the beat fwogoes on but it o ends, i'll be back tomorrow. "hardball" with chris matthews is up next. trump said he didn't help russia help him. let's play hardball. ardball. good evening, i'm chris matthews, the battle rages between a president and a civil servant who seeks to distort and discredit. only for a brief moment did americans get a short but vastly illuminating glimpse of the truth when president trump declared what the rest of the world has known for nearly three years that russia conspired to help him win the election.

here's the trump tweet from earlier today that said so much. russia, russia, russia, that's all you heard at the beginning of this witch hunt hoax. and now russia has disappeared because i had nothing to do with russia helping me to get elected. it was a crime that didn't exist. i had nothing to do with russia helping me to get elected. there's a quote. well, trump was directly acknowledging for the first time what the u.s. intelligence community has been saying since january of 2017. and having stumbled into the truth, the president picked himself up and denied what he just said. >> do you believe russia helped you get elected. >> russia did not help me get elected. you know who got me elected, i got me elected. russia didn't help me at all. >> that's not what you tweeted, sir, now came another trump stumble. asked whether he expects congress to impeach him, he said the courts wouldn't allow it. >> do you think they're going to impeach you?

>> i don't see how. they can't. i can't imagine the courts allowing it. >> i can't imagine the courts allowing it, well, but every kid who's ever taken civics knows that's not how impeachment works. the house of representatives has the sole power to impeach a president. the courts have nothing to do with it, mr. president. shifting the matters of image, his stronger suit, trump said he didn't like the sound of the word for what congress might still do to him. >> i never thought that would even be possible to be using that word. to me it's a dirty word, the word impeach. it's a dirty, filthy, disgusting word, and it had nothing to do with me, so i don't think so because there was no crime. >> well, trump's rocky performance today seems to indicate that the special counsel's public remarks

yesterday might have gotten to him because like it or not, mueller said that the evidence he gathered does not clear the president of criminal obstruction. in response, again, the president launched a diatribe against mueller saying he never should have been appointed as special counsel. >> i think he's totally conflicted because as you know, he wanted to be the fbi director and i said no. look, robert mueller should have never been chosen, and he loves comey. why didn't mueller investigate comey? his best friend or his very good friend. i think he is a total conflicted person. i think mueller is a never trumper, he's somebody that dislikes donald trump, and despite $40 million, 18 trump haters, including people that work for hillary clinton and some of the worst human beings on earth, they got nothing. >> the president of the united states there, i'm joined now by 2020 democratic presidential candidate congressman eric

swalwell. on the intelligence and house judiciary committees. what did you make of the performance, including the fact that the president stumbled into the truth that the russians helped him get elected. >> good evening, chris. what i make of it is that is a guilty person trying to clean up. i don't see it as chaos, i see it as corruption and he's trying to use chaos as a way to mask the corruption. here's why it matters, and this is what's important for your viewers to understand is it's a virtual certainty that donald trump in the last 20 years has probably cheated on state and federal taxes. it's also a virtual certainty that the if the russians know a lot about hillary clinton because of what they hacked they probably know the same about donald trump. tl therefore, the question we have to ask is would donald trump sell america's secrets to protect his own secrets? i think it's likely that this guy is always looking to protect himself. that's why we need to know if he's compromised or not, and that's why i think we need to

take a full diagnostic of this guy's finances and his relationships with russia. >> what do you make of him saying you guys can't impeach me even though you were one of those calling for the process to begin because the courts will save him. how do the courts get in the way, what's this hallucination about the courts saving him. >> it sound like a guy who spent a lot of time being sued in court for corrupt business practices. if he knows anything about civics, this guy knows the courts. he has been involved in hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits, but it doesn't work that way, chris. we are going down the road to impeachment. i personally think the first thing we should do is impeach the attorney general and the tr treasury secretary, they are front door obstructers, keeping us from getting documents we know, it would set an example that no one is above the law. second if the president is so clear, and so unable to be charged because he's exonerated, he should lift the doj policy that says a president can't be indicted and see what robert mueller does next. >> you're right there.

robert mueller made clear he filed the justice department's legal opinion, the president cannot be charged in office. attorney general barr says mueller could have said the president obstructed justice. >> i personally felt he could have reached the decision? >> in your view, he could have reached a conclusion. the opinion says you cannot indict a president in office but he could have reached as a decision as to whether it was criminal activity. he had his reasons for not doing it, which he explained, and i'm not going to argue about those reasons. >> he seemed to suggest yesterday there was another venue for this and that was congress. >> i'm not sure what he was suggesting but, you know, the department of justice didn't use our powers of investigating crimes as an adjunct to congress. >> that's the attorney general in front of the richard nixon memorial fireplace because it's 90 degrees in d.c. i don't know what he needed the

fireplace for but his argument that mueller could still as special counsel point the finger at the president, even if he couldn't indict him, what do you make of that? >> it's nonsense, chris. it's the reason why he should be, i believe, impeached because he's lied to congress. he hasn't turned over documents that were subpoenaedme. he sounds like he's being paid by donald trump to be his lawyer, not us, we're the ones paying him. w bob mueller went into this case, seeking evidence, he actually did the right thing by saying if i can't indict the president, it's not fair to the president for me to smear him in this way because the policy says that i can't do that, so he's leaving it to congress. again, you have one honorable person, bob mueller doing the right thing and a bunch of dishonorable people, the attorney general protecting the president and a very very guilty president of the united states. >> just to make it clear, congressman, you're for impeachment right now, go start the process right now? >> i'm for bringing mueller in,

getting the full mueller report, impeaching barr and mnuchin for the documents, i recognize that the rule of law here is the most important thing we can protect. it's very fragile. first things first, let's get rid of the first two obstructers in barr and mnuchin and get the information for the president. >> thank you, u.s. congressman, eric swalwell of california, i'm joined by white house correspondent, barbara mcquaid and ken kirchner, former federal prosecutors. this president seems to be all over the place in the tweet storm this morning. he went crazy with x many minutes on the south lawn, on and on, including that weird statement where he said i didn't help the russians help me. >> the tweet initially was something that was something of a real revelation by the president because over and over again he's been asked point-blank do you think russia helped you get elected. he never wanted to say that. in the historic helsinki press conference, i don't know who to

believe, russia or my own intelligence skmunts bcommuniti the fact that the president backtracked wasn't surprising. the politics is the president doesn't want to say russia helped him or interfered in the election. that would question his own legitimacy. that's at the heart of this. he doesn't want to be seen as someone who doesn't deserve the job he has. >> in fairness to this president, if he acknowledged that the russians helped him get elected, wouldn't that be seen by most people, especially his enemies as he admitted the russians got him in office. the slippery slope is you're the manchurian candidate, right? >> you could say i believe my intelligence communities, russia clearly interfered in the election. i did not welcome their support. they probably did impact the election. at the end of the day, i ran a good race, and hillary clinton didn't. >> do you think he would ever

admit the margin came from the russians? >> he does not want to admit at all that russia had an impact and robert mueller's statements, beginning and ending his statement with the fact that at the core of this is the idea that russia interfered in our elections, let's not forget that. that probably struck the president at least. >> what do you make of his claim that the courts will save him? what reading of the constitution is that? >> i'm not quite sure at what point in the impeachment process the courts intervene. in fact, they don't. you know, i think we just all saw, chris, the sort of disintegration of the president in the press conference. if anybody would take a moment to think about how on the one hand he has been saying the mueller report completely exonerates me, yay me, now he's saying, mueller, what a terrible guy. he's conflicted, you can't believe a word he says, well, which is it, the fact is it's

neither. >> do you think this is confusing his people out there? 40% of the country, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> hey, wait a minute, that doesn't makes sense. >> they don't do that. >> apparently not. >> special counsel mueller repeated two key from his reports, he could not indict a sitting president, he's not allowed to do that. it's unconstitutional, and he could not clear the president of criminal obstruction. today president trump contradicted, falsely claiming he had found him innocent. he says as you point out, first of all, he found me innocent and then he's no damn good. let's watch. >> there were no charges. none. if you look at bill clinton, that very nice gentleman who has been so much on my side, as you know, his special prosecutor, it was guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, so many guilties. with me, there was no guilty.

he said essentially you're innocent. i'm innocent of all charges. >> he said -- >> there was no crime, there was no charge because he had no information. . >> you know, he is suddenly pulling back. he's saying no evidence yesterday. tru trump, he says no information. it's almost like, okay, i beat the rap. >> and you know, i think attorney general william barr really contributed to this. in his initial letter i think he misled the american public into believing that what robert mueller was saying is it's just too close a call, there's not sufficient evidence for me to find obstruction of justice. what we know instead from both mueller's report, and his public comments yesterday, is that he could not charge a sitting president, and therefore he chose not to make a decision because it would be unfair to even accuse him of a crime, but what he said is so therefore why did i do this work, knowing i couldn't charge him? i did it for a few reasons, one to preserve the evidence, while memories were fresh and

documents were available so that number one, we could charge coconspirators, we could preserve for future prosecutors when trump is no longer a sitting president and number three to give it to congress because it's their duty to hold the president responsible. >> all of that sounds right. why didn't robert mueller, early on in this process say, by the way, role here is to investigate, look for wrong doing, but i can't understand the constitution that we at the justice accept, indict. i'm not going to indict no matter how much evidence i get. why didn't he say that a year ago. >> from a public relations standpoint, it would have been a good idea to manage expectations. we know it's not his mo to go in the public. he likes to speak through court documents and that's what he did. i'm not sure why he gave a press conference yesterday other than perhaps to try to preemp congressional testimony. >> he didn't want to go before senate republicans. >> can you imagine that hearing? >> that hearing would be a

circus. the republicans would ask about everything except the president's conduct. i'm sure they would ask questions about hillary's e-mails, and democrats would be frustrated because they would want mueller to go beyond the four corners of his 448 pages and he has indicated he's not interested in doing that. if he was placed under oath, would have to answer those questions. >> why do you think he did the eight minutes instead of questioning. >> i think he was trying to say the report was any testimony, please don't subpoena me because i don't want to go any further than this support. he was signaling to congress, democrats and republicans, there's nothing more than i want to say here. >> it's a little unsatisfying to put it lightly for everybody. and we want a judge to come in and say guilty or not guilty and clear up the air. maybe the congress will do that. i'm worried they might not. thank you all. coming up, the silence from republicans, well, boy is it silent on the mueller report is deafening, even on mueller's

biggest red flag, russian interference, they got nothing to say. sergeant schultz, i don't know nothing. why isn't more doing done here. nothing is going on from the republican's side, and the president's petty grievances with a deceased war hero. military officials hide the warship from the john mccain so the president wouldn't see it when he's in japan. did the word get to tokyo the president can't let this go. a friend of john mccain is on next. next year to confirm another right wing judge b sure to watch our hardball, live town hall, you'll here from mayor pete buttigieg, and the voters talking to each other. this guy is an interesting guy. that's monday night 7:00 p.m. eastern, live from fresno state in california. we'll all be out there. much more ahead tonight, by the way, stick with us. much more ahead tonight, by the way, stick with us

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welcome back to "hardball" for all the talk about what democrats will do in the wake of the special counsel's comments yesterday, we haven't heard a mouse, anything from the republicans. from the little we have heard it seems like they're all singing from the same song book. >> if you read the mueller report, there are two questions, really just one asked, was there collusion. the answer is no. was there obstruction, the answer is no. nothing's going to change that outcome. so the country needs to move forward. i know from a political basis why some people want to continue to do this but i think the american public wants more from us. that's why we should move forward. >> mueller was the final word for me on all criminal matters. >> the special counsel's finding is clear, case closed. >> well, there's been one compensation, michigan republican congressman justin amash, on tuesday, amash, the

only republican to call for impeachment proceedings to begin even shared this interesting nugget on where his republican colleagues stand. >> my colleagues tell me all the time, in fact, you wouldn't believe how many phone conversations i had or conversations in person with colleagues, justin, by the way, a lot of them think i'm right about the mueller report, they just won't say it. a lot of the republicans, and what they will say to me is justin, you know, going publicly with that, you know the democrats will never support you. you know they're hypocrites on this stuff, and i say you know, some of them are, some of them aren't. it doesn't matter to me because you have to look at what you're doing first. >> republicans for the rule of law, that's a conservative group, created to defend the institutions of our republic will run an ad on fox and friends tomorrow morning. that's next week, rather, urging members of congress to hold trump accountable. in the end, three former senior republican officials from both bush administrations and the reagan administration make the case on trump's obstruction, and

republican inaction. let's watch. >> asking a witness to lie to create a false record is a classic case of obstruction of justice. >> one of the most disturbing things to me is the conduct of republicans. they know that there is a damming case in the mueller report of obstruction of justice by the president, and they are acting like it's not. >> conservatives are all about c conserving, history, conserving morality, conserving the country. if you really believe in those sorts of principle,s, now is the time to put your principles first. >> the group plans on hand delivering the mueller report with highlighted sections to republicans in congress. i'm joined by jeremy bash, former chief of staff of the cia and defense department, and jw vared, associate professor at

george mason school of law. what do you make about the republicans, nine out of ten rank and file voters are with trump to the end, dead enders. >> that's part of it. i think there are some in the house who want to ride the president's coat tails and they look like one of the junior officers behind kim jong un in the rally, they are disgusting, these guys. there are members of the senate, i think they should stay quite. their role is the judge, the house's role is the grand jury. i think they should stay quiet either way, and some have been good at pushing back at trump where they think they can make a difference, rand paul on immigration, ben sasse on trade. some of them, there are a few heroes in the house, but justin certain is one. i predicted it would be justin. >> what is the signal he might break from the pack? >> because he's always been a guy, a very libertarian republican who cares about the rule of law. >> that was rand paul's baseball card description too.

what happened to him? he's become a maga boy? >> he's the deal. i wouldn't say maga boy, he pushes back on trade, immigration, yemen, he pushes back on all three. he should stay silent on impeachment as a senator. frankly, he feels like he can't get ahead of nancy pelosi who should be the leader on this. it's easier for her to push back. >> every time i watch one of those mass hall meetings of north korean, people taking notes, if your smile isn't exactly like the smile on both sides of you, if you yawn, if you get caught asleep, you're dead in the next 24 hours literally. the republican party is being disciplined like that. i have never seen a political party so instep. >> well, not only are they? step, chris, but they're also departing from their history. ronald reagan spoke of peace through strength, and i'm old enough to remember when republicans were tough on russia, on the soviet union, the reagan build up of defense was

to counter the soviet menace, and republicans that are essentially tough on national security and lining up behind the commander in chief who denigrates our military, denigrates our law enforcement, d denigrates our intelligence, and sends love letters to kim jong un and embraces vladimir putin. how is that republicanism? how is that peace through strength? >> let's talk about the objective thing. it has nothing to do with if trump gets reelected. the one thing we have is thes a -- the russians are coming again. they have made this country more divisive than it has been over facts, what they did, and now everybody is worried about the fact that what they didn't already in florida, screwed with counties. according to the republican, the new governor down there, desantos, if they started messing with our election counts, what happens. we won't know who the next president is because nobody knows.

>> i wouldn't paint too broad of a brush. trump's rhetoric is deplorable and treasonous. senate republicans have spoken out. you have a 20% funding at dhs. kirstjen nielsen was on top of this issue and tried to get it to trump. it was difficult to do that. >> you weren't allowed to say russia around him? >> i'm saying don't always paint with the trump brush for all republicans because i think there are people trying to do the right thing within the constraints that are there. >> 300 million this country, when one or two say something, i'm not impressed. when it comes to preventing a similar attack in 2020, mitch mcconnell has made it clear he is unlikely to allow the senate to vote on any election related legislation that would help protect the united states against further attacks. according to "the washington post," when the obama white house disclosed russia's interference to congress, mcconnell was among the republicans who didn't want to tell the public at all. according to "the washington post," mcconnell voiced skepticism that the underlying intelligence supported the white house claims.

jeremy. >> and i think there's something insidious in sewing doubt about whether or not our election system is secure. people say i'm not going to vote. i'm not going to go to the polls, and fundamentally, i think mcconnell has made a call c -- calculus that lower turnouts are in his favor. >> what do you make of some of these guys, we'll get to this later in the show, this president sort of weird pathology about john mccain, and his memory, and his ghost, if you will, and his ship named after him. what is it about lindsey graham, i've always liked the guy. i've known him a long time. he seems amazingly willing to just play trump's game. not that long ago, one notable republican made the very same case for impeachment, he did, about president clinton, as republicans actually democrats are making today. let's take a look at this montage of our friends at "meet

the press" daily. let's watch. >> let it be said that any president who cheats our institutions, shall be impeached. >> you don't have to say let's obstruct justice for it to be a crime. you judge people on their conduct, not magic phrases. >> if you determine that he committed the crime of perjury, and you determine that he committed the crime of obstruction of justice, based on the precedent of the senate, i think you would have a hard time saying under the situation in this case that that's not a high crime. >> the old line was what's good for the goose is good for the gander, whatever that means. but apparently not with lind sa. >> as a libertarian, i disagreed with john mccain a lot but respect his service and career. >> why were democrats not

willing to stand up during the clinton impeachment. five of them did. the answer, really, voters don't reward character as much as they should. >> well said, unfortunately too well said. thank you, jeremy bash. thank you jw vorett. >> look who's mo siiezying backo town, roy moore is considering making another run for the u.s. senate down there. president trump is not on board with that. find out why next on "hardball." "

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welcome back to "hardball kwgt"hardball", roy moore, you may remember this republican who lost to doug jones. moore faced accusations then from several women that he had pursued relatives with while he was in his 30s and they were teenagers at best. he was going around looking at the mall for young women, girls actually. those were the accusations. one key republican is not on board with him coming back into politics. that's president trump. the president stood by moore during the 2017 special election, despite the misconduct allegations but yesterday trump tweeted, republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the senate seat in the great state of alabama. this time will be for six years, not just two. i have nothing against roy moore. later added, roy moore cannot

win. and the consequence will be devastating. the president's son, donald jr. piled on, tweeting it's time to ride off into the sunset, judge. on an interview with politico, moore shot back saying the president doesn't control ho votes for the u.s. senate in alabama. people in alabama are smarter than that. they elect the senator from alabama, not from washington, d.c. for more i'm joined by john braybetter, and nira tannin, you're smiling, you're doing something. i don't know what. what do you think the president is thinking? he's obviously counting, i need 50 seats and a vice president. i got to get reelected and i need 50 senators to run this country, at least stop the democrats. he doesn't want to lose that seat. >> the president is right, we don't need roy moore, and we need him out there and everyone saying it. i wish the president would have gone further. he could have gone beyond for political reasons he can't win, it's also because of roy moore's actions we don't need him.

we should stand up universally. >> where's his red line on his misbehavior. did you ever see the access hollywood tape? >> the thing roy moore did with underage women, how can you even spin it. >> a big problem for you there is that after that happened, donald trump campaigned for roy moore. he went in to alabama a few day before the election after all of that had been aired and said vote for roy moore. >> let's be clear, he was running as the senator and supported him, and his point was -- >> and he lost. >> you do have people like jones who, for example, are pro choice, and he can't support that, so the president was saying, we have two bad choices, i might as well go with the choice that's going to agree with us 90% of the time. >> i'm telling you once you say, even despite all the allegations, despite the allegations that roy moore had a 14-year-old girl in a car stuck

up against a wall and was assaulting her, donald trump campaigned. >> it was an allegation. >> let's just be clear. >> donald trump campaigned for him. >> but i'm agreeing with you. >> i knew this would happen, you would agree and still night. >> here's my bigger thing. the guy was in his 30s, and he said, yeah, i didn't normally date teenagers, but i asked their mothers. here's a good rule for all of you men out there, if you're over the age of 30 and you have to ask somebody's mother permission to date their teenage daughter, it's not a good idea to begin with. >> i totally agree with you. >> you know, i remember a great story, tom hadden once, when he was running against john tunney, accused him of dating teenagers, to which he said one, i can't name one, i meant it metaphorically. former chief justice of the alabama supreme court twice removed from the bench was known long before the 2017 race for these comments. watch his comments which are all

public record. >> do you think that homosexuality or homosexual conduct should be illegal today? that's a yes-or-no question. >> homosexual conduct should be illegal, yes. >> the rhetorical part of the civil war, brother against brother, north against south, party against party, what's changed? now we got blacks and whites fighting, rich and yellow fighting, democrats and republicans fighting, men and women fighting. >> i think they can holler political question all they wish, but it's a simple fact that if he's not a natural born citizen, he's not qualified to be president, and i don't care who he is. >> we have a birther. >> well, look. >> he's a live birther. >> in addition to the president,

the national presidential senatorial committee, leader mcconnell all have said we don't want him, and even moore said it's not up to washington, it's up to alabama, guess what, they didn't choose him last time. >> if he gets nominated, will you back him against jones? >> i think this time we would have to say no. the fear is if you have six candidates, you can have somebody like him and there's no line. >> there's no runoff. >> yeah, you can still be a republican. >> i got to balance the scales for a half a second here. have you ever been backing a democrat that you thought was the worst possible choice but you're stuck with them? >> i don't think so. >> you've never done what he does? >> i don't think so. i think the big challenge to the republican party is we knew all of these facts about roy moore last time and they all said please go vote for roy moore on election day. >> they said please don't vote for jones. >> just to say, that's fair, but in the general, donald trump

said please vote for roy moore. now he's taking it back. >> you two guys are the best arguers, you do not have to disagree to argue. i love it. john braybender, and trump said the person who ordered the uss john mccain kept out of his sight in his recent visit to japan was well meaning. william cohen, a very close friend of john mccain, one of his pal bearers is coming in to talk what he thinks about this postmortem grudge match. back after this. postmortem grudge match. back after this. are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven? and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk?

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i don't know what happened. i wasn't involved. i would not have done that. i was very angry with john mccain because he killed health care. i was not a big fan of john mccain in any way, shape or form. now, somebody did it because they thought i didn't like him. okay. and they were well meaning. i will say. i didn't know anything about it.

i would never have done that. >> so squirrely, that was president trump earlier today responding to reports that military officials were told to keep a warship named for the late senator john mccain hidden from sight during trump's recent trip to japan. a may 15th e-mail sent to u.s. naval and air force officials obtained by cnbc, military officers assigned to the white house outlined instructions saying in part quote uss john mccain needs to be out of sight, and confirmation that the request was being carried out. a senior white house official told "the washington post" yesterday the request was made to keep trump from becoming upset. and according to photos reviewed by the "wall street journal," a tarp was hung over the ship's name ahead of the president's trip, and sailors were directed to remove any coverings from the ship that bore mccain's name. while the tarp was taken down prior to the president's arrival, the journal adds a barge was moved closer to the ship, obscuring its name,

obscuring the name john mccain. "the new york times" reports according to two navy sailors, sailors from mccain's ship were not invited to hear trump speak that day aboard the amphibious assault ship wasp, while sailors from other warships at the time were. the pentagon has pushed back on all of these reports, the acting secretary of defense, patrick shanahan has insisting he had no knowledge, nor did authorize the request from the military office to keep the uss john mccain out of sight. instead he has asked his chief of staff to look into this. >> i have never authorized or approved action around the movement or activity regarding that ship, and further more, i would never dishonor the memory of a great american patriot like senator mccain. >> and today we're getting a strong reaction from senator mccain's daughter meghan, and one of the late senator's close friends, former vice president joe biden.

we'll have all of that and one of john mccain's pal bearers, former secretary william cohen coming here next. you're watching "hardball." . you're watching "hardball. not a baker. she wears that apron to sell insurance. nobody knows why. she's the progressive insurance lady. they cover pets if your owner gets into a car accident. covers us with what? you got me. [ scoffs ] she's an insurance lady. and i suppose this baker sells insurance, too? progressive protects your pets like you do. you can see "the secret life of pets 2" only in theaters. "theyou eat right... mostly. you make time... when you can. but sometimes life gets in the way, and that stubborn fat just won't go away.

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should be treated as a war hero, anything less than that is beneath anyone who doesn't treat him that way. >> it's impossible to go through the grief process when my father has been dead ten months, is constantly in the news cycle because the president is so obsessed with the fact that he's never going to be a great man like he was. >> well, his daughter meghan there added that the president's actions could have negative consequences for the military. >> and putting people in the military of horrific situations, they are fearful for their jobs if god forbid you're a sailor on this ship, you think there's going to be retribution. i think it's horrible, it's bad for americans, and i think we have to look at the kind of culture that's being put in place. >> we're joined by william cohen, former secretary of defense under bill clinton. you wrote a beautiful piece in the "washington post" today. >> i think it's shameful. >> on the other issue. >> on the issue of what happened with the uss john mccain.

i think that aspect is really shameful, what has taken place, and i know meghan feels deeply about this, and she has a right to because she was so close to her dad. cindy, whom i've known over the years, and a special tribute to roberta, the mother, mrs. mccain who's 107 years old. just the mccain family that has to be reminded of this in terms of what the president of the united states, if not doing directly, is acknowledging or sanctioning indirectly, and the notion that show they were well meaning, i don't doubt that he didn't know about it directly. i'll give him credit for saying that. he doesn't have to. this is what michael cohen said, michael cohen said you don't have to give direction, we know what he wants, and what he wanted and has wanted is wants mccain's name out of the picture, and what's disgratefce about is john mccain is not just an american hero. he's a global hero. you had at his funeral, that was something reserved for royalty

in this country. you had people from all over the world who came to pie tribute for what he was trying to do, and that is to remind the world america is the reason why we are holding that lamp of liberty up so we prevent the darkness from swallowing swallowing up the world 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sds in terms 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sds 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sds john mccain himself, it sadly 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sdss one 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sds he had his moments where he would 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sds strike out and had a moment 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sds you always knew that if you 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9sds were in a fight, you wanted john mccain with you 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9s.

the president tweeted cochran. a real senator and flew back for personality health care vote when. desperately ill. he. let our country down. a shot against the guy who did vote. >>. a direct shot to come back and. a vote. the notion that somehow you would hold this against john mccain because he voted against him, actually h obamacare. he. ed health care and didn't vote against it. >> he voted the. to kill. you wrote an op-ed. ly written. mueller's redacted report re. ed all issues.

alleged collusion with the russians. and obstruction. . is. case closed. the mueller report raised as many questions as it answered. you go on to write the silence in the face. presidential. that is unacceptable by any reasonable standard. you are a moderate republican from maine, a very independent state. why do you think it's 9. 1 among republican people to go along with this maga thing? >> as far as the politicians are concerned, it's fear or they support what the president is doing and how he is conducting himself. it's fear or complicity. one or the other or both. >> how the republican party and alliances since world war ii became the opposite. >> they have been the. party. that's a traditional republican

tradition. >> what are about russia. the same tactics used for subversion in the 30s and 40s being used today against our elections by the russians. >> here's the irony. ed. the president is determined to have a wall on the southern border. we have a digital wall erected against the rugs. one so thick to protect our democratic system. that's the wall we need. here we are getting silence from the president. here we get silence from the republican party. what about protecting us from the russians who are tacking into our system and actually co. . ing and. going into our system in terms. infrastructure. instead, he is raising this as an issue to denigrate immigrants, to denigrate people coming here in.

. asylum. one other thing i want to mention because people are focussed on this. the president said. his sick idea to take the round up the asylum seekers and send them to the cities. united states. ua . uary cities. assuming they are trau and he sent them to an american city to spread it? that's unconscionable. >> this is. . . we will try to hear from more. you. a real republican. former secretary. . did, william cohen. . m . mcconnell. you are. ing "hardball." u are. ing "hardball.

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we. . hear it said that we should be a stronger america if we stop the cheap shots and the delay and refusal to let anything get done that paints s poz. picture. . al party. can we all get along. the other day we got the answer

from the majority. united states senate, the honnarable. mcconnell his answer is no, we can't get along. connell named a replacement in his. year. >> the american people. a say. it is the president's constitutional right to nominate a supreme court. is and the senate's right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent. >> so it happened that the top republican erased president obama's appointment to fill the country's top court and. proud. it. >> one. my proud. moments is when i looked barack obama in the eye and said you will not fill this supreme court vacan vacancy. >> he said he will do the opposite for.

>> we would fill it. >> very funny. if a court vacancy occurs in 2020, mcconnell will. to confirm the appointment. he said so. this cheap politics and brazen partisanship that makes the word politician so sleazy. all in with chris hayes starts now. >> tonight on all in -- >> to me it's a dirty word, the word im. . it's a dirty, filthy dis. ing word. >> the president comes to term with the i word. >> can you imagine? >> the mueller report finally penetrates the con. . bubble. >>. surprised to hear. anything neg. at all. i mainly. to con. . news and i had not heard anything neg. . >> as the attorney general defends his