure atop the d.o.j. >> and i would be surprised if he didn't start tweeting right now, i thought he did a really great job yesterday and the democrats are on a witch hunt.

>> let me ask you lastly about the personal history we learned about yesterday. he really bristled when lawmakers talked about what he had done in the past with his nonprofit work in washington, d.c., his sales work that he had done as well. what more did we learn about who he is and how he got into this position, and that's what we heard at the top, how this guy, we don't know how he got this job, we were unclear if he found about it because of a tweet or call from the president. >> before i answer, you're the host, you get to choose who sits out. i would have made a different decision. you could at least make sure that glenn is not biting into my doughnut. >> yes, during the break. >> i think what we learned yesterday is what we knew, this man is wholly unqualified to hold that job. i don't know who called and how he found out, but i mean i felt like we were watching, testifying, and you covered that, and i sat on beeth sides of, that i sat behind the congress people asking questions, that was just dumb. it was dumb.

and it was easy for him to do because he is out of there in a week but you know who is not out of there in a week is probably donald trump and he is not taking seriously what is coming down the pike at him, in a new democratically controlled house that is actually going to do its job, in terms of oversight. and to sit there and to not just try humor, but worse than anything, to not be funny in the attempt at humor, and to just kick congress in the shins, when these people are going to come after you, and to go to glenn's point, i don't think he was being fully truthful, we really believe he didn't talk to anybody in the white house or connected to the white house about the mueller investigation? no, that's not true. >> i'm being told my five minutes is up. >> one candidate, another possible contender, never very smart, president trump sizes up the competition as the list of 2020 hopefuls grows longer host is in, who's out and who is still on the fence, when we come back. l on the fence, when we coe back see a little blood when you brush or floss?

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my god, when are you going to know the answer? >> before the end of this month. >> i'm david gura. beto o'rourke giving more on his thinking, the field of candidates in 2020 is the most diverse and most crowded. amy klobuchar and senator elizabeth warren have events. and senator warren is expected to kick off her campaign later today in massachusetts. and waiting in the wings are michael bloomberg, former vice president joe biden both of whom said they are thinking about running. a lot of action in south carolina. cory booker held the first campaign event in iowa last night. >> we are a nation of decency and kindness, we're a nation of civic grace. we're a nation that sees each other and loves each other, and works together. >> we're watching this. the president's watching this. in recent days he has called joe

biden dumb and gaffe prone. and says elizabeth warren will turn the u.s. in venezuela. and howard schultz, no guts and kamala harris, the only praise so far, the best opening act. i will start you with, ally. where are we? when we have elizabeth warren, joe kennedy, a student in harvard law school, going to introduce her in the town north of andover. how is she setting herself apart? put her in the picture of the candidates. >> and kennedy expected to endorse her, that is something that nbc reported late in the week. i think liz bathe warren is in an interesting place, as much as she is launching her campaign with a pretty strong debut in iowa, she has been on a little bit of an apology tour with the native american ancestry in the past couple of weeks. trump will be able to comment in

realtime on twitter during the campaign rallies and it will be able to wrestle the news cycle back to his focus and attention. and with the candidates, i've been trying to get a sense of how do you stay out of the trump vortex, this act that he has, that you guys are well aware, people who have worked on and covered the clinton campaign, he has a great ability to turn the conversation to what he wants to talk about it and it makes it hard for democratic campaigns to talk about what they want to talk about. so as you see the people enter the field, they will have to contend with that. i will say i spent some time in ohio last week with sherrod brown and i talked with republicans and they say to me, someone like sherrod brown, is somebody we're a little afraid of because he can peel off some trump voters who voted for him in 2016, who may not be loving him right now because of gm plant closings and things like that. >> let me turn to you with elizabeth warren and the scandals and more continues to emerge with the bar application card, wrote an indian, and this is 2016, and 2016 e-mails

coverage all over again. >> 100%. >> how does she escape it? >> she does what she probably should have done is enough. i'm not talking about this. if i'm in a town hall, and a voter comes up to me and asks why i did this, i will explain all day why i did this. i will not play trump's game. i will not play the media's game. >> what about me? >> because i covered hillary. >> literally looking at me. >> e-mail. >> they, you know, what senator warren did, last october, to try to put this to bed, was a car wreck. but she had to do it. it was never going to be pretty. it was important that she tried to put it behind her. or to have an answer. at least the answer is, i have explained the best i can. it might not be the answer you want and it might be a boring answer but it is the truth and i am going to talk about what people want to talk about. again, they want to talk about this, i will. but i am not going to let this

become e-mail. and i think the point about trump, you know, we laugh at his tweets and what he calls, but it is a huge, huge issue, if he is going to have an open lane, for a year, i think if you remember in 2012, barack obama was given so much credit for going after romney before romney was the nomination, was the nominee, and now you're talking about a whole year earlier, and if he doesn't face a primary challenge, and he's just sitting there shellacking the whole field, it is going to have an effect, because he is going to, these nicknames, these attacks, are going to stick come spring of 2020. >> last word here. >> two things, very quickly. first of all, we all know hillary will run and you and i will be reunited again on the campaign trail. >> right here. it feels so good. >> but second of all i think the president has actually showed some pretty incredible restraint when you're talking about the things that he has called them, it is often because he is asked in interviews by people or reporters and not that he is getting on twitter and slamming

all of them. >> well, i was about to say, that there is an opportunity, on monday, i think it will be where we're looking to see what the president says about him, how he rebuts the president when the president comes to the border and talks about eps, look the border wall, it worked here and he shows an example of how it works for america, and how beto o'rourke responding to that and this is probably a make-or-break moment. >> i was surprised how clean of an opening he had. >> i don't think he said a nasty word. >> the democrats can figure it out. >> and el paso monday, the president will be there, and the counter-rally as well. you will be there? >> yes, i will be there as well. first stop in minnesota, amy klobuchar's big announcement.

>> francesca, thank you very much. the rest of the panel is sticking around. up next he might have helped propel donald trump to the white house but is david pecker working in concert with someone entirely different and why jeff bezos says ami should be nervous about its connection to saudi arabia. ervous about its connection to saudi arabia

welcome back to "up with david gura". amazon ceo jeff bezos raised questions about the relationship

between the "national enquirer" parent company and the government of saudi arabia. ami continues to deny it has any political motives and on friday saudi arabia's minister for foreign affairs called the situation between bezos and ami a soap opera. this comes as the relationship with saudi arabia continues to be scrutinized and criticized. there's a new report in "new york times" about intelligence intercepts between the crown prince mohammad bin salman. he can be overheard saying quote use a bullet on jamal khashoggi, "the washington post" columnist who was murdered. we know the crown prince didn't order this, it was a rogue operation. those comments hours before the white house missed a congressional deadline by which it was supposed to say unequivocally whether or not saudi arabia was responsible for jamal khashoggi's killing. the suspect terrify is raised by jeff bezos piece. we remember this strange

magazine that materialize when the crown prince toured the united states back. 20, 30 glossy pages about the crown prince. not what you expect to see from the "national enquirer". ami is like many media organizations troubled financially and appears they were drumming up funding and financing wherever they could and they were doing this promotional magazine, getting some revenue but trying to build a stronger relationship. it has been reported, there has been at least in past desire from ami to receive funding from saudi investors. >> we talk a lot about the russia investigation but there were saudi wrinkles to it as well. how deep is that vain, do you think? >> mueller's investigation has uncovered so many related paths they need to go down and investigate. saudi arabia may very well be one of them, courtesy of money coming from saudi arabia to fill in the blank. i do think, though, you know,

when you hear a statement from the crown prince that i would have liked to have put a bullet in mr. khashoggi, you wonder if a relationship between pecker and ami and saudi arabia is what inspired and a fear of something being exposed is what inspired this reckless conduct that resulted in new crimes that potentially voided out their nonprosecution agreement. again, it had to be something dramatic that motivated them to do it and it looks like to be a saudi arabian connection. >> in this administration there's a long history with saudi arabia, first foreign trip that the president took. you served in the state department under secretary of state hillary clinton. that was strange to all of us to see the president-elect do that. >> it's part of a pattern. the problem is glenn is perfectly right about what mueller will find. this is like russia it's happening in the light dave. you know, you don't just communicate the united states

spots and positions when you're in meetings. you do it all the time. when they kill a journalist that works for "the washington post" and donald trump doesn't say anything, he's essentially giving tacit approval. same thing what he's done with vladimir putin. same thing jared kushner has done when he speaks to the crown prince the week before. they get the feeling they know if they do something bad it's okay, we won give them a hard time and become emboldened. couple that with them knowing that the president hates jeff bezos and hates everything both his companies both amazon and "washington post". if you were saudi arabia why would you sit there and think we need to lay off of jeff bezos text messages because we're going to get in trouble with donald trump. you know damn well you won't get in trouble with donald trump. >> there has been this tacit, well we don't condone this activity but when you're not punishing for somebody for doing something wrong you lose that

high ground as the moral arbiter of the world and that's not a role that donald trump has been keen to assume. if anything he's praisesed strong men like erdogan or putin rather than brushing them back. the killing from jamal khashoggi, there was this deadline yesterday. a senior administrative official selling the president maintains his discretion to decline to act on congressional committee requests when appropriate. will this subside? >> if you look at the statements from secretary of state pompeo, he says this is a terrible thing. he sort of seemingly gently affirms what the intelligence community has said this is tied to the very highest levels of the saudi ruling family. at the same time there's a

desire for this to go away. pompeo instrokes ongoing relationship the country has. the administration has with the saudi government which has been a relationship that previous administration has kept too. almost a willful desire not to hold accountable saudi allies in this. this is something that fascinatingly "the washington post" has held on to as a kind of a campaign. it's been resolute and intense in its reporting. other organizations joined on this. it's seen as a blow to journalism to receive some sort of an issue for the country. >> thank you for joining me. coming up in our next hour it's not the midas touch that cause everything president trump touches to investigation. the house investigation into the trump white house. stay with us. you're watching "up."

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welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. house democrats have a busy agenda. a long list of investigations into president trump and his administration. this week leadership made it clear the president's threat at the state of the union fell on deaf ears. >> if there's going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.

it just doesn't work that way. >> days after the state of the union the gavel to order several hearings on capitol hill the ways and means committee on president trump's taxes, acting attorney general matthew whitaker was in the hot state before the judiciary committee facing questions about robert mueller's investigation. energy and commerce is looking into the family separation policy and as the russia investigation continues, house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff announcing his committee wants to broaden the scope of the russia investigation to look at finances, foreign pressure and attempts to influence investigations. judiciary chairman is looking into russia and obstruction of justice. congresswoman waters wants to look at the emulment clause. >> you say adam schiff. >> adam schiff. >> never heard of him. that wouldn't be partisan would

it? >> not only is russia in personal financial transactions what's your reaction. >> on what basis would he do that? he has no basis to do that. he's just political hack who is trying to build a name for himself. it's called presidential harassment. >> became clear that the first skirmish in the war of oversight between president trump and house democrats. "up" with us is former assistant attorney of southern district of new york now an nbc legal analyst. tim o'brien. er and executive producer, co-host and creator of showtime's "the circus." let's go back to what the president said. and a long state of the union address. draw the bridge here between that and what we saw this week. what was that hearing yesterday with the acting attorney general. >> i think any time that donald

trump specifically targets individuals it's usually because he's worried about something, it's not because he's coming from a position of strength, he's attacking adam schiff by name, he's worried about adam schiff. when he uses a term like presidential harassment that everybody else would call the rule of law or justice or checks and balances or whatever you want to call it, it's because he's worried and he has reason to be worried. that's why it came up in the state of the union. i think the own lie other president that has brought up an investigation of himself during his state of the union speech was richard nixon speak being about watergate. he's aware that this vice is tightening around him. it's happening in the congress, happening in the southern district of new york, happening in the justice department, new york state attorney general and a lot of it is out of his control. he's obviously a control freak. he's someone who likes to be in charge of thing. usually what he's in charge of is messaging, not process. all of these events have moved beyond the messaging phase. robert mueller has filed paper work. we have sentencing memos on paul

manafort. we got an indictment of roger stone. we got a sentencing memo on michael cohen. there's a public narrative being developed where it's on paper. no longer speculation. and it's going to be harder for him to spin that. and i think what's going to happen next is you're going to see him lash out because he doesn't control things. >> let me ask you about the attorney general here yesterday, going before that committee. you had the republican minority saying this wasn't under the purview of what the hearing was supposed to be about. all these democrats eager to question him about the investigation among other things. what does it tell you about the path forward? >> i mean look the democrats, first of all, are sort of -- there's this feeling of making up for lost time. if this started two years ago i'm not sure they would be chomping at the bit that they are. to some extent they are reflecting what many americans, at least their constituents feel, which is, you know, who is going to get to the bottom of this and can we finally have

someone asking the tough and the right questions as opposed to just this playing out -- not that this is a bad thing -- but playing out only in the press and courts. now we have someone, a body of people who can actually directly ask the questions on behalf of the american people. i think it's going to be a tough two years. i think we also have to weave in the american people, but we here on television explain that there are differences between this legislative body, fact finding process and the courts. and the department of justice fact finding, right? they are very different things. and i think, you know, they are going to get all confused. trump will try to confuse them. i think tim made a great point about trump is going to attack, right the same way he calls the mueller investigation a witch-hunt. he's going to call, you know, presidential harassment. i'm not saying he's right to call it presidential harassment but on the other hand attacking

democrats who are looking into him, which i think is incredibly valid and necessary now is very different than him attacking department of justice legitimate investigations. and just to bring it back for one second to whitaker that was something that struck me about his testimony. he refused to say that the mueller investigation of not a witch-hunt. he's the head of the department of justice. this is a legitimate investigation. even if you don't like it, no one is saying -- he heads that department that's running it. so he was so political in that sense. and we have to keep those two things separate. >> how close are we to finding organizing principle for all of this? there could be all of these d desperate. how cognizant are they have to put this in a broader context to the northwestern people. >> democrats are aware they are

walking a very fine line. they want to investigate president trump and wanting to in some ways answer the mandate they got from voters who gave nancy pelosi her job as speaker of the house. most voters understood that donald trump was on the ballot. as democrats took power and got that check they have to say okay here are the things we know people want to know about. they want to know about his finances. they want to know about the tax returns. they want to know about whether or not hiring your children to work at the white house is okay. are there people he fired for political reasons. is the department of justice truly under attack. but they have to realize they are dealing with someone who has a message, very good at message. president trump i remember the day after the mid-terms he came out and said look if democrats will take this power to investigate me we won't be able to get anything done in two years. democrats want to put on the board hey this is what we did

with the president even as we investigated him. we got infrastructure done or lower some pharmaceutical prices. they need to have some sort of working relationship with the president. as a result we'll see them say okay there's a way we're looking at this. here's the way the two investigations we're approving. democratic leadership including nancy pelosi she's helming the idea of what are we investigating and how will they do this. >> there's the element of t politicizati politicization. let's take a listen to this exchange. >> can the clock be restored? >> it was. >> i don't know if your time was restored or not? >> mr. attorney general, we're not joking here. and your humor is not acceptable. now you're here because we have a constitutional duty to ask

questions and the congress has the right to establish government rules. the results are that you are here. >> with the constitution at the ready. what did relearn about the administration's approach to these hearings from the way he comported himself yesterday in that hearing. in other words s-he an outis he? >> well, a couple of things, david. this is the first week where the confluence of investigations, state of the union made me think for the first time that democrats can screw this up in 2020. i think there's a real potential for overreach on these oversight hearings. i think they need to do due diligence. that's what the constituency demands. that wall you showed, you look at that. first of all i'm sure that scares donald trump. very unpleasant the next couple of years. important things will be

discovered that need to be. i think there's -- robert mueller is way ahead of everybody else on this. there will be a lot of smoke from the committee just to make smoke and by the way we kind of -- we embed with -- he knows he's way down the list. he has greater ambitions. everybody is there trying to make their point, get their ten seconds on tv even if you're the 14th witness. you see it gets contentious and not always contentious for the right reasons. matthew whitaker kill be gone next week so who cares? >> i talked about it last hour. you got people jockeying to get those ten second clips. yes, we learned something about the relationship he's had in this investigation. he said he hasn't done anything with it. hasn't talked to the president about it. we did learn some things yesterday. these were exceptions. points of light in a five hour

hearing. >> when i was watching that hearing i kept thinking to myself democrats apartment sweatcy to be blunt and strong. even if you look at this and say they are harassing people on the hill. if you're a democrat that put somebody like nancy pelosi into power, you're looking at sheila jackson-lee and say go get them. so many people want democrats to stand up to the administration even if they don't get clearances. looking ahead to 2020, i sat down with kamala harris for about an hour and i asked her before she was running for president. she said they need somebody who ill be blunt and tell the truth. i think the person who is going to be able to beat donald trump they have to beat his blow-by-blow kind of bluntness because the president is very good at doing what sheila jackson-lee just did. hey, you're in myspace. you're going to come and give me the respect that i want. even if it makes people uncomfortable donald trump is really good at that.

>> democrats in the old dominion are unified calling on the lieutenant governor to resign. a second woman coming forward accusing justin fairfax of sexual assault. that's next. x of sexual assault that's next.

welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. scandals are changing the cultural and political landscape in virginia and adding to a growing crisis. lieutenant governor faces two allegations of assault.

a week ago there were calls for ralph northam to step down after he admitted then denied he was in this controversial photo. he did not step down. justin fairfax second in mandatory in that state has denied two separate sexual assault accusations. he's standing his ground. comes even as his political support has evaporated. terry mcauliffe says fairfax needs to go. top democrats in the state and across the country are making the satisfaction. >> i believe these women. he needs to resign immediately. should the lieutenant governor fail to do so, on monday i intend to introduce articles of impeachment on lieutenant governor justin fairfax. >> all of this is overshadowed to a degree the third scandal involving virginia's attorney general mark herring called for the governor to step down. then he revealed he went to a party in 1980 in blackface.

looming large is the big question for a political party that has zero tolerance in the era of donald trump will they cede the moral ground. there's a great piece in "the washington post". you got democrats struggling, summarizing, trying to sprapt these three scandals into different categories. how difficult has it been for them to do that. there's gradations of scandal. >> very difficult for them to separate mark herring from ralph northam because they are treating them as two separate things but in people's mind who think blackface is racist, which it is. it's hard for you to say ralph northam should resign because he bungled his connectimmunication. but mark herring tried to get ahead of his use of blackface somehow he should be able to be

absolved of his crimes or sins and be able to stay. i think justin fairfax is in the most trouble right now because his -- the allegations against him could be criminal and these two women i think when the first woman came out there were people who said maybe vanessa tyson, maybe she got things wrong or there's an tlish. but for the second woman to come out and i told people immediately he raped me when i was a student at duke. i wouldn't be surprised if democrats try to get rid of northam and justin fairfax but hold on for dear life to mark herring because they don't want to cede control of that seat to republicans. >> what happened to brett kavanaugh loom? you look at the parallels. brett kavanaugh retained the same law firm that justin fairfax has retained. so you have these literal parallels. but to you as you watch all of

this play out as you think about these issues how much are you thinking back? >> a huge feeling of bolt deja vu and frankly a little bit of ptsd given what some of us thought after the kavanaugh hearings. so there are a lot of similarist and some significant differences. i think one in particular is kavanaugh there were hearings and then there was supposed to be an investigation. right? part of the problem here is we as a country do not have a way to really get to the bottom of facts when there's a factual dispute. with kavanaugh that process was there because he was a nominee. what was to frustrating about kavanaugh the process was completely, you know, just washed over. right? it wasn't a real hearing. it wasn't a real fact finding process. the investigation was a joke. in these other cases we really don't have that opportunity. it's just playing out in the press. so i think those are two significant differences, but i

think when you step back and look at all of this, i think we're going to have to figure out as a country how -- these are going to keep happening. these are not one offs. part of it is a lot of people say why didn't these women come forward sooner and there's -- people should read articles about sexual assault survivors. i can't summarize it here. the other question to ask is people who are running for office or seeking positions of power need to look back in their past and if there's something they did and they have now changed and they have become a different person, something that they can take responsibility for they need to front it. they need to come clean with it. it can't be -- that is on them. that's their responsibility because guess what? it's going to come out in this day and age with this press and the me too movement and our understandable growing sensitivity on racism. these things are going to come out. people can't go into office in positions of power thinking that it will stay buried.

>> mark, you've been involved in consulting with campaigns. how much has this been a teaching moment. >> on two levels. i think it's a big time teaching moment. one i would agree with you to say that sort of short term generational span anybody that's contemplating to run for was to way to deal with this is in general from when you announce and lay it all out. beyond that i think the broader teaching moment and what we can take positively out of this. ate mess in virginia. it's hard to see any reasonable outcome that anybody is going to be very happy with there. but from that perhaps, you know, our children and our society flash forward 10, 20 years from now there won't be people making these kind of racial stereotypes or sexual harassments and if there is people won't be running for office. >> the question is we as a country are we going to say you can be redeemed wearing

blackface if you come out now and if not is there a timeline for when the next person gets found out they wore blackface. will that person atone later on. if you wore blackface we can forgive you. that's the key question. for both north and mark herring neither one came out voluntarily and said i wore blackface. they did it under political pressure because they want to keep their jobs. that's the difference from the next generation of people. >> you wrote about this, this week. you said ralph northam has done an exemplary job of reminding the country how deep racism roots run and what a national disgrace it continues to be. >> i think it's -- i thought that ralph northam's press conference the question whether he moon walked and the look on his face. i might walk away from the lectern right now and do it. his wife said infroept.

what is it, it's racial incense activity. bigotry. racism. for a white public leader to stand up and not understand the implications of what he's done, fully with a large population of people who historically have been exclude, enslaved and down trodden it's extraordinary in this era. when we talk about can people be forgiven for wearing blackface. no. they can be forgiven by their neighbors and families but as public leaders they can't be forgiven. if you enter the public sphere and stand up for the history of this country, for civic duty, and for public service, having worn blackface excludes you. having assaulted woman excludes you. it's not about getting forgiveness from voters. it's about getting off the public stage and saying to the american public this kind of behavior is no longer acceptable. >> he's right. especially in 1980 where it was very clear that if you wore blackface it was racist. this is not something that was

hard to understand. i think even now i have some viewers look at me and say oh, what if i want to be kanye west. you could have been kanye west or michael jackson without darkening your face. fed investigating issues of blackmail of the "national enquirer". could it spell trouble for president trump? >> i've always said why didn't the "national enquirer" get the pulitzer prize for edwards and o.j. simpson and all of these things? (vo) only verizon was ranked #1 by rootmetrics. #1 in 3 opensignal mobile experience awards. #1 in video streaming according to nielsen. and #1 in network quality according to jd power. and that's why the only network to win in all four major awards is the one more people rely on.

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welcome back to "up." i'm david gura. this morning we learned federal prosecutors are investigating the tabloid battle between jeff bezos and "national enquirer". the ceo accusing the publication engaged in blackmail and extortion related to the billionaire's extramarital fair. american media incorporated and its chairman david pecker could be facing for legal troubles. ronan farrow also said they had

troubles from ami. >> help us understand that vis-a-vis the nonprosecution agreement. >> ami is unlike anyone else who might have engaged in this with bezos because they are under this, they entered into this pron prosecution agreement. once you're in this agreement you need to be on good behavior. can't commit any more crimes. can't even come close to the line because if do you we the southern district are going need to look into it. once they start looking in to it, like everything else will they find a crime they can charge? i don't know. i frankly think you could charge this as a federal extortion but i don't know they need to get to that when you talk about this context of this agreement. they will look at this behavior and depend a lot on what kind of discussions they had with ami and their lawyers. i think there's a very good case to make if they get to that point. >> what does it say to you that they are willing to risk? >> that's exactly the point,

though. are they going to say come on -- even if this isn't a crime which again i think it could be charged as a federal extortion. that's the not the issue. the issue is this is not conduct you as a company should have been engaging in while under this agreement. what was it that they were trying to ward off? why were they willing to risk -- >> manafort in the middle of his cooperation agreement. >> it's the why are they lying. what are they covering up. and, you know, look, again. sometimes people do stupid things for no reason. sometimes people engaging this kind of behavior. a lot of times where there's smoke there's fire. now you got the southern district of new york who will be looking into that. this won't stop with this nonprosecution agreement. that's my prediction. >> what are the queens and legal lie guilt if it's determined they broke the agreement. >> then ami is subject to whatever crimes they could have

been prosecuted for before the agreement. sitting here i don't know what they are. campaign finance fraud for one. and individuals, the corporate liability. so, they are in a world of trouble possibly. and any statements they've made in the course of these pursuant this agreement. prosecutors don't like to tear up cooperation agreements. they don't like doing it. they don't like doing it with manafort. not something they do easily. it's a high bar but more importantly, from justice ami and what will happen to them from the bigger picture here it's the southern district now digging in to what really happened here, what's going on here. that's my prediction. >> help us with the broader ramifications of this. you've been following the role that "national enquirer" has played for some time. you have jeff bezos taking a

stand. what does it mean for those that have been a targeted by this kind of operation in the past? >> it's a good warning call ethical call to the media about what kind of things should be published. jeff bezos began to investigate the "national enquirer" because they published stolen information, texts and photos of his relationship as part of an extramarital fair. they published this story. bezos is ir rrirked by it. "national enquirer" comes back and says we're going to publish this unless you stop. most people would buckle. bezos said i'm willing to test my reputation. i built the company from scratch. say what you want about me this is who i am. it takes a lot of fortitude in this moment. the outcome is what does jeff bezos find? at a minimum he'll find out what

everybody knows about "national enquirer" it's a burning trash bin of gossip. >> how they got those photos, right? >> they will fine that out and then the saudi element which we don't have enough time for. >> been a diagram on this. >> many circles combining. in a new article former staffers call on senator klobuchar's niceness. they say it's sexist and it hit steven colbert. >> i'm shocked. i've interviewed amy klobuchar and she was so nice. this is like getting a car from oprah and finding a body in the trunk. it's a drifter! e. actually, that's super easy. my bad. that's super easy.

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i'm david gura, elizabeth warren set to formally declare her run for president at 11:00 this morning in lawrence, massachusetts just near andover north of boston. at 1:00 tomorrow in minnesota it's going to be 19 degrees and that's when and where democratic senator amy klobuchar says she will make a major announcement presumably about her plans for the 2020 campaign. her office pushing back against a hufrgt"huffington post" piece. 20 people have decided to leave

her campaign because she has a history of mistreating her staff. some former staffers have disputed that and questioned the criticism on its merit. former aide to the senator said i heard people she's tough to work for and i sometimes i cringe when i hear it because i rarely here that said about male bosses. joining me from minneapolis, the washington bureau chief for the star tribune. set the scene for us tomorrow. what can we expect? this was teased on rachel maddow show. what do we know about what she has planned and if she runs what her platform would be. >> good morning. yeah. tomorrow, sunday, 1:30, as you say, 19 degrees. it's going on interstate apparently so be a very scenic minnesota setting for the senator's announcement. we assume she will run for president. everything points to that. why would you have a big

announcement with media stages if you weren't running for president. so, yeah. talking to senior adviser of the senators, she's planning to stress electability. as you know, she has a strong record of over three wins in minnesota. she's going to stress sort of a down to earth appeal in minnesota, nice, if you will. she's going to talk about her record of accomplishments in congress. she has passed a lot of bills, sort of broad appeal, a lot of consumer related issues. that sort of things. she will make an electability argument to democrats saying if you want to win this race i'm someone who has won in the midwest, i'm someone who has won in rural areas, in republican areas. she carried, i believe it was 53 minnesota counties last year when she was re-elected that president trump won just two years earlier. that's the basis of her argument

to democratic voters. >> how much will she talk about proximity. you wrote a piece about this event tomorrow and you talked to a democratic strategist and said i think she will have an advantage there because of proximity. this is not the first barn or cornfield she has stood in. >> that's right. she like any smart ambitious politician has spent plenty of time in iowa over the last number of years. ichts ea it's easy when it's close by like this. any immedia any mid-western candidate has to look at it. she served on the senate agriculture committee. she's fluent in rural issues, rural concerns. and as a candidate who at this point is not as well-known nationally, is not probably in what we call the first tier of

candidates or possible candidates to really run up numbers in support in iowa to either win their caucus or to finish a strong second or third. it really will be what she needs. you know she's the kind of candidate where you would say if she doesn't do well in iowa, the first in the nation caucus, she's probably not in the race much longer after that. >> let's dig into this piece in the "huffington post". let me get your reaction to it. it came out of nowhere. we knew this event was coming. what do you make of the argument that erupted about the piece. >> there's two things. there is a big issue if you have staffers who are leaking essentially memos saying you have to make sure you let her have her rage and don't interrupt her in the car. that's an issue there. if staffers are saying they feel mistreated. it's also pretty fair to say there are a lot of men working

on capitol hill who have the same issues, who have the same anger issues because they are one pressure, because they are trying to get things done on capitol hill. and they also can mistreat their staff. when you look at a democratic primary and that that's your weakness that you are not nice to people then maybe if she can overcome that, if you have other people dealing with dna test issues, like elizabeth warren or prosecutorial issues like kamala harris, she can say maybe i should be nicer but i was under a lot of stress. my question for the reporter is, when you look at her achilles heel is not being nice to people her biggest problem or are there other local issues in minnesota that people should think about? >> you know, she has steered clear of controversy particularly for a politician at her level. i like kamala harris. she has a background as a

prosecutor for eight years. she was the chief prosecutor before being elected to the senate. it was not a particularly controversial tenure, you know, beyond just the churn of a large county's prosecutorial function. so, yeah. that probably is the biggest rap about her at this point. there is, you know, there's some friction and something she has to address probably soon because it does go against this public image that she has very carefully cultivated like i said minnesota nice, down to earth, funny, the sort of person you can have a conversation with in your living room. you know, if that's your public image but behind closed doors you're screaming at staff and churning through them at a fast clip which has been documented. she's had among the highest turnover of staff of the entire u.s. senate. you know, that's something she

will have to talk about at some point soon and if she rises in this race, you know, it's probably going to come under even more scrutiny. >> i'll give you the last word. everyone nice to you that you worked for. >> i have a lot of scars. >> she's good and had to be to get where she was. i do think it's a sexist perspective. as a campaign strategist amy klobuchar is an ideal candidate for the times. when you turn out a president or incumbent party you want a contrast. she's a contrast to trump. very policy oriented. mid-western tough. you want somebody tough that doesn't take a lot of executive time. you want that balance. >> thank you. up next, two of our legal analysts making the argument if not the crime, it's the crime's offspring. how it's the threat of multiple ongoing investigations that should frighten the president the most including what's

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yet it's created weeks and weeks and months of headlines. so, no. i have zero concern. >> zero concern from the president's daughter unphased in an abc interview. there's possible wrongdoing by the trump inaugural committee. the nonprofit was paying the president's d.c. who del$175,000 a day for event space. another scandal, another turn in the russian investigation broadly. in the "washington post" this week two of our legal analysts point out the mueller investigation has sprouted and in there lies the jeopardy for trump. quote what began as an fbi counter intelligence investigation into 2016 presidential investigation has sprouted into multiple investigations in multiple jurisdictions examining multiple possible crimes. whatever trump's personal criminal liability now proven that the organizations he's run, business, political and governmental have been populated

with actual criminals. let me start with you. i love this image that you create of this tree emanating from the mueller investigation. when you look at it, how great of a concern is it for the president? >> huge. i mean they described it so well. again, the mueller investigation started for a limited purpose. he has kept it within -- despite criticisms from republicans, he has made an effort to keep it within the narrow confines of his mission. the southern distribution, the new york attorney general's office, other offices around the department of justice who have had indicated farmed out to them like bettina, everyone's going to work off of what was handed to them. and when you get handed a cooperat cooperator, a lead that is significant and you're a good, you know, office, a good bunch of prosecutors and investigators, you can do wonders with that. and that's your job. you know, it's not -- it's going to be spun as going after the

president. the way i would look at it, he seems like he and many people around him have probably gotten away with a lifetime of crime. now that's going to come back because once you put a microscope of good investigators looking at that, as they should, they're going to come up with -- >> that's the fundamental issue which is that donald trump really never expected to be president. he was going to run, get a bunch of attention, good for his brands, endorse chris christie. we know that's been reported as fact. had he expected to be president, i don't think he would have run. the idea that everything was going to be looked at in his past before running for president, that's where he's got the greatest liability. remember when he famously said don't go there, and steve bannon went crazy. if you tell them not to go there, that's exactly where they're going to go. collusion -- there may not be much there there, but money laundering, tax evasion, look out. >> and i stick with the botanical theme. they talk about cross pollination across all of the investigations. tim, let me ask about the

inauguration. there are things we remember about each, whether it's maya angelou talking about the pulse of this fine day or american carnage i guess and president tru trump's inaugural speech. how much is that now when you look at what the southern district has done? >> the common thread in the questions being asked in all of these investigations are did money come from a foreign power to try to influence donald trump, his circle, in -- with the aim of affecting u.s. policy. and clearly that's a legitimate question to ask about this inauguration. it was $107 million. a large portion of it's gone unaccounted for. who got that money? we know that mark burnett got a big chunk of it. the producer of "the apprentice," that has yet to be accounted for. ivanka trump, when the trumps go on tv and say they have nothing to worry about, they're lying to themselves or lying to the public. and part of this might be because unsophisticated and at least two are profoundly ignorant among the children.

ivanka was a hub during the inauguration. she was the one brokering who stayed at the hotels. she looked at the bills. that is going to be of interest just from a forensic level to investigators. she should worry about that. >> i want to play a clip from the circus this week, your colleague alex wagner spoke with former secretary of state hillary clinton about bob mueller's investigation. let's play their exchange about the prospects offing there being a report, it being released to the president. we'll chat about it on the other side. >> there's going to be a new attorney general confirmed in a matter of days. >> uh-huh. >> weeks. there's consternation from democrats when whether the findings of the mueller report are going to see daylight. are you worried when you look at the landscape? >> i think that anyone in a position of responsibility has a duty to keep the american people informed. >> right. >> i would expect that duty to be fulfilled. if there is a report, that report should be sent to the congress and made public. >> i seize on the word "if" in her answers. i wonder as we look at other

investigati investigations, the roots spread from the stem, if they take on more import because of that. that it's uncertain what we're going to see if we see it. >> i think there's an assumption that there is a report and we're going to figure out what was in the report. i think in some ways that is what we've signaled and what it seems like is going to happen. there's also this idea that if -- it f donald trump has any say at any of the people around him who he's handpicked has any say, that they're going to try to burry that report. we know through reporting with rudy giuliani that they are -- the white house is in some ways planning an alternative report. so they are in some ways realizing that if there is a report, we'll have to have a long and lofty answer for it. i think that when i think about the president's decision to run and i think about all the issues around him, i remember a source killing me as soon as special counsel robert mueller was appointed, special counsels and special investigations, the biggest problem is they can go

anywhere they want. even if they start looking at russia, they can go down to finances. and who among us thinks there isn't some issues with the trump finances? almost no one because the reporting out of the "washington post," so many places, every time you shine a light there's all sorts of things that are found. >> to you. >> a couple of things about that. one is that bill barr is a serious player. he's a former attorney general. he said a couple of things that should be reassuring to most people. a, he's not going to fire bop mueller, not only does he think he's a good prosecutor, they're old friends. said, he said there's going to be a report. and listen, i think all the -- given the society we live in now, all the people interested in all this, we're going to find out what's in the report. we're going to know. >> come hell or high water. >> we'll find out. >> i hope that's true. >> thanks to everybody for joining me. mimi, tim, michelle. next, former ambassador burns. and coming up, senator elizabeth warren getting set to official

her presidential bid, next. enalt

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newsroom, i've heard him say it, i say it myself when i meet with journalists at the "washington post" -- we, marty says, the administration may be at war with us, we are not at war with the administration. just do the work. just do the, that. >> good morning, and welcome to "a.m. joy." well, american media, inc., the company that publishes the "national enquirer" is back on federal prosecutors' radar after an extraordinary medium post by amazon founder and "washington post" owner jeff bezos. bezos is accusing the company of trying to extort him into giving a public statement about the tabloid's coverage of his extramarital affair in exchange for not publishing sexually explicit photos of him to back up his claims. bezos published emails that he says were from one of ami's lawyers suggesting that the text and pictures would not be published so long as bezos and his investigator released a