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tv   Deadline White House  MSNBC  February 21, 2020 1:00pm-2:00pm PST

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to get worried about a market slowdown but to understand how to sign in to your 401(k). that wraps it up for me. i'm going to see you back here tomorrow. live from las vegas and be sure to tune in tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern for the rev's interview with candidate, michael bloomberg. thanks for watching. "deadline white house" with nicolle wallace begins right now. hi everyone. it's 4:00 in the new york and we're covering the latest reporting around donald trump's man churian decapitation over a briefing that detailed russian president's preference for donald trump in the 2020 presidential election. as well as new details about the russian election interference that's planned for both the democratic primary underway and the general election coming up in november. from that ton is itting "the new
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york times" report that has ignited a political firestorm and gen ralted serious alarm in national security circles. they warn house law makers last week that russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get trump re-elected. that's according to five people familiar with the matter. they sebt a disclosure to congress who angered that democrats would use it against him. and the day after the february 13th briefing, the president beerated the out going national director of nationinaltelligence for allowing it to take place. that's according to people familiar with the exchange. trump was particularly irritated that congressman adam schiff attended the briefing. the reporting is the starkest example of a trump-appointed top intelligence official being fired after intelligence about
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russia's effort to re-elect him was given to congress. quote, during the briefing to the house intelligence committee, mr. trump's allies challenge the conclugszs, arguing he had been tough on russia and he had strengthened european skurlt. in response to the report, former acting attorney general, sally yates, called it a screaming red siren. formt former cia director, john brennan, called it a virtual decapitation. john hiems on the urgency of getting to the bottom of trump's treatment said that life-long public servants have an obligation to blow the whistle on the president. >> what needs to happen right now is that mcguire and anyone else who is in that room needs to come forward and they can't do oo mattis, they can't do a
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john kelly and feel some sense of loyalty to their former boss. these people need come forward because what we're talking about is one of the corner stones of our democratic republic. if it is true that mcguire was dress down by the president because his people made a presentation to the intelligence committee, mcguire needs to speak up right now and tell the world that is what happens. >> the president's war on intel, the russian campaign to aid his re-election is where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends. here at the table, politics editor for "the root" and michael mcfall. "the new york times" security reporter, adam goldman, one of the bilines in the story we quoted at the top. former u.s. attorney, joyce vance and jeremy bash is here. let me start with you. i read as much from that incredible piece of reporting from you and your colleagues as i could get out.
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but take me through more of it and put it in context for us. >> you know, the context is this critical election briefing provided to congress. as mandated. and the elections are shelby pearson provided information about russian intentions and then she was asking a question about putin and does he want to see trump re-elected and in the hearing she said that's putin's preference and putin favors trump being re-elected. and they were pushing back extremely hard, asking why why the conclusion and what's the evidence of that and it's my understanding it's intel community people who appeared in front of them.
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and fast forward to the next day, that briefing was february 13th. and on valentine's day, trump, you know, is angry with joe mcguire, right? the acting head of dni, about this briefing and schiff, who's on the intelligence committee, getting misinformation because he fears it's going to be weaponized. i don't believe our piece said definitivethry definitiveth definitively the two were connected. >> isn't the preference that russia prefers donald trump? that russian president standing next to donald trump said i prefer donald trump? >> and that was the preference in 2016. as for whether or not their operations now are designed specifically to favor donald trump or merely to conduct a cyber attack, merely, of our democratic election i think is
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besides the point. we have a nation adversary of the united states of america conducting a cyber attack against our country and the president is outraged, not by the ongoing attack. he's outraged our intelligence community professionals are warning people about it, that they're warning congress so we can do something about it. and i think the lesson is he's not only unconcerned about the cyber attack, i think he welcomes it. i think he knows deep down that it would benefit and therefore, he needs squash any effort by his own government to preventd it. >> i played the sound of congressman himes saying mcguire needs speak out. couldn't the committee, run by democrats subpoena him today? >> they could ask for testimony by mcguire, by others who know about this analysis and more fundamentally, i think ultimately this intelligence
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will have to be declassified and published in the same way the january 2017 intelligence community assessment about russian attempts to hack the 2016 election was ultimately published shortly after trump was inaugurated. we need to see the intelligence declassified f for nothing else, all the election officials in all 50 states can protect the election in november. >> you know, the intel, as it was briefed to the bipartisan committee, is alarming. the president's reaction, delivered via tweet and public comments. we're not going to play them but i'll sums are. "i was told a week ago they were trying to start a rumor. it is disinformation. do-nothing democrats want to see putin get elect pd friendship --
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what is the impact. fiona hill testified she wouldn't by part of russian disinformation efforts. it seems the order to traffic in russian disinformation is coming in the executive branch from the president himself. >> you're right. deeply disturbing and the overall idea that we are going to politicize intelligence is really scary to me and that goes well beyond the russia threat. if everything is through a polarized, partisan lens the president believes, then he's not going to have accurate information about pendemics or the china or iranian threat. so, that's the first thing that disturbs me and the second is that we know all of this. that means the system is leaking. the reporters are supposed to report. but why are we getting this intelligence the way we are and third, it's convoluted. and the intentions -- it is an
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intelligence assessment that trump seeks putin's -- putin seeks trump's victory again. very clear. there are other people who study vladimir putin and the russians. what's more important and mysterious is are they doing concrete things to help get the president re-elected? and that's what's unclear to me. i agree with germany. let's start declassifying this stuff. first of all, let's declassify before the election. so the american people know what's going on. that's what the obama administration was criticized for not doing in 2016. maybe we should open up and have public hearings every week until the election in november. >> doesn't that become less likely with donald trump's pick to be acting dni being a known trump loyalist, mr. rick
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granell. >> trump seems determined to surround himself with people who will only tell him what he wants to hear. there will be no more speaking truth to power in the executive branch. and for all the reasons ambassador mcfall discussed, that's deeply dangerous. it's less likely we'll hear it directly from odni but to clarify the importance of threats to american elections. and let's be clear about what that is. that's an effort to suppress your vote and my vote. russia's goal is to drive a wedge, create chaos. election chaos is certainly one of the modalities of choice. so, for elections to be secure and successful, since the president doesn't seem interested insecuring them, more interested in blaming democrats
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than fighting back against russia, we need this information. our elections aren't run out of washington. elections are run maybe by your secretary of state but more likely at the county level or your county equivalent. these are county reg stars. they run systems sometimes out dated. it's critical they have this information. it has to be declassified, pushed out to election authorities and to the american people. >> adam goldman, i believe your reporting goes through some of the specific approaches they're expected to turn to and they're around what safeguards do exist. right? they're going to get around some of the social media restrixzs on knowingly spreading false information and it would seem that, just based on reading the president's tweets and the transcript of what he just said
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that they have in him someone who's in on the scheme? >> well, let's just remember in the president's own national counterintelligence strategy that was released last month, he himself points out the russians are up to no good. he signed a letter which he points out the -- he expect russian election interference. i know from my sources and i cover the fbi and national security community at large. there's deep concern about messing with infrastructure. deep concern about chinese disinformation. so, it's not just russia. but, let me go back -- let me make a .1 of your guests made? the fact we are obtaining this information and provideing it to the public because congress or the white house won't is significant. you know, we went through this period where the obama administration really grappled.
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i remember "the washington post" said they choked about providing information to the public and letting us know what is happening on this attack on our democracy. we had this bipartisan report put out by the senate intel committee who said they should have done more, right? the obamaed a minstration should have done more and should have said something sooner. and here we are right now, months before the election and nobody is saying anything. and they're not coming out. and snthey're not telling the public. and the sad thing is you could argue maybe the russians have been successful. because even if these people come out and tell thusz truth about what's really going on, is thankful country even going to believe it? that's where we are today. >> adam goldman makes the right point here. one, thank god we know about it and i don't disagree with the ambassador's assessment of the dysfunction it represents. but, frankly, having been in the
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middle of another intel scandal, i think a lot of people on the right and left believe the transparency is one of the ways to reform and changing policies. i think the other piece is a story about whistle-blowers. i thought who will be the fiona hill, the ambassador bill taylor of this scandal? >> so there, are two bad guy business hind the curtain in this. one, vladimir putin, who obviously has wanted trump to stay in office. but i also look at steve bannon. and every time this happens, whether it's the justice system or election security, he said when trump got in office, i want the destruction of the administrative state. that's what he wanted to do. that's what we're seeing. every time someone leaves, every single time a long-term state official is like they won't let me do my job. whether it's talking about the weather, the number of people at a crowd, 1 victing people of bad
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behavior. what frightens me is not what you're saying, there won't be anyone they can go to because the individuals responsible for holding the government together have quit or been removed. >> that's a great point. i mean, the treatment -- if you just take the last whistle-blower. i believe he was outed by at least couple of the president's allies in the senate or in the house? i think one of the president's children flirted with or outed as well. i believe his lawyers have been threatened. what are your options as a national security or intelligence community whistle-blower right now if you were in the room for any of this? for any conversations about donald trump not wanting a bipartisan group of intelecommittee members to know about the russian election threat. what do you do? >> well, it's hard to know because you've got senators like rand paul going to the senate floor and actually outing the name of individuals who come
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forward under supposed whistle-blower protection. perhaps we need to strengthen the whistle-blower protections. i want to address another issue which is the republicans were supposedly concerned because their view is trump has been tough on russia. really? i mean he's the one who stood next to putin and legitimized him. trump is the one undermining nato, trump is the one who has delayed sanctioning the russian federation for attempting to kill and attempting to poison an asset who the united states helped free from russian prisons and trump has withdrawn from the inf treaty essentially letting russia accelerate an arm's race. so, i think we have a lot to be concerned about the way this administration has embold thnd russian federation.
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>> and robert mueller testified to the ongoing nature of russia's attacks. i believe it was a question from congressman will herd who contributed in the roughing up based on news accounts of these intel officials. and made clear the trump campaign readily accepted russia's help. so, what are we actually debating? just that they're doing it again? >> you know, i think what year doing is looking backwards through the filter of a lot more knowledge we had when the mueller investigation was underway. and so the most frightening thing here, nicolle is the president continues to view this as an attack on him personally. and his response, instead of circtling the wagons around the elections and figuring out ways to keep russia out of the election is he's trying to figure out ways to keep democrats from getting information about what's going on. bob mueller identified criminal
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conduct and indicted people for trying to impact our elections. that's one way our government addresses the situations. but now trump is going after the most foundational way we protect our election security from foreign attack. that's through the intelligence community. people who need to have the latitude to do this work, when they are briefing people on the hill to speak the truth and to think through the implications of that, that's what trump is trying to shut down and that should frighten all of us today. >> you in particular and your paper has largely broken a lot of the stories about the treatment that anyone that comes near the russia camp, either in the law enforcement community, at the justice department, in the intelligence community, gets annihilated by trump, personally. and one of the most upsetting sentences in the whole piece is mcguire's state that he left, i
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don't know if it was dumb founded or shocked or stunned by just the rage that was express said to him. we forget sometimes these are human beings trying to protect the country. but can you take me through that part of your reporting? >> yeah, particularly the cyber -- this election security czar for dni. she's mortified. it was a question she was going to be asked about whether putin favored trump or not and she had to answer it. there was no way around it because there were people in that room who wanted to know. and for speaking truth to power and being blunt, i've already seen stuff on the internet about her. this track was what you said earlier, which is everybody who speaks up is destroyed and you're just collateral damage. there are individual whose have been targeted by far right wing need you, like some of the sites that are so far off the grid.
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and they jin up all this smoke. and you can be directed at people who don't have anything to do with it, let alone the whistle-blower or vindman or someone else like that. it's a really disturbing trend and people are seeing that in the -- people are seeing that in whether it's the justice department -- i mean the fbi's been in the barrel how long? three years. now we're moving onto dni. we've been to the nsc. there's a systematic harassment of -- of people i would describe as every day bureaucrats doing their job. >> let me ask you to button this up. every day bureaucrats protecting this country from russia as collateral damage. what does that look like to you? >> i've talked to a couple of folks inside the intell community and they have two reactions. number one is keep their nose down and do their job because they're on the front lines
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protecting the country. and then they shake their heads and go we know the guy at 1600 pennsylvania avenue is dangerous. we just have to try to contain the damage as best we can. year going to doing our dead level best to do that and the members in congress, we should call for their testimony, listen to them and try to contain the damage as best we can. >> it's an unbelievable state of affairs. congrats on your reporting. after the break, in the wake of trump's dismissal, his intell chief and in the throws of a purge of career public servants, donald trump is casting about for a political ally. we'll show you the kinds of candidates trump has in mind. with one day to go until the nevada caucuses, the 2020 democrats make their case to minority voters. we'll go inside the races to gain advantage with some of the most important voters.
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the former new york city mayor says he will release three women from their ndas while workingality his company. the details and his exclusive brand new interview coming up. at fidelity, you'll work with an advisor on a flexible wealth plan. and with new brokerage accounts, your cash is automatically invested at a rate that's at least 20 times more than other advisory firms. personalized advice. unmatched value. at fidelity, you can have both.
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last night aboard air force 1, he floated the idea of making doug collins the new director of national intelligence. trump forgot to discuss it with collins. so, 12 hours later the georgia republican went on tv and gave his answer. thanks but no thanks.
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bloomberg news reports trump had been close to nominating congressman chris stewart. until trump learned of a 2016 video in which he called trump, quote, our mussolini. i think he'd be great. as trump's quest for a loyalist at the post of director of national intelligence bumblees along, his aids are hard at work satisfying trump's demand for a purge. 29-year-old donnie who had previously been fired by john kelly now runs the presidential personnel office. after a meeting yesterday with liaisons, he asked them, quote too, identify political appointees across the government believed to be antitrump. quote, he suggested the most dramatic changes may have to wait until after the november election. trump has empowered macken tee who he considers an absolute
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loyalist. he told staff those identified as antitrump will no longer get promotions by shifting them around agencies. jake sherman. washington has been more -- i don't know what the right word is -- but more racked by the political aftershocks of impeachment than during impeachment. tell me whether susan collins regrets saying donald trump learned his lesson, whether any republicans feel they've unleashed something they couldn't even imagine? >> no. to put it succinctly. i think the reality remains that the president believes and urged on by some members of congress to take action that benefits
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him, that keeps him comfortable. firing and hiring people is well-won the president's rights and i think the best way to think of it at this point is he's taking liberty in ignoring the people who say you need to have this person in this spot and you need to have this person in that spot. the stunning thing, nicolle and we've talked about this so many times over the last couple of years. the president floated the name of a congressman for a position that he clearly didn't want and it's just stunning to me to think about the lack of preparation that nungts on behalf of the white house. because doug collins is ahead in most private polling in the senate race in georgia. republicans want kelly lefler, largely perhaps because she says she's going to put in 20 million of her own dollars into this race. but doug collins said no, i'd rather be a senator, thank you very much.
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to tie this all together. the president had political professionals in the white house that would have prevented that. a lot of those people have left and now he's stuck making the instance where he's flatly embear bearsed when he says someone might take a job they have no interest in. >> and rick grenell is going to take the acting intelligence director. here's what susan rice had to say about him. >> it's not just he has no preparation, background or knowledge to do this. the problem is he's dishonest p i've ever encountered. i'm not using this language lightly. he is a hack.
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and that's all he's ever been. and he has been put in that job for one reason only, which is to turn this [ inaudible ] >> that audio was hard to hear. that's susan rice, former national security adviser for president obama said the problem is rick grenell is one of the most nasty, dishonest people i've ever met. i'm not using this language lightly. he's a hack and that's all he'll ever be. >> usually you can say i think he's a trump loyalist. no, nasty, terrible person. this whole administration is a sequel to horrible bosses. they keep picking terrible people over and over again that they say can this person not only do the job but create a toxic environment that prevents
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us from getting other people. i'm really concerned we get to a second trump administration. who wants to work there? who if you do your job, you get kicked out of a place. you can be removed in a purge because you sent the tweet four years ago i don't like trump steaks. and he's hiring people -- >> he called him mussolini. >> that's a little more than i don't like trump steaks. but we see people getting fired because they fail ood be a loyalist and susan rice is not just speaking for herself but lots of people in washington who feel that way right now. he's getting nasty, veenl, terrible people who won't tortu work for him. >> i mean, lelgts rr not be precious about this. presidents have the right to pick national security officials who have traditionally align would their party.
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i think the norm -- the line that's been blown out here is that they're being put in charge of things that have never been tainted by partisanship. you look at general michael hayden. george 10t served democrats on capitol hill and the white house and republican president -- we have never seen such an effort to reach for the most loyal political kind of figures to run our intelligence agencies. jeremy first and ambassador on the danger of that. >> well, one of the troubling things that's gone on here is in addition to removing mcguire and bringing grenell is they've fired the entire leadership of the director. a career cia officer was shown the door. he's a great american a patriot. they let the general counsel go, let the chief of staff go. can anybody who's anybody fired
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in the last 24 hours. they're going to try to do this. but i question grenel's judgment because what's going to happen? he's going to be trotted out in front of the cameras to testify before congress. he's going to have to read testimony that they wrote. it's going to be at odds with trump's world view. it's going to say russia is attacking our election. and grenell is basically on barr time. as soon as trump sees his lips moving, he's going to fire him too. >> just two more dimensions to this. let's assume you had the best person ever to do the job who is a partisan, political person. i want to remind you you need have separation between intell jn intellgence and politics and policy. i worked for three years at the national security council. i know a fair amount about russia, by the way, including my colleagues and friends. but we had a process there that
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odni would get a shot at the president in the presidential daily briefing to give him the facts to the best of their knowledge without it being tainted by policy types like me. i will then get to weigh in what w the president, the vice president, national security adviser to provide that policy advice. this strategy blurs that up. and remember one important variable here. we have a president of the united states that doesn't believe intelligence. we know that he doesn't. so, you can't put somebody in that job that is going to be in a sycophantic way take the edges off to someone who already doesn't want to consume intelligence. it goes way beyond the russia threat. >> the intelligence committee in the senate and house used to be safe space for facts, for intel. classified and otherwise. i noted that richard burr rr, as
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of yesterday, hadn't given his seal of approval to the appointment of rick grenell. and any concerns from republicans? >> no, they've largely fallen in line. but remember grenell has a limited window he could serve as the national director noftelligence. the white house said they're not going to nominate him to be the full-time director of national intelligence. the real question is who can the president nominate that can get through the senate? remember, grenell narrowly got through the senate to be ambassador to germany. it wouldn't be easy for him to get through. and i don't know where they'll reach to put somebody else in the position. when people ask what is the
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biggest change, especially the houses and senate intel committee is fine. but the house intelligence committee is basically unworkable at this point. devin nunes and adam schiff clearly don't agree on much and are barely on speaking terms. it was one of the places of complete bipartisanship, as jeremy will remember quite well. this is a place information was shared, trips were taken by both parties. now it's nothing like that. it's a partisan war zone. >> it sure is. thank you all for spending time with us. when we come back that breaking news from mike bloomberg. he says he'll release three women from their nondisclosure agreements. he broke that news with our colleague and friend and he'll join us with that interview when we come back. with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate
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there is breaking news this hour out of the mike bloomberg campaign after a universaly panned debate performance where he was hit by elizabeth warren and joe biden for having nondisclosure agreements with multiple women at his company. his company's identified three ndas and said the women can speak out if they want to. quote, i've done a lot of reflecting on this issue over the past few days and i've decided as long as i'm running the company, we won't offer confidentiality agreements to settle claims of misconduct
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going forward. here is a former mayor speaking with rev al sharpton a few moments ago. >> tell me what did you feel about your performance? >> wasn't my best night. blame nobody but me. in the end, i get advice from people but it's up to me to decide what to do. they were all yelling at each other and they weren't focusing on donald trump, which is what we should be focusing on in the democratic party and i didn't have a chance to really say what i wanted to say. have another debate coming up on tuesday. >> they brought up stop and frisk. are you going to release the ndas? >> i will talk about it between now and then. >> so, you may do something different? >> i want to keep you in suspense. >> suspense didn't do you much good. democratic strategist, anchor and executive producer for team
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u.s.a. and host of "politics nation" here on msnbc and fresh off the exclusive interview with mike bloomberg. he got up from the interview and the campaign made the announcement. >> we did the whole interview sunday on my show. and i also feel he ways trying to get ahead of next tuesday's debate and he may do something different because i said to him. are you going to be more in the offense on tuesday night? and he says we'll see. but having been one to have fought and worked with mike bloomberg, i would be surprise fd he did not come with some, let's say, attacks of his own. there are people around that stage that are vulnerable themselves on these issues. and i think that they should not
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feel that they would not be called on the same standards that they've now set. i would be very cautious if i was the other people and other campaigns. >> you know, tim o'brien, who is a friend of this show and now working on the bloomberg campaign, i thought managed to articulate the best explanation for bloomberg, better than bloomberg was. he said he's a flawed man. and i thought watching the debate wednesday night -- and all they did was attack. there were six and none of them attacked donald trump as their strategy and we'll see sooif it works. there's a caucus on saturday. but it appears if bloomberg could settle into owning his own flaws, he takes away a lot of the arrows he can point at thoem. yeah, i screwed up. i've made mistakes.
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i would argue so have them but i can take it to donald trump? >> a lot of people talk about of all the candidates, these people are not coming forward and apologizing for stuff. bloomberg apologized for stop and frisk. i mean, he was behind it 100% and he should be transparent. he was behind it and anyone who talked to him during this time, we knew he was 100% behind it. but he has apologized. in this interesting situation. yesterday i had lunch with a bunch of new york women, all over 50. and they were like what is the matter with mike? why didn't he just say i'm from a different time, we spoke like that and to be really transparent about it? and it's interesting -- i don't think it came easily. but it's not in his nature, i think -- we know this, rev, to
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apologize. you can see the kind of counsel he's got. you can see the kind of women working with him and say saying no, you're writing this and we're talking about culture change -- i would have loved to have been in the room when the women saw him after that debate performance. >> what's interesting to me and if you look at the systematic takedown, where she ended was electability. it was his behavior and a moral cause she was laying out but also the fact that this is a real vulnerability for bloomberg if he's the nominee. if you have a drip, drip of women, that takes away that electability argument from him. and by the way, i'm curious that three women were identified in this statement. i'm interested and i'm a former researcher on a presidential campaign. i wonder if there's more and how
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much research they did to make sure there wasn't more because the only thing worse than what happened last week is if we spend every one of the next four, six, eight weeks with a new story coming out. that would by really troublism is for the former mayor. he's probably figuring this out after taking his lumps on the first debate. i suspect his tax returns and more information is released. he'll probably find somebody who is stop and frisk. he's got the money to do this. and this is the important thing. this second debate is really quickly. if he turns it around by the second debate, he's tied or in the lead in north carolina, alabama and mississippi. it takes one debate to apologize and say i learn my lesson and then he can move on. i don't think any of the apologies are sincere but compare that to joe biden or sanders who don't apologize for anything. joe biden won't apologize for
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the crime bill. he can say i took my slings and arrows and i'm moving forward. >> i think that's going to be critical. because it f because, if he turns this -- let's talk about guns, bernie. then you have set the standard in the first debate, you look like you're not meeting your own standard. so, you can win some fights with a knockout and some fights with rope adope. lay on the ropes and let them shoot their best shots and you come off the ropes. i don't know if he can do a rope-a-dope but i'm going to sit ring side. >> remember, joe biden struggled when he didn't seem like he wanted to be there. joe biden's changed that@itude. bloomberg has to act like he wants to be there. >> a black man, 50 years old, asked him.
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i asked who is your candidate? and he said bloomberg. i said always? he said no. i said what changed? and he said i think he can win this. >> after the break, we're learning russia may be meddling in more than just the trump campaign. the difference, how the other campaign is responding.
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all right. there's breaking news. since we have been on the air,
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just in the last few minutes on the topic of russian election interference. the story makes it clear what's at stake in the 2020 election. it is a report in "the washington post" says u.s. officials told the bernie sanders campaign that russia is trying to help his campaign, too. in addition to helping president trump. now, that's not without precedent. until officials found evidence that russia worked to boost sanders' campaign in 2020. here's where the story differs significantly for sanders than for trump. here's what sanders told "the washington post." quote, i don't care frankly who putin wants to be president. my message is clear. stay out of american elections and as president i will make sure you do. the table is back. very different. why can't the president do that? >> you would think he would want to prove the people love me.
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i think this is good for sanders, makes sense. not his fault. but i also think it speaks to what we were talking about before with electability. if the republicans and russians want you and trump, what does that say about your campaign? what does it say you are the preferred democrat to challenge donald trump by vladimir putin who thinks that he wants trump to get the job? >> it is an important point and it's a little weedsy. trump wants him because for the same reasons that bloomberg tried to articulate from the stage. trump thinks he's unelectable. why does the russians want when snim. >> thinking that trump can beat him. i think that's what it boils down. the challenge for bernie sanders is he has to convince people that, look, don't be fooled by this. the thing that the republicans are doing, i can still win this. they're afraid of me. that's what he has to convince the public an also key is this. he has to, he talked about this on tuesday in the debate or
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wednesday and look, 99% of the people out there are good on twitter and social media, 1% russians. then you need to be active in the cam pane. what will you doing? amplification of bad messages, packages promoting you, how thorough is the rejection of potential russian outside help or something you're saying? >> i like the -- i agree with what jason said and because of we have seen this amplification of the sanders' supporters and the ugly sanders supporter. that's the avatar out there. i think if i'm thinking like vladimir putin or a russian, i'm thinking that's the easiest ways to infiltrate the election and sow discord in american elections to explode that and have that impact, what happens this november. >> the culinary workers' union had to come out and say we are very upset by people acting in
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belligerent arrogant ways. what is going on with bernie bros? that's when i said, wait a second. one, i agree with you. if you are really against this you have to be adamant, have people on the team who are going and blocking. that's a lot of money, time and effort trying to do street organizing. i was like, oh, this is the easiest thing for the russians to do. just get right up in there. >> i think that what senator sanders did is the right thing. shut it down. i will not tolerate it, putin. will not tolerate you if i'm president an the contrast with donald trump. i think that, yes, he should shut down any of those that are using social media that are in a very extreme way. it's like i've called marches. people get a march and say whatever. you don't know, not responsible for it. you might be five blocks ahead
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but they will say that night on tv, al sharpton had a march and saying this, that and the other. i understand but he has to be adamant about disavowing it. >> i was about to say, you have a record of disavowing things in the same news cycle. >> he has to do that which he's done under this news cycle of news. they might be acting like the bernie bros. we don't know where the russian involvement agains and ends and losing nothing and gains a lot, bernie sanders, by just denouncing that just like he just did with russia. i think he set a contrast with donald trump. >> he has a vested interest of not allowing the movement to be coopted by the russian actors. >> that's right. >> my heart goes out to the american voter to sift through all of the noise in english and
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it would appear perhaps in russian, as well. we'll be right back. butter poached, creamy and roasted. or try lobster sautéed with crab, shrimp and more. so hurry in and let's lobsterfest. or get it to go at red lobster dot com but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. so hurry in and let's lobsterfest. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections like tb; don't start xeljanz if you have an infection. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra can increase risk of death. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, and changes in lab results. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common,
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my thanks to joel, maria, the rev and jason. we hope you'll join us for special coverage of the nevada caucuses. i'll be here with brian williams since the voting gets under way at 3:00 p.m. eastern. the rev's interview with michael bloomberg sunday on "politics nation." "mpt daily" with chuck todd starts right now. ♪ welcome to friday. it is "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd back in washington where we have breaking news that russia is attempting to interfere in the 2020 election following "the new york times" report yesterday that intelligence officials, career intelligence officials, warned congress during a cl

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