all of this after president trump said last february he didn't know of anyone aside from michael flynn who had contacts with russia. >> can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign contacts with russia during the course of the election? >> no, nobody that i knew of. how many times do i have to answer this question. russia is a ruse. i have nothing to do with russia. to the best of my knowledge no person that i deal with does. >> susan page's washington bureau chief for u.s.a. today. republican chair of republican national committee and the president and ceo of voter latino as well as msnbc contributor. you write front page coverage for u.s.a. today which is kind of opinioniated. the wall is still there. let me ask you about this compairson to water gate. i see this step by step the way he seems to be coming forward in a john dean way. we haven't seen a tape yet of president trump cutting deals with russians. >> i think it's potentially much more serious because it if volves a hostile foreign government affecting our election and that's a more serious set of c

flynn and his son. >> as we're having this conversation, i'm remembering, on my broadcast we had julia ainsley of nbc news talking about her exclusive, peter baker of "the new york times" and robert costa of "the washington post." >> republicans are enthused at this late moment because president is in the corner of roy moore, trying to rev up his base in that state. the stakes are enormous and at this point it's a jump ball. >> more often than not that resembles our first segment. we throw out stuff that we can't handle in our hour. there's so much news now, this network is all about covering it. >> they're competitive, i'm sure. but there's camaraderie to covering not just donald trump and the unconventional ways that he has turned the presidency on its head, but covering this moment. you just think of all of the people sort of bringing us these stories day after day after day. it's an embarrassment of riches. >> we also sit here knowing that this christmas season, meryl streep and tom hanks. >> i've heard of them. >> in this movie called "the post." >> 7,000 pages detailing how the w

. >> he did not mention michael flynn. we have been hearing a lot about michael flynn. there's a "the washington post" report out that the trump legal counsel is considering trying to paint flynn has a liar. why no mention of him? >> the president's very difficult to interview because he can move very quickly from one issue to the next. and the next thing you know you've been off on a different tangent and we didn't have a chance to focus on flynn. there's so many different issues to talk to the president about and trying to get him to talk about north korea. he tweeted about it that day and didn't get a chance to talk about flynn. he went on about manafort and never really addressed flynn or the question of a pardon of flynn or anything like that. but the president again moved quickly with language in a way i have never -- >> i understand you on that one. he also told you, and this is getting a lot of pickup right now, that he has the absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. in your estimation, from this interview, do you get the sense that h

. >> he did not mention michael flynn. we have been hearing a lot about michael flynn. there is a "washington post" report out that they are trying to paint flynn as a liar. why not mention? >> the president is very difficult toy interview because he can move very quickly from one issue to the next and the next thing you know you are off on a different tangent. there were so many different issues you can talk to the president about and i tried to get him to talk about north korea because he tweeted about it that day and we didn't get to it. he had gone on about manafort and trying to put distance between himself and manafort. we never addressed the question of a pardon of flynn or anything like that. the president moved quickly with language in a way that i have never seen. >> i understand you on that one. this is getting a lot of pick up. he has the absolute right to do what i want to do with the justice department. in your estimation from this interview, do you get the sense that he believes he could stop this investigation if he ultimately wanted to? >> he seems to h

flynn lied and they destroyed his life. will you consider a pardon for michael flynn? i don't want to talk about pardons for michael flynn yet. we'll see what happens. let's see. >> meanwhile michael flynn's brother making a public appeal to had president. in a tweet yesterday which he later deleted joseph flynn wrote about time you pardoned general flynn who's taken the biggest fall for all of you given the ilegitimacy of this confessed crime. later he took a less confrontational approach. i personally believe a pardon is due to general flynn given the apparent and obvious manner in which the so-called crimes he pled guilty to were extracted from him. both of those relatively confusing tweets. and there's no reporting about mueller's investigation picking up steam. in just the last few weeks mueller's prosecutors have begun questioning committee staffers about the party digital operation that worked with the trump campaign to target voters in key swing states. they're seeking to determine if the joint effort was related to the activities of russian trolls and bots and

like george papadopoulos and former national security adviser michael flynn. this new reporting comes as the president's allies on the right including friendly media are escalating their attacks on the special counsel, his team and the fbi. >> we may now have proof the investigation was weaponized to destroy his presidency for partisan political purposes. and to disenfranchise millions of american voters. now, if that's true, we have a coup on our hands in america. >> there's nothing to this investigation. the president has been emphatic. the rest of us know there has been nothing to do with russia or any of it. it's a made-up fantasy. >> it just seems like there's a specific, intended purpose to undermine the president. there's nothing to hide. there is no collusion. >> the special counsel's team has also come under fire as recently as this weekend simply for obtaining access to thousands of e-mails sent and received by trump officials during the transition. the lawyer for the transition has said the documents were not illegally obtained, something mueller's

president trump then pressured jim comey to drop the investigation into michael flynn, that could be a key that mueller could use for an obstruction charge against the president. >> and, jeremy bash, at the risk of repetition, what are all of the ways donald trump could have learned that mike flynn, his guy, had lied to the fbi and underscore for our viewers what it would take to put together an obstruction case here. >> well, the president could have directed mike flynn to lie. that's first. he could have learned that mike flynn lied from don mcgahn. he could have learned that mike flynn lied from mike flynn. and possibly what really happened across those 18 days, brian, was that there were numerous conversations inside the west wing about how precisely to thwart the fbi's investigation into the russia matter because they came from mike flynn, that surely meant they were going to come interview others. they were probably going to come interview steve bannon. they were probably going to interview kellyanne conway, reince priebus, others, maybe even the vice-president, maybe even the

bannon, michael flynn. >> so you're saying had he communications with top levels the campaign? >> yes. >> everything he is doing is with the knowledge of those officials. >> as far as i know, absolutely, yes. never took an initiative without the blessing of the campaign. >> but the president from which you know, will the president be happy with the story george tells? >> i -- i don't -- i don't know. i think they try to dismiss george as a coffee boy so i'm sure not to be happy to read that. there are consistent evidence that he was not a coffee boy. >> interesting stuff. let's turn to our leadoff panel for a friday night. a busy one at that. jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and former council for house intelligence. ken dilanian, nbc news intelligence and national security reporter, and philip rucker, white house bureau chief for the washington post and msnbc political analyst. jeremy bash, what would mueller's team have to talk with hope hicks about over two days? i hasten to add borrowing the title of clark clifford's tone, he was present at the creation. >> she kno

>> yes, i know steve bannon, michael flynn. >> everything he was doing was with the knowledge of those official snz. >> as far as i know, absorolute yes. >> the president, will the president be happy with the story george tells? >> i don't -- i mean, i ten he tried to dismiss george as a copy boy. so there are consistent evidences he was not a copy boy. >> interesting stuff. let's turn to our leadoff panel on a friday night. former chief of staff at cia and pentagon and a national security analyst. nbc national security reporter and bureau chief for the washington post and a political analyst. what would mueller's team have to talk to hope hicks about over two days? i hasten to add borrowing the title of clark clifford's tone, she was present at the creation. >> she knows just about everything the president has known, conversations he's had. and three things that struck me about the fbi having warned hope hicks early on in the administration. it shows the russians were working every single angle to mike sure they got a full return on their if vestment. second, it shows the fbi doing th

. >> on monday when the president became aware that michael flynn lied to the fbi, you referred her to john dowd. john dowd is not engaging on that. that's a knowable fact in this building, not a legal matter, not for the attorney to say. can you just tell us when the president became aware of that? >> the attorneys feel differently and feel this is a question that should be answered by them. i'll have to refer you back to john dowd again. >> does the white house believe that the fix was in, that robert mueller's probe was biased from the beginning? >> look, we are fully cooperating through this process. we're going to continue to do so. as i said a few minutes ago, we certainly felt like some of the political leadership at the fbi was problematic. we're glad that director wray is there. we feel like he's going to clean up some of the messes left behind by his predecessor. >> and in the meantime, new polling numbers are out tonight. pew research asked people whether they thought senior trump officials had improper contacts with russia during the campaign. 59% said definitely or probabl

it in some ways reinforces a couple of broad things we know about michael flynn. what we now know about michael flynn is that he is so crooked that he needs to screw his pants on in the morning. there's enough evidence now of this guy in addition to what he'd pled guilty to of just the number of scams, money making ventures, corrupt endeavors that he is now tied to, that you look at this guy and think he is generally one of the seediest people to ever been placed in an administration position in our lifetimes. we also know that this is now made very clear. it's like the last piece of a puzzle in some ways. probably not the last, but one of the cementing piece that sanctions were at the center of whatever this story is between this administration and russia. sanctions were the core of it. sanctions were what the russians were after. in the quid pro quo, the sanctions were the quid, the quid it seems was russia interfering to help donald trump. the only question we have now is was there a pro between the quid and the pro. >> phil, help me, i didn't take a lick of la

and then there is the subsequent reporting that he was indeed told that michael flynn lied to the fbi before, weeks before he fired him, and before, the consequential part, before he asked james comey, according to james comey, to let this thing go with respect to the michael flynn investigation. all of these things are just little -- more drops in the bucket that fills up, that gets closer and closer to what could be an obstruction charge. and keep in mind, we don't even know everything that robert mueller and his investigators know. >> more than that, we know a small portion of what robert mueller knows, and yet to her point, jonathan, it feels to lay people like tightening. so, how are trump's allies and associates taking all of this? >> it's actually a great schism right now in trump world. his legal team is still preaching confidence. ty cobb, john dowd, they suggested this was going to wrap up shortly. there was one prediction this would be over by thanksgiving. >> where are they getting -- >> by most, people outside observers suggest, no, this process has a long way to go. for

michael flynn is now a felon. he pleads guilty to the fbi as the russia investigation reaches inside the trump west wing. jared kushner was the very senior member of the transition directing flynn to contact russia. >> also tonight, a west wing taken by surprise. and what this means for donald trump. what stories does flynn have to tell to avoid decades in jay. the 11th hour on a friday night begins now. >>> good evening, once again, day 316 of the trump administration, it's one that will be remembered in history, it's the day president trump's former national security adviser, one of his first real allies in the game, publicly turned on him and agreed to cooperate in the mueller investigation. mike flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. he walked out of that same course a convicted felon a sign in the crowd today that red lock him up mueller's first conviction against someone who worked inside trump's white house. the plea agreement stems from phone conversations, flynn had with russian ambassador sergei kisly

that loyalty is not extended back to michael flynn and michael flynn is not repaying it. >> chuck, just to under score the staebkes for flynn, today means that he is a wholly owned subsud ya subsidiary of team muller and must answer everything and he best not forget even a tiny detail because if we come to the end of this, and he leaves something out, and they void his deal, he is looking at a whole lot of years behind bars, correct? >> correct. potentially correct. let me explain why i say potentially, brian. in order to establish that he breached his plea agreement and wasn't truthful and forthcoming and full, the prosecutors need to prover that by a preponderance of the evidence. it's rare for a defendant like general flynn not to want to cooperate and not to be truthful and get the benefit of his bargain. so you should expect two things. one is that he will try his darnedarn e est to help them and being truthful and two, that prosecutors want that. they don't want to breach this plea agreement and load up on him and charge him with other stuff. they reached the bargain think think i

the newsroom is like michael flynn is cooperating so we are just getting under way. >> so you concur. >> we have been hearing similar things that the president's lawyers are telling him that mueller could exonerate him by the end of the year. it seems impossible of that case. why would his lawyer be telling him that and telling media that. it is raising this expectation that's unrealistic. i find it a bit puzzle. >> thanks to michael and ken thomas and general ter rogers. >> it is been called the special relationship be with just his cell phone. how much damage has the president done to america's friendship with the u.k. will rex tillerson be the next to go and who would take over as secretary of state? the latest from the west wing >>> his case is a much more than a business executive. >> do you want rex tillerson on the job, mr. president? do you want him to stay in his job? >> thanks everyone. that's a quick snapshot of the evolution of president trump relationship with the secretary of state, rex tillerson, former ceo of exxon mobile. today new york times broke this story detailin

paul manafort and michael flynn. manafort is small guppy compared to michael flynn in terms of what he can do for this investigation, and this interview with kushner just amplifies and clarifies to the extent that's true. >> so, philip, we heard the big fish theory put another way thrown down here. does flynn in effect the way headline writers like to view it get you the closest to the oval office to date? >> i think certainly if you're comparing flynn to manafort and rick gates and papadopoulos, the three figures we had the indictments for last month. flynn was actually in the oval office working. he was the national security advisor at the white house, the most important national security job in this government. and was at the president's side throughout the ansition period. i think it's important to note this meeting jared kushner had with the special counsel team this does not indicate this is going to be only meeting he's going to have. his lawyer has indicated they're going to be participating fully and meeting

tooimz reports it focused on a meeting between kushner and michael flynn. back with us to talk about all of it, philip rucker, tamara keith, jonathan swan, john whileman. john, what do you infer from this? i have come to believe largely two things about the mueller effort. number one, we never know more than 5% to 10% and they never tell graph their next moves. >> i agree 100%. again, to focus on your first point, we don't really know what it means. and they are letting us know what they want us to know about this. and to extent they want us to know anything, they're letting us know michael flynn is important to this investigation. not exactly breaking news. most defense attorneys would not have their client go in for such a meeting if they were the target of the investigation. that doesn't mean jared kushner is not a target in the future, but this meeting seems to have revolved around flynn. and it's been clear for a while, but it's increasingly clear every day but even more so just the degree to which how important michael flynn is to robert mueller. and

on this other matter, joyce, michael flynn, what's the access of presenting something by a client and giving it the imprimatur and giving it to the president and -- >> flynn would have been forced to recuse from this project. not only is there appearance of impropriety, there is actual impropriety. we're increasingly see indications that flynn is going to cooperate with bob mueller's team so he will be required to discuss fully with prosecutors everything he knows, everything he was involved in and they'll be very interested in the details surrounding this. why wasn't there recusal? who did he discuss that with? who all was involved? this could well lead to an entire new round of potential charges or problems for additional folks who were working in the white house. >> joyce vance, who on all matter feds knows from the feds as a former fed herself, counselor, always a pleasure having you on. thank you very much. >> thanks. >> coming, at the start of the administration, jared kushner had a long, very ambitious to do list. what about these days? what about now? we'll talk about that whe

the campaign trail. >> they were tight on the campaign trail, and michael flynn was a white house official. this is a white house physical now who is seemingly cooperating with the bob mueller investigation. that's a huge change. that's very different than anything we've seen so far with campaign officials likes paul manafort. so this has got to be very uncomfortable for a president who really detests anything having to do with russia or this russian investigation. so to know that somebody who has that insight in the white house that jeremy was talking about it now talking and who faces his own legal peril, just a lot of things that he could be up for potential indictments for if he is willing to offer up information in exchange for cutting some sort of deal, that's got to make people in the white house very uncomfortable. >> and in one of the many aspects of the story that reminds people of a mob movie, part of his motivation may be to save his own son from peril. jeremy, this is james comey testifying been the senate intelligence committee in june after he was fired. he submitted a state

that's right. >> is michael flynn cutting a deal? >> general flynn is a wonderful man. >> tonight as flynn's lawyers meet with the special prosecutor, the mounting evidence that president trump's former national security adviser could be cooperating with robert mueller. >> it's something the white house should be very concerned about. >>> plus -- >> why it is appropriate for the president to use a racial slur in any context? >> the white house defends the president's racial slur during an event honoring native americans. >> they call her pocahantas. >> then why two different people today claim they're running the consumer protection bureau.

. >>> a one-time business associate of michael flynn, a question of the trump investigation. >>> trump spent five hours at the white house today, the white house did not want us to refer to it as a low key day. the 11th hour on thanksgiving eve begins now. and on this wednesday night, day 307 of the trump administration. as the president begins his thanksgiving holiday, there is news tonight on key players and events in the over arching russia investigation. first we begin with national security adviser and retired gem michael flynn, who lasted in hess job 24 days before he was fired. tonight julia ainsley reports for nbc news that robert mueller is zeroing in on an associate of flins named bijan kian, one of flynn's business partners, according to this, mueller wants to know what role kiaf, if any. subpoenaed e-mails show kian joined flynn at a meeting in 2016 with pro-russia congressman dana rohrbacker, republican of california. as abc news reported that meeting which was fought disclosed when flynn initially registered is under scrutiny by team mueller. tonight's other report comes

first, we begin with former national security advisor and retired general michael flynn who lasted in his job just 24 days before he was fired. tonight julia ansley reports for abc news that robert mueller is zeroing in an an associate of flynn's who was one of flynn's business partners. according to this report mueller wants to know what role he played if any regarding the flynn lobbying groups failure to disclose foreign governments. he's already discussed work on behalf of turkey. subpoenaed e-mails also showed he joined him on a meeting september 15 with dana rohrbacher. it's under scrutiny by team mueller. tonight's other report comes from "vanity fair" writer howard blum, and it's about the controversial oval office meeting back in may between donald trump, russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov and then ambassador to the u.s., sergey kislyak. a day after it took place james comey was fired, a day which american media journalists were barred and russian press journalists were allowed in. in a report, blum writes about a covert israeli mission to stop an isis bomb plot described

we've looked into michael flynn's son. these are all parts of this probe that span far away from just the trump campaign and russia. so there's a lot that has to be wrapped up here. and we know in the case of paul manafort, someone who's actually been indicted in this probe, it's not until may 7th that we'll see his trial. and the special counsel's office will not shut down until at least that trial begins. so it seems in this case, ty cobb is definitely engaging in wishful thinking, probably to try to keep a sense of calm among the white house. >> hey, chuck, robert mueller is such a fascinating combination of things. a wounded decorated marine combat veteran. a guy who had the best schooling in this nation from prep school on through college. a guy who really regards himself as a public servant. what of your understanding of robert mueller educates your guess about how far we are into this thing and how much to go? >> well, you're right in your description of him. he's decisive, he's smart, he has great judgment and grea

so we know he's focusing on michael flynn. now he's going through a lot of these people in the white house. talking to them, figuring out what they know and putting this whole story together. and he's also going to be using this evidence he's buildsing to hold people and build a narrative to answer the question of how the trump campaign may have worked with russia to influence the results of the 2016 election. >> and jeremy bash, you watched that hearing by the attorney general i guess it was yesterday, and it can't be something mueller and his team enjoys watching, the rolling disclosure nature of this story. >> yeah, and i think really what mueller is probably thinking about is what's the common sense understanding of what went on during the campaign? because there's a lot of discussion about collusion and what the definition of collusion is. and i think when you really boil it down, when you look at papadopoulos, the russian delegation coming to trump tower in june, when you think about don junior being in touch with wikile

basically we know that robert mueller is looking into whether or not michael flynn and his associates met in a december 2016 meeting at the 21 club in new york. that is an upscale restaurant just blocks away from the trump tower where flynn was serving on the presidential transition team. we understand from sources who are familiar with this meeting that they allegedly talked about a $15 million bribe that they would try to give flynn once he was national security adviser if he could see that fi tul la len. in order to remove him, that could have been through a kidnapping operation, or through extradition. we also know that the fbi had re-upped their investigation, they were asked to re-up their investigation into gulen at the beginning of the trump administration when flynn served as national security adviser. this was after they had already dismissed the investigation under obama. we're looking at a number of pieces. what mueller is trying to drill down on here is whether or not michael flynn, trump's first national security adviser, was exploited to use his position in the u.s. gov

flynn but also his son, michael g. flynn. now, the significance of this, you know, is that this is the first, as we all know, michael flynn served in the white house, and this would be the first time this investigation is moving that close to somebody who had served inside the white house. the other key piece here is that we know that the special counsel is not just looking at things that you would expect like did michael flynn lie to the fbi, did he properly disclose his contacts with foreign officials, but also what he did while he was serving those 24 days inside the white house specifically as it relates to his dealings with turkey. and that opens up a whole other avenue that hasn't so much been zplord as some of these other things that we know michael flynn did, such as not registers as a foreign agent when the justice department said he was doing work that would have benefited a foreign government. so we don't know exactly where this is going to go. the reason why we've worded our story so carefully is because th