>> announcer: the following is a cnn special report. >>> welcome to the white house briefing room. >> i know it's hard for you to understand. >> what are you? this is silly. >> when briefings happen, it can feel like a war room. >> my colleagues refer to it as "beat the press." >> you said something from the podium. was it accurate or not? >> i'm not going to engage on matters that are in the jurisdiction of the counsel. >> if you spent more time trying to report the news instead of tearing me down -- >> frustration is apparent on both sides. >> you might find we are trying hard to provide you good information. >> the president of the united states should not refer to us as the enemy of the people. >> when you report fake news, as cnn does, you are the enemy of the people. >> tonight, a behind the scenes look at a historic room. >> i'm not taking any more questions. >> built by another president who hated the press. >> president nixon gets into office and said, we're going to move the sons of bitches. >> battle in the briefing room. the president versus the press. >> on pennsylvan

white house and this president may ultimately have to answer for sam day, somehow in the russia investigation. everything from one of the president's russia lawyers reportedly offering pardons, presidential pardons to mike flynn and paul manafort after each of them had been charged. and while each of them were making important decisions about their potential testimony or their potential cooperation deals with prosecutors. presidents, of course, have the right to pardon anyone they want to pardon, but if the president through his legal team was explicitly dangling pardons to potential witnesses for the purpose of dissuading those witnesses from providing evidence that might hurt himself or his administration or his family or his business, well, that's quite a different matter. and that's just one of them. i mean, "the new york times" today runs down the whole gamut from the pardon offers to flynn and manafort to the president's efforts to coordinate with congressional republicans, to help them in their efforts to publicly undermine and disparage mueller and his investigators. not

"mtp daily." we just witnessed a massive leak out of the white house targeting one person and one person only, donald trump, we're also still trapling with the fallout from the president's latest attack on his intelligence wheefs this weekend. they have been warned not to tell him things he might disagree with. but we begin tonight with just an incredible story. look at this. the entire democratic party has united in calling for virginia governor ralph northam to resign. this democratic party has zero tolerance for any racist behavior, past or present from it's politicians. in a develop accident, ralph northam doesn't seem interested in what his party wants, he is not resigning. he told staff today he needs more time. and this weekend, among other blunders, denied dressing up in black face in a yearbook photo and girled dressing up in blackface at a dance contest. it is a refemavealing episode. you could say it is because of of one thing and that thing is donald trump. at the same time you could argue that his apparent believe that he is bunk his party and survive is also because

. >> former white house counsel them again organized the judicial process. he speaks at the federalist society. of group prepared lists nominees but helped the administration failed supreme court and federal judiciary vacancies. from the ronald reagan presidential library, this is 50 minutes. mr. leo: it's a privilege for me to be up your to introduce our speaker this afternoon, donald mcgahn who i know many of you are generally familiar with. he has had an illustrious career. looking to the more recent recent -- the most court justices, nearly 40 of court justices, and an extremely muscular agenda on regulatory reform. these are some of the consequential aspects of the former white house counsel's legacy. i can't recall, in my professional life at least, a white house counsel who is as directly and intensely engaged on the enterprise of judicial selection and confirmation. i certainly cannot recall a process as bold and entrepreneurial. an unprecedented number of useful nominees who will serve for two decades, a generation or more. a pipeline that began on the heels of the

, joins us tonight, so as former white house aide. we continue with a deal spending relatively small amount of money on a border. the president talked about the compromise today he would not commit in signing it. our reporting suggests that he will. he also said this about the longest shutdown ever, no, it is not factually correct. >> i accepted the first one and i am proud of what we have accomplished. people learned during that shutdown. all about the problems coming in from the border. >> it did not last long. he did offer to accept responsibilities for the shutdown. >> i am proud to shutdown the government for border security because the people of this country don't want criminals and people that have a lot of problems and drugs pouring into the country. i will take the mantle. i will be the one to shut it down. i am not going to blame you for it. >> i am proud to shutdown the government. that's where he started as harry truman once put it. as the week went by, that changed, he says the books stop at everybody. at one point he didn't even call it a shutdown. >> i call it whatever

between the u.s. and mexico, the white house now says that although the president will sign this bill that has just passed the house in the last couple of minutes, although they say the president will sign this bill that's pa that's passed the senate and now passed the house to keep the government open, the white house says the president will also in addition to that simultaneously declare an emergency, a national emergency. so he can raid military funds essentially to build a wall on his own despite the wishes of congress. now, grain of salt here. the white house says that's what the president is going to do, right? they say that he's going to sign the bill that has now passed the house and the senate. they say that he is also going to declare the national emergency, but with this presidency, honestly, is that actually going to happen? we don't know. the white house says it's going to happen, but in this presidency, is anything really done and dusted before "fox & friends" says it's done and dusted? i mean, we never know exactly what the president is going to do. whether or not the w

busy week for politics and policy. looking at the week ahead in washington, white house correspondent for the associated press darlene superville joins us. mike debonis of the washington post who covers congress. mike kelly will start for you and the headline for one of your pieces. house democrats have a tuesday vote on overturning the trump emergency declaration. the reelection gets rolling today with the house rules committee. this seems to be happening faster than originally thought. the house is moving forward on this quickly. what is behind their timing and motivation? they see no reason to wait in moving forward with this vote. this was declared on the 15th, that was the day congress left town for a week. essentially the first time they could come back and vote on something. they have wasted not a moment in taking this vote. that goes to the senate and mitch mcconnell will have to decide when he is going to put this up, either the while he has come a certain window of time to schedule this. he has not announced his intentions. getting ahead of the house and senate, darlene supe

the white house." and i go, "talking about d.c. white house?" i was just stunned. >> the white house neither confirms nor denies... >> what do you see? >> gold! [ laughs ] >> let's investigate! >> i scrape the paint layers down to the wood. >> and when you heard what it was worth? >> and sold! [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm in boston to meet an heir who has an inheritance so strange, it takes years just to figure out what it is. >> my name is mike meister. my siblings and i inherited something that goes back to our great-uncle more than a hundred years ago. we'd always been told that it came from the white house, but it was just a family story. hi, jamie. welcome to boston. >> thanks, mike. nice to meet you. >> yeah, nice to meet you, too. >> mike leads me inside, saying he has something amazing to show me. he keeps it in its own molded, air-tight protective case. can i take a look? >> sure can. >> you brought me all the way here, mike. this is... what is it? mike's strange inheritance is this piece of decorative pinewood. 3

candidate amy klobuchar joins us tonight. so does former white house aide, whose new book describes the people around the president as a team of vipers. he is now suing president trump. we'll find out why. but we begin with the congressional deal to spend a relatively small amount of money on new barrier construction on the border and head off another government shutdown. the president talked about the compromise today. he would not commit to signing it when it becomes legislation, but our reporting now suggests he will. he also said this about the longest shutdown ever. no, it's not factually correct. >> i accepted the first one and i'm proud of what we've accomplished. because people learned during that shutdown, all about the problems coming in from the southern border. i accept that. i've always accepted it. >> well, keeping 'em honest, although it did not last long, he did, at first, offer to accept responsibility for the shutdown. >> i am proud to shut down the government for border security, chuck. because the people in this country don't want criminals and people that have l

best inconsistent on the topic of your communications with the white house prior to your tenure at the department. it is not credible that you both interviewed for a job handling the president's response to the special counsel's investigation and never conveyed your opinions about that investigation to the white house. we require answers to these questions. i ask the department to work with the committee to provide them. as part of that work, i fully intend to call you back for an interview under subpoena if necessary and i expect more fulsome answers at that time. without objection, for the witness or additional materials for the record. with the changes of the chairman, the hearing is adjourned. >>> that's a wrap. six hours, matt whitaker there the acting ag for just a couple more days in the hot seat. fireworks much? got a lot great people to talk to. we'll just get you up to speed starting with john dean, former nixon white house counsel. we'll get through all the headlines here in just a second but macro, you were saying to me as you were watching that he was playing way out of hi

communication technology company. new congress, new leaders. watch it all on c-span. >> former white house counsel don mcgann helped organize the trump administration administration's judicial selection process during his time at the white house. he left that position in 2018. mr. mcgann recently addressed the federalist society's annual western conference in california. nearly 40 apell what the court judges, and extremely muscular agenda on regulatory reform, these are some of the very consequential aspects of former white house counsel don mcgahn's legacy. can't recall recall in my professional life a white house counsel who was as directly and intensely engaged on the enterprise of judicial selection and confirmation. and i certainly cannot recall a process as bold and entrepreneurial. an unprecedented number of youthful nominees who will serve for two decades. a generation or more. a pipeline that began just on the heels of the inauguration of 2017 and that was unrelenting in churning out nominees quickly. now, what led don mcgahn to such a consequential inflexion point in our history? well, f

you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c., and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> the u.s. house meets at 4:00 eastern today. among the five bills scheduled, requiring the names of donors to presidential libraries to be made public. any roll call votes requested will be take place at 6:30 eastern. later in the week, a resolution to remove u.s. troops from yemen. live coverage when the house returns here on c-span. cap was a nonstarter re for richard shelby, top negotiator for the republicans, and trump who said customs enforcement needs to have the discretion to fill their beds with whoever they want. democrats say no. if we put a cap on it, 16,500, that means i.c.e. would just go after the criminals, which is what they want, incentive indiscriminately going against whoever they want. the border wall, and now the detention bed issue completes things further. host: the view from the white house on this detention bed issue moving to center stage and what will

, "deadline white house" with my friend nicolle wallace. >>> hi, everyone, it is 4:00 in washington dc where today robert muellers prosecutors are expected to lay out the most detailed kripgs yconspiracy yet paul manafort engaged in. the scope of his crimes, defrauding the government, tampering with witnesses and misleading federal investigators after agreeing to cooperate. it is a breathtaking between of misconduct. at the core there is questions. why, and what if anything did donald trump know about it? those could comb tonight as it is the deadline for mueller to file. this filing could be one of the final limplss into the case that mueller build. also confirmed today, prosecutors in new york plan to hold charges for paul manafort. the "new york times" says the president has broad hours to issue pardons for crimes, but the president has spoken repeatedly of his pardon power and defended his campaign chairman on a number of occasions. it marks the latest proof point. that's where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends. phil rucker, white house bureau chief of "the washing

of actions, including the firing of james comey, reportedly ordering the white house counsel to fire robert mueller and calling on former attorney general jeff sessions to end the mueller effort have raised questions about obstruction. however, this new "times" report, quote, reveals the extent of an even more sustained, more secretive assault of mr. trump on the machinery of federal law enforcement. perhaps the biggest revelation in this piece is that trump may have tried to interfere with the investigation involving his former lawyer, michael cohen, about hush money payments, you'll recall, made during the 2016 campaign. that investigation is being handled by the southern district of new york which is, despite its somewhat misleading name, in effect the manhattan branch of the u.s. department of justice. according to "the times," quote, mr. trump called matthew whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. he asked whether geoffrey berman, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and a trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investi

a new white house initiative to help tens of millions of women in the developing world. she sat down with abby huntsman from "the view," who is right here by my side. she's not only first daughter but senior white house adviser. >> she doesn't do a lot of interviews as you know so obviously this was for the initiative. and there was nothing offlimits in this conversation. ivanka trump talking about the russia investigation, the very personal attacks she's had to endure and, of course, making quite a telling remark about when she goes public with those opinions. take a look. state of the union, what, just a couple of days ago? >> yeah. >> one of the biggest moment was seeing the women there, seeing how many women are now in congress. and there was that moment when the president cheered them on but a lot of them, democrats, ran against his policies. were they cheering with him or in spite of him? >> well, i think they were proud of themselves, as they should be. everyone fought a hard race and they won. they earned their seat at the state of the union. and i think we should always cele

congress, don't cover the white house.i? i cover congress, don't cover the white house. usually when we have a shutdown, it's congress that's the problem. usually a president for a variety of reasons, they're incentivized by making it look like their government is working well. they also in the past have tended to be predictable what you, i think, as someone who is familiar with economic theory would refer to as a rational actor, someone who has a predictable set of actions based on what we conceive their self-interest to be. this president doesn't act that way and it's caused a breakdown in trust which you've seen over the course of today. between the president and frankly the allies he needs the most here in the u.s. senate. so to try to answer your question, this does answer a big piece of it. we were sitting here waiting and waiting and every hour that went by we were nervous that this whole thing could fall apart. so this says mitch mcconnell was willing to go there and publicly say i spoke to the president, he said he plans to sign it, here's the other action he's going to ta t

turned around. >> i just want to stay in the white house and work my ass off. >> i'm going to be working for you. i'm not going to have time to go play golf. >> i've gotten older and i'm working a hell of a lot harder than ever before. >> when i look at some of these trade deals, i say how could this have happened? the truth is, it was laziness. we're not going to lit go. >> to be president of this country, you need tremendous stamina. >> we've done more than any thought b possible. not even two years. >> let's go to the white house now to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. can you define this, what exactly is executive time? >> i think that's in the eye of the beholder. there are trump critics who will say he's spending a lot f time behind the scenes, come peposin tweets and watching tv. i've talked to the white house just in the last hour and this is somebody who speaks regularly with the president who says no, he does spend a will the lot of twitter and watching tv, but he's also on the phone. talking to outside advisers. that's something we've talked about befor

policy and looking at the week ahead in washington and elsewhere, joining us this morning white house correspondent for the associated press darlene superville and also mike debonis of the "washington post" who covers congress. mike, we will start with you and the head line of one of your pieces from last week, house democrats a tuesday vote on overturning the trump emergency declaration. the wheels get rolling with the house rules committee. this seems to be happening faster than originally thought. the house was moving forward on this pretty quickly. what's behind their timing and motivation on this. >> >> they're wasting their time. i think they see no reason to wait in moving forward with this vote, you know, this was declared on friday the last 15th that was the day congress left town for a week, this is essentially the first time they will be able to come back and actually vote on something, move it through the rules committee and get it on the floor. they've wasted not a moment in taking this vote, then it goes to the senate then mitch mcconnell will have to decide when he's going to put thi

p.m. eastern. thank you for watching. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. >> hi, everyone, it's 4:00 in new york. if you were your teenager, you would call your mom's friend for advice how to get him up and out of his bedroom in the morning, away from the television, off social media and phone calls with his friends. we start with the bombshell report at axios, a white house source turning officer dozens of trump's private schedules filled with hundreds of hours of executive time over just a few months. the leak, either the greatest act of insubordination in modern political history, or the bravest act of a white house whistle-blower. either way, the truth bomb has been detonated. donald trump doesn't do much of anything as president. the schedules, which cover every working day since the midterms, showed trump spent about 60% of his scheduled time over the last three months in unstructured skuch ti executive time, which we know consists largely of watching and tweeting fox news. axios reports the massive link has set off internal finger pointing and specu

information leaked from a white house source helps explain what donald trump is doing in those big stretches of time on his leaked schedules that the white house labels executive time. turns out the president might be doing something more than tweeting and watching fox news during executive time. ♪ turn up your swagger game with one a day gummies. one serving... ...once a day... ...with nutrients that support 6 vital functions... ...and one healthy you. that's the power of one a day. take your razor, yup. up and down, never side to side, shaquem, you got it? come on stay focused. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. >>> this has to stop. that's what donald trump said in 2012 when the national debt was approaching $16 trillion. it didn't stop. president obama began reducing the size of the national deficit, which contributes to the debt, but then when donald trump was sworn in as president, he forgot everything he ever said about the national debt and broke every promise he made during the campaign about deficits and debt. >> we'll start reducing our debt and reducing it big league,

any investigation. >> at no time has white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation. >> reporter: whitaker is now under scrutiny by house democrats for potential perjury. today, a doj spokesperson said he stands by his testimony. trump is standing by him. >> a very, very straight shooter. i watched him during the hearing, some of it. i thought he was exceptional. >> reporter: since trump told advisors rod rosenstein assured him the cohen investigation had nothing to do with him, "the new york times" reports he has since wondered if rosenstein was deliberately misleading him to keep him calm. the extensive report is also claiming trump told advisers in february 2017 they should say he asked for michael flynn's resignation because, quote, that sounds better. pressed by spicer if it was true, trump reportedly responded, say that, say that i asked for his resignation. according to "the times" lawyers were so concerned about what spicer said from the podium that they compiled an entire m

, the wild card is the man in the white house. we want to welcome our view irs in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in ""the situation room."" >>> breaking news tonight, tensions over the russia investigation explode at the first big oversight hearing since democrats took control of the house. acting attorney general matt whitaker in the hot seat denies he's interfered with robert mueller's probe or that he's talked to president trump about it. whitaker often defiant opened the hearing by declaring he would not discuss his private conversations with the president to protect executive privilege. >>> also breaking, federal prosecutors in new york are looking into allegations by amazon chief jeff bezos who said the "national enquirer." tried to blackmail and extort him. the feds want to know if the ""enquirer"" violated an immunity investigation. this hour, i'll talk with a member of the house judiciary committee who questioned matt whitaker. and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first let's go to our justice correspondent jessica schneide

obstruction of justice issues, this white house and this president may ultimately have to answer for some day, somehow in the russia investigation. everything from one of the president's russia lawyers reportedly offering pardons, presidential pardons to mike flynn and paul manafort after each of them had been charged. and while each of them were making important desighcisions t their potential testimony or cooperation deals with prosecutors, presidents of course have the right to pardon anyone they want to pardon but if the president through his legal team was explicitly dangling pardons to potential witnesses for the purpose of dissuading them from providing evidence that might hurt himself or his administration or his family orbi business, that's a different matter. and that's just one of them. "the new york times" today runs down the whole gammitt to the efforts to coordinate with congressional republicans and help them in their efforts to undermine and dismarriap dispar disparrage and his multiple efforts to fire attorney general jeff sessions specifically because he wasn't gett

in the white house? >> i discussed the mueller investigation, but not in any particular substance. i can go through my conversations with you if you want. >> there is also news tonight concerning ex-trump adviser roger stone. his friend of 40 years who mueller has accused of lying to congress, obstruction and witness tampering. seven council in all. today mueller's team filed documents supporting a potential gag order on stone. citing his recent television interviews. and how his media appearances may undermine a fair trial. stone's team made his own filing, saying he is -- he has a relative lack of notoriety. claiming that his social media footprint isn't as big as say kim kardashian's. stone's lawyers are also asking for a new judge to be appointed in the case. they object to having the same judge whose presiding over the manafort case. roger stone gave his own home security video of his own arrest to federal authorities to the conservative sinclair broadcasting. with that, let's bring in our lead off panel on a friday night. jonathan lemire, cynthia oxney. and frank figlousy. a

problem that i thought michael cohen has is when he was asked if he wanted a job in the white house, and he said no. our reporting, i know, pam you have been told and i have been told by people in and around the process real time, he very much wanted a job in the white house. very much and i will say one other thing -- >> let me interrupt you for one second to show that clip that i think a lot of us here raised our eyebrows because we knew it to not be true. take a listen. >> how long did you work in the white house? >> i never worked in the white house. >> that's the point, isn't it, mr. cohen? >> no, sir. >> yes, it is. >> no, sir. you wanted to work in the white house and you didn't get brought to the dance. >> i was extremely proud to be personal attorney of the united states of america. i did not want to go to the white house. i was offered jobs. i can tell you a story of mr. trump reaming out reince priebus because i had not taken a job where mr. trump wanted me to which was working with don mcgahn at the white house general counsel. >> i think the issue there is that one sentence.

msnbc. bby phillip, white house correspondent for cnn and john bresnahan, capital bureau chief for politico. we think about thate ros garden performance by the president today, julie. we heard theg president mak case for a national emergency at the border, a but is there a crisis at the boarder? julie: there's no rea crisis a the border. there are a rot of challenges at the border. ill hell border crossings are actually down, historically peek intoing. the number of families showing up, though, has gone up a lot and that's why there a humanitarian silence. up a lot of people showing up asking for asylum, saying their fleeingnd violence persecution. there's obviously arug problem. and of course there are human trafficking problems as well, all the things the perspective lks about but there is not now a crisis that didn't exist last year two years ago or even llve years before that there are a lot of cges at the boarder but there's no invasion in the wayre that thedent likes to talk about it. he even alluded to it in the rose garden saying he didn't have to do this right now. he's do

stealing people who work at the white house. now we asked the white house what did the president mean when he said, even stealing people that work at the white house and essentially the white house is implying that right now adam schiff has either recently hired or is currently interviewing people who have worked in the trump administration. we asked about that line of the president's tweet and an administration official says, ask adam schiff what that means. so we did and a committee aide got back to us with this statement. we'll put it up on the screen. this is from a committee aide on the house intelligence committee. we have hired staff for a variety of positions, including the committee's oversight work and its investigation. although none of our staff has come directly from the white house, we have hired people with prior experience on the national security council staff for oversight of the agency and will continue to do so at our discretion because we do not discriminate against potential hires on the basis of their prior work experience including the administration. they're d

kelly there, who is currently director of cyber security policy. the nsc, the white house. there were reports that she met routinely with the mueller investigators. between these people like tashina gauhar just thought yates was wonderful. i would hope that in wisdom, as acting director, wisdom in the incoming attorney general, will be to look at the background, look of the people who are political hacks, and figure out, "there give me advice on this? this is not for my well-being. this is to hurt the president of the united states." i know you may just have another beat, but i would encourage you that, as people make a big deal about career, look beyond career. look where their loyalties are. even though they may be in a career position, if their loyalties are not to the attorney general and not to the president of the united states and are more political than they are constitutional, disregard what they say. because the time of the gentleman has expired. mr. johnson? >> thank you, general whitaker, do you agree with the presidentt the russian investigation is a witch hunt? >> a

tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. eastern with stephanie ruhl ae and 3:00 p.m. eastern. "deadline white house with nicolle wallace" starts now. >>> hi, everyone, it's 4:00 in new york. we have a breaking news bonanza today. "the new york times" out this afternoon with an obstruction of justice opus. it's the kind of reporting that reframes how we look at questions about the potential depth and breadth of donald trump's conduct. in this instance, obstruction of justice. the new york edition. new reporting in "the new york times" making clear that donald trump sought to interfere with the investigations out of the southern district of"times" als reporting on the obstruction of justice case into the president likely being assembled by robert s. mueller. we start with the cases out of new york which many trump allies believe represent a grave legal threat to the president. from the "times" today, "as federal prosecutors in manhattan gathered evidence late last year about president trump's role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, mr. trump called matthew whitaker, his newly

director of cyber security policy and response at the nsc, at the white house. there are reports that she met routinely with the mueller investigators. you know, between these people who -- like tashina gahar just thought yates was wonderful, i would hope that wisdom and you as acting director, wisdom in the incoming attorney general, would be to look at the backgrounds, look at the people who are political hacks and figure out, oh, they're giving me advice on this? this is not for my well-being, this is to hurt the president of the united states. and i know you may just have another week, but i would encourage you that as people make a big deal about career, look beyond career. look where their loyalties are, because even though they may be in a career position, if their loyalties are not to the attorney general and not to the president of the united states and are more political than they are constitutional, disregard what they say. >> the time of the gentleman has expired. mr. johnson. >> thank you. general whitaker, do you agree with the president's statement that the russia investiga

national emergency to get the money for the border wall. the white house believes there is upwards of $8 billion they can tap into to get that wall. we will get into that in a bit. though she is supposed to have the night off, laura will be joining us in a few moments over the phone to give her thoughts on what transpired tonight. you will not want to miss that. but first we go live to capitol hill. where we have details on how all of this went down. david? >> tammy, good evening. big night on capitol hill. before president trump signs the legislation in the morning which we're told he will as you mentioned. house speaker nancy pelosi just signed it on capitol hill. now it's on the way to the white house. 300 yeas for the bill, spending bill. 128 neighs on that. it was comprised between republicans and democrats. majority of democrats. the senate passed the majority 83-1 earlier today. spent most of the day speaking. senators had mixed feelings on the president getting ready to declare a national emergency. majority leader mitch mcconnell made it clear he had assurances from president tr

for the white house in an exclusive cnn town hall. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room. >>> tonight we are learning that the stop members of the senate intelligence committee are divided. vice chairman is rejecting statements by the panels republican chairman who claimed the investigation found no evidence of collusion. also breaking, president trump creating suspense and confusion about whether he will sign a new bipartisan deal to avoid another government shutdown. he is not happy with the agreept that falls short of the demands to fund a border wall. they say the president is likely to sign the measure. he says he has not gotten any assurances of that. let's go to our senior congressional correspondent. we are seeing a rather rare public split between the chairman and ranking member of the senate intelligence committee. >> they are trying to keep their disagreements behind closed doors over the key issue in the russia investigation, whether or not there was any collusion, coordination or conspiracy between trump campaign officials and the russians. this investigation

reporting from deep inside trump world. david farenthold's new information leaked from a white house source helps explain what donald trump is doing in those big stretches of time on his leaked schedules that the white house labels executive time. turns out the president might be doing something more than tweeting and watching fox news during executive time. cutive ti. to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing it's best to make you everybody else... ♪ ♪ means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight and never stop. does this sound dismal? it isn't. ♪ ♪ it's the most wonderful life on earth. ♪ ♪ it's each day justin wondeat work... walk.th. and after work. he does it all with dr. scholl's. only dr. scholl's has massaging gel insoles that provide all-day comfort. to keep him feeling more energized. dr. scholl's. born to move. uh uh - i deliverberty the news around here. ♪ sources say liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. over to you, logo. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ before discovering nexiu

president or other white house officials about the special counsel's investigation, which whitaker overseas before or after he took over the top spot at the doj. >> at no time has the white house asked for nor have i promised any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation. >> it's a yes or no question, have you communicated anything you learned in that briefing about the investigation to president trump? yes or no? >> mr. chairman, as i i've said earlier in my opening remarks, i do not intend to talk about my private conversations with the president of the united states. to answer your question, i have fought talked to the president of the united states about the special counsel's connection investigation. >> reporter: whitaker has come under fire for denouncing the investigation before he came to the justice department, which commentators says it's not the reason for the hearing. >> it's nothing but character assassination, harassment or our witness. >> reporter: whitaker says he has been fully briefed on the mueller investiga

don't catch. >> the white house's effort to defend the president's emergency declaration to build a border wall and efforts to block the move. >> he said i never get searched when i go into the white house. i can easily wear a recording device. they wouldn't know it was there. >> plus the former number two at the fbi putting new context why he says rod rosenstein offer the president. >>> american aid has arrived at the venezuelan border. now begins the struggle to get it to people who need it. the president will address the crisis today. >>> and did an actor stage an attack he claimed was orchestrated by trump supporters? police sources in chicago say they believe he did. welcome to a special president's day edition of early start. >> it is 4:00 a.m. in the east. let's begin with the white house. the white house going all out in defense of president trump's national emergency declaration. it is the opening roar of what's sure to be a prolonged battle over border funding. hundreds of protests nationwide. they're aimed at stopping what's called trump's dangerous power grab. >> working

fence or on the rampage against this deal? so far crickets from his twitter feed and the white house. the president meets with his cabinet later this hour so please stay tuned for more on that. let's get to where things stand at this very moment. dana bash, abby philip, phil mattingly standing by. can some 800,000 federal employees breathe a sigh of relief? >> i think there has been a lesson probably wait until the president puts pen to paper before breathing signs of relief or grasping the possibility. i would say this. there is a reality on capitol hill. they will lose democrats for issues on the bill. it was said that not everybody got everything they wanted. that is the art of how these things work. mitch mcconnell said the senate will move to this in short order. speaker nancy pelosi is likely behind the deal. if you want to get a sense of the mood, take a listen to what my colleague got from a couple of republican senators a short while ago. >> we don't shutdown again. shutdowns never work for anything. >> i certainly hope it is something he can accept. >> the compromise that has be

congressman, andy biggs, former white house political director, ed rollins is our guest tonight on how the white house should retaliate against these escalating attacks. acting attorney general, matthew whitaker said he will not testify tomorrow before the house judiciary as a schedule. he said he would only testify if the dems lifted the subpoena threat against his voluntary testimony. jerry nadler responded with trademark snark and sneers. saint whitaker, if you show up we won't have to issue a subpoena. william barr's confirmation voted out of the senate judiciary committee. that all but assures his confirmation next week for the next attorney general. how should the white house respond to the radical dams and their escalating attacks against the president? former federal prosecutor, sidney powell joins us tonight. our top story tonight, the radical dams escalate their attacks against president trump, even as special counsel, robert mueller appears to be concluding his investigation into suppose a trump russian occlusion. with little republican support, the president as usual, his best

repeatedly. if he would like us to deal with the reporting process and his white house. he reached out to him on friday. i sent several e-mails that went unanswered until yesterday. they chose not to engage and afterwards, the president acts surprised. whether his aides are not telling him what we are looking at. whether this is a game he knows what it is, he is pretending, i can't read his mind. we certainly follow normal reporting practices and went over it at length with the white house and the department of justice. >> to be clear on that -- >> if it was news to them, it would be surprise ing. >> he says writers don't call. >> that's not true. i don't know if he knows it's a lie or whether he is telling himself this is true, whether his staff doesn't tell me we are reaching out. i find it hard to believe that his staff didn't reach him that this kind of a report was coming. >> that's what i gleaned from your comprehensive reporting is how many people keep him from himself. his impulses, he issues these order, as you say, maybe that's how it worked at the trump organization and they

whether national inquirer tried to the world richest man. >>> refusing to respond the white house is refusing to meet a legal deadline to tell congress whether it thinks saudi arabia's crown prince is responsible for the murder of khashoggi. is the trump team the law? sources tell cnn they don't believe he set foot in the white house fitness room despite his doctor's orders to lose weight. why does he think working out would be a waste of his energy? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room. >>> we are following multiple stories including a house hearing with matt whitaker often unresponsive as democrats grilled him for almost six hours about the mueller investigation. he testified he hasn't talked about it with president trump or interfered in anyway. >>> also breaking federal prosecutors looking into owner and amazon billionaire jeff bezos that the parent company tried to blackmail him. that's a possible violation of the nonprosecution deal. the company reached in relation to the case michael cohen. i'll talk about that and more of the house intelligence committee. they are a

williams" starts now. >>> tonight, things just got worse for the trump white house as donald trump's inaugural committee has just been handed a subpoena by federal prosecutors. in an investigation described as wide-ranging. >>> plus, the explosive leak of daily details of the president's schedule. a revealing look at the staggering amount of so-called executive time built into his day, as we learn new details on what's being called his willful ignorance on intelligence matters. >>> and what state will he say our union is in? what will the president say to a tougher room tomorrow night? and a more skeptical audience watching at home with the threat of another shutdown hanging in the air? as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a monday night. >>> well, good evening once again. as we start a new week from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 746 of the trump administration. the eve, of course, of the president's second state of the union address. and tonight, the feds have spoken once again. the brampnch of the u.s. justic department that covers the southern district of new yor

jamal khashoggi in the past hour or so the group held a news conference in front of the white house wanting the trumpet ministration to send a stronger message than it already has to the saudi government one of the speakers there earlier today was courtney ridge the advocacy director at the c.p. jane she's with us now on skype from washington d.c. i noticed when we listened to you earlier and we took that speech live on the newsgroup is that you were critical of obviously saudi arabia but perhaps more critical right now of the white house and its inaction i don't think there are more critical than saudi arabia i mean you know it's the officials are the ones you merchant all show me are critical of the white house and we are really hoping that they will comply with their deadlines morrow to respond to the magnitsky act and respond to the senate who are asking for answers about what the white house believes is responsible for assassination of john marsh and she and whether sanctions are not. yet met maybe i should have rephrased us i guess looking for actual action from the white house becaus

whitaker back for further testimony. >> at no time has the white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation or any other investigation. >> did the president lash out to you on or about december 8th, 2018, to discuss the case before the southern district of new york where he was identified as individual 1? >> no, congressman. >> did anyone on the president's behalf, either inside the white house or outside the white house, contact you to lash out or express dissatisfaction? >> did they contact me to lash out? >> yes. did they reach out to you in some way to express dissatisfaction? >> no. >> joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker in a snowy washington. msnbc contributor jill wine-banks, former watergate prosecutor, frank fugliesi, and michael schmidt, one of the authors of that expansive front-page "new york times" story. michael, you and your team reporting, going back two years and putting together a lot of pieces that add up to a mosaic which some would call obstruction of justice. >>

to introduce the speaker this afternoon. former white house counsel don mcgann, who i know many of you are generally familiar with. he has had a very illustrious career. looking to the more recent times, two supreme court 40 appellaterly court judges and extremely muscular agenda on regulatory reform. these are some of the consequential aspects of former white house counsel don mcgann's legacy. i can't recall in my professional life, at least, a white house counsel who was as directly and intensely engaged on the enterprise of judicial selection and confirmation. and i certainly cannot recall a process as bold and entrepreneurial. of usefulted number nominees who will serve for two decades, a generation or more. a pipeline that began just on the heels of the inauguration of 2017 and that was unrelenting in churning out nominees quickly. mcgann to such a consequential inflection point in our history? first and foremost, i know that don mcgann has been committed to an agenda of a limited constitutional government for a very long time. in theinvolved federalist society early on in law

candidate for the white house, the state's two democratic senators, mark warner and tim kaine, the virginia state gop, the response accelerating after governor northam's strange weekend press conference where he admitted to dressing up in blackface another time in the same year as the photo. >> i dressed up in a -- what's his name? michael jackson, excuse me, that's why i have pam with me. i had the shoes, i had a glove, and i used just a little bit of shoe polish to put under my -- or on my cheeks. and the reason i used a very little bit, is because i don't know if anybody's ever tried that, but you cannot get shoe polish off. >> so first he didn't remember michael jackson's name, and the reason he used just a little bit on his face is because he'd done it before? quote, the reason i used a little bit is because i don't know if anyone's ever tried that, but you can't get shoe polish off. but the strangest moment might have been when he was talking about dressing up in blackface as michael jackson in more detail, northam smiled and nodded and then his wife stepped in. watch this. >> are you

white house on this detention bed issue moving to center stage and what will happen from here like mike said -- from here. guest: like mike said, republicans are against this detention bed cap, and the white house is with them. we will see where the wiggle room now is. do they negotiate the number to get enough democratic votes and support here? i think that is where it will go. these talks were always going to stall before friday. i thought it may happen late last week. they managed to surprise me and make it into sunday morning before talks stalled. stalling is not about thing. stalling can create pressures, both internally and from both the conservative base and the move thesee that things along. so stalling is not always bad. it creates a new sense of urgency sometimes. i would suggest the talks are going to get back on track, the white house will be somewhat involved, and i am sure we will have more stalling before the end of the week. maybe what we see by friday is they agree to just do a clean continuing resolution to keep these agencies open while they continue to talk abou

met with the president at the white house. trump posted a photo, quote, just concluded a great meeting with my intel team in the oval office who told me what they said at the hearing was mischaracterized byin the media. we are in agreement. the testimony was distorted press. i would suggest you read the complete testimony from tuesday, a false narrative is so bad for ourrr country. i value our intelligence community. happily, we had a very good meeting and we are all on the same page. now the president. remains set in his view, even as a reporter reminded him that the intelligence leaders disagreements with him were recorded on visdeo. >> mr. president, did you talk to your intelligence chiefs today about the displeasure with their testimony? >> i did, and they said they were s misquoted and were total taken out of context. so i suggest you call them. they said fake news. >> we just ran exactly what they said to congress. >> it didn't surprise me at all. >> multiple senators said president trump should not be so quick to make his disagreements with the intelligence community pu

leading comp advisers to this white house. mueller will be gone soon. why do you think he would say a thing like that? >> it is a tough couple days on twitter for white house spouses. yesterday you saw the spouse of the white house communications director seeming to link the arrival of the new attorney general with the end of the mueller investigation. i guess the best spin you can put on that is that he's reacting to public reports, matt whitaker among others saying mueller appears to be at the end. i don't believe that's what bill barr is there -- i don't think he's there to end the mueller robe or clamp down any appropriate way. that's why the president hired him. the president was aware of the memo he had written and the aggressive stance he had taken that he believed the special counsel was pursuing and that's why he got the job. i think he'll be mistaken in his interpretation but i do think there are questions about whether barr is going to allow the release of mueller's final report to him or some version of that report that he then writes for the public. if he gets into a figh