The opening panel on AM Joy doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.
It's clear that an agitated Donald Trump tweeted early this morning some pretty unhinged things based on a Breitbart article about a Mark Levin radio broadcast on Obama Wiretap Conspiracies! 9/11! Solyndra! Baby Parts! Sidney Blumenthal!
Transcript of AM Joy video above:
JOY REID: Congressman, I want to clear up for people who way not know, do presidents order themselves wiretapping?
CONGRESSMAN ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA) No. Protections are in place to keep presidents from doing what Donald Trump would probably want to do. Typically a president wouldn't even be read in until the investigation was complete. This looks like a diversionary tactic, more Trump/Russia ties followed by Trump/Russia lies.
JOY REID: Congressman, you're a congressman, you know that information because I presume when you came into Congress you didn't know everything about the way the government runs, but you availed yourself of information to find out.
SWALWELL: I asked questions of the experts.
JOY REID: Does it disturb you a little bit that the President of the United States doesn't know that the President of the United States doesn't order wiretaps?
SWALWELL: And that 30 minutes later he was tweeting about "The Apprentice."
JOY REID: He did tweet about Arnold. I have to turn to you, you are laughing. It is sort of funny but it is sort of disturbing as well, Donald Trump got up really early this morning to retweet what appears to be conspiracy theories that he may have gotten from Breitbart.com. There is a Breitbart story that reflects this same idea. And Robert Costa, who writes for "the Washington Post," tweeted out about 8:30 this morning, "per an official I've confirmed several people at the White House are circulating this Breitbart story." it's story that's titled Mark Levin, who I believe is the radio host, "investigate Obama's silent coup against Donald Trump."
NAVEED JAMALI (Former Intelligence Operative): I don't even know how to respond to this, this is so crazy. Joy, we have to keep our eye on the Russian question. That's it. The rest of it is just distractions.
JOY REID: You're absolutely right. To my point, that point, Malcolm, you have at least five members of the Trump campaign at the time, JD Gordon -- I'm sorry, at least five members of the Trump campaign that we know of, sorry, that were talking with the Russian ambassador, and it includes now Jeff Sessions, who at the time was a surrogate for the campaign and is now attorney general but who has now recused himself. In your view, what does all of this mean?
MALCOLM NANCE: All of this goes back to the fundamental question which has not been answered, which there appears to be a lot of dissimulation going on, which is why? Why were these people in communication with Moscow or representatives of Moscow at all? It comes down to one of two things. Clearly, they were not just innocent, these were not part of their everyday duties. They seemed to have a vested interest in a line of communication with Moscow. In my world that only comes down to one of two things. Money or espionage. Let's take espionage off the table right now. We know there's a lot of money right here. They believe that Moscow is this giant font of cash.
But I can just touch for a moment, Joy, on the question of the wiretapping. I have been involved in advanced information collection in my world. I have no idea what Donald Trump is talking about. We do not even do that the way he probably things from "The Sopranos" where we're running wires into his office. This is very dangerous. The people who would be tasked in Justice, if there were any questions coming from the White House, starting today or anytime in the foreseeable future in how they actually do collections,
it means they're preparing for a coverup, because they want to know how they're actually getting this information. This is what happens when a target starts getting buggy, because he knows that he's caught.
JOY REID: David Corn, to that very point, you had J.D. Gordon now telling CNN that he did indeed participate in changing the platform at the Republican National Committee to be softer on this idea of Crimea and Russia. You have Carter Page, who has been dissembling wildly, some kind of dance he's being performing with our own Chris Hayes and on CNN on whether or not he talked about the Russian ambassador. Jefferson Sessions it now appears used campaign money to travel to talk to the ambassador, not in his role as a senator but apparently with the campaign. Jared Kushner talking with the Russians. And of course, we know about Michael Flynn's long relationship with Kislyak, the ambassador. You've been investigating this a long time. What does it add up to, to you, David?
DAVID CORN: The real question here, you can get to possibilities of active collusion, but the real question is, from June on, it was reported in the media that the Russians had hacked into the DNC and hacked into the campaign. From august on, Trump himself and Michael Flynn were briefed that the intelligence community had come to that conclusion. In september, clapper says publicly he believes it's the Russians. In October, we put out an official -- the government puts out an official statement saying it's the Russians. So if at any point in that time frame you have anyone from the Trump campaign talking to the Russians, and a, they're not telling them to cut it out, or b, they're telling them, hey, you'll get a better deal with us, that means they are encouraging the Russians to continue with this assault upon American democracy. You know, that is in my mind, 'game, set, match.' If they knew the Russians were messing around in our election and they were doing anything to encourage it, forget about telling them not to, then they are guilty by association, at least get up even more damaging than that. That's what I think they're running scared of. Donald Trump, he made the argument this morning that we need a full accounting, a public accounting of what intelligence collection was being done on him, and what they found out. And as President of the United States, he has access to that. Every White House reporter should be demanding today at the White House, they should be calling everybody in the press office, what's the proof for this? Donald Trump can have it as president.
UPDATE: Obama spokesman responds. Pay close attention to the first line, which seems to signal something.
