As we said, the white house is reacting sharply to this. Jeff zeleny joins us now. Talk about what the president had to say about steve bannon. Its a fascinating quote. Reporter it was a fascinating Statement Released this afternoon. Im told the president was very much personally involved in crafting this. He diminished his role in his entire presidency. He said Something Like this. Lets look. He said steve bannon has nothing to do with my or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Now that hes on his own, steve is learning that winning is not as easy as i make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory. Steve was rarely in a oneonone meeting with me and only pretends to have influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books. This is requires fact checking. During the access hollywood matter, steve bannon was at the president s side guiding him through all of that. In fact, in the general election campaign, he was guiding him through all of that. At breitbart before he joined the campaign, he was the biggest cheerleader for the campaign here. In terms of not having oneonone meetings, i heard from someone inside the west wing earlier who said that simply isnt true. He had walkin privileges which means he could walk into the white house which he often did and his office was only ten steps or so from the oval office. So the fact that the president and the white house now are trying to diminish steve bannon simply does not compare with the facts of his time here from last january through august. Its easy to diminish George Papadopoulos or carter page certainly. Reporter right. A little harder to you know, to diminish the guy you called on the stage on the night of your victory and you know, who clearly stood by him when Reince Priebus was getting weak in the knees after the access hollywood tape. No question at all. Steve bannon whole populist rhetoric is something the president was already saying but is he certainly seized upon it. This isnt the first time weve heard the president bristle at the fact that someone else was claiming responsibility and credit for success here. So that is a pattern weve seen. By saying that he lost his mind, then the question is why did the president keep talking to steve bannon after he left the white house . Anderson, the big point is this. Steve bannons argument undermines the entire argument the white house has been saying for more than a year, that the russia investigation is a hoax or simply isnt reality. Thats why the white house and the president are working so hard in overtime, if you will, to diminish steve bannon and discredit this book. That t other thing that was sort of mind boggling in the White House Briefing today is that sara sanders said a reporter asked, i forgot which, asked essentially they were steve bannon was on equal footing with Reince Priebus and sara sanders said i wouldnt say he was on equal footing. If you read the press release from when they were both appointed, it actually says that they are equal partners in this. Reporter yes, they were equal partners. And if anyone had higher footing, arguably that was steve bannon during the early months of this administration a year ago. Who was it put on the National Security council in the first week of the administration . It was steve bannon. The president gave him blessing to that. Who approved of the travel ban . That was steve bannon. Theres no question now, there can be revisionist history if they would like but it does not meet the facts. Steve bannon was along for the ride through all of this, was leading the train in many respects here. The question here though is, will this break remain or will the president want to know what steve bannon is thinking in the months to come, certainly in the Midterm Election campaign and as this is years go forward here. So that is something well have to wait and see. Is their friendship, relationship broken or not. But the whole point here also, theres been a feud between steve bannon and members of the trump family. Jared, ivanka, everyone. That is what is underlying most of this. It reminds me a little bit of the soviet union. They used to have the pictures on a reviewing stand and a general would lose out of favor and be sent to siberia and they would edit him out of the photo. Its like rewriting history. Jeff zelleny, thank you very much. More from the book, especially on russia. Steve bannon signals the investigation will walk straight over to the president s money and family. Mueller chose Andrew Weissmann first and he is a Money Laundering guy. Their path to trump goes right through jared kushner, Paul Manafort, and don junior. Its as plain as a hair on your face. Want to bring in the panel, Eliana Johnson and jeffrey toobin. Jeff, you think that think about Deutsche Bank and Paul Manafort, thats major. Thats really the devastating part of this because you know, the one thing donald trump has said is the one red line that he will not allow Paul Manafort to im sorry, he will not allow Robert Muellers investigation to cross is investigating his personal finances other than those related to russia. The Deutsche Bank accounts presumably relate to all of his finances. And all of Jared Kushners finances. And here you have steve bannon who notwithstanding what the president said today is obviously very close to the operations of his campaign. And let me put that the quote from steve bannon about Deutsche Bank, he says it goes through Deutsche Bank and all the kushner explative, the kushner expletive is greasy. Theyre going to go right through that and roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me. In other words, trying to flip people to get to to get to the president. And you know, how can anyone at this point say that the Deutsche Bank records are irrelevant when steve bannon says theyre relevant. I mean, this argument now that this was a fishing expedition, that the whole investigation is a waste of time which is an argument that you hear on fox news every day and you hear from republicans all the time, the response now is, well, steve bannon thinks its pretty useful. Its a valid investigation. I know youre a loyalist to trump, its been a rough night for you. But how do you, you know, it does sound like a lot of things bannon is saying are things that have come out of the mouths of democrats for months. This book is going to be a difficult book for the Administration Next week. Theres a lot of things unpacked from the book. Right now, youre looking at the credibility of the author now being brought into question, regarding blind quotes, was he part of this conversation. Its important to have this conversation in the context that this authors integrity has been questioned by major publications in the u. S. Lets look at that. Talking about steve bannon and the russia investigation, heres the concern i have. Hearing this conversation, jeffrey, you talk about Deutsche Bank. What does that have to do with collusion . You know this is this is what this proves is what bannon has always believed is that mueller is a fishing expedition. Hes going to keep digging and digging. Has nothing do with collusion. Digging until he finds Something Else. Do you want an answer . Please. Which is that donald trump had financial interests in russia. A decade before he ran for president. We dont know. Maybe a decade before. So youre speculating we havent seen his tax return youve seen it, so youre speculating this is current . I know he has accounts at Deutsche Bank. What im interested in are facts. How is that related to the russia investigation is the question im asking . Because donald trump has been obsessed with building in russia for 20 years. The russian government helped him win the presidency. The financial interests of the president in russia are highly relevant. Whether you believe it or not, steve bannon now is talking about it. It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the kushner you know expletive and kushner expletive is greasy. Theyll go right through that. Paul . Thats its i do admire bryan and ive had to defend the indefensible in my life, god knows. But that old dog wont hunt. It has always been about russia with this president and according to bannon and a lot of smart people, the russia story goes through money and Money Laundering. That is the argument thats clearly where mr. Mueller is going. I think bannons right about that. This is why the president said its a red line. Hes so transparent about this. He will tell you where hes, like the guy in the murder mystery. Dont look into the basement. Thats where this is. And its telling that its not about family. I know he loves his family. But steve bannon attacked the president s daughter a few weeks ago in alabama, took her line, this is a special place in hell for somebody who harms a child, threw it back in her face in public, so theres a special place in hell for you, ivanka. The president was silent. He loves his daughter. Its not about him defending donald junior or his daughter or soninlaw. Its about russia, its about Money Laundering, its about allegations that bannon believes, knowing the family as he does, that the son took the russians straight to the old man. Also about the fact, again, bannons portraying himself correctly as somebody who was basically steering the ship in the Trump Campaign and trump administration. Thats the thing that drives donald trump the most crazy. So this idea, i know the white house is pushing out the story its really about the kids and the family. But read his statement. Its a fourparagraph statement. Theres nothing about how dare you attack my family. Its all about how irrelevant steve bannon was and how easy it is to win if youre donald trump but bannon doesnt know anything about that. Im going to put a happy face on the book. Bryan used the word difficult. You know what else is difficult, like when youre addicted to a bad stanubstance and youre try to detox from it, the detox period is difficult. When you come out on the other side, you feel much better. What theyre doing in the white house is detoxing after getting over this bad drug steve bannon. Like euphoria after throwing up. Feel good for a little while. The nausea comes back. The detox will be painful but theyll be better off for this. What we learned today is bannon views himself as bigger than the trump family, bigger than the president and bigger than the office. He viewed trump as a vessel. But when the vessel got out to sea, it got its own mind. It became more like what you would expect a republican vessel to do, which bannon hated. Why . Because hes not an actual republican. Hes had a hell of a couple months here on his exit interview he said the administration has no credible military strategy in north korea a strategic disaster for the white house. He promised civil war against the president s allies in the senate, led the president down a disastrous path in alabama. And now, this book, if i didnt know any better, he was on schumer and pelosis payroll, all the damage hes done to donald trump. So its a difficult book, its a difficult night, but theyll be better off for ridding themselves of this virus. Leona. What are the implications of the book Going Forward for steve bannon . Bannon had an established record of backing outsider candidates before he joined the Trump Campaign, but when he joined trump who had a national following, as well, trump did make him a national celebrity. He was parodied on saturday night live and became a household name. I think, because he had the political background and an established record, bannon did take credit for some of trumps you know, well won victories and that got under the president s skin. They each took credit for each others successes and the truth is that now that the president has disavowed bannon and bannon has tried to position himself and to cast himself as a tribunal of the trump voter his influence will be greatly diminished among the trump base when he goes out and tries to campaign in the 2018 midterms. That will really hurt him. Because what hes trying to do Going Forward, in terms of backing antiestablishment candidates, depends on his status among trump voters. So i think he will be greatly diminished by this break with the president. We have to take a quick bre break. Well have more on this. Coming up next, will roger ailes asked steve bannon according to Michael Wolff and what was said about Vladimir Putin. Later, remember the president s unsubstantiated claim he would have won the popular vote if it werent for massive voter fraud . And remember the commission he established to investigate it . Today it was announced the commission is gone. Its no longer doing anything. Well have reporting on that. En a morning person. Its when i ponder the deep questions, like which came first, the egg . Or the chicken . How would i know . But i do know that first, qualcomm connected the phone to the internet. And now, everyone is posting and scrolling and sharing everything. Yessir. Qualcomm invents, then the world innovates on top of their breakthroughs. Invention comes first. And a whole lot of it starts at qualcomm. 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It is hard to grasp, jeff, that steve bannon is now basically trolling the president on russia, which is obviously a subject which he hasnt really spoken of heretofore, and the white house has denied. I guess the question is, what does steve bannon actually know because he wasnt there. He wasnt there, but were talking about this book in the context of you know, can this marriage be saved between donald trump and steve bannon. My answer to that really is sort of who cares. I dont think that is a particularly important subject. If you read the chapter in new york magazine, you see that the people closest to donald trump, steve bannon, kayte walsh, this very straightforward establishment figure, they all think the president of the United States is entirely unfit to be president. They think he doesnt read anything. They think he doesnt know anything. They think he doesnt care about any policy. He is totally incurious about every aspect of his job. That to me is a lot more important and significant than whether steve bannon is up or down. Who cares . I mean, the idea that all these people who care about the Republican Party think the president is essentially out of his mind, thats significant. I got say, i always feel for bad anybody surrounded by people who have their own agenda and are so disloyal they run to you know, do a book. It seems like that is who the president is surrounded by. Yeah, i dont know about that. Kayte walsh is a good example. I dont think shes somebody necessarily disloyal. First of all, she wasnt necessarily a trump person, more of an establishment person. Steve bannon with him in the fight big surprise you get in steve bannon and this happens . Should we be surprised . If you look at the things that kayte walsh says, i did find those the most concerning things. She talks about its like trying to figure out what a child wants, dealing with the president. She asked jared kushner, tell me what his top three priorities are. He said i cant. Portrays basically, what we have observed from the outside she really lends credence to the idea that the president is in over his head. Kayte walsh has come up tonight. She has completely and flatly denied saying this. Right, in ax owe, which we talked about the last hour. Ive been communicating with someone close to her. They believe bannon is saying these things and attributing them to katye for the author. Back to bryans point earlier we reached out to her. She said what she said to axio some of these anecdotes is the sourcing correct on this may tear down this authors credibility. I will say also, Michael Wolff did ingratiate himself, i remember he was making very pro President Trump statements going after other reporters for the way they were reporting on the white house. What see