President trump fired james comey as fbi director, Law Enforcement officials became so concerned about the president s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of russia against american interests. Thats according to former Law Enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation. The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president s own actions constituted a possible threat to National Security. Agents also sought to determine whether mr. Trump was knowingly working for russia or had unwittingly fallen under moscows influence. The times story uncorked three days of vitriol from the president , most aimed at the former leadership at the fbi, all of whom had been targeted by harassment by the president or fired. It took until today for the president to address the essential claim of that article, that he works for russia. Mr. President , yes or no, have you or are you now, have you ever worked for russia . Yes or no . I never worked for russia, and you know that answer better than anybody. I never worked for russia. Not only did i ever work for russia, i think its a disgrace you even ask that question because its a whole big, fat hoax. Its just a hoax. Getting prickly, that was our own Kristen Welker getting the president to answer a question judge Jeanine Pirro could not. Are you now or have you ever worked for russia, mr. President . I think its the most insulting thing ive ever been asked. I think its the most insulting article ive ever had written. And if you read the article, you would see that they found absolutely nothing. But that the headline of that article is called the failing the New York Times for the reason. Theyve gotten me wrong for three years. Theyve actually gotten me wrong for many years before that. Proof that he reads the paper. Joining us from the New York Times, one of the reporters who broke this latest development, mike schmidt, and fraat the tab msnbc and National Affairs analyst and cohost and executive producer of soon to be back on the little screen, showtimes the circus mike schmidt. Take us through what you and your colleagues saw the other night and what the fallout has been. What hand over the last year and a half since mueller was appointed is our attention, public and media, had been focused on criminal obstruction. Did the president obstruct justice when he fired comey or asked comey to end the investigation as former National Security adviser mike flynn. We learned in the course of our reporting and made public on friday is the fact this investigation of the president , at least initially, was far broader and more significant than we even thought. It had National Security implications. Most of the top of the fbi thought that the president was trying to interfere with the investigation potentially on behalf of a foreign adversary in russia. And it was in that context, in that environment, that they took this extraordinary decision to open the investigation into the president , a twopronged investigation. One into obstruction and the other a counterintelligence investigation. We have to remember, counterintelligence investigation is an intelligence investigation. Its not focused on arrest. Its focused on figuring out how a foreign power is using an asset to further its goals here at home. I want to ask you if its recapped any of your previous reporting about the Mueller Probe . You broke the story last year about muellers questions for the president. We pulled some of them out and we just wanted to put them up. Some of the questions are about what the president knew in his role in the firing of jim comey. Mr. Mueller wanted to know from the president , what did you know about the fbis investigation into mr. Flynn in russia and the days leading up to mr. Comeys testimony 23450umarch 20, 2017 . What was your opinion about mr. Comey . What did you think about mr. Comeys intelligence briefing on january 26, 2017 about mr. Comeys appearance . I believe thats also where the president learned about the tinkle tape and whatnot. What was the purpose of your january 27, 2017 din we are comey and what was said . What did you think and do with reaction to the news that the special counsel was speaking to mr. Rogers, mr. Pompeo and mr. Koets . And finally what did you mean when you told Russian Diplomats on may 10, 2017, that firing comey had taken the pressure off. Could all of those questions have been inspired by this counterintelligence investigation that we didnt know about until your report friday . I think more to the point was that there were specific russia questions about things before Trump Took Office that were in there. And we never sort of understood why. We thought that the president was simply looking at an obstruction criminal investigation, and we didnt know about this. But there were these other questions about his travel there in 2013, things he had said in the campaign about russia. What ultimately happens, which is sort of interesting here, we dont know what mueller did with the counterintelligence investigation from the fbi. But we do know as recently as november, mueller wanted answers to the questions about russia. And the ones about before Trump Took Office. And those are the ones that trump actually responded to and said answers to. Trump never answered the obstruction questions because it said hand when he was president. But the president may have been answering questions if his own counterinvestigation abo counterintelligence questions about russia. So is it someone wittingly or unwittingly may have colluded with russia, is it possible donald trump wittingly or unwittingly answered questions in his own counterintelligence investigation . Its certainly a possibility if the counterintelligence investigation remained open. Those are the things they respond to. Its interesting, we know mueller wanted to know about this in november. What has changed since november . Obviously the president in terms of the public dialogue and discourse on this has continued to have these questions come up because of the statements that he makes that are so prorussia. Like the statements about afghanistan more recently, about why russia got involved there. So its not like at least in the public sphere, the president has done anything to sort of distance himself from this issue. Frank, i have about a million questions for you but let me first get your thoughts. I have seen you on tv since the story broke but to the president s response. He certainly once again, isnt acting innocent. He continues to act like someone whos acting in the best interest of russia. And your question about is it possible that the president s unwittingly answered questions about his own counterintelligence investigation, hes answering those questions every day through his actions, his decision making, his demeanor, and those of those of his closest aides, including secretary mnuchin. Look, this is mindboggling. Every counterintelligence professional always wrestled with the what if question. What if the worst Case Scenario hand . We know that foreign adversaries do their best to penetrate, get deep inside our government. We even hire people to come on board inside the government. But the notion it would get to the highest level information oval office is indeed, even for a gristled excuse me, gristled counterintelligence veteran, its mindboggling. I felt sizzled after i read it as well so both applies. I think the president responded with an eightinstallment tweet storm saturday morning, which mike and his colleagues also wrote about. Let me read you one of the weekend responses, because i think lots of people think his twitter feed is sort of the window into his tortured soul. He tweeted, the fbi was in complete turmoil. See the New York Times, because of comeys poor leadership and the way he handled the clinton mess. Not to mention his u surpgs of powers from the Justice Department. My firing for james comey was a great day for america. He was a crooked cop who was being totally protected by his best friend bob mueller and 13 angry democrats. I feel dirty even reading this. But let me finish it. Linking machines who have no interest in going after the real collusion but much more for crooked Hillary Clinton and her campaign and dnc. A million lies and few smears and i think some accusations of crimes in there. So lets breakdown what it takes to open a counterintelligence case, what it takes to keep it alive, and what it takes in the context of putting the president in the subject line of the case title. So youre viewers need to understand that even a preliminary counterintelligence inquiry requires a standard of reasonable suspicion that someone is or may be an agent of a foreign power. Youre also allowed to open that case if you believe that an individual is being targeted by a foreign power and you need to see his side of the equation, how is he interacting, responding, communicating to those overtures . Then you would have 90day review by supervisors. You would at some point soon after about 180 days, you would get to doj, where lawyers are starting to look at this, and youre constantly being asked to show evidence of the progress in the investigation and its either move ahead to a full or close the case. A full investigation requires specific and articulate facts that someone is or could be an agent of foreign power. How do i translate all of that for folks who say this is just a couple of upset fbi agents, upset their boss has been fired . I say look, there are layers of review, teams of lawyers, doj National Security division looking at this. Ultimately, what was decided . It was decided a special counsel was needed. By the way, i think thats the right decision for just this reason. Here we are discussing was this motivated by emotion . Was it motivated by loyalty to comey . It really doesnt matter because it was handed to a special counsel. And whether he kept that alive or not is what we need to understand. I want everyone to participate in this exercise of jumping in a time capsule. Its important to understand what was going on at this time. The president tweeted the day before he fired comey, general flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama Administration, but the fake news seldom likes talking about that. As sally yates under oath if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers. He gave a nowinfamous interview to lester holt where he said i fired comey or sounded like he was saying i fired jim comey because of the russia investigation. He also posed for real happy, smiley pictures in the oval office with two Russian Diplomats who had been inside the oval office for really the latter part of the Obama Administration and said, ive got a lot of pressure relieved when i fired that nut job jim comey. So it was a time it might have even been conservative. I know part of the right wing response is, this just confirms the president s suspicions. There were so many public facing pieces of evidence that the president was working in a way that made Vladimir Putin very happy and continues to do so. Again, if we want to stay in this time capsule, this meeting thats up on the screen right now, he didnt just mean the reference to comey and pressure that was relieved. Its also the case that the White House Press corps was not allowed in that room. It came from state russian media. Youre right. The credit is a Russian Foreign minister. Correct, russian state tv. Its also correct i believe in that meeting there were accusations later raised in some reporting that the president in addition disclosed classified information to the russian officials that potentially jeopardized American Security interests in the middle east in that very meeting. There was a lot of stuff going on just in that meeting alone. I do want to i want to go back to frank to make the point that i think youre driving towards because frank can speak to this in a way that i cannot. Frank, you just talked about the layers of review you would have to go through in order to justify counterintelligence investigation against the president. I think that you didnt try out, i dont think in that conversation, which was very helpful, was whats the nature of the kind of evidence that you would need . When i saw the reporting on this over the weekend, were talking about, well, the fbi was concerned because of these public things, the things like nicolle and i were just talking about, the lester holt interview. And i think i heard you discuss this over the wk, the fbi would not go through the review youre talking about and engage in the politically sensible act of opening a counterintelligence investigation against the United States, the kind of proof or indications that they would need are much more than what was in the public domain, no . Yeah, youre right on the money. Because if you walk into my office as the head of counterintelligence for the fbi and the team tells me, boss, its time to open up on the president , im going to need more than his public antics. And rest assured, his public antics are headscratchers and could be the reasonable suspicion, but you know darn well the layers of review will happen. I will say look, where is the other intel . Where is the signals intelligence . Where is the human sourcing . What are we hearing russian officials saying when they talk about this president . Are they referring to him as theirs . Are they saying we won . What about that meeting that just occurred in the oval office that weve captured via intercept of the officials back when they go home or in the states . That is that is my gut feeling, what were talking about here is far more than meets the public eye. Right. Mike schmidt, let me ask you to jump back in and talk about the role of road roz ensteen. Another piece of your reporting is his conduct, his state of mind in this very same window of time. So in the same period of time is when rosenstein discussed trying to invoke the 25th amendment, the possibilities of using to oust the president and also the idea of wearing a wire to go and talk to the president. This sort of goes along with this. It sorts of gives you a sense of how underneath the Justice Department found itself in this period of time, how unnerved they were by the president s behavior. They couldnt understand this. They couldnt make sense of what the president s true intentions were. They knew there was a large investigation into russians meddling in the election. They knew some of the people around the president were under investigation. And then they had this emerging evidence building about the president and its in that they made this decision in this period of time, a little more than a week between firing of comey and appointment of mueller, this is when this all goes down. Frank, let me read you something from ben wittes, who writes about this development, the fbis counterintelligence investigation regarding the 2016 campaign fundamentally was not about donald trump but was about russia. Full stop. It was always about russia. It was about what rush was and is doing and planning. The fbis enduring Counterintelligence Mission is the reason it should and will continue no matter who is fired, pardoned or impeached. Right. This is an interesting angle to look at this from, because, again, it doesnt matter to the russians who sits in the oval office. It matters to them whether that person is someone they can influence, shape and control. So the fact that its donald trump is kind of an ancillary, secondary thing for them. Its about number one, controlling and influencing and if that means coopting a particular candidate and supporting him, absolutely. But the next time someone comes along or whether its in their best interest perhaps soon to jettison that candidate and whether donald trump is actually signaling to them as recently a couple of weeks ago when he said it was right for russia to go into afghanistan, hes signaling im still a value to you, this is secondary to whether or not they can influence and control. 0 obstruction and collusion being wedded together means that the president can actually be trying to make this case go away because he knows that needs to stay in office. Hes a value he needs to show his value to the russians and they need to keep him in place so that whatever they out on him, the compromise they have him with doesnt get out. So just one sort of final thought for you both. I feel like were the collusion for dummies version of their counterparts. What strikes me is that we only one dummy. And its not you. Wire in this together. So i had always thought that collusion was the stuff that hand before the elections. Thats why i asked mike about the russian questions. Those were things they agreed to answer because they were before he was president. They may or may not have answered questions about his conduct while he was president with counter intel. It certainly looked like collusion was ongoing but we didnt know they thought so too. Look, theres the notion that, yes, i think i want to think about Mike Schmidts colleagues reporting here it has blown up a lot of preconceptions. Were like duh, of course. If there was collusion, if there was collusion during the campaign, it wouldnt have stopped on election day. Of course it would continue. It would have died and stalled. Similarly if it was obstruction, part of what the obstruction was not just about saving Donald Trumps skin trying to obstruct the investigation but also obstructing in a way by saving his skin, again, if the relationship exists. I will say this is one of these things where we see huge news breaks and they are they are jawdropping and were shocked and were amazed. And the next moment we go well, of course. And it happens over and over again and the last thing i will say, people always ask when we talk offcamera, which i thought was really right before the show started, which is most amazing, every time one of these things happens, its always consistent. It always makes the situation worse for the president. It feeds whatever your worst inclangss are about him, it always confirms the worst rather than contradicting the worst and think maybe were wrong. Maybe there was time hes tougher on putin than we thought. That pattern of consistently deepening the hole hes in and jeopardy hes in and reinforcing our sense of just how bad this all could be, every single time it gets worse and worse and worse. Nicely put. Mike schmidt, thank you for spending time with us and congrats to you and your colleagues on the scoop. When we come back, keeping secrets. The more jawdropping reporting and extreme language that donald trump goes to so no one knows between him and vlad. And trump confronts the prospect for a nonstop war for survival. Also ahead as the shutdown enters its fourth week, Donald Trumps poll numbers are cratering and theres no end in sight. Ls, saddle. Thats why i switched to liberty mutual. They customized my insurance, so i only pay for what i need. I insured my car, and my bike. My calves are custom too, but i cant insure those. Which is a crying shame. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Lets see, aleve is than tylenol extra strength. And last longer with fewer pills. So why am i still thinking about this . Ill take aleve. Aleve. Proven better on pain. So we improved everything. We used 50 fewer ingredients added one handed pumps and beat the top Safety Standards the new johnsons® choose gentle i am a techie dad. N. I believe the best technology should feel effortless. Like magic. At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. The important thing frankly was the meeting that lasted for 2 1 2 hours or almost 2 1 2 hours. In that meeting we discussed many, many things were very, very positive for both countries. What tangibly emerged from that conversation . What do you feel you achieved . I think we achieved a lot. Things were merged that were very important. That may be as much detail as well ever learn about trumps facetoface meeting with Vladimir Putin in helsinki this summer or any of trumps five conversations with putin since hes been in office. A new report in the Washington Post details a pattern of secrecy by the president around those meetings, as questions mount over whether his relationship with russia puts National Security at risk. From the post greg miller, quote President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details with russias press Vladimir Putin. Including on one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials. Wow. As a result, u. S. Officials said there are no detailed records even in classified files of trumps facetoface interactions with the russian leader over the past 2 years. Such an act would be unusual over any presidency, let alone one that what agencies have described as an Unprecedented Campaign of election interference. Joining us from the Washington Post, the reporter who broke that story, National Security kpantant greg miller. Hes also author of the book the apprentice trump, russia and sub mergs of the american democracy. And journalist and member of the New York Times ed. I read this story and my jaw dropped. Just remarkable detail about the mechanics of keeping secret, Donald Trumps relationship with Vladimir Putin. Unbelievable reporting. What did anyone you talk to think it was about . I mean, you had some competing versions or explanations for this. But i have to say that people who i talked to even worked for this administration, worked in this white house, said that they had deep concerns about what was happening in these conversations all along. Didnt think it was a good idea to begin with to have these meetings, let alone go knees these meetings without staff, without a game plan, without a clear agenda, and then to come out of those meetings between trump and putin and have littletono insight into what had transpired there. This was a source of significant concern for people inside his administration, let alone outside of it. Greg, can you detail the deviation. Your reporting does this but the deviation from the norms is staggering. I think i worked for a president if he went fto a meeting with a foreign leader and took notes, before he got up from the table he would take those notes, put his initials and hand it to the secretary of state or staff secretary and those notes from the meeting, anything i wrote down, even if it was a doodle, would become part of the file on that country and that leader. Talk about the rest of the white house staff is flying blind without a record of what the president says to a foreign leader . Right. I mean thats right, this isnt just unusual, this is highly abnormal bordering on unprecedented because youre right, i mean, all the president s we have known in our lifetimes treat these meetings, especially with leaders of russia, as very highstakes encounters. And they want the multiple staff in the room to witness those meetings. And they always designate a notetaker to take detailed, basically a transcription of what transpires. And you dont have to take my word for it. You can actually go online now and read documents from as recent as the clinton administration, basic transcripts of every meeting that president clinton had with boris yeltsin. One of the reasons is as you put it, as a president youre running a government that has multiple entities and agencies that need to be on the spaetame page. They need to know what hes committing the United States government to doing in meetings with foreign leaders. Youre leading the state department, the pentagon, the National Security council and all of these places are completely in the dark when you dont have that. Frank, the best evidence of gregs point is i was sometimes in meetings with foreign leaders, theres no reason for someone like me to be there other than leaders sometimes had their communicators in there because if issues that were of interest to the press came out and both leaders went out to do a press conference, there would be a conversation how both of them might respond. If you are not working on behalf of this country, it makes perfect sense. But can you think of any other reason to leave your entire cabinet, your entire National Security apparatus, out of the loop in your conversations with an american adversary . Well, i suppose there could also be a Mental Health factor here, which is extreme paranoia and distrust of those around him. So that hes the only one in the room literally and figuratively who can do the right thing, knows the right thing and he has no trust in those around him. But ive got to tell you, thats not where im going with that. Although i think there is such a factor present. Heres the deal, its in our National Security interest for, as everyone has said, for your cloef closest advisers and heads of cabinet departments, your secretary of state, your National Security adviser, if theyre not in the room for them to have an immediate debrief afterwards so they can assess everything from psychological responses of putin, whatever impacts their department, whether its defense, state, cia, all of that needs to be immediately debriefed. And when you dont do that and its in our National Interest to do so, youre left with one conclusion, that its somehow in his personal best interest to not have you in the room and further to not brief anyone on what happened to take the notes and have them sequestered or destroyed. What would that personal reason be . Now were left to our imagination, but thats why weve got a special counsel. I want to show everyone what he does to his cabinet when he does what greg miller has reported in an extraordinary piece of reporting with his notes about those meetings. Heres his National Security team trying to answer questions up on capitol hill about russia. I believe that mr. Putin has clearly come to the conclusion theres little price to pay here. Bingo. And therefore i can continue this activity. After counseling my intelligence people i have great confidence in my intelligence people but i can tell you president putin was extremely powerful in his denial today. He has his view and expressed his view. I can tell what you my view is, the intelligence communitys assessment has not changed. My view has not changed, which is russia attempted to interfere with the last election, and that it continues to engage and malign influence operations to this day. Is russia still targeting the u. S. , mr. President . Thank you. Look, this is a story that is shocking on its face, that the president is meeting with the nations state adversary and Vladimir Putin is trying to withhold any of those conversations from even getting to his closest advisers to his National Security team. Its not inconsistent with what we have seen from this president , frankly conversations i have had anecdotally with staffers who say his cavalier attitude towards National Security matters is something they wonder if it jeopardizes our own security. The most damning part of the story, though, nicolle, is the lack of explanation today from the president or the white house. Is there a reason why the president would confiscate and kill ann conways words, the notes from this meeting . There may be but we havent heard it. And not hearing it and the absence of an explanation, were left as frank said to take our suspicions as to why is the president being so careful here . And what is his motivation . Greg, let me give you the last word here, can you tell us if theres any chance with democrats control of the house that any Investigative Committee could subpoena any of these documents, even in closed sessions so they become part of the cia file or state Department File on russia . Yeah, i think theres a significant chance of that. Weve already heard senior lawmakers talk about that over the weekend, including the chairman of the house intelligence committee, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee. Its a complicated thing because interpreters are not there as notetakers for a president. Theyre there to translate a foreign leaders words. You know, it will change their jobs significantly if they go into these meetings worrying about being subpoenaed. But in this case, because of the president s behavior, i mean, some on capitol hill would argue he leaves no choice. Theres nobody else to talk to. There is no other witness. Its unbelievable statement. Greg miller, congrats on the reporting and thank you for spending time with us. Frank, pa blwere always happy have you and especially today. With democrats control of the house, democrats pledge to get the ground running. Thats next. So awesome. But the house was built too small. This is kind of awesome . How long are we here . For one year, sparks will fly. This is not awesome. I just want to make an omlete oh, are you kidding me . The drama will be real, but it wont save you any money on car insurance. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more. Why havent you called geico . Im off to college. Im worried about my parents retirement. Dont worry. 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That was a newly empowered Elijah Cummings, now chairman of the House Oversight committee, foreshadowing a new era in washington now that the power dynamic has officially changed. Our friend peter baker writes in the New York Times, prepare yourself for constant, allout political war fair. Quote, if the government are shutdown standoff between mr. Trump and congress has seemed ugly, it may eventually seem tame in light of what is to come. The border wall fight is just the preliminary skirmish in this new era of divided government. The real battle yet to begin with democrats now in charge of the house, special counsel and about to wrap up his investigation, news Media Outlets skeeting for scoops and first articles of impeachment filed, mr. Trump faces the prospect of an allout political war for survival that may make the unresolved shutdown pale in comparison. Joining us, daniel deo, mr. The politico star and fact checker. And my panel is still here. This seems to be the big picture for the trump presidency, as bad as it feels, it can always get worse. I keep thinking about something barack obama said over two years now now, which is reality has a way of catching up with you. Thats what this feels like to me. Were about to see things get really ugly for the president. I do think its an Inflection Point, the reporting over the weekend we had in the times and the Washington Post had a day later. Its an Inflection Point where did we learn tons of new details, we learned some. But really its a moment to try to just take breath and gasp out how far weve gone and really not down a good road. I do think the president has benefited for over two years from a sense of not wanting to be alarmed. We want to normalize him. We want to kind of carry on as though this is normal and this is not. I do think this is a moment were seeing with a divided government, democrats are going to inject a little reality into what the president is facing. And its increasingly disturbing but im a little kerpconcerned the fact the president is not used to being on the defensive. Dposh, wh gosh, what will he do when hes backed into a corner . One thing he does, lie. Hes lied throughout his term but i kwauquantify this, its gn worse and worse but he has not spoken as much since the midterms. But not proportionately. The absolute number. And some of them are very serious and some are ridiculous, like when he says he hasnt left the white house in months, two days after he did leave the white house. I think something thats interesting about the new era were entering with the democrats from the media perspective is how the democrats might be able to unbanish some of the stories the republicans married. Were interested in the russia story but we have an investigation into russia with the mueller investigation. Some of other things have gone away. What is going on with these three gentlemen at maralago that appear to be running the Veterans Administration . What happened to the hurricanes in puerto rico . Some of the huge things have gone. I think one of these things the committees do is provide a hook for Media Outlets to continue some of the things that have gone away. Thats a very good point. Not to make us more important, because were not, but one person who cares a lot about whats on media and cable news is the president. I think scott pruett probably lost his job the minute the outcry over his ethics abuses reached a fever pitch. What do you think i think Elijah Cummings made a great point, theres so much, theres so much, but they can cant do it all . They cant do it all and political terms they shouldnt try to do it all. I think there are genuinely an almost infinite number of things you could justifiably investigate in this administration over the course of the last two years. I think and theres not one that i would stand up and say you must do that. I do think that the challenge for the Committee Chairs is going to be to try to bring because congress is not particularly good at really anything, and i include democrats and republicans in that. They need focus. And so the question is, if youre going to apply put your shoulder into a few big, important things, rather than certainly the things that speak to what the president has committed crimes, high crimes and misdemeanors in office. Those things are not just necessarily the question of russia. Theres a broader spec truck of things than that. But i think you really want to in order to not make it seem as though democrats are just waging a the phrase it was the axios phrase, the notion it was a subpoena cannon. I think thats when democrats potentially get into trouble where as they want solid Political Support theyre doing it. Were focused on the most important things and bring depth and rigor to those things, really get to the bottom of them, rather than having a scatteredshot approach that covers too much of the waterfront. I dont think that will work investigatively or politically for democrats. One of the things theyre doing is bringing Michael Cohen up. Thats an important thing. Im for that. Heres how much that bothers donald trump. And in order to get a sentence reduced, he says i have an idea, ill give you some information on the president. Well, there is no information. But he should give information maybe on his fatherinlaw because thats the one people want to look at. Where is that money . Thats the money in the family. I guess he didnt want to talk about his fatherinlaw. Hes trying to get his sentence reduced. So its pretty sad. You know, its weak and its very sad to watch a thing like that. I couldnt care less. What is his fatherinlaws name . I dont know but you will find out and you will look into it. Because nobody knows whats going on over there. These are the moments im convinced nobody works there anymore. Theyre just like the ghosts of bill shine and kellyanne conway. Heres a statement from chairman cummings. And adam schiff. The integrity of our process to serve with integrity must be respected by everybody, including the president. Our nations law pro hint efforts to discourage, intimidate or prohibit testimony to congress. They should not take action to obstruct congresss independent oversight and developingive efforts including by seeking to anyone to discourage anyone from testifying in response to a dually authorized request from congress. I truly believe all of this leads to one inevitable event, which is a president whose supporters think he will be the fifth person on mt. Rushmore is actually going to be the third person in the United States impeached from the presidency. And i mean that very specifically. James madison talked about impeachment. If you look at the history whof had been impeached from judges up to president s, they center around crimes that madison referred to as crimes with purr fitty, deceit. Those convicted of bribery, tax evasion, it was perjury. Those are all of the elements of Donald Trumps behavior. They truly are. Every event. Start with the Southern District of new york. Hes already named in a crime of deceit. Look at russia. Look at all of these matters that can be investigated into politically. Hilemans point is exactly right but i would say this to democrats, control the narrative. Take the Government Shutdown argument right now, why are you playing on the president s field . Own the narrative and say this is a president who already engaged in behaviors that merit opening an impeachment investigation. That does not mean the house has to move quickly to impeach him but all of his activities thus far today suggest that he very well might be the third president of the United States to be impeached. I just couldnt agree more. I think for the democrats, the message should be about rooting out cronyism and corruption and abuse of government. Those are a bipartisan message that every american can understand. And quite a contrast. Yes, absolutely. The last word. I say to go in and you asked before, to go in high crimes and misdemeanors a good example, emollients, the way the president and this family sought to personally enrich themselves while . Office is a constitutional violation. That is a thing that iz rises t the level that fits the narrative and also is of the scale to merit serious investigation. When we come back, taking turns under the bus. Today its the new white house chief of staffs turn. That didnt take long. That story is next. Fidelitys rewriting the rules of investing. 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Boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals your body needs. All with guaranteed great taste. The upside im just getting started. Boost® high protein be up for life. When it comes to the Government Shutdown, now the longest in u. S. History, it looks like the president wants you to feel sorry for him. Quote, theres almost nobody in the white house but me, he cried on twitter this weekend. Im waiting in the white house, he wrote. The president can complain home alone style all he wants but the country isnt buying it. A new poll shows over half the americans believe hes responsible for the shutdown, because they are, and ox ous report trump chastised his new chief of staff illustrates just how out of control it is getting. Quote, trumps willingness to humiliate his top staffer in front of chuck schucher and nancy pelosi is another reminder, beyond democratic unwillingness to shut down the barrier, remains obvious. Trump exhibits little reard for the credibility of his own deputy. This seems to be some of the personal eeation of lying. No one can be deputized to speak on his own behalf. And because he is never to blame. That is not him, and this is always the case, we sthau with the failure to pass obama care it was congress when things went wrong in a military raid. So i think what is so obvious sheer that he is flailing. Even when his arguments are lies, you see a cold political logic, but he has ranting and rambling over and over about walls and wheels. You know that wasnt even true. So you cant, even the littlest things he says, you to fact check them because theyre often wrong. This was your point at the end of the year show. He lies about things big and small. It would seem part of the problem he has is that he is relying on the power. Raging against the position machine and push itting through his worst headed policy impulses, why do you think that is . He has succeeded a little bit in getting his base on board. So we have seen support increase a little. He needs to win this by persuading other people to give in in some way, and that is not the same thing. One of the signs of political weakness is being a hostage of your own base. Has anyone told you that yet . I dont know what people tell them, im not sure if what they told them every time you think there is mick mulvaney. He was not my cup of tea, but i never thought he was an abject idiot. Am i supposed to feel sorry for him . Did he not know that trump humiliates and under cuts under. Trump lies and and he worked for him, he will cut you down at the knees in front of other people if people will be different, if they will not get disem bowled this way. Casterated this way, and i think it gets in the way of the question. Everyones heads are screwed on the wrong way when it comes to trump and theyre behavior, i dont think anyone can have a real conversation with him. It is not the way that nor really relationships work. He could not get a top tier chief of staff candidate, he does other things, but they that here is an account of another person, its not that you should feel sorry for him, i do not. He is just someone that has t the least it is in hit skill set. The problem to me is that the process of ending the shut down cannot begin. You have people cycling in and out of the white house. At the end of the day, why, i dont want to be unfair here, but what is the attraction for people coming into the white house at this moment. It is a rez main booster. There is people that need a lawyer. The legal fees, you cant eat at restaurants, you cant eat in peace. So i think we should do the democrats looking at lobbiests about the white house as well . Absolutely. So what we now understand they have commenced as a counter negligence into the president over the fears that he is working with russia. There goes our first big order. 44, 45, 46. How many of these did they order . Ooh, thats hot. You know, we could sell these. Nah. We dont bake. Opportunity. What we deliver by delivering. Red lobsters new weekday five days. S here five deals. For fifteen dollars get a different deal every weekday til six pm like endless shrimp monday admirals feast tuesday four course feast wednesday and more. Five days. Five deals. Fifteen dollars. See you before six. When did you see the sign . When i needed to jumpstart sales. Build attendance for an event. Help people find their way. Fastsigns designed new directional signage. And got them back on track. Get started at fastsigns. Com. The confirmation hearing for william bargain tomorrow. She expected to face questions about the fate of Robert Mueller which he will address in his opening statement. I believe if is vitally important that the special council be allowed to complete his investigation. This seams, david jolly, like something that he knew democrats wanted to hear. Im told that Rod Rosenstein has a lot of confidence in the probe. Yeah, if youre william barr, be careful what you wish for. If youre doing your job you will have a target on your back pretty soon. Loung do you think until trump starts tweeting at him. I think also depends on the mueller report. If it is damming, he will be adversarial to the president of the United States. Well see how public of a pro file he takes. Will he speak publicly or not. If not maybe he will survive longer with the president. I think there is probably a good case and i know there is a good case for recusal. He probably wont, because he will incur the wrath of the president quicker. There is no one that will come in that is not just a trump lackey, anyone that has a feeling that the rule of law will be different. That does it for our hour. Mtp daily starts now. It doesnt get any weirder than today, does it . Maybe it does. Nicole, thank you so much. If it is monday, its a denial for the history books. Good evening, im katie turr in for chuck