Show: THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER Date: July 16, 2018 Guest: Eric Swalwell; James Rubin; Evelyn Farkas
KATY TUR, MSNBC HOST: The message from Putin is crystal clear. The ball is literally in the President`s court, the eye of the world is on him. The question is, what will he do with it? Has anyone checked that thing for listening devices?
That`s all for tonight. We will be back tomorrow with more MTP DAILY.
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER starts right now.
Ari, (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
TUR: That`s Italian.
MELBER: Well, you caught me off guard as you so often do. I don`t know you would be doing this toss, Katy.
TUR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUE) means go blue, the French team.
MELBER: What about (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)?
TUR: I don`t know. A certain something.
MELBER: It`s a busy news day or I would do this longer.
Katy Tur, always a pleasure.
TUR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
MELBER: We begin tonight with this joint appearance by President Trump and Vladimir Putin. This is drawing condemnation really across America for good reason tonight and raising some profound questions about the national security of the United States.
It is clear tonight that July 16th, 2018, will go down in our history books and as an inflection point of U.S.-soviet relations. We are covering it from several angles tonight. We are witnessing a U.S. President bluntly siding with a Russian autocrat about the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies in an open criminal probe.
Two men meeting here three days after Mueller indicted Russian officers who report to the man standing next to your president right there, Vladimir Putin over allegations those officers worked to elect him. This was a foreign policy event today unlike any other in recent history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I addressed directly Just with President Putin an issue of Russian interference in our elections.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Russian state has never interfered --.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. Who do you believe?
TRUMP: I have President Putin. He just said it`s not Russia. I will say this. I don`t see any reason why it would be. President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election?
PUTIN (through translator): Yes, I did.
TRUMP: There was no collusion. I didn`t know the President. There was nobody to collude with. It`s ridiculous what`s going on with the probe. I think that the United States has been foolish.
PUTIN (through translator): I was in intelligence myself and I do know how dossier made of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the Russian government have any compromising material on President Trump or his family?
PUTIN (through translator): Yes, I did have -- we allegedly collected compromising material in Moscow. When President Trump was in Moscow back then I didn`t even know that he was in Moscow.
TRUMP: And I would have to say if they had it, it would have been out long ago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MELBER: Condemnation already pouring in from experts and referees alike. We have been tracking significant concern here from Democrats, from moderate Republicans, from intelligence experts and, of course, from journalists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), MINORITY LEADER: He took the word of the KGB over the men and women of the CIA.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outrageous. It is something that is a disgrace and all Americans should be ashamed of that performance.
BILL KRISTOL, FOUNDER/EDITOR-AT-LARGE, WEEKLY STANDARD: Today turned what`s been an ongoing problem of Donald Trump as President, in terms of his attitude, behavior towards Russia and President Putin has turned a problem into a crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you have been watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American President at a summit in front of a Russian leader I have ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Disgraceful. That is a strong word. And then there`s a man who tangled with Trump at the FBI, going farther tonight, James Comey writing this.
Quote "this was the day an American President stood on foreign soil next to a murderous lying thug and refused to back his own country. Patriots need to stand up and reject the behavior of this President."
Russia`s cyber-attack on American democracy has dominated American politics since 2016, first, because it was such an important threat and then because the new administration coddled and caved to those Russian attackers instead of sanctioning them or confronting them which of course stoked even more intriguing questions about whether Donald Trump wanted, welcomed or, yes, colluded with that now alleged charged indicted help from the Russian army.
On Friday, the U.S. government made the most significant case to date Russia`s attack came from the top of Putin`s army. Those are the charges in the indictment.
Now, whether Donald Trump and his allies were part of that conspiracy does remain an open question. Prejudging that outcome is not fair or constructive or how our rule of law works. So we don`t prejudge the outcome of that probe.
But tonight, we can see what`s happening in front of our lives. We are living through a turning point that makes the Trump administration look exceedingly bad because even if conspiracy and collusion are never proven, even if say Donald Trump is cleared of any wrongdoing by Bob Mueller and people accept that outcome, today, the news and facts reverberating across America are the day Donald Trump committed new wrongs according to U.S. intelligence and national security experts, siding inexplicably or perhaps explicably, depending on your interpretation of events, but siding with Putin and the KGB over the U.S. and the CIA and the DOJ.
This is a public fact tonight regardless of what Bob Mueller ever finds in the future.
We have some special guests for our coverage. And I begin tonight with David Corn, Washington bureau chief for "Mother Jones." He has been covering the Russia probe from the very beginning and has had a series of significant scoops and a book under his belt.
And so, I begin with this question. What is July 16th, 2018 mean in the Russia probe?
DAVID CORN, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, MOTHER JONES: Well, I think the question is whether we have hit an inflection point. If you asked me did Donald Trump say anything new today that he hasn`t said before the answer is no.
For two years during the campaign as President he has continually denied Russia was involved, even after he was briefed as a candidate by the U.S. intelligence community and even after he became President after the intelligence community put out a more deeper assessment and said this had been done to help him. He has denied in the last couple of weeks. You know this, Ari. We have talked about this. You know, he put out a tweet saying Russia says they didn`t meddle and he called Putin, fine.
So I think what we see today is a very dramatic clarifying moment, when he was asked by American reporters, do you stand with Putin or do you stand with your own government. We are not just talking about spy agencies. We are talking about the justice department and the House`s intelligence committee run by Republicans, who have all said the same thing. Who do you stand with?
(INAUDIBLE), you know, they both have a point. No, they both don`t have a point. And this brings me to what I wrote this afternoon is, this is evidence of collusion, not collusion in the initial attack which you talked about we don`t have a clear picture on, but it`s collusion from the very beginning in the cover-up.
Putin has been putting out this information from the very beginning saying we are not involved and Trump has colluded with there at cover-up by amplifying that message. And the key question is, when they had that private meeting today, 90 minutes or longer, did they talk about what they would say about this matter when they came out for the press conference. If they did, then Trump, by any definition of the word, colluded with Putin to help him put forward this cover-up and the stone walling.
And while it may not be a crime, I don`t know, I`m not a lawyer, you are, but it is certainly an act of betrayal that I think is reverberating strongly today because of the dramatic moment we all witnessed.
MELBER: Well, your piece today drives very much towards the question of how does the sitting President deal with these charges, as of Friday, that indict the Russian army. I mean, that this was a cyber-attack of a criminal nature of international conspiracy. And so, to your point, yes, we have heard many things from Donald Trump and we have heard him say many things that are false and that we believe are clearly lies, based on what he knows. But this feels and looks and may legally be different because he is up there with the person that those now indicted individuals report to and saying these things.
So in that respect, do you think that there`s receptivity to that point? Why, I guess, for viewers watching, why does that matter completely separate from what happened ever Mueller fins happened in 2016. And for those who look at abuse of power question, is it also potentially worse for a President to be doing this as President as opposed to a private citizen who is a candidate running for future plans?
CORN: The FBI investigated this case under Robert Mueller`s tutelage. They came up with this indictment, maybe just the beginning, it is 12 Russian military officials. The justice department, you know, having signed off on this indictment. Rod Rosenstein presented it to us on Friday. That brings the (INAUDIBLE) of the justice department in on this.
So here, you have Donald Trump out there saying he doesn`t give a damn what his own justice department, what his own FBI, you know, how many people worked on this case, dozens, if not score, what they came up with. He is standing next to the man who the intelligence agencies have said, ordered this attack.
So he is part of this criminal conspiracy and in facts the indictment says there are other people we are not naming in this conspiracy yet. That might well be Vladimir Putin. Maybe an unindicted co-conspirator.
So he is standing next to this fellow and he is providing him cover. He is giving him the benefit of the doubt. And he is basically saying to the vast law enforcement services in the United States and intelligence services, I don`t care what you say. Your facts don`t matter to me. I`m with Vlad. I`m with Vlad. That was the message today. And I`m still shocked more Republican, some have spoken about it, they are still tiptoeing around this.
MELBER: And we have more on that in the hour. Again, it is a relative matter. But McCain, Pau Ryan, some of them have gone a little bit further. But probably not to the scale of what we`re witnessing, which was just truly extreme conduct by a president.
Stay with me. I want to add to the conversation former intelligence officer Malcolm Nance, the author of "the Plot to destroy America" and "Wall Street Journal reporter Shelby Holliday who has been covering this case.
Malcolm, take a listen to another supremely noticeable bizarre or disturbing depending on your point of view saying that the President said about how Hillary Clinton would be treated in Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: What happened to Hillary Clinton`s emails? 33,000 emails gone, just gone. I think in Russia they wouldn`t be gone so easily. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Do you think Americans should be angry, worried, concerned based on what we saw today, Malcolm?
MALCOLM NANCE, MSNBC TERRORISM EXPERT: Well, what they should be is shocked and disgusted. I know I am.
When I heard that today, my jaw dropped to the floor. I could not believe a President of the United States went to a foreign nation, an adversary nation, not a competitor, an adversary and insulted the American political system, the American intelligence agency, American law enforcement, the U.S. Congress, and opposition party and in essence surrendered this nation`s opinions to a foreign power and believed a former KGB officer over that of the men and women who walk past the statute of Nathan hale every day and sold this nation down the river. I`m sorry.
What we saw here today was not just Donald Trump aligning himself with Vladimir Putin, we saw the beginning of the realignment of the entire world order since World War II. And Trump and Putin are the only two people, as David said, who know what was said in that meeting.
MELBER: It`s well put and it is chilling, Shelby. And it is about U.S. foreign policy. This is not about 2016. This is not about people rooting for Bob Mueller to create political outcomes that otherwise might not be created.
SHELBY HOLLIDAY, REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Right.
MELBER: As I emphasized in our reporting tonight, put that all aside, do the thought (ph) experiment that Bob Mueller doesn`t indict anyone else and that is the end of the road. And we just witnessed today something that I don`t think people are going to fully absorb for some time to come.
Here is also new sound from Donald Trump from another interview he did all part of this whole Putin defense campaign also undercutting his own Intel chief. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your DNI, Dan Coats, said that America`s digital infrastructure is at a critical point right now. Similar to what it was like in some ways before 9/11. I mean, we are susceptible to a large scale attack. Do you agree with that?
TRUMP: Well, I don`t know if I agree with that. I would have to look.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: The idea he does not agree quote-unquote, that he has separate fact-finding than the entire military intelligence apparatus.
HOLLIDAY: Well, and he said that standing side by side with Putin. He repeated conspiracy, debunked conspiracy theories about the DNC server, about the Pakistani who worked alongside Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. He casted a lot of doubt on the investigation in general. He also called the Mueller probe disgraceful and a disaster and he blames the probe for the tension with Russia, not Russia`s meddling.
So in addition to all of the other things he said and did today, this is what is really affecting Republicans on the Hill. I have been talking to some Republicans who are on intelligence committees. And they think this is very problematic for two reasons. If the President doesn`t trust the intelligence agency`s assessment, how can we ever secure our cyber defenses? How can we ever have cyber security in this nation if he simply doesn`t believe them?
And secondly, he is so worried about his election and how it`s viewed that this investigation is driving his policy. And that is scary not just for Democrats but Republicans alike in Congress.
MELBER: Right. And you are reporting on what Republicans are telling you.
Malcolm, briefly, there`s a less benign view which is that it is not about simply defending the legitimacy of his election, but rather he or people around him may be under legal scrutiny for how they welcome what is now charged criminal conduct by the Russian army.
NANCE: Yes. You are absolutely right. And we know right there in plain sight, when conspiracy at least on one count occurred, and that was when he called upon Russian intelligence and the Kremlin to release Hillary Clinton`s emails. And what you saw this flurry of activity from Russian military intelligence.
That happened in plain sight, as did his lack of concern about anything that could happen to the United States in the cyber sphere, his lack of concern how he fired the FBI director in order to get rid of them for the Russian -- to get rid of the Russian probe.
I don`t think he understands what reality is in the rest of the world. He has a metanarrative around him that is Donald Trump can do no wrong. And he believes nothing in the world except for his friend, Vladimir Putin, and his base, all of whom are the same to him, are the only people he should listen to, talk to, and everyone else be damned.
MELBER: And we have been talking about also how this is playing in Congress, where there are many seasoned intelligence experts with this portfolio.
I want to turn to California congressman Eric Swalwell, who is one of them serving on intelligence and Judiciary Committees.
Where does today rate in your view of the Trump administration?
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Lower than I thought we ever could go, Ari. There may have been an American flag on that stage, but I did not see an American President. I saw two defenders of Russia. And I saw a President whose primary role, his principle responsibility to defend the United States, and he sided with Russia.
But we are not helpless here in Congress. Our founders gave us an opportunity to stand up and defend the United States. We should do all we can to protect the Mueller investigation and solidify that in law. We should pass an independent commission that take this outside of Congress so the American people can understand what happened. And we should devote every resource possible to address the concern DNI, Dan Coats, has raised that our grid in our election system could be compromised.
We can do all of that. I have seen the tweets. I have heard the talk from my Republican colleagues. Talk is cheap. What will you do legislatively? What will you do to vote --?
MELBER: As an intelligence committee member, what is your view of Vladimir Putin today? Donald Trump met with him and then held this public reward in a way. Barack Obama as President declined to hold these kind of joint press conferences. Did you feel that Vladimir Putin looked even keeled, emboldened, intimidated? What was your view of the way he was representing Russia against the United States?
SWALWELL: Well, Air, it`s all-star week here in Washington, D.C. He won the homerun derby of all derbies. Vladimir Putin got an American President to come to Finland to meet with him. And we didn`t get anything out of it. We are not bringing home the 12 individuals who were indicted. We didn`t make any progress in Syria. We didn`t make any progress with Ukraine and we are no safer as we go into the next election.
I think this is a big victory for Vladimir Putin. But again, what will the U.S. Congress do now? Because our President has left his office helpless to act but we are not. And I call on my Republican colleagues.
MELBER: And the final question I want to ask you we are going to be covering later in the hour, what was your interpretation of Vladimir Putin rather odd references to the dossier and to putting dossiers together?
SWALWELL: He is an intelligence officer. He knows exactly, you know, what is alleged what is out there. And he knows what he is guilty of. And the problem is he sees somebody who is completely unwilling to confront him about it. And so he sees nothing but green lights to conduct further operations. And that`s what`s so terrifying, is we are about 100 days from midterm elections. And we need to do everything we can to protect the ballot box because Vladimir Putin sees an open road right and we need some stop lights.
MELBER: Congressman Swalwell, thank you for joining me tonight. I appreciate it.
SWALWELL: My pleasure.
MELBER: "Wall Street Journal`s" Shelby Holliday, appreciate as well.
David and Malcolm, stay with me. I have more questions for you in that other segment.
I mentioned, coming up today`s indictment of a Russian agent working inside the U.S., her secret back channel to the Trump campaign. That is a brand new indictment tonight.
Also, how past Presidents have faced down the Kremlin and why today he did look so different in the historical context and Donald Trump`s interest didn`t having Putin investigate the Russian election meddling.
Plus later, what we learned about Trump`s famous trip to Moscow with a reporter who is on THE BEAT.
I`m Ari Melber. And we will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: Considering tonight`s foreign policy news, we can forget left and right or Dem and Republican, and think about the entire soviet relationship from World War II to the cold war to whatever we are in now. And it is very clear that today, July 16th, is some kind of inflection point considered that in foreign policy we now have a break from just about anything we have seen in this modern relationship. Donald Trump standing with Putin undercutting his intelligence agencies` findings about Putin`s government, slashing out at the special counsel probe.
And that`s not all. The context makes this actually look even worse. Forget the Trump hyperbole error and consider, for example, the history like this moment, from 1987.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONAL REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That was how American Presidents used to confront things they objected to the soviets were doing or remember Clinton and Boris Yeltsin tangling over Bosnia in 1995.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The more we say about it the worst it will be. The first and most important is, make peace in Bosnia. That has not been done yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Or as we mentioned earlier in the show, pictures without sound, President Obama wouldn`t give Putin the formal summit he coveted, only speaking with the Russian President at other types of international events. And Obama would say those meetings were blunt and business-like, not rewards for Putin. Then of course, there was disagreement over Syria for that very chilly meeting documented here in 2013, one photo of those two leaders went viral at the 2016 G-20 summit for their icy stares.
And now, we have reaction from Donald Trump`s own party. Look at senior John McCain here saying today, it was a tragic mistake by Putin -- excuse me -- by Trump, a disgraceful performance by an American President in memory. Others calling Trump`s words shameful, saying Russia would see them of sign of weakness, dismay over President Trump`s approach and that today was quote "not a good moment for our country."
Some Republicans a bit more tepid not hitting Trump directly, but saying Russia is not our friend.
I am joined by two very experienced diplomats in this field. James Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state for public affairs under Clinton and Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant defense secretary under Obama.
James, what happened today?
JAMES RUBIN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS UNDER CLINTON: Well, I think today was in a way a culmination of things that Donald Trump has been saying now ever since the convention back in July of 2016. I remember when he called out on the Russians to find those emails because I was working for the Clinton campaign and I immediately labeled it -- I said, I wasn`t a lawyer but that sounds awfully treasonous to me. And so, this is not --.
MELBER: Well, let me ask you right there. That was your view, you had of course a political angle on this as well in addition with your expertise. But how are you greeted at the time when you raised that critique.
RUBIN: I mean, this is what troubles me. Suddenly, all the reporters that I was urging and I think everyone will remember this, we were trying to urge pre-November 2016, everyone to realize the significance and monumental action of the Russians and we couldn`t get enough traction. It was extremely difficult to get other than sort of small stories on page eight and page nine. People weren`t accepting that our country was attacked. They weren`t accepting that this was a fundamental change.
And so today, what happened was, all of those thoughts, all of those ideas came up against the drama of USA-Russian summit, which has its own drama. And Putin played his part perfectly and Donald Trump, and this is where people may disagree with me, I think said all the stuff he has been saying all along. And what people were troubled by is that he didn`t condemn Putin to his face. He is not known for being -- he is a personality type who behind the scenes says nasty things about, let`s say Mrs. Merkel or Theresa May in London. And then, when he is in front of them, suddenly, he is magically making nice.
So I didn`t expect him to condemn Putin. I didn`t expect him to agree this is all true. But because of the drama and because this was a moment in which everybody was watching, they really fully embodied this unbelievable moment, where the United States and its President are on a different wave length.
MELBER: So Evelyn, speak to James` point that this is material that Donald Trump has put out before. It may simply feel more shocking or look more foreign policy significant in that arena at the Putin summit. And if so, does that make it worse or does that make it less cause for concern because it`s just a rerun?
EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER OBAMA: I think -- so I do agree with Jamie that some of this material, obviously we have heard it all, we heard it on the campaign stump. But some of it was new and certainly changed things that he was standing there with Putin on the heels of the horrible behavior that he exhibited vis-a-vis our allies, you know, at the NATO summit and also in the United Kingdom towards Theresa May.
So, you know, the atmospherics were bad. Of course, we also knew that there was no agenda on the U.S. side. So our President had no agenda, which meant in effect that the agenda was the Russian agenda. We don`t know what happened in that private meeting and we, of course, still don`t know what happened in the other meeting although eventually we will find out since there were many other people in the room.
But I think what was disconcerting was that there were many -- the new things were the things that President Putin said that he didn`t push back upon and even seemed to agree with. So for example, again, this idea of cyber cooperation was trotted out by President Putin and in this really obnoxious fashion because he said, well, yes, you can have access to the intelligence operators who attacked your elections and your sovereignty. But then we get to common interview your people at Langley and elsewhere, you know, as if there was some kind of equivalence and it was obnoxious. And the President actually seemed to sort of smile and nod as if he thought that was a good idea and then later said something to that effect.
MELBER: So why do you think he was so solicitous to Putin?
FARKAS: I don`t know. Because, Ari, he should know better. Last year, there was a similar proposal. Remember, they agreed to two things and I`m about to get to the second thing. The first was the cyber cooperation. And then his team was all over him when he came back to the United States and said no way, Jose. You can`t do that. You know, we don`t let the fox in to the chicken hove (ph), meaning you can`t let Russian intelligence into our intelligence. I mean, we have to keep them --
MELBER: Right, you don`t have -- El Chapo is not a big part of the DEA operations while he`s on trial.
FARKAS: Exactly.
MELBER: I know you have another point. I want to play another important piece for James. You mentioned working with Clinton, you worked with Kerry, you`ve sort of been in this field where the Democrats aren`t always considered super strong and how they deal with these type of foreign policy problems. Here`s Chuck Schumer today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: It`s time for the Republican Party to walk the walk. The President is doing grave harm to the standing of these United States. The best people to check him are not Democrats but his fellow Republicans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: James, it`s a serious day but do you know why Chuck Schumer always sounds like he`s giving a press conference from a library? Is that the best he can do?
JAMES RUBIN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: He does that every day -- because he does it every day. But that`s not the --
MELBER: But this isn`t every day. I mean, I mean do you -- do you think that there needs to be more from the Democrats on a day like today?
RUBIN: I don`t know exactly how I would frame it but I do agree that -- look a lot of the things that Mr. Trump said as a candidate that I found anti-American in their essence by not realizing the damage being done to our country yielded a vote where all those people voted for him as president. So the politics won over the substance. And then the next question --
MELBER: Well, that`s funny. I`m running out of time but, James, you work for the Clinton campaign. You guys got more votes, you don`t even talk like you did.
RUBIN: Well, the electrical college, they`re talking about it.
MELBER: I`ve heard of it but you know, if you`re talking about a mandate, it`s just funny, again, you -- I`m asking if Schumer is part of the problem politically maybe you`re also part of the problem if you --
RUBIN: Well, thanks for that but I was talking about the electoral college and I think most people know what I meant. But the point is the next political phase is whether there are enough Republicans in the Senate not in the House because the House isn`t where it`s going to count. Are there enough Republicans who regard this behavior as sufficiently anti-American to act and we`ve all known that it`s in their hands the fate of our nation in terms of whether this President who has a view that differs from most everyone else when it comes to how to run the country on foreign affairs, will they act or won`t they act? So I think Chuck Schumer said exactly the right thing. You don`t like the place he said it from but the important thing is that the words were correct.
MELBER: Well. I`m asking -- it`s not like or not, I`m asking a question giving you a chance to respond, Evelyn, briefly, is this part of what the Dems mid-term message should be then that Putin is winning.
FARKAS: Well, I think part of the message should be you know, that people need to call on the Democrat -- the Republicans who are in power to stand up to this kind of behavior and these kinds of words from our President. But I also agree with where you were going with the question which is to say I would like to see Democratic leaders put together a positive agenda what do Democrats stand for, what can you know card-carrying Democrats and other Americans who aren`t Democrats for that matter do in order to make sure that we are first of all alert and prepared against what Russia`s doing every day and it`s not just getting on the voter rolls and meddling you know attacking our elections it`s also there sitting -- remember they`re sitting on the energy grids. Why? Because their way of fighting should they ever have to fight us, should they ever decide that they need to fight us would be to attack our energy grid, our critical infrastructure, water, etcetera. I know it sounds crazy as doomsday but that`s really dangerous because they have an ability to do that.
MELBER: No it`s important. It`s important. Two people who have operated some of the highest levels of U.S. diplomacy and national security. We`ve benefited from your expertise Evelyn Farkas and James Rubin, thank you both.
RUBIN: Thank you.
FARKAS: Thanks, Ari.
MELBER: Up ahead on THE BEAT, Donald Trump attacking Mueller siding with Putin and praising this offer that Mueller`s investigators as we were just discussing should come help out the Russia probe. All of that later tonight but first Trump cozying up to Putin, the DOJ -- this is brand new - - charging a Russian operating inside the U.S. when we`re back in just 30 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: Breaking news. The DOJ charging another Russian tonight this time for trying to create a back-channel between that country in the United States through the NRA. This is something Rachel Maddow has been reporting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Now the right to bear arms is purportedly a gun rights group founded by a senior member of Putin`s political party which is called United Russia. What`s funny about that whole concept is that Vladimir Putin and his party United Russia, they don`t actually support gun rights in Russia. So why did they create this group that purports to promote that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Indeed. We`re getting some clues. This Russian agent charged now with trying to break -- broker meetings between then-candidate Trump and Putin. The indictment detailing this back-channel was so Russia could penetrate American decision-making. I`m joined by McClatchy`s Greg Gordon. He first broke the story the FBI`s probe into whether Russian money went to the NRA to help Donald Trump. Any other day, I hate to use the cliche, but any other day this would be the lead story everywhere and it obviously shows prosecutors building on something you first reported. What is the significance?
GREG GORDON, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, MCCLATCHY: Well, for one thing, we originally had an indictment months ago in which Robert Mueller`s office charged 13 Russians in connection with the operations of the troll farm in St. Petersburg to influence the election through social media. And then on Friday, we had another indictment coming out of Mueller`s office charging a dozen Russians this time with the hacking of the Democrats in connection with the election. So these Russians they`re all in Russia, but today we learn that Maria Butina who is -- she`s a one-time athlete out of Siberia who became the protege of the now deputy governor of Russia`s central bank and Maria Butina has been charged with conspiracy to try to influence U.S. political process.
So this is this is -- this is -- let me just say that the FBI affidavit accompanying the release of these charges the agent Kevin Helson made clear that he wasn`t saying everything he knows. So we can expect more to come out of this NRA investigation. Whether they found money, we don`t know. When we reported it late last month, Ari, that the FBI and prosecutors likely did obtain the non-profit tax returns of the NRA which would show all of their so-called dark money donors, those being donations that don`t have to be made public. And so we don`t know whether the money side is going to prove out but we do know that the NRA is now part of a criminal charge.
MELBER: Well, and Sir -- Greg, you speak so calmly, I think some folks may miss the bombshell in your answer here. You`re saying that there`s been all these Mueller charges of Russians abroad and people say well how are you going to get them or is Putin going to extradite them. And what`s new tonight is the DOJ using similar leads to charge a Russian inside the United States.
GORDON: That`s correct. And we`ll have to see how this -- how this proceeds. She`s got -- she`s facing up to five years in prison. There have been lots of conspiracy theories being tossed around about what Vladimir Putin is doing to silence witnesses in this investigation --
MELBER: And let me ask you before I let you go because I was -- I was dying to get you on this so we`ll do it on live T.V. What portion of this relates to what Mueller has uncovered versus what`s just normal Washington field office investigation stuff?
GORDON: I`m not sure where you`re going with that question honestly. Are you -- are you --
MELBER: This person wasn`t charged by the special counsel but the special counsel has been obviously as you just mentioned, investigating a lot of Russian activity. So what percent of this from your reporting do you think is there any overlap?
GORDON: Well, I think this -- the indictment was brought by the U.S. Attorney`s Office for the District of Columbia. However, it seems clear that Bob Mueller`s office is moving very quickly now with a midterm election approaching and he`s farming out aspects of his work to the Southern District of New York, to the Eastern District of Virginia, to the U.S. to the U.S. Attorney in D.C. Whether this will become a central part of what -- of what his findings remain to be seen. If the Russians are original story, we were the first to report on the broad investigation into the Russians in early 2017 in January that -- of that year and we reported that there was this investigation of whether the Russians were moving money into the United States to try to assist Donald Trump`s presidential candidacy. So we`ve not seen anything on the money side yet. The NRA allegedly or at least was the subject of an investigation into whether it was the vehicle so we don`t -- we`ll have to wait to see how that turns out. And that`s why a lot of your reporting here has been -- has been so fascinating. Greg Gordon, thanks for making the time today.
GORDON: It`s my pleasure and let me just credit my partner Peter Stone who`s an expert on the NRA has been bull working this.
MELBER: I love that you`re giving credit all around the office and we`ll get -- we`ll get him on as well. Thank you, sir. Up ahead, Putin had a very weird answer to these Russian dossier questions. Ted Lieu joins me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: This is important to see. President Trump taking Don -- taking -- excuse me -- Vladimir Putin at his word about this election hack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coates came to me and some others, they said they think it`s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it`s not Russia. I will say this, I don`t see any reason why it would be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: I`m joined by California Congressman Ted Lieu from the House Judiciary Committee. Your reaction, sir.
REP. TED LIEU (D-CA), HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank You Ari for your question. I served on active duty and I studied Russia`s tactics. I never thought that an American president would ever deliver the talking points of the Kremlin. What Donald Trump did today was obscene in disgraceful to take the word of a former KGB official over those of America intelligent professionals is completely uncalled for. And that`s why you saw Dan Coates issue an extraordinary statement today pushing back against a President of the United States.
MELBER: Yes, you`re referencing DNI Coates who we showed earlier in the hour the President undermining him for the facts that he finds. The statement tonight was him saying look we put out objective material for the president and the executive branch full stop. You can see it here we`ve been clearing our assessments of meddling. We will continue to provide unvarnished and "objective intelligence in support of our national security. As you say that`s unusual and the implication is strong. I want to play another supremely bizarre part of this of this press conference, bizarre is the kindest word you could also say just incredibly demeaning to the rule of law in the United States regarding the open criminal probe. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that`s an incredible offer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Congressman, your response.
That was a ridiculous statement by the President. The 12 people that were indicted were indicted by American officials for electing Donald Trump, helping Russia elect Donald Trump. And for Trump to be there on foreign soil and say now let`s have all these folks come into Langley and work the CIA is ridiculous and it really is one of the most disgraceful moments I think of American history. And I agree with Newt Gingrich who said this was the most serious mistake of the Donald Trump presidency.
MELBER: Well it`s one of those nights and I appreciate you making time to share your perspective with us, Congressman Ted Lieu.
LIEU: Thank you, Ari.
MELBER: Up ahead, Putin laughing about one of the more explosive things that bedevils Donald Trump, the infamous dossier. The reporter who broke the story is with me next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the Russian government have any compromising material on President Trump or his family?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Long pause followed by a chuckle from Vladimir Putin. That was towards the American reporter today asking one of the more extraordinary questions posed in this whole unusual summit. Then he went on to boast about his dossier knowledge as Trump stood by silently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT, RUSSIA (through translator): I was an intelligence officer myself and I do know how dossiers are made up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: That`s a provocative way to stir the pot on questions about the dossier infamous for salacious details about Trump`s 2013 trip to Moscow. David Corn famously broke this story. He`s back with me. Now I want to play for you David that odd statement from Putin with the wider context.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PUTIN: I was an intelligence officer myself. And I do know how dossiers are made up. I did heard these rumors that we allegedly collected compromising material on Mr. Trump when he was visiting Moscow. I didn`t even know that he was in Moscow. I treat President Trump with utmost respect but by grants when he was a private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me that he was in Moscow. Please, just disregard these issues and don`t think about this anymore again.
TRUMP: And I have to say if they had it, they would have been out long ago.
MELBER: Can`t make it up, bizarre, David, walk us through the significance of that exchange on the world stage and whether it in your view adds or subtracts to the credibility of the idea that there is something Putin has on Trump.
DAVID CORN, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, MOTHER JONES: Well nothing Putin says can be taken at face value, right? He says he knows about making up dossiers. He also knows a lot about collecting (INAUDIBLE) compromise material on people. In the book I did with Michael Isikoff, we get into Putin`s history of doing that and he says well, I didn`t even know he was in Moscow. Well, that`s ridiculous. We report on those days that Trump was in Moscow. Trump was in contact with Dmitry Peskov who is the right- hand man of Vladimir Putin was supposed to have a meeting with Putin but because the scheduling difficulties didn`t happen. So Putin -- that is pretty much a lie saying I didn`t know that Donald Trump was there. So the bottom line is we don`t know if they have any particularly compromising material from that trip but if Trump they ever did anything there on his many trips in the 80`s, 90`s, and the (INAUDIBLE) and the 20 teens, well they have it.
MELBER: Do you think it was humiliating or undermining to Donald Trump to stand by while Putin talked about that without actually firmly denying it?
CORN: Yes, I mean I take it more or less as a denial but I also take his denial to mean nothing.
MELBER: Right.
CORN: I think you know, we do know with Trump that he is incensed about the existence of the dossier. When you talk about the Trump Russia probe, all he hears is dossier, dossier, dossier, so I do think it was a million humiliating for him to have to stand there while this issue was raised.
MELBER: Yes, and it`s unusual to see that on the world stage. David, thanks for hanging around to get into that. You are the expert on it and we have one more thing tonight. Vladimir Putin just did a new interview and talked about the JFK assassination. We`ll show it to you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELBER: New sound coming to our newsroom. Vladimir Putin just doing a Fox News interview and talking about what happens to political enemies and then invoking the JFK assassination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PUTIN: All of us have plenty of political rivals. I`m pretty sure President Trump has plenty of political rivals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But they don`t end up dead.
PUTIN: Not always? Well, haven`t presidents been killed in the United States? Have you forgotten about it? Well, has Kennedy been killed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Has Kennedy been killed? Vladimir Putin appearing to want to make some sort of comparison between his own alleged human rights abuses and long ago history in the U.S. It`s part of his media tour that now includes this Fox News interview. It is quite a night. That does it for our show. We`ll be back at 6:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. But keep it locked as our special coverage continues. "HARDBALL" with Chris Matthews is up next.
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