, praising donald trump? >> this man is a pathological liar. the man is utterly amoral. metastatic breast cancer is relentless, but i'm relentless too. mbc doesn't take a day off, and neither will i. and i treat my mbc with new everyday verzenio- the only one of its kind that can be taken every day. in fact, verzenio is a cdk4 & 6 inhibitor for postmenopausal women with hr+, her2- mbc, approved, with hormonal therapy, as an everyday treatment for a relentless disease. verzenio + an ai is proven to help women have significantly more time without disease progression, and more than half of women saw their tumors shrink vs an ai. diarrhea is common, may be severe, and may cause dehydration or infection. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. serious liver problems can occur. symptoms may include tiredness, loss of appetite, stomach pain, and bleeding o

trump. so there is no adult in the room. if we're looking for someone who has deep morals or a conscience or some sort of upper level have intellect, if they are still with this administration, that is cause for serious question. we knew when john kelly came out and, as you mentioned with congresswoman wilson, and never apologized. >> alarm bells, right? >> completely lied about the situation and never corrected the story. these are things that the president does. he throws things out there he says many people say. we know that they're false. they're proven to be false by the journalistic standards we have at least for now, and that's what this administration has been doing. i think the long-standing effects of this trump presidency will be to make lies and untruths and false statements part of the ethos of doing business and call into question real facts. >> normalizing a lot of these. >> and i think that's the most difference. by the by, i think president trump is probably the most emotion

he did so in that trump tower briefing. he did so again in a phone call a week or so later, and again and again. and comey details all of it in his book. according to his account. and the big picture, ali, about the portrait comey paints of the president is about as scathing as it gets. he describes the president as a congenital liar, somebody who is unethical and unfit for this office and somebody who is really blurring what should be traditional boundaries between the white house, the politics in the white house and the more independent fbi and department of justice. comey was very alarmed and described it as a forest fire of a presidency. >> phil, let's talk about the lewd allegations that the president seemed to be obsessed with. did he ask comey to do anything about it? does comey believe the allegations to be true or what he was asked about them? >> he did. so the allegation is that during a trip to moscow in 2013, then private citizen donald trump was in a hotel room in the ritz carlton and was taped by the russians

statement out tonight from president trump and first lady melania trump. i should mention the date on it is wrong, it says actually 2018. but other than that, there you have it. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening. i have to say about barbara bush. from anything i've ever heard from her children, her grandchildren, everything you hear from them about her is just wonderful stuff. just ideal comments about a mother and a grandmother. >> yeah. always described unfailingly always described as strong, as the rock of that family, as the spine of that family. and somebody who was seen as unshakeable, even in extreme circumstances. and obviously the bush family is like none other in american history and politics. and she was by all accounts the absolute center and heart of it. >> rachel, i know you have commented on the president hiring new lawyers to represent him in what is now the michael cohen case in the southern district of new york. i'

because someone enrolling in trump university had to be kind of a super trump fan, like a trump superdelegate in effect. and those people turned on donald trump. >> yeah, that's exactly right. i think that's a pretty good metaphor for how trump has conned his fans. and it's a good metaphor for his critics to use and to think about how they're going to go about separating him. but i also think that it's not just a matter of scandals and corruption, but this is i think a way of talking about trump that ties in his legislative agenda, right? because it's about making himself rich. it's about making his family and his friends rich. and that's something he is not only doing through his behavior and the way he is running his business, it's a way his cabinet is behaving, the way that they're helping themselves to the public till constantly across the government. and it's what they're doing in congress, the tax bills they're voting on, the health care bills, it's the regulation. it's all about protecting their own economic interests. >> yeah. so your recommendation to democrats campaigning, as i read

trump-hating sister. carley:er november there are entire articles about how to navigate thanksgiving without getting into a fight with your family members. it shows what so many people are going through. abc after one episode renewed the show for a second season. so they clearly have a lot of con if i debs in it. howie: a lot of families like that fighting over politic, i think the show captured that. what about bringing back this working class family that struggles from paycheck to paycheck. it seems like that appeals to people who don't often see themselves in entertainment television. carley: at its core this show is about a working class family struggling to get by. we haven't seen a lot of that on tv recently. historically show like that have done well in the past. think about the waltons and honeymooners. those shows are successful in part because people like to see them sells represented on television. howie: the themes like pregnancy surrogatesy. after the 016 election they sat around saying we ne

." >> trump's response is classic trump, "who am i going to blame?" >> don't mess with donald trump. donald trump doesn't forget. >> somebody needs to stand up and say, "this is not our party, this inot normal." >> tonight on frontline' "trump'takeover". >> frontline is made possible by contributis to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. d by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdanf and pe world. more information is available at macfound.org. additionalupport is provided by the abrams foundation: committed to excellenc journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awarens of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires.ro and by theline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. >> breaking news from campaign 16, marco rubio... >> narrator: washington, 2016. >> ...chris christie have suspended their campa

on and thinking flynn was somehow for trump is misguided because trump had doubts about him. but his doubts seemed to be along the lines of servicing some kind of relationship with russia. so. >> david? >> i think the bigger story here is the hill gop and the fact that the fix really is in among the hill gop insulating this president should he move to dismiss -- or have rosenstein dismiss mueller or dismiss rosenstein himself. consider you have freedom caucus members talking about impeachment of rosenstein. mcconnell has suggested they don't need to protect mueller. this is the hill gop playing jv. consider the intrigue they tried to build around the devin nunes memo and it fell flat and the comey memos. but mueller is playing varsity and he's building up indictments and guilty pleas. this is just a side show. >> it's both, a side show they're trying to politicize them, which seems inconsistent with their supposed concern about leaks and yet is very unusual for a legal or journalistic sense to see this. usually you have to wait decades to see it. for example, james comey memo

deal collapses, goldstone goes to trump in trump tower in january 15. talk about as the first trump tower meeting that nobody knew about until i book came out and they meet trump there and trump says to the singer, maybe next time you'll be singing in the white house. so we telegraphing his plans to run for president to the singer, the son of the oligarch. another point on the significance of this is you guys in the intelligence community and we in the press been a lot of time on the trump tower meeting. the with the people who set that up? goldstone and i i can letter. the e-mails are pretty clear. these cast of characters sort of run through the story. >> think about this, the first trump tower meeting in january 2015. trump is sharing his ideas or, the notion that he might run for president with emin. he probably told his dad who is tied in with putin and the whole power structure of moscow. it's kind of like an early -- to the russians that trump is considering running and then it's a 50 months or so later when the second meeting happened and offer

he says meets with trump and the e-mails are released and trump is also hinting that e-mails are going to be released. sometimes i think we try too hard. it is just right there. this is what mueller is looking at. i'm not staying up late at night wondering, you know, whether roger stone is being misunderstood. he knew exactly what he was saying. >> i think if people are just kind of perplexed at it and it would actually lap to this level. you know, not that they don't like, really, is it that -- are you going to be that obvious and maybe that's the best way to hide something is do it right in front of people. "the wall street journal" reported that mueller is looking into whether stone met with julian assange in the final months before the 2016 election. what he is looking for, keith? >> ultimately, you want to know whether aassange is an important go between russia and the access they're getting to e-mails and everything they want to leak to the media and ultimately possibly to the trump came pain or members of the trump campaign. it's worth remembering they're legal and political iss

in other words, emmanuel macron spends all of his time with donald trump trying to prevent donald trump from being harm to himself, his country, and the world. and of course president macron is obviously far more intelligent and articulate and wise and younger and more attractive in every way than donald trump. and that has to drive donald trump just crazy, crazy to the point of possibly pretending to see something that only his 71-year-old eyes can see. >> mr. president, they're all and that has to drive donald trump just crazy, crazy to the point of possibly pretending to see something that only his 71-year-old eyes can see. >> mr. president, they're all saying what a great relationship we have. and they're actually correct. it's not fake news. finally, it's not fake news. so it's a great honor. a great honor that you're here. but we do have a very special relationship. in fact, i'll get that little piece of and the rough off -- we have to make him perfect. he is perfect. >> if he is perfect, he was perfect, he was perfect before donald trump touched him. because there isn't even any

trump watch is back. you're watching "hardball." ♪ i've always wanted to have a photo exhibit of the faces of our community and those people that create the heart and the soul of where we live. directer: so i think we can make that happen oh my gosh, you're kidding me. introducing the suv equipped to make your first-ever happen. the first-ever ford ecosport is here. introducing the suv equipped to make your first-ever happen. a hilton getaway means you get more because you get a break on breakfast get an extra day by the pool get to spend more time together get more from your spring break getaway with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com >>> trump watch friday april 6, 2018. have you noticed something about the republicans the way they talk about president trump? if they're about to retire they say things like senator cork ker of tennessee did. "when his term is over, the constant nontruth telling is what will be remembered most important and that's regretful." if you're a republican

cohen, trump's long-time personal attorney and trump former organization employee. among other things, cohen was involved in business deals secured or sought by the trump organization in georgia, kazakhstan and, wait for it, russia. unpacking the trump/cohen relationship and their shared legal woes brings a village and we brought one to the table. joining us are favorite friends and reporters from "the new york times," michael schmidt, jennifer r jennifer ruben. phil rucker. we were both up at 11:00. we can ask for slack at the top. joyce vance, former us attorney now msnbc contributor and frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence now an msnbc analyst. so glad you're all here. as you can see i'm having a battle with the teleprompter already. >>> let me start with you, joyce, and a man, a moment and a whole lot of legal bills. michael cohen, take it away. >> michael cohen is looking like the focal point for this investigation or at least one of the focal points right now. and the reason for that, nicolle, i think is because he brings tog

is it or how how much of a problem is it when donald trump. decides unilaterally say for instance iran ok enough of that get me a better deal or i'm out how does emanuel mccomas role how is that important. what it's very important to at least keep. on the trunk talking or through to stay in a conversation with donald trump or other. that is very important because otherwise donald trump would just follow his instincts and those of his closest advisers like his new national security advisor john bolton who is clearly a hawk on iran and that would not be good because clearly once again merica for all its problems is still the number one power in the world's most powerful nation on earth and if they leave the iran agreement there's no incentive really there for the iranians to agreement anymore and that could mean they could restart their nuclear program that could meet other countries like saudi arabia could also think about developing nuclear weapons and that is a major problem if the proliferation of nuclear. gets out of control in this very vo

trump. it won't actually help you anyway. and you know, we've been down -- how many times we've been through this, now. trump likes to test the waters, he likes to see what happens and float this idea of cleaning house at the justice department and then he gets enough pushback from either sessions or congress and he doesn't actually do it. >> yeah. or somebody leaks the information. april, is rod rosenstein still on the potential chopping block, because it certainly seems like the president's ire right now is focused on the cohen matter, more anything else. he seems to be, i think it's, an plop tick about it. >> so many people are talking about obstruction of justice and a possible constitutional crisis if he does this. and this would be, the president's bye, phillip, moment, i would think. the birth date doesn't like it. and even going to jeff session, if that happens, for jeff sessions to come out and give this warning shot to the white house, this is saying something. jeff sessions has sa

with donald trump. why weren't there hundreds of women lining up to get $130,000 in free money from michael cohen. the whole thing makes no sense. you don't have to have gone to law school to understand that is crazy. we as civilians pay lawyers, we hire someone like michael avenatti. they don't pay for our issues, we pay them. so donald trump didn't pay his lawyer. his lawyer paid a random woman, who all he did was take a picture with in california? this is crazy. so i think donald trump's problem is, to your point -- i think to both of your point, he never should have answered the question. because the only logical answer to this, right, is, of course, i paid -- had my lawyer do this, and, of course, i meant to pay him back. which means they attempted to influence the election. there's no way out for donald trump here. the mueller case on its own with the russia stuff is tough. the stormy daniels case feels like an absolute vice for this president. >> ron klain, i want to go to the intersection of the

trump without mr. trump knowing about it. that's part of the overall structure, that michael had great latitude to take care of matters. >> reporter: in michael cohen, trump hired a version of his long-time mentor, the lawyer roy cohn, an aggressive defender of all things trump, no questions asked. after dantonio finished his book on trump, he got the cohen treatment in what turned out to be an empty threat. >> then he got mad, and it was, well, you just bought yourself an "f'ing" lawsuit, buddy. i'll see you in court. >> reporter: in 2011, michael cohen described his job this way. >> my job is i protect mr. trump. that's what it is. if there's an issue that relates to mr. trump that is of concern to him, it's of course of concern to me. and i will use my legal skins within which to protect mr. trump to the best of my ability. >> reporter: cohen, a sometimes democrat, first came to trump's attention after buying apartments in trump developments. then went to the mat for trump against one of his condo boards and won. >> trump

trump? >> he says a limited role, andrew. are you buying that? >> no. i think that he's going to kind of move himself into the white house and he's kind of like the flavor of the moment for trump and trump's going to listen to him. the question is is giuliani going to play this cool fixer or is he going to play to more of what his type is, which is as an attack dog. he was once called a human hand grenade by the "new york times." that's his natural posture. is he going to pour gas on the fire? >> what do you think he does with trump? the former or the latter? >> i don't think that giuliani is going to play the mollifying force. i think that giuliani is going to talk about firing rosenstein. i can't say he's going to recommend it but it will come up and i'm not sure that giuliani is kind of going to be, you know, just let the process play out. he's not that kind of personality. >> andrew kirtzman, thank you so much for coming by. the infamous john baron is back. what he says about then citize

trump -- >> but one thing donald trump is, he's a compassionate man. he's a man of great intellect, great intuition and abilities. >> mr. trump's memory is fantastic and i've never come across a situation where he has said something that is not accurate. >> there are -- seriously? >> yes, seriously. >> mr. trump truly cares about america. he love this is country. >> he is an amazing negotiator. maybe the best ever in the history of the world. >> you guys are down and it makes sense that -- >> says who? says who? >> most of them. all of them. >> he's a smart man. he's a decisive man. he's a swift-acting individual. >> generous, compassionate, principled, empathetic and kind, humble, honest and genuine. >> he's not lying. he was proteching a friend. there is a different. >> what is the difference? >> the difference is he was being a true friend. it doesn't matter to him. he will ultimately and i said this so many times, he will ultimately go down in history as the greatest president. >> mark, according to the latest report in "the new york times," associ

trump: -- [crowd booing] pres. trump: i will tell you why. i've been talking about it for a long time. if our justice department was doing the right thing, they would be a lot more tougher on those people. there is tremendous crime and corruption on the other side. we need to drain the swamp. we need to vote against guys like jon tester who can destroy a man with innuendo. we have to be very careful with the press. they do the same dam thing. we love our country. we believe our citizens deserve a government that is loyal to them in return. for too long the loyalty of michigan workers was repaid with pure and simple betrayal. you were betrayed. for decades, you were dealt one devastating blow after another. disastrous trade deals, which i'm straightening out, -- there may be a little pain for little while. ultimately, i love my farmers. they are great. [laughter] , the trump: don't forget farmers have been doing lousy for 15 years. let's face it. if you look at a graph it is been like this. when i say im negotiating nafta and if they don't mak

trump university. the real estate seminar that promised you, too, could get rich just like donald trump. >> if you don't learn from the people that we're going to be putting forward, and these are all people that are hand picked by me. >> but he did not hand pick them. just one of the fraud claims made by former students. once again michael cohen went on the attack. >> so when they talked about frauds and scams, why don't you ask like the 14-year-old boy who went with his mom and ended up making a million dollars. >> he seemed confident trump would prevail. >> mr. trump is doing incredibly well in this lawsuit. >> but after a five-year battle trump settled agreeing to pay $25 million to former students. then in the late stages of the campaign cohen paid stormy daniels to keep quiet. >> so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> michael cohen's years of fierce loyalty would not be prepaid by a position in president trump's administration. yet he has remained a fierce supporter. in march of 20

that meeting brought together three top officials from the trump campaign, donald trump jr., paul manafort, and jared kushner, with an entourage of russians, and their associates. and now nbc news is reporting that a key figure in that meeting, russian lawyer natalia vessel na veselnitskaya has a relationship with a top official previously unknown. she's been in league with the prosecutor general in russia since at least 2014. up until now, she's maintained she's just a private attorney, telling the senate judiciary committee, i operated independently of any governmental bodies. but when confronted with those e-mails, in an interview with nbc's richard engel, she described herself as an informant, in other words, a spy for the top kremlin prosecutor. she's working for the kremlin. here's how engle pressed her about the nature of her kremlin connections. >> reporter: the only reason i'm asking these questions is because of the contacts that you had with the most senior people who are now in our government . >> you said your relationship with the prosecutor general is, what? >> i'm a spy. an

but here there's a loyalty to spread that pro-trump message. it's dangerous. >> imagine with that montage you showed at the beginning, if that was 173 different independently owned broadcasting stations, reflecting real community news, reflecting diversity, owned by diverse populations, minorities and women. what a better media environment we would have and how much more reflective of the public interest that would be than to have this one voice which is not going to reach three-quarters of the american people putting out this kind of garbage which is passed off as news. >> don, if i can jump in here, there is nothing wrong with having a conservative bent to producing the news. the weekly standard, plenty of publications are conservative in their approach to the issues and what they choose, where they choose to come down on an editorial page. but they will also give a hard time to their partisans, to their pals, point out when that's a problem. what gets into a completely different territory in media, and it's not something we've seen, is where

donald trump -- donald trump, though, donald trump -- donny deutsch, this is out of a steve miller song. he's "flying like an eagle." donny, i'm telling you even in donald trump's most grandiose lie about how much money he's worth -- he would have to multiply that 100-fold to even be able to sweep jeff bezos's driveway. >> i know, i absolutely know for a fact that what does drive him crazy is the actual number. this is how sick he is the president of the united states, the number that bezos has. you know that donald trump is the great promoter. several hours ago probably one of the moment momentous international events that donald trump could co-opt, historically happening, with south korea. so to me, this a-plus president, who is so brilliant, and so straight of mind would this morning be jumping all over that. taking all the credit. what happened? i'm confused. >> donny, i go back to what i said last block. there is no rational 72-year-old man who -- who acts this way. and i'm not joking. everything willie, everything he does seems to be against his own best interests. you can talk ab

me. >> laura: you're like trump. know cussed on yourself. >> see how much weight i gained. >> laura: real quick. >> the -- if you are trying to appeal to your base, the tweeting is perfect. they wake unand they can't wait to read it. if you're trying to win over the swing voters, republicans that will need them in the fall, focus on policy and success. >> laura: and this is how your life is getting better. interesting. nigel will join us from london to analyst the heart breaking story from elphie evans. what you haven't heard we'll reveal tonight. so you're looking for male customers, ages 25-54, who live within five miles of your business? like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found. >> laura: if a

trump because you have down fred trump. i think you can use donald trump now and just consolidate. >>> tonight on the beat, i have an interview with the oscar winning actor sean penn and his new book about america in the age of trump. i'm ari melber. you're watching "the beat" on msnbc. with new car replacement, if your brand new car gets totaled, liberty mutual will pay the entire value plus depreciation. liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. is it to carry cargo... or to carry on a legacy? its show of strength... or its sign of intelligence? in crossing harsh terrain... or breaking new ground? this is the mercedes-benz suv family. greatness comes in many forms. lease the gla250 for $349 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. for all the noses that stuff up around daisies. for all the eyes that get itchy and watery near pugs. for all the people who sneeze around dust. there's flonase sensimist allergy relief. it relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestio

trump without mr. trump knowing about it. that's part of the overall structure, is that michael had great latitude to take care of matters. >> reporter: in michael cohen, trump hired his konsellier, an aggressive defender of all things trump, no questions asked. after dan toneio finished his book on trump, he got the cohen treatment. >> then he got mad, you just bought yourself an f'ing lawsuit, buddy. i'll see you in court. >> in 2011, michael cohen described his job this way. >> my job is, i protect mr. trump. that's what it is. if there's an issue that relates to mr. trump that is of concern to him, it's, of course, of concern to me. and i will use my legal skills in which to protect mr. trump to the best of my ability. >> reporter: cohen, a sometimes democrat, first came to trump's decision after buying apartment ifs in trump developments. then went to the mat for trump against one of his condo boards. and won. >> trump loved him for it. that was the beginning of it. and then after that, they became close. it was much mor

whisperer, because he can go and talk to donald trump and persuade him ona talk to donald trump and persuade him on a number of issues. certainly he has been credited for having a slightly different approach and syria. but it doesn't feel, despite all that bonhomie, despite all the laughing and joking we have seen in front of the cameras, it doesn't feel like he has persuaded him on a lot of issues. and in terms of donald trump, he continues to push the america first agenda, and in that congress speech he was very clear about it not being america first, about president macron really feeling that he wanted to put forward a worldview. and we saw that again today. this is in some respects an incredibly successful state visit, because it is again wanding france and the us. you have seen that real bond between two presidents. but, at the same time, as president macron walks away, there will be some asking exactly what has been achieved. because in that news conference you heard him asked about the key subjects, about syria, on which he is certainly committed, on which france is certainly

that's trump. susan for usa today and chuck rosenberg, former senior fbi attorney and msnbc contributor. i want to ask you, chuck, and i don't know if this is within your purview to answer, but i know it's my question. i read the long form of the transcript, the part of it that grabbed me, that george did with him. i think it's a great interview. i don't think he should have identified the clinton thing, but let's go on. he said other and over again his loyalty was to the institution and to his country. i saw it three or four times in a row. i think he really wanted to get into the interview early on. loyalty to the fbi. you can talk about what it is because you were there. do agents of the bureau think of their loyalty to the bureau as basically an identity as loyalty to the country? because that's the way it came across. >> thing is some truth to that, chris, that in the justice department and the fbi we think about ourselves as being part of an institution. so we're institutionalists. and that o

trump? any concerns? >> things did not go well as trump called out some members... >> narrator: the confrontation between flake and trump signaled a crisis in the g.o.p. >> between donald trump and senate republicans... >> narrator: and raised th question of who would control the republican party. >> the 2016 presidential race is underway. >> 2016 presidential race starts to take shape. >> it's game time for the republican national convention.t >> elishment republicans skipping the event. >> not going to be here because they can't support him. >> i've never seen anything like this at a convention. >> narrator: the campaign that followed was unlike any republicans had seenefore. >> trump is encouraging gun rights advocates to act out against hilly clinton. >> called president obama the founder of isis. >> narrar: the candidate was a lightning rod. >> attacking a federal judge because he is mexican-american. >> trump called r miss piggy and miss housekeeper. >> donald trump is questioning the parents of a f

it's trump, right? at this moment, that tendency, the thing that trump does to diminish people rather than enhance them is right on the brink of coming back to bite him because michael cohen is maybe the most important example of someone who is now realizing that he has not been enhanced by donald trump, but he's ultimately going to be diminished, by being put in jail. as he's realizing that it could be the cause for him to ultimately turn on donald trump. >> i think john is exactly right. look at the people who have left the white house. they end up leaving in disgrace or under an indictment. or potential indictment. >> or as some federal prosecutors say on team america, working for bob mueller. >> that's right, they flip. one of the interesting aspects of the kind of corrosiveness of donald trump's washington, think of how prestigious it used to be to work in the white house. look at the law firms that turned their back on donald trump. how prestigious it used to be to represent the president. you sti

and and china and that is his priority. —— mr trump. and despite the a p pa re ntly —— mr trump. and despite the apparently real friendship between the two leaders, shinzo abe has been left out again. japanese tariffs on steel and aluminium exports have not been dropped and that was definitely what shinzo abe was hoping for, and he has now been drawn into discussing the possibility of a bilateral trade deal between japan and the united states and that is something that again, japan absolutely does not want. it wants the us to come back into the trans—pacific partnership, which the pen is currently leading after trump left last year. thanks very much for that. -- japan. cu ban officials have announced a replacement for president raul castro, who's stepping down and ending six decades of rule by his family. the new leader will be the current vice president, miguel diaz—canel. raul castro will stay on as the head of the communist party and is expected to remain a powerful influence. our correspondent will grant reports from havana. cuba's old cu ba's old guard cuba's old guard i

i voted for trump. the reason why is if you go back and listen to everything that the democratic party said, schumer, pelosi, all of them, they were backing hillary up for a crookedness. i felt in my heart that were she was selling out our country for the benefit of herself. who is an american citizen, that woman don't deserve. she needs to stay in the woods. what comey done was a disgrace to our president. yes, i trust him. he is trying to put our nation back together. he is trying to help the american people to survive. what they have done over in benghazi and what he gave all that money to iran, he was trying to destroy our country, obama was. all of the democrat party, yes i would vote for trump again. i hope if we can fix it, like china did, we can keep him in there forever. host: who was the last democrat you voted for? we lost jane. mark is in lincoln, nebraska. 1993, there was a high-ranking fbi agent that was caught selling secrets to the russians. this is on tv -- this was on tv. boss, heeller

people in this administration, people loyal to trump, are worried trump would fire mueller's boss over a lawful raid of the president's lawyer. remember, the president does have the power to fire doj officials for almost any reason, except an illegal reason, except an obstructive reason. "the washington post" goes on saying sessions wanted to convey the untenable position that rod rosenstein's firing would put him in, sessions in. untenable is a careful word, maybe a euphemism, because it may be more than untenable for sessions. if he has reason to know that a firing is taking place for an illegal reason, and he stands by as that happens at the doj that he is still in charge of, that could lead to his own problems. his own criminal liability. what everyone thinks of jeff sessions who served as a criminal prosecutor, he knows by the time watergate was over, nixon's attorney general served 19 months in prison. as for reporting tonight, sessions does not like the way rosenstein has been treated by the president and had expressed such concern for months. this report notes, he's been on the

trump, maybe not anymore. for years, mr. trump treated mr. cohen poorly with at least twice threats of being fired kooraccog to interviews with at least half a dozen people familiar with their relationship. rev, i want to ask you. being "the new yorker" you are, you probably know michael cohen. maybe he's not an intimate of yours, but you probably know him. the conventional wisdom, that it poses great harm to donald trump, but that michael cohen is almost certainly going to flip on donald trump. this story that donald trump is maybe a bad boss, this is part of the narrative that's going to get us to the moment when michael cohen turns on donald trump. >> i think it is very, very possible that michael cohen is looking at this from a different perspective. how many times do you know someone who says, i'll take a bullet, until somebody points a gun at them and now you're looking at a real bullet. and what michael cohen now has to assess is the character of the person he's been working for. if "the times" story is right that he was poorly treated

trump's attorney and mr. cohen's attorney, that this motion, this effort, it's a joint effort by both of them to stay the case, their motion, to quote the judge, had gaping holes in it. quote/unquote. that's a big statement by a sitting judge. that's not something that you want a judge to tell you about your motion. >> what were the gaping holes? >> there was a number of them, there was no declaration for michael cohen, one. they wanted to have this both way. they didn't want to have a stake out a position. >> this is a response to what happened in federal court on friday? >> absolutely. it's a response to an argument we put before the court and the judge thought was well founded. he needed to take a definitive position. that was one gaping hole. the other gaping hole was there's no testimony or declaration or evidence that they need this testimony in order to defend themselves in our case, that it's absolutely vital. guess what, lawrence, i have news for you. look at the declaration, they didn't cure that by

trump: that's true. our amazing chairwoman, the republican national committee, she has done some job. if you remember, she ran the state of michigan. and who won the state of michigan after decades? [applause] i remember that night. it has been a long time since the republicans won michigan. and they say donald trump has won the state of michigan. [applause] we won a lot of other states come also. that was some nine. i want to thank her for the great job. literally from the beginning. someone at the rnc, i said, get that women in michigan. we need to elect more republicans so we can protect our cities. protect our borders, grow our economy, and continue to make america great again. [applause] pres. trump: and that's what we are doing. we are doing some job. we are doing it together. you see what is happening with regulations, with massive tax cuts, with the judges. we are appointing judges like never before. never before has anything ,appened like what we are doing or great conservative republican judges

for trump supporters and people of color who reject trump. threat can be mobilizing, we know that. all this stuff. let's get to the, let's get to the results. so look at these. so we have all these different modes of political participation. everything from whether or not you voted to whether or not you donated money, all the way down to whether or not you boycotted a company. now, once again, if we look at these lines here, these little gray lines in the middle here, like as long as they're on the right side of the y axis here, that means they tell us something important, right? and so if we look at this, trump really motivates trump supporters to get out across almost all these domains of political participation, right? almost all of them. even all the way including, up to and including boycotting a company. now, for people of color he does essentially the same thing, right? so he's motivating people, white people who are trump supporters, and he's also motivating people of color to get out as well who oppose trump. now, if we really want t

enabled trump. mara: it will take time before we decide what his legacy is. he was a reluctant speaker. it was widely thought he would step down after november. he says it's unfair for him to run for reelection because he's going to quit. howie: many in the media, print, web, television, say it's a done deal, democrats are going to take over the house. mara: i'm shocked at how many think this is done. i hear it from republicans. i am even more shocked to hear it from republicans. they have a lot of structural advantages. the democrats have an uphill climb. ryan isn't the tipping point. ryan is a psychological blow to republicans and it's a morale booster for democrats. will donors still give to paul ryan if they know he's a lame duck. howie: since most of democrats are saying they are not planning to impeach the president. mara: i respect charwood, but that is ridiculous. to say he's going to be impeached if the democrats win, which is what harwood is saying is exactly what the republicans are sayin

it comes from trump himself. he wrote in the art of the deal that misrepresenting the size of the trump organization was key to its success. i began to call the company the trump organization. the word organization made it sound much bigger. few people new it was operated out of a couple of tiny offices on avenue z in brooklyn. maybe that is what it means to run a company the trump way. >> we could run our country the way i run my company, we would have a country would be so proud of. you would be proud of it. >> the trump way meets veterans affairs. >> yeah. i think watching what happened today is a really chilling mi o microcosm of what trump is doing. this is man with no policy understanding and no desire to learn. we saw this more glaringly than anywhere else. he put somebody forward who we knew -- reports are coming out we have known as long as 2012 that the man was suspect. he created a hostile work environment. he had no qualifications to run the v.a. he was reported to be drinking on the job. out of all t

in the mafia he also sees in trump and in the trump white house. the circle of deceit, the demands for loyalty pledges, the sort of with us or against us world view. and the constant lies and copy says it became very clear to him that the lifestyle he saw within the mafia and the mob was evident in the oval office now. >> two more questions, the small hands reference which i thought was a bit cheap but the more serious question about trump's admitting he likes oaths of loyalty. >> that's right pep talks about the loyalty oath. this is something that comey got into in his senate testimony that we remember. there was one-on-one dinner comey had with president trump in the green room of the white house where the president asked for his personal loyalty. they went back and forth. comey made clear it wouldn't give his personal political loyalty, he would be loyal to the truth. they sort of left it at that. after that point, trump went through a litany of accusations against him to try to convince comey they weren't true beginning with the sexual assault

but it's better, much better that trump, for trump's side at this point that trump knew about the agreement that the greemen was an actual agreement. now the claim for recision is not valid in a federal court under the federal arbitration act and they do go to arbitration. >> they're all over the place on whether he knew or didn't know, they've got to make up their mind. >> all right, we can talk about this all night. >> that's where we'll focus on this. >> we could talk about this all night but elvis has left the building. >> tooth paste is out of the tube. >> we said that one already. hey, thank you, guys. >>> we'll get another member of the president's cabinet resigned over unearth call behavior. sources telling cnn the president is angry at epa chief scott pruett. what he did that has him in a lot of trouble, next. here you go little guy. a cockroach can survive submerged underwater for 30 minutes. wow. yeah, wow. not getting in today. not on my watch. pests never stop trying to get in. we never stop working to keep them out. terminix. defenders of home. janice, mom told me you bought a

the house inquiry into what trump knew and when. trump/putin conspiracy plus obstruction of justice. agree? disagree? >> agree. there's several points in this document when you go through it where you see them go. they ask somebody a question, and they say, no, somebody else. for example, ukraine and offensive weapons. that changed in the rnc platform. you see it in the document. they go and ask was manafort involved in this? no, manafort didn't know anything about it. it was somebody else in the campaign. but it stops. >> no follow-up. >> right. and senator mccain has brought this up repeatedly. it was a complete shock to him. the republican party going soft on russia. this is really odd, yet this policy change happened. they didn't explore it. it's not even in the report. and we know a lot of these leads are being run down by the mueller investigation. i'm sure we're going to find out more. in every aspect, this report is going to look foolish because we're going to have a great investigator, our nation's best, come forward with s

for instance two days before the trump tower meeting donald trump jr. had two calls with the son of a russian oligarch who was arranging logistics for the meeting. accordg to democrats, quote, donald trump jr.'s phone records also show a bloed number at 4:27 p.m. between the two calls trump junior claimed he did not know who was associated with the blocked number. the report notes that former trump campaign member corey lewandowski told the committee that mr. trump's primary residence has a blocked phone line. democrats suggest that then candidate trump may have been in touch with his son at the time they was planning the meetings with the russians. but the republicans say, quote, despite the minority repeated efforts to obtain home or cell phone recds for the then candidate trump to determine whether the blocked call was trump junior's father, the majority was unwilling to pursue the matter. joining us now is michael isikoff, natasha bertrapped and stephen harper. welcome to all of you. thank you for being with us. stephen, let me start with you, as it

the report says trump jr. met briefly with a government official during the national rifle association annual meeting. the gop said it centered on shooti ining and hunting and noe campaign. democrats released their own views today that contradicted some of the things the republicans sorted or provided more details including that nra interaction between donald trump jr. and the russian official. they sent the e-mails in the run up to that meet that it was a disclosure this was part by the russian government to make first contact between the russian government and the trump campaign. it's an e-mail who is the russian oligarch central to setting up that meeting. he sent a gift and an expensive painting to candidate trump the day after the june 2016 meeting. trump later thanked him for that gift. in addition he was contacted twice by donald trump jr. to pursue dirt from that june 2016 meeting. there's a third phone call that had been blacked out. the democrats wanted to know if this was donald trump's number that

do you stand next to trump, stand with trump? do you want a lot of separation? are you an anti-trumper? this is the most interesting transformation in american politics. remember 2016 primaries and donald trump saying national enquirer had a story? president trump talked bet that. he tweeted saying heidi cruz was not attractive. here is ted cruz 2016. >> donald is a bully. this man is a pathological liar. the man cannot tell the truth but he combines it with be a narcissist. the man is utterly amoral. real men don't try to bully women. it's an action of a small and petty man. i don't make a habit out of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family. >> that was then. this is now. ted cruz in time. president trump, the fact that his first year disoriented and distressed members of the media is not a bug but a feature. wow. >> he is up for reelection in 2018 this year. he needs those trump supporters in his state for what is emerging. >> this is why people don't like and don't trust politicians, case in point. >> our reporters share from their notebook

you remember that the trump campaign, trump himself said there was no follow up to the trump tower meeting. i spoke today with the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee. here's what he told me. >> yes. she reaches back to the trump family right after the election saying we want to follow up now on this request we have on the act. so clearly, there's an expectation there on the russian side that they may have success with the act. given the prior meeting in communications dealt with the offer of help and the request on the russian part for the repeal. certainly seems like the russians were ready for pay back. >> the act sets some serious penalties and a lot of rich people in russia tied to putin. this was the quid proquo. we offered you dirt on hillary clinton, now you've u been elected. what are you going to do. it was not just the russian lawyer. in fact, the it was two others involved in setting up the trump tower meeting. a russian father and son, very wealthy pair connected to trump who have been with him many times. they reached out they reached out including an e-mail