the last word with lawrence o’donnell 8/2/17 kelly tells sessions ‘job is safe’

Guest of August 2, 2017: David Kay Johnston, Tim O\'Brien, Brian Kelas, Ron crane Reid, MSNBC: Donald, good evening, Lawrence meeting at the hearing tomorrow, and whether we know more.
That\'s it for us tonight, we\'ll see you tomorrow, same time, same channel, it\'s time to say the last word to Lawrence O\'Donnell, Lawrence, good evening.
Host Lawrence O\'Donnell\'s last sentence: Good evening, Joey, thank you so much for bringing a huge audience to the audience at 10: 00 last nightm.
Because again, Joy, you\'re the highest-rated show on cable news and that just gives me what I want-REID: What did you do?
Reed\'s audience is very happy here-Reed: I like it-O\'Donnell: now.
Reid: We love it because you did a good job and it was so great that it made all the other networks sad.
We don\'t want them to be really sad. It\'s just a little sad.
Thank you again, Joey.
Reid: There\'s a great show.
Thank you. Thank you. REID: Bye.
O\'Donnell: We have some breaking news reports tonight, and it\'s safe for Jeff Sessions to work as the attorney general, not because the president says he won\'t fire him, but because the president\'s new boss said he would not fire him.
Nbc News reported on a special meeting tonight, and Donald Trump was furious at his generals, because they didn\'t do what Donald Trump told voters-to carry out secret Trump\'s war plan in Afghanistan
Tonight you will meet a new candidate from Congress, who is the first to drive F-18 in combat. (
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Unidentified woman: President Trump has signed a bill punishing Russia for intervening in 2016 elections.
Unidentified male: This is a failure for this government that does not want this to happen.
White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: He signed the deal for national unity.
Unidentified Woman: I am surprised that he did not make a strong statement to Russia, nor did he make a strong statement to Congress. SEN.
Lindsey Graham (R)
South Carolina: Putin did what no one in the United States could do, and let\'s get together.
Unidentified male: on the topic of Russia, most of us were not listening when the president spoke.
Unidentified male: From the moment Sean Spicer went out, the truth doesn\'t seem to be a priority in the first few hours of government administration, which is almost discouraging.
Republican strategist Steve Schmidt: You have to assume that every statement made by the White House at this point is dishonest.
Radio host Charlie Sykes: these are not just lies, these are like diaries of lies.
Unidentified male: I think this leads to the beginning of the Trump fatigue we\'re seeing here. (END VIDEO CLIP)
Donald Trump was a tough guy when he ran for president.
The only tough guy, the tough guy who played low.
Marco Jr. , energy Jeb Bush, lies.
That hard Han competes with those weak presidents we are now meeting, and now Donald Trump is the weakest president in the history of the US president and one of the weakest presidents in the world today.
He told his voters that he would push other presidents around the world.
He will tell the Chinese president to send us all the jobs that China has taken away immediately.
He will order the Mexican president to pay for the Trump wall on the southern border.
When we point out to Trump voters in the campaign that this is not possible, Donald Trump will not let the Mexican president pay for this wall, and Donald Trump will fail in this regard.
Trump voters think we just don\'t understand how tough Donald Trump is.
The Mexican president will find out how tough Donald Trump is and how tough the leaders around the world will find out how tough Donald Trump is, the United States will eventually be respected around the world for how tough Donald Trump is.
Now, Putin has expelled 755 Americans working at the US embassy in Moscow, and the tough Donald Trump has said nothing about it.
Is there anything else?
Is there any other explanation besides fear?
Donald Trump is just afraid of Putin.
No one can raise serious disputes now.
Donald Trump personally praised Putin more than he praised any other foreign head of state.
Donald Trump in G-
Twenty summits, more focused than he was on anyone there, including all the other countries whose economies are much larger and more important than Russia.
When Putin expelled 755 Americans from our embassy in Moscow, Donald Trump did not dare to say a word now.
No American president has ever been silent when American diplomats are expelled from any country, especially Russia.
What would Donald Trump say if Mexico expelled 1 person from the US embassy?
How many tweets will Donald Trump send for this?
When the president of the United States felt that Meryl Streep did not like him, he sent an angry tweet.
When Putin expelled 755 Americans from our embassy, there was no word.
Nothing but fear can explain this behavior of Trump, the question is, what is his fear?
What is Donald Trump afraid?
What has Putin made Donald Trump so scared?
This is not a nuclear weapon because no US president had been afraid of Putin before.
Putin also had nuclear weapons.
The reason Donald Trump is afraid of Putin is the core investigative issue that the special prosecutor studied tonight while investigating the Trump campaign\'s relationship with Russia.
Does Putin know Donald Trump, does Donald Trump know Putin?
Is that why Donald Trump is so obviously and openly afraid of Putin?
When he got his first important bill
It is secret that President Trump signed his presidency today.
Cameras are not allowed, senators are not allowed, members of Congress are not allowed, senators are not allowed to hand over pens from the bill
Because the bill imposed more sanctions on Russia.
Donald Trump is afraid of getting Putin to see him sign on TV.
The president had the world see that he had signed an executive order that tried to ban Muslims from entering the United States that was not constitutional, and that was no problem.
This is the same president who invited the cameras to sign basically meaningless memos to his own employees that have no legal effect, which makes absolutely no sense.
These cameras are worth it.
At the Trump White House, those are meaningless, so-
The so-called signing ceremony is worth broadcasting on TV.
As we all know, President Trump has failed in his first major legislation, the health care bill.
As long as we can remember who hasn\'t passed his premier legislation, Donald Trump is the first president.
So the first major piece of legislation that the president is going to sign is proved to be something he doesn\'t want, and he\'s against it.
This is what Congress has imposed on him, passed by the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans in both parties, and this is a congressional vote that we haven\'t seen in a long time.
The bill did something without a sanctions bill before it thought it was necessary.
These include a ban on the president of the United States to soften or lift sanctions, if the president believes they are no longer necessary.
In the past, if the sanctioned countries were willing to change the behavior that triggered the sanctions, Congress always asked the president to negotiate freely to lift them.
The bill passed by Congress and the bill that the president was forced to sign today actually shows that we do not believe that the US president has the interests of the United States to give priority to the interests of Putin and Russia.
In fact, the bill is a sanction against President Trump, and Congress says that we fear that Donald Trump may be more loyal to Putin than he is to the United States.
President Trump is now apparently left behind by the new boss of the Trump White House.
John Kelly, a former Marine general, has so far stopped the president from sharing his habits on a completely crazy Twitter.
It is clear that John Kelly has ordered the president to stop attacking his attorney general.
Now, you might think it\'s a good thing that the president is not attacking his attorney general right now, but we know he wants to do that.
But now he is scared because he is weak because General Kelly ordered him not to do so.
So as the president obeys his new White House chief of staff, we see again how weak Donald Trump is.
The president has a new boss. He is very weak to him.
The Associated Press reported tonight that one of John Kelly\'s first acts in his new position was called the Minister of Justice, Jeff Sessions, to assure him that, despite recent criticism, he took it from President Donald Trump.
Even before John Kelly was sworn in, he called Jeff Sessions to tell him that you don\'t have to worry about Donald Trump anymore. I`m in charge.
This is the information.
According to The Associated Press, Kelly called Sessions on Saturday to highlight the White House\'s support for his work and hope that he will continue to work.
Kelly, who was appointed to the position the day before, said the president was still annoyed at the meeting, but did not intend to fire him and did not want him to resign.
So the president is still angry, but it doesn\'t matter because John Kelly is not angry and John Kelly is the boss now, not the president.
John Kelly\'s phone message to Jeff Sessions was provided to The Associated Press by citing \"two people familiar with the phone.
People ask for anonymity because they are not authorized to talk publicly about private conversations, which is the standard definition of disclosure.
As a result, the Trump administration leaked phone calls between the new White House chief of staff and the attorney general.
The two can actually be John Kelly and Jeff seshens, or two people who hear Jeff seshens end the call, or one who ends the call with Kelly, the other at the end of the call.
There are a lot of possibilities and combinations, but they are all from the Trump administration, the story leaked by the Trump administration about the new White House chief of staff, who was brought in to end the White House leak.
The leak will never end.
The president\'s crazy tweet is over, at least for a few days.
But even General John Kelly, when it comes to Putin and Russia, can\'t let the US president act like the president.
Even General John Kelly could not get word from the US president that 755 people had been deported from the US embassy in Moscow, even General John Kelly could not get the US president to sign Russian sanctions legislation with lawmakers today, the lawmakers passed the legislation with the full consideration of American voters. His last presidential election in the United States was attacked and destroyed by Putin.
For reasons we don\'t know yet, his new president seems to be living in fear of Putin.
Sam Stein, join us now;
Political Editor of The Daily Beast and contributor to Msnbc.
Ron Crane was with us too.
Vice President Joe Biden and Gore\'s former chief of staff, former senior aides to President Obama.
He\'s also a former chief legal adviser to the Senate Judiciary Committee and also the director of the attorney general\'s office-you know, and Ron, and I want to start with work security issues with Jeff Sessions, the White House chief of staff now assures him that the president has been suppressed by the White House chief of staff on this issue.
Joe Biden and Ron Crane, Al Gore\'s former chief of staff: Yes, as you said, there\'s a new sheriff in town, General Kelly.
We just need to see how shiny the star is.
I mean, I think Donald Trump-if you don\'t think Donald Trump is still sitting in the White House sweating through Mueller\'s investigation.
Lawrence, for all the reasons you said in the beginning, because of concerns about what Putin has, what Putin knows, what Miller will find, and you know, it\'s still the basic reality of Trump\'s presidency.
While the work of Jeff Sessions may now be safe, in the end, the day that Donald Trump wants to fire Bob Miller will come, in order to achieve that, he will make orders and tear up the Justice Department.
I don\'t think anything that has happened in the past 24 or 48 hours at the White House with John Kelly will change that core reality.
O\'Donnell: Senator John McCain and others in Congress have noted that the president\'s actions today and his accompanying signed statement indicate that he is unhappy with what Congress has done.
Senator McCain said, \"the decision-makers of our Constitution make Congress and the President
An equal government department.
This bill has proven the wisdom of this choice.
Sam, in the senator\'s view, this proves the wisdom of choice, because the president cannot be trusted-Sam Stein, political editor of The Daily Beast: Yes-O\'Donnell: against the interests of Russia, advance the interests of the United States.
Stan: Yes, I think the Congress has come to that conclusion as well.
What impressed me is that over the past week we have seen real differences between Republicans --
Control the Senate and the House and the White House to some extent.
Even before that, for example, Trump encouraged senators that, according to our report, Trump is still re-attacking the repeal and replacement efforts of Obamacare.
What you can see from Mitch McConnell on the floor and on his agenda is that he has no interest and no time to do it and he won\'t even flirt with the idea.
He\'s doing different things.
This is an astonishing mood among Senate majority leaders for the privilege of rejecting the presidential statement.
So this is one thing.
Russian sanctions are another matter.
I mean, this administration has made intense lobbying efforts to try to mitigate these sanctions, precisely in Congress (INAUDIBLE)
Lawrence, you noticed this in the monologue.
Congress just said no!
Not only did they say no, but they overwhelmingly said no, so that Trump\'s hand was actually tied.
So, apart from the Mueller thing, the Russian thing, I think a big story that happens right in front of our eyes is that the Republican Congress is starting to flinch and ignore the White House instructions if it doesn\'t leave the White House.
O\'Donnell: Yes, this is a very important point, Ron, what we are seeing in the Senate is health education, and the Labor and Pension Committee is planning a series of hearings starting on September, basically discuss how insurance works under Obamacare and what we can do to support it.
These hearings, in the normal process, will take at least six to eight months for legislation to enter the Senate at such hearings, if any.
But, in the face of a president who said not to do another thing in Congress before the Senate has another vote on health care, it is completely ignored by the Senate.
KLAIN: Yes, Lawrence, as you pointed out at the beginning, most presidents signed major legislation on the first 100 days and Trump didn\'t.
Trump did not do so in the first six months.
He finally signed an important bill.
Here\'s the bill he didn\'t have-O\'Donnell: Yes-KLAIN: wanted.
This degree of negation must be seen in historical standards.
O\'Donnell: Yes, KLAIN: You know, the last time the president was imprisoned like this, Congress came after Richard Nixon\'s war power in 1973.
When they passed the War Power Resolution in 1973, 135 members of Congress still voted for Nixon.
Three lawmakers voted with Donald Trump on the Russian sanctions bill.
It shows that your confidence in the president has collapsed. -
Yes, KLAIN: Capitol Hill.
O\'Donnell: Let\'s hear from Senator Lindsey Graham about the way Donald Trump signed the bill today. (
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Graham: I think the fact that he did this quietly reinforces the Trump administration\'s not serious statement about fighting back against Russia, and I think it\'s also a mistake because Putin will see this as a sign of weakness. (END VIDEO CLIP)
O\'Donnell: Sam, the word weakness can be used in every aspect of the presidency we discuss with Donald Trump\'s sentence.
Yes, Lindsey Graham was proved right.
Dmitry?
I think the close aide to former President Putin actually tweeted today that Trump looked weak and his hands were tied to Congress.
One more thing you didn\'t mention, that is, the US State Department rejected a propaganda program in Russia on the grounds that they didn\'t want to offend Moscow.
I mean, it\'s just another data point that\'s happening here, all of which shows that Trump either wants a comfortable relationship with Putin or is more likely that Putin will make a difference on Russia.
But to get back to this point in Congress, you know, it\'s hard to exaggerate how bad Trump is.
Sanctions are one thing, health care is one thing.
But today, Trump came out to push the immigration bill vigorously with Senator Tom Coton and David Perdue.
We talk to people on the mountain all day today about the \"Daily Beast \".
The possibility of this thing becoming a law is zero.
In fact, when the Senate basically didn\'t approve the president, he was wasting his time doing something like this, which shows you how much his agenda has shrunk-how much his agenda has shrunk, how much he might finish.
O\'Donnell: Sam made such a good point, Ron.
When I was looking at this today, today\'s announcement about this, I was just sitting there and thinking, okay, so the Judicial Council is going to start working on this immediately-Stan: they know that they are helpless and they know that the Senate will never be able to pass due to the process of the amendment.
KLAIN: Yes, I mean, look, obviously, as Sam said, this is-you know, the president-you know, who should be working on tax reform, an infrastructure bill that has been committed for several months should be in the process of making a commitment to child care for several months.
Jobs have been promised for months.
He is now throwing the Nuggets at his base, banning transgender people in the Army from serving, and the military commanders have immediately ignored that, think the police should be rude to the suspects the head of DEA said today that he would ignore.
Push legislation, immigration legislation that both sides of Congress will ignore.
So he\'s really a president who has given up his agenda, just trying to appeal and hit his base, and certainly won\'t do a lot of things that way.
O\'Donnell: Sam Stein, we will have to take a break here and thank you very much for joining us-Stan: Thank you-O\'Donnell: Thank you very much.
Ron Klain, we need you in another section, please stay.
Next, Nbc News reported exclusively tonight on the outbreak of anger that President Trump had during his meeting with his top generals, who he believes will solve all his problems in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is coming. (
Business break)(
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I have a plan.
I don\'t want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is-reporter Matt Lauer: But you will-Trump: Let me tell you, if I like the combination of my plan and the general\'s plan or the general\'s plan, if I like their plan, Matt, I\'m not going to call you and say, Matt, we have a great plan. (END VIDEO CLIP)
Surprisingly, Trump\'s voters, he has no plans.
He thought his generals had no plans either.
Tonight, Nbc News reported exclusively that President Donald Trump \"is getting increasingly frustrated with his advisers in charge of drafting a new US presidential candidate\"S.
According to senior government officials, at a tense meeting at the White House, Afghanistan\'s strategy and recently suggested firing the highest military commander in the war.
The president once expressed disappointment at Defense Secretary James Mattis, who said he had given military power to make progress in Afghanistan a few months ago, yet the United StatesS.
Positions continue to be lost.
The president\'s advisers are in the middle.
The official said the July meeting hoped he would sign the Afghanistan strategy after months of delay.
Trump compared the policy review process with the renovation of a famous New York restaurant in the 1980 s.
Trump told his advisers that the Manhattan elite 21 club has been closed for a year and hired an expensive consultant to work out a renovation plan.
A year later, Trump said, the only advice from the consultant was that the restaurant needed a bigger kitchen.
Officials say Trump has been stressing that bad advice has cost shopkeepers a year of business, and instead talking to waiters at restaurants can have better results.
He also said that if one person is not three, this trend is assumed
Star General, he doesn\'t know what he\'s talking about, he and low-based on his own business experience-
The workers gave him better results.
People who know about Donald Trump, Tim O\'Brien are joining us now;
Executive editor of Bloomberg Views and author of the Trump Nation: The Art of Donald.
David Kay Johnston is also with us; Pulitzer Prize-
The winning reporter who founded D. C. Report. Org; a non-
Report on the profit-making news agency of the Trump administration.
You all wrote about Donald Trump.
Tim O\'Brien, I \'d like to tell you about his frustration with the generals first.
Here he lied throughout the campaign and said, I have a secret plan, you know, don\'t worry.
If I liked their plan better and found out that he had no plan, I would listen to the general\'s plan.
The generals have a plan that he doesn\'t like because it doesn\'t work, what? A week or two.
Tim O\'Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg\'s point of view: because he can recall this long-
Ago\'s incident at a local restaurant-O\'Donnell: at a restaurant-O\'Brien: in New York, it gives him all the experience and authority he needs to engage in military policy.
We don\'t even know if the rumors about club 21 are true.
This is-O\'Donnell: Well, what we know is that the 21 Club is not closed as long as they say, O\'Brien: Yes-O\'Donnell: so he also exaggerated all the parts of the story-O\'Brien: Yes, that\'s what he should do in order to express his opinion-he should listen to the Afghan ground forces, instead of the voice of the top military, this gives him the right to hunt Nicholson (ph)
And questioning Nicholson\'s (ph)
The leadership position in Afghanistan is clearly for Matisse to carry out the task before the joint chief of staff.
Once again, he was shown his own depth, without a clear plan, and without seizing the straw of his past.
Say I have the power to weigh here.
O\'Donnell: David, of course, Donald Trump got some great ideas from all the Afghan forces during his visit to Afghanistan-oh, but wait, sorry, he\'s never been to Afghanistan
He never spoke to anyone who served in David Kay Johnston, Reporter: Right O\'Donnell: Afghanistan.
Of course, he did not talk to the waiter at Club 21. We know that. Johnston: Yes.
Donald doesn\'t know exactly what\'s going on in Afghanistan or the cultural differences in the country that go back hundreds of years before we intervened.
What we know is that Donald said, hey, they have a lot of mineral wealth, like oil in Iraq, and it\'s not surprising that he thinks we should grab it, because Donald spent a lot of time cheating people out of their property.
Why does he think differently about Afghanistan?
This is definitely a farce.
O\'Donnell: Tim, there is a section on Nbc reports about Donald Trump\'s extreme discontent with the general.
This is his-this week is the week we saw him openly worshiping the general, who hired a general to serve as chief of staff at the White House.
It turns out that he has also received limited respect in their direction.
So if General Kelly finds out that Donald Trump doesn\'t think his judgment is that good, do you know?
O\'BRIEN: It could be a few minutes.
The problem here, I think, you know, is that his actions and thinking are by chance, and I think that his criticism of Afghanistan is mainly because he said he would solve the problem.
He said that he would go there and solve problems that others could not solve.
I think we have been in Afghanistan for 16 years.
This is a problem between the two governments and he will not find it easier to solve than his predecessor.
So the first thing he\'s going to do is to say, the reason why I can\'t fix this is because I have a bad general.
Yes, I mean, David Johnston: Yes, O\'Donnell: The essence of Trump\'s criticism during the campaign is that the Obama administration uses bad generals and I will use good generals.
I can\'t tell you their names because I don\'t actually know their names.
But he has General Kelly.
He had John Kelly sitting outside the office all day.
The White House chief of staff is a general.
At some point, if not, he would turn to him and say, what are we doing in Afghanistan?
If General Kelly says the same thing he heard from other generals, how long does Donald Trump count on General Kelly?
Johnston: You know, I \'d like to see how long it will be very interesting to see how long General Kelly can hold on.
But remember, Lawrence, those are our generals.
They\'re not general Donald.
Donald is our staff and we put him there through the Electoral College.
Donald continues to act like in all of this, you know, he\'s the dictator, and if you don\'t do what he wants, leave right away.
O\'Donnell: Tim, talking about where Donald Trump had to worry about what was going to happen when he got rid of Reince pribas, he brought in a new White House chief of staff who didn\'t know him, he never knew him during the campaign, which was completely different from what we had seen him do before.
He doesn\'t necessarily feel like he can dominate him, which is not a feature of Trump.
Here he has a new regime in the White House, and you know, John Kelly basically announced the news through the press secretary, and yes, the president\'s daughter and his son --in-
Only through me can the law speak to him.
What does Donald Trump have to get to accept this as a public opinion of his White House?
O\'Brien: Thanks to the momentary madness of Scaramucci and his appeal to Ryan Lisa, there is a strong concern about the threat to his image and reputation, and everything will follow.
But I don\'t think it will last, I think.
Ivanka Trump said on Twitter yesterday that she is looking forward to serving with Kelly.
She didn\'t say she wanted to report to him.
O\'Donnell: Yes, O\'Brien: and Johnston: Tim-I agree with Tim O\'Brien: he said-O\'Donnell: Yes-O\'Brien: You know, he has Reports tonight or tonight, because Kelly said he was safe, the meeting is safe now.
I don\'t think it will last for a second.
If Donald Trump wants to get rid of the meeting, he will continue to work hard.
O\'Donnell: David, the other-Michael d Antonio;
Another biographer of Trump wrote an engaging article saying he believed Donald Trump would come this far.
He has to believe that the whole government is on the brink of disaster, the number of polls has fallen, the failure of the health care bill, the wild outbreak of Scaramucci, and so on.
He must be in a state of real fear in order to take a very unusual action to bring in people he does not know and may not be able to control.
David Kay Johnston, American journalist: Yes, I think that\'s exactly right.
I think Michael is right.
But Donald\'s fears and his inner recognition, he doesn\'t know what he\'s doing here, these are almost delusional statements, Donald just made up something and created his own reality, phone calls from scouts and Mexican presidents.
All this is still brewing in him.
Just because we didn\'t see his crazy twitter storm doesn\'t mean anything has changed in his identity.
At some point, you know, a stopped teapot will explode.
We will see something happen in the near future, it is not a stable environment and it is not possible to be as long as Donald Trump is at the White House.
Tim, David has just made an interesting point.
You have all written books about Donald Trump and studied him carefully.
Let\'s assume general Kelly took control of him on twitter.
There is no completely crazy tweet.
We saw him go crazy on twitter.
If the general had bottled all of this, at what time, how did it behave?
Tim O\'Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg View: You know one of the things I think is critical is --
Why he has been a survivor for decades and why he has struggled in this situation is because he has created his own reality.
He is good at saying that if the pattern of fact in the real world conflicts with my sense of self, I will make up a new story.
I will make up a fable and let me say they are wrong. I am right.
I think he can go on this path, much longer than most of his observers might see.
David, before we go, is this like Donald Trump on the verge of bankruptcy, and when he\'s trying to get the bank officials to relax and give him a break on the loan, his actions against bank officials? He`s a really -
He went in and he was a very good boy talking to bank officials.
This is how he is now with John Kelly.
Johnston: Actually, bankers
Yes, he was banned from entering the room by bankers and bank lawyers.
They don\'t want him there.
In this case, what he did was to get his allies, politicians from the New Jersey government to stand by his side against his bankers.
Here, he sent away people who might have been his allies.
Republican Mitch McConnell, many of them
On Capitol Hill
He can do this without these allies.
This is part of the problem.
I don\'t know how he got rid of it.
Tim O\'Brien and David Kay Johnston, thank you for joining us tonight.
Really grateful.
Next, the White House today admitted that the president lied, but the White House thought it was a lie-the word \"lie\" was too powerful to be used for Trump\'s lies. (
Business break)
O\'Donnell: the only president in history who was blamed by the Scouts for giving a very inappropriate speech to the Scouts is now lying to the Scout leader.
He told the Wall Street Journal that I received a phone call from the head of the Scout saying it was the greatest speech they have ever had, and they were very grateful.
The Boy Scouts of America say such a thing has never happened.
The president downplayed the phone.
And one more. (
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US President Donald Trump: even the President of Mexico called me.
They said a few people came along their southern border because they knew they would not cross our border and that was the final compliment. (END VIDEO CLIP)
O\'Donnell: That\'s a sick liar working in a cabinet room.
The Mexican president told the world that the US president had lied to his cabinet about this, and that call had never been made.
Today, the White House press secretary lied to the president about the phone because she thought what the taxpayer paid her to do was lie for the president. (
Start Video Editing)
Reporter: He lied. He didn`t -
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: I\'m not going to say it\'s a lie.
This is a very bold charge. (END VIDEO CLIP)
So if a lie is not a lie, what is a lie?
Yes, it\'s a very bold lie. It\'s a very bold accusation.
The American people will not fall for the lies of the president or the lies of his employees.
According to the latest poll by Quinnipiac, 62% of Americans think the president is dishonest.
Only 33% said they were in favor of what the president was doing.
Brian Klass, who is now joining us as a researcher at the London School of Economics and author of the tyrant\'s accomplices, talks about how the West has helped and contributed to the decline of democracy.
Go back with us, Ron crane.
Brian, when the US president lied about getting a call from the Mexican president, how does that look around the world, and now we see this week\'s lie about getting a call from a scout.
I don\'t think scouts play too much in the world.
But what do we hear every day in the United States about the president\'s routine of lying today, and how does that look around the world?
Brian Krause, a researcher at London School of Economics: Unfortunately, Trump has become a global joke, the least interesting joke imaginable.
In this case, allies no longer trust the United States, so there is a serious situation during the crisis, in addition to all recreational activities, where allies have to question whether the president of the United States is telling the truth.
This is not good for the interests of the United States.
This is not good for our relationships around the world.
So I think you know when you have these obvious lies, lies, whatever you want to call them-I think we should call them lies in person because when he\'s caught, he did not correct them.
I think that will be done by people who really act in good faith.
This is a pattern, you know.
This is not a simple outliers.
It\'s an dishonest model and it\'s important because it comes from the most powerful office in the world and we have to trust it to be honest and we can\'t do it anymore.
O\'Donnell: we have more information on how to look for a presidential poll.
In any case, President Trump\'s approval rating for the work of Republicans is now 76%.
Of course, the overall decline was around 39%.
I don\'t have the right set of numbers in front of me right now.
But on the point where the Republicans approve this, when you see Ron at 76%, I think a lot of people make a mistake and think it\'s like half a country, you know the RepublicansNo, no, no.
Republicans account for only 25% of the country.
So when 76% approve Donald Trump, about 18% approve Donald Trump.
Ron Crane, director of the Office of the vice president of the United States: Yes.
Look, Lawrence, no one evaded the fact that it was not a lie that Donald Trump created a new record for voter disapproval.
You know, he likes to say that he wants to run the White House like he wants to do business.
But if you are the CEO of any business that customers hate and don\'t deliver it every day and lie to customers every day, you will lose your job.
You know what happens if he\'s really a CEO.
In fact, voters are pressing him.
Even some Republicans are attacking him now.
He lost trust in voters and he failed to deliver on the core promise he made, namely, to focus on employment, to pass the infrastructure bill, to repair the health care system.
He\'s not sending these things.
If he does not deliver, he will not be able to obtain an approval rating and he will not do so either.
O\'Donnell: And-
The poll is harmful to the president.
Would you say Donald Trump is level? headed?
26% Yes.
71% of Americans say their president, the president of the United States, is not a level-headed.
They may say something to most high school principals in their town, they are level --headed.
Are you proud or embarrassed that Donald Trump was elected president?
54% of Americans were embarrassed when Donald Trump was elected president.
And it continues, including Brian, in some numbers that are very bad for the president in the investigation.
Do you think Trump thinks he is above the law?
60% think the president thinks he is above the law.
And then on the issue of the special prosecutor, do you think that Robert Mueller will conduct a fair investigation?
64% of respondents said they believed Robert Mueller would conduct a fair investigation. And -
Brian, this is a president, who was relatively public in the White House when he made a voice about firing that special prosecutor.
People in their thirties in the country think it is fair.
Colas: That\'s right.
You know, he basically attacked Jeff sessions without getting in the way of justice, without being involved in a campaign to investigate his involvement and thus properly following the avoidance procedure.
So I think the rule of law was challenged during Trump\'s presidency.
For a president, these polls are totally surprising, and he oversees an overall healthy economy, not a massive wartime collapse like we did in Iraq.
In the Gallup poll, our approval rating for President Trump was 60%.
Putting this in the background, Carter has never reached this point.
Reagan never did that. George H. W.
Bush reached that goal after 1,288 days as president.
Clinton never did that. George W.
Bush reached that goal after 1,700 days as president.
Obama never reached.
So it was the first time Trump hit it six months later after 144 days.
He\'s here again today.
From any point of view, this is the most unpopular president in history.
O\'Donnell: 69% said he shouldn\'t have tweeted from his personal account.
In fact, most Republicans don\'t think he should post tweets from his personal account.
Brian Klaas, Ron Klain, thank you for joining us tonight.
Really grateful.
Come on, the first female Marine to fly F-
She is now running for Congress in the battle, and she is a Democrat.
She will be our next guest. (
Business break)
O\'Donnell: the first female Marine to fly in the F18 battle has a personal history of trying to do the impossible and succeed.
Amy McGrath, who has just retired from the Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel, is ready for the next impossible mission, where her Democrats in Kentucky run for Congress.
She is competing with Republican Representative Andy bar for his vote in the House in favor of the Trump/Ryan Republican health care bill, which will wipe out health care coverage for Americans including 23 million in Kentucky.
Lieutenant Colonel McGrath will join us in a minute.
But first, her campaign video. (
Start Video Editing)
Ex-fighter pilot Amy McGrath: when I was 12, I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up.
I want to land a fighter on an aircraft carrier because it\'s the hardest flight you can do.
When I was 13, my congressman told me that I couldn\'t fly in the battle.
Congress believes women should be protected and they are not allowed to serve in combat, he said.
I have never received a letter from my Senator Mitch McConnell.
I then wrote to every member of the House and Senate Arms Services committee asking them to amend the law.
I said they haven\'t seen me yet. I know I can do it.
But most of them say I can\'t.
Then I entered the Naval Academy, you don\'t know, that\'s when they changed the law.
I\'m Amy McGrath and I love our country.
I have been in the United States for 20 years. S.
The Marines carried out 89 combat missions bombing al-Qaida and the Taliban.
I was the first female Marine to fly in the F18 battle and I boarded the aircraft carrier.
Now, I\'m running for Congress in Kentucky against Andy Barr.
He is a carefully selected Congressman from Mitch McConnell, who says he will vote passionately to take health care from more than a Kentucky. Mr.
Bal, my mom said polio survivors, she was one of the first women to graduate from the British medical school.
Many people told her that she could not realize her dream.
But she held on and ended up treating a lot of people like you and Mr.
McConnell will take it.
This is my new mission to hold a Congress full of professional politicians in Congress to treat the people of Kentucky as their foregone.
Some have told me that Democrats can\'t win this battle in Kentucky and we can\'t take back our country for my kids and your kids.
We will see it. (END VIDEO CLIP)
Amy McGrath joins us next. (
Business break)
O\'Donnell: I\'m a McGrath, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, running for members of Congress in the Sixth Congressional District of Kentucky, competing with current Andy Barr in 2018 midterm elections.
Colonel, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
What are your top questions in this campaign?
Well, good evening, Lawrence.
It\'s good to be here tonight.
When I talk to people here, my first question about the Sixth District of Kentucky is health care.
I mean Kentuckians benefit from the Affordable Health Care Act.
We have a current Republican who wants to vote passionately for a terrible bill that will hurt the Kent.
This is definitely our first question, my first one.
O\'Donell: Kentucky is one of the more successful states to implement the Affordable Care Act.
But it\'s not called that there.
Have you ever met the beneficiaries of Kentucky who didn\'t really realize that what they had was a problem with Obamacare? MCGRATH: Sure.
This is certainly the case for us.
And that\'s what you know, at least, the idea that Republicans repeal and replace what\'s happening right now, has made many KFC people start to understand that the Affordable Health Care Act is not in the death spiral.
This is not so bad for many KFC people.
In fact, it is very, very good.
So I think it\'s a learning process now and we\'ll take a break here and I want to ask you when we get back, we just reported on the angry meeting between the president and the generals about the campaign. Afghanistan.
If you were in the room with the president and those generals, would you tell the president what we need to do in Afghanistan?
When we come back after the break, you can give us an answer.
Please stay with us. (
Business break)
We are back to Amy McGrath, the candidate for Congress.
As I asked before the break, your experience as a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps flight combat mission, if you attended a meeting where Donald Trump started yelling at the generals for their failures in Afghanistan, will you tell the president what we need to do in Afghanistan?
You know, I \'ve been to Afghanistan twice.
I fought twice.
One thing I will tell him is that you need to listen not only to your general.
But listen to the opinions of people, diplomats, experts in the region who are not necessarily members of the military, and you can\'t solve every problem with a hammer.
I think he really needs to hear from others because it\'s a very complicated war.
It is impossible to win this victory by army alone.
O\'Donnell: Former Lieutenant Colonel Amy McGrath, now a candidate for Congress, tonight is the last sentence.
Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thank you very much.
Brian Williams\'s 11 hours start now.
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