>> of course the issue isn't personal dislike of trump, but whether donald trump wants to work with his republican party in control of the judiciary committee to actually get votes on that bill. we will be watching that does it for our show. i'll see you back to you 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. >>> the iceberg cometh. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews from miami. with rudy giuliani at the helm of the president's legal defense team, donald trump is on all-out war footing against the special counsel's russia probe. a new report in "the washington post" today illustrates the alarming degree to which the president is consumed by this investigation. which the authors describe as a steaming locomotive. quote, the mueller operation, like the former marine commander who leads it is secret and methodical. ten blocks wisconsin in the white house, president trump combats the probe with bluster, disarray and defiance as he scrambles for survival. according to "the washington post," the probe has been a near constant distraction for

trump. it is a very straightforward road map through things that are known here, interesting new revelation that paul manafort actually reached out to russia to see how it could work with the campaign, but the heart of this is taking the contradictory and inexplicable things that donald trump himself has said over the course of the past year and laying them out in a very straightforward, very factual way in a way that clearly president trump couldn't possibly explain. >> ruth marcus, also harvard law school graduate, so we have a full team here, the firm of kline, rubin and marcus. >> we get to argue who gets to have their name go first. >> we'll work that out. we have to do it alphabetical, i guess. ruth, i want to point out the various things here, the number of questions in here that exist only because of mistakes donald trump has publically made are quite stunning. he's being asked about tweets that he gave, he's being asked about statements he made in public interviews on subjects that

close to the trump campaign. there's multiple e-mails to that effect. so this would appear to be, at a minimum, an effort by the fbi to track all the russian efforts to penetrate the trump organization, the trump campaign, in 2016. and certainly the overtures of mr. torshin would be front and center in that. >> michael isikoff thanks very much. great reporting at yahoo news. appreciating you joining us. and joining us is david jones, coauthor of "russian roulettero and joining us is danny si val lis. >> lots of ties stretching back to 2013. those who have been following this and your reporting know that's the year of the moscow miss universe pageant. why is this important to the story? >> we do go into more details in the book. what we've seen over the course of the campaign, and even before, are multiple russian efforts to make contact with american conservatives and with the trump campaign. they try with george papadopoulos, with carter page, with michael flynn, and we see early here this predating the campaign

option if trump declined. he could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury. as "the washington post" notes, it was the first time he is known to have mentioned a possible subpoena to trump's legal team. trump's former lawyer, john dowd, reportedly then told mueller you are screwing with the work of the president of the united states. minutes ago, trump quoted dowd's statement on twitter adding, with north korea, china, the mideast, and so much more, there's not much time to be thinking about this. especially since there was no russian collusion. the standoff over the president's testimony could provoke a constitutional showdown should the president refuse to comply with the subpoena. refuse an order to testify. that would leave it to the supreme court to determine whether it's constitutional to subpoena a president for his testimony. and more to the point, whether the president must comply with a subpoena. amid this comes news of another shake-up to the president's legal team. it was a

, proximity the meeting was one floor from donald trump and proximity with donald trump and donald trump jr. and how much they talked about the campaign for a year. so it's hard to believe he didn't know. >> when donald trump jr. said i didn't want to bother him with it, this is someone we heard talking on the "access hollywood" bus, we see him spending his entire weekends playing golf, this is a guy who publically, donald trump, has all the time in the world to discuss all the trivial things that cross anyone's mind close to him, the credibility of i didn't want to bother the big guy with anything as small as this is rather strained in this situation. >> sure. look, you played the clip before of the comment trump made right after this meeting is being set up, which he says he's going to give a speech about some very interesting information about the clintons. and this is right after the e-mail trail shows that rob goldstone is promising the russians meeting at trump tower is going to have some very incriminating information from kremlin files about hillary clinton. so the parallel in th

we're talking about donald trump. >> how about donald trump jr.? >> absolutely donald trump jr. i think the president will be a father and look out for him. but the son-in-law? i'm not convinced on that. look what, we're talking about here is a dereliction of constitutional duty by the other branch of government. by congress. and i mean, we're talking about norms and customs, we were talking just a moment ago before we went to governor blagojovich's lawyer about how you know, it's not settled whether the power of the parole of the of president. it used to be that there was processes and procedures that a president would have to go through. there's a person in the white house or in the doj whose seoul job it is to vet people for parole. what happened yesterday with dinesh d'souza from the reports i read, a three-minute phone call where the president says we've never met. i don't know you. you've been done and i justice. i'm pardoning you tomorrow. three minutes, a phone call. the president of the united states. such a powerful power he has. >> he does it with impunity. thank you.

trump jr., paul manafort, jared kushner and russians connected to putin and russian oligarchs but the new details from "the new york times" in which we learned the original investigation had a secret code name, cross fire hurricane. a nod to the rolling stones lyric from jumping jack flash and the agents were afraid of leaks so much so they kept details secret from the justice department, only five officials at doj knew the whole story. the facts had they surfaced might have devastated the trump campaign and his national security adviser was under investigation and his campaign chairman. one trump adviser appeared to have russian intelligence contacts, another was suspected of being a russian agent himself, unquote. this comes in stark contrast with the way that hillary clinton e-mail case was being handled with a public press conference from former fbi director james comey and a public announcement the case would be reopened a week and a half before election day. but when it came to the trump

trump. the times said donald trump jr. responded approveingly according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. the times adds, quote, after mr. trump was elected. mr. nader paid mr. zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate up to $2 million. donald trump jr.'s attorney released this statement. prior to 2016 election, donald trump jr. recalls a meeting with erik prince, george nay der, they pitched him on a social media platform, he was not interested in. erik prince's roll in arranging the meeting contradicts his testimony to the house committee in a way that sure looks like perjury. according to the transcript he had this exchange. aside from writing these papers donating, supporting in a -- mr. prince, yard sign in myrd -- my yard. mr. rooney, so there was no other formal communications or contact with the pain? mr. prince correct. joining us now the co-author of the new book how to rig an election to be published tomorrow. and david frum is back with us. brian your reading of this. >> it speaks to their

trump new mr. cohen had succeeded in keeping the allegations from coming public at the time the president denied it. >>> also breaking, new developments from the wall street journal about michael cohen's access to cash, the journal reports, he gained access to as much as $774,000 through two financial transactions during the campaign as he sought to fix problems for his boss public records show. those transactions could factor into a broad investigation of his business affairs conducted by manhattan prosecutors and the federal bureau of investigation. according to the wall street journal in february of 2016, cohen nearly doubled the amount he could use on a bank credit lined tied to his manhattan apartment. increasing his ability to borrow by $245,000, three months earlier he gained access to another $529,000 through a new mortgage that he and his wife cosigned on a continuedmin numb owned by her parents at trump world tower. it isn't clear whether michael cohen used these sources of cash to settle

remember, the trump tower meeting between donald trump jr. and the russian lawyer, okay, the senate released the documents and in spite of what the media is telling you, a total t dog, going nowhere, we'l explain. also a stunning report, new from the fbi, launched the secret investigation, and has a name, enter the trump campaign, only days after they rigged and put the fixation and the clinton email investigation. "the new york times" is inadvertently confirming everything we have been telling you about all of us regarding the massive abuse of power and corruption. also tonight, congressman mark meadows, jim jordan, ron desantis, they are fighting back hard against the doj and their obstruction.ha they are urging the president to get involved. we need the documents released. they are demanding to see it. a lot to cover and tonight's breaking news monologue. ♪ we start with another stingingng step back for the special counsel robert mueller. president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani sing tonight robert mueller will not seek a presidential indi

and so the trump administration is very much dependent -- the trump administration is now dealing with a kim jong-un who feels that he has a really strong negotiating position. >> well said. made for tv welcoming ceremony overnight, president trump also had some unexpected praise, i don't know where it came from, for north korea's leader. let's watch. >> we want to thank kim jong-un who really was excellent to these three incredible people. they are really three incredible people. >> you know, there's also possibilities that you're watching what looks like a reality show. he talked about the idea of a big crowd in terms of ratings at 3:00 in the morning. would have thought about ratings when you're bringing home captives who have been over there for a while? tell me what historical echo -- i remember when reagan had been horrified like we all were, by the loss of 241 marines in lebanon when that barracks was attacked. i wonder if he can mask it that way, what's going on with everything, with stormy daniels and all that, in this short run. >> first of all, we're overwhelmed by headlines

client donald trump in a couple of weeks. i repeat rudy guiliani talking to everyone except apparently donald trump. we'll i'm sure have more on that and discussion of a potential interview with bob mueller. that does it for "the beat." "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. >>> how scared is trump? this scared. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris math you ooze in boston. the bbc is reporting according to sources in kiev, trump fix ter michael cohen received $400,000 for setting up a meeting with president trump and the ukrainian press poroshenko. we have not verified that report. faced with the evidence on trump's web of eastern promises, the president himself is setting up what appears to be a fifth amendment strategy not answering robert mueller's questions on the ground his answers would tend to incriminate him and claim that as justification for taking the fifth which trump himself associated with gangsters but also on the political ground now that the mueller investigation is out to get him. indeed, presi

trump's legal team. and that makes john dowd suspect number one in this leak because he is now outside mr. trump's legal team. in fact, john dowd quit the trump legal team within a week and a half of getting those questions from the special prosecutor. the special prosecutor's office could not possibly have leaked the document because they don't have the written list of questions that was created by john dowd and jay sekulow. john dowd has denied today that he leaked those questions. john dowd can now fairly be described by "the new york times" or anyone else as a person outside of trump's legal team. john dowd is also the star of a dramatic scene delivered as the lead of "the washington post" report tonight complete with the terrible dialogue of a terrible hollywood screenwriter that john dowd has told nbc news he thinks is an accurate representation of the scene. and that means, of course, it is a scene that makes john dowd the hero, the less for trump supporting readers. in a tense meeting in early ma

, trump. but there is worry don blankenship could end up the winner tomorrow making it easier for joe manchin to get reelected. finally, let me finish with trump watch, and you won't like it. this is "hardball," where the action. thank you. call in the next ten minutes... and if that's not enough, we'll look after your every dollar. put down the phone. and if that's not enough, we'll look after your every cent. grab your wallet. (beeping sound) (computer voice) access denied. and if that's still not enough to help you save... oh the new one! we'll bring out the dogs. mush! (dogs barking) the old one's just fine! we'll do anything, seriously anything, to help our customers. thanks. ally. do it right. this is not just a yard. it's where memories are made. and you have the best seat in the house. the john deere x350 select series with the exclusive mulchcontrol™ system. nothing runs like a deere™ >>> well, god help us. president trump is ready the make an announcement on the iran nuclear deal

he said trump directed. he said something came out of this retention fee that michael cohen had access to and he could pay it off month to month without having to tell the president he had gotten the money. he got in trouble by saying this was to avoid an election eve daft disaster for the candidate. he said it on "fox & friends" yesterday morning. today he says it had nothing to do with an election. trump still didn't direct the money but he paid it. and also it wasn't to do with the election, but with the trump brand and his relationship with his family. >> which is difficult to square because everything we know about donald trump is that he's a penny pinchers and controls all his money. he's a micromanager of the bills for his building. >> when he pays the bills. >> so it's surprising that $130,000 would just somehow leave his bank account and him not note about it or question where the money was going. that's the argument the lawyers are making tonight. then the other issue with the political motivation,

if donald trump is solving his trump university problems potentially that way with one d.a. and potentially has kompromat basically on his local hometown d.a., it does beg the question what did he do with it, did he use, it is there something illegal about -- i don't know. it is just a strange case. >> it's very strange. one of the other people schneiderman is going after is trump's own son. so he's got real beef, trump does, against schneiderman. if he's got this really damaging evidence, why wouldn't he use it? the only thing that makes this juicy, it is kind of like a page turner, is how did trump know to lump schneiderman with weiner and spitzer? >> right. >> he does that in 2013. and part of the big story about snyderman is still recently, nobody suspected this about them. but weiner, spitzer, their sexual improprieties. trump lumps schneiderman in there. how did he know? so that provides, i don't know if you'd say credibility to gleason. gleason's wacky, colorful, weird. but some kind of way trump knew something was up. >> and publicly tweeted about it. the other quest

problem for donald trump. >> plus, is this man about to be the next major trump scandal figure? >> i hope not. >> new scrutiny over an rnc mo you go's big payment to a playmate. then the backdoor attack on the mueller probe continues. >> do you have confidence in rod rosenstein. >> what's your next question, please. >> how the trump tax cuts for harley-davidson led to hundreds of people losing their jobs. >> thank you, harley davidson, for building things in america. >> when "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. breaking news tonight and it looks like potentially bad news for one michael cohen potentially even worse news for donald trump. "new york times" first breaking the story now confirmed by nbc news that cohen's long-time business partner gene freedman has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors after pleading guilty today to stealing around $5 million worth of taxi fees from new york state. in exchange, free man will be avoid jail time and been assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations according to a person briefed

and if donald trump jr. appeared to answer unequivocally, no, i know nothing about it, i was not involved, then he may have presented false testimony. i want to be very careful what i say here, but it sounds entirely possible. and if they're asking him to come back, they're giving him another opportunity, maybe not out of the goodness of their hearts but maybe because they want to see just how far he'll go to try and avoid trouble. or if he'll just take responsibility or what he'll do when confronted with those same questions again. >> yeah. go on. >> i was just going to say, joy in this one segment, take a look here. we've talked about torshin, trump jr. and victor vekselberg. for those at home, this can be vexing keeping things in your head. but the bottom line remains, russia attacked the united states and while that was going on, the trump campaign tried to collude with moscow. they had secret contacts with putin and putin's office which certainly encouraged putin. then they denied that any of this was h

this guy trump, he goes away. not sure exactly when, but he goes away, he leaves a stain on the legacy of mike pence. he leaves a stain on the legacy of paul ryan. he leaves a stain on the legacy of devin nunes, he leaves a stain on the legacy of mitch mcconnell. he leaves a stain on the legacy of every republican who will not raise their voice at a critical time -- a critical cross roads for this constitutional republic where the president of the united states is interfering with an investigation into the president's operation and by the way, this is after the president's campaign manager, you know, has been indicted. this is after the president's head of national security has been indicted and is cooperating. this is after the man that the president said was one of his top foreign policy advisors has been indicted and is cooperating. this is after one of the guys that ran trump's campaign helped on the inauguration committee and even was working in the white house in the beginning was indicted and is now coopera

, donald trump is feeling the heat. the only answer he's going to have is to somehow try to discredit legally or constitutionally the entire investigation. rudy is the rough version that have message talking about storm troopers and so forth. you're going to hear that consistently from here on. >> trash talk. francesco, why the trash talk and why bring down the whole level -- it is like a beatup owed car crashing into a flu car. mueller looks like a new car. they bringing this jalopy, giuliani, and he goes charging into the new car. metaphors here. >> this is what the president has been doing this entire time trying to undermine comey's credibility. he started to move in that territory with the special counsel earlier this year. now he's sending in giuliani. >> he calls comey perverted. i can't figure that one out. >> you're asking as if he was first choice. let's not forget how many attorneys turned down donald trump. this is the guy he got. a guy like himself. this is a guy who he tried to join the administration and

he said trump hears that you don't like what trump is doing. and i thought wow, that you're trump. >> tonight exclusive video of bill gates describing what happened the two times he met donald trump. >> both times he wanted to know if there was a difference between hiv and hpv. >> when all in starts right now. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. today one year into the mueller probe, donald trump is fund-raising off the fact that he is mired in the worst criminal investigation of a president since watergate. trump e-mailing supporters today with this message on this anniversary of the greatest witch hunt in american history it, i am asking you to renew your sustaining membership for the 2018 year to show the witch hunters that not a single patriot backed down from our fight. fact check. some of the people who were burned at the stake would probably disagree with you there. take that, witch hunters. keep in mind that the supposed witch hunt has ensnared the president's campaign chairman and his former national security adviser among

trump, jr. admits and what he says about his father's involvement. all that coming up. up first, can the north korea summit be salvaged? moments ago, president trump said, we'll have to wait and see. [ overlapping speakers ] >> can the korean summit be salvaged? >> we'll have to see. we haven't seen anything, we haven't heard anything. we will see what happens. we'll see what happens, we'll see. time will tell. >> time will tell, the president says. the fate of the historic face-to-face meeting between president trump and the north korean leader kim jong-un is in jeopardy. north korea's threatening to cancel the summit scheduled for june 12th in singapore. jeff, how is the administration responding to the threat, the threat to cancel this meeting? >> reporter: good afternoon, wolf. you could hear the president there measuring his words very carefully, not saying anything too intentionally to provoke kim jong-un or not saying anything to disrupt the potential disruption of this summit. some of th

it sounds like donald trump. bret: there are a lot of similarities twin trump and reagan in their personality and style. and the threats are very similar. change the paradigm in washington in foreign policy is very similar. reagan upset the apple cart as far as detante and foreign policy. howie: both were outsiders. a two-term governor. president trump a businessman and reality tv star. i heard echos in the 1980 campaign. a lot of reporters said ronald reagan was a war monger and we heard that when trump and kim jong-un were at odds and trading nuclear threats. bret: we were going to war with ask north korea three or four months ago, but the prospect of sitting down at a summit is there. some aggressive speech and tweets and rocket man and how big is your button. that's not reagan style. but he was saying communism would be to the ash heap of history and the soviet union was the evil empire. at the time those things were seen as inflammatory. howie: reagan got a lot of bad press, revisionist history much better.

trump. the lead starts right now. >>> rage, regret and russia. president trump unloading on his attorney general saying he wishes he'd hired someone else over jeff sessions' refusal to stay involved in the russia probe. >>> he's calling it nixon 2.0. really? stormy daniels' attorney claiming there could be recorded conversations between president trump and michael cohen. what might the tapes reveal and how much of it might be what was referred to as the michael avenatti publicity tour? >> plus, a new study claims to have the real death toll in puerto rico, and it will make you sick to your stomach. >>> we begin with a key conservative republican disputing president trump's trail of lies about that confidential fbi source who talked to campaign staffers in 2016. the president and minions have painted this as the obama administration having sent political spies to gather political dirt on the trump campaign. but congressman trey gowdy of k south carolina who is on the house intelligence commit

this story could connect the trump business from moscow to the president's personal life, whether trump has been on the hook the powerful features in the russian government. the very essence of the mueller investigation. avenotti posted an executive summary of his research late today. his report lists a number of allegations abc news has not yet been able to verify. the oligarch in question, he deposited the money into an account used to repeat to pay off stormy daniels. he was sanctioned last mont by trump's treasury department. just four days ago, the "new york times" reported according to people close to the agency, federal agents spopd mr mr. vekselberg, searched his electronic devices ap questioned him. they confront him after he stepped off a private plane about two months ago. the russian billionaire has not been identified as a suspect in the investigation. but the "new york times" report thad vekselberg was present for the president trump inauguration and that 2017 dinner where michael flynn was amongst the guests of honor. nbc could not reach connor comment tonight. we have jo

they plant what they want to be acontributed to the trump administration a trump born policy advisor and arrange a meeting for him who hears this news and we are off to the race. none of it is real. none of it. and the collusion -- fallen apart and the on instruction there is no obstruction the president cannot obstruct by doing his constitutional duties. what we are left with here is look at the length to which stheez people have gone to a, prevent trump from winning and after that, doing their best to get rid of him. >> reporter: that was rush on his show rightly calling out the corruption on the russia probe and explaining what had is all about. thank god people understand it. the reaction the cohost. two shoes. host of waters. we need waters we live in jesse waters and fox news contributor. i will start with you tonight. rush is right. >> it will me where he is wrong? >> rush is wrong because the mueller probe is not over. the -- you can say after rush is wrong is wrong. [laughter]. all right. >> 10 point victory that is unfair. there are 19 indictments i know they are not -- col

it's not about what questions mueller puts to trump or what lawyered up answers trump gives back. it's most likely to be what his former associates will say about him. and that display already happened. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. all in with chris hayes starts right now. >>> tonight on "all in." >> in the end it is not only what we do, but how we do it. >> the clearest window yet into the russia probe. and signs that mueller already has evidence of collusion. >> russian collusion. give me a break. >> what it means for the future of the investigation. and trump's curious new stands on obstruction of justice. >> i did you a great favor when i fired this guy. >> then. >> they can't even resist leaking their own drafts. >> house republicans draft articles after impeachment for the deputy attorney general. >> i think they should understand by now the department of justice is not going be extorted. >> plus, two of scott pruitt's top aides quit amid growing ethics investigation. and trump's former doctor says he was raided by trump's long-type bodyguard. >>

trump, that donald trump's too stupid to sit across the table from him? because it seems to me, that's what everybody is saying. if i were donald trump, i would make sure i proved to them that i was not that dumb. >> rudy is not going to tell him he's that dumb. rudy will back him. >> there is no way that donald trump can sit in front of mueller and plead the fifth. i don't think that is politically viable. but willie, you are suggesting what all of donald trump's lawyers have suggested all along, that donald trump is just not smart enough to sit in front of robert mueller, and not be abused. >> well i didn't quite put it that way. but what i do know is that donald trump thinks he can talk himself out of anything. he spent his entire life doing that he think his charm trumps all. if you'll forgive the pun and that's not going to work with somebody like bob mueller who is armed with months and perhaps years' worth of facts and information about what he thinks donald trump may have done in terms of colluding with russia or obstructing justice after the fact

you know how trump is, trump will be -- trump is focussed on slates and i'm sure it has annoyed him to have heard that he's not welcome at the funeral. it's also the case of trump being as narcissistic as he is, he would rather be playing golf that day. so he will console himself with the notion, i didn't want to go to that thing anyhow. >> this story coincides with the leaks and the president calling his own staff traitors for leaking and part of the concerns about leaking is what's going on with the pence operation and what might they be leaking? >> the irony of donald trump calling people cowards and traitors for leaking is pretty strong. this is a guy who's been talking to the press for the last 30 years, sometimes under his own name, sometimes john baron or what have you. it appears from the reporting, everyone in trump world leaks. at some level i think the pence operation has been a little more tightly held and there are a bunch of pence people marbled throughout the white house. it's not just nick ayers, you have mark short, his experience on capitol hill was as mike pence's st

maybe trump is right. we all think it's madness with trump. there's a method. don't be, don't fool yourself. there's a method. he knows, he said it. if he goes after this and plants seeds of doubt over and over, at least 50% of the public over time and maybe more might agree with him. that's the strategy, it's been the strategy for a year. it will be the strategy until this ends and it's why he loves rudy. because rudy has the same grievances mentality and approach to it and now he's got a mouthpiece as his new spokesperson. >> jim vander hyde, we'll be reading axios some bad news to share, they are 8 1/2 back in last place behind the chattanooga lookouts. get on your horse. go birmingham. >> we'll do better. >>> it's a risky business speaking for president trump. mark leibovich got a look inside the white house communications office. he joins us next to el us what he found out. so, you guys have recently started dating... -yes -yes cool. i want to show you guys three chevy suv's. the first one is called t

trump. after that artist rendering was released, donald trump tweeted a sketch years later about a nonexistent man. a total con job playing the fake media for fools, but they know it. executive editor of the must read legal read above the law, what do you make of the case? donald trump going to learn today if he so much as thinks about stormy daniels, michael avenatti is prepared to sue his brain stem. trump thinks that he can kind of say anything about anybody to anybody. and michael avenatti is doggedly pursuing him at every opportunity it's kind of an officer and a gentleman. he is using every means fair and unfair to get donald trump into a deposition at which point avenatti wins. >> i don't know, there is two things about this case. one is can you sue the president? >> yes, you can. they're suing him in his personal capacity. so they're able to sue him. look, the case is light on the ground. >> what does that mean? >> we had had a few defamation cases based on twitter. but that is still

trump himself. the same day this letter was sent michael cohen's partner on the moscow project, trump associate and convicted felon and fbi informant felix sater, he "asked michael cohen for travel dates for both mr. cohen and mr. trump." mr. cohen wrote back, "will do." this new reporting from buzzfeed news as well as a new report from yahoo news reveals that negotiations and planning for the trump tower moscow project actually went on much further into the trump presidential campaign than we knew. they told us it was dead in january of 2016, but in may 2016 as trump was dispatching ted cruz in the republican primary felix sater and michael cohen were texting each other about plans for michael cohen and donald trump to visit moscow and cement this deal. cohen wrote, "my trip before cleveland, trump once he becomes the nominee, after the convention," meaning after the convention in cleveland. the next day felix sater told michael cohen that dmitry peskov, putin's spokesman cohen had written to in ja

trump has no poker face, no chill. the closer the investigation gets to incriminating evidence, the more intensely he rages. he resembles a suspect at a crime scene screaming at the police not to go into the attic. now that attic is meaning awfully interesting. what do you mean? >> this aspect of the mueller investigation is the most mysterious, even to though of us who have been following it pretty closely from the beginning. we don't really know what the gulf angle means. we don't really know what relationship these figures had with russia and how important it was. we know about the seychelles meeting there are some internations that they had some financial role in possibly transferring some of the money around, but it's pretty mysterious and the fact that donald trump responded to vehemently, first on twit. >> and also with this extraordinary demand that you discuss to have had department of justice suggests that he is really upset, really worried about this in particular. so maybe there really is a lot in this room

or trump. and i don't think he is facing that decision yet. >> harry litman, as you know in under oath testimony and fbi introduce, there is a huge difference between i don't recall, i don't know, and answers the difference between i don't know and i think so. that takes an investigator from nowhere, the i don't know. when you switch that to an i think so as a witness can, because that's within the range of their possible choice, that's in the space. it's in those spaces in those interviews where witnesses can try to protect someone or just not try to protect them at all. >> you know, it's true, although, in fact, the most frequent perjuryious statement anyone might make is i don't recall. it's so frequent that people who do know are coached by lawyers to say that and think it's safe, and indeed, it's almost an impossible perjury case to bring. but yes, there is going to be a lot of news wants to the either endorsement of or undercutting of trump. i would say, by the way, this is also true at t

trump has made her disdain -- stewart, sorry, has made her disdain for trump pretty obvious. here's something she tweeted out flipping trump off in 2017. so why is trump now offering her a pardon? sure she's a celebrity. people know this. but pardoning stewart is slamming trump's nemesis, jim comey. james comey. turns out comey was the one who built the case against martha stewart. trump would like you to believe that he is writing moral wrongs. but the real question is, are these pardons really about himself? >> i'm fighting a battle against a horrible group of deep-seated people. drained the swamp. they're coming up with all sorts of phony charges against me. >> phony charges, the swamp. are these pardons about sending a signal to trump's allies? people like michael cohen, michael flynn, paul manafort, all facing the possibility of decades behind bars if convicted, that the president is saying, i'll pardon you if you just remain loyal to me. see what i've done to these other high-profile people? jeff zeleny is traveling with the president today, he's live in houston. look,

trump? if if that isn't true, if that's something someone has decided to type in there to impress people when it's no longer true, are there any legal, ethical implications to that? >> i think the bar association will be interested in a lot of what michael cohen has been doing. i'm not sure this is at the top of the list. if trump ended their relationship, then yes, you can't represent you're the lawyer anymore. but everything michael cohen was doing, acting as an unregistered lobbyist, paying stormy daniels without the client's permission, there are all sorts of things that the bar association, i think, is going to end his career over. >> you are our michael cohen, donald trump psychiatrist in effect. you dealt with both of them, you know them both. you ended up getting sued by them over your book about donald trump, which you won that case. is it just as innocent as michael cohen has no identity of his own without those words, personal attorney to donald trump? >> i wouldn't use the word i

trump's apologies are rare." a white house official tells the "times" there are two other reasons the administration hasn't apologized for the remark. white house officials believe the obama officials apologized for the united states behavior too aurve. there's frustration from aide who's fear their every word will be leaked. trump's insistence on not apologizing it one of the more consistent things about this president. let's watch. >> last week, in the supreme court case over your travel ban, the lawyers for the opponents said that if you would simply apologize for some of your rhetoric during the campaign the whole case would go away. i was wondering. >> i don't think it would, number one. and there's no reason to apologize. i think if a apologized it want o wouldn't make ten cents worth of difference to them. there's nothing to apologize for. >> we are going to stand up for america and we're not going to apologize anymore for america. >> we've seen a lot of apologies. last eight years, we've seen a lot of apo

and stand up to donald trump. as governor, you can trust me to do what's right- because i always have. >>> viewers of this program know by now that my favorite part of the work day is saying good evening to rachel every night. and we never know where it's going. it's just the kind of conversation that happens naturally from something she has just said or something i'm going to talk about on my show. and sometimes it's just this thing that happens. and here are some highlights of what we've had to chat about this year. >> that does it for us tonight we'll see you again tomorrow now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" good evening, lawrence. good evening, lawrence. happy new year. >> good evening, rachel. as you can see, and i think you know, when a guy takes too many days off from work, this beard thing happens. >> i am 98% in favor of the beard but 2% curious as to how it would look if it was just here. just the mustache to the jaw line. >> rachel, you are never going to know. >> as you can see t

tower, trump jr. and other aides met with gulf emissary offering help to win election, you may have thought to yourself, yeah, sure. i've known about this for a long time. the trump tower meeting with donald trump jr. and the -- hold on. what's that word "gulf" doing there? gulf emissary? i thought the trump tower meeting was with russians. is this a whole different trump tower meeting? yes. yes, this is a whole different trump tower meeting. pinch yourself. "three months before the 2016 election a small group gathered at trump tower to meet with donald trump jr. one was an israeli specialist in social media manipulation. another was an emissary for two wealthy arab princes. the third was a republican donor with a controversial past in the middle east as a private security contractor. the emissary from the two wealthy arab princes told donald trump jr. that the princes who led saudi arabia and the united arab emirates were eager to help his father win election as president." okay. now, they were eager

today, president trump would not say if that was on the table. >> president trump: i'm not going to talk about that, i will say that he will have pretty adequate protection and we will see how it all turns out. i think this, the best thing he could ever do is to make a deal. >> bret: in his meetings with the nato secretary general today president trump also highlighted the differences between how he is prepared to treat north korea and how he may treat iran going forward, saying that any new sanctions against iran would be quote brutal." >> bret: let's take a deeper look here at what a kim-trump summit might look like. >> reporter: the uncertainty of planning a meeting between two unpredictable users. >> it may not happen quickly, it may happen later, but the president is ready. >> they are still targeting a june 12 meeting in singapore between president trump and kim jong un. they are coordinating with the u.s. on planning despite threats to cancel the summit. u.s. and north korean officials will try to agree on how kim surrenders his nuclear program, what north korea receives in return

trump: fighting. we're fighting to defend our freedom, we need the people in washington to support our freedom. to support our candidates, to support ted, to support the people that have to raise their hand. you know, they say we have a majority, we have what, majority of one person, that's not really a majority. we need republicans to do it right, to get the kind of things we want, we've got to get republicans elected. we've got to do great in 2018. those mid-terms we have to do. we need judges who are willing to protect our sovereignty and oppose our american way of life, the constitution can't be changed by judges, bureaucrats or the united nations, we are appointing federal judges who will interpret the law, as written. [applause] pres. trump: in my favorite year, i nominated and senate confirmed more circuit judges than any new administration, by far, in history and we will have the all-time record very soon. [applause] pres. trump: president obama was nice to us, he left us a lot of judges and i

have you ever directed or has any other trump administration official, trump campaign official, or trump family member called on you to direct us treasury officials or staff members to obscure, destroy, or withhold information implicating the president, trump campaign officials, trump family members or his associates. we asked for this information. we never got a response from the treasury secretary and now we're finding out that it had been scrubbed. the whistleblower who went to look for the information discovered that it was not there. where did it go? it did not move by itself. someone removed this information and the treasury secretary is going to have to answer for this. >> let me shake sure i understand. that letter you wrote to the treasury secretary to say look, mr. secretary, i would like confirmation in writing that you have never been asked to destroy or obscure any records having to do with the president or his associates and what was his spobs? >> none. no response. he did not answer us at all. >> and no explanation? they just didn't respond? >> no explanation no, response,

he said he'd grown up near the trumps in queens and that for decades he never revealed that trump was his patient. he said that he was the most lawyer and he had complete loyalty. >> he left very abruptly without taking any questions. erin. >> alex, thank you very must have and i want to go now to the democratic strategist and political commentator and rob that's known the president for 15 years. you heard alex, i have to say on a human level he feels he has been discarded and treated horribly. he said he was the most loyal and showed complete loyalty. the president -- obviously he does not feel that's being returned at all. >> is it me or does he look like he once toured with the grateful dead? >> i don't know what kind of doctor he snchts ois. >> one that's willing to let a patient dictate a letter with inaccuracy. that's a serious thing. >> it is and it isn't. it seems to be it's about style and not substance because trump's health is good. >> excellent. >> the best. his health is good. dr. jackson and the white house medical unit said that he is very good so he didn't change the r