tv MSNBC Live With Alex Witt MSNBC November 5, 2017 6:00am-7:00am PST
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prevagen. the name to remember. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next sunday. now to my colleague keers simmons in london. keir. >> reverend, an honor to be picking up the banner from you, my friend. it's 9:00 in the eastern u.s. 2 in the afternoon here in britain and is 11:00 a.m. in japan where president trump is right now. the president on the first leg of his asia trip in remarks about who he's going to help in north korea. then dnc chair donna brazil thought about replacing hillary clinton as the party's candidate after one incident.
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he called the system rigged during primary season. we'll hear from him for the first time since the brazil bombshell. the white house strikes back. new reaction after former bush presidents bash president trump. the latest details next. at this hour we begin with new reaction from president trump in japan starting his five-country asia trip. giving reporters a preview of his talks with prime minister shinz oh abe. here is what he said before the two sat down for dinner earlier. >> we are in the midst of having very major discussions on many subjects, including north korea and trade and other things and we're doing very well. i think we're doing very well. the relationship is really extraordinary. we like each other and our countries like each other. and i don't think we have ever been closer to japan than we are right now. so it's a great honor. believe me, it's a great honor.
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we're going to have dinner tonight where i think we'll insult everybody by continuing to talk about trade. but the time is a little bit limited. and then tomorrow is a very busy day. >> insult everybody. the historic trip coming at a time of low polling numbers back home for the president. a brand-new abc "washington post" poll this morning shows a majority of americans feel president trump has not accomplished much during his first ten months in office. the poll also showing president trump's approval rating at 37%. drastically lower than any modern president at this point in his presidency. let's go to chris jansing in tokyo for the latest on the president's overseas trip. what are the big take-a ways? >> well, i think the president spent this first day trying to reassure allies that the united states is here, that they are very committed to making sure that the north korean threat is
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handled and in fact the president indicated that that was his primary goal here. for their part the allies hoping he'll find a more moderate way to express that, not maybe using some of the bell kos rhetoric they've heard from him when he's stateside calling kim jong-un little rocket man or talking about the fire and fury that he's going to rein down on them. but even before he had a chance to go and meet with prime minister abe here, he spoke before a group of american service members and he didn't mention north korea by name but he made clear what u.s. intentions are. >> no dictator, no regime and no nation should underestimate ever american resolve. every once in a while in the past they under estimated us. it was not pleasant for them, was it? >> having said that, he was not
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critical of, as i said, north korea, in fact calling north koreans great people. he refused on the press plane or on air force one talking to the press to respond to the criticism from h.w. bush in a new book calling him a blow hard. he said we're going to let that go. in fact, he let a response from the white house press staff speak for it. but obviously there are challenges. he comes here, even though he denies in, in a weakened position that 37% record low approval rating that you mentioned. he's embroiled, of course, in the russia controversy and the two indictments and one guilty plea in robert mueller's russia investigation. and take a look at how japan views him just 24% trust this president to do the right thing on the international stage. compare that a year ago to president obama who had a 78% approval rating. so at this hour presumably dinner is over. it's just a little past 11 here
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now, keir, he's going to get some rest. another thing he said to the press which included a round of golf he said he's not worried about not being -- about being tired. that that's just not something that happens to him, keir. >> okay. the president, chris, also told reporters he's expected to meelt with vladimir putin on this trip. how did that come about and what's the state politically for him at that meeting? >> yeah. that was really one of the big headlines out of his brief interactions with the press today. it was something he had first mentioned as a possibility on thursday. now it looks like it's likely. we know that there have been talks between white house and kremlin officials. he wants to get vladimir putin more involved in dealing with the north korean threat. obviously it is fraught for him stateside. there are problems that they have had ever since new sanctions were put in place. and in fact, congress made sure that the president couldn't
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revoke some of those sanctions. americans were thrown out of moscow. and you also have, of course, these new charges that were brought in the investigation overhanging all of it. and then also, remember the first meeting between these two men which lasted almost two hours and the president came out and said, look, putin denied he had anything to do with meddling in the election and then later at dinner he went over without the aid of a u.s. translator to talk to putin one-on-one, the kind of diplomatic gaff obviously that a lot of folks hope he avoids here. the kremlin did issue a statement saying there is no cooperation on north korea so far. they did leave open the possibility that the two men will talk about it in vietnam when they're both there. >> chris jansing doing late duty for us in tokyo. thanks. now, they say know your enemy. if that is true then americans need to know north korea, a country the u.s. may be at war with soon. that is why i just returned from that isolated country, spending
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a week there. coming up this after, i'll report on that what the people of north korea told me about the effect the rhetoric from president trump has had on them. i'll also ask an expert how affected the president's trip might be in keeping the tensions from escalating into war. that's coming up at noon today on msnbc. joining me now, josh bear row, and erin mcpeak. before i get to domestic policy there, a few questions about the president's asia trip as those of us in london are certainly watching it with interest over the north korea question. president trump claims he's going to seek the help of russia's president putin on had that front. how much leverage does he have given the vegs there in the states? >> i think it's not just the roilg investigation. this is a problem that the last three u.s. presidents have grap peld with and failed to resolve. you have russia, china, south korea, japan and us in this -- you know, these periodic
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conversations with north korea. but the situation on the ground is what the. the north koreans want nuclear weapons because they are afraid of american con quest. they view that as the thing that protects the existence of their regime. the chinese want to protect the status quo position. they also don't want a hot war on the korean peninsula. they'd like things to stay as they are which is a challenging situation to maintain. i think the president is playing a weak hands but it's not much weaker than other presidents have had to may here. it's fundamentally extremely difficult to fix. >> erin, you have this kind of stunning situation where you have the possibility of a war on the korean peninsula and the allegations that russia intervened in american democracy. i guess the question is, and this is a question in terms of president trump's potential meeting with president putin, which of those things are more important? which should he be concentrating on at that meeting? >> well, keir, certainly the
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media will be looking to see if president trump does engage vladimir putin on russia collusion -- excuse me, russian meddling in the election. obviously as we've been seeing in these last couple of weeks these ads that have been coming out. if he doesn't talk to vladimir putin about that, we can guarantee that there will be bad headlines. i will say in terms of the u.s. engaging russia on north korea, that is something that the white house has hinted or even made statements about for the last couple of months. i remember sometime this summer that the white house actually put out a specific statement saying they would like russia's help on north korea. and a number of experts that i spoke to afterward who work on north korean issues every single day said well, that was kind of new. we haven't really done that before. and as chris was reporting there at the top, she said that there have been no real conversations, just a couple of early engagement points that maybe this is something they could work together on down the road. i would like to see a read out of that meeting and just how deep into this issue of north
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korea they actually get. >> yeah, because we didn't get a read out of the last meeting, i don't believe, or certainly there was still questions about what happened. i want to move to the domestic front. there have been a lot of developments in the mueller investigation. based on what we've learned from this past week, do you get the sense the probe is getting closer to touching the president? >> i don't know. i think robert mueller was clearly doing two things strategically this week. one was the dielt indictment of manafort and gates over matters that are at best tangentially related. it is about payments they received from a russian aligned political party in the ukraine. but then there was this other indictment of george papadopoulos, the low level campaign adviser who is pleading guilty to lying to the fbi about his contacts with russia in the course of the campaign. so i think what the special prosecutor is trying to do here is to get people to flip, to see if he can put pressure on manafort and gates to tell him about something that happened in
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the campaign about people higher up. and certainly whether papadopoulos has something to offer there. there is some suggestion in the plea agreement that he might be cooperating with the investigation. i think we'll learn some in the coming weeks about that. is there a there there. is there anything for manafort to tell the prosecutor about what donald trump was up to with the russians. if there was underlying wrongdoing i think the president should be nervous about that. on the other hand if there really was no illegal coordination between the campaign and russia or any incidental crimes to whatever they were doing there, if all there really is is some financial impropriety from paul manafort, i think it's likely that we will see an indictment of michael flynn down the road related to his business dealings with turkey, but whether this gets close to the president depends heavily on whether the president did anything wrong. >> erin, is there a there there? does that matter politically in a sense because the damage is being done, isn't it? >> there's plenty of danley, obviously, and it's certainly a
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huge distraction. and the chief of staff has said that a number of times, that they want this investigation to come to a close because it's been such a distraction for the white house and they can't get much else done. that's a good point. the other point that i would make is there are a number of investigations obviously even on capitol hill with the house intelligence committee and not everything we have to realize is going to be all that bad. and not that i want to excuse him from anything, but you've seen carter page after his six-hour testimony this week come out and say that he wants his entire testimony put on the record and that he goes to russia frequently and offers speeches to universities there. and that may mean that there is no there there as regards to him. so a lot of this stuff is sprawling and it doesn't always suggest that everything is bad. so we have to be really careful about the guilt by association charges that will come out. >> erin, just stay with you and this just gets to the donna
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brazil bombshell about the dnc and hillary clinton. brazil considered replacing clinton with joe biden in the aftermath of that infamous fainting spell. what do you make of that? >> keir, i think that is a really hard thing for her to prove, because that didn't come out at all in this fall -- last fall, rather if she was actually considering it. and i think if this were a real thing, we would have heard something about it at the time. no one else has corroborated that story. and if anything, i think donna brazil is trying very hard to get in with joe biden and cory booker, both of whom are considering presidential runs in 2020. i think this is a really hard thing for her to prove and i'm not sure how true it is. >> josh, quickly, who is on the right side of this, former clinton campaign officials or
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donna brazil. >> i find this book or at least what we've seen to be totally bizarre. it seems like her list of things that she knew at the time, that she knew the clinton campaign had a terrible message, that the environment in the office was too sterile and that's why they weren't going to be able to connect with people, this idea she contemplated a change in the ticket t. think about where the polls were. people thought that clinton was going to win this easily. it would be crazy. it seems like donna brazil wrote a book that she warned the captain of the titanic. it's her story about how she knew everything that was going to go wrong. if she knew why didn't she say anything at the time. it looks like a book trying to rehabilitate her reputation. >> all right. great analysis from both of you. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> three reasons why the paul manafort indictment could have a resounding impact on the trump administration. my next guest explains. shawn evans: it's 6 am.
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resounding impact on the trum i mentioned that i'm heading over there andel totally unrelated to the campaign. i mean, it's totally in passing. >> is he the only one on the campaign that knew about the trip? >> i mentioned it to a few people. >> who else? >> it will come out -- things keep leaking. >> former trump campaign adviser carter page revealing that he told then senator jeff sessions he was traveling to moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign. page is now telling reporters after a closed-door interview with the house intel committee that he briefly encountered russian government officials dug that trip, though he's describing those encounters as nothing more than a hello. joining me is john lore row,
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formerly a federal prosecutor. he's currently a white collar criminal defense attorney. carter initially denied or side stepped about meeting any russians. he's changed his tune. i know you think that the trump administration is already in serious trouble. do you think this is another sign that they are facing a very, very big legal challenge here? >> well, this particular appearance before the house committee is not related directly to the mueller investigation. but you don't get immunity for testifying before a house committee. so the question for him is he absolutely has to tell the truth because then he risks a perjury investigation. so whether or not he did something embarrassing really becomes irrelevant. if he comes before that committee he has to tell the truth. >> okay. now, let's just talk about the new developments from former trump campaign manager paul manafort's legal team. his lawyer is proposing a 12.5 million bail package in exchange for his release from home confinement a condition
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that was initially added due to concerns about flight risk. what are the chances he's released from home confinement? >> i think it's pretty good. the judge was concerned whether or not there was sufficient bail conditions that would ensure his appearance in court. what he'll probably have to do is post some property that he has. by all indications he's a very wealthy man. i'm sure he can do that. but what was more significant to me after the last court appearance, his lawyer came out and was very supportive of president trump. that signals to me that this is going to be a long fight, that mr. manafort is not going to cooperate and that ultimately what he's hoping for as a legal decision is possibly some kind of pardon from president trump down the road. >> okay. and john, you wrote recently that there were three reasons the mab fort indictment could have a resounding impact on the trump administration. what are those three reasons, my friend? >> well, first of all, it signals the seriousness of the mueller investigation. and mueller right now is untouchable. nobody can come after him. second, it shows that they're
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going to play "hardball." they're going to go after not just issues related to the campaign but with respect to anything that somebody could have done in their past. the manafort indictment dealt with issues that related to tax returns, having nothing to do with the campaign. and finally, what it tells me is that the trump administration is completely ill prepared to deal with this investigation. they haven't lined up a defense team that meet's mueller's team person foreperson. they just haven't done that. >> all right. thanks. officials in new york are going the extra mile for security measures ahead of today's marathon. but are they going far enough after this week as terror attack?
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morgan, do police seem to be prepared for such an event this size? >> reporter: they say they are prepared and they are ready, keir. remember, there's a lot on the line. as you mentioned, more than 50,000 runners, nearly 2.5 million spectators. and there is more police presence than ever before. they brought out bomb sniffing dogs as well as other k 9 units that are all here monitoring this rags and hoping everything runs safely and smoothly. all around the city nypd making their presence known. razor tight security at times square, on the streets of the city and at the starting line of today's marathon. >> with it comes the security. i appreciate that it being nice and tight. >> reporter: millions cheering in the sidelines. many on edge after last week's terror attack that left eight dead and 12 injured. >> there's a lot going on and you have to be worried and
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nervous. >> reporter: among the crowds that are also those that have seen terrorism firsthand. some on 9/11. >> i was in lower manhattan when the tower fell. >> reporter: others at the boston marathon bombing. >> you can't let them win. right after boston our attitude was we're running next year regardless. >> reporter: officials say the more visible the security the better. >> we have people here from all over the globe. my message is we will keep them safe. >> trains, tunnels, bridges, airports. you'll see an increased presence of law enforcement at all those locations. >> reporter: but despite concerns many people have, today's crowds urging everyone to remember what this marathon is all about. >> this is a really joyous occasion for people to come together and be together as runners and as people in the city. >> reporter: the race ends in new york central park, but the new york police department says there have been no credible threats made against the
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turns out, it's californians it's me and it's you. don't stop now, it's easy to add to the routine. join energy upgrade california and do your thing. welcome back. i'm keir simmons at nbc headquarters in london. at the half-hour here is what we're watching. new this morning, president trump speaking out on the mueller investigation in an interview airing now on sinclair tv stations. >> i am truly not involved at any form of collusion with russia, believe me. that's the last thing i can think of to be involved in. >> have you been told to expect to be questioned by the special counsel? >> no, nobody has told me. as far as i'm concerned i haven't been told that we're under investigation. i'm not under investigation. >> that interview was taped before carter page confirmed he had met senior russian
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government officials during the 2016 u.s. election campaign. joining me now is nbc's ken dilanian, national security -- national security reporter. let's just put the cards on the table here, my friend. if anyone knows, then you know, but there have been a lot of surprises here. can the trump administration even know how close this is going to get to the president? >> good morning, keir. no, i don't think they can, as a matter of fact. and i think just a quick fact check. it's pretty clear is that special counsel robert mueller is investigating whether the president obstructed justice. so the president is under investigation here. we don't know the status of that investigation, though. i mean, there is just a lot we don't know about what mueller is doing. nobody predicted the indictment of this low level campaign aid named george papadopoulos, and we can be sure that there will be other surprises along the way, keir. >> yeah. and we just have to rely on some of the things that are emerging. so those unsealed court documents that show george papadopoulos floating the idea of campaign season meetings
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between trump and putin. was papadopoulos merely a volunteer as trump officials insist? >> it doesn't look that way, keir. you know, the nbc news politics team has been digging into the public record on papadopoulos, and they found that he represented the trump campaign on several instances after that infamous march 31st meeting. you know, during the republican national convention he appeared before the american jewish committee as a trump foreign policy adviser. and then in september he gave an interview with the russian enter fax news agency where he promised that trump would restore better relations with russia. and then duringel inauguration he met with israeli leaders. while some trump surrogates have called him the coffee boy, he was clearly more than that. >> we were talking to john laurel a little earlier who makes the point that enormous pressure is being put on manafort and others. do you think we can expect to see bigger names showing up as
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cooperating witnesses? >> i think it's reasonable to assume that we will see other cooperators. you know, a lot of speculation surrounds former national security adviser mike flynn, who appears to be in serious legal jemd. and nbc news has reported that his son is also urchd investigation which puts a loft pressure on any parent. so that's one possibility. but the answer is we just don't know. there certainly will be other surprises. papadopoulos was a surprise. it's got to be really disconcerting to the trump administration that they are not sure who mueller is talking to, who may be cooperating, keir. >> all right. thank you. >> thank you, sir. >> now to new reaction from the former dnc chief donna brazil after her bombshell allegations on the inner workings of the party during the 2016 primary. here is what she said in an interview airing just moments ago. >> this is a lesson of 2016. if i released it next year, they
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would say donna, you're impacting our 2018. if i release it, donna -- george, for those who are telling me to shut up, they told hillary that a couple of months ago. you know what i tell them? go to hell. they don't know what it's like because the high command of brooklyn, the people who were making the decisions, even for the dnc, they didn't come and work with us. they told us to shut up and basically let them win the election. >> go to hell. let's bring in former maryland governor martin o'malley. he was a democratic presidential candidate in the 2016 election who himself was critical of how the nomination process was playing out. governor, i want to first start with your reaction to donna brazil's comments there, pointing to the timing of these revelations since voters in new jersey and virginia are about to head to the polls tuesday for two key gubernatorial races. >> yeah. how about that? look, and that's what i'm focused on. i think as democrats that we're waigsing energy by focusing on
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lens from the last election instead of focusing on speaking to voters for the next elections. we need to win in new jersey, win in virginia. i just came back from washington state where two cure ages women are fighting to win back their states state senate chamber. so god bless donna brazil. i have a lot of respect for herment she tells a great story. but we need to focus on the future. i think we've learned the lessons from the past. the party clearly put a foot on the scale and we have to refrain from doing that in the next election. >> and it's good to have you with us, governor, not least because we can hear from you the truth of what really happened. the "washington post" reporting that you were among a number of people who e-mailed brazil the day after hillary clinton had that infamous fainting spell. what did you say in that e-mail? >> gosh, i have no idea. i guess she's trying to get me to go by the book. i was in 20 different states --
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>> you don't remember what you said in the e-mail, governor? >> no, i have no idea. i can tell you this, keir. i was in 20 different states for secretary clinton in the course of the general election. so i was frequently in contact with both donna and brazil and also john podesta and relaying what i was hearing out in the field to the campaign and hoped that they could synthesize that to better help our candidate win. so i don't recall what i said to her, but i certainly service out there fighting hard for our nominee. and, you know, i guess i'll have to buy the book. >> just to be clear, then, you didn't suggest that joe biden should take over as candidate? >> no. this is the first i heard that there were serious consideration of that. no. that's the first i've heard of that. >> do you think joe biden would have won? do you think joe biden if he had been the candidate could have beaten president trump? >> well, i think if i had been the candidate i could have beaten president trump.
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i think there were probably a number of candidates that -- we can go back and play this parlor game, but keir, i don't know that it really helps us for the future. what our party needs to do now, and i've seen it happening all across the country. you know, i've never stopped traveling and helping candidates that are running in these special elections. and you might not read it above the fold in "the new york times" or the "washington post," but our candidates out in the country at the local level are winning in state legislative races by 10 or 15 points better than anybody might have predicted the day of the election. so, look, the future of the party isn't going to be found in the latest memo coming out of the dnc. it's going to be found in iowa, new hampshire, washington state. south florida. that's where the party is rebuilding. it's almost like green shoots coming up after a devastating forest party. that's where where he need to
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focus on. we as democrats will take so that families are able to do better by their kids when they work hard. >> you just said that you could have beaten donald trump if you had been the candidate. what would you have done differently? how could donald trump have been beaten? >> well, look, i think one of the huge mistakes that we have to own as democrats is that we failed to go on television and offer our own vision for the country during that long summer and early fall when the republicans were debating every other week, keir. and the big drum roll up about putting donald trump in the center of that republican field as if he were the next great new laundry deterng ent that all of us needed to buy. while that was going on and donald trump with his scapegoating oftentimes racist and fascist appeals was gaining
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popular support within his party, we as democrats were silent. we weren't allowed to debate until october. and we need to own that. that certainly wasn't part of our businessman in my campaign. being a relative unknown but with a record of progressive accomplishments second to no governor in the country. we anticipated that the party would not go silent. we thought that there would at least be a few prime time debates before the first votes were cast. and in hindsight that was a factor beyond our control but one that we did not anticipate. and as i read tom perez's memo from the dnc, it looks like the party learned that lesson and that they will no longer try to silence democratic candidates, prevent us from debating. that was a huge mistake we made and our country has paid the price for it. >> so while you say you have to move on, you do agree with what donna brazil is saying? >> i agree with aspects of it,
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certainly. i mean, i think some of this is old news. we need to learn the lessons from the past, but having learned those lessons and i believe we have now, we need to focus on the future. elections aren't about the pastor about how heavily the dnc weighed in on the process. secretary clinton is not the first front runner to try to circle the wagons around her candidacy with her establish am the. but having learned those lessons we need to focus on what people care about, and what they care about is their own kids. one of the things we can make them winners this a new kmooe. for example, look at this $1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy that donald trump is pushing right now. that might be good for the trump family, but it's really bad for middle class american families. no people ever made their children winners in a new economy by bankrupting their own country. these are the issues we need to tie to the kitchen tables all across new jersey, virginia and all 36 of the states that are
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electing new governors next year. and if we do that and we focus on jobs, we focus on the choices that will make our children winners in a changing economy, you're going to see the democratic party coming back and coming back strong in these midterms. >> that tax question was my last question, but you've answered it, so i appreciate your time former maryland governor martin o'malley. thanks for joining us. >> keir, thank you. >> you bet. president trump in japan with a message to north korea. the latest on his new threat and what he told american troops. in our next hour joy reid will have more with congressman ted lou on "am joy."
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notice and squeezed in a round of golf with japan's prime minister shinzo abe. janice, what kind of welcome can the president expect as he moves through the region? >> reporter: well, keir, it was on the airplane here that president trump suggested to reporters that he would indeed meet with russian president vladimir putin. he'll do so on the sidelines of the a peck summit in vietnam toward the end of the week. he said, quote, we want putin's help on north korea. now, north korea, of course, will be the dominant issue on this trip. when president trump arrived in japan today he addressed u.s. troops who are stationed here and didn't mention north korea specifically. but told them they are the greatest threats to tyrants and dictators. here is more of what he had to say. >> no one, no dictator, no regime and no nation should underestimate ever american
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resolve. every once in a while in the past they under estimated us. it was not pleasant for them, was it? it was not pleasant. >> reporter: president trump is arriving to a region that is uncertain, even confused about u.s. policy in asia. there is the perception that he has dialed back u.s. engagement by questioning trade deals and security alliances while at the same time stoking tension with north korea. we also can't ignore that there have been some significant shifts in the balance of power in the region. just in the last month alone. here in japan abe has been re-elected and is now angling to change the pass i haveist constitution that would remill tar eyes japan. beijing and seoul from normalized relations after a lengthy dispute. that happened just last week.
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and then, of course, there is the rise of xi jinping to almost unprecedented power in china after the latest party congress. so this is a region that is feeling confident in many ways charting its own course while at the same time looking to the u.s. for cues on its policy while not necessarily expecting to see them on this trip. this is a long trip that could be disrupted by north korea. there could always be the chance of another missile test. there was the warning from the regime today through one of its newspapers saying to president trump that he should avoid any reckless remarks during his time in asia. keir. >> a long trip for the president and a long trip for you. thank you. firing back, clinton campaign staffers send an open letter to donna brazile and say she was duped by russian propaganda. one of those who signed it explains why. next. well, like most of you, i just bought a house. -oh! -very nice. now i'm turning into my dad.
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this wasn't a standing fund joint raising agreement, they had a separate memorandum of understanding, and in order to break it i would cause a great commotion. >> that's former dnc chair donna brazile doubling down in the explosive new allegations in her new book. the book also reveals that she considered replacing the democratic presidential nominee with then vice president joe biden, and in response hillary clinton sent a letter to the campaign. joining me now, the former director of strategic
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communications for hillary clinton for america, and michael steele. we have to start with you. you signed that letter. i read the first part. among brazile's claims, the dnc rigged the system for hillary clinton. if that's the case, isn't it the dnc that influenced the will of the voters and not donna brazile. >> no, hillary clinton won by 4 million votes, and hillary clinton would have carried more of the caucus states. we are moving on. we are tired of relitigating 2016. many of us who signed on to that letter today have been campaigning for candidates in virginia and new jersey. i plan to be walking precincts tomorrow with some of my hillary clinton colleagues. we are tired of litigating 2016,
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and it's time to move on. >> do you think some that signed that letter are in denial to some degree? >> we wanted to make it clear that the campaign, not just mrs. brazile, but others talked about what they heard, the gossip inside the campaign, it's simply not true. i started on the campaign before secretary clinton even announced. i moved to brooklyn to work for her in case she decided to run for president. never been prouder in my life to spend 20 months to elect the person i thought would make an outstanding president. we had a wonderful team of people in place. it was a hard, hard campaign. you know, obviously, keir, from covering it, it was a very difficult and unusual type of campaign cycle, but we were so proud to go through what we went through together as a team and we experienced such a strong
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camaraderie internally. for us to see people on the outside making inaccurate accusations about what happened on the inside, you know, we wanted to make it clear that we don't see it the way some other people see it. >> michael, president trump has been using brazile's claims to call for the fbi and justice department to go after hillary clinton. is that fair? the election is over. >> donna brazile has been a warrior for the democratic party for decades and is a giant in the party. these allegations need to be taken seriously. i think democrats are not going to be able to move forward and engage e effectively until they end the civil war in their own party, and the perception that the committee had a thumb on the scales, and some believe another candidate could have defeated
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donald trump. >> shouldn't the republicans be focussed on their own civil war? what do you make of that? republicans are facing as much division as the democrats. >> former presidents bush have had their differences with donald trump. i think it's great that they express that, and i understand the president -- >> well, it's a description of the president. >> at the same time, republicans here in washington are focussed on moving forward in tax reform and getting big things done for the american people, and creating more jobs here in the united states. >> adrian, the book also says neither of the two republican former presidents voted for mr. trump. the father voted for hillary clinton and the son voted for none of the above. does that change your perspective on the bushes at all? >> i have always been a huge fan of both bushes in this case. you know, president clinton and
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president bush, both of them, frankly, have been partnering up on a lot of humanitarian issues, most recently relief for some of the victims of the storms that have taken place. look, the clintons and the bushes have always had a strong relationship, and that relationship is only forged further and it's, you know, i certainly have even a little more respect for president bush for coming out and saying he didn't vote for president trump but voted for hillary. >> and o'malley just told me he could have beaten donald trump, and there are questions whether joe biden could have beaten trump. what do you make of that? >> i just listened to governor o'malley's interview before, and i think his focus is in the right spot where he said we got to quit litigating 2016 and move forward and focus on the most crucial elections we have had since the general election of 2016 are on tuesday, and we have
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high stakes governor's races in virginia and new jersey. that's where our focus is. we have a lot of races in the country, and a lot of mayors are on the ballot in various cities, so that's where our focus is as democrats and if we have a strong showing on tuesday, that's going to be a really good sign going into 2018. >> all right. great conversation, and one that is being had in both parties. adrian and michael steele, thank you. >> thanks, keir. next up on "am joy," the interruption of the coverage of the conspiracy-driven alternative universe. i'll be right back. d of green onions, tomatoes, and herbs. and your favorites, like garlic shrimp scampi. now's the only time to try as much as you want, however you want 'em. so hurry in today.
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by listening to an thiaudiobook on audible.ame and this guy is just trying to get through the day. keeping it together. losing it. upgrade your commute. ride with audible. we have hit the top of the hour and that means i am out of time. i am keir simmons, and i will see you at noon eastern here from london. "am joy" starts right now. >> you d
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