good morning. it is saturday, may 16th. i'm ali velshi. we begin with breaking news overnight. state department inspector general steve linick has been fired from his post as watch dog at the pentagon. no specific reason given for the sudden removal other than quote he no longer had the full confidence of the president. we'll have more on this in just a few minutes. also overnight, the house of

representatives passing a new $3 trillion heroes aid relief package aimed at struggling taxpayers and states and local governments. the president calling it dead on arrival. instead, touting a new white house initiative pushing the possibility of a coronavirus vaccine that contradicts the timeline of scientific experts. >> it's called operation warp speed. that means big and it means fast. a massive scientific industrial and logistical endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the manhattan project. its objective is to finish developing and manufacture and distribute a proven coronavirus vaccine as fast as possible. we love to see if we could do it prior to the end of the year. >> now, hopeful is one thing. i'm as hopeful as the next guy. being realistic is the next thing. the vast majority of the experts

in the field of science and medicine say it takes 12 to 18 months at least to develop, test and produce a vaccine. anything less would be considered a medical miracle. to offer some perspective, the fastest vaccine development in history was for mumps which took four years. here is what ousted dr. rick bright had to say about the t e timeline when he offered testimony before the house on thursday. >> my concern is if we rush too quickly and consider cutting out critical steps. you may not have a full assessment of the safety of the vaccine. it still will take some time. i think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule. i think it will take longer than that to do so. >> as states across the nation continue the process of reopening, cdc director robert

redfield tweeted all 12 of the forecasting models the cdc follows to predict the u.s. is heading toward more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths by june 1st. that's more than two weeks from today. a stark reminder that we are still very much in the middle of this pandemic regardless of what president trump projects. so, here are the facts. the total number of confirmed cases surpassed 1.4 million in the united states. the death count has eclipsed 88,000. the house on friday also approving a rule that allows lawmakers to vote remotely for the first time in the 231-year history due to the coronavirus pandemic. joining me now is dr. irwin redletter. national director of the center for preparedness at columbia

university. and dr. bedahila from boston university. thanks for being here. let me start with you. this is not what a lot of people think it is. it is not like building a bridge or building a building which you throw more people at it you can reduce the time it takes. there are parts of vaccine development and production that can be accelerated. the main part and that is testing on lots of people who are not immune to the disease who might otherwise get the disease and making sure it is safe to deploy this to hundreds of millions of people. there's no way to develop to rush that part of the process. >> that's right, ali. we have truly applied warp speed to some parts of development. we have taken new platforms that were never used.

the science we had for mers and sars has helped with. that it is given the vaccine and waiting for the potential and nargs i natural infections to occur as they go about life and comparing the rate which those people get sick versus those who did not receive the vaccine. we have done vaccine deployment in the emerging needs in the past like ebola. the importance is not just to check if the vaccine is evans cassikas efficacios. and they developed the antibodies that made the proteins that the immune system that made the response to the disease worse for dengue. that is why by the time the vaccine is approved, it is shown

to be efficacious. we want project warp speed because the logistics are important. working on distribution is just as important. those factors are important and you could throw the manpower at it. >> irwin, that part is great. manhattan project style approach to getting everybody possible and researchers and trying to get them to team up. in the end, there are parts that involve the efficacy which we have to establish. you can't wish this to be correct. it has to be correct. the safety and then the deployment which is also involves the manufacturer of millions of doses of vaccine. there have been infectious disease when sthey started what the therapeutic was and we were not able to get the adequate number of vaccines deployed. >> ali, the thing is here we need billions of doses.

it is not just the u.s. we and whoever else in other countries have to have vaccines that are effective and safe. we have to manufacture billions of doses. we may need two doses for a particular vaccine to work. the number, quantity is enormous. the big limiting factor as was just said is the human testing. it just takes a long time. you can imagine a scenario where we rush the human testing part and we end up with lots of people who get sick or even die from the vaccine. that would be a horrendous backward step. we will need the time and the 18 months at least in my book before we see a vaccine that we can trust to be out there safely. >> you talked about previous vaccines and efforts . in the case of mers and sars, we had some advantage where there

were prior studies and we were able to get fast studies. we have known about things called coronavirus for decades. what have we got in the stockpile that can help us accelerate this? >> well, one is the experience with the platforms themselves that we are using. vaccine is taking a bit of a protein or material of virus that is not able to replicate, but putting it on another protein and create an immune response. so it remembers the immune response. we have experience and looking at the types of proteins with mers and sars work and the platforms in which we could put that particular target on that would be effective. in addition to that as i mentioned before, we have accelerated technologies to deliver the vaccines in a new way. that is one of the vaccines the

nih worked with. we have some advantage there is. we have the advantage of global strategy. we have seven or so vaccines that have made it through phase one. some heading into phase two. the next level of safety. some advances. there are some things we can't rush. >> and irwin, you know, the president is talking about the economy turning around quickly. the economy really does exist on animal spirits. for whatever reason, you can convince people if you reopen businesses to go out and shop and do things like that. it just doesn't work the same way in medicine. the president has been signaling his disdain for the science for some time. we have seen a couple of weeks ago the president saying wearing a mask will make him look stupid. vice president pence going to a medical center without a mask because he says he gets tested

all the time. and days later both had members on their staff testing positive for coronavirus. what they are saying is contrary to what experts say. >> the entire administration from the very beginning has been grossly and obviously anti-science and evidence. it feels like the president doesn't quite understand the impact of what he says and what he does. the example of the president of the united states not wearing a mask and disdaining the wearing of a mask has a powerful effect on citizens. they are saying if he is not wearing a mask, why am i wearing a mask? that has been a big problem. especially with the rush to reopen everything where we need to be particularly careful about the health measures we know work. the social or physical distancing and wearing a mask is important. the biggest problem for me in reopening in a hurry is we don't

have the testing available on the ground to make sure the barber and restaurant you are going to and kitchen staff and the servers. have they been tested? are they positive? are you endangering yourself or family if you go to establishments before we have adequate testing before we know if people are infected and put you and your loved ones in danger? we are opening prematurely and it will cost lives and there will be a second wave in the fall. we need to open the economy and i believe that strongly. if we do so, prematurely in the absence of enough testing, we will have excess fatalities. no question about it, ali. >> we need to stop painting this as binary. we can achieve.nn achieve diffe things. you can work and not die.

dr. irwin redlener and dr. bhadliah. now to the breaking news overnight. president trump has fired the state department inspector general steve linick. he played a role in the impeach. proceedings by providing co documents that rudy giuliani gave to the committee. quote, i have learned the office of the inspector general opened an investigation into mike pompeo. the firing strongly suggests this is an unlawful act of retaliation. in the notice of intent to fire linick, trump no longer had c confidence in linick.

harry, like this and most of the things happened late on a friday night during the pandemic crisis which is the way this president does things. the alarming thing for most people, because most of the viewers are not familiar with or name any of the inspectors general. their job is to oversee the department to see if procedures are followed or the law is being followed. the president seems to have remarkable disdain for anybody who is going to oversee his appointed secretaries. >> first, as you say, friday night, the classic time for polite hit job. trump is making assault on the very idea of independent oversight. he reports i did not have full confidence in the inspector general. we don't want the president to have full confidence in the inspector general or anyone to have full confidence in the independent oversight. full confidence for him means he is getting a white-wash.

it happened with the hhs secretary. it happened with the intelligence secretary. he is actually attempting to become the unchecked president in every way. of course, here, we are talking about issues of life and death. >> let's talk a little bit about what happens as a result of this. we don't ever hear why it happens. the point is when you fire the person, the ombudsman. the person there to investigate whether procedures are followed in the department. does that do away with the accountability or the idea we can oversee how the departments run? >> it does when you replace that person with the political crony as the president is doing with a close associate of the vice president. one of the remarkable things here, you do sometimes hear we

know why he fired atkinson and the impeachment. we know why he fired the hhs secretary. this is brazen and methodical on his part. it is like a noon holdup of the bank. he is saying anyone who would give me criticism, that's what i don't like. that's the very purpose of the inspectors general as you say. some other presidents might have dreamed of having no oversight or check whatsoever. trump acts in plain daylight to try to achieve it. of course, it is combined with assault on congressional oversight and judicial oversight. he wants to have nothing to answer for and under circumstances where we know he is pursuing policies as the previous guest said that are controversial at best and deadly at worst. >> harry, you will be back with me in a little bit. former u.s. deputy attorney general harry litman.

we will talk to you again. coming up, a few minutes away from the space force first launch of the x-37 b unmanned aircraft. tums versus mozzarella stick

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we have developed some of the most incredible weapons

anyone's ever seen. we are building right now incredible military equipment. at a level nobody's ever seen before. we have i call it the super duper missile. >> he calls it the super duper missile. president trump talking about america's military. it its super duper missile. those remarks came between the announcement of operation warp speed and unveiling of the new flag for the sixth branch of the american military. united states space force. the logo called out online for looking like "star trek." we are set for the lawn of the secret x-37 b space plane from cape canaveral. you are looking at cape canaveral right now. you see it is cloudy. that might be a problem. it's part of the new research

and experiment mission and while the mission is looking to the future and sign of the present, today's launch is being dedicated to health care workers, first responders and essential personnel on the frontline of covid-19. joining me now is msnbc news courtney kube. courtney, if this were to happen, the first scheduled window for launch is 20 minutes from now. i've been to some space launches. they don't typically launch in weather that looks like. that. >> reporter: it depends. in this case, ali, it is a certain amount of wind is acceptable. remember when it first launches off, this is an atlas rocket with the x-37 b attached to it. it's heavier. it first takes off and it can sustain a bit of wind in the atmosphere. it is heavier before the pieces come off before the launch and

ultimately going up into orbit. rain, depending on how strong the rain is, that also is not necessarily going to stop it. as of now, we don't have any sense of whether it will go forward and just a matter of minutes when the launch window opens. we are still waiting to hear. i spoke with the mission commander yesterday afternoon. he said they were looking toward the earlier part of the launch window for a potential for the wind and rain and cloud cover to still be okay to takeoff. >> all right. and the atlas rocket. the rocket part of the thing is not new. that has been around. its first liftoff in 2002. we are not testing the reliability of the rocket. it is the other part. the payload. >> reporter: right. the atlas rocket manufactured by a commercial company united launch alliance. it is not new. the x-37 b space plane is not

new. what is different is it is launched by by space force and what's in the payload. we don't know what it is taking up in space. some are experiments and things to send information back to the u.s. military to learn from. much of the mission is classified. we know about one thing on there. that's a satellite that cadets at the air force academy built. that will detach from the space plane and stay up in orbit for a matter of months or years depending on how long it can sustain. that will send information back to the space cadets or air force academy back at the academy in colorado through the time in orbit, ali. >> it is interesting. you could call them space cadets. all right. i am a space geek. i want to watch this happen. we are t-minus 22 minutes, i

think. something like that. do you have an update? when will we get the update? the screen says t-minus 4 and holding. that seems a little optimistic. when will we know whether they are scratching or launching? >> reporter: the window actually opens at 8:24. that is when they are doing. looking at the weather conditions. remember, the window is open for some time. right now, we are told to stand by and keep watch. they have not scrapped anything at this point. the mission commander is optimistic or hopeful to launch some time this morning. if, in fact, they can't, the mission is pushed to tomorrow. what is interesting about the weekend, there is potentially a record-breaking quick turn around double launch from cape canaveral. one is scheduled today on the x-37 b. tomorrow, spacex, a competitor

of united launch, is scheduled to launch 20 hours from now. that would be a quick turn around. it could potentially be record-breaking if both takeoff on time. >> spacex is known to people as elon musk's company. stick around with me. i love this stuff. i know there is other news going on in the world. i know my viewers will agree with me. for all of the stuff happening in the world right now, if you still are not amazed by rocket ships going into space, then there is something wrong with you. i want to bring in my fellow space nerd and friend and technology correspondent jake ward to join us. he is the former editor in chief of "popular science." jake, there really is nothing like it. it has become commonplace. that saddens me that it is commonplace.

when you are there at cape canaveral watching or wherever you are watching these from, when you are there, there is nothing like a rocket ship going into space. now, it is commonplace. it is commercial as courtney said. nasa did a lot of the heavy lifting. defense companies did the heavy lifting. this is the space force. there is something in that plane that is going up with that atlas rocket that is super duper secret. what do you think is in there? >> you know, this is the great question and ali, it is fun to cover this with you. you say there has been a steady drip of difficult news here on earth. pulled in by gravity. the idea we can occasionally break free of the earth's gravity and get out in orbit. it is unbelievable. in my time at "popular science" the x-37 b is the constant.

we would say how is secret robot space plane? is it still there? still doing secret robot stuff. that is the essence. this is the platform by which, you know, the military is doing all kinds of experimentation to the tune of billions. for me, one of the best examples of how much activity goes on in secret and in space at the behest of the intelligence community and reconnaissance office and secret parts. a whole other shadow nasa that we don't really get to see. here is the best anecdote. in 2012, the director of nasa got a phone call from the counterpart at the national reconnaissance office. hey, by the way, you know hubble space telescope that is falling apart? we have two of them and they are

similar. they are just aimed at the earth. it is the same mirror system. we don't need them. would you like them. right now, nasa has given to them four free by the national reconnaissance office two hubble telescop telescopes. they were out and built and ready in secret tells you about the resources that have gone into the x-37 b. now what is on it? we don't know. it could be all sorts of prop propellant tests and you are in space trying to ionize the fuel. you hold fuel in place and move things in space. it could be that. it could be something looking down at the earth. it could be a test of weapon systems. we have no idea. all we know is for the last decade secret planes have been going up in space on the kinds of boosters you describe like the atlas.

the idea if you zoom out from earth and see we are getting into the steady rhythm of trips off our planet surface. you are right, ali. if you can't get excited about this, i don't know what you can get excited about. it is nice to take a braeak fro the steady drip of coronavirus news. >> courtney, i texted joy reid to see if i can host her show. we got bad news here. we apparently -- i'm looking at t-minus 4 and holding. they are not going to launch in this first window. it seems like the authorities are coming to arrest courtney kube from the sound there. >> reporter: i am here. >> you know the company provides bail money if they come get you. >> reporter: that's good to know. >> t-minus 4 and holding is not going to happen in the first

window. they are waiting for the next window in the 10:00 hour. >> reporter: okay. given the weather, that is not a huge surprise. i know there was a lot of hopeful optimism yesterday and this morning that they would takeoff today. i have been watching the weather. there is the chance for thunderstorms later today. we'll see if they can get off in the second window later this morning. >> and jake, part of that, because you wonder. it is a rocket ship. it is going to space. how can cloud and wind on earth or rain effect this? they need to monitor the trajectory of that launch as it goes up. the most dangerous part of the flight is the launch. >> that's right. the forces that go and push against a rocket as it tries to leave the atmosphere are so unbelievable. to me, the amazingness of space

flight has to do with the fact you created the custom piece of machine that is the incredibly fragile daisy chain of systems. the reason we have this long system t-minus 20 and t -minus 5 is because there are so many things to check. when we see rocket failures in the past, it comes down to the tiny, tiny fragile pieces. a single o ring in the shuttle disast disaster. the line of the fuel tank. those can go wrong and destroy everything. they need perfect conditions. even as we are getting closer and closer to the saturdort of regular commuter line in space. it is still an incredibly intricate process getting it off the ground. that is why courtney and you and i have to sit and wait and see

if something goes up and be disappointed by the slightest change in the weather. >> i want to show you what is going on on the left of the screen. if i could ask my director to put the screen up. t-minus 4 means there was a countdown. they stopped for a certain reason. if you hold and goo through th there is polling. that is where the director literally asks every department that deal with weather and telemetry and asks if it is go or no go. i have been there whether weather for instance is often the thing at the last minute where they go around. they come back around until everybody is a go. when everybody is a go. they announce go for launch and

release the hold and you have liftoff. it goes to mach 1. that is what the sequence is on the left. we are not at the stage of polling because the weather and cumulus clouds and winds are not acceptable for launch. we will do this again later on today and hopefully if you are lucky because i will consider myself very lucky we will see a rocket launch today. jake ward, thank you for joining us early from where you are. courtney kube, thank you for joining us. i hope they don't arrest you. wisconsin supreme court struck down democratic governor's stay-at-home order this week setting a new precedent as dozens of states decide when and how to lift restrictions. after clear guidelines, many people are wondering if the inconsistencies are hindering the efforts of defeating

covid-19. we have him there in person. jack, nice to see you. talk about the developments. >> good to see you. yes, you know, in wisconsin, let's start off with the fact that the supreme court had the reeling that struck down the stay-at-home order. what you saw was people flood out into the bars. participate with the bars and restaurants opening, they did that. the governor is concerned there will be a spike in cases because of that. because there is no universal standard that you have across the state. each county has their own individual policy. their individual regulations for bars and restaurants will be allowed to open. i was at a place yesterday where you had on one side a bar able to open with no restrictions. they did apply their own restrictions. across the street from milwaukee county. if the bar were on the other end of the street, it would not

function. we know health experts tell us the key to reopening when you have the rash reopenings is going to be testing. when i was in wisconsin, i spoke to a manufacturer that produces test kits. they produce the parts for ancestry.com. they now are doing it for coronavirus testing. listen to my conversation. >> it is so easy to use. you spit in a cup. you put a cap on it and send it back. it's not that difficult. >> you will be doing 28 million a year? >> yes. >> that's a lot of growth very quickly. >> easily within our capacity to do it. a lot of parts and small with the overall testing required. >> ali, that company has three

machines running 24/7. you know health officials at harvard have said in order for the country to safely reopen, you need about 20 million tests a day. although this plant is operating at full capacity and using and working with spectrum solutions partnering with labs to get tests quickly to get the emergency authorization and despite that happening, they are trying to continue to increase testing capacity and hoping this is just one of the tools that you see across the country as these reopenings happens against the health professionals. ali. >> shaq, thank you for being here this morning. shaq brewster. i want to bring in joyce vance. joyce, i had a conversation hours after this happened with tony evers. the governor of wisconsin. i was trying to get a read on it. i wish i just talked to you

first. this seems to be the supreme court in wisconsin seems to be talking about the governor having exceeded authority because he can sort of determine a stay-at-home order for a certain amount of time. the pandemic represents an ongoing issue and that goes beyond what the state executive can do. at that point, the legislature has to be involved in that. is that close to a correct read on this? >> i think you got it just right, ali. it's a very political decision. this breaks with the wisconsin supreme court proud tradition of forward thinking. legal analysis. what wisconsin did here is they permitted the state assembly and state senate, the same people who enacted the broad emergency hours bill a couple of years ago, to come to the wisconsin supreme court and challenge the

constitutionality. even one of the conservative justices sdwroi s joined the li calling it unfathomable. it under cut the governor's ability to issue a statewide order. now in wisconsin, the attorney general issued an opinion saying each county may choose to close if it does. so you get the situation that shaq outlined with a patchwork quilt of action across the state. not a policy designed to control the spread of covid-19. >> and there are 72 counties in wisconsin. the governor referred to it as the wild west at this point because it defies the concept of a virus and how it works. shaq describing a restaurant or bar on one end of the street that can open and the bar at the

other end is not opening because local rules say otherwise. one of the justices on the supreme court in wisconsin asked isn't it the very definition of tierrny to have one person going to work among other lawful activities. one asked if you could use the same power to order people in centers akin to the treatment of japanese-americans during world war ii. >> i know you appreciate like we all do that is represehensible compare japanese internment camps in world war ii. wisconsin now exceeds 11,000 cases. case totals are increasing.

there was clearly a public health justification for the order. which ordered stay-at-home order and closure of non essence businesses from late april through late may. it was a very narrowly tailored order. ali, something we have not discussed is the state republican leadership took this case to the wisconsin supreme court's original jurisdiction. that means they went to the highest court. courts that usually hear appeals without proceedings to develop evidence in the trial courts. we know this was purely a political action, not a solid legal proposition. >> joyce, thank you for joining me this morning. making things clearer. joyce vance. former federal judge is taking on the justice department. this comes after the department of justice moves to drop its case against the former national security adviser michael flynn.

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ask your doctor about once-daily anoro to start treating your copd. we're here for you during this challenging time--and always. find support at anoro.com. over the last three years, president trump has made it very clear that loyalty is rewarded. a few days ago, it was paul manafort. now all eyes on michael flynn. in 2017, the national security adviser admitted to lying to the fbi about the russian communications. trump fired flynn because of the lies. he lied to the vice president and fbi. he plead guilty to the lies. although the special counsel's report, the lies told by flynn and several other trump campaign officia officials quote materially

impaired the investigation. now the justice department filed to drop its case against flynn who has pleaded guilty twice as i mentioned. meanwhile, the judge assigned to the case doesn't appear convinced of flynn's innocence. the judge this week appointed a former federal judge to argue against the department of justice's move to dismiss the case. now trump has claimed the russia investigation and its convictions were all a political hit job from the start. in a controversy move, the acting director of national intelligence, also a trump loyalist declassified obama officials to name the target michael flynn. trump and allies say they acted improperly and trump's giving the improper action a name. he is calling it obamagate.

>> appropriate and legitimate. you have a valid foreign intelligence target engaging with a u.s. person. is it an insider in the government? it is important from the standpoint of potential jeopardy of national security that you know and understand what's going on. >> former ambassador to nato also on the list. told one of my next guests the names were declassified just to quote fuel a partisan conspiracy theory. while the facts show there's no evidence to support the president's quote obamagate accusation, it is something the president can't explain. >> what crime exactly are you accusing president obama of committing and do you believe the justice department should prosecute him? >> obamagate. it has been going for a long time. it has been going on before i got elected. >> what is the crime exactly?

>> you know what the crime is. the crime is obvious to everybody. >> you know what the crime is. back with me is former u.s. attorney deputy is harry litman and charlie savidge. charlie is an msnbc contributor. charlie, what is obamagate? >> ha. obamagate is the latest phrase that president trump has put out so the media will repeat it over and over again and people have a vague sense there is something wrong even if they don't understand what it is. the version of the witch hunt or anything else trump has thrown out there and by asking the question, ali, you are buying into the strategy here. it is working well. it is not criticism. expression of the dilemma we in the media have of covering the president who throws things out like that and not able to define

them. what are we supposed to do? not mention it? that's what the strategy is. >> i'm with you. i'm totally with you on this, charlie. it is nonsense. and in saying it, you give it life. to some degree if we don't take it down, harry, part of the problem is these conspiracies fueled by the president in this particular case, not just fueled by the president, but started by the president do gain life. there are people out there who now think there are a list of obama people who did something wrong in exposing michael flynn. here is the thing. none of the people accused of doing this would have known that michael flynn was the underlying target they were looking at. >> yeah. it gets the dilemma that charlie says. if you take it down, it's a slogan that escapes critical

faculties and goes to the palovian way. this is unmasking 17,000 times. it is completely routine and you see intelligence and you say might there be someone there we need to know more about? completely uncentsunsinister. it is a deep state conspiracy. it is a slogan. nothing more. will it have purchase? it has in the past. these moves by the president. >> so here is the reason why we bring this up. again, let's just be completely clear. it is not actually a thing. it is a conspiracy theory. not actually a thing. the danger, charlie, in the administration is that these things get life in

conspiratorial circles. you recall a gunman who went to a pizza parlor in the washington, d.c. area to rescue children from a pedophilia ring because of the same nonsense. here is my question. is there a danger that the president putting this out there causes real consequence? i'm talking legal consequence against people or is it political consequence? it is a smear not just against barack obama, but against joe biden. >> well, for my perspective as mainstream news reporter, i think my fear of any consequence whether this or anything else, is just misinformation is what i do for a living. what i do in responding to this is put out basic facts. the facts are when there is an intelligence report on surveillance of foreigners that

mentions an american's name, the report masks that name. says u.s. person rather than charlie safe advantagvage. if you are reading that report and you have the right to reque it's unmasked as we just heard, it happens all the time. 17,000 times in 2018, 10,000 times in 2019, and one thing that is confusing to people and even in the way this was just framed up, it's not always that an american was picked up on a wiretap talking to a foreigner. this also happens just when foreigners are talking to each other about an american or an american corporation, and so in december of 2016, january of 2017, as the world was trying to figure out what the election of trump would mean, michael flan as the incoming national security adviser would have been on the lips of foreign officials, foreign diplomats to the united states, to the united

nations, nato, et cetera, all around the world for many different reasons who would be the -- for intelligence purposes. the notion that there were lots of reports floating around that said u.s. person one or even u.s. person 27 and maybe they're unmasking the names of everyone in the report and he happens to be one of them and ends up on this list that the trump administration created is not surprising. everyone must have been talking about michael flynn and even if he wasn't on the line, his name would have been masked in reports about those conversations. >> harry, let me just ask you something. again, the importance in this discussion is getting to the bottom of it. i live in manhattan where back in normal times people would get on the long island railroad to commute home or metro north, and they might be sitting next to some chump who gets their news somewhere else and would talk about something like that word i'm not going to say again. i would like to arm them, no one will be at a dinner call tonight but someone might be on a zoom

call with somebody who repeats that term. i want to put a few facts out there. michael flynn pled guilty twice. if there were a conspiracy, why would somebody have gone over and warned the white house about it, and the judge in the case has hired a former judge to argue against the department of justice. there's a lot here that says this isn't actually a conspiracy. good legal minds and good intelligence minds were behind the idea that michael flynn did something wrong. >> bingo, and just one quick point. the judge who's hired john gleason, the guy really does walk on water. he's going to give a vigorous argument because the doj won't do it, and this is going to set up a real donny brook. >> yeah. thank you to both of you, harry litman is a former u.s. attorney, former deputy assistant attorney general and the host of the talking feds

podcast, charlie savage is an author and a "new york times" reporter and he is the author of a great book called "power wars: the relentless rise of presidential authority and secrecy." right now several lawmakers are being questioned over stock sales. senator richard burr of north carolina has stepped aside as the head of the powerful intelligence committee after questions arose over some of his stock trades. he and senator kelly loeffler of georgia have been questioned over what looks to many a lot like insider trading. burr who has access to classified briefings unloaded shares worth as much as $1.7 million in february just before markets plunged on fears of an economic crisis. burr has said he relied solely on public news reports to guide his decision to sell his stocks. now, most public companies have very strict rules about insider trading, and as journalists, we have those rules, too.

it may see obvious that congress should not only have rules but that they should be stricter than those that apply to me or you. after all, they come into contact with important and secret information. richard burr as chair of the senate intelligence committee was one of a handful of people with the highest security clearances in the nation. in 2012, congress made some rules for itself by enacting something called the stock act, which was designed to discourage members of congress from using non-public information to make money as private citizens. the act stipulated that if a member of congress does dabble in the stock market, they've got to disclose their investments in an easily searchable database for public consumption. that lasted until 2013 when big portions of the law were reversed. insider trading remains illegal, but the transparency went out the door. there were some valid arguments about why the changes were made, but that's a discussion for another day. the point is the stock act was

passed in response to allegations that members of congress traded stocks after learning secret details about the state of the economy during the last recession. burr and loeffler may have done nothing wrong. the fbi and the s.e.c. will have to figure that out, but frankly, when it comes to investing in public stocks, there should never be a question over whether the investments are made using non-public information. there should be no opportunity for members of congress to tow the line of legality, and there should be no concern for us, the constituents that our elected representatives are putting their portfolio ahead of public interest, ahead of the work they promised and were elected to do. the stock act, as it stands, provides too much room for doubt. by the way, the stock act of 2012 passed the senate with a vote of 96-3. one of the senators who voted against it called the act ludicrous saying, quote, we're doing this at a time when we should be talking about the

economy and jobs. why do americans think so little of us? that senator was richard burr. oe crohn's disease. yes! until i realized something was missing... ...me. you ok, sis? my symptoms kept me- -from being there for my sisters. "...flight boarding for flight 2007 to chicago..." so i talked to my doctor and learned- ...humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief... -and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,- -, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor... ...if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections... ...or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your doctor about humira.

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welcome back, i'm ali velshi, breaking news overnight, president trump has fired state department inspector general steve linick. the white house didn't give a specific reason for the removal, but house foreign affairs chairman eliot engel said he

learned that linick had opened an investigation into secretary of state, mike pompeo. the move comes as most states are reopening this morning, in some limited capacity, even as covid-19 cases rise around the country. parts of upstate new york are starting to open, although the southern part of the state, which is one of the hardest hit places in the world by the pandemic remains closed until the end of may. >> we'll open half the regions in the state today, five regions out of ten. they are the regions that meet the numerical criteria. we are extending the new york pause order. if a region hits its benchmark at any time, regardless of the pause order, then that region can open. >> meanwhile, in ohio, patrons were so eager to head to restaurants that they congregated a