Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20180420

In new york. Day 455 of the Trump Administration brings major developments in the russia investigation. Another wild one. A lot of them breaking just tonight over these past few hours. Chiefly we now have the 15 pages of memos that former fbi director james comey drafted about his interactions with president donald trump. Earlier tonight the Justice Department sent those memos to congress, and as things so often do, they ended up minutes later in the hands of the news media. They do confirm that on february 14, the president asked comey this with regard to the investigation of now former National Security adviser mike flynn. I hope you can see your way to letting this go, to letting flynn go. We also learned that on january 28th, remember, fewer than ten days into his presidency, donald trump told comey he had, quote, serious reservations about mike flynns judgment. Thats the National Security adviser in the west wing. And later, on february 8th, former white house chief of staff Reince Priebus asks this of james comey. Do you have a fisa order on mike flynn . The president was also concerned about the political impact of the russia investigation. Comey writes on march 30th, the president says, quote, he said he was trying to run the country and that the cloud of this russia business was making that difficult. He says he would have won the Health Care Vote but for the cloud. Well, tonight the president s legal team is making a big play. They are bringing in former new york city mayor and Onetime Republican president ial candidate Rudy Giuliani. Before he was mayor, giuliani made a name for himself as lets call it a very aggressive u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, the same office that ordered the fbi raid on trumps personal attorney michael cohen. Giuliani has links to the two key people in this investigation the fired fbi director james comey. He worked under giuliani in the Southern District. And special Counsel Robert Mueller was, youll recall, director of the fbi during and after 9 11 when giuliani was new york mayor. The giuliani hire comes as the president has escalated his attacks on mueller. Tonight giuliani told the Washington Post, quote, i hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because i have high regard for the president and for bob mueller. Giuliani did not say whether a final decision has been made on a potential trump mueller sitdown interview. That may be determined by the strength of giulianis personal connection to trump. Giuliani spent a lot of time on the campaign trail with the president and was a tireless surrogate for the president. His remarks about trump during the Republican National Convention May encapsulate their relationship. I am sick and tired of the defamation of donald trump by the media and by the clinton campaign. I am sick and tired of it. This is a good man, and america should be sick and tired of the vicious, nasty campaign. What i did for new york, donald trump will do for america i have known donald trump for almost 30 years, and he has created and accomplished great things. In my city and all over the world. So lets put him down as protrump. In addition to giuliani, trump has hired the husband and wife legal team of jane serene raskin and marty raskin, former fortunately prosecutfederal prosecutors who run a floridabased law firm. All three of these new legal additions will be reporting working with jay sekulow and white house lawyer ty cobb. As the president settles on his legal team, there is new reporting tonight concerning Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein. Bloomberg news is reporting that at a white house meeting a week ago, rosenstein told trump that he is, quote, not a target in any part of the Mueller Investigation or the one concerning his personal lawyer here in new york, michael cohen. Now, according to bloomberg, that may have, quote, helped tamp down the president s desire to remove rosenstein or mueller, something the president alluded to, youll recall, just yesterday. Have you concluded that its not worth the political fallout to remove either special counsel mueller or Deputy Attorney general rosenstein . Theyve been saying im going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months, and theyre still here. So we want to get the investigation over with. Bloomberg news also reports that investigators started scrutinizing Paul Manafort because they suspected the former Trump Campaign chairman might have been serving as a back channel to russia. This revelation came out in federal court today during a hearing in which manaforts lawyers argued that mueller overstepped his authority in the russia investigation by indicting manafort for financial fraud and other charges. Bloomberg reports that a senior Justice Department prosecutor told the judge muellers team was entirely justified in investigating manafort because of his role on the campaign, saying, quote, he had longstanding ties to russiabacked politicians. Did they provide back channels to russia . Investigators will naturally look at those things. Well, thats a lot, and its the point at which we bring in our leadoff panel for this busy thursday night. Were joined once again by kimberly atkins, frank figure luzzi is back with us. Former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence, who in the past has worked for Robert Mueller. Also an msnbc National Security analyst. And mimi roker returns to the broadcast. Former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, now a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the Pace University school of law. Mimi, Home Field Advantage goes to you. Ill start with you. What stands out to you here, we all have a copy of these memos with big black marks for redactions, the stuff we really want to read and arent allowed to see. Exactly. What happened tonight when these were released . Look, what stands out to me is that this just bolsters the credibility of jim comey. I was not one to doubt it in the first place, but for those who might have been on the fence about it, i mean you dont make this up. This is not made up stuff. This reads like real life happening and him recording it. And so to the extent that this was, you know, orchestrated, released at a time that somebody thought politically it might help them, i dont think it did that, helped someone on the republican side, helped the trump backers. I dont think it did that at all. I think it really shows how jim comeys mind works, and that is to absorb information in a very detailed way and record it in a very detailed way. And that is the hallmark of a truth teller in my view. We urge people to, on your device, your laptop, find a way to read these because it does speak to the process. Those of us who are lay people and not in law or Law Enforcement cant imagine taking notes like this. But he says in here that within five minutes of leaving trump tower, within minutes of leaving the white house, he gets in a vehicle or in a corner somewhere and just dumps out everything that happened for posterity, quoting wherever he feels is accurate. And this is a guy this is his process, by the way, his lifes work. Exactly. This is what fbi agents are trained to do from day one. You know, the recording of events and statements and observing things in a way that others might not, that a layperson might not, the attention to detail. And i just think that is. Youre right. Its hugely important for people to see themselves because weve heard about the comey memos for so long now. And even in reading his book, it reads differently because, you know, thats a novel in a way. Thats, you know, literature. This is more like an fbi agent report. You know. Theyre called fbi 302s. Thats how this reads. I think it shows his training and how it comes through. Frank, im coming to you next. Before i do, i want to play james comey was a guest on Rachel Maddow in this very studio earlier tonight. And he talked about this very process. Youve explained to congress that you didnt write memos like this after other interactions with other president s. What trained you or told you or made you believe that you should write a memo like this after interactions with President Trump . Well, the first meeting in particular, i was concerned that i needed a record to show the other Intelligence Agency chiefs who had been with me but didnt stay behind for the second private meeting. And i also was worried that i was meeting alone with the president to talk about things that were relating to him and to the fbis core responsibilities. And given the nature of the person, as i understood the president elect, he might not tell the truth about those if it ever became an issue, and so i needed a written record. So, frank, lets agree on the process. Lets agree that it would be near impossible and damn unlikely for a guy like him to exit the white house and make up a fiction as if to assume where the future is going to take us and how that fiction would help out someday. So that said, as a career investigator, when you look at these comey memos, what stands out to you . So mimi is right. First, they are consistent with someone who has been in the law and around investigations for decades, and thats exactly what you do is you have this you gain this incredible ability to absorb large amounts of information, understand where people said some certain things in certain conversations, and then quickly recount all of them. And you learn that in part because you dont want to sit in front of subjects a lot and take notes or tap out on a laptop. You completely distract any interview youre doing. So its consistent with that. It adds to his credibility. Now, what i see, lets look at it from the other lens, which is what it tells us about the white house. I read the memos and i see dysfunction. I see a bunch of newbies and rookies who just dont understand how government works. I mean at one point Reince Priebus asked comey if hes an attorney. I mean theres no homework done on anybody. They leave the fbi director alone with the president. The president asks comey if he can investigate the hooker allegation in moscow just to make it kind of go away, continually asks if mccabe has a problem with him. Its odd. And, you know, you reported earlier that weve heard that the president s hired a couple of organized crime attorneys from florida. I got to tell you, from what we see in these memos, maybe thats the right way to go. I worked in the fbi in south florida. Theres a lot of russian mobsters down there, and maybe these two attorneys now how to deal with that. For the record, they were on the prosecutorial side and not the defense attorney side. But to your point, they have been in the business a long time. Hey, kim, you have the dual burden of being an attorney and a reporter. About the reporter side of you . Ill make a suggestion that maybe a president , so few days into his administration, having doubts about his National Security adviser, is a story. What else do you find . What does the journalist in you find to be the stories in this collection of documents . Yeah. I mean it gave us just a few more details of what we already saw. I agree with what was said about james comey and his consistency. It really shows that he has been consistent from his testimony before congress, through his book, and now his book tour in the story that he tells. But we do get additional nuggets about the concern that President Trump was expressing about his own National Security adviser, someone who he publicly defended even after he was fired for some time, but privately really expressed concern about. We also saw the president really backing the idea of jailing journalists who published reports based on leaks, saying how a couple days in jail and theyll start talking. Im paraphrasing. And james comey even laughing after that. I dont know if it was out of discomfort. Lets hope so because clearly thats not the way our First Amendment works here in america. But just more details about these conversations that they had that really paints the president as somebody who was concerned about people and his own team, who was consistent, who would tell james comey one thing and a few minutes later tell him the exact opposite. For example, he told him that Reince Priebus, then the chief of staff, didnt know that they were having dinner, and then later said that he did. Just a lot of inconsistency that is a stark contrast to the consistency in statement that you see coming from comey himself. Mimi rocah, some of the other news of this day, Rudy Giuliani. Does he have a magic sway over Robert Mueller . Are his charms such that mueller is going to say, you know what, youre right. Weve gone way too far on this. Im going to end it now. I really doubt that. You know, i read somewhere that giuliani is saying hes being brought in to try and negotiate an end to this, a swift end. And he even said a couple of weeks. Is that the definition of Wishful Thinking . I mean a prosecution is not a negotiation, and weve kind of heard this song before. We heard it at one point when there was a lot of news about whether the president was going to sit for an interview. And one of the conditions he was going to put on the interview was that they agreed to then wrap it up afterwards. You know, look, mueller is going to end his investigation, unless somebody else interferes and makes him end it sooner in some more forceful way hes going to end it when hes done investigating and has uncovered every stone that he needs to uncover, and not because he has some prior maybe Good Relationship with giuliani. I dont know. They certainly have a history together. But this isnt about charm, and this isnt about negotiation. So, kim, is it possible that giuliani may be coming onboard in the role of what we used to call a rainmaker, in this case a sayer of sound bites and not necessarily legal acumen . I think its definitely its that and maybe a dual role of trying to keep the president from doing something stupid that could make things only worse for him, perhaps even like firing Robert Mueller. I think giuliani and maybe other people in his some people in his orbit recognize what a bad idea that would be and that hes coming in just to sort of keep the president calm, sort of act as an intermediary, say, hey, i got this. Rudy giuliani, as you know, had a long history as a federal prosecutor and understands how this works. I dont think he believes he can bring this to a speedy end, but i think he knows that the president trusts him. Hes been a very faithful backer of donald trump for a long time, and perhaps he wants to come in to keep the president from harming himself. Frank, whats the upside of rosenstein telling the president hes not a target, and lets not forget the report includes the Mueller Investigation et al. And the cohen raid here in new york. Is that an example of hopeful or cute wording, and how can he get away saying Something Like that, which clearly will have a demonstrable effect in bringing down the temperature in the west wing . Well, its buying time, and he can get away with it because its accurate. Theyre not yet ready to charge the president apparently, so theyre being truthful. But theyre also at the same time trying to buy time so that they can stay in their position and get their job done. And if it calms the president down, if it delays firing or something hasty of either mueller or rosenstein, all the better. But lets understand that you can turn from a subject to a target in a heartbeat whenever the prosecution says theyre ready to go. And, frank, that line about manafort being a potential back channel to russia today really gets your attention, doesnt it . Yeah. Look, ive said before that muellers really like an epidemiologist, looking for the origin of a disease or virus. Where did we catch the russian infection . And its looking more and more like manafort was at least one vector of that russian infection, the conduit for it, and mueller is going to get to where it starts. Mimi, why would Reince Priebus have wanted to know if Michael Flynn was under a fisa warrant surveillance . Enough to ask the visiting fbi director. Sounds like he wanted to know what they didnt know because if flynn was under fisa surveillance, then they would know that theres a lot more that the investigators at the fbi knows that the president and his team may not know was set. So theyre trying to figure out, you know, where the ball is and how bad it is, i think. We hope everyone is keeping a whiteboard at home because sometimes thats what it takes to follow the tentacles of this story, especially on a night like tonight. Kimberly atkins, frank, figliuzzi, mimi rocah, our thanks to the three of you for starting off our broadcast in this style tonight. Coming up, the politics of what this all means for the president and this white house. And, later, President Trump learning history on the job and trying to convince all of us that were all learning this with him in realtime. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a thursday night. Nothing says spring like fresh flowers, so lets promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels. Com like this. Earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. Allergies. Or, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com play [music plays]his. When everythings connected, its simple. Easy. Awesome. Welcome back. As we might have mentioned, were tracking an extremely busy night of breaking news on a number of fronts. James comeys memos on his interactions with President Trump have been turned over to congress and then promptly leaked to the media. Plus Rudy Giuliani joining President Trumps legal team in the russia investigation. Here to talk about all of it and anywhere it may take us, john heilemann, nbc National Affairs analyst, and sam stein, an msnbc political analyst. Gentlemen, welcome to you both. Mr. Hielman, i have an opennet shot for you first and that is this. What republican on capitol hill thought that leaking these comey memos was going to be exculpatory, helpful to the boss and the home team . The one who believed, as they all believe apparently lets put it this way. The one who was blinded by hatred for jim comey, i think. All of them weve now heard this chorus, this orchestrated chorus orchestrated by the white house and carried out on fox news, carried out in the halls of congress among republicans, who think that comey is and there are reasons to have different interpretations of how well hes done this week and what the book says. But they all believe that he is killing himself, killing his credibility, destroying himself, selfimmolating in public. They see him as being someone who is presenting every day new political vulnerabilities for the antitrump forces, that he is creating problems for bob mueller, and they think just revealing the notion that jim comey was taking these notes, sending them around, writing about the president the way that he did, that all of it makes him look bad. Im not crediting that point of view. But the existence of these notes is seen as incriminating by some in republican land on capitol hill, and theyre not looking at the substance. Theyre looking at what they think of comey and how they see this behavior as in some way being selfundermining. Paul begala reminded me tonight about what some people call the rule of four, ways of disseminating information in washington. In the old days theres telegraph. Theres telephone. Theres television. And theres tell a member of congress. The last one is what we have seen play out tonight. Lets turn a little bit into rudolph giuliani, and my question to you, what could go wrong . Oh, just about everything, i think, right . First of all, we need to start with the fact that although rudy was at sdny Southern District of new york for people who think thats a sports network. Go ahead. Its been multiple decades since hes practiced the type of law that he is ostensibly being asked to practice now. Hes been far more a creature of politics and after his mayorship a creature of consultancy. There will be a thorough combing of that record for potential conflicts of interest that could arise. Keep this is mind. He is not an unattached player in this probe either. He was the foremost surrogate for the Trump Campaign, and this probe is looking at the actions of the Trump Campaign visavis russian collusion. So its perfectly within the realm of reason that giuliani actually becomes a witness or a person of muellers interest in the probe now that hes defending trump. So theres a lot that can go wrong here, least of all is to mention that rudy has a propencity for saying outlandish things and that could get him in trouble. Im duty bound to report the husband and wife pair of attorneys that joined the team, we went on their website and promptly discovered they had misspelled their own name at the top of the page. It happens to the best. I know. When your name is brian, youd be amazed how many people call you a brain, especially those that dont know me. John, hookers are back in the news. Im going to read this to you from the comey memo. Its a terrible word. My mother was in a Rug Hooking Group and always resented that another occupation shared that title. The president said the hookers things is nonsense but that putin had told him we had some of the most beautiful hookers in the world. He did not say when putin had told him this, and i dont recall. Then theres something redacted. John, what are trump and putin doing talking about hookers . Well, i cannot claim this to be my original insight because it occurred on the air of this network a little while ago when david frum was on with lawrence. David was claiming that what has happened here is that Vladimir Putin in some public setting, at a press conference of some kind, made a comment about how russia has the most beautiful hookers in the world. And according to the record that we know of thats out there in the public right now, that doesnt mean its perfect. It is the case that the first time that donald trump ever spoke to Vladimir Putin, again according to the public record, was when they talked after trumps election just in october sorry november of 2016. So if its true that was the fu first time theyd ever spoken, it seems unlikely putin would have raised this topic in a congratulatory phone call to trump. We know trump went to moscow for the Miss Universe pageant, wanted to speak to putin, did not get to speak to putin. So it seems if you take this theory, the david frum theory, what trump is doing here is lying to comey and claiming that he had a conversation with putin which he actually never had, but in fact what trump has done is taken a Public Comment by putin that was on the topic of hookers and claimed it to have been a conversation that he had with putin, which in fact he did not have. All right. I mean its an extraordinarily weird thing. But, a, we know trump is a pathological liar. He lies about everything. This would not be the first time that trump had taken something from the public record, a comment made in public by someone, and claimed that it was a comment that was made directly to trump. That is not a new thing for trump. He does that occasionally. The fact that it happens to involve putin and hookers makes it special. For those just joining us, were talking about our government and the president of the united states. Sam, i have for you a reading from the book of costa, our friend bob is on the board again tonight with a piece in the pennsylvania post w r which reads in part, trump also loudly and repeatedly complained to several advisers earlier this week that former fbi director james b. Comey, former deputy fbi director Andrew Mccabe and former democratic president ial nominee hillary clinton, among others, should be charged with crimes for misdeeds alleged by republicans, the associates said. Although white house officials said thursday that trump had not called Justice Department officials or taken any formal action, the persistent grousing has made some advisers anxious according to two people close to the president. Sam, whats going on here . Well, you know, the weirdness of it all is that we collectively, the media, but also now increasingly people high up in the administration and close to the president have basically taken the tactic of letting trump vent himself into exhaustion, then moving on. And its not normal for a president to muse about using the prosecutorial powers of the government to go after his political opponents. In fact, this is very abnormal, something youd see in a banana republic. At first in his presidency when these types of things would happen, people would be aghast at it, and rightfully so. But weve become numb to it. And so a story in the Washington Post tonight gets fourth, fifth business, when in any other administration it would have been a fivealarm fire. Good point. Can i quickly say one quick thing . Youre john heilemann. These two stories i think are fascinating we just talked about because they both reveal something about trumps mind. In the case of the hookers, right . Here we go. If you go through the comey memos, it comes up again and again. He raises it in every conversation that he has with comey, almost every conversation. He comes back to the topic again and again. As one would who had been mentioned in relation to the thing in moscow. Well, maybe. There is a little bit of a doth protest too much quality to it. Why does he keep talking about it, insisting over and over to comey that he would have nothing to do with hookers and certainly not to do with the activity, the golden activity that he disputes he would never have any need for or interest in . Why does he come back to it over and over again . In the same way, the hiring of giuliani, you hear over and over from trump, he loves his lawyers and thinks his legal team is great. He says it over and over again. Yet the other repetitive thing hes doing is reaching out to new lawyers all the time. Its like sees digenova on. A lawyer that used to work for trump in the 90s, trump is kaumg him on friday. Now hes reaching out to giuliani. Trump gets stuff stauck in his craw. It reveals something he is obsessed with and he, like i says, does protest too much, something he feels vulnerable, or the things where he senses some kind of weakness. He can say over and over again his legal team is all in great shape, but his habit of perpetually and relentlessly reaching out to new lawyers, looking for new solutions tells you about places where he feels vulnerable and not on the firmest of ground. Sam, do you agree on the protesting too much front because, i mean, there is a case to be made that anyone accused of whats in that dossier, what is alleged to have happened in moscow i was just going to say would be pissed perhaps ill use a different expression, would be angered to read that and looking to be cleared . I suppose, but i actually do agree with john. The reason i agree is a specific part of these memos, which is trump going out of his way to ask comey to look into this so that Melania Trump could feel more at ease about the accusation. If you knew in your heart of hearts that these accusations were completely frivolous, there was nothing to find, that they were so false, there would be no need to send someone out to investigate them. There would be no need to try to there would be no need to even entertain the idea of an investigation because they would seem so outlandish to anyone who knew you. But instead, this president not just only came back to the issue again and again and again, much more so than we actually knew prior to the memos being released, but he proactively asked for james comey to go and investigate them. That to me is a doth protest too much moment. How would one prove that one had never done something that one would never conceivably do . Theres something i never done. Would never consider doing. Brian, please go prove i never did that thing. How would that work . I dont know thankfully. On the legal team point you made, what i keep saying on this broadcast is this is a mature case. This is down the tracks. The president said it himself yesterday. An estimated 1. 4 million pieces of paper or documents have been either handed over or electronically forwarded. Thats a tall order for a lawyer to come in and say, okay, now where are all you people working on this . Where are we . What have i missed . Especially a lawyer, again there are a million things one could say critical of Rudy Giuliani and some that you would say are commendtory. Hes not someone been deeply involved in the practice of high stakes litigation for a long time. Hes not someone at the top of his game who has been dealing with complex litigation with lots and lots of discovery. Thats not something rudy has done for well, for a really long time. So to come to the case this late, i think he is being honest when he expresses what he thinks his actual role is, which is not to be involved in Case Management and certainly not to be involved in the intricacies of this investigation or defending the president. He thinks hes coming in to be an arbitrator, a mediator of some kind. He says im going to work out a settlement. Now, i dont understand at all how he believes that that is a role that is in any way contemplated by the setup of the special prosecutor, what bob mueller thinks hes doing, what Rod Rosenstein has tasked bob mueller to do. Settlement negotiations arent really part of that, but i think rudy thinks thats whats going to happen. Somehow he knows mueller. He knows trump. Somehow hes going to make this all get fixed. He said he thinks in two weeks. Theres a restraining detachment from reality there, but at least its connected to reality in the sense that thats the kind of role that a Rudy Giuliani might be able to play in some alternative universe, not the Case Management of this kind. Sam . I think it just says a lot more about trump honestly. For starters, he has been trying to hire the type of seasoned litigator who would be actually useful in a situation like this. And to a person theyve terned him down either because theres conflicts but mostly because they dont want to have the association. He also, as we know very well, is attracted to highprofile pick whos are good on tv. Rudy hasnt been on tv in a little while, but he did establish his bona fides as a surrogate during the campaign. Now we are in a place where trump is relying on someone strictly on an aesthetic basis to perform a task which isnt really plausible, which is negotiating a settlement over god knows what with the mueller team where he needs someone exactly opposite in every legal sense. Again, you asked me early on how could this go wrong. Thats how it could go wrong. He wanted joe digenova because joe digenova would go on television and advocate for him in a forceful way. Trump i think, wants the same thing from Rudy Giuliani. I think trump thinks hes going to be an attack dog. For we americans who stand up at ball games and stand when the National Anthem is played and care about the place, how should people feel about the fact that a president eight days into his presidency, ten days into his presidency had concerns about his National Security adviser . Bad. I mean i continue to think i mean there are a million there are lots of things to say about Michael Flynn. But whatever those things are, all of them point to one thing, which is that the idea that the trump organization, the trump transition was in such a state of disarray and was so incompetent and so irresponsible that Michael Flynn was placed in that position, it is probably the single greatest failure of political National Security vetting in the history of the country. And the only thing that strikes a slightly optimistic chord is at least the trump according to the comey memos, at least trump sensed there was a little bit of a problem. But you need to understand the context of why he said that, at least as i read the memos, which is there was a when trump assumes office, he has to make phone calls to a number of foreign leaders and a number of foreign leaders are calling him. Trump takes his first call with theresa may, and he waits for an unnamed redacted name leader. Six days, Michael Flynn doesnt tell him about this leaders call. I think its fair to presume and this is a im not basing this on fact. But its fair to presume that leader was Vladimir Putin, and trump got really, really upset that flynn did not tell him for six days that putin had called. That was the basis by which trump turns to comey and says, i question this mans judgment. So, yes, maybe he had some doubts about Michael Flynn, and they would be deserved. But it also may be that he was talking about how flynn had not respected putin in the way that trump was hoping to respect zwr and what sam is talking about is a redacted portion of this. A lot of people are saying in journalism and social media tonight what sam just said. Would you redact the name and title of the leader of australia . No, not necessarily. But because putin is in the news and germane to these documents, you might do that. But we dont know the truth. What a great note to end on with our thanks to john heilemann, to sam stein. Gentlemen, thank you very much. As we go to break, the president has just issued forth another tweet. James comey memos just out and show clearly there was where have i heard this before no collusion and no obstruction. Also he leaked classified information. Wow. Will the witch hunt continue . I can give you ten seconds for reaction, mr. Hooilman because im lit for a break already. You asked at the very top of the seg nlt who thought these memos would be exculpatory. Anybody talking to talking to donald trump who was waiting for these memos to be leaked so he could write that tweet. Thank you to our guests. Well go to a break. Coming up, potential lip the greatest high wire act of this administration where Foreign Policy is concerned when the 11th hour continues. Rage fees. Fees . What did you have in mind . I dont know. 4. 95 per trade . Uhhh. And i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee . Guarantee . Where we can get our fees and commissions back if were not happy. 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Now if you had Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. There are new indications tonight that progress is being made in talks between north and south korea. This is separate from and out ahead of that potential meeting between President Trump and kim jongun. South korea announced today as reported in the New York Times that kim jongun has removed a key obstacle to negotiations with washington by no longer demanding that american troops be removed from south korea as a condition for denuclearizing his country. South korea also says the north has committed to denuclearization, but a huge note of caution here. The leader of the north has not and most Foreign Policy professionals believe the idea of the north truly being willing to denuclearize is pure fantasy. As negotiations surrounding the talks start to take shape, axios is reporting it this way today. President trump views the north korean crisis as his great man of history moment. Sources close to him say he believes he and he alone can overcome the seemingly intractable disaster on the Korean Peninsula and that, quote, he thinks just get me in the room with this guy, referring to kim jongun, and ill figure it out. Well, with us to talk about this, rick stengel, former undersecretary of state for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs as well as former editing manager of time magazine. He is an msnbc analyst. Bill richardson was in the position you are in last night, and i asked him this question im going to reask to you. What could go wrong with donald trump sitting down with kim jongun . And what could go right . Well, first of all, i applaud the fact that he wants to talk to kim jongun and try to resolve this crisis. But secondly, the reason that diplomats exist is to prevent aspiring great men from negotiating a catastrophe. The fact that, as you mentioned, that the South Koreans are saying the North Koreans have agreed to denuclearize, that theyve agreed to not get rid of american troops, its like that would be wonderful. I would do a song and dance. But until we hear from the North Koreans, we dont know that. Second thing, what can go wrong . Even between allies who speak the same language, us and the british, we get crosswise about different things. Were going to be in a room with people who have been outside of modern civilization for 40 years, who dont speak our language. Isolated. Who dont understand anything that we do and try to come to an agreement. So what diplomats do on both sides traditionally is have as little margin for error when the two guys actually get in the room together whereas trump is saying, hey, just let me at him and let me improvise. I mean this is not a situation where you want somebody improvising. I think trump has already set the bar so high, like im going to solve it. The peninsula will be denuclearized. I mean its almost impossible to achieve that. Let me add this is a tough to brief president because of a number of things. He doesnt like to read. He has a famously short attention span. He doesnt love being surrounded by members of the establishment, whether it be Foreign Policy or domestic. And this is what happens when you gut the state department. We dont have an ambassador on station in seoul, south korea, for example. Right. And of course mike pompeo went there. He was the head of the cia. He was only accompanied by other members of the cia. I have enormous respect for the tensi intelligence community, but you need the three legs of the stool. They just see it through one particular lens, and that can be a real problem. But the other thing is what is it that thus far that they can give that we can give them now . I mean why would kim jongun agree to this . What is he going to get in exchange . Like mr. Trump saying, hey, were not going to bomb you . Look whats happened to other people weve made promises to who have denuclearized. Muammar gaddafi, that didnt end well. Hes got to look at whats happening with iran now where we want to renegotiate the agreement that we made. I just think from a rational perspective, im not quite sure whats in it at this point for kim jongun if he has already done these things that he said hes going to do. Ive also heard numerous times what he really craves is relevance, and what weve given him by elevating in this conversation is relevance. Rick stengel, thank you so much for coming by tonight. Were always happy to hear your viewpoint on stories like this. Coming up, one sure fire way of knowing when the president just learned something brandnew. Thats when the 11th hour continues. This is a jungle gym. And a baseball diamond. A mythical castle. And a grand banquet hall. This is not just a yard. Its where memories are made. The john deere x350 select series with the exclusive onetouch mulchcontrol system. Nothing runs like a deere® save 200 dollars on the x350 select series tractors at your john deere dealer today. Ftheres flonase sensimist. F up around pets. It relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist. South korea is meeting and has plans to meet with north korea to see if they can end the war, and they have my blessing on that. They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war. People dont realize the korean war has not ended. Its going on right now. That was President Trump from earlier this week telling the American People what they dont realize, and that happens a lot. Long ago on this broadcast, our friend and frequent contributor eli stokels while righting for the wall street journal would often join us to talk about what he calls trumps tells. And this was one of them. Usually when you parse what donald trump says, hell say Something Like a lot of people doesnt know this. Thats code for i just found this out. This is back in the news this week because the president has uttered some gems in the past few days and thus attracted the attraction of Jenna Johnson in the Washington Post. In an article under the headline people dont realize trump and the historical facts high wants you to know, she writes these tells of donald trump often begin with some various of the phrase most people dont know and end with a nugget of information that many of those surrounding him, fellow world leaders, diplomats, journalists, politicians or aides do indeed already know. And indeed when you search for the president s phraseology on this front, when he is speaking about known things in history that may indeed be brand new to him, there is a lot of material in the archives. What people dont realize about clemson, its a great academic school. But what a lot of people dont know is universities get massive tax breaks. A lot of people dont know what a Community College means. Nobody knew health care could be so complicated. Well pay not to take the insurance. People dont understand that. People dont know the air force i project is actually two plans. A lot of people dont know it but our countrys in trouble. People dont realize we are an unbelievably divided country. People dont realize the civil war, um, you think about it, why . People dont ask that question. A lot of people dont realize that Abraham Lincoln, the great Abraham Lincoln was a republican. So few people remember but republicans are the party of Abraham Lincoln. Most people dont even know he was a republican, right . Does anyone know . A lot of people doesnt knnt k. People forget. You dont realize how important you are. People dont know it. Canada is very smooth. People dont realize canada has been very rough. France is americas first and oldest ally. A lot of people doesnt know that. China puts barriers on trade. A lot of people dont even know that. What many people dont know is that south korea is a Major Trading partner with the united states. The economy in italy is one of americas trading partners. A lot of people dont know that. Iraq has among the greatest oil reserves in the world, which a lot of people dont even know. A couple of papers said donald trump doesnt realize that the crimea was already taken. I know two years ago approximately. I also know things other people dont know. What do you know that other people dont know . Youll find out on tuesday or wednesday. Its unclear whether the president ever followed up on that tuesday or wednesday. So another break for us. And coming up, the era that ended the day with so little fanfare. It fair to say americans hardly noticed todays historic change. Last years ad campaign was a success for choicehotels. Com badda book. Badda boom. This year, were taking it up a notch. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Nobody glows. He gets it. Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Thats it . Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. Last thing before we go tonight, with a women phimper a a bang, the castros are gone from cuba, no exodus of refugees heading north to our shores. For the first time in 58 years the leader is not namd castro and the new guy turns 58 just tomorrow. He is Miguel Diazcanel and part of the reason that today didnt feel earth shattering is hes a longtime party official, used to run Higher Education in cuba, enjoys a downtoearth image. And raul castro, who replaced fidel castro, raul is 86 years old and is stepping away. While he will still retain various titles, real and honorific and while cuba is not a changed country tonight, the change is enough to cause americans of a certain age to reflect, cuba gave an entire generation of americans its greatest scare. It tested our young and later martyred president , it tested the worlds ability to hold together. It taught us about the awesome power and hair trigger danger of the nuclear age. While it is hard to conjure this today, think of this during the cuban missile crisis there were americans who went off to work in the morning not sure that they would see their families givagain. Ten u. S. President s dealt with the potential threat posed by cuban leaders named castro, just 90 miles it our south where today a new era quietly got under way. Thats our broadcast on a thursday night. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. Hour guest tonight is james comey, who is the director of the federal bureau of investigation until President Trump relieved him of that role last year. That firing has reportedly led to the president himself coming under legal scrutiny for potential obstruction of justice. Now, as me and the whole staff here were preparing for this interview tonight with mr. Comey, some news broke about mr. Comey. You will remember that he was fired last may, may 9th. The following day on may 10th, President Trump, surprise, hosted two russian government officials in the oval office where he told them, quote, i