trump: at 2:00 a.m. early this morning, and by the way, i got back to the white house at 4:30 a.m., and somebody said "oh, that is ok, we can cancel indiana tonight." [crowd booing] pres. trump: i said, "you don't know the people of indiana. i don't have the courage to cancel." [cheers] but at 2:30 in the morning, i had the incredible honor of greeting three great americans who had been held in north korea, and we welcomed them back home the proper way. [applause] pres. trump: and on june 12 in singapore, i will be meeting with kim jong-un to pursue a future of peace and security for the world, the whole world. [applause] pres. trump: the relationship is good. but you remember, everybody in the fake news is saying "he is going to get us into a nuclear war. he is going to get us into a nuclear war." [crowd booing] pres. trump: you know what gets you into nuclear wars and what you know what gets you into other wars? weakness. weakness. [applause] pres. trump: the relationship is good, and hopefully for all

trump is right. i read these things about foreign-policy, the europeans are going to stand up to trump. no they aren't. they are going to find a way to deal with him. europeans -- what have they done? i don't want to give them too much credit. [laughter] >> in terms of policy, i think the party has changed more than trump has. there was already a big fight on immigration inside the party. if you want to look at the future and see how that can be sympathized -- someone like tom cotton, who is a little more of a hawk on immigration without the temperament problems of trump. but what is happening to the republican party? is it shrinking so badly? that is why i think you should read this issue of "the weekly standard." ben schapiro does a good job of laying this out. they focused on policy, policy, policy, and voters under 40 are pretty appalled by the erotic temperament for my moral character and they are fleeing the party. -- erratic temperament and immoral character and they are fleeing the party. is

>> 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

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

dump on trump . i think he has actually done a very good job policy wise and getting things past that are important. that are important. on the other hand, the leaking at the white house today is so much greater than i have ever seen before, and i have covered white house is back to gerald ford, a very nice man, by the way. 41, andworked with bush there was some but nothing like this. when there is this much leaking, it is poison, and trump said he is going to stop it. other presidents said they were going to stop it you they all failed. and i am afraid trump will, too. covers theprobably white house more than anyone, writing for the daily. what is it like to deal with them? how much do they stab each other in the back? mike: yes, that is sort of a big question and sort of defines the white house, not the administration, but the white house, the way it works. i heard a lot particularly at the beginning of the white house when i started covering it. sentiment,ople, this and i heard it from one particu

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

what is it that they didn't understand about the trump voter and the trump base regarding donald trump. >> i think he didn't understand that it's very hard for people in certain circles on the east and the west to understand the way the average voter thanks. my home contractor, working class person said to me, i don't care what he says, i just care about what he does and i think that sums up the way people in the working-class think. they have to be judged by results. if a carpenter puts a nail into a strut and it's crooked, he could be fired. i hired professor can spout off about anything and they're not hold accountable. these people understand results and that's we see with donald trump. >> i see your point. that was great in your book. let's talk about palm beach. it was alien to me, but you write that behind the hedges, the game that palm beach plays, their scams, murders, jealousy, bigotry and occasionally generosity to make the tv shows look like nursery tales. talk about how donald trump came in tomorrow largo and his whole personality, how he took that place. >> this is typica

, 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

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

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

pleased to be here. >> jeff bezos, amazon.com ceo. >> donald trump jr. >> ivanka trump. >> eric trump. >> welcome. they're open for business. critics say he will do for america what he did for the trump organization. critics say we may be witnessing the reverse, using american power and taxpayer dollars to bail out the trump organization one last time. joined by liz plank and ben clemens, former prosecutor and chief legal counsel to governor deval patrick. ben, is this a problem? >> well, it's more than a problem, ari. and it is more than a conflict of interest. it is a blatant violation of the constitution at a minimum. there may be criminality as well. more information is needed to know whether there's criminality. unquestionably, the latest dealing with the flip flop on what the commerce department did with respect to -- within 70 hours of trump getting the benefit, his organization getting the benefit of a half billion dollars in loans from china is just a straightforward ee mol ments violation. >> you're saying barring gifts from foreign governments. what makes it a gift than a c

does for trump. because i felt the moment trump was elected the whole world of the kardashians was kind of wrecked. what i'm hearing in tv circles is that networks like msnbc and cnn are taking the ratings from reality tv because basically the whole world is reality tv at this point. >> can we give them back? [ laughter ] >> how does that work? >> i think we know how that works, and how to make that happen. >> i think it's a scary moment because we are not living in a reality show. we are living with very serious issues all over the world and donald trump is a textbook narcissist. we gloss over this fact when we talk about him and his tendency to make every single thing, no matter what it is, about himself. but it's an inflated sense of self-importance, but it's based in a deep sense of insecurity. so that's why he needs celebrities to validate him to feel important, to feel that he's someone that people are talking and buzzing about, because that's what being a celebrity is, that people know who you

trump is. i think a critical point that he made was that we knew everything, really everything that might be asked and had prepared answers at the various stages. i don't think that's the case with mr. trump. so i think he would -- -- >> what do you think -- let me ask you this. what do you think about something in a a lot of trump defenders say and that he has tweeted about, for what it's worth, which is the argument that if there is no high-level collusion provenible at least on the part of the president and that the whole thing turns to obstruction that can by way of analogy look a little bit like what some of the clinton folks said about bill clinton which is he ultimately admitted to things that many people thought were wrong and objectionable but there wasn't an underlying felony and to the extent the argument was about obstruction it wasn't enough. what do you say to that? >> that doesn't make any sense. obstruction is a very serious offense. and i think the big risk to president trump i

the trump agenda. i am an outsider like trump. he beat to sitting congressman. this was a really bad night for sitting members of congress who are running for higher races. two lost.diana, on, but did not break 50% of the vote. amy: tim murphy, let's go back to west virginia and talk about the pro-marijuana, pro--- pro-coal democrat who voted for trump -- and now regrets it. he won the democratic primary fowest virginia's congressnanal se. >> we haven't d d anyby inin washininon, d.c., iquite metime that has oxley fought r the third conessional distctct. we h havit. we are a state that is bro. w'reot realla ststat we arar a coolly. everything we ha in the state has been sent t to makother people millionaires and billionaires. amy: tim murphy come your comment? >> at first glance, he looks like a unicorn in democratic does she got elected to a seat that donald trump carried with like 70% of the vote in 2016. riding a significant wave and was virginia and across the country. he was at the vanguard of the

>> that the world and many governments knew that the trumps and trump family were for sale, and they were not selling the trumps, they were selling the united states interests. i don't believe in coincidences anymore with this family or with this investigation. it was always shocking from the national security perspective that when trump became president, america, not trump's, america's interests lined with saudi arabia and ueae against qatar and the gulf in the middle east. you put pieces together, and who knows if there is a direct line, if there is causality, but you see the trumps are known to sell, they are known to be bought, and are willing to take these meetings, period. let's just stop there. they are taking these meetings. and then policy changes out of the blue. we ha we had the same thing with the kushner family and the baling o -- bailing out of various buildings and we had the same thing with the russians. at some stage there are no more coincidences, and donald trump jr. is an adult male who is running the trump company. the idea that he's somehow naive, it's like male

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

donald trump jr. and a russia lawyer with ties to the kremlin. senate judiciary committee released thousands of pages of testimony about the meeting today from donald trump jr. and others who have come before them. among the headlines here, donald trump jr. was anxious for opposition research or dirt on hillary clinton. but meeting attendees said no valuable information was provided. donald trump jr. said he didn't recall telling his father about the meeting, but as nbc news points out, trump jr. was, quote, grilled about a phone call he made to a blocked number during the planning stages of the trump tower meeting, but said he didn't remember who he spoke with. asked whether his father used a blocked number, trump jr. said i don't know. this as the senate intelligence committee released a report today that backs the conclusion from intelligence officials that russia interfered in the 2016 election with the goal of helping donald trump. and finally, shannon pettypiece of bloomberg is reporting today t

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

she likes what trump's doing. at a restaurant, she tells me unpredictability can be a positive since it keeps opponents guessing. >> and i think that it is a good thing to not know, you know, because sometimes the best defense is not knowing what the offense is. >> reporter: back at the gas station, i asked owner chris if he ever worries that trump's words could go too far and maybe lead to war. >> that does worry me a little bit, the war part of it, he does come across a little harsh sometimes, but like i said, he says what everyone else was probably thinking, you know? >> reporter: the reason trump voters don't have a problem with how trump sees the world is because many of them see it the very same way. erin, as i always do, i finished by asking the voters if they would vote for president trump again. lately i've been noticing a trend. the answer is still yes, but then some voters say that could depend on who is running against him. erin? >> all right. thank you very much, martin. that's the crucial question, r

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

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,

on trump's campaign? >> no, they were not. they were spying -- a term i don't particularly like -- on what the russians were doing. were the russians infiltrating trying to gain leverage and influence which ways they do. >> why doesn't he like that he should be happy. >> he should be. judge jeanine: if ever you weren't sure who to believe, i'll make this happy for you. the obama administration was so determined to get hillary clinton elected and donald trump defeated that they let hillary skate on her illegal activity and created a narrative on donald trump. a false predicate, a fake dossier paid for by hillary clinton, the dnc and the fbi to get a court order to spy on the trump campaign. they were allowed to spy for a year. they kept it closed. only the highest levels of the fbi. not the field office. they planned insurance their girl hillary didn't win. they leaked information harmful to donald trump to the press. it was the head of the fbi at the behest of james clapper who privately told the presiden

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

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. togeth 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 t

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

trump. was recorded. now, let's be clear the evidence coming out of today's proceeding does not speak exactly to that. avenotti calling on cohen to go ahead and release the recordings. >> people can make their own determinations as to their importance relating to the president and what he knew and when he knew it and what he did as it relates to conspireing with michael cohen to commit one or more potential crimes. >> much to discuss. i am joined by a former counsel of new york city and a former assistant fbi director and as mentioned, mr. avenotti will speak to us in a moment. by mia, this is at least intriguing. >> it's very intriguing. look, at the end of the day, we know that this case is going to proceed and it's going to proceed of pace. because judge wood has said two weeks, if you don't get through it, michael cohen attorneys were going to send it over to the prosecutors. that i have to go through those documents in order to proceed with the case. the fact na we have shredded documen

he getso have the handshake with president trump. in theory, the traveling press will be in the room and around the world people ll see him as someone who has the same statue your at the united states. giving that up at the beginning has issues. robert: that's an important point, he's looking forge preskim jong-un but also signaled this week he wants to make sure north korea as anom ec they're struggling and he knows ob he can improve trailed and get hear -- for his people and get somet income,uld change his own stake in power. michael: he could. the question is how far does that vision go? does he want to get the chokehold off so he doesn't have to worry about stramp vacation in the country, who are thinking to knock him out of the power or does he look at the chinese way and say i can maintain an thorp tarnle season. i have -- authoritarian season. we can have b.m.w.'s and mercedes in the streets and people can be making money and aving a wealthy life sometime. china has set a very interesting example. we don't know his goal. there

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.

a group gathered at trump tower to meet with donald trump jr. the meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the trump team. what that help was, you know, it's not fully -- is it about the campaign itself? was it a quid pro quo for the iran nuclear deal? there is a lot of speculation about the avenues where this could go. how likely would it have been that a meeting like this would have suddenly hit the radar of the intelligence community before the election? >> unclear. i actually think the fact that the intelligence committee turned its sights on russian aggression and potential efforts by the russians to interfere in the election and ties to u.s. persons, meaning people in the trump campaign means it had to cross a significant threshold. if the campaign as just meeting with foreigners, you know, inside a lot of back and forth between emissaries of foreign governments who come and say i want to educate you about this issue or that policy issue or hey when you get into office we would like to talk to you about your situation. that's differ

trump. >> reporter: mr. trump won it by 16. rodgers won it by 20. but it centers and spokane and suburbs where we spent a day with her. >> this is a year where he need to take all races seriously. >> reporter: rodgers doesn't run away from the president. would you like to campaign for him out here? >> well, i know a lot of people would love to see him come. >> reporter: are you one of them? >> well, i would always welcome the president to come to my district. >> reporter: and they are base is committed. >> she's calm. and you know what, she listens, she listens. >> reporter: but now turning voters into volunteers focused on rodgers. >> i woke up the morning after the trump election, i thought i got do do something, is this nuts. the more i watched it the more she's lauded to this president the more i wanted her out of office. >> reporter: and the obamacare repeal debate convinced majority leader lisa brown to return to lisa brown to return to politics and challenge rogers. >> after that healthcare vote i realized that we needed voices really speakin

day 491 of the trump administration, and tonight president trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, is taking new aim at the russia investigation, telling the associated press that trump's legal team, quote, wants a briefing on the classified information shared with lawmakers about the origins of the fbi investigation into russia's meddling in the 2016 election. trump's lawyers may take the information to the justice department as part of an effort to scuttle the ongoing special counsel probe. also that, quote, the white house hopes to get a readout of the materials next week. giuliani telling the a.p. he wants to know about the use of a longtime government informant who approached members of trump's campaign about russian efforts. he says that if it was inappropriate, special counsel robert mueller's entire probe may be illegitimate. giuliani added the white house may press the justice department to, quote, re-evaluate the investigation. yesterday lawmakers received classified briefings with intelligence and law enforcement officials about the fbi's use of an informant in the russia investigatio

donald trump doesn't care. has he apologized to the kahne family and veterans and wives of veterans he's insulted. >> it seems as if sarah huckabee sanders with a admonishing her staff with regard to this leak but she was more concerned about the leak than she was about what was actually said. >> her press conference on friday i think it was, the day after was an absolute atrocity. i mean to essentially say i refuse to even address the issue, i'm not going to validate a leak and make it all about the leak when first of all let's call a spad a spad. there's no way this was actually a joke. that's the aftermath of the sort of trying to save it and salvage in some way but they are in the middle of a conversation trying to figure out how to handle something and say that. and then for her to go on at that white house briefing and not answer anybody's questions, not say it was a bad thing to say, we're looking into it, we're going to -- nothing. and that kind of stone walling when the president of course is going to

donald trump jr. had already released his e-mail exchange wes rob goldstone in which he was promised dirt on the clinton campaign. goldstone said it was part of the official russian government and president trump's candidacy. donald trump jr. said i love it. he wanted to get information about hillary clinton that could be damaging to her campaign and we now know that rob goldstone testified that he believed this could be, quote, bombshell revelation to donald trump jr. and others in this meeting. so there were a number of discussions that donald trump jr. had with goldstone and with russian pop star amin agalarov, and when asked about this coming from russian sources, donald trump junior said this, i'll read you from the transcript. he said i was interested in listening to information, the question, information on hillary clinton? yes. it came potentially from the russian government? again, i have no way of assessing where it came from, but i was willing to listen. what trump junior testified is that

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

people who know donald trump jr. know the trumps say that this is something that donald trump jr. would have wanted to tell his father about. keep in mind at this point ivanka and jared kushner have been brought into the campaign, donald trump jr. is not part of the campaign and he's eager to show his father that he too can help with the campaign of the that's one reason why he organizes this meeting, he brings people in from the campaign to try to do this and if you talk to people who are close to jared kushner, people close to paul manafort they describe themselves being a little suspicious as to why donald trump jr. is doing this after all he's not formally in the campaign, they've always been suspicion as to who he might have told about this. they don't buy the story essentially that he has been telling and certainly donald trump jr. is not explaining it. one of the interesting parts of this is going to be whether robert mueller and the fbi and the technology that, you know, their investigators have, whether they're able to decipher using phone company records where that phone

to define the trump presidency. bloomberg columnist noah feldman put it this way today. without the firing of comey there would have been no appointment of mueller adds special counsel. and even one year later, here we are, trump can't seem to let go of his feelings about james comey. in just the last month the president has attacked the former fbi director at least 20 times on twitter. with us tonight to talk about this, jeremy peters, political reporter for the "new york times" and michael crowley, national security editor for politico. you told one of our producers, looking back, you were among the first to learn of the firing of comey and you had enough sense as a veteran reporter to not believe it at all. >> yeah, brian, it's amazing. the first is relative but i learned about it well before it became public and by that i mean 20 minutes before it was announced no one else in our newsroom heard about it. i had a source who i can't get into the details but almost by accident found out about it very soon after the

trump didn't break it. the system was broken. that's why we have trump. trump is making it worse. >> the word tribalism is used so much. if the definition of draining the swamp to half the country essentially is our guy is in, theirs on the is, where is there room for the system to function as it has in the past? >> i would tweak it a little bit. i feel like draining the swamp is an emotional question. the fact is that it is a swamp. we are getting this object lesson right now in exactly how influence peddeling works in washington. it is a thing. it does -- all of us on all sides of the political spectrum feel like, man, it feels like if you have got money you have more voice in washington than i have got. everybody feels that. but no one really understands how that works. so the question is, who articulates that with the most emotion. donald trump did an intelent job with his drain the swamp idea saying i am going to be on your side. and demagoguing as bill rightly put it, the other side. you know, i think the reality is that there is a swamp. you know?

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 and mr. bolton might want. >> if the you were a betting woman, what do you think the chances are that there is a meeting between president trump and kim jong-un? >> oh, i think there will be. mr. trump now has gotten himself into a situation where if the north koreans pull out, it's the u.s.'s loss and possibly the region's and the world's loss. the north koreans can wait. they have waited this long to develop their economy. they are serious about developing the economy. but they are not going to come to the table bowing and scraping. the whole point of developing the nuclear weapons was to be able to meet mr. trump or any sitting u.s.est president as, quote, an equal partner. for the north koreans if it doesn't happen this time around they will wait for another opportunity. but i think the united states can walk away from this without losing serious face. >> catherine moon thank you for being on the program. appreciate it. >>> coming up, new revelations from cambridge analytic whistle blower

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

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 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

trump tower meeting. i have a simple minded view if you go to the trouble of lying to congress or to investigators or putting out fake, phony press releases about meetings you were in, there's something that happened at the meetings that you're not too happy to have come out. >> you're saying even if the available information about the meeting doesn't seem all that terrible, the response to it could be itself telling, which is sort of an investigator's sixth sense. you mentioned eric prince. here's eric prince talking about all this. >> i was on a business meeting back in january. in the seychelles. i had gone to see guys from the middle east i had done business with before. they said there's this russian guy we have done business with in the past. you should meet him, so i met him in a bar. chattered for 20 or 30 minutes. and that was that. >> the flip side to all of this is that the trump folks and eric prince lie about all kinds of stuff, including little stuff. >> yes. you don't know what to make of i