Page 87 - Focussing News Today

Rest, right? needless to say nobody at nbc news thought robert mueller might go for the affidavit idea. joining us is carol lee, a reporter that broke this story today. nice to have you with us tonight. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. thank you. >> were getting your reports first, we found a couple other news outlets reporting seeming to be focussing in on the timeline, the question of whether or not this is something coming up imminently or something being discussed as a ra hypo...

A key thing in 2018, hell raise money for them but will he be asked to campaign for them? will he? he has not shown a willingness to really help anyone besides himself at these rallies. well see what his role is in 2018. but im told hes focussing on it more. there is one reason, democratic-controlled house means investigations, and the other "i" word, potentially impeachment, you know, the dream of liberals. he certainly does not want to go there. >> thanks, jeff. thats it for "inside politics."...

>> jim acosta, appreciate that. thanks. the president asking donman began and others to try to keep jeff sessions on board or the reported effort to gather dirt on james comey. laying down talking points on the trump tower meeting he must have known werent true. its all focussing attention on a single question, does it add up to obstruction of justice or merely a president exercising his legitimate authorities as chief executive? joining us now is richard blumenthal. we now know it wasnt just ...

President laying down talking points on the trump tower meeting he must have known werent true. its all focussing attention on a single question, does it add up to obstruction of justice or merely a president exercising his legitimate authorities as chief executive? joining us now is richard blumenthal. we now know it wasnt just don mcgahn pressuring jeff sessions not to recuse himself. two other high-ranking white house officials. do you see this as obstruction of justice? >> this excellent rep...

>> also for people that talk about the bubble of the white house, it is a way to reach out of that bubble and take the temperature of things. >> listen, heres the problem that i have right now with this thing. this book, this bannon stuff. it has become nothing but a bigger distraction of what would have been good last year with tax reform and good focus on infrastructure. you can make the case the economy is revving along. there are actions that the president took. were talking about mcdonalds ...

Became an online magazine. so you know, these distractions are good. we can fill up cable time but what the voters want to do and the american people is how is this affecting the pocketbooks. >> on infrastructure and that he could have been focussing on that, the president yesterday was comparing the size of his nuclear button to kim jong-un and saying huma abedin should be put in jail, a private citizen. >> and this is how he answered that question. he has been using this rhetoric with his twit...

As fantasy. as the white house tried getting back to business and focussing on his 2018 agenda, the explosive criticism from steve bannon still consumed the west wing. >> did steve bannon betray you, mr. president? any words about steve bannon? >> i dont know, he called me a great man last night, so he obviously changed his tune pretty quick. >> reporter: in the roosevelt room today, that was all president trump wanted to say about steve bannon, his former chief strategist. behind the scene, the...

Magazine" he weighs in on donald trump jr.s meeting with the russians last year, offering dirt on hillary clinton. bannon told the author, if you thought this was not treasonous, unpatriotic, you should have called the fbi immediately. he speculates that the special counsels office is focussing on money laundering, claiming they have a path to trump that goes through p.m., don junior and jared kushner, claiming theyor going to crack donald trump jr. on tv. >> its a total and complete farce. >> r...

Skbrarmt and just kind of running rough shot over their processes and the institution in general. i think thats very worrisome. >> on the russia investigation, rebecca, the chairman of the house intelligence committee devin nunes, hes focussing in on the fbis treatment of that dossier, which alleged all sorts of connections between trump and russia. he wants to know what role that dossier, that document may have played in guiding the entire fbi investigation, the decision to launch the investiga...

Single tweet. >> why do you think, john kirby, as i said, former state department and pentagon spokesperson, why do you think the president all of a sudden starting this new year focussing in on pakistan, iran, north korea? obviously israel and palestine, jerusalem, all of these major national security issues. >> i dont want to give him too much credit for strategic thinking, but you could make an argument that this is in keeping with his national security strategy, which is all about reciprocit...