tv Lockup San Quentin--- Extended Stay MSNBC August 3, 2019 10:00pm-11:00pm PDT
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completely different skillset. power deal. he texted him during the nug you want a war you've got one. rati -- [ "psa" by jay z ] inauguration that the plan was we're never going to survive their firepower. read to go. that man was tom barrett, we're going to need cars... president trump's long-time and guns. oh i can handle that part. friend. until now, he's managed to stay above the fray. i got your back brother. and me yours. [ laughing ] but not anymore. [ screaming ] first, we learned just how flimsy his explanations have been for the inaugural's vast spending. since the inauguration, he's assured reporters that a full and clean and external audit had been done. but when a government watch dog group got ahead of that audit, it was kind of thin. there's a line that says the inaugural spent $27 million on
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executive production. what's executive production, you ask? no idea. thanks to you at home for the audit doesn't say. joining us this hour. we have lots to get to, but we but hey, there's that $27 start with news about a key million accounted for. figure in trump world and now a nothing to see here. now this week a new report from key witness in the mueller investigators with the house investigation. rick gates served as deputy oversight committee finds that chairman of the trump campaign. he leveraged ties to president gates had been paul manafort's trump and the administration to right hand deputy working for promote his own interests, including by pushing mike ukrainian oligarchs before manafort joined the trump flynn's saudi nuclear plan. campaign and brought gates overnight chairman elijah along. manafort was pushed out in cummings wrote -- august of 2016, but rick gates stayed on through election day. gates then served as the number two official on the trump nug >> as an example, the report ral committee. because he held those key positions, rick gates was a says that baric and paul first-person eyewitness to what manafort worked together to try was going on inside the trump to put language drafted by saudi campaign at a very high level. in october 2017, he was first officials into a trump energy speech. charmed alongside manafort on multiple counts, including emails obtained by t"the new yok times" show them discussing how conspiracy, money laundering,
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to change trump's speech to and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. after prosecutors hit him with "make our gulf friends happy." another round of charges for a total of 31, rick gates flipped. then baric negotiated with the he pleaded guilty to two charges while agreeing to cooperate and trump administration for a provide information to robert mueller's team. position, pushing for the and this was a pivotal moment in flynn-saudi nuclear plan that would benefit flynn and his the special counsel friends. the plan would also give bar k investigation. rick gates, who knew so much about the inner workings at the highest levels of the trump barrack's saudi friends the campaign was willing to spill nuclear technology they wanted and he was planning for his own secrets to robert mueller's team. >> cooperation agreement he just company to purchase the nuclear signed is probably a nightmare technology the saudis would be scenario for a number of other buying, and everybody gets rich. people. rick gates is potentially been barrack and flynn and flip's witnessed to a lot more than partners continued to push for manafort ever saw. rick gates becoming a cooperating witness, i think is this dole from eal from inside a big leap forward in terms of how much of a window the mueller administration. even as career government investigation is going to have officials warned that it was into all different phases of the unethical and possibly inlegal trump candidacy and the trump because it would be an end run around congress. presidency. >> okay, that was february 2018.
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rick gates pleading guilty and and we learned this week that it's not just congressional agreeing to cooperate with investigators who are interested mueller and prosecutors. in tom barrack. you can think about the mueller "the new york times" reports report in two reports. that prosecutors have been it has first volume that explores possible collusion or looking at whether he violated conspiracy and a second volume that explores possible the foreign registration act. obstruction of justice. if the president's first white questions about whether mr. house consul was the key witness to obstruction of justice in barrack complied with the act volume two, then rick gates was rose during the russian inquiry robert mueller's key witness when it came to volume one. and referred to the united rick gates was at the center of states attorney's office in brooklyn. and in many instances the source for some of the most damning findings in mueller's report. whether it related to wikileaks, the trump tower meeting for the >> for the record, barrack's spokesman said that prosecutors told them they have no more questions for him and barrack has not been accused of wrongdoing. fu funneling of internal polling but it really is remarkable that data to russian oligarchs. here we are, more than 2 1/2 aides reacted to enthuse. years into the trump administration and we are still to reports of wikileaks hacks. learning about things that were
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happening on their very first it was rick gates who recalled day. we're still learning about candidate trump being generally investigations into president frustrated that hillary clinton's emails had not been found. trump's inaugural, and we'll be right back. trump's inaugural, and we'll be right back in one particularparticularly t family is all together and we switched to geico; saved money on our boat insurance. how could it get any better than this? dad, i just caught a goldfish! passage, mueller writes not only was the strategyar of the upcom there's no goldfish in this lake. dumps. dumps. whoa! it's pure gold. we're gonna be rich... we're gonna be rich! it only gets better when you switch and save with geico. crabfest is back at red lobster >> rick gates was also there in with 9 craveable crab creations. from the new ultimate crabfest trio the august 2016 meeting at a new with three kinds of wild-caught crab
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york city cigar bar that to the return of crab lover's dream! included paul manafort and his grab your crab crew, hurry in or order it to go! long-time business associate, a man whom mueller notes rick gates thought was a russian spy and whom the fbi assessed has ties to russian intelligence -- >> according to gates, it included discussion of battleground states, which manafort identified as michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, and minnesota. michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. hmm, three states which nobody considered battlegrounds in the summer of 2016. and which trump won by a margin of fewer than 78,000 votes out of almost 14 million cast. now, it's been well more than a year since rick gates pleaded guilty. in he cent months, his
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sentencing has been delayed, with prosecutors telling the court that gates has continued to cooperate in several ongoing investigations. now we have learned that rick gates has nearly finished his work as a cooperating witness. as the chairman of the today, the judge in his case senate judiciary committee, granted a joint motion by the senator lindsey graham has been lawyers and government trying to change the laws about prosecutors. dealing with migrants at the for the pro-dabation office to southern border. he wants to increase the time begin drafting its presentencing migrant children can be detained with their families from the report so sentencing can be court ordered maximum of 20 days scheduled soon after his to 100 days. cooperation has been completed. that means they're getting ready even though a court has said you cannot do that. to tally up a recommendation for democrats have been able to keep how much time rick gates will the bill stuck in committee, spend in prison with a maximum which has been frustrating for chairman graham. four the six years, likely less than that. he's up for re-election and the new joint motion from needs to show jump he's doing prosecutors and defense lawyers really well. noted gates is a potential yesterday he decided to use more witness in three trials, one the parliamentary muscle. over democratic objections he trial of roger stone, on seven was breaking the rules, he held a vote to force his bill out of counts of false statements, committee and over to the full witness tampering and senate. what happened next? well, just roll the tape.
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obstruction of wikileaks >> the clerk will call the roll. publishing stolen information. >> mr. chairman -- rick gates' testimony in that >> the clerk will call the roll. trial could shed light on the >> mr. chairman -- >> the clerk will call the roll. redacted parts of the mueller reports when it comes to who >> mr. chairman, this is unprecedented. >> no, it's not. knew what and when. >> these rules are no longer in gates is also reportedly a effect. witness in the ongoing criminal investigation into the trump the same republicans who voted inaugural committee. for them six months ago say the heck with them. testifying in those cases looks likely to be his last chance at tear them up. tear them up. cooperating and reducing his own that's what we're doing. time in prison. for him and the cases spun out just tear them up. >> what you're telling me is of the mueller investigation, the end of the road is getting closer. that i should ignore what you did to me last week. what mueller left in the two i will not! you're not going to take my job volumes of his report is now in away from me! the hands of congress, for i take this very personally. this committee is not going to lawmakers to decide how they be the dead end committee. want to respond. that's where we go to the mueller report to what if on things that matter. anything will be done what the >> and just like that. mueller team found. today, the 118th democrat th his legislation now heads to the full senate and potentially a supports the start of an
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impeachment inquiry of the president. democratically controlled house that means a majority of where it will almost certainly be killed by the democrats. democrats in the house of representatives now support it. so this was a full-on stunt, but it also marks the 25th member to at least he did his part for the president trump agenda and for come out in support an his own conservative base. happy re-election season. impeachment inquiry since robert that does it for us tonight. mueller's testimony last week. i'll see you tomorrow morning at while nancy pelosi has declined 10:00 a.m. eastern. on msnbc. to back an impeachment inquiry, "all in" with chris hayes is up -- i'm craig melvin. today she released a statement >> and i'm natalie morales. on the progress of house investigations. >> and this is "dateline." >> it's very exciting. >> they met in vegas. a professional poker player. and noting ominously that in >> and he said he was making good money at it. >> a former trapeze artist. america, no one is above the she fell for him. but she didn't gamble on this. law. the president will be held accountable. while the investigations continue and calls for >> i could smell the odor of impeachment grow on one side of decay and blood. the aisle, on the other side, >> or this. more republicans are heading for >> at every turn there was the exits. the latest congressman will hurd another woman. >> married with a child and women in multiple cities. of texas became the sixth >> what else is he capable of? republican to announce their >> capable of murder? he had an alibi.
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retirement. his exit causes more headaches >> credit card transactions and for a party that already lost phone records of me driving from susan brooks, one of just 13 las vegas. women in the house. and brooks had been in charge of recruiting more women to run as republicans. they'll have to give that job to somebody else. and republicans say there are more retirements to come. hurd's decision not to run again has put the gop ahead of its pace in retirements ahead of 2018. and that midterm election, 34 republicaning s decided not to for re-election. then the democrats won back 40 seats. so i have questions. why exactly are we see thing wave of republicanry retirements? how does the democratic impeachment affect the political calculations on both sides of the aisle? and what does this mean for
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2020? joining us now is jamal simmons and abbey livingston. abby, i'm going to start with you. what should we take from will hurd stepping down? >> there's a lot to take from this, but i'll start with the majority or that the majorities not at play here. hurd represents the texas 23rd district. this is one of the seats that are competitive. it's rare that a house majority -- that democrats or republicans can hold the majority without having the 23rd. on top of this, hurd was one of the best candidates in the country. every friday night, he was flipping a coin at a high school football game in this district. he was a huge fund-raiser for himself and the nrcc. not having an incumbent in that seat makes it much more difficult to hold. so the central question right now in washington is, is hurd the first incumbents to step down? if that's the case, this could be a rocky year for the republicans. >> jamal, there is a sense that
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when the president in your own party feels like he's in trouble, that you have two choices, right? this happened with bill clinton. you can get behind him and rally, or you can get the heck out of washington, d.c. and avoid him. this feels like trump avoidance is kicking in. >> it does feel like that. will hurd is actually one of the more decent members of congress and certainly for the republicans. mia love lost in that last election, so the republican party won't have any african-americans in the congress next year unless somebody wins we don't know about. so for him to get out and decide to leave, i suspect a lot of this had to do with running upstream with donald trump at the top of the ticket, and having to answer questions about donald trump every single day. i can't imagine any worse way to spend a year of my life. and i guess will hurd sort of agreed. it's very possible that any chance the republicans had to at
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least give back to parity and climb back out of the hole is starting to slip away, and this might just be as they say at the hill where i work, this might be the tip of the iceberg. >> can we just put this graphic up. this is the house of representatives and the congress. there are 54 black democrats and one black republican and that was will hurd. and the woman who was touted to recruit more women, and now the recruiter is gone. so that's not a good sign. texas has been one of those states that's always been said, it's coming, and it's going to become purple. texas had a very close senate race for ted cruz. you know have cornyn up, and people are talking about it's not certain that he gets back in. obviously it's more likely than not. but if texas is starting to see people say i'm not sure i can carry donald trump on my back in this election in 2020, that
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sounds like a sign. >> well, i almost didn't take this job in 2014 because there was almost no general election activity. will hurd's district was the only one. and ever insince with the ascen of president trump, it's becoming a city versus rural divide. we're on the brink of this map in 2011 that was drawn to protect a bunch of republican incumbents backfiring on them. what i foresee happening in texas, and i could be wrong and it could be much faster, but every cycle democrats pick one or two house seats up, and it starts to build the party from the bottom up, rather than a savior coming in at the top of the ticket. >> let's talk about the way impeachment might impact this, jamal. what people will be carrying in theory, there's a conventional wisdom in washington that impeachment would help trump,
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but if he can't keep republicans from staying in their jobs, i'm not sure how -- who is he going to build with? who would be the troops out there that rally to his defense? it's just the people he's already got. is it your sense as a washington insider guy who knows the town, what would impeachment do to the house members and president trump's re-elect? >> joy, i was deputy communications director for al gore in 2000 after he ran for president. this logic that people have about clinton is misty eyed. i think they don't quite remember this correctly. one thing that happened is bill clinton in august before that midterm election took responsibility for what he did. he admitted what he did wrong and apologized to the nation, and every democrat after that came out and lambasted him and then they ran for re-election. remember, joe lieberman became a vice presidential nominee because of a speech he gave going after bill clinton.
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so donald trump is not going to take responsibility that he's done. so i don't know that he'll have the same fate as bill clinton did. and i think ultimately remember, al gore didn't get the white house, and neither did hillary clinton, and the two times she ran for president, she didn't win the white house either. so i'm not sure impeachment politics worked out well for the democrats. >> you worked on that campaign. it wasn't as if you were asking bill clinton to campaign for al gore. yes, bill clinton was still popular with the public, but did he get a lot of requests for people to come around and hang around with him? >> the polling was very mixed. i remember someone saying when you ask people about bill clinton, they feel like they would about your sister's cheating husband, who got caught and you run into him in the grocery store. you really like that guy, so i'm
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not sure that this really shakes out really well. bill clinton has rehabilitated his image a lot since. but in 2000, it was not a very clear result. >> and abby, to give you the last word. is there a sense inside cornyn world that an inpeachment would great for john cornyn's re-elect? >> i don't hear impeachment come up very much, especially in the cornyn-sphere. i can say down ballot house democrats don't want to talk about this. this is where pelosi is coming from in her resistance to. >> really appreciate both of your time tonight. thank you. much more to get to tonight, including a little bit of math. math is fun. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. this wase six years ago... and this is me now! i got liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need.
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or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. quit smoking slow turkey. talk to your doctor about chantix. yeah, i think we can take five. you had to open your big mouth. here's what i'm gonna do. i'm gonna smash him right in the face. kill all thirteen guys in three seconds. i'm gonna drop kick him. him, and him. no, no, no that's my guy. that's my guy. look at you the fate of the world is in your hands and you can't even get along. your momma. [ screaming ]
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the first time we saw anything on this scale was the summer of 2009. all over the country voters descended on town hall meetings hosted by members of congress. the obama administration was on the cusp of passing health care reform and lots of republican voters, spurred on votes funded by some of the richest people in america, turned out to try and stop it by any means necessary. essentially organizing massive resistance against expanding health care. the tea partiers flooded congressional town halls in huge
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numbers, demanding their members say no to health care reform. which the republican message machine dubbed obamacare. we saw the inverse in the summer of 2017, when republicans tried taking that very same health care, obamacare, away. democratic activists made schedules to show up at town halls, they occupied the local offices of their members of congress to tell them to save obamacare, which unlike in 2009, had become really popular. as millions of people got access to health coverage, in some cases for the first time in years. for the first time in years. this has becomes kind of a thing that happens in the month of august. it's become part of the atmosphere of the house of representatives august recess. the lawmakers go home to their districts, their break from d.c. is not strictly vacation. they use the time to check in
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with their constituents. in the new model for activism they hear from them a lot. the august recent for the full congress, house and senate, officially started this week. lawmakers have scheduled dozens of town hall meetings across the country over the next month. and already there's a crystal clear message breaking through from the voters who plan to show up. a coalition of four different progressive grassroots organizations are teaming up to pressure members of congress during the august recess to start impeachment inquiries against the president, calling it impeachment august. in the tradition of indivisible, it comes with an instruction manual. >> so keep an eye on these town halls over the next few weeks.
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i expect some interesting answers to that question. meanwhile, the members getting on the impeachment continues to tick up. in the last few case, a handful of house democrats support impeachment inquiries. that brings our count here at msnbc to 118 house democrats, who support impeachment, plus newly minted house democrat justin amash. one comes from colorado congressman jason crow. he is a freshman member of congress. his district has been a republican strong hold for more than a decade until he flipped it blue in 2018, which means coming out for an impeachment inquiry is a gamble for a democratic congressman running for re-election. he says --
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>> and joining us now is democratic congressman jason crow from colorado. congressman, thanks for being here. >> hi, joy. thank you for having me. >> i know there's a slight delay, but there were -- there was some surprise among members of the media when justin amash, who comes from a republican district and he was a republican at the time, went to a town hall and heard, you know, just an uprising from people in that town hall about donald trump and about the things that he's accused of doing. have you been hearing from constituents with regard to impeachment thus far. >> absolutely. i've heard from constituents on both sides. people have strong feelings on both sides in a district like mine where we have a lot of voters. you have people from different backgrounds. i've had to take that into
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account in my seven-month process. >> i grew up not too far from you. i know colorado can be an interesting state. there are a lot of people who are hunters and people who lean republican. people are interesting. you have some hard right, but you have some people that are in the middle. when you're looking at impeachment, are you thinking of it from the point of view from the electoral aspect of it, or just a purely principled issue that you think you can pull over some of those people who are kind of in the middle? >> you know, my life has been defined by the oaths that i've taken. i took an oath when i first enlisted in the army. i took another when i became an army officer. and yet another oath about seven months ago when i joined the 116th congress. in all of those oaths, it had the same phrase that i swore to defend the constitution of the united states. i've seen and known people who have made great sacrifice to do that. for me, being where we are now and seeing the actions of this
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administration, the stonewalling of congress, i know that for me and for my district, the next steps are to give congress all of the tools that it needs to conduct the oversight and to hold this administration accountable. >> if there's one thing that donald trump is alleged to have done that pushed you over the line, what would it be? >> you know, there have been a number of things. you look at all the obstruction elements that have been outlined in the mueller report, which he again underscored last week. you look at the fact that he's continuously stone walled congress. when i was in iraq and afghanistan, i saw in the eyes of those people who it is like to live in a society where there's no rule of law. where there's hopelessness and people know that they can't have justice from their government. and i fast forwarded from my time in iraq and afghanistan to the campaign trail a couple of years ago, and very early on, i had people that would tell me you seem like a nice guy, they
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like what i had to say, but they were so disen chaedisenchanted system and they had lost hope. i started to see the same elements of that hopelessness in our system here at home. so for me, rule of law is so important. and if this congress can't do that, if we can't uphold our obligation and rule of law in our system, then i think we have a real problem. and that's what i know we have to do. >> congressman, thanks so much for your time tonight. >> thanks for having me on. a minute ago, i said congressman amash is a newly minted democrat. he's a newly minted independent. he hasn't gone all the way. coming up, the news version of the call is coming frominde . that's next. stay with us. se that's next. stay with us ♪
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the jupiter inlet lighthouse is in jupiter, florida, about 90 miles north of miami. it's been around for more than a century, since 1860. during world war ii, it was a u.s. intelligence spy station. today, it's a rusty red beacon poking up along the shore. the light shouse house is surro 120 acres of farmland, a hiking trail, lagoon, breathtaking
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views of the coast. tens of thousands visit every year. in 2008, congress designated the land around the lighthouse for federalro custody of the bureau of land management. that federal agency manages not just lighthouses and hiking trails, but also deserts and canyons and beaches, lands with minerals, oil and gas, and big open spaces with wild horses. it's the job of the bureau of land management and the people in charge there to protect the land in their custody, to develop the resources on that land safely and sustainably. and to make sure that public lands are kept in good shape for the long haul for everyone. just this week, donald trump put a new person in charge of the bureau of land management as the acting director. his name is william perry pindly. he's a conservative lawyer and a former senior reagan
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administration official. the other thing to know about him, who is now in charge of protecting all of the public land, is that he does not think there should be public land in this described him. >> he's fried to undermine protections for endangered species and campaigned to slash the amount of public land in this country to be developed by private companies instead. in 2016, he called for the federal government to sell all of its public land, to just fork over 245 million acres of pristine landscape for private individuals and corporations to do who knows what with it. he claims that's what the
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founding fathers wanted. william perry pindly will be the acting director of the bureau of land management. mr. get rid of all the public hands are and give it all to private developer also be in charge of all the public lands for foreseeable future. maybe that's the point. it's in keeping with the theme of this presidency, to deconstruct the administrative state, to dismantle the core functions of government from the inside out. hold that thought. hold that thought. if you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling,
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don't get mad, get e*trade and start trading today. that was fast. it was just sunday afternoon when donald trump announced by tweet that republican congressman john ratcliff was his pick to replace dan cotes as dr director of dni. rector of dni. from apparently padding his resume and rounding up his traffic record to his lack of experience in national security or intelligence, to say nothing of the lukewarm reception he got from mitch mcconnell. if you feel like you've heard this song before with a trump pick for a big job imploding out of the gate, you're not wrong.
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this is the 35th time one of trump's nominations went busto, forcing trump to pull a 180. when asked what ratcliff's demise says about the white house vetting process, watch this. >> i think the white house has a great vetting give a name, i g out to the press, and you vet for me. the vetting process for the white house is very good. but you're part of the vetting process, you know? i give out a name to the press and they vet for me. we save a lot of money that way. >> oh, okay. your vetting process is our fault. got it. you're also saving money by not vetting anybody, and letting us do it for you. perfection. so maybe we shouldn't be surprised that ratcliff met this fate. as we wait for round two of presidential roulette dni addition, this is more than just a mere hiring decision.
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the zrvegs dni is the top intel official in the nation, coordinating all the other agencies. who the president picks for ha gig matters. it determines the strength of the entire intelligence community. and it's not hard to see why donald trump might want to reign in the intelligence agent sis. the intelligence community has been a thorn in his side, taking every time to point out that, yes, russia interfered in our election in 2016. russia never stopped and russia is trying to do it again. in january 2017, they put out that withering report on how vladamir putin ordered the attack on our election and ordered to help trump. something according to the mueller report so upsets trump. because it feels like a challenge to his legitimacy. now, we can extrapolate from rat clip's qualifications what this white house occupant is really
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looking for in the next director of national intelligence, what drump trump's help wanted ad would say. or as the economist put it, donald trump wants a loyalist as america's top intelligence official. whoever the president picks next, the hunt is on and it might end sooner than we think. trump says he's got a short list with three names and will be mulling it this weekend, while you pay for his latest vacation at his golf resort in new jersey. senator mark warner, vice chair of the senate intel committee who said --
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>> and we shall see which of those help wanted ads prevails. join us is senator ron wyden, a member of the senate intelligence committee. when the president tweeted he was withdrawing the ratcliff nomination, you clapped back saying maybe you should vet your nominees first. thanks for being with us tonight. donald trump said we vet his nominees. so maybe he won't listen to you on that. >> the most bizarre theory of vetting i've ever heard, joy. i know the standards have changed a lot with the trump administration. but we are not talking about national dog catcher here. we're talking about the director of national intelligence. and in particular, we need somebody who will tell it straight to donald trump, not twist the facts for donald trump. >> but isn't it the case if anyone tells it straight to donald trump, they're going to tell him again that russia attacked our election and other
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foreign countries are potentially to attack our election, and that makes him feel insecure. so how likely is it he'll ever pick someone willing to tell him hard truths? >> i think you can't do this job responsibly unless you're willing to lay those facts that are actual facts on the table. like we understand, this is not about president trump nominating a democrat or any of this kind of thing. but we have to have somebody who is experienced, who is objective, and it is not in question that russia attacked our election system, and serving on the intelligence committee, i can tell you, joy, what we're looking at in 2020 in terms of attacks from hostile foreign actors is going to make wanted what he got in william barr, and it's clear that given mr en on the table, he would like to have someone like that running
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intelligence. my question would be whether or not the leader of the senate, mitch mcconnell, who tends to be very accommodating to president trump, was he the person that convinced president trump to say no, and would he allow president trump to put a william barr-esque person in as dni. >> my sense is that republican senators are really wrestling with this, because they know president trump has got one more election. he's very popular with primaries. but they are branding their party for the longer term, and when you look at devin nunes and ratcliff and the like, a lot of the republicans on the intelligence committee have been leaning a little bit more towards an institutional approach in acknowledging the russians attacked us. now let's see if president trump goes along with that. >> the republican party prided itself in being russian hawks in the reagan era.
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so how far are they willing to let president trump degrade the intelligence community, essentially to make himself feel better because he doesn't want to hear what russia did to help him in 2016? >> i've had plenty of differences of opinion with my colleagues. i was the one no vote, when you are getting attacked by the russians, you don't send the county i.t. person to fight the russians. but i think my colleagues now on the intelligence committee are going to say no ratcliffs, no nuneses, we want somebody that acknowledges the real threats. and president trump is going to have to make a call. is he going to say i only care about somebody who shares my conspiracy theorys, or go with the nat republican the senate republicans who say i'm not going there. >> ratcliff would then have
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access to all the information about the ongoing investigations, racial security investigations that still relate to what happened in 2016. any chance at all that mcconnell and the republicans would allow somebody that would undermine that committee? do you have faith in republicans on the other side of the aisle that they would protect the dni from president trump's access to that kind of information? >> so far the republicans on the intelligence committee have drawn a line. they have said, look, we are supportive of the trump administration, we are understand that the president sees things differently than we do on a number of occasions. but now they're going to have to actually fight back against people who aren't objective, and aren't willing to have some connection to the facts. it comes down now finally, america once again has a chance to get a qualified nominee in
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there. if president trump isn't willing to have that kind of person, i'm going to do everything i can to, a, oppose abn unqualified perso and push my republican colleagues to recognize this is a question of country first. >> senator ron wyden, thank you for being here tonight. >> thanks for having me. still ahead, a new investigation from house democrats takes us back to the very beginning, day one, square one of the trump administration and what they found is amazing. great riches will find you g when liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar? thanks, lady. taxi! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
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we are 2 1/2 years and two weeks into the president trump administration. it is remarkable how much we continue to learn and how much prosecutors continue to investigate about president trump's very first day. the trump administration has come under investigation in the southern district of new york, also federal prosecutors in the eastern district of new york. also federal prosecutors in southern california. also the attorney general in new jersey. also the attorney general in d.c. and that's not even counting the congressional investigations. you just start with the fact that the inaugural committee raised an unbelievable amount of money. over $100 million. more than twice what barack obama's first inaugural raised, even though trump's inauguration was much smaller, despite what trump would have you believe. nobody has accounted for where that money came from or where it
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went. there was the associate of paul manafort who admitted to illegally funneling a $50,000 foreign donation into the inaugural. some of the investigations into the inaugural are reportedly looking into whether there were other such donations. the vice chairman of the committee is reportedly under investigation by a federal grand jury. examining whether he used his position to drum up business deals with foreign leaders. possibly the weirdest story out of the inauguration involved michael flynn, who, at the time of the inaugural, was getting paid to pursue a plan to build nuclear power plants in saudi arabia. a witness who later testified in an investigation by house democrats claimed that on inauguration day,s nuclear
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