♪ ♪ nice to have you with us. it has been a newsy monday today. i didn't expect it. feels like week before labor day -- i should stop expecting these things. if you are a giant public facing u.s. corporation, one way to know if you have been very bad or if people think you have been very bad is if a judge, say, in oklahoma rules from the bench against you, holding you liable for some of the worst things that have happened to americans in the past 20 years, and that judge orders you as a company to pay more than $572 million for what you have done. the judge orders you to pay more than half a billion dollars.

one way to know that you have been a very bad company or at least people perceive you to have been very bad is if in reaction to that news, your stock price as a company actually goes up 5% because, whew, that's a relief. everybody thought you were so bad it was possible you were going to be paying billions of dollars, like $10 billion, $15 billion, $17 billion. everybody thought that was going to be what the judge made you pay today. not just hundreds of millions of dollars, which is, in fact, the verdict that johnson & johnson faced today. they will have to pay $572 million unless they are able to turn this thing around on appeal. and i swear, their stock price went up in response because people thought it was going to be so much worse than even na. that. this ruling today in oklahoma holding johnson & johnson accountable for fueling the opioid epidemic which claimed more than 400,000 american

lives, this is a ruling that will be appealed by the company, but their shareholders were delighted today. the state of oklahoma had asked for more than $17 billion from johnson and johnson to cover the full cost of the injuries to the state of oklahoma and the citizens that has been caused by the opioid epidemic that has been, in part, fueled by johnson & johnson which in the state case called the king pen of the opioid drug trade. this was a landmark decision today. this is the first trial verdict to hold a pharmaceutical company culpable for the opioid catastrophe in this country. i know you've heard about companies being required to pay a lot of money. those have all been settlements. there's a whole bunch of different settlements that have been paid by the various opioid manufacturers and distributors in this country. they have not let these things come to the end of the case. they have not let these things come to a verdict. in this case it's a judge's ruling. and if this $572 million order stands up to appeal, this could

be the first very big step toward pharmaceutical companies really finally being put on their back foot, really finally being put on the defensive over what they have done to the country with the purposeful overprescribing of these drugs. but again, it remains to be seen what's going to happen on appeal. remains to be seen if this might have just been a one-off trial verdict. but it's the first trial verdict holding a pharmaceutical company to account for what they did, and that was a very big deal today in oklahoma. we also at the end of the afternoon today got some surprise political news. when we learned about the agency enforcing finance law, the sec had been a toothless government agency. the trump administration, for example, has been content with there being vacancies on the board of commissioners that over sees the fec. today it went to a different level. today we learned the fec is about to lose one of its

existing commissioners. when that happens, the fec will no longer have enough commissioners to have a quorum, which means heading into the 2020 presidential season, the federal agency that is in charge of making sure there is no monkey business in our elections, there's no monkey business, no shenanigans in terms of money around our elections, they have just had their last tooth pulled. and there has been a lot of alarm expressed in response to this news this afternoon in terms of what this means for the fec, what this means for the 2020 election. one of the remaining commissioners on the fec, the chair of the fec has actually been sounding a little bit of a cautionary note today about the implications of what this means for our elections, what this means for the 2020 presidential campaign in particular. that commissioner, ellen wine traub is going to join us. she's always a good person to talk to. she's very frank, very blunt. on this she's sort of telling people, you know, this is worth

paying attention to, but not worth freaking out about. very much looking forward to talking to her about that. just briefly, i also want to tell you that we got some additional news late in the day today about a story that we've covered a bunch of times in the show the past couple of weeks. which is that mysterious deadly explosion in northwestern russia the first week in august. it had some sort of nuclear component to it, but we haven't been able to say much more than that. this was 2 1/2 weeks ago, august 8th. russian government appears to still mostly be in black out and denial mode about what happened there. we did get a little bit of interesting and specific new information today. and we got it from the russian meteorological agency. this is part of the russian government that's in charge of weather forecasting. i'm not exactly sure why we are hearing this from them, but today that's the agency that announced that they have some very specific readings in terms of the fallout literally from

this disaster. today the russian meteorological agency announced that at the city nearest where that nuclear blast happened on august 8th, they have since detected four specific radioactive particles in that city. and whether or not these specific elements mean anything to you just as a layperson watching the news, the fact that the russian government is announcing what these eisotopes is specific. those who understand the science of this tells a much more folsom story. what has been found in the explosion in this nearby city, barium 140 and lanthenum 140. that list of isotopes being found would indicate what exploded 2 1/2 weeks ago was

definitely a nuclear reactor. the presence of decay products is coming from a nuclear chain reaction, he said, and not an isotope source and a propellant engine, which is one of the things the russian government initially tried to describe this blast as being from. these isotopes being found in the nearby city according to the expert in bloomberg news today is, quote, proof that it was a nuclear reactor that exploded. a nuclear reactor. that's important because the russian government, including russian president vladimir putin himself, they've been very vague as to what actually exploded, and just exactly what type of nuclear device or what sort of nuclear material was involved, whether or not any radiation was released. well, this gives us some more information about what it was. this would indicate that it's a nuclear reactor and, yes, there was radiation released. and something more specific even than that. one interpretation conveyed by "the new york times" reporter

andrew cramer today on his report of the findings is that he says this list of isotopes they found is basically an announcement that offers, quote, hints that other still undisclosed heavier elements could have been released closer to the blast site. the presence of these isotopes miles from the site of the accident suggests that heavier, more dangerous contaminants such as plutonium, cz 137 or radio iodine likely fell into the sea near the blast site. green peace also issued a statement saying, the presence of the isotopes suggests czm 137 was also released in the blast. you'll recall one of the doctors who treated some of the injured from this explosion was found to have czm 137 in his own muscle tissue after he treated those injured people from the blast site without wearing any protective gear fwauz nobecause the doctors were warned their patients would be radioactive. the doctor was told he was

likely contaminated with czm 137 not because of working on the radioactive patients from the nuclear blast. apparently russian officials told him he had that czm 137 in his muscle tissue because he had recently gone on vacation in thailand. russian officials told him he probably, quote, ate some fukushima crabs while he was on vacation. see, the crabs from fukushima where there was the nuclear accident years ago, they probably ended up in his vacation dinners in thailand. that's definitely why that doctor is now got czm in his muscles. if there is czm 137 and iodine all over the blast site, including in the sea, right, russia is going to have a hard time blaming that on thailand and crabs for all that much longer. don't worry, though. the same russian nuclear agency ross adam, that had five of its scientists killed in this mysterious blast, that same russian nuclear agency has also

now made a big new announcement that we all can see happening, which is that they just set sail into the arctic with this nimble little vessel. it's longer than a football field. it is loaded up with nuclear fuel. russia is very, very proud of it. just this weekend, this was the world's first floating nuclear power plant, which russia set sail into the arctic, aiming right toward alaska. literally, it is a floating nuclear power plant. what could possibly go wrong? it just left russia this weekend. it's heading up through the arctic toward a remote part of russia that is just across the bearing straight from alaska. so that's fine. green peace is calling this vessel the nuclear titanic. russia said in response to green peace they're a bunch of scare mongers. the russian nuclear agency which, again, just lost five of its nuclear engineers in the explosion of a nuclear reactor

maybe 18 days ago, who knows, they won't say. maybe the plutonium is all in the sea now. i mean, that same agency, that exact same agency is insisting publicly everybody should actually be very excited about them putting the world's first floating nuclear reactor into the arctic sea for a 3,000-plus-mile-long journey toward alaska. ross adam announcing their floating nuclear plant is able to, quote, safely withstand a full spectrum of negative scenarios, including manmade and natural disasters. both kinds. it will be fine. it's indestructible. did we mention it's the world's first nuclear power plant that floats? just in case what you thought the world was missing was a little russian nuclear -- the first stab at putting a whole nuclear power plant on top of a ship and floating it into the ice, your news dreams have come true. that's all just happened.

but when it comes to energy stuff and climate stuff -- because we are still the world's biggest economy -- there is still no more important decision maker than the united states of america when it comes to these things. and at this point, with our current leadership, most of what the rest of the world is doing on this subject when it comes to us is they're laughing at us and occasionally taunting us. >> windmills. if it doesn't blow, you can forget about television for that night. >> mr. president, i want to present you to the greatest deal you have ever seen. it is so great that i thought i might actually get your attention by standing here next to this bird-killing cancer-causing black out generating wind energy producing beast here. >> my name is edin, i'm a member of the danish parliament. now that you're here, let's talk about the deal. >> okay. >> it's about cheap energy and

saving the climate. here's an example. the north sea region -- that's the sea on top of europe -- can produce twice as much electricity as all the coal-fired power plants of europe combined. and look, it's smaller than nebraska. imagine the possibilities in all of your great united states of america. >> darling, i want to watch television. i'm sorry, the wind isn't blowing. >> oh, yeah, the blackouts. don't worry about your tv dinners and movie nights. in denmark where most of our electricity comes from wind, we have an average 15 minutes of blackouts every year, whereas in u.s., all your coal-fired plants, you go dark on average two hours every year. >> our country is in serious trouble. >> so, mr. president, we all know you can do this. just grab your pen, sign the

deal, and let's save the climate. >> that's the sea on top of europe. that was released in the last few days by a member of the danish parliament. in normal circumstances that might be the sort of thing that might get americans' backs up over the president. however we might have disagreements and dissension over our own leaders, usually you expect a broad swath of americans to feel bad about some politician from some other countries making fun of our president in this way. in this case it's a little harder for us to get there because our president really did just cancel a trip to that country, to denmark because he complained that country's leadership did not want to talk to him about him buying greenland. and i really don't want to talk about donald trump suggesting that he could do that, that he wants to buy greenland. but separate and apart from the insanity of that entire concept, he really did just cancel a trip

to denmark because he said they weren't going to talk to him about the u.s. buying greenland. and he said that right after he publicly insisted that he wasn't going to denmark to talk to them about buying greenland. and again, whether or not you care about the incredibly insane idea that the u.s. would buy greenland, how is it that a u.s. president says no, i don't want that, yes, i want that and i'm cancelling my international trip because i didn't get it. no matter the stupidity or insanity of the original subject, that's an 180 degree turn from an american president is honestly nuts. him saying no, i don't want that, yes, i want that. i'm cancelling my trip because i didn't get that. i thought you said you didn't want that. i acknowledge my earlier statement. what are we talking about, greenland? i know we've gotten used to this kind of thing, but it is nuts. it was also nuts this weekend at the g7 when president trump was asked if he attended the meeting at the g7 that was about climate. the president responded by saying that that meeting had not yet happened yet, that it was

going to be next, the next thing, like the next thing in the future. in fact, the meeting had already happened and he just hadn't been there. then the white house press secretary put out a formal statement explaining the reason the president hadn't gone to the climate session was not because it was still in the future, as far as he was concerned, but instead because at the time of the climate meeting he was busy. he was having bilateral meetings with the leaders of india and germany. well, here is a picture of the climate meeting that he didn't go to. there's the leader of germany in the purple there. that's the leader of india in the black. the indian and german leaders were there. president trump didn't skip the climate meeting so he could meet with the two of them. they were at that meeting. had he been meeting with them, he'd have to do it there becau he's the only one that wasn't there. his empty chair is there instead. it was also nuts when the president was asked by a reporter at the g7, mr. president, any second thoughts on escalating the trade

war with china? and he answered, yeah, sure, why not? the reporter followed up, second thoughts? yes? the president said, might as well. might as well. the reporter tried again. you have second thoughts about escalating the war with china? the president's response, i have second thoughts about everything. at which point somebody distantly in the room started laughing out loud because they couldn't control themselves. i mean, if this were anybody involved in the united states government in any official capacity who spoke this way publicly at an international gathering like this, right, their colleagues or their superiors or at least security would, like, lift them up by the armpits and rush them out the door until they could be revived and given medical treatment. in this case it's the president. everybody goes, okay, i guess the new line is american president has second thoughts about everything. when the president doesn't show up for meetings, we'll just make stuff up about that meeting having not happened.

or him having been somewhere where he wasn't. after the president told reporters explicitly he was having second thoughts about his new tariffs on china, the administration had to figure out what they were going to do with that one, right? i have second thoughts about everything. they quickly mounted this clean-up effort, 3:02:00 p.m., larry kudlow went on cnn to explain maybe the president had just given that answer to reporters because he didn't really know what the question was. maybe that's a good explanation. >> so the president said that he's having second thoughts about escalating the trade war. why? >> well, look, if i can reinterpret that, i mean, he spoke to us. he didn't exactly hear the question. >> if i could reinterpret that -- that was 3:02:00 p.m. by 3:04:00 p.m., it was the treasury secretary on fox news, also trying to explain away whatever it was the president just said about his second thoughts and how he didn't

really mean that at all, whatever it was he said, he didn't mean it or he didn't hear the question, or if he did hear the question, his question shouldn't be reinterpreted without me here to tell you what he might have meant. by the following morning the president was back in forma apparently making this up completely out of whole cloth. >> china called last night, the trade people. said let's get back to the table. >> china called last night. you received a phone call from china from the chinese government? this is big news. are you sure? >> mr. president, i ask you, could you tell us a little bit more about the call you referred to, when will the next round of negotiations -- >> i got two calls, and very, very good calls. very productive calls. >> there were no calls actually. there were no calls. at least according to china. chinese government said they are unaware of whatever these mystery calls are that the president is claiming to have received from the chinese

government on sunday night. they're like, i don't know who called you or who they said they were, but it wasn't us. did you really think it was us? who told you we got calls? did you think you took the call? do you remember putting the phone to your face and talking into it? was there anybody there? i mean, in the space of 30 seconds there, he goes from being a call that we got last night to two calls, and very good calls. china says it was no calls and china would know since that's who supposedly called. the white house has been unable to produce any evidence to contradict what china says about its own behavior. the much more likely explanation here is that the president of the united states really does just frequently say stuff that -- doesn't mean anything about what has actually happened in the world. and that he either believes stuff has happened when it hasn't happened, or he just makes it up and doesn't care that it didn't happen and assumes no one will check. and i think if we're going to be honest about this, it's not a psychological profile at this point.

it's now the way the u.s. government is running. it's not just him. this has been going on long enough now that he's got the white house staff making stuff up as well. quote, u.s. officials called several members of the traveling white house press on saturday afternoon. speaking anonymously, the officials claimed it was only on u.s. insistence that there would be a summit session on economics and trade at all. so u.s. government officials during the g7 summit this weekend on saturday afternoon called up reporters and said, this g7 is so stupid. they weren't going to be talking about trade or economics at all until we, the u.s. government, insisted. this claim by anonymous white house officials was, quote, undermined by the existence of earlier drafts of the g7 agenda which all had such a session included. so the president just makes stuff up. the white house staff just makes stuff up, too. sometimes to cover up for lies the president has told to make

them seem true, but sometimes they just tell lies of their own accord. the washington post's overview piece about the g7 this weekend describes these last few days as a, quote, lens into the president's unorthodox mind. that is a very generous way to put it. they describe his, quote, flummoxing moves that have rattled the markets and his own staff. some of the things the president publicly lied about this weekend appear to be completely unforced errors. not just lies, but lying non sequiturs. here's one the white house has tried to clean up just because it was so weird and also because the first lady has staff that answer to her, and so sometimes stuff about her has to get cleaned up. look at the headline here. white house clarifies that melania trump has not met kim jong-un. what? yeah, trump just volunteered to reporters apropos of nothing this weekend, the first lady has gotten to know kim jong-un, and i think she would agree with me

he is a man with a country that has tremendous potential. quote, as trump mentioned his wife, a camera cut to melania in the audience who cocked her head slightly and looked somewhat quizzically at the president. several hours later as the president and the first lady flew back to washington, the white house press secretary issued a statement that came with a tiny souvenir bucket and mop for those whose job it is to send out stuff like this all the time. that's not true about the bucket and mop, but the statement is real. this is the statement. while the first lady has not met kim jong-un, the president feels like she's gotten to know him. imagine if that is your job, to send out stuff like that. the president feels like she's gotten to know him. therefore, true. i mean, like imagine if your job is to clean up, to send out stuff like that, to clean up statements like this, not just for, i don't know what, like

your crazy uncle who by some probate accident ended up running your otherwise totally normal family business and you have to bide your time because nobody can get rid of him for a while. when he says crazy stuff, we have to pretend he's not really here. i guess i could imagine it being that nuts. but this is the most powerful government and largest economy in the world and the guy who running the government. while the first lady hasn't met him, the president feels like she's gotten to know him. the president did, however, become his most lucid self when he hit upon the idea that when it becomes america's turn next year to host the g7, that should definitely happen at one of his private clubs. for sure. i'm not kidding. >> with doral we have a series of magnificent buildings. we call them bungalows. they each hold from 50 to 70, very luxurious rooms. with magnificent views. we have incredible conference

rooms, incredible restaurants. it's like -- it's like such a natural. and we have many hundreds of acres so that in terms of parking, in terms of all of the things that you need, the ball rooms are among the biggest in florida, and the best. >> the biggest ball rooms. the best ball rooms in florida. the best ball rooms in florida. also, did i mention our parking facilities were very nearby the airport. our bungalows have very luxurious views. i mean, needless to say, if the president did do this and decided that his privately owned for profit business would be the host of the next g7, that would, in effect, be forcing other countries' governments to pay him and his family in order to attend the g7. and that, among other things, would be fantastically unconstitutional.

but, nevertheless, i kid you not, today the official white house twitter feed repackaged those lucid and even excited comments about the president at his otherwise shockingly incoherent international appearance over these last few days. they clipped and captioned those comments as an official announcement. look, it's the white house twitter feed. this is not real donald trump. the white house twitter feed. quote, president donald trump shares the location of the next g7 summit hosted by the united states. so the white house -- white house staff -- is officially announcing this wasn't just like the president slipping a little more and landing in his mind on a real estate brochure where he's frankly more comfortable. according to the white house, that really was the president of the united states announcing that his family's private club is going to host the g7 and all those other countries who want to send delegations, because it's the g7, will have to pay him and his family in order to attend next year.

one country per bungalow. you can just pay don junior at the door or ivanka. let's make this easy. leave the check with any of my children. also try the veal. i mean, this would be -- this would be a very funny movie if this were about something fake. it would be great if this was fake, but this is us now, and apparently this is something from which nobody like wakes up and move on. this is what we have to do on a day-to-day basis and try to figure out how to deal with it moving forward. more ahead. stay with us. beep goes off ]

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president trump has once again called for russia and russian president vladimir putin specifically to be invited back into the g8. it used to be the g8 until putin got kicked out for invading and an exing crimea. the other countries are not interested in the idea, they're not having it. president trump is also seriously trying to host the next g7 at his own private resort in doral, florida. now the expectation is that

whether or not the other g7 countries are interested in inviting putin and russia back, maybe trump will just invite putin himself. and why not? another paying customer. senator chris murphy of connecticut sits on the foreign relations committee. he's tweeting this about this whole idea. quote, discussing bringing russia back into the g8 isn't a preposterous idea. what's preposterous is giving it away as a bargaining chip with nothing in return. but this is what we get with stream of consciousness as foreign policy. i wanted to show you that tweet because i feel it's a glass half full thing. he things of some of this as conscious. joining us is senator chris murphy. thank you for being here tonight. appreciate t. >> good to be here with you. >> a stream of consciousness is a nice idea for two reasons. it's a stream which implied that it's some sort of like steady flow in one direction, and consciousness implies that it's -- ah, at least the product of an active scentient process.

i don't know i believe that after the last few days. >> this is extraordinary the number of things coming out of g7 that are nuclear grade bananas are in the dozens and yet we've just become used to this. so we move on. the fact of the matter is that the united states today is treated as a nuisance country, right? you just have to get through meetings like this and try to go back to cooperating around us when you can. but, you know, we don't get together in these meetings. we haven't done decades of joint communiques because it's fun. we do it because it's part of how we hold the post world war ii order together. it is by showing that nations that are often disgredegreeing economic matters and political matters can twice a year come to a joint statement of

understanding on a number of important topics to the globe. that's how we keep a lid on conflict around the world. that's how we make sure we don't revert back to the post-1945 world in which great powers were regularly marching armies against each other. things fall apart when all of a sudden you can't get the g7, g8, whatever it is, to be able to find minimalist common ground. that's the big worry moving forward. >> i also wonder, though, i don't spend a lot of time talking about the president's behavior or his statements. i feel like it's unavoidable after the g7 if only because the president did just seem so incoherent and random, and he was like -- he was like refrigerator poetry. it was like words unrelated to what he seemed to be trying to communicate, some of the things he said that weren't true, were things that didn't provide him any advantage. talking about his wife meeting kim jong-un, which is a thing that didn't happen. talking about the climate

meeting being in the future when it, in fact, is something that had just ended. and he either has to have known that or really ought to have known that. i mean, the president's just personal incoherence, is that something that we grow out of as a country in terms of the way that other world powers perceive us once this president is no longer in office? or is that sort of bizarre behavior by the president, something that trails us around in the future even after he's gone? >> it does, and there is reputational value that we are losing today that you can't get back. we also exist today in a multi-polar world. it's not originnly aligning you between the u.s. and soviet union. you have suitors if you are an economic or political free agent in the world. the russians are on the march. the chinese are on the march. the europeans are doing their own trade and security arrangements now would you tell us. and so as the united states

recedes from the playing field, others are filling that vacuum. we are going to have trouble rejoining even if we elect a democrat who wants to put us back into the center of the american stage. and so there is absolutely permanent damage that is done to us as the world just decides to make arrangements would you tell us. and i frankly have seen that in the last two years. the first year when people would come to visit me from around the world, they were freaking out about what they were going to do with trump. in years two and three when world leaders come to my office, they explain to me all of the other plans they have made that don't involve the united states, and that's the hard part to get back. >> i was interested -- one last question for you, sir -- in your point that you made about stream of consciousness foreign policy, bu but also about this idea of putin and russia to rejoin the g7 and make it g8, not something that's a preposterous idea, but not to trade it away for nothing. if trump were to invite putin to

the g7, if it were at his resort, as the host of the g7 could he do that? >> i don't think he can do that. he can certainly invite putin to sit on the side lines as zarif did. i'm not sure putin with accept that invitation. if he were to try to finagle a way to bring russia back into the g7 without preconditions, it's a death blow to ukraine. ukraine has been teatering on the balance for years now, and to signal to the russians that the state of play that exists there now with russian occupation with the east and crimea is acceptable. and for the united states to give up one of our few points of leverage in getting them to withdraw from those parts of ukraine would be absolutely disastrous. again, we kicked them out of the g8 in order to have leverage to try to get them to change their behavior. and so it stands to reason that we should be willing to talk to russia about coming back in as

long as they take steps to guarantee the political sovereignty of the country of ukraine. >> and not getting it for free for nothing. art of the deal. senator chris murphy, thank you for making time to talk to us tonight, sir. good to have you here. >> thanks. >> more ahead. stay with us. e. (woman) banjo! sorry, it won't happen again. come on, let's go home. after 10 years, we've covered a lot of miles. good thing i got a subaru. (avo) love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek. (avo) get 0% during the subaru a lot to love event. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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even in our moderate to severely topsy-turvy world, this kind of story has been really weird over the last couple of months. i guess actually the last couple of years. it's always been a little bit

unsettling, even if you're not directly involved. you've seen stories like this. baltimore hit by a ransom ware attack in may. locked up the city government's computer servers and cost many, many, l millions of dollars to fix. riviera beach, florida, population 35,000. riviera beach in june just voted to pay the hackers who had attacked them. so the hackers would unlock their computer systems. this month nearly two dozen different cities in texas -- a lot of them small little towns -- were all hit by a coordinated ransom ware attack. hackers lock up and render unusable the whole computer infrastructure of the town, and then they issue their demand. you want to see your town functional again? you want any of your data, any of your computers accessible, anything you use to do records, you want it freed up again and unlocked? pay us. ransom ware attacks have been happening a couple years now targeting big cities, itty bitty towns, state agencies, even

hospitals. with the 2020 election just ahead, we got news today i know ought to be comforting, and yet reuters reporting tonight that the department of homeland security is launching a new program to protect voter registration databases in the states. quote, intelligence officials are concerned that foreign hackers in 2020 not only will target databases, voter registration, but attempt to manipulate, disrupt or destroy the data. these cyber security infrastructure security agency or cisa, a division of the homeland security department, fears the databases could be targeted by ransom ware. one writer telling reuters, we assess them as high risk. reuters says the new plan will get going in roughly a month. clearly there is plenty of work to do to get ready for the 2020 election so that election can happen without various registration voter databases high-jacked and held for ransom all over the country. while reuters was breaking that

news today, we also learned about another part of our system for election defense, just falling apart, or at least taking a big step backwards, and that story is next. s next if you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal.

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ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy and the power of 1 2 3. ♪ trelegy 1-2-3 save at trelegy.com when every seat is taken, the federal election commission has six members split along party lines. three republicans and three democrats. that hasn't happened for a while. one democratic commissioner left in april 2017, then a republican commissioner left in early 2018. neither of them was replaced. that left the fec with four members which is the bare minimum you need for a quorum. the federal board that oversees u.s. election law haslem off li along with four. they are known for not getting much done in a few days. they did have four members. they did have a quorum. as of today they won't have that. republican fec commissioner matthew peterson announced he,

too, is stepping down from his job as commissioner of the fec. that will be in effect as of this weekend. that will mean the fec will be down to three members which is not a quorum. heading right into the 2020 election when i'm sure there will be nothing to worry about in terms of election law in campaign finance and election irregularities. there is a explicit set of rules for what the fec can do when they don't have a quorum, specific instructions for that scenario. quote, if less than four members are present at any time during the commission meeting, the chairman shall declare a temporary recess until a quorum is again present. at which time the meeting may resume. so at which time the meeting may -- that means they can meet, they can count heads. one, two, three. and then they go into recess. and if we are talking about preschool, i would be all-in for that.

but we are talking about the federal agency that is the watch dog for the rules for this next gigantic election in which even just on the democratic presidential side, 20 plus people are now actively competing with all the millions of dollars sloshing around that in the end. joining us now is ellen weintraub. it is great to have you here. thank you so much. >> thank you, rachel. >> so, when i first started doing this show approximately 60 years ago, i think -- rounding up to the nearest 60 -- i used to do a segment called "talk me down" where i would describe something that appeared in the news that seemed absolutely terrifying and i would ask somebody to join me who would tell me why it's not as bad as it seems. i sort of want to revive that concept for talking to you about this because this to me seems very alarming and i'm hoping you can tell me it's not as bad as it looks. >> well, it's not great. it's definitely not great, rachel. but i want to assure the american people that the american agency is not closing

its doors. we have a dedicated staff who will continue to show up for work every day and we will make sure we fulfill our core mission of disclosure, of following the money and making sure the american people can follow the money and find out who is supporting which candidates and how they are spending their money. and that can happen without a quorum. however, it is definitely not good for us not to have a quorum because we can continue to do investigations that have already been authorized, but we can't authorize any new investigations. we can't issue any rules. we can't issue any advisory opinions. there are core functions that require four members of the commission to fulfill, and we really need to have a quorum. in fact, we need to have a full complement of commissioners. we've been limping along with four members for a while now, and it's complicated because you have to have everybody in the room in order to have a meeting. and if one person is ill or has to leave town for whatever reason, they can phone in, but it's hard to maintain a quorum

when you've only got the bare four. there really is no excuse for the fact that the positions that have been vacant, as you pointed out, for over two years in one case and year and a half in the other case, have not been filled. however, trying to talk you down again. congress and the president can act and can act quickly if they are motivated. in fact, commissioner peterson is a great example of that. he was nominated and then confirmed 12 days later. so it is possible nort president to nominate people to fill the empty slots and for the senate to confirm them in fairly short order if they decide to do so. the last time we ran out of a quorum in 2008, it took six months before they decided to fill the empty seats and bring us back to full strength. i am sincerely hoping that we are not going to run into that situation again. >> if the president did decide that he wanted to fill these seats so the fec could be full

strength, it could open investigations, issue rules -- as you said can't do without a quorum -- the president would be responsible for appointing both republican and democrat members to the open seats, right? >> yes. usually what happens is the seats of the opposition party to the president are filled on the recommendation of the leaders of that party in the senate, often with the leaders in the house. >> ellen weintraub, chair of the commission. please keep us apprised. i understand if this does evolve -- it may evolve quickly -- we'd love to have you back if you can keep us up to date on this. >> any time, rachel. >> thanks, ellen. take care. we'll be right back. stay with us. -and...that's your basic three-point turn.

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i owe you a proof i'm very sorry. seth moulton, iraq war combat veteran, dropped out of the presidential race on friday and i forgot to poof him. he will instead run for reelection on the house which might be a significant undertaking for him next year. looks like he's going to be facing a number of primary challengers in his district. but regardless, seth moulton becomes the fourth democrat to leave the presidential race. erik swalwell first, then john hickenlooper, then jay inslee, now 3, 2, 1. congressman seth moulton. thank you, sir. congressman moulton did not make either of the first two democratic debates. he was also not on track to make the third debate which is coming up in just a couple of weeks. it's going to be interesting to

watch over this next couple of days, though. the cut off date to meet the criteria to qualify for the third debate is the day after tomorrow. as of right now, ten democratic candidates have met the criteria. they'll have all ten go on one nigh night. if an 11th qualifies, there will be six on one night, five on the other. a few candidates aren't are on the cusp of qualifying. tom steyer needs to hit 2% in one more qualifying poll and he would be in. up against the clock. they have two more days to punch the ticket before the qualifying deadline expires on wednesday. watch this space. this is my buick. how are we gonna fit in your mom's buick? easy. i like that new buick. -me too. i was actually talking about that buick. i knew that. -did you? buick's fresh new lineup is full of surprises.

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one store toy keep an eye on tomorrow afternoon, by 4:00 p.m. eastern time, there is a court ordered deadline that ultimately could tell us whether president trump's taxes are going to be handed over to congress or not. this is the case where democrats

have subpoenaed deutsche bank and capital one to get records related to president trump and his business. those banks so far have been unwilling to tell the court whether the financial documents they have about president trump their tax returns, and if so, whether they would be handing those over to congress, too. but even though those banks have been resistant, they have to tell the court one way or the other by tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. we expect those to be public filings. so that could end up being a big deal. keep an eye out for that. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." >> this announcement by the president that he wants to have, when he's host of the g7 next year, he wants to have it on one of his own properties, continues this phenomenon of possible trump crimes committed in public, therefore, they're not crimes just by doing them in public. emolument clauses we can't say