joining us rick wilson, who is the star of my opening anecdote this evening. rick thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to get your reaction to this, this news overall. i was hoping you could talk a little, shed a little light on how people in politics first started hearing about the does kwla before it got published. >> well, sure. i mean, first off, i think the fact that the guys from fusion today gave this extensive testimony and are willing to have that put out there in the public record, and turned over 40,000 pages of documents, should absolutely ter fidonald trump's attorneys and the sort of constellation who have been deny go and denying anything is true and anything gathered by this guy is true. that 40,000 is what intel has, a gigantic iceberg. this sort of thing has been swirling around sfor a long time, even before i got that phone call last summer, there have been rumors of trump business entangle ments and financial entangle ments with a variety of russian ol garks and they're all basically tied together as the same entit

joining us is rick wilson, a republican strategist who worked for marco rubio in 2016 and star of my ening anecdote this evening. rick, thank you for being with us tonight. nice to have you here. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> i want to get your reaction to this news tonight, as a republican. >> sure. >> i was also hoping that you could talk a little bit, shed a little light for us on how people in politics first started hearing about the dossier before it ever got published. >> well, sure. first off, i think the fact that the guys from fusion today gave this extensive testimony and are willing to have that put out there in the public record, and turned over 40,000 pages of documents, should absolutely terrify donald trump's attorneys, and the sort of constellation of media who have been denying and denying that anything in the dossier is true, and anything in the intelligence community has gathered on this guy is true. that 40,000 pages is what intel always has. a gigantic iceberg of information you have above the tip beneath the ocean. this sort of thing has been swirling aroun

here to discuss republican strategist rick wilson. gentleman, good evening.hn, you just heard alex's piece. this is before the break. does donald trump really represent the republican party? >> well, don, what donald trump represents is a political movement that is economic and an uprising against the elites in washington that have sold out the american worker for years. mitch mcconnell lives in an alternative d.c. universe. he represents the trump movement. mitch mcconnell lives in a d.c. universe where accountability doesn't matter, results don't matter, deadlines don't matter. timelines don't matter. nothing matters to these people except raising money and getting riri lected. they accumulate power and money while getting no results. the american workers -- >> i got you. i got you. rick, you have a new piece titled when will republicans learn that donald trump hates them? you say republican elengthed officials are at best props and extras in the apprentice. do you think the president believes in the republican party and its agenda? >> no. donald trump was

evan mcmullen and republican strategist rick wilson. rick, let me start with you. the sort of non-incrippletory set of facts is that the white house believes it's bad policy, and that he feels insulted on a personal level by the russia investigation, because there's nothing there. what do you -- how do you evaluate that argument? >> absolutely nothing else in donald trump's life causes him as much anxiety and anger and such an instantly visceral response as anything having to do with russia. and you know, it's the old thing from proverbs 28:1. the guilty man flees when no one pursues him. and every time russia comes up, donald trump's reaction is so hyperbolic and so over the top, and you can see in the discussions from this article this evening that these members are thinking, why is he going so far off the rails on this particular question? and why is he, is he pretending that this is some sort of constitutional restriction on him, when it's perfectly in the purview of congress. they may assume he doesn't know that, but his reaction to it has very much marked, i

rick wilson and maria were going so far. here's kind of my point. bear with me on this, i believe that we're having a national conversation about race, right, and as a republican i believe we have to look inwards quite often. we get accused of being things i don't think republicans are we have to ask our veselves why wo anyone believe that about us what have we done as a party that they would think that for a minute. that's being accountable. what i ask of the media if the president of the united states will lambast the media what's the media done for 10 to 15 years to believe what he's saying. why not look inward, why not ask themselves we've been coming from a left-hand side. let me caveat this, don lets me criticize the media with don so i give you full credit, and we always have a robust conversation. that's how you get to a place. many people in the media feel personally attacked. for the president to do that why would anyone believe him. [ overlapping speakers ] >> the media doesn't call him insane. no such thing as the media, individual comme

republicans and conservatives in this country have run on and believed in for generations. >> of which rick wilsonaster of the conscious of the conservative movement. rick, that was a great soliloquy delivered by a heritage foundation white paper that you found someplace. you have no idea what's going on with working place americans whose job has shifted over seas and this government has screwed them time and time again and wages have gone down. the elites and in urban america make money no matter what happens and working class americans have been disenfranchised. this president has given them an opportunity to get back into the fold. >> a couple things i don't understand. you just said he doesn't represent the republican party. >> as we know. >> it sounds like you're agreeing with rick says. and if rick says it's a co-equal branch of government, what does that -- >> there's nothing to do with the coequal branch of government. we're not talking about the constitution. he's talking about a political party who's -- >> he's saying they're there to serve their constituents, not the president. if they'

. >>> joining me now, we've got rick wilson, republican strategist, erin gloria ryan, a senior editordaily beast. there we go. there tur. so we were going to talk about this -- there's this great term when he says dignity wraith when he describes donald trump. i want to start with the wraex reaction to this "washington post" story, that the president himself, and it's related in certain key ways, the president himself dictated that wildly misleading statement by his son on the plane back from meeting with vladimir putin at the g-20, that ended up causing is much trouble, because it was so wildly misleading. what do you make of that, rick? >> this is absolutely what i expect. the stilted nature of the text alone was sort of a tell that president unindicted co-conspirator was involved. and the fact that he put hills into this jeopardy means once again he does not listen to his attorneys, he does not listen to political advisers. everything is shoot from the lip, everything is impulse, everything is whatever's in donald trump's brain that moment, he believes to be the smartest thing in t

rick wilson and ben ferguson, it's been a pleasure. a thanks so much. >>> let's continue on, shall we. breaking news here. the u.s. secretary of defense has just issued what is perhaps the fiercest warning yet against north korea's nuclear threats. we were talking about all this messaging out of the white house. you now have the secretary of defense, general james mattis, saying this, that north korea should cease any consideration of actions that will lead to the end of the regime and destruction of its people. the u.s. and north korea trading barbs after the revelation that north korea has likely produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can be strapped to its missiles. president trump vowing to bring fire and fury if north korea continues to threaten the u.s. the state department is also responding to new north korean threats to attack this small u.s. territory of guam. and it insists that administration officials and president trump are on the same page despite secretary of state rex tillerson playing down the fears of a war wit

david chalian, april ryan, maria cardona, bakari, and rick wilson. thanks for staying with us here. i want to play what the president said tonight regarding his response to charlottesville and then i'm going to play what he initially said and show how he lied about it. here's tonight. >> just what i said on saturday. we're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, virginia. this is me speaking. we condemn in the strongest possible terms of this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. that's me speaking on saturday. right after the event. >> left out a big part of it. here's what he actually said. >> we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. on many sides. >> no mention on many sides tonight, david chalian. at all. >> don, what confounds me is that donald trump is pretty media savvy. what i don't understand is he knows we have the videotape. if he went in for this entire section tonight with the idea to read these grievances against the media and sort of vent and have the ameri

rick wilson is a republican political operative. you've probably seen him here on msnbc. a popular guest is he's not only very connected in republican politics, he knows a lot of what's going on inside the party. and he also has a good sense of humor, which makes hit great on tv. one of the species of moderate republicans who is not afraid to be vocally critical for trump. he was a marco rubio supporter

about this with cnn political commentator ben ferguson, also host of the ben ferguson show and rick wilson. he is a republican strategist. great to see you both. >> good to be here. >> thank you. >> so, ben, the big question tonight, there are a lot of big questions, one of them being, does he, should he go after senators mccain and flake on their home turf tonight? how worried should they be? >> i don't think they're worried at all, because everybody knows in arizona how they feel about donald trump. and they've gone after donald trump in arizona. they've gone after donald trump in washington, d.c. and they've gone after donald trump everywhere in between. so this -- there's no secret in arizona that the two senators are -- they are very much at odds with donald trump. i would expect donald trump to get in a couple jabs here and there. that's the sport of politics. i also think, though, the president's going to be really trying to refocus on the bigger picture, the bigger issue, which got him elected in arizona, and that's the issue of border security, immigration reform, and so i think t

i have with me cnn political commentator ben ferguson and republican strategist rick wilson.lemen, welcome. and ben, just turning to you, the point being the president speaks -- he uses hyperbolic language. there have been all the discussions. do you take the president literally, do you take the president seriously. what he said 24 hours ago is a threat, it's very serious. should the world and more importantly should kim jong un take that literally? >> i think what his point was is not necessarily litter lerally , you know, we're going to come after you. it was a defense. he was saying, america is not going to be screwed with. for the last eight years, we've had a policy of let's go ahead and go to the world. let's go to china and let them take the lead. let's go to the united nations. it has gotten us to the point where they have at least 60 nuclear weapons, miniaturized weapons and including a miss system that can reach probably half the united states of america. so i think the president's point is, this whole idea of being pc is kumbaya and let's be always calm and collect

joining me rick wilson. rick, i'm going to go to you first. coordination where breitbart went after h.r. mcmaster and their headline was nsc purge, mcmaster deeply hostile to israel and to trump. trying to paint him as anti-israel. interestingly enough, donald trump's reaction to that was a statement which he said general mcmaster and i working well together and very pro israel. i'm grateful for the work he copies to do. what do you make of that? >> well, i think that is a sign of general kelly, general mattis and h.r. mcmaster all forring the axis of adults and telling donald trump that the gametime is over with this silly inside the white house alt-right conspiracy group that had been leaking like crazy to the lunatics on the info wars side of the fence and it's interesting also that these guys got a pushback from the very top. it's caused a great rift inside of the alt-right where donald trump has said mcmaster is good with me and i'm good with him. all these guys expected the same games they've been trying to play of revving up the frog me

scott jennings, bakari sellers, marie cardona and rick wilson. we will all listen to the president's speech and then analyze it but as he is coming to the stage, david, what are the chances that the president, president trump from last night on the teleprompter will show up? >> zero. what i do think we need to watch out for is the president trump that shows up tonight at this rally a venue he loves, feels at home in. does he bring any of the sentiment that he expressed? i get the theatrics will be different, it's a campaign environment, not a speech about afghanistan. as last night's was. all the talk he had at the top of the speech that alluded to charlottesville and trying to do clean-up work, the idea of unity and love and peace, does he bring that sentiment tonight or is this purely red meat for the base which for him has been exploiting divisions. >> god bless the usa is playing as the president enters the stage and is shaking hands of course, with the guests on the dias. and again, he's going to take to the podium in just moments as he is g

bush and republican strategist rick wilson. so welcome to all of you. and rick, i was reading what you wrote, and many lines i could pull from you. you said that thursday, this grand jury news was the single worst day in the single worst week of the trump presidency. tell me why you say that. >> aside from donald trump's pep rally last night in west virginia, every piece of news this week was chaotic and added to the burdens he faces. and the fact that bob mueller is now -- has established a grand jury in d.c. and isn't just relying on the grand jury in the eastern district of virginia, this means that things are getting serious now. the rubber has hit the road. folks are going to be brought before a grand jury. that is a completely different avenue than this sort of tangential research that's been going on about these connections so far and we're now at the point where these folks are going to have to lawyer up, be in there in the grand jury, facing up to questions, including probably the president himself and the fact that he wants to pretend this isn'

. >>> rick wilson is a republican >>> it's being reported that president trump is no longer speaking to senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. for longer speaking to him. yeah. yeah, upon hearing this melania went to mcconnell and said teach me, master. please. >>> another day, another dramatic shift and tone from the president. plus, there's new concern that the gop agenda could be threatened by a feud between the president and majority leader mitch mcconnell. >>> plus, house speaker paul ryan pushes back on the president's threat of a government shutdown over border wall funding. >>> and new overnight. the second largest jackpot in powerball history has one lucky winner. someone in massachusetts has won over

son, senior white house correspondent jimmy acosta, silent nazi toe, and republican strategist rick wilson. jim, i don't know how you do it. what was that like? this president needs to go back and have an elementary history lesson. >> it was disturbing, don. i think we saw the president's true colors today and i'm not sure they were red, white and blue. the white house put out talking points today. this is what they say. the president was entirely correct. both sides in charlottesville acted i want appropriately and bears toj. there's other that said he has been a voice for unity in calm. this is alice and wonder land stuff. how the white house can put out talking points to say the president was in the right here is baffling and strange. they are right in one respect, he has united the country against the views he else spoused today which was right there on the edge of white nationalism. >> yeah, i was watching today with my colleagues here at cnn and listening to you and hearing him say disparaging thing about the media. we couldn't believe it, mash press son. my e-mail to one of the prod

. >> that was rick wilson on with our colleague rachel maddow last night, talking about the ten hournterview and the 40,000 pages worth of documents given to the man who helped to write the trump dossier simpson and chuck grassley will vote on whether it will be release and the attorney for simpson said he and his company are standing what is reported in the dossier. just one more reason that people like adam schiff are starting to wonder how much longer we should be calling those claims unsubstantiated. >> the key thing from an investigative point of view is not trying to impeach the people who produce the report or commissioned the report but rather find out whether the facts are true in the report. and when you look at just what has become public, some of the public information is very much in line with what is reported in the dossier. the three core goals outlined in the dossier by that particular source do seem to be very well borne out. people put too much on the video, as if that's what the dossier is about. but that's the least significant part from my point of view. >> let's

rick wilson, erin gloria ryan, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> that is "all in" for this evening. it will "rachel maddow show" starts now with joy reid in for rachel. >> thank you, chris. thanks to you at home for joining us. rachel has a well-deserved night off. so there's a ton going on in the news tonight. we've got the latest white house staff shake up to talk about. there's the attempts to revive the "you thought it was dead but not quite dead" republican drive to repeal and replace obamacare. plus, a new bipartisan plan to rework it, instead. and donald trump's threats to insured people and lawmakers on that score. so there's a lot to get to in this hour. but we begin tonight with some very new news about one of the biggest stories of the entire trump/russia investigation. it concerns the meeting that donald trump jr. had with several russian nationals, inside trump tower during the campaign, in june of 2016. that meeting included campaign manager paul manafort and trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, and we now know multiple russians with ties to the kremlin. that story brok

. >>> rick wilson is a republican political -- he's appeared on lots of different shows. popular guest is that he is not only very connected in been politics and there's a lot about what's inside the party, he has a good sense of humor which makes him great on tv and he's one of that endangered species of modern republicans that is not afraid to be very advocately

ryan, contributor salena zito, columnist for the "new york post" and strat republican strategist rick wilson. jim, i don't know how you do it. i mean -- >> yeah. >> what was that like? this president needs to go back and have an elementary history lesson. >> it was disturbing, don. i think we saw the president's true colors today. i'm not sure they were red, white, and blue. the white house put out some talking points tonight. this is what they say. the president was entirely correct. both sides of the violence in charlottesville acted inappropriately and bear some responsibility. there's another one that says he has been a voice for unity and calm. this is alisabama lis in wonderland stuff. they're right in one respect. he has united the country against the views that he espoused today which were right there on the edge of white nationalism. >> i was watching today with my colleagues here at cnn and listening to you trying to get in and him saying again, disparaging things about the media. >> right. >> we couldn't believe it, mark preston. my first e-mail to one of the producers here is tha

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commentator jack kingston, former seniors adviser to the trump campaign and republican strategist rick wilsongentlemen, thank you very much. jack, i start with you. what, first of all, good to have you both here. thank you for joining us. what do you make of the senator's argument about what has happened within the party and what the president means to it. >> chris, i had the honor of sharing third base on the congressional baseball team with senator flake. he got more game time than i did, but i got to know him very well. jeff has always been an independent thinker, always kind of out there a little bit. he had what we used to call the flake amendments where he would take on earmarks from either party. he is fearless when it comes time to criticize. but as i read one of the articles today about him, his conclusions were we needed to protect the filibuster which i think the filibuster is one of the big problems with the senate. it keeps them arrogant and aloof. i think disconnected with the american people. he said that the president was guilty of playing to his base and i would say no duh, w