Show: 11TH HOUR WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS Date: June 12, 2018 Guest: Robert Costa, Susan Glasser, Harry Litman, Rachel Abrams
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Coming up, it is primary night in six states tonight, and that means Steve Kornacki will be giving Brian the latest results next in "The 11th Hour" with Brian Williams, which starts now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, Donald Trump has made history by sitting down with the North Korean dictator. But now the questions are beginning about the details. What exactly did they sign? What did the U.S. agree to give up? And what did we get?
Back home in Washington, a stunner of a financial disclosure from Jared and Ivanka. Two trusted high-level White House aides who got richer by a reported $82 million last year.
And looking for the Trump effect in the numbers coming in tonight from five primary states. Steve Kornacki at the big board for us with results as THE 11TH HOUR gets under way on a Tuesday night.
Well, good evening once again from our NBC News Headquarters here in New York. Day 509 of the Trump Administration, and before we go too far, we mentioned this is a primary night in five states tonight. We`re going to cover this in a short time, but we have results already, and they include a prominent GOP member of the House of Representatives who has apparently been turned away by voters tonight with some help from the Twitter feed of President Donald Trump.
But to our lead story first. The President today has praised the leader of North Korea, and he has attacked Canada and Robert De Niro. The President is right now onboard Air Force One headed back to Washington after his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
And while the President has insisted the summit was about denuclearization, his Twitter feed tonight shows he is seeing the criticism of his performance at the summit and is sensitive to it. "A year ago the pundits and talking heads, people that couldn`t do the job before, were begging for conciliation and peace. Please meet. Don`t go to war. Now that we meet and have a great relationship with Kim Jong-un, the same haters shout out, you shouldn`t meet. Do not meet."
The President also remains effusive in his thanks and praise for the leader of North Korea, thanking "Chairman Kim for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future." And this, "Chairman Kim has before him the opportunity to be remembered as the leader who ushered in a glorious new era of security and prosperity as well as got along great with Kim Jong-un who wants to see wonderful things for his country. As I said earlier today, anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace." Those posts echoed the praise we heard from Trump for Kim Jong-un earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, he is very talented. Anybody that takes over a situation like he did at 26 years of age and is able to run it and run it tough, I don`t say he was nice, or I don`t say anything about it. He ran it. Very few people at that age, you can take one out of 10,000 probably couldn`t do it.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: How do you trust a killer like that?
TRUMP: George, I`m given what I`m give, OK? I mean, this is what we have, and this is where we are. And I can only tell you from my experience, and I met him, I`ve spoken with him, and I`ve met him. And this was, as you know, started very early and it`s been very intense. I think that he really wants to do a great job for North Korea. I think he wants to denuke.
Really, he`s got a great personality. He`s a, you know, funny guy. He`s a very smart guy. He`s a great negotiator. He loves his people, not that I`m surprise the by that but he loves his people.
His country does love him. His people, you see the fervor. They have a great fervor.
Very smart. Very good negotiator. Wants to do the right thing.
He wants to do the right thing. Now, with all of that being said, I can`t talk about it doesn`t matter. We`re starting from scratch. We`re starting right now.
And the relationship was really good. You know, it built. And I talked about early on in the relationship and the feeling, well, we had a very good feel right from the beginning. And we were able to get something very important done.
People were saying, "What`s he hike? He`s got a very good personality. He`s funny and he`s very, very smart. He`s a great negotiator. And he`s a very strategic kind of a guy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAMS: In light of all those comments by Trump about Kim, effusiveness that continued and interviews that aired in prime time tonight on the President`s way back, one of the President`s own more dependable surrogates appearing on CNN tonight admitted, "Look, I don`t think President Trump knows a ton about the history of North Korea."
The President and Kim Jong-un did sign a document at the end of this summit. It included a commitment to continued relations and to nuclear disarmament on the peninsula. It was short on specifics, though, the President is convinced he has received assurances.
Following the summit, Trump said he planned to end those annual joint military exercises with South Korea. He emphasized their cost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should. But we`ll be saving a tremendous amount of money. Plus, I think it`s very provocative.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: The effort to win over the North Korean leader went further and featured something extraordinary. A propaganda video produced by the White House, bearing the stamp of White House.gov and shown to Kim Jong-un on an iPad. Narrated in the spirit of a movie trailer, the President was so proud of the product, he shared it with the press corps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: History is always evolving, and there comes a time when only a few are called upon to make a difference. But the question is, what difference will the few make?
DestinyPictures presents a story of opportunity. A new story, a new beginning. One of peace. Two men, two leaders, one destiny.
There can only be two results. One of moving back or one of moving forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Again, so they`re in the meeting with Kim. They hand him an iPad with this video on it translated. Trump later gave this assessment of Kim`s reaction to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think he loved it. I showed it because I really want him to do something. Now, I don`t think I had to show it because I really believe he wants to -- I think he wants to get it done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: At the end of their time together, the President also gave Kim a tour of his armored Cadillac limousine. The two men took great pains in general to show a good relationship. There were so many handshakes, numerous pats on the back, a big change from the rocket man and fire and fury days. The rhetoric the President seems to believe helped make this summit possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, I think without the rhetoric, we wouldn`t have been here. So I think the rhetoric -- I hated to do it. Sometimes I felt foolish doing it, but we had no choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Let us bring in our lead-off panel on a Tuesday night. Post- summit, Robert Costa, National Political Reporter for "The Washington Post," Moderator of Washington Week on PBS. Susan Glasser, Staff Writer for The New Yorker and a Veteran Overseas Journalist. And Geoff Bennett, White House Correspondent for NBC News. Good evening and welcome to you all.
Robert, I`d like to begin with you. What just happened? What did the U.S. get? What did the U.S. give away? And are you too noting a certain kind of sensitivity in the President`s outgoing social media posts tonight?
ROBERT COSTA, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Here on Capitol Hill, Brian, there is bewilderment in both parties. The President is so unorthodox in his approach to foreign policy that most leaders here on Capitol Hill are not really sure how to respond. Senator Bernie Sanders on the left said, well, he`s encouraging of the diplomacy here, of the peace process, but still wary of how this is playing out. Senator Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, talking about how the U.S. really can`t trust Kim Jong-un.
Yet at the White House tonight, they feel comfortable with the President`s position. They believe that by rattling this negotiation process is the only way to have progress. And at this point, they`re confident that this is moving forward incrementally, that by engaging Kim, they`re bringing him into the world. But that`s a risk. That`s an opportunity and also a risk depending on who you ask.
WILLIAMS: Susan, I`d like to show you, back to you, how you started your day on Twitter and those who follow you woke up to the following wording. You were kind of taking in the new world. "Have to admit my head is spinning from a world where Canada is the President`s enemy and rotting in hell, and North Korea is a fantastic partner. Seriously?"
Susan, did anything transpire during the day to change your view of the world?
SUSAN GLASSER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Well, you know, I have to tell you, Brian, that today is one of those days that does feel a little bit like you`re living inside an onion story and you clicked on it by mistake, you know. And you did see, by the way, I should say one of the President`s advisers who had one of those astonishing attacks on the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, over the weekend, he did somewhat apologize today for it. But you had President Trump himself, even if that extraordinary press conference after --
WILLIAMS: He went back at Canada.
GLASSER: -- he went back at Canada. And, you know, I think what I`m struck by is, number one, of course, we`ve had many rounds of negotiations and talks although never at the Presidential level between the United States and North Korea. I believe 12 previous times North Korea has committed in one way or the other to denuclearization over the years. There have been signed agreements that are much more rigorous than the agreement, which was really a series of four bullet points that President Trump announced today after the meeting with Kim Jong-un.
As you said, you know, Democrats and many Republicans, of course, are supportive of peace. They`re supportive of talking with North Korea rather than threatening nuclear annihilation. But to me, the last week has been a striking week for President Trump`s foreign policy in that we really begin to see he has a radically different vision of the world than his predecessors, Republican and Democrat. And that includes Ronald Reagan as much as Barack Obama.
President Trump has a different view of American leadership in the world. It is America as a unilateral power. It is America much more as a great power operating like Russia and China without values. He`s not talking about human rights. And it`s a very awkward and, I think, astonishing thing for many of us who have paid close attention to listen to the President of the United States lavish praise on not just a dictator, but right now arguably he presides over the most tyrannical country to its people in the world right now.
WILLIAMS: Geoff Bennett, the other tweet I woke up to this morning, though in the hays of morning Twitter, the author escapes me right now, a person said on Twitter this morning, "My iTunes user agreement has more specific wording in it than the document these two signed." Can you tell us what are the deliverables? What will the President haul off Air Force One as a tangible with him when he gets off the plane in the wee small hours of the morning?
GEOFF BENNETT, NBC NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, White House officials make the point that, yes, even though the language in this statement is vague, even though the President calls it comprehensive, although it`s just a one-page document, that it does suggest that Kim and the President will work toward the eventual denuclearization of the peninsula. They say that replacing diplomacy with the specter of a nuclear showdown is a good thing. I can tell you, though, Brian, that one of the reasons why the President was spinning the smashing success of this summit before it even ended is that people close to him tell me that he was intent on emerging from these talks with some sort of victory. That had been his goal since he announced the fact that he would even accept these talks back in March. And the reason for it is really threefold.
One, he thinks it`s a compelling argument, a compelling pitch to make to voters in the midterm elections, that he ran as a candidate who promised to upend the world order, and that he`s at least in some part making good on that. Two, he thinks it will help mitigate the risk he might face resulting from the Russia investigation. You know, how can you indict or impeach him considering that all the good will that he`s trying to bring about in the region? But he`s also really intent on burnishing his legacy.
You saw how he tried to cast this agreement as better than -- different from anything that any other administration had tried to do. He`s doing something here that no other administration could do, although you could also make the point that he`s doing something that no other administration would do in that he` he`s meeting with a dictator emerging at least in the short term with nothing concrete to show for it.
WILLIAMS: And Bob, you have talked for years about the blurred lines between Trump the man, Trump the business, and Trump the President now. And with that in mind, let`s relive this moment from earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They have great beaches. You see that whenever they`re exploding their cannons into the ocean, right? I said, "Boy, look at that view. Wouldn`t that make a great condo behind?" And I explained, I said, "You know, instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there."
Think of it from a real estate perspective. You have South Korea. You have china, and they own the land in the middle. How bad is that, right? It`s great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Bob, I think he has a good deal on a condo for you.
COSTA: We`ll have to see if a Trump Tower is built in downtown Pyongyang. What we`re seeing right here is a President who is still a salesman. And when we hear that Kim Jong-un smiled as he watched this video, this propaganda video that was proposed to him, it`s understandable talking to foreign policy experts today. They say he`s looking at that video and he`s seeing that he could have sanctions ultimately removed to have some kind of capital come into his country, and that the President`s inferring that Kim Jong-un could be overseeing that kind of development inside of North Korea. That means the U.S. Is not trying to have a regime change situation, that Kim Jong-un could keep his power even if he has to denuclearize.
And so this is all part of the Trump foreign policy approach. It`s, again, unorthodox, but this is who Trump is. This is the President who is a salesman first, a diplomat and really a politician second.
WILLIAMS: Susan, let`s talk about the Trump centricity, the American centricity of that video, which could have also have been issued by the Pyongyang Chamber of Commerce. The President is saying, who wouldn`t want high-rise hotels on your beautiful beaches, the place crawling with tourists? Kim Jong-un is thinking, "I am a god-like figure back home. I`m the wealthiest person in my country. Maybe I want to keep things the way they are."
GLASSER: You know, Brian, I`m so glad you brought that up because I think this is a great example of Donald Trump treating this almost as a domestic political thing. I think Geoff gave us some incite into that. You know, it seems to me that`s a correct analysis that Trump is looking at what American domestic political gain he can get here.
You know, speaking with former CIA analysts who spent years studying Kim Jong-un and his father and grandfather before him, what did they say? They say that even basic definitional terms don`t mean the same thing. So when Donald Trump is talking about, well, you might even have a McDonald`s, you know, in Pyongyang someday, you might have this western investment, that`s not really what the regime in Pyongyang is looking for first and foremost. You know, it`s about regime control as you pointed out.
It`s not a sort of free for all western-style capitalism that they see as the natural end stage of history. They`re not looking to build condos on the beach to sell to foreigners. That`s not what they want at all. And so I think, again, they may see this in a very different way.
Already you had reports from North Korean state media today emphasizing that the United States had given security commitments to North Korea. They may see that, in fact, it`s their possession of a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States which has given them this recognition on the world stage, which has given them this meeting with Donald Trump, which arguably makes them much, much less likely to ever give those weapons up.
WILLIAMS: Geoff, I say this because you`ve been through it. Flying to Asia from this part of the world, you can usually get there, talk yourself into it being dinner time, and sleep the night off. Coming back from Asia, that jet lag is a particular discomfort.
BENNETT: I say that because the White House schedule is free of any events tomorrow. So, we`ll have the President back just after dawn morning time, Andrews Air Force Base.
BENNETT: Right.
WILLIAMS: What does he come home to?
BENNETT: Well, he comes home to a lot of questions, not just from Democrats but from Republicans on the Hill who want to know exactly how this deal, should it arrive at that, how it will all come to fruition. We don`t expect to see him tomorrow, but later in the week we just learned that he`ll be briefed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the Department of Justice inspector general report about law enforcement`s handling of the Hillary Clinton probe. The President will be briefed on that document before it goes public on his birthday, in fact, on Thursday. So that`s what --
WILLIAMS: What could go wrong?
BENNETT: -- really how the rest of his week shapes up. That`s right.
WILLIAMS: All right. I can`t thank you three enough for coming on with us after a long day`s journey in tonight last night end of the day. Robert Costa, Susan Glasser, Geoff Bennett, our thanks.
And coming up for us as we continue, the President has now gone after war games, also known as military readiness exercises. We will ask a heavily decorated former warrior how that`s likely to go over with our allies.
And later, it`s a Tuesday night. That means it`s election night, and Steve Kornacki standing by at the big board with full results.
"The 11th Hour" on this Tuesday evening just getting under way.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: One of the things that I`m very happy about, we`re not going to play the war games anymore, which you know how expensive that is. We`re flying these massive bombers in for practice from Guam.
I would look at them coming in from the sea and bombs exploding. I said, What does this cost?" I don`t even want to tell you, but it`s a lot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: That from President Trump. That concession over war games came as a surprise to our allies in South Korea and elsewhere, even to elements of our own government.
"The New York Times" tells it this way. "In Washington, officials at the Pentagon, State Department, and White House were scrambling to figure out exactly the impact of Mr. Trump`s comments."
"Mr. Trump`s promise to end joint military exercises with Seoul left many South Koreans stunned."
It is not clear exactly what Trump and Kim Jong-un agreed to or what happens next on this front. None of this was in the written agreement.
South Korea expressed its bewilderment with this statement, "At this point, we need to find out the precise meaning or intentions of President Trump`s remarks."
Earlier today on this network, Former CIA Director John Brennan stressed just how important these so-called war games are to our alliance with South Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: I don`t think he knows much about quite frankly anything when it comes to foreign affairs, national security, even a thing like the war games. Our military exercises with South Korea are not just designed to send a signal to North Korea but also to make sure that in the event of some more Chinese adventurism in the area, that the interoperability that U.S. forces need with South Korean forces, Japanese, and others is going to be there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: With us tonight from London, Retired U.S. Army Colonel Jack Jacobs. He`s one of our military analysts and for good reason, a decorated Combat Veteran of the Vietnam War. He is one of 72 living recipients of the Medal of Honor.
And, Jack, we thought of you because we would like to have you emphasize for our audience, provided you see them as a continued value, the value of what the President calls war games. They go under the official title joint military exercises.
COL. JACK JACOBS, MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT: Well, joint and combined military exercises are readiness exercises. We have to practice our tactics, our techniques, our strategy, our interoperability everywhere, all the time. These go on around the globe.
Gratuitous decisions like this have a tendency to rattle allies and convince both them and our adversaries that we`re not really serious about defending our interests in that region. There`s more than a little consternation in South Korea, in Tokyo, in Taiwan, the Philippines, and even Vietnam, to say nothing of the trouble that it`s probably caused in the Pentagon. I`m trying to think of how many antacids Secretary Mattis has been taking.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
JACOBS: There`s something else, too. It`s gratuitous. The decision was gratuitous. We got nothing in return, and the problem with that is when you have decisions like that, that are made without consultation and consideration, it really has a tendency to destabilize a region, and no area needs destabilization, not the least significant of which is the Pacific where the Chinese have been encroaching steadily out of their area into other people`s areas, Brian.
WILLIAMS: Jack, it was really striking to hear the President call them provocative. That`s what the North calls them. These are joint preparedness exercises for elements of the home team as the President, we would think, would see it.
His other complaint was someone told him that pilots make a 6 1/2-hour flight from Guam, and I heard someone today say, "Wait till they tell the President that during the Iraq war and then again Kosovo and Afghanistan, our B-2 pilots flew from Missouri to Baghdad, unloaded their bombs, and came back. Thirty-seven-hour round trip, upwards of five, six, midair refueling. Thirty-seven hours without touching the ground. They were back home in Missouri at the end of the mission. So no one`s worried about the stamina of our bomber pilots.
JACOBS: Well, I mean, Mr. Brennan was absolutely right. The President doesn`t have a very good concept of the use of the military instrument of power and what it takes to train it and prepare it to defend the country and the country`s interests.
One thing is certain. We`re not going to save any money doing any of the things that he suggests. We have to continue to train whether it`s in Korea or any other place. And if we stop conducting joint and combined exercises on the peninsula of Korea, we`re going to have to increase our forces on the sea and in the air in that region, and that`s going to cost a heck of a lot more money.
In this same today, yesterday where you are, the President suggested he was going to take all the forces out of Korea and that that was going to save money as well. Well, it doesn`t save money. The troops have to go somewhere, and actually it costs more money to take them out of there. You may save money in the out years, but right away it`s going to cost you more money. So not a very good grasp of what it takes to field a formidable force to defend our interests.
WILLIAMS: Well, all eyes are on Secretary Mattis at the Pentagon. This will get very interesting to see what his next move is. And in part it`s because in Jack Jacobs` spare time, he teaches at West Point and trains and instructs our future military leaders. We thought of you instantly.
Colonel Jack Jacobs, thank you for joining us from London tonight.
Coming up for us, new reporting on coordination between legal teams of the people who are caught up in the Mueller investigation.
THE 11TH HOUR back after this.
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WILLIAMS: Welcome back. While our attention has been focused on Singapore, the Russia investigation goes on of course. There have been developments.
"The Daily Beast" reports, President Trump`s personal lawyers have teamed up with the attorneys for other individuals who found themselves wrapped up in this Mueller matter. Reporter Betsy Woodruff writes, quote, "The arrangement is known as a joint defense agreement, having nothing to do with war games, and it allows the lawyers to share information without violating attorney-client privilege. It`s a common strategy when multiple defendants are dealing with the same prosecutor on the same matter.
Joint defense agreements often annoy prosecutors since they let people being investigated share information and compare notes on what the government is doing. Well, we have the perfect guest to talk about all of it tonight. Harry Litman is with us. He`s a former US attorney, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Clinton, a man who as a young lawyer clerked for Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Anthony Kennedy.
And, Harry, I`m going to have you on some like to talk only about what that was like. But for this evening and because of time constraints, we must talk about Mr. Mueller. This seems like it would antagonize and anger and frustrate a prosecutor. Isn`t part of what Mueller has, a federal grand jury, is the element of surprise? You don`t know what they`re asking other witnesses normally.
HARRY LITMAN, FORMER US ATTORNEY: Well, but it`s just the rules of the game, Brian. Sure, I guess it can rankle, but everyone understands that it is routine, as Betsy Woodruff says. And, look, prosecutors understand that defendants should be able to confer and have good defenses with their attorneys. All that this is about is letting defendant A, B, and C be in the room with lawyers X, Y, and z, and strategize share information.
Yes, it makes it easier for them, but I don`t -- I think it`s just taken as a given. It happens so much in cases like this.
WILLIAMS: So as a practical matter, does this help the president`s attorneys if they learn that witness A was asked questions B, C, and D?
LITMAN: Sure. I mean there`s a lot that it can help them with. Of course, it`s tricky. First, it has to be co-extensive with the privilege, with what everybody -- you can`t just kind of put in -- kind of mix and match. Second, as happened with Mike Flynn, Rick Gates, a defendant who begins to cooperate with the government must withdraw right away and can no longer share information. So it gives a kind of sign of that. But, yes, it lets you compare notes.
Technically, the facts aren`t privileged. It`s the strategy that is. But the distinctions can kind of bleed over, definitely a good thing for a group of defendants and here especially for Trump because no one expects him to cooperate.
WILLIAMS: Now, about Mr. Manafort, he has a very important court appearance on Friday. You rather famously around here said a very former fed thing on the air the other day and said -- advised him to maybe bring his toothbrush because the upshot of everything he`s facing is that he may lose his freedom on Friday and not regain it, A, at all, B, until the disposition of his court case if he is found not guilty or, C, should he agree to cooperate, is that correct?
LITMAN: Yes, and I`m going with A and C. That is -- we`ll get back to the toothbrush part. But I think if he loses his conditions of confinement, he`s in until the trials. He will probably have a sentence almost certainly that will mean he will die in prison if he doesn`t cooperate. As for the toothbrush point and the kind of prosecutor swashbuckling there, it`s true and not infrequent that a court that really is offended by this kind of behavior might say, you have to be -- you have to go into jail right now."
It`s also true they could say a week or something like that to let him finalize his affairs. But the main thing is the statute says that if the court -- if Judge Jackson finds that he, in fact, tampered with witnesses and the evidence seems overwhelming, and he`s basically said nothing in response, then the statute kicks in and says there`s a presumption that you have to take away all the conditions of release. And I just don`t see what he`s going to say come Friday, which is why I predicted last week he`s going to jail.
WILLIAMS: All right. Thank you, Harry. Harry Litman is among a small circle of former US attorneys who have become of counsel to us, and we can`t thank you enough. Really appreciate you coming on the air to explain all this tonight.
As we approach our next break, coming up, as we said, it`s Tuesday night. That means its election night. Five more states across the nation. And that can only mean Steve Kornacki live at the big board. There it is. That`s coming up after this.
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WILLIAMS: Polls are now closed in five states holding midterm primaries tonight. But it was President Trump who made the biggest splash in today`s elections late in the game. Just hours before poll closing in South Carolina, the president, who, remember, is on his way back from a summit on the other side of the world, took aim at an incumbent member of his own party, endorsing the challenger to Congressman Mark Sanford of South Carolina in a tweet.
The president also made reference to Sanford`s extramarital affair that rocked his time as governor of South Carolina. Here it is, quote, "Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to make America great again. He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in South Carolina, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. Vote Katie".
Well, Guess what? Mark Sanford just gave what sure sounded like a concession tonight, giving us our first big headline from this primary night. That can only mean Steve Kornacki, our national political correspondent, at the big board with more. Steve, that`s a big bet of news right there.
STEVE KORNACKI, MSNBC NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a very big bill of news, not the only ones like a couple surprises, a couple important things. Let`s start right there, the first district of South Carolina on the coast.
And you can see now, look, the magic number here obviously is 50 percent because this is also a runoff state. So not only was Arrington, the challenger, running ahead of Sanford. The question as these votes came in was, was she going to get over 50 percent, so this didn`t get kicked into a runoff.
And again, it looks like just about maybe all of the vote counted here, accounted for, over 50 percent. So now think about this. Put this in some perspective here. The national story, it`s not just the name is lose in this race, it`s not just that President Trump weighed in on this race at the last minute and will probably, we could guess, be crowing about this.
This is a bigger story. Just a week ago, we were talking about a primary in Alabama, a Republican member of Congress named Martha Roby, who had denounced President Trump in 2016 when he was candidate Trump and wouldn`t vote for him. She got challenged in that Republican primary in Alabama by somebody who said, hey, I`m with the president. You can`t rely on her. You can rely on me.
She finished in the 30s in that race a week ago, a Republican member of Congress. She`s been forced into a runoff, and now Mark Sanford going down, two incumbent Republican members of Congress in the last week. It looks like felled or potentially felled by pro-Trump insurgencies, pro- Trump backlashes. This is a big thing about where the Republican Party is and where it`s going. What else tells us something big about where the Republican Party is and where it`s going?
It`s another big surprise tonight, maybe a surprise here. The Republican Primary for the US Senate in Virginia, this for the right to face Tim Kaine, the Democratic incumbent there, and this is the result the Republican establishment was dreading. They were hoping to avoid and it`s a result that could have implications for this November in the battle for control of the House.
Corey Stewart is this gentleman`s name. He is going to be the Republican nominee for the Senate in Virginia. He defeated this candidate here, Freitas. This is the guy the establishment thought they wanted to win here. It`s not so much about defeating Tim Kaine. Tim Kaine looks like the favorite in this no matter what.
But this is Stewart, who has made defending confederate monuments his big issue. This is Stewart who has had ties to anti-Semitic, white supremacist candidate out in Wisconsin. This is a candidate here who Republicans fear is going to cost them not the Senate race necessarily because we`re already sort of underdogs there, but house races. House races in Virginia. They can ill afford to lose in the fall.
Number one, Barbara Comstock, one of the most endangered Republicans, right outside Washington, D.C. quintessential suburban district that swung from Mitt Romney in 2012 to Hillary Clinton in 2016. She`s fighting for her life and now at the top of the ticket, she`s going to have to answer for him all summer and all fall, Corey Stewart going to be the Republican nominee for Senate. And candidates like Barbara Comstock and there`s actually three districts potentially, three Republican-held districts in virginia that could be in play this fall. All of those candidates you can bet not going to be happy with the results of this Senate race tonight on their side, Brian.
WILLIAMS: Steve, without your analysis, it`s just math, and we really appreciate you working late and staying up with us tonight. Fascinating look at the races under way this evening.
Coming up, anyone who worried that Jared and Ivanka would suffer financially hardship as a consequence of their service to our country need not worry any longer. A look at their new income numbers is just out when THE 11TH HOUR continues.
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IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: And I felt like proximity to my father and to the White House, and with my husband taking such an influential role in the administration. I didn`t want to also be running a business. So I put it into trust. I have independent trustees. I would argue that if I had not come to Washington, D.C. and if I was in New York growing my business, I would be doing far better than by placing the restrictions I have placed on my team.
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WILLIAMS: Well, despite that right there, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, two senior advisers in this White House, seem to be doing fine. The New York Times reporting the couple earned at least $82 million in outside income last year. Their financial disclosure forms were released late last night by the White House, part of a whole batch that were released while our attention admittedly was on Singapore and the summit meeting.
These forms break down where all the money came from. Ivanka made nearly $4 million from her stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., for example, $2 million from a Trump organization severance. More than $5 million from her clothing brand. Jared Kushner made at least $5 million alone from a New Jersey property bought by Kushner Company last year. And as they say, there`s a lot more where that came from.
Here to talk about it tonight, Rachel Abrams, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Business Reporter with The New York Times. There are so many ways to go about this. As you sat down, I was saying we get to work with a former White House aide every day, Nicolle Wallace, who worked for 43.
I`m pretty sure she didn`t make no $82 million in her first year at the White House. But also she didn`t have the, you could call it either a side hustle o preexisting condition of great wealth and a business empire that these two had coming in.
RACHEL ABRAMS, BUSINESS REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes. I think what`s clear is that they`re clearly making money off of these businesses outside of the roles in the white house. But the question people really want to know is, are they making money in an inappropriate way, are they taking advantage of positions in the White House? Are they using the White House as a QVC for Ivanka Trump shoes or handbags?
And what these numbers don`t tell us really whether they have been bumped up significantly by their platform in the White House? We know that their real estate assets increased in value by about $50 million. But their income increased by a few million dollars. It`s sort of difficult to gauge how exactly significant that is when it comes to the questions that ethics experts are really worried about, which is how are they benefitting from the roles?
Ivanka Trump for instance earned nearly $4 million from the stake in the old post office as you mentioned. But that`s kind on pace with what she earned according to the financial disclosures last year. We don`t see a significant uptick in that. Obviously, the old post office in the Washington area is the things that ethic experts are most concerned about because they are worried the people are going to stay there to curry favor with her father.
And maybe they are. But we don`t necessarily give us a full wholistic picture how that`s happening if it is.
WILLIAMS: Well, who is left to see if it`s quantifiable or qualifiable? There`s journalist like yourself, there is the Richard Painter ethics group with CREW, with Norm Eisen. They are one of the public interests groups looking at that. Do you think that will be that role will be fulfilled as people try to dig down and see if they are profiting off their time in the White House?
ABRAMS: Well, I certainly don`t think there`s anything about these disclosures that`s going to discourage the Richard Painters of the world from looking into this. I think that the fact that these folks are still making a lot of money outside of their roles keeps the interest alive in figuring out how they might be benefitting from the White House.
I just don`t think that these disclosures necessarily give us any definite answers about the things that ethics experts really care about, which is how exactly they`re benefit. Whether they`re using the platforms to promote their own business interests, which they have at least by Ivanka Trump for example taking leader -- taking steps back from her businesses, declining to be in leadership role. She`s at least trying to show that she`s not steering the ship if you will for any businesses that might benefit her or her husband financially.
WILLIAMS: We have a few seconds left so I`ll take on a hugely complicated topic in the next few seconds. There are trusts and trusts. The trusts she is talking about is the kind of simplest, correct?
ABRAMS: I don`t know about simplest. But certainly they`re not totally blind in the sense that previous president and she`s not a president obviously -- have chosen to have blind trusts. She and her father still have trusts where they could conceivably have some ownership and ability to have control over them in ways that maybe ethics experts would prefer that they not.
WILLIAMS: OK. Thank you for coming on and explaining a very complicated story for us tonight
ABRAMS: Thank you for having me.
WILLIAMS: We appreciate it, Rachel Abrams with the New York Times.
When we come back, two names in the news both because of something they said, one of them we are sure you will know, when THE 11TH HOUR continues.
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WILLIAMS: And before we go on this Tuesday night. Two names in the news, Novarro and De Niro, two very different men in hot water for choice of words.
First to Peter Novarro who is among the president`s top trade advisers. While most Americans were coming to grips with the idea that we were actually in some sort of diplomatic war with friends and neighbors to the north and Canada, Peter Navarro went on Fox News. Sunday, while his boss was in the air on route to Singapore, and he launched an attack on Canada`s prime minister using wording usually reserve for very dramatic pronouncement just short of warfare.
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PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: There is a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.
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WILLIAMS: That`s harsh. After a host of people came out on social media saying in effect there is a special place in hell for any cavalier use of the phrase special place in hell, Navarro today apologized told the Wall Street Journal he said his words were inappropriate and he owns his mistake.
Then, there`s Robert De Niro who appeared at the Tony Awards to introduce Bruce Springsteen. He walked out on stage and said a word about Trump that rhymes with luck. Then for good measure and during a standing ovation he said it again.
CBS, however, was on it, they cut to a wide shot and they bleep the audio. Australian TV did not and so their uncensored version has been kicking around on social media. Then, De Niro apologized but he apologized to Canada for what he called the idiotic behavior of our president, called it a disgrace and disgusting.
Then, the president of the United States weighed in on route home from the summit. Quote, "Robert De Niro, a very low IQ individual, has received too, that should be T-O-O, many shots to the head by real boxers in movies. I watched him last night and truly believe he may be punch drunk. I guess he doesn`t realize the economy is the best it`s ever been with employment being in an all time high and many companies pouring back into our country. Wake up, punchy."
Now we`re up to date on that. And that is our broadcast on this Tuesday night, thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from NBC News headquarters here in New York.
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