and beat the top safety standards. johnson's® choose gentle. my thanks to reverend al sharpton, nicolle, i know you matt miller in washington, d.c. that does it for this hour. nicolle wallace will be back here for deadly white house at 4:00 p.m. trump gets it wrong. let's play "hardball."

♪ >> good evening. i'm chris matthews from washington. president trump was out there today distorting the words of the federal judge who sentenced paul manafort to four months in prison. he tweeted a total untruth that quote both the judge and lawyer in the paul manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was no collusion with russia. the judge said nothing of the kind. the president proceeded to repeat that from the south lawn of the white house. >> i feel very badly for paul manafort. i think it's been a very, very tough time for him. but if you notice both his lawyer, a highly respected man and a very highly respected judge, the judge said there was no collusion with russia. the judge -- i mean, for

whatever reason, i was very honored by it, also made the statement that this had nothing to do with collusion with russia. so keep it going. let's go. keep the hoax going. just a hoax. >> that's twice now in one day trump said something the judge never said. trump manafort was sentenced yesterday for committing tax and bank fraud. charges completely unrelated to the russian collusion. yet trump seemed intent on dishonestly representing what the judge said. ellis didn't say there was no collusion. referring to the fraud case he said manafort is not before the court for any allegation that he colluded with the russian government. in other words, manafort's sentencing on charges of fraud fraud doesn't clear the president of the alleges that his campaign colluded with russia. i'm joined by natasha bertrand,

joyce vance is a former federal prosecutor. joyce, trump, i guess you have to use the word lied here. talking to people not following closely. the judge was simply ruling on a case that didn't relate to russian collusion by the trump people with russia. and trump used that as a statement as a way of saying i've been cleared. your thoughts? >> you're absolutely right. this is at best, silly, it's worst, it's defeatful. it's like you look at someone who had been indicted for bank fraud and said, well, no murder. you wouldn't expect prosecutors to prove a murder in this case involving manafort, you wouldn't expect porters to have put on evidence of collusion. so the president is again trying to appeal to his base, cling to some support here. >> this is what they call price discrimination in the market whereby you sell one story to another at a different price. he's telling people who don't

want to hear what happened yesterday. who yesterday's trial was not about collusion. it was about all sorts of other bad things paul manafort did on his own, you could argue. what do you make of trump's communication trick? >> this is the strategy the white house has been using petty much from the beginning, one that only accelerated when rudy giuliani came on last spring. it's a lot of smoke screen, a lot of misdirection, changing the conversation, putting out untruths and mistruths, distorting the facts. that's been their strategy to try to prey upon members of the american public who aren't following it day in and day out like we are. when handed something like this yesterday the president is giuliani have really seized on it to take a swipe at the special counsel.

rudy giuliani said he twisted the judge's words somewhat to suggest he was punishing robert mueller's team for overreach, that mueller's team suggested a stiffer sentence for manafort, the fact the judge only gave him four years was proof that the special counsel was out of bounds. and clearly trying to sort of lay that groundwork to make a similar claim for whenever the mueller report is finally released and the white house has to deal with that. >> seems to me last night the judge was saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend. i don't like this guy mueller, i'm going to reward manafort. anyway, let me go to natasha on a larger political question here. a pardon, if there is one anytime, it's politics. whether it's jack johnson or anybody your pardoning or richard nixon, it's always politics. is it easier or harder for trump, the politician, to pardon manafort now that he got light sentence?

>> i think it's harder. with he can't make the argument now that this wasn't fair. this is beyond fair and extremely lenient compared to the 19 to 24 years he might have gotten if the judge had gone with the guidelines here. i think it depends what happens in d.c. next week if the judge in d.c. gives -- throws the book at him. >> something to add up to ten. >> if it's adding up to ten, if it's consecutive, i can see it being a stronger argument to say manafort committed white collar crimes, just like rudy giuliani was saying he's for the an organized criminal, not a murderer. he's committed white collar criminal. a very easy argument to sell. it will be a very easy argument for them to sell. mueller's prosecutors said yesterday that manafort did not fully cooperated under the terms

of his plea agreement saying, quote, he told us things we already knew. he did not provide valuable information or cooperation. and it's providing speculation. trump attorney rudy giuliani tells nbc news a pardon isn't being considered at this time. isn't that cute? at this time. the president isn't ruling one in or out. that's all giuliani talked there. when asked about a pardon earlier today, trump also side stepped. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't even discuss it. the only one discussing it is you. senator bloomg >> take a big bite out of this apple. it seems to me trump is cute, and rudy giuliani is being very cute at this time. the president himself is not saying one way or the other. >> i think that any sort of pardon for manafort, whatever

the sentence would be really a bridge too far, even for this president. the reaction in congress i think would be one of abhorrence and repugnance. there would be action, although the pardon power is broad. it's not unlimited. if it is misused for obstruction of justice and clearly a pardon for manafort would be to reward not only noncooperation but also witness tampering, confidential discussions with the white house after his conviction. potential destruction of documents, in effect, contempt for the rule of law and a feeling as many in the white house and the curtain principle outcome that the the normal rules don't apply. so i think any pardon for manafort would trigger a firestorm. >> pardon all kinds of dirt on him.

everybody knows he would do this to reward him stone walling. if nixon would have parted the others, that would have sped up the process of his impeachment. it's obviously -- it's not like pardoning jack johnson, the african-american boxer from the early part of the 20th century who may have been screwed by the law. this is part of a coverup in itself a pardon for manafort. >> the pardon process -- >> this sentence itself is so lenient, laughably lenient, that it would, in fact, trigger that exact feeling that the president was playing politics with the justice system. there is a lot of reason to feel that manafort's conduct made him hardly blameless. in fact, he's no choir boy. he should be held accountable for not only the acts he did that brought him before the

court, but also his own giving polling information to russians, while he was a campaign manager, his defiance of the terms of his plea agreement and that kind of basic defiance of rule of law i think has to be taken into account. >> joyce, let's talk about conflict of interest and obstruction of justice. he could be already planning to go to allenwood to play tennis. he has all kinds of power, this judge to make life easy for paul manafort. but if the president jumps in and pardons him, it seems the president is protecting himself >> that's exactly right. and the pardon process isn't meant that the president can use to put himself above the rule of law. the president is supposed to be like everybody else in our constitutional system, accountable for violating the law either up on capitol hill or after he leaves office.

i think it's incredibly reassuring to hear senator blumenthal say he believes if trump uses the pardon process, in essence to protect himself and to reward paul manafort for refusing to testify against trump, that congress will react badly. because if they don't uphold the rule of law, then it's shattered and we're nothing more than a banana republic. >> let's go back to the politics i agree with that completely. let's go back to the politics and who paul manafort is. he's not only a lobbyist and a fixer for the russians and for putin, but also he was instrumental in winning trump the white house. not that those are unrelated matters in 2016. as trump made clear, his contributions, magnificent's didn't go unnoticed. let's watch. >> i have fantastic people, paul manafort just came on. he's great. he didn't need to do this but he wanted to. >> paul, cory, hope, i mean,

these people, what we've been doing has been incredible. >> and paul manafort has done an amazing job. here's here someplace. where's paul? paul manafort. oh, good. you made it. >> ironically i interviewed paul manafort at the 2016 republican convention where he defended republican chants to lock up, we've heard those, hillary clinton. let's watch him. >> lock her up became the anthem of this convention for days. all we keep hearing is lock her up. they start singing lock her up. how much hatred can you garner between here and november? >> it's not about hatred. the american people don't trust -- >> you call her crooked hillary. >> because she is crooked. >> would you say that to her face? >> i'm a gentleman. >> i'm more of a gentleman, right. now the shoe is on the other foot, obviously. and during his tenure, manafort was present for several key events of interest for the special counsel,

including the meeting with trump tower. the merest changes made to the republican party platform on iran in favor of russia and putin and trump's outrageous public call for russia to hack into hillary clinton's emails, all that is happening while he happened to be on watch. >> i've said that smarcht at the center of this. all of the most significant rush-related events that happened during the campaign coincided with manafort's arrival to the campaign. the trump tower meeting, the rnc platform change that made it softer towards russia, the wikileaks documents dump. before the dnc. he had to resign because of his ties to russian oligarchs. in ukraine and that was discovered and he had to leave the campaign in a hurry. but it's been a pattern of the president completely distancing himself from anyone on the

campaign after it became known they were of interest to the special counsel. >> you mean like trump can step back and see i don't care what he did. he may have done everything he's accused of but i didn't do it. >> trump is good at keeping people at arm's length. who might have done the dirt work for him. but there were text messages that were sent between his daughters posted on the dark web and they were since verified that said trump and their father would go up and down trump tower all day scheming. since his appointment, the special counsel robert mueller has put charges against 34 people in three companies, that includes six trump associates and dozens of russian nationals. the question is whether mueller will bring any additional indictments before he reports his findings to attorney general william barr. joaquin castro of texas who's on the house intelligence committee said that michael cohen's closed-door testimony leads him,

the congressman, to believe the president's family could be next. >> from what i heard i believe there will still be more indictments to come. i think the information leads me to believe that the president's -- members of the president's family could be in legal jeopardy. >> former cia director john brennan sitting here last night also predicted more indictments to come before the final report. here he goes. >> there is a lot that the special counsel's office has been involved in. >> what do you smell coming between now and the final report for mueller? what comes between? >> i smell more indictments. >> family members? >> i believe that there are going to be family members indicted by the special counsel, it would be the final raft of indictments because i think bob mueller and his team know if they indict somebody of the trump family, that donald trump would not allow bob mueller to continue.

>> you think they'll fire the guy? >> absolutely. >> what does this look like at this point. how does this film develop, if you will? it's like an old polaroid. it's developing. are we going to see more indictments of the family? what's dodge before the final report? >> it's possible, certainly conventional washington wisdom if members of the trump family were to be indicted, that would be the final stage of the mueller probe. i think brian williams last night said it would be a fadeaway jumper from the special counsel. i'd go one step further saying it would have to be a buzzer-beater because if he was to do that, that would certainly lead the president more aggressively end things. we don't know that indictments are coming. certainly there's speculation that more may. there's a belief that the mueller probe is wrapping up. it could be a matter of days or weeks before the report is transmitted to dominican. what part will be made public? but it is clear if members of the president's family and

speculation is centered on his eldest son, if they were in jeopardy, that would be the last stage of this investigation. >> senator, your thoughts on what happens if the special counsel goes after family? >> i think that the special counsel is a by thebook prosecutor who's going to respect the high standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. if he goes after members of a trump family, he will have a very powerful case but two points to keep in mind, it's not only special counsel that is a threat to the trump family. it's also the southern district of new york and state authorities. and they may have a lot more on financial crimes against donald trump jr. and others. and the last point i'd make is donald trump's testified before various congressional committees including the senate judiciary committee. and i believe there are very, very serious questions about his

truthfulness in testimony before that committee based not only on michael cohen's testimony, but on other facts and circumstances and have come to our attention. so there may be a very, very powerful case against donald trump jr. and others in the trump family, and we have yet to see the end of the special counsel in terms of indictments, i believe. there's more coming. >> thank you so much. and i think u.s. congress could still make their case right now for impeachment. thank you very much, senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. natasha, short noms here. natasha, jonathan and joyce are sticking with me. coming up, someone's not telling the truth. cohen testified he never asked for a pardon and his lawyer said he did and now the president says cohen's lying about that. plus, the white house springs another leak. the house oversight committee of the white house gets its hand on security clearance dominates on

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legal adviser said trump's people first broached the subject of a pardon. in a statement davis said michael was open to the ongoing dangling of a possible pardon by trump representatives private. he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon because he kept hearing about it, i guess. president trump added this warning. >> i know that in watching and seeing, but when he lied about the pardon, that was really a lie. and he knew all about pardons. his lawyers said they went to my lawyers and asked for pardons. >> for his part, michael cohen accused the president of lying tweeting, mr. president, let me remind you that today is international women's day. you might want to apologize for our own lies and dirty deeds to women like container mcdougal and stephanie clifford.

i want to start with jonathan about the pardoning, not pardoning. he clearly wants to differentiate. i like manafort. i hate cohen. explain why he would have different attitudes towards these two gentlemen. >> right. he's made that distinction very early on from this past summer when both of them ended up in court at the same time, manafort and cohen. where trump has large praised manafort and is seen by the president as someone who has stayed loyal, but where we cohen very much flipped on the president. trump has accused his longtime former fixer of lying about him repeatedly in order to get a lighter sentence. cohen, of course, has been sentenced to three years in prison and has to report in about two months. the issue with this is it's very conflicting stories about this pardon where cohen's team says the trump's lawyers dangled it.

rudy giuliani said it was cohen's lawyers who broached the subject. and we have the president today for the first time saying cohen directly asked for that. i asked rudy giuliani just a few hours ago about that, he says that, yes, trump told him that cohen went to him after the april 2018 raid on cohen's home and office and asked about a pardon. they all have significant credibility issues and all have changed their stories on this very subject time and time again. >> joyce, what do you make of this mutual courtship over the pardon, would you like one? yes, i'd like one. seems like there's a tease going back and forth here. >> prosecutors have a term for -- we call it obstruction of justice.

it's unusual because we have the president who has the ability to grant a pardon. in other cases you might see someone encouraging a witness against them to leave town or suddenly become unavailable. but this isn't different, chris. the bizarre aspect of this is that the president and his former lawyer are going to back and forth at each other saying you're a liar, no, you're a liar. and the reality is they both are. i wouldn't want either one of them on the witness stand as a witness unless they were backed up by corroborating witnesses because there's no one to truest here without that. >> i know this is always an inside game. do we know who's advising the president legally? when it's bad legally or unconstitutional, who's there? >> i believe it's folks like jay sekulow and emmet flood in terms of the mueller investigation the russia probe. but jay sekulow doesn't

necessarily have the most credible role either because he may have coerced cohen into lying before congress about the trump tower moscow deal that's still up in the air. we need more reporting on that, but he was involved apparently in altering that statement that he gave to congress. these are people surrounding the president who may not be giving him the best advice. >> are they concierge lawyers, telling him what he wants to hear? >> potentially but anyway, he just tweets what he wants to tweet and i think we're losing sight of the big picture here which is the president admitted today that he was discussing pardons with michael cohen and that was just after the raid on michael cohen's home and office by the fbi. so if he was discussing pardons at that moment with someone who was potentially about to flip on him, who else was he discussing pardons with at this time and was he dangling them? >> that's a hell of an analysis there. cohen asked his lawyer to explore a potential pardon last year. with trump's legal team.

davis said he had a joint defense agreement with the president. the revelation of cohen's pardon request appeared to contradict his testimony last week to the house oversight committee. let's watch that. >> i'm ashamed of my own feelings. -- failings, and publicly accepted responsibility for them by pleading guilty in the southern district of new york. and i have never asked for nor would i accept a pardon from president trump. >> is that credible, what he just said? going to prison using the one out he had at hand which is i've had a decent relationship with this president, maybe he'll get me a pardon? why wouldn't he do it? >> cohen needs be very careful from this point forward about telling the truth. his narrative is i lied, i plead guilty. now i'm a new guy, committed to telling the truth and any effort

he makes that deviates from that straight and narrow path will be damaging to him. it's bad enough that he has to be corroborated with other witnesses and documents. he looks very credible in front of the congress. he did a couple of things to demonstrate credibility. here i think this is very unclear about why this is very unclear about why he would lie about a simple matter and it may be that it's a matter of timing is the truth. but going forward, cohen needs to act with extreme care for telling the truth. >> when you're winning a game of eight ball in pool, don't scratch. that's the danger for him right now. thank you joyce vance, natasha bertrand and jonathan lemire. what a team. coming up the house oversight committee didn't get cooperation to get the security clearance documents they were seeking. they got a leak. and somebody in the white house is not friendly towards jared and ivanka. they're leaking the bad stuff. what was the problem? why couldn't they clear the

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the witch hunt continues. the fact is that i guess we got 81 letters. there was no collusion. it was a hoax. there was no anything and they want to do that instead of getting legislation passed. 81 people or organizations got letters. it's a disgrace to our country. they want to focus on nonsense.

>> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump earlier this week criticizing democrats for their wide-ranging investigations, particularly the documents the house judiciary committee requested from over 80 trump associates and organizations. that includes that list, members of the president's family, doesn't include his daughter, ivanka. they are torn over how house speaker nancy pelosi said they're not off limits. however, house speaker nancy pelosi told the post that trump's children are not off limits of they are advisers to the president, they have security clearances. this is not their children at home. and request for documents on the security clearance process, including for trump's son in law, jared kushner. however, ax i don't see reported the oversight committee already had documents on their clearances before they made that

request thanks to a leak from the white house. i'm joined now by democratic congressman david cicilline of rhode island. you're a great guest. thank you for this. i've seen a lot of skull did you gory in my life, but i have never heard of white house staff people leaking stuff to a committee that's investigating him. what's going on? can you figure out if these checks on the president's family members are now floating down to the house committees who are investigating him? how is that happening? >> there are clearly whistle blowers within the administration who are concerned about this. we should remember, security clearances are given to protect the national security interests of the united states. they're only given to people who are trustworthy and can keep confidential some of the most secrets essential to protecting the american people.

and so when the intelligence committee and the law enforcement committee raised objections to jared kushner and ivanka trump getting security clearances and the president ordered they get them anyway and lied about them, there's a lot of concern. i think the the less the trump administration cooperates with these investigations, furnish the documents being requested so we can do our oversight because there are conscientious whistleblowers. sharing this information because they're concerned about the national security of the united states. >> what do you make of these two? do you think they're just beneficiaries of nepotism? they're well off, obviously. they have the president's love, of course and the president's deputizing them for world peace and all kinds of things, not fashion statements or looking good or anything and not showing up around like this with these public appearances. he's not using them like that. how do we make peace in the middle east for example?

judicial reform, all this stuff your thoughts? >> i mean the president made the decision to hire them as senior advisors to the president. they're involved in very significant work and ivanka trump during the same peer of -- period of time was provided with trade marks from the chinese while we were negotiating with the chinese. jared kushner's family was bailed out near 5th avenue property by the same company trying to sell nuclear technologies to the saudis. so there's a lot of reason to be concerned about these security clearances and to understand why they were objected to by the intelligence and law enforcement communities and why the president ordered they be given and lie about it. i think there's a lot of concern. the president just said in a clip you showed, all we're worried about is investigations. you know, the good news is we can do both things. we passed a bill today, h.r. 1 to transform politics to raise ethical standards to get money out of our political system to really make a big difference in empowering voters for the

people. we've passed common sense gun safety legislation and begun hearings on driving down prescription drug prices. you can get work done and hold the administration accountable. >> any move will probably infuriate the president. trump regularly claims they're trying to impeach him and ruin his family and has said privately he does not want his children testifying on capitol hill or providing documents to investigators. tip o'neale doctrine was don't go after family members, it's bad politics. in this case, is it an extraordinary situation where it is good government if not good politics to go after the kids? >> i don't think we're going to have a choice. we have a responsibility to find out what happened. these are not kids doing their own thing. that would be off limits. these are senior members of this administration who are in the middle of some very, very

important events with real questions about what's happening. we would be derelict in our responsibility if we didn't conduct investigations and oversight. we have to do it in a respectful way and ought to limit the public hearings if we can, try to collect information first. but simply because they're the children that they're off lim -- limits and they can engage in whatever conduct they want and it's unreviewable. the constitution doesn't work that way. the president made the decision to hire them, put them in the white house. they then become members of the administration. they're subject to the same laws and ethical standards as everyone else who works in the white house. david cicilline of rhode island. thank you, sir. up next the president's advisers want him to rein in the wild campaign rally performances and present a more dignified presidential image in 2020. he says it's easy enough to do. let's watch him. [ cheers and applause ]

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welcome back to "hardball." with a dozen democrats already in the race for president to take on president trump in 2020, much of the focus is centered, however, on someone who's not yet running, former vice president joe biden. "the new york times" reports biden spent much of this year giving high-profile paid speeches and appearing at events that project him as statesman like. this week former new york mayor michael bloomberg announced he would not be running for president what biden's anticipated entry has done is that it's started to clear one lane, the white male

moderate-leaning lane but hasn't stirred up anyone else. and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren who called for the breakup of some of the company's biggest tech companies like google, amazon, and facebook. warren discussed her plans a short time ago on the beneath with ari bhel ber. >> what this is about is about competition, all those little businesses and start-up businesses and entrepreneurs who want to put their products on amazon or on google and who are at an enormous excessive disadvantage. meanwhile as the president watches the democratic field take shape, politico reports he's itching to upstage them with rallies of his own. but campaign officials believe an early reelection strategy built around his role as chief executive indignified settings such as the oval office will do more than his free willy arena speeches.

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to act presidential than what we're doing here tonight, believe me. >> what the exception of the late, great, abraham lincoln, i can be more presidential than any president that's ever held this office. that i can tell you. >> remember i used to say, how easy it is to be presidential? but you'd all be out of here, you'd be so bored. i'm very presidential. ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here tonight. >> would have a lot of fun, then say he's not acting presidential. anybody can act presidential. >> act, the keyword. kimberly atkins, correspondent for wbur in boston and howard. kimberly, congratulations on this new position. goodbye, print.

here we go. what do you think of the guy who talks in front of an office like a character in a movie? who actually talks like i'm now deciding how i'm going to show myself to you. should i act like a president or some president or not act some manic character. he does it in real time. >> i want to know where the advisors who want him to be quote/unquote presidential have been for three years. there is no sense that that is what's coming. did you see his cpac speech? >> two hours of rambling fidel castro, whatever, stream of consciousness. if he had a coconsciousness -- do you stream consciousness when you don't have a consciousness? >> the idea of the rose garden is amusing. i think they will bring roses with him wherever he goes. having covered a lot of his rallies in the campaign and having seen him in action, he requires the energy infusion of

mass adulation in person. it's not enough that his twitter follow number goes up. it's not enough that he gets a reaction from us on television. he needs the visceral human sound of adulation. >> the mayor of new york for years, how am i doing? >> how am i doing? and that's -- >> we have two more topics. joe biden has been restrained but it may be his challenge could be his highest poll number will be the first day of his campaign. they are already going after him. >> yeah, i think that's true. joe biden's biggest disadvantage is it's no longer four years ago. politics has changed dramatically in the last four years. the democrat party has hachange. so every policy position, democrats are being very critical of the obama administration. now every policy position he has ever taken, every video of him

from the anita hill hearings, everything from before is going to seem terribly out of step in 2020. it's tough when -- >> he said the cosmos has shifted. now you have to look liberal, a little lefty. you can't look like that middle of the road guy. >> i have been obsessly reporting on what joe is up to. talking to people out there, i know that people in his inner circle are calling around the country looking for allies to help explain and put in context various aspects of joe biden's past. that means a lot of the organizational work for the run, if he makes it, is about getting people who are willing to step forward and explain, no, no, this is what he meant in 1982 about this, here is what he meant about anita hill, busing, here's how it fits in that context of long ago. >> you are not winning when you are playing defense. >> exactly.

>> let me ask you about colorado. governor john hickenlooper. i don't understand -- well, i do. we are on television a lot. let's watch him. he wouldn't explain himself to joe this morning who asked if he is a capitalist. here we go. >> well, would you call yourself a proud capitalist? >> oh, i don't know. you know, again, the labels, i'm not sure any of them fit. >> let me ask you, i'll break it down. do you consider yourself a capitalist? >> well, again, the labels -- you know, i haam a small busine person. >> right. so do you consider yourself a capitalist and does capitalism work? >> well, i think i -- i don't look at myself with a label. i think right now the way capitalism is working in the united states, it's not doing what it once did. >> you're first, howard.

quickly, what's his problem? >> if that's the level of conversation that democrats are going to have about capitalism and socialism, which is a fake argument, i wrote down roads, harbors, bridges, dams, social security, medicare, interstate rules. those are socialist. we have a mixed issue. >> we have a history of 200 some years of mixed capitalism, public/private working together. why do we have to decide one or another now? >> people are afraid of -- >> what is scary about the word capitalist? >> the idea that democrats can't embrace the idea about making money. it's kept people out of the race. >> how do they think the groceries get to the safeway? how do they figure out the beer is on the bar? it's called the market. >> people bring it to market. >> i am not saying there is no place for it. i am saying in the political discourse right now it's seen as

crip t kryptonite. >> they have to grow up. tell the millennials in brooklyn they have to grow up. >> elizabeth warren told me at lunch she is a capitalist. you have to have anti-trust like she is talking about today. but if you throw out the market, what are you left with? >> millennials, if i could speak for them for a second, feel screwed by the market. >> okay. we will move on with feelings here with howard fineman. thank you kimberly atkins and howard fineman. move on. next, time for the democrats. the case or impeachment is already in the public record. let's stop waiting for the smoking gun. i will say that at length in a moment. that at length in a moment now, his world explodes with flavor. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day all-night protection. can you imagine 24-hours without heartburn?

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impeachable crimes have been committed in broad daylight. trump asking the fbi director james comey to drop his investigations of national security advisor michael flynn. trump firing the fbi director for refusing to do so. worse yet firing him for refusing trump's demand to declare personal loyalty to donald trump above the law. trump firing jeff sessions for insisting on following department of justice rules and recusi recusing himself in a case he played a personal role. his part in trump's presidential campaign. and trump paying off someone for hiding a matter from the voters that could have turned the 2016 election. a violation of finance laws, signing checks in the silence of women he had relationships with. and trump's family members and their reference to win the support of foreign power, russia, to win the presidency? democrats who control the house of representatives and with it

the power to impeach should consider what they and the country are already looking at. not spending two more years looking for the cherry to put on top of the cake. donald trump has already baked it. that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> he doesn't give you questions or orders. he speaks in a code. >> new messaging from the president for two of his criminal colleagues. >> i feel very badly for paul manafort. >> tonight what the president is signaling to his newly sentenced campaign manager. >> his lawyer went out of his way, actually, to make a statement last night. no collusion with russia. there was absolutely none. >> and what he is signaling to his about to be jailed fixer. >> michael cohen lied about the pardon. it was a stone cold lie. >> then the abrupt resignation of trump's sixth communication