department as a personal police force to pursue his critics and political enemies. here's what he said about it in an interview with uni vision last night. >> i could certainly happen in reverse. it could certainly happen in reverse. what they've done is they've released the genie out of the box, you understand that, they've done something that nobody thought would happen. if i happen to be president and i see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly i say, go down and indict them, mostly that would be, you know, they would be out of business, they'd be out. they'd be out of the election. >> it's all out loud now. so out loud that in a statement, a spokesperson for the trump campaign sought to walk it back and clarify trump's remarks saying the ex-president was simply highlighting the dangerous example president joe biden is setting which only makes sense if you say his conspiracy theory that -- the work of joe biden and not the end result of years of investigations by independent investigators and prosecutors, some of which have changed hands. trump's comments are really reflection of his own deep par paranoia and his thirst for revenge against people who in his mind have wronged him. in private the former preside has told advisers and friends in recent months he wants the justice department to veigate former trump officials, and allies who have become critical of his time in office. that is according to people who have talked to him and spoken anonymously to describe private conversations. as we have reported on this show the ex-president has a coderie of allies, to remove any and all existing guardrails to our country's institutions. on that the post reports the plans would, quote, dispense with 50 years of policy and practice, intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations. critics have called such ideas dangerous and unconstitutional. the disgraced ex-president openly wrung on dismantling the rule of law in america. it's where we begin today with our favorite reporters and friends. carol leonnig is here with us, andrew weissmann, and pete stzrok, i remember where i was, andrew weissmann, when the mueller team was looking at trump's desire to fire mueller, and i remember it was such a scandal and it was such a question, and it was such a frenzy because it was this public-facing evidence that he sought to apply pressure on an investigation that may threaten him. now, his 2024 campaign message is that, i mean, it went from being this thing that he so normalized with his own base that they barely even registered. a lot of other people shrug and say this is always what he's wanted to do. at the end of the day it represents the most brazenly anti-democratic corruption anyone has hfr run on, run for in our country's history. >> this is one where it's hard to talk about this without people thinking that you're engaging in hyperbole because you're not. i remember that, too, nicole, i remember being on the special counsel mueller's team and i remember an interview that was done with senators murkowski and collins where they said to the journalist, it doesn't work that way. you don't get to choose your prosecutor. and just think how far we've come from that where there aren't people in congress who are willing to really stand up on the republican side, or independents, and speak for democracy. but you really have the former president saying that he is going to continue to do what he did, but he is taking additional steps. so, you know, we're on a panel with pete stzrok who we hardly need to talk about, the former president just thinking about going against people who he disagrees with, or uses a threat, or should seek to hold him to account, pete is a living exhibit to that. but so are many others who have been the subject of his vitriol and worse. and he -- as you said, is going to do it with respect to attacking the whole idea of civil servants in the justice department of not having people who are insufficiently loyal where he's now including people like pat cipillone and don mcgahn, and even bill barr, saying that's not even loyal enough to him, and he's also spoken about using the pardon power to pardon people like everyone in january 6th insurrection, so that you have a complete undermining of the rule of law with that combination of powers that are in the hands of the executive when they are not wielded responsibly. >> i don't like to point this out but for the purpose of this conversation i'm going to. what he's done to you, pete, and, you know, he had jim comey, and andy mccabe, and -- he's targeted and encouraged prosecutions, in some cases successfully, into a lot of people that threatened him because of his perception that the rule of law would harm him in some way. and this is the part that i'm reluctant to share, but going to do it. it's working. this is from nbc's reporting. in march of 2023 the pew research center found that 38% of republicans and republican-leaning adults had a favorable view of the fbi. 53% had an unfavorable view of the bureau. mind you, it's been led by christopher wray who trump hand-picked after republican chris christie recommended him. back to th reporting, that is a significant rapid shift among republicanvoters, over just a few years of the trump era. in 2018 49% of those republicans and republican-leaning adults viewed the fbi favorably, and 44% viewed it unfavorably. back in january of 2017 just before trump took offic 65% of repuicans had a favorable view of the fbi, 21% had an unfavorable view, and in 2010 71% of republicans had a favorable view of the fbi. can the fbi do what it needs to do, and do so safely, if only 38% of republicans in this country have confidence in it, pete? >> well, i think the fbi is going to do what it needs to do, the question is, what is the impact on morale? what is the impact on the ability of those agents and investigators and prosecutors to do their job? i mean, look, i was struck earlier this week, carol was on with you, she talked about the bodies on the floor following crossfire hurricane and as i listened to trump talk about not only going after political enemies but looking at jay in the fbi, i can't help but think about colleagues of mine, some of whom still are in the fbi, who have legal teams who have massive legal bills because of this huge apparatus. it's not just trump. remember, the same congressional enablers now fighting to impeach joe biden and gum up the works with anything being criminally done with trump are the same people working with him to attack the fbi and doj. and you add in certain right wing media who adds to that chorus, that's the reason why we have such a negative public perception. of course the fbi is going to keep doing their job but it absolutely takes a toll. people on the inside are well aware of what happens when you engage in an investigation that implicates trump. and that carries a cost. and i hate to say it, it does have an impact on the morale within the organization. doesn't stop people from doing their job, but it certainly makes it a far, far more difficult place to go in and do your job. >> it also, pete, the attacks land on an agency very much like the military that doesn't have an ounce of sort of political rapid response in their dna, so when tucker carlson is smearing the military up and down, right and left, they don't have the ability to go on fox and defend themselves. the fbi seems similarly hamstrung by design and by culture to defend itself. even with that, and if you disagree please tell me, but is there more that can be done to bolster the integrity of the agency, specifically as it's been led by trump's hand-picked director? >> well, first of all, i think you're exactly right, i mean, the notion of the sort of ethos of the fbi ethically is that we don't take political sides, that you don't talk about investigations that aren't public, that you speak through your charging documents. when it comes to somebody making obscene, absurd allegations that this is an unmerited investigation, the fbi simply can't go and say, well, here are all the facts that we have at our possession, at our fingertips, to explain why we go out and we're doing an investigation. that's just simply not the way the justice system works. so in some ways the ability to engage, and sort of push back on some of these false narratives is extraordinarily limited just by the way that the fbi is designed, not to make public information, that should not be made public. now, when it comes to how you do push back, this is something i am glad to see director wray recently leaning forward a little bit in his most recent congressional testimony over the past several months defending the fbi, talking about the work, but it really falls to people outside of the fbi and doj, to rise to make a more spirited defense because as you point out, again, the system is not designed to allow the fbi and doj to do that. again, a.g. garland, i think, can and has done some of that. i'd like to hear more of it from the senior leadership at doj and the fbi, but no question about it, this is a very difficult time to be working in this context. >> carol leonnig, the body of your reporting contributed enormously, but perhaps no more so than in giving voice to these voiceless institutions, to telling the story of what was going on, not just inside the military, but inside a tank briefing, where you revealed, i think to the world for the first time, that they were all flabbergasted by his stupidity and his political impulses in that room and lack of presenting anything of a presidential temperament and also the cia, you had the earliest report in the unease about trump in the highest levels in the intelligence agencies as well as in the justice department. and i wonder, i mean, this -- the thing with trump is, he ran on lock her up so people see this and they're like he's always been for locking up his political prisoners. this is different. he has people putting together an architecture to hijack all of the levers of independence that exist in the justice department, and the fbi, and place them, you know, inside the oval office under his desk next to the button he presses to get a diet coke. that is the plan for the next go-around. i wonder if you, sort of with all of your sort of knowledge of what he tried to do last time, how you evaluate the plans that are now out in the open this time. >> well, i've been thinking a lot about how different this moment is than what phil rucker and i reported back in 2017 to 2019. mine, a lot of people joked that you didn't have to go very far to see what donald trump was thinking because he was tweeting it at 2:00 in the morning, and again at 10:00 a.m. and yet he's saying out loud something that is so understandably frightening to people who care about the rule of law, myself among them, even though i'm a journalist, the rule of law distinguishes our country. it's a principle that we uphold, and that means we don't gin up and frame people without evidence. and while -- forgive me. many of your viewers may not like the former attorney general bill barr, i am sort of sputtering to think what could be the crime that bill barr was involved in by being disloyal to donald trump. imagine that, that he wants an investigation of the former attorney general for telling him, you know we investigated potential election fraud. we threw away 20 years of norms and decided to investigate an election in process because you thought there was fraud. we found none. so what's the crime there? think about the difference that -- how different that is than how merrick garland and the current attorney general's leadership team proceeded in very gingerly, cautiously, ponderously, and some people say it took them too long to investigate, really, quite clear evidence of a potential crime in terms of overturning the election. in terms of submitting false electors in a coordinated scheme that appears to have been run by rudy giuliani, none other than the president's number one campaign adviser. the difference is so stark. you asked about at the top of the hour about guardrails and the institutions, what is donald trump doing now? he's not just tweeting, boy, we really should investigate that pete strzok, or firing mr. mccabe for the ig investigation that found he didn't give accurate answers, he's saying let's investigate people willy nilly that i don't like and that hurt me. >> right. >> that is -- that's really different, and really, i think, excuse for multiple hours of your show. >> let me read one of them. because it happened right before we came on the air. andrew weissmann, this was a truth social, a tweet, whatever he does there. he tweeted this, judge -- should end the witch hunt, with the bizarre captainlations i'll have to get over. i have totally won this case which should never have been brought. the only fraud, again capitalized, was committed by attorney general letitia james in convincing the judge mar-a-lago was worth only 18 million in order to make my numbers look bad when it's 50 to 100 times that amount. she campaigned on getting trump. she should be prosecuted. we know it's him usually by the weird capitalizations and punctuations, so we can be pretty sure this is him. and to carol's point this is a prosecutor that has stood up every day at the court us and -- courthouse and said i will not be intimidated. he seeks to punish her for perhaps going after the thing he cherishes most, his brand as a successful businessman, which a body of reporting had already made clear was a fraud. but now a judge has found it to be a fraud, in that civil trial. what do you make of what he's -- the impact of putting this out there, and running on this message? >> well, i think it is part and parcel of attacking the rule of law because it is attacking the judicial system. he is having his day in court. that's the way it works. he is -- has an opportunity in court to convince the judge why he is right, starting monday he will be calling witnesses in his case, as is his right and his co-defendants, that's the way the system works, whether it's a civil case or a criminal case. and when you don't like the outcome, especially as somebody who was in the government attacking the umpire is not a way that you instill confidence in the system. but i think his entire goal is to delegitimize the system, delegitimize people in law enforcement, delegitimize journalists like you and carol. it's to have no checks and balances. these are really the tools of an autocrat. and one final point is in terms of attacking the judicial system, which we're going to see continue because of the upcoming criminal cases is he has a number of enablers, for instance elise stefanik filed a complaint against the judge. that is so irresponsible. she knows better. and that is really -- this idea that it's constantly a step too far and it's now normalized where you have somebody in congress doing that, and the judge is just doing his job, you may disagree with him, you can say that, you can say he's missed evidence, but really, a complaint against him for doing his job beyond the pail. >> i'm thinking of don mcgahn who ended up spending close to 30 hours telling robert mueller a lot of what he would learn about volume two efforts to obstruct the investigation, thinking about pat cipillone, star witnesses in the january 6th select committee, you're looking at people, i won't put it on a right/left pendulum but the autocratic impulses of very conservative lawyers. are they coming up in the post-reporting about who would put this policy in place for trump? >> i think i'm going to completely duck that question. >> fair. >> largely because i think it's really the choice of my colleagues whether or not they want to share that, and i don't want to cross any lines there. but i will just, if you're giving many ethe final word, i think i will say one thing that i found so striking about donald trump's interview with univision the other day was him saying -- well, he mixed up his metaphors, as he often does, they let the genie out of the box, this allows me to come after somebody who may be winning the election, who i don't like, who didn't support me. another stunner if you just put it in perspective. his idea that he's being investigated based on perfectly predicated evidence of a potential crime and a reason to open an investigation, i mean, so much more than a reason, i can't even tell you the people i've interviewed who said, okay, we have such a ton of this material. >> yeah. >> a tiny fraction of it would have been a predicate. so this idea that now -- and the genie's out of the box, he can investigate anybody who is a political foe? with what? based on what? everyone, everyone should be worried about this. what does it mean for the two election workers in georgia whose lives were completely ruined because they counted the ballots and they correctly submitted the results? and their lives were ruined, and they never left their homes for month. what does it mean for a young former veteran who is really excited about representing his district and doesn't swear fealty to donald trump. imagine all the iterations of this genie out of the box idea that he has. >> we will keep imagining them here with your help. it's really terrifying. carol leonnig and pete strozk, thank you for sticking around with us on this. the $250 million civil fraud case against him that's driving him crazy, that effort has failed and now the defense must present its case. it happens monday morning. we will preview what that will look like as well as the allies, andrew previewed that for us already. then a feel-good mood for democrats at least for now, president joe biden setting his sights on 2024, seeking to frame a winning message on reproductive rights and freedom, and on unions, later in the program, the judge in the classified documents case has declined the criminally charged ex-president's request to postpone his may trial, at least for now, but the judge has an asterisk on the order. we'll explain what that means much more when "deadline white house" continues. tinues i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. -ahh, -here, i'll take that. woo hoo! ensure max protein 30 grams protein, one gram sugar, 25 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients for immune health. 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(♪♪) a hail mary attempt to call it a wrap on the new york civil fraud trial has failed a day after the new york attorney general's office rested its case trump's lawyers asked the judge to clear trump, trump's companies, and executives from trump's companies from any and all wrongdoing, seeking what is known s directed verdict. the judge did no such thing. it is worth noting he has already said that he's found proof of years of fraud. and he said that the trial will go on for now. on monday donald trump jr. will return to the stand as the first witness for the defense. with the trial revealing a steady drip of damning allegations about the trump business and leading to a gag order for trump the gop has stepped in now to carry some of the ex-president's water as he flails. as andrew mentioned in the earlier block elise stefanik filed an ethics complaint against the judge, she accuses him of weaponized -- and on the front lines covering this trial for us here, andrew is with us. let's deal we