a. congressional investigators looking into russia's meddling into the u.s. election accuse the trumpet ministration of stonewalling the delivery of requested documents plus an up tick in the rhetoric between the u.s. and north korea we're discussing these topics and more on this edition of. politicking on larry king scores of documents related to the so-called russian probe have been sought by the congressional committees operating on a parallel track to special counsel robert mueller but this week comes reports a rising tensions between capitol hill and the trump administration over the

delivery of those documents related to everything from tom's discussions about the firing of james called me to jarryd cushions security clearance leaders of the congressional committees and gone so far as secures the white house of stonewalling their efforts so what's the latest and what does it mean for the russian investigation we'll talk about that first with richard painter professor wald the university of minnesota he was the chief white house ethics lawyer in the george w. bush administration he's currently vice chair for citizens of responsibility and ethics in washington he joins us from brighton massachusetts what do you make of these charges about lack of cooperation between the top administrator congressional investigators richard well it doesn't appear that they've ministration wants the bacon added about the russian investigation number of officials. the ministration

of not being candid about their own personal contacts with the russians the administration had different stories for the reason james comey was fired until the president pretty much admitted in front of the russian ambassador right there in the oval office as well as on national television and a lesser olivia that he fired me because of the russian vested gaging so the white house is. claiming that this investigation is a bunch of fake knows which on and has not been forthcoming and they certainly don't want to turn these documents over to congress because that could lead to erosion of support by particular republican members of congress once they say that the white house and before the campaign out on disclose contacts with the russians and the people still aren't telling the truth about their contacts with

the russians the ranking democrat. on the committee adam schiff of california said the they've made despite repeated attempts they don't get any this is beginning rashid to it it looks like a duck an excellent inductance a duck. well it's definitely a situation where they're not tell them the truth about contacts with the russians we already know that though that's what general flynn lost his job the first waker to on the job why attorney general sessions was accused to give misleading testimony as confirmation here jericho starr left off several contacts with the russians on his forms his ethics forms and i believe his national security clearance forms and they list of problems this administration has high out. because of their undisclosed gone tax with the russians that list of the old ways it's got longer and longer so it's a very serious situation and i don't think the white house is about to turn over

documents to congress and till they're forced to politico reports suggested cushion to use private e-mails to conduct white house business this is especially given trim slams of hillary clinton for using private service what do you make of mr cushier and his involvement role in this i think using personal a mile for official government but as this is sloppy and we had to deal with the some of that in the bush administration. nobody ever threatened to bring in the app a i know but he said it was criminal but it's sloppy and the same with secretary of state hillary clinton i think that was sloppy the way that was handled the notion that it was somehow crime at all as a joke there was no. ground to charge clinton with a crime for having a private e-mail server and she may have negligently sound one or two basic last fight information she received some other classified information from people who

are foolish enough to send it to her but once again there is no precedent for criminally prosecuting. negligent handling of classified information and particular situation or that even get into the has a power question now is making the same. it's not criminal but it's a stupid thing to do congress are ratcheted up after the clinton up the soda and up passed a statute two thousand and fourteen the presidential records act that says you have to cough up a government eight mile when you use a private server. private e-mail account i hope he did that so he's at least in compliance with the law i've been none of those even our stuff is a criminal issue to buy get and whether that was just political grandstanding. really of a quite shameful home or how concerned should prison trim the about pullman afford and muller's investigation of him. i brought

a concern. i don't know what the facts are there but that's the amount of four parallel has quite a few contacts over a russia various russian oligarchy and there also is accusations floating around and will just say what's true and what's not but i would think he would have been vetted a little more carefully before he was brought in as campaign manager. i think he may very well brought some russian baggage in there with him and and have yet to say what the guys were between the cat can buy and the russians we already know about the undisclosed previously undisclosed waiting in the trump tower with a top brass of a campaign a russian zoo water to deliver the dirt on hillary but we'll just wait and see what comes out of this investigation but it does not look good for the for the president right now mr painter always good talking with you for us is thanks for joining us today thank you very much larry let's continue the talk got russian get into some

other topics as well happening in d.c. with motley that chief national correspondent for the new york times magazine previously was political correspondent for the times washington bureau is a great writer and a great guy and mark joins me from our nation's capital mark what's your reaction to reports that the former white house press secretary john spicer can't detail no books about his tenure with the term campaign should the white house worry about that absolutely if the report is true i mean i think that was the report that came out first a few days ago i think actually as mike allen a column during a very highly widely read. through tip sheet writer for x e o's wrote that and spicer got very very. quick just very very brewed with mike threatened that if you kept harassing him asking him about this he would get the authorities on. so

i think that snippy response might be telling now again the question is if he in fact has kept copious black notebooks going back to the campaign that's a huge deal because it's exactly what white house officials are told not to do for exactly those reasons which is that they can be subpoenaed if there is any kind of white house investigation these are goldmines for the you know whoever you know bob bob muller or whoever his predecessor a successor might be so yeah if it's true i think the white house has to be terrified of it and politico article by nancy cote said in a growing number of white house staffers a latina get out even though the one year mark is months away that report is true. and you're on top of this all to tell what's going on you know not only is it true it's been true for a number of weeks if not months not only has it been a really rough start to this ministration but it's also been a really tough place to work by all accounts there's been a lot of backbiting

a lot of factions a lot of leaks a lot of people leaking bad stories about their colleagues and president trump has proven to be a pretty capricious boss to say the least though they really haven't had a coherent sort of launch off the ground and certainly the honeymoon period that woman expect from a new president hasn't materialized so i think a lot of people are sort of making the calculation that before you get any deeper before you have any greater legal bills or exposure maybe the time to jump is just now and you know just sort of holiday general kelly don't you know he seems to be someone who is getting i mean so much as their reviews are pretty good reviews i mean people certainly respect him trump seems to be at times chafing at his you know sort of hyper disciplined military sense of control which by no means is donald trump's preferred style and hasn't been how he's gotten to this point either through the campaign or the first months of his white house but people i mean the

kelly is very much an organization man he's been very much in charge he's been a very disciplinary and he hasn't done any interviews to what i can tell and you know the big question is can a guy like that manage the president it's unclear to me whether he's even trying and certainly you know the behavior of the principal himself hasn't changed that much over the last few months i know you're doing a book on the n.f.l. right. yes well the tarrant matter be a part of that book's perhaps a little yeah i know this is sort of my sweet spot but writing a book about the n.f.l. and sort of the recent few year to mulch us history of the league and now all of a sudden it collides with my other full time job which is covering politics so you have this collision of politics and football that i'm writing a story about for the times magazine hopefully will be up later today but yeah this is a whole chapter and you know it's been fascinating to watch the league respond watch

the players respond watch the teams respond and it seems like in some ways the way that football has banded together in many ways they have said look we might have our problems but we can fight our own you know culture wars thank you very much why did some get involved in all this i don't think there's any grand plan i mean first of all he has had a longstanding. kind of obsession with getting into the national football league he's been wanting to be an n.f.l. owner for you know three four you know decades as you know larry i mean he was a us a felon or he was you know the sort of big ticket owner of the new jersey generals in the eighty's and the reason he joined the u.s. if all to begin with was that he hoped there be a merger with the n.f.l. and that would be his way into the club since then he's made you know sporadic efforts to buy various teams the most recent coming in one thousand and two thousand and fourteen when the buffalo bills were set for sale he didn't get that team either and i think sort of a window into how the world works these days is you know he might not have gotten into this most exclusive club of billionaire n.f.l.

owners but as a consolation prize he got the white house. what do you make of the players and their actions i know your friend tom brady did not support it and he was a supporter of trouble but my god there's a lot of people supporting it including the league as support of the players yeah that's been pretty surprising i mean i think especially since a lot of the you know the owners have been big supporters of trump both financially and i've known him over the years roger goodell himself is a republican he's the son of a republican senator charles goodell and you know people like tom brady who's about as on a political as it gets even he today i guess i'm interview he called you know president trump's comments divisive you didn't agree with them he was part of a pretty large demonstration by the patriots and by a lot of teams you're locking arms or kneeling during the storm spangled banner yesterday and that seem to have the support of the teams and most of the teams at least and the league i think the real question is how in the long term will the

fans react to this mark stay right there we'll be right back after this break politicking continues after this. about your sudden passing i've only just learnt you worry yourself in taking your last. year at right up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry you could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each bank. but then my feeling started change you talked about more like it was a game still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question are are. there secretly promised to never again like it's one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with this one. i speak to you now as there were no other takers. aimed at me. make.

our point of. liberal or conservative. lefties talking at righties oh there you go. you know like. me way more time than i care to. politicking we're talking with the chief national correspondent for the new york times magazine what's going to happen with the repeal of obamacare this week. it seems like there is very little momentum for it

you know looks like it's going to be voted on either wednesday or thursday republicans as of now don't have the votes are they i mean john mccain has said he's not supporting it rand paul has said he almost certainly won't support it and that's fifty and if you know either susan collins or lisa murkowski who voted who voted against the previous iteration of the bill votes against it looks like they're both you know very possibly if not probably will the bill going to die and there will be no repeal of obamacare at least this year and you know republicans and the president will have you know essential really blown their last best hope at least in the short term to do this didn't say if he didn't have the votes he wouldn't bring it up he did although there is a counter narrative here and i think this baxley might be what happens that he might actually just put it on the floor anyway just to put his caucus on the record and just so he will be able to say look i tried i put it on the floor a couple times and look these are the people who voted it down you know talked. to

them if this is defeated what will the effect be on that twenty eighteen elections well i mean it depends how you look at i mean there is a there is the school of thought that said that if in fact obamacare was repealed. the effects would be so catastrophic on so many millions of people who would be thrown off the health care rolls that you know it would be a devastation for for the republicans at the congressional races there's also you know the other way of looking at it now though is that a lot of the republican base especially republican donors people who are independents people who voted for trump even if they're not republicans might look at this and say look i mean this party has controlled all three chambers the gotten nothing done why should i vote for an incumbent republican to have another chance at this some plans to speak indiana wednesday on tax reform tax negotiations a supposed to unveil their broad brush proposal for overhauling the tax code where

do you see that gone well i mean tax reform especially comprehensive tax reform as the white house has been talking about and the hills been talking about is very complicated there are so many more constituencies beriah bowles. just sort of ways to look at them even in a health care bill so that they will take forever it will be complicated and again it's actually i mean taxes are obviously a resident issue for many people but it's also an easier issue in some ways to you know critique i mean democrats can just say well republicans are giving a tax break to the wealthy again and then you know debt republicans seem to have more consensus on this at the very least than they do on things like health care and immigration so it might be an easier might be an easier road for them but yeah that could give up a good i could go that could give that could take up a good deal of the next year and already we're almost into you know the well into the fall in twenty seventeen and there cupboard is pretty bare as far as big

legislative achievements what's your read on his romance with. schumer and pelosi. well it seems to be a marriage certainly of convenience for now i mean i you could argue that the deal he cut with chuck schumer nancy pelosi two weeks ago to say one keep the government open and keep the debt ceiling you know the least put off for a couple months and also to bring hurricane relief to the south southeast coast of texas was arguably the most popular thing that donald trump has done as president i mean the deal with the democrats got the support of maybe sixty seventy percent of the vote or the poll that i've seen which is overwhelmingly more popular than any attempts to appear to to repeal obamacare any attempts to you know get pull out of the climate accord the paris climate of course agreements so yeah i mean i think trump has as close attention to that as anyone and i think he probably will see that as something that can work for him again the obvious question is how long will it effect be useful to the democrats and when will chuck schumer nancy pelosi who

are very very sort of tough political tacticians when will they decide to play hardball and you know will they actually go go to the mat if trump tries to you know pass a budget that has a funding for the border wall on it or something that's much more divisive but for now it seems to be working for both of them i don't know if it's a one off or something we'll be seeing more of mark i know i'm so thirty five years you know i'm i as is seriously is donald trump over republican. i think donald trump is a donald trump ian. i don't think he particularly cares about either party i think he cares about. you know his own brand he cares about his own presidency i think you know there is definitely an appetite for some kind of nonpartisan or or sort of post partisan solution which i think is a big reason he got elected last year and i also think that the op otitis still there which is a big reason why you know things like his deal with with speaker poor with the with

the leader pelosi leadership. were very popular but so if he says this is that works for him yes but i don't feel like he has any great sort of ideological convictions or really great kind of loyalty to the republican party certainly not mark is always a pleasure thanks so much thanks for having me both the war of words between the white house and north korea is more incendiary than ever this while the president opens a new battlefront this week in the n.f.l. katrina vanden heuvel has been keeping up with all of it she's editor and publisher of the nation and the political commentator and she joins me from new york the war of words with north korea is getting more incendiary i think they're almost declaring war what do you what do you make of all of this everyone tone it down there's no military solution to this problem larry i mean there would be millions of civilians and south korea japan killed if there was a preemptive strike by the united states people need to cool it out. the leader of

north korea's reckless dangerous ugly but he's not suicidal and there have been you know there's revisionist history out there and there have been diplomatic efforts to freeze north korea's nuclear program. carter clinton succeeded to a large measure george w. aborted negotiations so i think taunting doesn't do any good it's childish when we're confronted by this very dangerous moment. what do you make guns from getting involved in the n.f.l. well you gotta think about it larry i mean you've got know the danger of north korea the escalating rhetoric the escalation you have puerto rico devastated millions of people without water or electricity and the president of the united states or the divider in chief decides to wage war on the n.f.l. you've got to wonder what's going on i mean people say he's the divider in chief in

this case what's interesting to me is he's more of a unifier in chief in the sense that you brought together parties which weren't on the same page i mean you have roger goodell the n.f.l. commissioner you have those many n.f.l. owners are standing against president trump some who supported him so he's done a pretty good job over the last months of unifying democrats now is unifying the n.f.l. to a large extent not fully but i think more deeply larry this is a moment this country is not going to come together i don't believe that we're all going to be healed and move forward singing kumbaya i know there are differences but to inflame those differences i find so repulsive at a time when there are racial wounds when there is anger about the economy but i also keep my eyes you know the people who are protesting the people who are protesting bending on their bended knee are protesting legitimate issues of racial injustice of police brutality the larger systemic issue is you've got

a justice department or an injustice department which is rolling back consent decrees with cities around police brutality issues and a whole slew of badly devised policies to roll back the reforms that have been made on criminal justice so i think that's the larger picture but the president you know maybe if he bought the buffalo bills team a few years ago larry he wouldn't have run for president as he claims he wouldn't have and maybe we wouldn't be facing this situation but why poor. you know it's just dangerous at this moment mark leibovich of the new york times was just with this and he says the the obamacare repeal is in big trouble do you agree absolutely i mean let's just sit back for a moment also and take a measure of the stark difference which is shown by the that this attempt now five times to repeal and replace obamacare you have one party which wants to deprive americans of affordable coverage of another which just last week bernie sanders

joined by sixteen democrats put forward a medicare for all plan it's aspirational it's a goal to unite around it's also incremental in interesting ways but that's the stark difference and john mccain disagreed with him on a lot of things but he showed some civic courage with what he did on friday and i think this fifth attempt is going to expose mcconnell ryan for the charlatans they are and i think more important a lot of americans are beginning to understand that we want to join the rest of the world and that health care is a right not just a commodity not a profit center not a privilege as a liberal democrat are you happy to see the president we're going in so mary is was sort of schumer nancy pelosi you know my sense of donald trump is that he is in some ways an empty vessel he's untethered from some ideological commitments which establishment republicans have that doesn't mean he's not in the quiet of the

darkness when we can separate the signal from noise rolling back regulations which are going to harm millions of americans giving tax cuts to the richest but when he sits down and wants to work i think largely out of frustration with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell he wants to work with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer i say go for it be careful be skeptical deeply skeptical to paraphrase ronald reagan distrust verify test not just trust but verify but i. i think work where you can but i don't know how far it gets he may backtrack but testimony other things he spoke about a big jobs infrastructure program when he ran for president he talked about rolling back endless war and test of on these so i'm i'm for you know pragmatism when needed with verification and skepticism when demanded is bernie sanders ows going to be a thorn in the side of the mainstream democratic party i don't see it as bernie

sanders versus mainstream democratic party larry i think bernie sanders represents a very strong wing inside the democratic party at this point even though he's an independent but look at that medicare for all vote you had sixteen democratic senators many of them potential contenders in two thousand and twenty for president joining bernie sanders so i think what he's done is recalibrate the valence of a democratic party that has been too close to corporate power to money power to a rig system which millions of americans are saying enough i think the larger issue in our country is whether we'll see a full recalibration of our politics i think it's an interesting moment a potential realignment moment which bernie sanders and to a certain extent in a way i don't agree with by any measure donald trump signaled there is a there's an anon happiness with a discredited bipartisan establishment certainly on foreign policy and bernie sanders foreign policy speech last week is worth looking at but on

a slew of issues i think there is an interest in a different kind of politics and bernie sanders is speaking to a democratic party he moved the platform in progressive ways so i'd say it's bigger than bernie despite his age. because of his likability couldn't joe biden bring it all together. you know i want to publish i want to publish an essay larry i've been thinking a lot about this how to think about a in politics i think a lot about age but you know we all do that. but listen the four leading contenders right now you have senator warren well there are others bernie sanders joe biden i would submit jerry brown of california who's term limited out soon he's seventy eight so what do you do what do you make of age so i don't know i think this country you know fifty seventy is the new fifty. week in politics you know can be a year a normal life so who knows health matters i'd like to see

a younger generation and it is coming up and we're beginning to pay attention to it at the nation people in this country are looking and there are a lot of young people who are being motivated and moved by the trump years to run for office which is good but joe biden i think he's already decided to run i mean he has a i think a pac and he's working in the political landscape as always thank you thank you katrina vanden heuvel and thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on my page with page or tweet me at kings things and don't forget use the politicking hash tag that's also this edition of politicking. about your sudden passing i phone leaches learnt you worry yourself in taking your last long term. care act to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry. so i write these last

words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got a chance to. i remember when we first met my life turned on each. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more and i keep my seeking still some marc. found a few those that didn't like to question our archives and i secretly promised to never again like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this one different person i speak to now because there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. for decades the american middle class has been railroaded by washington politics. big blood.