but it came to me because of a connection with vince foster junior the last person we know that saw vince foster alive in the white house was linda tripp. linda tripp calls our office when i thought i was on my way to pepperdine law school. not so fast. and one woman monica lewinsky working alongside me and the public affairs office has made me aware there is a relationship with the president. but most relevant she is asking me to commit perjury because she committed perjury herself. and at the end of the phone call on sunday night with the american bar association and says youda know me i am linda tripp from the death investigation of vince foster. and we take steps that could have been criticized to be verified but told us on that sunday evening and then to have a number of conversations with monica but then we had the famous episode at thepi ritz carlton but the conduct was vindicated after litigation. and we confirmed real time that this is what was underway and with the civil rights case we take sexual-harassmenten pretty seriously with a lot of societal concerns this was a civil rig

this came to be because of a connection with vince foster junior. about last person that saw vince foster junior live in the white house linda tripp. linda tripp calls our office in january, 1998, i thought i was on my way to pepperdine law school. not so fast. linda says a young woman, that was monica lewinsky, working alongside me here at the pentagon in the public affairs public information office has made me aware that there is a relationship with the president, but most relevantly she's asking me to commit perjury. she has committed perjury herself and at the end of that phone call on that sunday nights i was actually a way an american bar association meeting in colorado and she said you know me, i'm linda tripp a witness in the vince foster junior investigation. so, that's how it came to be. we took steps, some of which have been criticized and criticism goes with the territory, but we verified what linda had told us. with the surreptitious tape recording come she had recorded a number of telephone conversations with monica and so we were revi

who actually know me i'm a witness in the vince foster investigation. i am linda tripp. so we took steps some of which have been criticized which goes of the territory. but we verified what linda had told us and the surreptitious tape recording with a number of telephone conversations with monica and so we were reviewing those the fbi was looking at those as well. but then we had the famous episode at ritz-carlton that was severely criticizederti but the conduct wasd vindicated in litigation. we confirmed real time this was exactly underway that monica was encouraging the linda to file injurious case we take sexual harassment very seriously that this was essentially a civil rights case brought by paula jones at the time was an employee of the arkansas government. she alleged there was a very horrible kind of event that was unsettling to her so she brought federal court action under civil rights laws against clinton for his conduct, although allegations were his alleged conduct in a hotel in the rock. in connection with that all of this was underway with false perjurious

that there was something fishy about the suicide of vince foster, a former clinton aides. he started the birther movement and offered president obama $5 million for his college records and passport. trump raised questions about senator marco rubio's eligibility to be president because his parents were not born in the u.s. trump conveniently ignored the fact that his own mother wasn't born in the u.s. trump also raised similar eligibility questions about senator ted cruz because he was born in canada. president trump went on to claim that president obama wiretapped trump tower. his own justice department publicly said this did not happen. trump claimed he saw and read about muslim americans celebrating on 9/11. absolutely no footage or news articles have ever been found to support this. he said he lost the popular vote because millions of people voted illegally. a commission he put together to find this widespread fraught never found any. he's argued that global warming is a hoax created by the chinese. the president leaves out that he sought to build a sea wall at his scot

assassination, global warming a hoax, vince foster's suicide, quote, very fishy. aaron frank and the table are back. aaron, it is almost as if there is no ceiling to the conspiracy theory. >> yeah, and this situation was almost a perfect storm. i think we all saw a lot of people, especially on social media, who were pretty comfortable early on at least floating the idea there was something suspicious about this apparent suicide by jeffrey epstein. of course, the president too also has a personal stake here in that he has an epstein tie of his own. so when the president has some kind of a liability or alleged liability, he will often try to turn that on other people who maybe try to make next have the same liabilities so when people start attaching this whole thing, in whole epstein thing to the president, it was probably only a matter of time before he was going to attach this whole thing to the clintons. and i think on the list of those conspiracy theories the president has trafficked in over the course of the last four years and even and ybeyond that this is cer

that president obama was not born in the u.s., and suggesting former clinton white house aide vince foster's suicide in 1993 w was very fishy. the white house defended the decision to fire off the re-tweet. >> why did the president then re-tweet that clinton suggestion. >> i think the president wants everything to be investigated as your reporter just revealed just the day before. there is some unsealed information implicating people high up. i will say, bill, there's always this rush to we need transparency, we need accountability when it involves fictional accusations like collusion with russia to swing an e elector. >> so democrat -- an election. >> so beto o'rourke and cory booker, criticized for push the conspiracy theory. >> this is another example of the president using his position of political trust pushing unfounded conspiracy theories. >> this is more recklessness. what he is doing is dangerous. he's giving life to not just conspiracy theories but really whipping people up into anger and worse, different people in this country. >> the president's trip to el paso continues to draw

jfk, area 51, vince foster, the clinton deathless, now a trump body count list. why does the source happen? >> the president obvious to lower the temperature in times like this. he did not do that by retreating the conspiracy. that is not a good thing. the reason we have conspiracy theory because they have less concerns than ever before. there are suspicious about people in power were than ever and as a result they latch onto theories about activities. in the case of epstein, i'm not a believer in conspiracy theory but i believe there suspicious activity to investigate. eric: like what? >> over his crew, 20 years of deprivation, a lot of powerful people enabled him or protected him. and some of the names just came out on the court case documents that were released on friday. if you go to open secrets you will find lots of names. former prime minister of israel, u.s. governors, royal family in britain, people who he invested money with, financial transactions, some did favors in terms of zoning in his new mexico ranch. all cripes of confections to investigate. you

he has dabbed in the idea that the clintons were involved in vince foster's murder. he has a wide group of democrats to choose from right now, but none of them seem to have the same guttural sense of attacking the clintons who have been part of a right wing, that hillary clinton said rightly, they've been part of a right wing conspiracy for a long time. but this muddies the water with facts. he knows that some people latch onto it and that works for him as a topic. >> phil, our other topic in the broadcast is race, and how does one if one is, say, bureau chief for the "washington post," how does one square the president's pushback? no one likes that label applied to them. how does one square that with the language and the behavior that got us here? >> well, brian, you square that by telling the truth, which is some of the president's words and actions going back decades now are plainly racist. he is not changing his behavior and that's why the label still applies to him. the difference now compared to all these other moments where he has done things that led people t

they were involved in vince foster's death.arack obama birth and ted cruz's dad involved in the jfk assassination, joe scar burro, anthony scalia may have been murders, vaccines can cause autism and on and on and on. joe, what does it say that the president of the united states, i mean, has time to, you know, tweet about and peddle conspiracy theories involving jeffrey epstein's death? >> well, the right wing in this country has been at the conspiracy business game, you know, for as long as i can remember. you know, you remember hillary clinton calling it the right wing conspiracy. but before it was done without fingerprints and undercover, with president trump, he's making it normal for everyone to do this. this is the president of the united states and, you know, taking this in context, this would be like barack obama accusing george bush of murdering someone and that would never happen. it's startling. with trump it's not so startling because, you know, he's a little bit nuts when it comes to these conspiracy theories but it

does he believe the clinton's killed vince foster as he suggested or ted cruz' dad was involved in the jfk assassination or scalia was murdered. he was found with a pillow over his face according to trump. i don't know if he believes it or not. all we know is these theories about murder become more prominent as we get into election season. this is the way he connects and solidifies support among his base like what he told reporters about whether his base could accept background checks. >> i think my base relies very much on common sense and rely on me in terms of telling them what is happening. >> they rely on me in terms of telling them what is happening. all of america used to be able to rely on the president to tell them what was happening, particularly times of crisis but sure feels like a long, long time ago. i want to read what clinton's spokesman said in july about his travels with epstein and the current president is now eluding to and building off of according from the spokesman in 2002 and 2003 clinton took four trips on jeffrey epstein's airport, one to europe, one to asia a

[laughter] >> jessica: people on twitter are still asking if i know who vince foster is.fusing! suicide made sense to me. right can make a special because he did have a bunk bed in there. you can't slowly kill yourself by tying your bedsheet to the bedpost and going down. how do we not have cameras on these rooms? that doesn't make sense. i would have kept him on suicide watch. until he was in trial. therapist jesse would have kept him on suicide watch. [laughter] >> melissa: i'm afraid we'll never know! following that same train of thought, if we didn't have cameras, they say they will look in the hallway to see if anyone went in and out. they want to see who was in there. we will never have the right videotape. we will never know if anybody went in or out. >> chris: i believe guards fell asleep. >> katie: i know it's when you talk about the conspiracy theories, but for me, the guy is dead. the victims deserve some kind of accountability. they deserve to get their day in court, so to speak. >> chris: we need people to know this is a guy who was friends with the current a

washington post" that theories about foul play involving the death of clinton white house lawyer vince foster were very serious because the circumstances were very, this is trump's words, very fishy. what's been a notorious conspiracy claim that both bill and hillary clinton were responsible for the death, the fact is foster died by suicide. a well established fact. i have a theory, he has a number of constituencies, there are the people who hate immigrants period especially from the southern border and won't believe anything about them, rapists, whatever. a number of people have real problems, racism, all the way. he wants to keep them aboard. he's got gun people, he has a number of constituencies on the far right. he doesn't want to mess with because he can't afford to give up one. he needs those vote, your thoughts. >> he needs to hold on to certain constituencies. when you look at sort of these comments that he'll sort of throw out there. >> ted cruz's father killed kennedy. >> he does not come from a world or a background where truth and accuracy matter. if you think of him and you liste

. >> but unlike the time when the original vince foster conspiracy theory came out, but two, social media is so big and spreads so fast. there is a valid conversation about social media's role in this. what is the responsibility of these companies to stop this kid of stuff. that is a larger conversation happening with congress right now. but at some point we will turn to, wait, what is their responsibility? >> i can't even speak the words. it would be nice if the president decided to lead the effort not contributing to the mess. >>> as the 2020 democrats descend on iowa, questions emerge about joe biden an his gaffes. if you have a question for any of the reporters at the table, tweet us using #insidepolitics. we might answer your question at the end of the show. we'll be right back. and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we kn

whether it's justice scalia or ted cruz's dad having something to do with the jfk assassination, vince fosterat does he get out of this? >> it's a political -- first of all, let's always be careful of describing strategy. this is just naturally how he likes to speak and float something that -- we don't know. maybe he believes it's true. maybe he doesn't. he knows some people listening to him will latch onto it and it's politically helpful for him. we saw him make the attack accusing ted cruz's father of being involved in the assassination of jfk in the heat of the republican primary when ted cruz was his only opponent. now we see the clintons sort of act as a forever foil for him. they've been the targets of right-wing conspiracies for decades, and it's something that it almost seems in this case like he can't resist. >> and i thought that your quote from doug brinkley, the presidential historian, was fantastic. he believes this is a deflection strategy, right? he says, quote, the first thing trump wanted to do was put bill clinton into the mix. he added make it about bubba, not about donald.

so this has been a long standing info wars lush limbaugh type thing against vince foster.il we have answers, but this is, the conspiracy theory has been based on nonsense for a while. >> but we know it's based for the most part. >> and russian state media has been leading with this u stuff. are they behind this mostly? >> it's -- this is an american conspiracy theory that's been pushed by the russians for years and years. just like that's what russian active measure ss. right? they find dmomestic points of conflict and exploit them and they widen that gap as much as human lly possible. so while we know the russians have done this in the past. we don't know it's happening now. >> i'm curious about liable. you know you have the president tweet, but he retweeted an essence of retweets or endorsement where he kind of retweets these theorys. is there any sort of legal ramification for anybody or legal pathway for anybody when they put this sort of baseless stuff out there for them? >> generally speaking, no. the standard for holing someone liable for liable defamation or any of