not pushing back against my friend clint watts, but not enough emotion. he said tone deaf. id it's political gamemanship, i would say it this way. a nazi murdered jewish-americans in their sanctuary, and this president is upset that it hurt his momentum. this should be a scandal of epic proportion. this is what we should be -- that's how i think we should be talking about it and thinking about it. he is saying that before, before the events of last week, without the humanizing of these people, they were talking about the electi election. look what happened. it is horrific. >> it is strange they don't put the pictures up. i would put up a picture. migrant caravan and the guy in the synagogue. which are you more worried about? astounding to me that's happy been push -- hasn't been pushed out there. let the president reinsert the agenda. >> how do you keep the focus on something like this? look back on the last few years and even farther. a fast-moving news cycle. how do you make sure this is different? >> what the media and people are talking about are different on a regular b

agent clint watts. well i and there's a lot of claims that are out there right now we've got one here in georgia that there was some sort of hacking in the elections in georgia and there's this back and forth between democrats who say that the secretary of state as the head of the elections had something to do with doing it for political purposes that on the other hand the f.b.i. agent that supposedly hacked into the election systems or attempted to is a democrat operative so i don't really know what to make of all of these accusations but there certainly seems to be a lot of them when it comes to f.b.i. agents or f.b.i. informants so i believe the words fake news always comes to mind not to be cliche but to be a little bit open minded in that i can't always trust what the media is covering in politics here in america anymore regretfully but i said in the author cool that russians might not get the pettiness of this information cannot be the case that mostly americans were spreading this information alo

clint watts, i'd like to talk to you about this from the russian perspective.ou spent so much time thinking about it and, would on these kinds of issues. if you're vladimir putin and the people around him and you get this overture from people who are, you know, close inside the likely republican nominees' orbit who want to try and build this tower, what's in it for you if you say yes, if you work with them? i mean, what are the russians -- how are they using this to try to getting some fr something fr >> everything's adouble edged sword and to create so many levers from a business deal where you're putting someone in a position where they could look like they're influenced or if it doesn't go through, you could actually turn around and say i don't know if anyone knew but we were looking at a business deal. they're masters at doing this. and the way do it is essentially to influence the system, not to topple it, but do two things. one to sow chaos could we're fighting each other rather than focusing on countering russia. that's why we saw this aggression in ukra

clint watts, our guest.l in his book. >>> coming up for us, would you believe we are still counting votes and calling races from the midterm elections? that can only mean one thing. steve kornacki, big board, after this. >>> on his way to mar-a-lago today, president trump took some time to celebrate some of the gop's bright spots in the midterms. they're mostly in the senate. two weeks after the midterm election day, the blue wave that swept the democrats into the majority of the house has continued to grow. it's enough to warrant, you guessed it, another appearance by our national political correspondent, steve kornacki, at the big board, where we're still calling races, steve. >> election day became election week and now election month. it's almost over. it's so close to being over, that we can start to put in perspective what happened here. on the house side, the bottom line is, the blue here, those are all seats that democrats have flipped. the red, there were three democratic seats that republicans mana

clint watts, our guest.it's all in his book. >>> coming up for us, would you believe we are still counting votes and calling races from the midterm elections? that can only mean one thing. steve kornacki, big board, after this. one thing steve kornacki, big board, after this george woke up in pain. but he has plans today. hey dad. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve. all day strong. with the chase ink business unlimited card, i get unlimited 1.5% cash back. it's so simple, i don't even have to think about it. so i think about mouthfeel. i don't think about the ink card. i think about nitrogen ice cream in supermarkets all over the world. i think about the details. fine, i obsess over the details. think about every part of your business except the one part that works without a thought. your ink card. chase ink business unlimited. chase ink business unlimited, with unlimit

agent clint watts notes the real metal is right actually a little closer to home. everyone's witnessed the playbook playing out now that any russians say much they've learned the tactic is devastatingly effective. nevertheless ahead of the midterms both u.s. intelligence agencies and social media giants have promoted their work to stop supposed foreign meddling mainly from russia on the eve of the election security chiefs even issued this dire warning to voters. americans should be aware that foreign actors and russia in particular continue to try to influence public sentiment and vote perceptions through actions intended to sow discord. ok what they say we can talk with dr mark shanahan now he's a professor of american politics reading universe thank you very welcome mark thanks for coming on we were just running a story there saying a comment from a former f.b.i. agent saying that he believes it's americans themselves that are stirring up divisions with this information and lies not so much the russians i mean a fair comment you think. i don't think you can disco

agent clint watts claims it's americans themselves rather than external actors who are spreading lies and steering a vision online the most everyone's witness the playbook playing now they don't need russia so much they've learned the tactic is devastatingly effective. well ahead of the midterms though social media giants as well as the u.s. intelligence community were working hard to prevent only foreign meddling mainly from russia the us security agencies even had this warning for voters on the face of the event. americans should be aware that foreign actors and russia in particular continue to try to influence public sentiment and vote perceptions through actions intended to sow discord you could bet that had the democrats lost you know didn't win the house tonight if they watched the second day of the senate went republican and if they and the house stayed republican you would already be hearing russia russia russia they did something we need hearings they fixed it they did this they did that i promise you you would have heard that but now that the democrats certain house they can

. >> joining me now is legal analyst myla wiley and clint watts. we welcome you both. clint, do you agree with general hayden there? do you think this is leading to a constitutional crisis? >> i agree we're in a crisis if our congress doesn't put a check and balance on the president's power. part of the reason this has gone so far and why the president thinks he can get away with this is because no one's really challenged him. one thing that's different that we haven't talked about since the election, is many of those candidates that president trump backed and many that once went with president trump lost in that election. i think for republicans now is will they step up. senator collins talked about protecting the mueller investigation. you've seen senator flake who's got a couple months left there. i'm hoping they will ensure the integrity of that. these positions whether they're acting or permanent are there to actually serve a function, which is for the united states of america and the people in this country and instead the reason we have supreme court kavanaugh and

clint watts is a graduate of west point, an army veteran, a former b fbi special agent as well as anbc consultant. he wrote the book on the subject called "messing with the enemy." welcome. other than a great ipdy band in the late 90s in new york, what is interpol? do they have police cars, badges and guns? what's the organization? >> the interpol of movies is not the interpol of reality. it's really an association of all law enforcement that comes together to essentially help in terms of information sharing, intelligence sharing primarily and in terms of different notices. the most common we hear about is the red notice which is the closest thing to an arrest warrant, essentially putting a detention hold on somebody who may be wanted for a crime in another country. it helps share information to go after international criminals. arms traffickers, hackers is a big thing right now. organized crime. this is how you go after these games. it's through the sharing, through the relationships which help countries investigate a case. trust is the backbone of this system. if you don't have tru

clint watts, former fbi special agent and the author of "messing with the enemy" and evelyn farkus who served under president obama and with the german marshall fund. clint, let me start with you and the subpoenas. they sort of came to light during the course of the week as james comey tweeted about it happening and then you had bob good releasing those subpoenas to the public yesterday. what does it say to you that this is happening now? we can do the math, we have not even ten days between when the subpoena would happen and when things -- >> now is the time to get to the bottom of the clinton investigation, right? come on. >> again. >> let's revisit it and then go back to benghazi after that, right? so this is nonsense. and i admire director comey. i would not go into a closed hearing at all. we've seen consistently what happens, questions are asked to comey. comey answers them. selective leaking comes out and will is a connspiracy. it's not good for america and it's nonsense. so i admire that he immediately was like, do it in the open. i would not want to go into house committee at

and joining me is mimi rocah from the southern district of new york, and clint watts former fbi agentand is this letter based on communications or politics or something in between maybe? >> well, it is hard to know. i don't think that senator schumer would put that out there, and i mean, it is, look, a lot of criticisms of whitaker being appoint and, i think that all evidence is pointing to the fact that he was appointed to slowdown the mueller investigation and despite trump's lies in the interview, because that is what is going on, because he claims that he did not know the views on the mueller investigation, and that is simply fly ing ing in the fa reality, and no one has said that whitaker has been or might already be sharing information with trump. and so, i think that for shumer to say this, there must be some indications and none that we have publicly know, but it harkens back to i think that some of the, you know w what happened with nixon and where he tried to pressure people the department of justice to give him information about the investigation. >> and that would be highl

attorney and national security analyst clint watts who is a former fbi special agent. and peter, what is on the president's mind, because he either knows something or something is about to the happen and this is as fierce as he has been against bob mueller. >> yes, the series of tweets and the tirade as you described it, it is that it is snowing and freezing hail out here, because it does feel like there is a storm brewing inside of the white house, and the basis is not clear. we don't know what the president is referring to or what he may have seen or read over the course of the last several hours that sparked the latest fury from the president. what we do know, and msnbc news has reported that according to one person familiar with the matter, the president's legal team was nearing completion as it is described to us of the the written answers, and the president's written answers to the questions provided by bob mue mueller in the russian investigation, and those answers are expected to be provided and completed as soon as this week. we were told from this source fami

and joining us is daniel goldman and a msnbc legal analyst and national security analyst clint watt,welcome to you both. daniel, first to you, what is the take a waway from the twin reports and the public filing that the plea deal is off, and both sides are disagreeing with who is lying to whom, and mueller saying that he lied and therefore it is canceled, and now a new york times report that the attorneys after the plea deal and while he was in secret negotiations or testimony with mueller's people that they, that his lawyers were back channeling the white house team? >> well, you know, as to the first, paul manafort has really sunk his own ship, and at least through the legal process, he has been facing a double digit number of years in jail which is likely to effectively to be a life sentence, but i agree with you that i find more interesting this notion that his lawyers were relaying or at least had a back channel to trump's lawyers, including rudy giuliani, and there is a -- this is a very important point, andrea, because if there were any discussions emanating from the presiden

and joining us is kristen welker and julian ansley and paul butler and also clint watts, fo former fbind national security analyst. and kristen, what is happening down there that the president is so focused on the border? >> well, katy, this is clearly an issue is important to the president's base, and he is digging in on this as he is heading into the new year with the democrats having control of the house. and today, president trump is sort of digging in on the demand for border legislation, and take a look at a his tweet from earlier this morning ashs and the republicans and the democrats must come together finally with a major border security package to include the funding for the wall, and after 40 years of talk, it is finally time for action and fix the border for once and for all now. kay the ti, yesterday he threatened to shut down the government over it. and the president wants $5 billion in funding for the border wall. no indication that the democrats will give it to him, and what they want, they want the legislation to be protecting the special counsel robert mueller, and th

i'm joined now by former fbi special agent, also an msnbc national security analyst, clint watts.lk about precisely the changes that they are suggesting, but before we do that, what was it like? how would the fbi process tips that it might get about a shooter? >> it's almost impossible in terms of volume. if you look at the tip line on any given day, they're getting thousands of leads, and certain cities inevitably are getting more. how do you distinguish and triage out those threats? it's really difficult to do and highly subjective. it's based on the training you're giving whoever's receiving from those tip lines. they're doing interesting things, particularly by bringing in technology. this was not there obviously when i was at the bureau, but that can help sort out what those key words were that you might want to put at the top of the triage. imagine an emergency room as a doctor you're trying to sort through what's the most dangerous and what to go through. same thing with these tip lines. there is no real good way to do that, and so technology can help them do that. the othe