speak after donald trump today. that role was played by mitch mcconnell. let's listen to how the trump defense lawyer tried to clean this up. >> the president says he's willing to take full ownership of a government shutdown. how does that sit with you? >> well, i hope that's not where we end up. i understand it it was a rather spirited meeting. we all watched. but i'd still like to see a smooth ending here and i haven't given up hope that's what we'll have. >> mitch mcconnell wants a smooth ending, chuck schumer wants a smooth ending, nancy pelosi wants a smooth ending, there will be a smooth ending, right? >> it's like a fight club. if you don't want to shut down the government, you doeshlt talk about shutting down the government. you never want to be the person shutting down the government. there is a moment in the meeting today where you can just tell. you played the clip earlier. that schumer cannot believe, he can't believe he just got donald trump to say, i will shutdown the government. that will be all me. t

trump because he worked for donald trump even though he said should trump run was independent of donald trump. >> but in 2011, the fec ruled in cohen's favor. for michael cohen, the win was another way of proving his loyalty. >> the way he initially described it to me was a father/son relationship and when i asked him why he has blind loyalty, he also threw the question back to me as, would you do this for your father? >> the end of the day, the only people donald trump really considers as family are his own family. anyone who considers himself to be almost a trump family member, should really take a reality check. because they tend not to stay around very long. >> but michael cohen did stay and proved his willingness to fight for his boss by aggressively attacking donald trump's enemies, real or perceived. >> now to a war of words between a beauty queen and organizers of the miss usa pageant. pennsylvania's representative claims that competition is rigged. >> just after the 2012 miss usa pageant, which was co-owned by donald trump contestant sheena mown claimed the pageant's finalists

blind lilt to donald trump. that doesn't explain the $4 million in tax evasion that actually had nothing to do with donald trump. that was his taxi business. >> yeah, and, you know, there's this lingering question about what it is he did not want to talk to prosecutors in the southern district of new york about. and there's lingering questions that we have lots of sort of trailing ends about, but no real answers yet what exactly haefs able to tell prosecutors about donald trump and russia during the campaign. donald trump is apparently implicated in a whole lot of that stuff if open source reporting is true. we have nothing about what he was able to tell prosecutors about that. >> well, that's why we have to be patient. >> my least favorite thing. >> yeah, i know. thank you, rachel. >>> well, in the michael cohen case, donald trump has much more to worry about now than just michael cohen. trump defenders in washington including some republican senators have been saying they can't believe donald trump committed c

. >> there's only been one chief of staff of donald trump. it's donald trump. it doesn't matter who he appoints. >> i was just going to say who cares, doesn't matter. >> that's a good friday sentiment to bring us out of this show. this is the who cares hour on msnbc. that does it for this hour. i'm john heilemann in for nicole wallace who will be back next week. >>> citizen cohen. let's play "hardball."

we are going to win because donald trump is not backing down. this is going to be one of the defining issues of the next two years heading into 2020, the democratic party is going to engage in self immolation. donald trump is fighting for working people and fighting to restore the borders around this country that are the essential ingredient for national sovereignty and national success in a way nobody has held that office not only in my lifetime but frankly in the history of this country. heather: the fbi missing its deadline to hand over documents on the home of the clinton whistleblower, this comes as congress digs deeper into allegations of pay to play schemes at the clinton foundation. it is great to have you with us. >> reporter: nice to see you, good morning. the justice department and fbi under fire for missing a crucial deadline to hand over documents, the senate judiciary committee demanding more information after 16 agents raided the home of whistleblower dennis kane last month who gave the doj inspector general documents that prove o

, which donald trump still owns. joining our discussion now, the former cia operative and a former independent presidential candidate, and mieke eoyang is back with us. and evan, your reaction to republicans finally breaking with the republicans in the senate over the assassination of jamal khashoggi? >> i think it's appropriate and i'm encouraged by it. i think there are a couple of things going on here. in the political category of course democrats have just taken the house. they're going to be as of january conducting hopefully, you know, and i would expect appropriate oversight of the president. that has the potential to sort of overshadow what the senate has been doing, and they've been taking the sort of the lead between the two chambers here before. but they run the risk of being shown up by the house. and that's an issue because coming up in 2020 you have over 20 republican senators up for re-election. only about half as many democrats at the same time. and so republicans as trump or as the russia investigati

. >> there's only been one chief of staff of donald trump. it's donald trump. it doesn't matter who he appoints. >> i was just going to say who cares, doesn't matter. >> that's a good friday sentiment to bring us out of this show. this is the who cares hour on msnbc. that does it for this hour. i'm john heilemann in for nicole wallace who will be back next week. god knows you're sick of me after only 57, 59 minutes. and i'm 36 seconds over which means chuck's going to be mad at me which is not the first time. but hi, chuck. how are you?

when they had that saddam-like talk when donald trump came into power, he didn't praise donald trump at the table. he praised the opportunity to serve the men and women of the armed forces. he did the same thing at the end of this letter and did not sign it respectfully or sincerely or anything, which shows you what he feels about donald trump. more importantly, he understands donald trump fundamentally does not believe in american power in our alliances that have been established since world war ii, principal principally, the atlantic alliance of nato. he does not believe in it and donald trump and accolades like steve bannon. believe the world should be brought down to a series autocracies and should not maintain the power and alliances that nato and the atlantic alliance does and that's dangerous. >> a very specific note. this resignation by the secretary of defense comes after the trump administration for donald trump surprised everyone by announcing a complete withdrawal of our troops from syria, which for a lot of americans, may seem like a vague thing, but it's actually pretty

motivation for donald trump. but i think anyone that works with the trump organization knows that all you have to do is show up with a sack of cash and plop it on his desk and he'd do business with you. that's how trump university got started, how he got soho built. clearly one of the pieces of information for prosecutors is felix seder. nonetheless, these sort of statements in that document get to the kind of horse trading that people are curious about. why did donald trump treat vladimir putin with kid gloves in helsinki? what did they talk about when they met alone in helsinki? what was trump going to get beyond, you know, just getting elected president if he was going to try to engineer the lifting of sanctions against russia? money is an obvious answer. and i think it's even more important in the context of what we know about the run-up to the general election, which is that trump didn't think he was going to win. and none of the people around him thought they were going to win. everybody in the trump univer

involved donald trump to the point that donald trump was named an unindicted coconspirator in the case where michael cohen pleaded guilty for the first time. and so there in that tweet is the president of the united states saying that if you give special prosecutor robert mueller information against the president, you should be punished as severely as possible. you should serve a full and complete sentence. richard nixon would not have dared say something like that publicly because richard nixon did not believe that america had lost its legal mind or that the congress had lost its legal mind. also today donald trump tweeted, bob mueller who's a much different man than people think don't want the truth, they only want lies. the truth is very bad for their mission. count 4 of article i of the articles of impeachment passed against president nixon said that president nixon should be impeached and removed from office for quote, interfering or endeavoring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the department of justice of the united states, the federal bureau of investigation, t

and handed donald trump a win. and i don't think they handed donald trump a win. last week he said he would own it. the fact is the senate passed, republicans passed a clean resolution. the president can't get votes in the senate. i think the american people are disgusted with this kind of leadership. go. we shouldn't -- we can't do a bad compromise. i don't think nancy pelosi is in a bad place, she will reopen the government the day she gets elected speaker. mike: you been in washington long enough, what is the way out of this partial shutdown? >> i haven't been to bed yet. senior leaders need to get in the room. what i want to say to everybody is we can all talk and we are all frustrated and i will be in washington the second we have something we can vote on but you read the washington post this morning, you read about the woman who is a grandmother that cleaned offices at the state department who can't by her grandchild a christmas present. or in the last hour, the tsa officers who aren't going to get paid, don't know when they are likely to get paid down the r

and donald trump jr. has said the same, including essentially under oath to congress. >> an e-mail exchange in which donald trump jr. infamously responded, "if it's what you say, i love it." the question has always been, did candidate donald trump know about that meeting before it happened? >> it's hard for me to believe that donald trump jr., in that seven o'clock, would not communicate with his father and say, dad, look what i got. >> so the mueller team appears to be looking at this in terms of attempted collusion. why did they agree to accept the meeting, what was the state of mind of the trump team, and they're also looking at it through the lens of obstructed justice. >> if the president had a hand, and it appears he did n, in drafting a false statement as to the true meaning of the trump tower meeting, then the special counsel asking, is this obstruction of justice? >> not long after the trump power sit-down, music publicist rob goldstone ended his working relationship with russian pop singer emin

if donald trump -- okay, let's say donald trump had taken $150,000 or 15,000, pick a number, of his own money and decided to run it through michael cohen to buy ads on television and didn't want to tell anybody, would we be upset, would we be trying to impeach him? he use the money to benefit the campaign. it's not what he did was wrong, it's what he didn't report was wrong. so this conspiracy -- you're making up -- every campaign has almost -- almost every campaign for president, i think every one but mine in 2012 had a reporting violation. does that mean they defrauded themselves in running? no. does it mean they had a conspiracy? no. people don't report things. i believe the president on this one that it's michael cohen's fault for not actually telling him, by the way, you have to report this or you might want to think about reporting it. not the president's fault. >> kiersten? >> well, it is a conspiracy actually. you know, when you have -- there are three people involved, you know, we're talking about between the two women. and so this was -- and it was meant to be hidden. the idea

and donald trump jr. has said the same, including essentially under oath to congress. >> an e-mail exchange in which donald trump jr. infamously responded, "if it's what you say, i love it." the question has always been, did candidate donald trump know about that meeting before it happened? >> it's hard for me to believe that donald trump jr., in that circumstance would not communicate with his father and say, dad, look what i got. >> so the mueller team appears to be looking at this in terms of attempted collusion. why did they agree to accept the meeting, what was the state of mind of the trump team, and they're also looking at it through the lens of obstructed justice. >> if the president had a hand, and it appears he did, in drafting a false statement as to the true meaning of the trump tower meeting, then the special counsel asking, is this obstruction of justice? >> not long after the trump power sit-down, music publicist rob goldstone ended his working relationship with russian pop singer emin agal

that's donald trump. third. cohen provided relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected with the white house during the 2017/'18 time period. this is a whole new area that at least as far as i'm aware no one knows about. the fact that they are looking into the behavior of the white house in 2017 and this year? i mean, maybe that explains our earlier report of why they were investigating or interviewing general kelly, who only joined the white house in august of 2017. final area. fourth. cohen described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries, which were false, while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statements contained within it. but what is really significant here, i think, is that cohen told mueller's office about more contacts between trump's orbit and its -- it appears trump himself and russia. and that's why we're here. that's why we care about michael cohen. that's why we care about robert mueller. because

he's one of the survivors around donald trump. there aren't many of them. he has managed to stay out of the headlines. he's managed to quietly get on with his job. he's kind enough to make sure he's only acting so he can quickly vanish without any great drama. but you have to realize at the end of the day, i don't think donald trump wants the chief of staff. you know, he he ran the trump organization basically like a tudor royal court with princelings around him all trying to kill each other. he was in charge and he basically kept the reigns. he doesn't want a chief of staff. he tried to pretend he was going to do the washington thing and knuckle down. but these days, he's increasingly competent that he can run the white house like the trump organization with an acting chief of staff. >> i want to ask you about the intractability of this white house. the officials line is he's going to keep this omb title, but the bulk of his work will be focused o chief of staff duties. i think the opposite might be true, in light of what julian is saying. how much influen

trump, candidate donald trump. left on the outside, when he became donald trump, being sentenced to three years in prison. again, nine federal crimes he's being sentenced for eight of them, really, little or nothing to do with donald trump but personal financial crimes. the judge saying he may have taken advantage of his reputation, working for donald trump, high profile in manhattan working for donald trump for these greedy and also, lying to congress about trump tower business dealings in moscow, trying to sell a trump tower idea in moscow during the presidential campaign. that has ramifications so we'll keep our eyes on the pictures to see if michael cohen coels out. some of the attorneys here. here he is. let's see if he speaks. there you see michael cohen getting into the black car with his wife, his son and his daughter and driving off, choosing not to speak. that in and of itself, a big development in the sense that for years, for years, michael cohen threw punches for donald trump. no other way to put it. h

and donald trump the president. how many more will there be when the democrats take charge of the house committees that are empowered to investigate the president? the intelligence committee, the judiciary committee where impeachment proceedings begin, the ways and means committee or the coming chairman massachusetts governor neil has the authority to obtain the tax returns of donald trump? by valentine's day president trump will be probably be looking back at this christmas when he was only the subject of 17 investigations and missing those good old days. leading off our discussion now john heilemann, co-host and executive producer of show times the circus. ron klain is with us, and kimberley atkins, washington bureau chief for the boston herald and msnbc contributor. and kimberley, is the white house aware, are they gearing up for what is to come when all of these new investigations start in the house of representatives? are they hiring more lawyers? are they assigning a lawyer to each committee that's going to be

. >> michael cohen, former attorney to donald trump, continues to tell the truth about donald trump's misconduct over the years. at the appropriate time after mr. mueller issues the final report i look forward to assisting michael to state publicly all he knows about mr. trump and that includes any appropriate congressional committees interested in the search for truth and the difference between facts and lies. mr. trump's repeated lies cannot contradict stubborn facts. tell me what else you can about what that means because that sounds ominous and another chapter coming here. >> for sure you can read mr. mueller's report, who took a much different view of the word cooperation than the southern district of new york. and mr. mueller credited mr. cohen with addressing after 70 hours in 7 meetings with the office of special counsel. two very important words that mr. mueller used. core issues involved in his investigation. when mr. mueller is done explaining that and he will and he knows more than we all know michael cohen will fill in all the gaps and will be publicly available to tell t

let's look at what donald trump had to say. we would save billions of dollars if the democrats would give us votes to build the wall. either way people will not be allowed into the country illegally, we will close the entire southern border if necessary, also stop the drugs. if we got funding for the border wall which chuck schumer said he would pony up 1.6, that is not for the physical wall itself but border security. donald trump once $5 billion and -- >> not enough. 43-25 billion to get a fully funded physical wall in many places as possible and the rest of the border secured the best we can. pretty amazing how democrats changed their tune including chuck schumer who voted for funding for the wall and border security and you have seen a lot of change not just because of funding the hard left, the grassroots. heather: who is in office, who is the president. >> and realizing with chain migration and other things, it will get them political power so you look at democrats they are doing this for political power and republicans o

expert care for every new beginning. >>> trump enomics are closing in on donald trump in a way that would be really funny if it wasn't so mad for the united states of america. candidate donald trump lied his way to the presidency, and one of the big lies he told is what he would do as president about the national debt. >> we'll start reducing our debt and reducing it bigly, which i want to do. and we're going to knock it down and we're going do it bigly and quickly. we're going to stop our deficits. we're going to stop our deficits. i'm really good at it. who's better at debt than i am? is there anybody? we're not going to be increasing our debt. >> he increased the debt by a lot. the debt has increased dramatically. donald trump has taken it from $19 trillion up to $21.7 trillion, and it's going up from there. the daily beast is reporting that president trump was shown projections of the national debt in his first year in office and he said he didn't care about it. and then there is the trade deficit, which is also now worse than ever after donald trump ran a presidential campaign promis

is that something donald trump is taking a look at? >> two things going on. enormous resistance to admit that china is a criminal state, violations of international trade rules are harming the united states because wall street makes money off of this thing. look to the treasury secretary is like the last administration and the administration before that, goldman sachs goldman sachs goldman sachs. if goldman sachs has a moral compass, it will be resurrected and made president of the united states. there is no moral compass on wall street and their resisting donald trump's effort to not be protectionist but as larry kudlow says to reform trade. donald trump needs a better trade team because i don't think going forward this way is a red-hot idea. heather: which way? >> to pursue negotiations with china over the next 90 days. i agree tariffs the day after the election. heather: we will see what happens in 90 days. >> we will have a big stack of paper but when implement it won't change the trade deficit very much. heather: thank you for joining us, appreciate it.

for donald trump. he pleaded guilty to lying to wrong gross and is part of his plea deal has been cooperating with the ongoing special counsel investigation and we have had the sentencing document from robert mueller which reveals some very important developments and information about that investigation and just to remind viewers, the investigation is looking into whether the trump campaign colluded with the russian government. one of the biggest takeaway series that these documents as, the defendant michael cohen, lied about a business project called the moscow project, a plan to build a trump tower in moscow and one of the biggest ta keaway moscow and one of the biggest takeaway is in that is that it says here the defendant, michael cohen, admitted he lied to congress in order to minimise links between the time —— the trump tower project and interviewed —— individual one. individual one in these documents is donald trump. this document is implying that michael cullen lied to protect donald tr

the average trump voter actually knew a lot of this about donald trump. i don't think he knew he was hanging out at the "playboy" mansion because that's not covered on fox news. i'm not being sarcastic. that's where they get their information. rush limbaugh is not talki inin about it. fox news is not talking about it. conservative blogs are not talking about it. i think to this day they probably don't have a full picture of exactly who donald trump has been over his life. i also think when it comes to sexual harassment, the average conservative voter typically tends to kind of roll their eyes at those kinds of things and they don't tend to take it that seriously. they do take affairs a little more serious lly so if it came t that he had had these affairs, you know, one of them, at least, while his wife just had a baby, maybe it would make a difference, but if it wouldn't make a difference, then we just get back to the fact of what's up with these voters, you know, that these things don't matter to them but they were obsessed with bill clinton's sex life?

>> very clear donald trump would like to fire him or consider him. i wonder if people like mick mulvaney saying they are trying to not do it. how the legislation reads it is possible he will do it and can do it but we are putting a lot of emphasis on one man and what he is doing in the american economy is strong. it is going to take a sign but eventually there will be a new chair if he were fired and things would go along and there would definitely be some volatility in the meantime but eventually things would flatten out. >> another area, we saw the president hinting he would get out of syria and afghanistan. this is how he should do it and he did it. i worry that even though people around him say he wouldn't go that far, it would be so extreme, eventually the president will do what he wants to do, he threatens to do something and when he think he made a decision not to do what he does it so i'm worried. >> i don't think he will do it for the simple reason the president does what he wants to do and anyone else can take a hike but the economy matters

donald trump has to ask himself, do i feel lucky because think about how lucky donald trump is going to have to be to survive 17 investigations. donald trump has probably felt lucky most of his life, but he didn't feel lucky when his atlantic casinos went bankrupt and when he was approaching a trial in the trump university case which he avoided by paying $25 million to the former trump university students who accused him of fraud. so donald trump knows what it is to not feel lucky. but until now he did not know what it felt like to be the subject of 17 investigations. and he's certainly tweeting like a man who doesn't feel lucky. he's tweeting like a panicked president. think about those words together. a president of the united states who is panicking, a panicked president. but donald trump's strategy to try to prove to the world that he is not panicking is to send to send the strangest presidential lawyer in history on tv to say profoundly strange things. here is rudy giuliani trying to say -- trying to say that the president will not agree to an interview with the special prosecut

donald trump does that. but he's smashing our china. >> that is correct. >> and, joe, i would suggest that you can find it online, you can go to google. one of the great essays of the 20th century, defining deviancy, and it speaks to what's going on in this country today, joe. we are immune to shock. there are multiple shocks each and every day emanating from the white house, emanating from the mouth of the president of the united states, both what he says and what he's done in the past and what he does daily. we are immune to shock now. >> and, mika, how offensive that there are still people who are trying to defend donald trump saying, quote, everybody does it. >> it's so disrespectful to the american people. >> everybody hasn't done it. this is a one off. you have a president whose campaign, with whose family, whose sons did everybody they could to coordinate attacks on their political opponent. i don't think of any politician i have ever known would not immediately pick up the phone and call the fbi and

so frustrated with donald trump. first of all bragging about wanting to shut down the government, then getting a deals from republicans and democrats and deciding he wasn't going to accept it because rush limbaugh and ann colter told him not to. i'm looking at columns that have been written and it does seem that there aren't just cracks in the wall, there are parts of the wall of republican resistance for donald trump that are completely breaking. you have andrew ferguson asking the question, what does it mean when the nation's long-term conservative party becomes stamped with a style of governing that includes childish attacks and political opponents, hush money for old lovers, dispropriety for simple manners. what does it cost when trumpism of and individual conservativety -- and andrew goes on to say sooner or later those ideals must deal with discredit to conservative ends. rick, you and i would suggest that time has already come, but a lot of other republicans this morning are thinking the same thing. >> well, j

when you compare george bush and the bush family to donald trump and the donald trump family, that is so stands out. george bush was all about public service. he was a world war ii hero. he was shot down during the war. his whole life was about public service and serving the public good. >> they had humility. >> as john f. kennedy said don't ask what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. the bushes lived that through. the trump family is all about how much money can we make off of their businesses. that is the biggest problem we are facing right now with donald trump and that's why he should not be in office. >> this is an issue and there are a lot of people that say it's a lot happening. these are men who had faults as well. you are comparing him to president trump to ignore a lot of that because of what he is is describing. his approach to public service, his approach to the job that he did. >> there is a conversation he had about character and who they were and that's conversation to be had about what they did. those things overlap of course. i'm never g

la fundaciÓn de donald trump sirviÓ como una chequera para los negocios e intereses polÍticos de donald trump, incluyendo la interacciÓn ilegal con la campaÑa presidencial. la fiscal buscarÁ la restituciÓn de 2.8 millones de dÓlares que fueron donados a la fundaciÓn y fueron utilizados para la campaÑa presidencial. " seguiremos con esta humana saber que la fundaciÓn de donald trump responde ante la ley federal ". ilia: se pedirÁ que donald trump ni sus hijos les prohÍban crear o participar durante 10 aÑos en fundaciones sin fines de lucro. esta es una victoria importante. jorge: la casa blanca sugiriÓ que presidente donald trump podrÍa dar marcha atrÁs en su amenaza de cerrar el gobierno federal, si es que el congreso no prueba los $5,000,000,000 para la realizaciÓn del muro. el lÍder de la mayoría republicana dijo hoy que estÁ seguro de que no habrÁ cierre. sin embargo, los demÓcratas han rechazado propuestas de los republicanos y el cierre puede ser algo posible. un grupo de con esta federales exigiÓ hoy una investigación independiente sobre la lÍnea guatemaltec

trump, and a 6 foot tall portrait of donald trump. donald trump spent a combined $42,000 of charity money on those items. but now the foundation values them at just $975. joining our discussion now, washington post reporter david farenthold who won a pulitzer prize. and the executive editor of bloomberg opinion, both are msnbc contributors. and, david, let me just start with how the $42,000 becomes $975. how did the foot ball helmet and the two trump portraits lose $41,000 in value? >> well, i don't exactly know. the trump foundation put that current value on them. so these are all things that trump bought at charity auctions. these were times when he was in front of the big crowd sort of playing the role of rich guy in the room. he overpays for these items. $12,000 for the signed tim tebow helmet. 42,000 combined for the portraits of himself. it's great for charity auctions. but he uses his charity's money, he's buying assets for himself using the money from a theoretically independent charity. that's where you get into trouble. and

and donald trump was one of them. other than the fact that's interesting, the fact donald trump has been remarkly consistent at denying that he knew anything about this, and then when he figured out that everybody knew he knew something about this, that it wasn't really a thing and it wasn't about the campaign and it wasn't a campaign financial violation. again, talk to me about this as a prosecutor. they made the decision to pay the money. >> if donald trump was one of your kids and talked to you like that, you'd send him to his room without dinner. this is just lie after lie. and as the truth emerges he sort of shifts his story to conform, but it's always a new lie. so what prosecutors now have is the folks who were in the room with him. that matters. that's critically important because for these campaign finance fraud counts the law is a little bit different. typically ignorance of the law is no excuse. but here for campaign finance you have to actually prove that a punitive defendant knew he was violating the law.

he said there was little to admire about donald trump. he apologized to the american people and he saul he give as much information to special counsel robert mueller as he could truthfully give. the anguish on his face as he admitted his own weakness led him to choose what he called a path of darkness over lit. the judge sentenced him to three years in prison. told the court, "today the day i'm getting my freedom back." ords the media should be using to describe mr. trump are generous, compassionate, principled -- nick: these were the days before he unshackled himself from donald trump, when he revels in his rolee personal fixer who make problems go away. --t is what he'll pitch to that is what he wanted to do by making hush money payments to tw womeno, including porn star stormy daniels. the payments violated and the-finance laws, were allegedly directed by donald trump in order to avoid a potential sex scandal ahead of the 2016 election. cohen was also sentence for lying to congress aboutus his dions with finland and officials about a p

he is the third person to serve under donald trump. normally, a very sought—after position but one which seemed to struggle to attract interested parties this time around. we've noticed an donald trump has named him acting white house chief of staff. why is this a temporary appointment? it's a good question. the white house is saying there was no time limit to this appointment so it's possible that mick mulvaney could serve as chief of staff for quite some time. what we do know with president trump, despite saying that he had a slew of good candidates to these highly prestigious position found himself increasingly going from one person to the next. nick ayres, mike pence's chief of staff turned him down and he couldn't reach agreement with the former newjersey governor chris christie and so it has come down to mick mulvaney who will continue to serve, we are told, is the budget chief as well as being chief of staff so he's going to have a lot of work on his plate, this man. but he's a man who gets on with the president and that is so

of donald trump's defenses. his lawyer rudy giuliani struggling to answer questions in two sunday show appearances. and the president himself sounding more like a jilted mob boss than the commander in chief. "the washington post" with this insight on the impact of the half dozen investigations on donald trump's psyche. quote, there has been one immediate impact on a president accustomed to dictating the country's news cycles but who now struggles to keep up with them. trump has been forced to spend his political capital and that of his party on his defense. the president with some remarkable tweets over the weekend like this one. quote, remember michael cohen only became a rat after the fbi did something which was absolutely unthinkable and unheard of until the witch hunt was illegally started. they broke into an attorney's office. why didn't they break into the dnc to get the server or crooked's office? and this one slamming his former attorney general jeff sessions. jeff sessions should be ashamd of himself fo

so if are you donald trump jr. and anybody else who has come before congress and said anything that may not be true, you august to be sweating bullets right now. >> what do you make over senator burr? he said i rer referred a lot of this. today the chairman of the intelligence committee republican senator richard burr, north carolina, had this warning for those who had appeared before his committee. >> i won't get into the numbers, but we have made referrals from our committee to the special prosecutor for prosecution. in a lot of cases those might be tied to lying to us. you know, my message yesterday was if you lie to us, we're going to catch you and we're going to prosecute you. period, end of sentence. >> that's a warning. today. >> big news, we know that adam schiff the top democrat on the intelligence committee, who will be becoming chairman has been saying for months. i have been saying this for months, he believes perjury, lying to congress has occurred in their hearings, in their private sessions and he wa

did putin buy donald trump? great to have you with us. let's start with your reaction to what we are hear federal government michael cohen. what are you taking away? >> watching him, he looked like he was so exhausted he couldn't tell a lie anymore. i think that it's very clear that the special counsel has the goods on donald trump as it relates to his involvement in trying to secure the silence of these two women. the tapes that michael cohen had in his possession that the special counsel was able to obtain probably have more than enough evidence and you have david pecker who says that he made that payment intending to assist donald trump in his campaign for election, and donald trump was in the room. so there's no question that donald trump knew about all of this. he was a one-man show. he's always been a one-man show. he had a small family company with about 50 employees. he knew precisely what was going on all the time. >> congressman, there's been two components to michael cohen's cooperation here. you have

donald trump is snow n donald trump is not just cornered. he's a man in a room with no doors. >> and i surmised months ago that he would start a war potentially as a deflection. is that something that is in the realm of possibility given what we've seen and what are the options for those still standing? >> well, i always felt that jim mattis would stand in the way of that kind of wag the dog scenario. i do think this puts a lot of pressure now, personally, on mike pompeo and john bolton and gina haspel. they're going to have to speak truth to power. this is an erratic president. he's done real damage this week. he is on the side of the anti-democratic populous in europe, not on angela merkel's side. he's unraveling our immigration and refugee system, so carefully worn worked out over the last half century. look at what he's done in making the eu a competitor. this is turning years of foreign policy on its head. and i think gina haspel and john bolton and mike pompeo need to summon the courage to tell the president we are heading in the wrong

. >> right after donald trump became elect donald trump, the called advice and recommendations. it was going to serve as the chief of staff to the white house? that's an important decision. there were only a couple of candidates. joe called me and said we never met with steve at all. could you arrange at the trump tower, they were going to speak with then-president donald trump. they sat with mr. trump and recommended that he become -- >> can talk to? these newspeople, no host, they were analysts, opinion people and newspeople, is it thought they would call you and say, we want a meeting with the president to give advice? i've not done that. i'm a news reporter. i would love to have a meeting with the president. i wouldn't presume to be giving advice on matters. how did that come about? >> outside, crazy world of politics, the people that you talk to in front of the camera, sometimes where the most difficult to work with, are your best friend off-camera. it was not uncommon for personalities, from across the board, right center, left, called me and said i've got recommendations.

there is also questions as to what donald trump would sign. they thought they had a deal which is why they put the bill on the floor the other night to fund the government through february. they passed it in the senate and the president blue a couple couple days later. shelby says the following. we would all have to have assurances the president would agree to what we agreed to and he will sign it. sunday seems to be the operative day when they hope to have some gravity around an agreement and maybe try to bring members back sunday night or early christmas eve, they did this in 2009 on the first vote to push obamacare through the senate but if they don't get something then and i'm told by multiple sources on both sides that they are very skeptical of that scenario, this could be the 26, 27th or even last until january, some don't think this will solve this until next weekend. what they are fighting over is $900 million, which is pocket lint in washington dc money for border wall or border security. they are at $1.6 billion that the proposal is

then he names donald trump, a blind loyalty to donald trump. he says, that is what led him to choose darkness over light. and love of my wife, son and daughter. he says is the key focus right now urgs and he is talking about the undeserved pain and shame on his family, and again, these are p powerful words, and as we have been discussing the judge is going to likely determine that there does need to be some level of a jail sentence, and what are you anticipating, and do you think that we have learned anything new factually today, elliott? >> doesn't sound like it. we would have heard about it, and respond to the blind loyalty part, because to this, it is silly. because he saying that it is blind loyalty that led him to do it, but it is his connections to donald trump that enriched him and holding out to other people that he had proximity to the president of the united states or the president of the united states that got him richer -- >> sorry to interrupt you and quickly, we are hearing that he was sentenced. michael cohen, the president 's fo

it seems there are many who would like to see donald trump go down the impeachment road. watch several channels they say it is a done deal. the media fueling the fire, some examples from the host of fox news media buzz, howard kurtz. >> reporter: prognosticators taking their criticism of donald trump to new heights as the investigations feet up. >> we never seen a president of the united states who actually acts more in some ways like a common grifter. >> reporter: even respected president of historians are less measured when it comes to this one. >> it happened since the 1850s and that didn't happen too well in the civil war the 6000 people died in. he might resign. >> if in fact donald trump knew about the russian efforts on his behalf, there is a live question about whether he has been giving aid and comfort to the enemy, the definition of freedom in the constitution. >> judge andrew napolitano says trump may even have been named in a sealed indictment. >> he might already be an indicted co-conspirator. >> we don't know what has been seal. >> reporter: michael cohen ar