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tv   Alex Wagner Tonight  MSNBC  February 21, 2024 9:00pm-10:01pm PST

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the song reached number two on the billboard top 100 and has been streamed over 19 million times. and, beyonci is not the only woman kicking as some taking names. another woman making history tonight, iowa basketball superstar, caitlin clark. just after becoming the highest scoring women's basketball player ball time, she is now the highest selling college athlete man or woman on the sports apparel site fanatic. nike has even put up a massive billboard of clark, right in the heart of new york city next to madison square garden. so, congratulations to caitlin and beyonci on their history making achievement. we see you. we appreciate you. and we are grateful for all of your hard work and showing your supreme talent with all of us. and on that note, i wish you a very, very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. with me.
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i'll see you at the end of tomorrow. one of fox news's biggest stories, just blew up in its face. >> so this confidential human sources, if you watch another network you're not gonna hear the stories. if you are just watching fox for the first time, we will tell you what is happening in these stories. the media has been ignoring us. >> a guy with impeccable credentials, a great track record, reported that joe biden took a 5 million dollar bribe right under barack obama's nose. >> the allegation was gigantic and fox news ran with it. they calculated fox mentioned biden in the context of a bribe, or bribery more than 2600 times. in the past year. media matters, sean hannity alone devoting at least 85 segments to this supposed
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scandal and the same time frame. republicans in the house launched an entire impeachment inquiry around this claim. years worth of republican mud slinging has been based on one allegation detailed on an fbi form called 10:23 from one confidential human sources. >> we have now the ft 23. it is the fbi report that was prepared and 2020. the rays allegations that joe biden was vice president personally receiving bribes. this is damning. >> even interested fbi enforcement has alleged a bribe to the biden family. >> the most corroborative evidence we have is that highly credible human source. >> the most corroborating avoidance we have is from this highly credible confidential human sources. last week the justice department arrested that confidential human sources. his name is alexander smirnoff and he is now being indicted on two counts of lying to the fbi. specifically about providing false derogatory information to the fbi, about joe biden and his son, hunter biden. that alone is devastating to the narrative of fox news and the republican party.
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countless hours of tv accusations, and smear campaigns, and an entire congressional impeachment inquiry, all based on what the justice department now says realize. this story does not end there. it gets so much worse. because according to a new pretrial filing from the department of justice, when this confidential source, alexander smirnoff, was interrogated after his arrest last week he told the fbi that he's been getting his information from russian intelligence officers. so to recap quickly, the basis of the republican impeachment investigation against president biden, and a year's worth of one of fox news's biggest anti
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biden stories were just lies from a guy that the department of justice now claims is a russian intelligence asset. according to the justice department, he was arrested last week, and smirnoff's plan was to keep poisoning our nation's political well, with more lights pass to him by the russian government. spirit of suffers to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the major parties and the united states continues, that candidate would beat joe biden. spinoff is actively peddling new lies that could impact u. s. elections after meeting with russian intelligence officials in november. that is election interference. if what the department of justice is alleging here is true, the russian government is
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actively interfering in the 2024 election to try to help donald trump get elected. and russia potentially played republican elected officials, and fox news, like a fiddle in order to do so. when makes all of this all the more alarming is that this is not the first time that this has happened. these are photos of rudy giuliani, then trump's personal attorney with his main source, when he made corruption allegations against joe and hunter biden before the 2020 election.
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the guy's name is andriy dirt caught, and in 2020 the u. s. treasury department sanctioned mr. derkach. the department put him on a list of russia linked election interference actors, and said that he had been an active russian agent for over a decade. this was not joe biden's treasury department, this was donald trump's. this was secretary of the treasury, steve mnuchin. from late 2019 to mid 2020, derkach raised a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives
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concerning u. s. officials. again, that would be joe biden, in the upcoming 2020 presidential election. hurkacz's unsubstantiated narratives were pushed in western media. steve mnuchin's treasury department described it as foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 u. s. presidential election. so in 2020, the mark was rudy giuliani. in 2024, it looks like it is congressman jim jordan. and james comer. twice now republicans have become winning, or unwitting useful idiots. spreading lies about joe biden to hurt his chances in the presidential election. never minding what happens to this country in the process. joining me now is new york congressman, dan goldman, member of the house oversight committee. he served as the counsel in the first impeachment of donald trump. congressman, thank you for being here. i would first like to get your
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assessment of how much this reporting has dimmed the republican forever to impeach the president. or just how much it has landed among your fellow colleagues on the hill. >> i think many of my colleagues on the democratic side are shocked but not surprised. because it is once again, every election it seems, the republicans fall in favor with the russians and aren't used either as you said, willingly or unwillingly, by russian intelligence to try to interfere in the election. you will remember in 2016, donald trump says that russia, if you are listening, find hillary clinton's emails, five hours later they search for them and fish them and hack them and got them. the mueller report said that paul manafort, the campaign chairman for donald trump's 2016 campaign was providing internal information to a russian intelligence agent. and at the campaign was welcoming the russian interference. now we learn that there is a whole new scheme from 2020, to originally, i suspect, to
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interfere in the 2020 election in favor of donald trump. which is when this confidential source provided this information to the fbi. it is now coming out in 2024, because as you point out correctly, republican members of congress are once again waiting, or unwitting agents of russian intelligence. peddling a false narrative that is russian disinformation in an effort to interfere in the election and boost donald trump. it is shocking, it is shocking that eight years later we are still dealing with russian interference in the republican party, and it is still welcoming it and facilitating it. >> i guess i wonder if you think that they care. on the one hand you think after years and years of this, republicans would be somewhat skeptical when given a piece of information that conveniently undermines the presidential campaign efforts. it sort of seems like if it is a means to republican ends, which is to get trump back into power or to keep power themselves, who cares about the information or disinformation.
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do you think that it matters to them that they may be unwittingly being employed by the fsb to suit russia's agenda? >> i don't, i've been dealing with it for this entire congress, the entire weaponization subcommittee that jim jordan runs is designed to undermine enforcement against disinformation that could interfere with our elections. that is the whole purpose of that committee, to have a chilling effect on law enforcement or other government agencies that are trying to stop russian interference. this is their m. o. . they will do whatever they can. and they knew that this was false. this was fully debunked in the impeachment investigation that i lead in 2019 by witness after witness who was in ukraine at the time. or was in the state department or the national security council. these were trump administration officials who all said that what joe biden did related to the prosecutor general in ukraine, was consistent with official u. s. policy in all of the western world, and that it was bad for hunter biden's company. yet they get this uncorroborated, 10:23 form from the fbi, and they hold it up as the best example, the best evidence that they have. but i will tell you that one way they may be chilled, that
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is now that they know that this information was funneled through russian intelligence, through the fbi by russian intelligence, and is part of a russian disinformation scheme to interfere in our election, if they continue with this investigation, they are opening themselves up to a criminal investigation for conspiring with russia to interfere in the election. and that may be the only thing that keeps them from going forward. >> let me follow up on that, do you think that there is an appetite inside of the department of justice to look into this on that level? >> i don't know. david weiss, the special counsel, is the one who pursued this case against the confidential source. you will recall this
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information was provided by bill barr, to a u. s. attorney in pittsburgh, to evaluate it. he then passed it over to special counsel whites, who is the one handling the hunter biden investigation. now we see that the special counsel weiss, fully investigated this, and if mr. smirnoff is reminded, and is being appealed right now, ultimately if he cooperates, who knows where this may lead. he may have a lot more information and i suspect the special counsel will just follow the evidence wherever it leads. but there is no question now they know. they know that this is russian intelligence disinformation that is designed to interfere in our election. if they continue with this
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investigation, that helps russia do just that, that is conspiracy to interfere in our election. >> just permit me a moment to absorb the potential irony of the situation here. what is being turned, the investigation into hunter biden that has yet to turn, there are people who have various assessments for the merits of all of that. but that can make a u-turn and come right back to end up investigating the very republicans who have been so the listen interested in prosecuting hunter biden. is that what you are saying here? >> yes. and it goes even further than that, because there are house republicans have taken responsibility, and honor in their effort to interfere in hunter biden's criminal case and to blow up the plea agreement. the only reason that this investigation is continuing, or at least one significant reason is because the plea agreement fell through. so yes, the irony is if this investigation ultimately continued only because of their efforts to interfere in it, and that it comes back on to them, we are far away from that point, i do not want to make any assumptions or speculation that there is any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
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the point that i am trying to make is that we now know there is a plausible claim that they didn't know this was russian intelligence information. i would like to know whether they did or didn't. i hope that special counsel whites does do that investigation. but regardless, right now they know, if they continue to push forward with what is russian intelligence disinformation clearly designed to help donald trump in this upcoming election, then they are complicit in spreading that disinformation. >> congressman dan goldman, hunter biden returns to the hill, i believe next week he testifies behind closed doors at the house oversight committee. we will be checking in with you again soon. thank you for your time tonight, sir. >> thank you. >> coming up, testicle kicking, chair slamming, and a broken rib. one key battleground state has taken on the characteristics of a bar brawl. can democrats take advantage before a pint glass hits them in the face? but first, donald trump warps reality by telling fox news viewers that he didn't actually
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this election, but there are a lot of other external factors that will determine this race in a state like michigan, whether it is biden's support for the war in gaza and its effect on the state's arab american community, or the absolute goat rodeo happening inside the state's republican party. of the known unknowns here, which party has tthe advantage joining me now is jennifer palmieri, former communications director for both the obama white house and hillary lm clinton's 2016 campaign. she is also the co-host of msnbc's how to win in 2024
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podcast. jen, first of all, the saga, the comedy of errors, i will call it inside the michigan party, it's just -- you wouldn't believe it if someone told you that juit was happenin -- i mean it's not to be believed, i guess is the shorthand here. >> we covered this, you know, in 22, it was starting, when we read the circus, it was the craziness that had just started. >> i mean, my question to you is from an organizing standpoint, right? how much does it omatter that the party apparatus in that state, which is a key state in 2024, is a symbol? what is the meaningful impact of that from just a campaign perspective? >> it matters. the democrats have gotten very good at winning the state of michigan. it's easier to vote in michigan
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right now. they enstated early voting a few years ago. there's a few ways to do it, that means the organization is key. and, you know, it's not just demoralizing what is happening to the michigan republican party, the michigan republican gave us gerald ford and this is what it's come to. but it is organizing the state when they have options for voting it is a big deal. that race is gonna be really close, the biden trump race, and, to lose your edge on organizing it is not a small matter. it's a big deal. >> what do you make of the loss of support that president biden has seen among upthe arab american community in michigan? i mean, i know that the biden white house is sort of changing its position, somewhat, or at least its posture as it pertains to israel, prime minister netanyahu and the war more broadly, but i wonder with
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29,000 people dead in gaza, whether that damage can even begin to be undone? dead bodies are not something that you can unmessage. >> right, everyone understands what the situation is. the white house understands what the situation is. globally and in terms of gaza and israel, and, you know, we know the steps that they are taking with the sisraeli government. they also understand the political impact in michigan. they've said that a lot of surrogates have gone into talk to arab communities in michigan, i know that they are recommending that people in the democratic party next tuesday, that people vote uncommitted as opposed to voting for biden. i don't know if people actuallyi do that. that could give the biden team a sense of how bad the problem is. the president went to michigan,
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recently, they were bracing for protesters, it didn't really materialize, it is still uncertain -- when there is an existential threat in our own country how that might play out in michigan. people are concerned about gaza, but they are also concerned about america. like i said before, the margin of victory in michigan is going to be very close so it is a very legitimate concern to worry about what is going to happen in that state. >> it seems very clear that the white house believes that they have an issue with the border, there is a reporting that the president may pursue some hard line immigration policies, i wonder as a matter of policy, when it comes to neutralize the issue or increase its salience when a lot of people believe that trump will handle the border issue by 20 points in every swing state compared to ru
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president biden. >> yes, i think that the way i would look at immigration for biden, it's another opportunity to show that you have confidence, that you are trying to solve problems and the republicans are not, right? trump is always going to have biden in age over n, managing the border because immigration is his core issue. and even though he didn't manage the border well when he was president, it's his hocore issue. but what biden can do is partly what tom suozzi did in long island, make it about republicans not wanting to solve problems. the president guns and executive action on the border, he is showing that i'm trying to get a legislation passed, but it didn't ndicpass because trump -- and you make it a larger issue. >> jennifer palmieri, my friend, thank you for joining me tonight, i k appreciate your time. that is our show for this evening, now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, alex. we have tremaine lee joining us here at the end of the hour, that's what we have to look forward to. >> i will be looking for to it v
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as well.

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