Republican lawmakers, will you support the reelection bid of donald trump, the president of the United States, the standard bear, the nominal leader of your party . But faced with this very straightforward question instead of choosing option a, yes, option b, no, a surprising number are choosing option c, squirm. This should tell you something, a lot in advance of what could be a very tough midterm. Our manu raju chased them down and looked for answers. Manu . Hey, john. A wide array of house and Senate Republicans tell me they are just not ready to endorse President Trumps bid for a second term really a sign of the deep uncertainty on the hill of his political standing amid his growing problems and the tenuous relationship he continues to have with his own party. Now i spoke to more than two dozen republican lawmakers representing a Cross Section of the party and for the most part, members were mum. They said it was just too early to think about a decision. They wanted to worry about the midterms first. They were just uncertain that he would ultimately stand for reelection even though trump has said he would run, hes hired campaign staff, hes raised money, hes held campaign rallies. This is, of course, unusual since most president s without a doubt get support from lawmakers from their own Party Without a blink of an eye, but things are different this time. Youre prepared at this point toward the president for reelection in 2020 . I havent thought about that election. Im worried about the midterm election. I did not endorse the president for the republican nomination in 2016. I supported first jeb bush and then john kasich, so, again, i think it far too erto make a judgment of that type. Will you support the president for reelection . Whoa. Im focused on working and doing what i do, and so talk about what might happen at that time is, i think premature. There is one thing that most republicans do agree on, they do not think theres any room in the party right now for a primary challenger to succeed against President Trump and they think its a bad idea for anyone to run against him. They point to history, 1976, 9180, 1992 when sitting president s were challenged within the respective parties, they won their primaries but they lost the general elections. Moreover trump ran against his own party in 2016 and may not need republicans on the hill to support him plus he maintains a rock solid support among base gop voters making it hard for anyone to challenge him in a primary, but one perspective challenger, the arizona senator jeff flake told me this, quote, i wouldnt gauge what support there is a year and a half from now to what support there is now. So well see what support there will be from trump from his own party on capitol hill come 2020 and whether that makes a difference at all, john. Manu raju very interesting. Thank you very much. Much more on that in a moment. First, a stark warning for the president on a different front. Your personal fixer may be preparing to turn against you. A former lawyer to donald trump says the president called him for advice last friday and his main message to the president was clear, Michael Cohen may end up cooperating with prosecutors to avoid jail time. This as President Trump refuses to say whether or not he will fire the men leading the russia investigation. Our abby phillip in florida near maralago where the president is staying. Whats the latest . Reporter good morning, john. Yesterday President Trump had the same word to say five times, no collusion. He repeated that multiple times in his press conference in response to questions about whether he was willing or planning to fire Rod Rosenstein, the man who is in charge of the special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. President trump did not answer the question directly but here is what he did say in answer to that. 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, done with, put it behind us. Reporter thats not clearly a direct answer to that question. The president didnt rule it out but he suggested that all of the talk of firing rosenstein hasnt come to fruition at this point, but, of course, while all of this is being said here in florida, the president s allies are all over the air waves talking about rosenstein as someone who should be out of the job as soon as possible meanwhile all of this commotion with the president s personal lawyer has caused a lot of concern here in this white house. Sources tell cnn that the president is more concerned about that issue than he is even about some of the other things going on, the Stormy Daniels litigation, for example. Yesterday, cnns gloria worther talked to one of the president s old lawyers, jay goldberg, someone who represented the president in his divorce cases in the past, spoke with him recently and gave him advice on how to deal with the Michael Cohen situation. He warned President Trump that cohen should not be trusted. Heres what he said. Anybody who is facing 30 years never stands up without exception. A person facing a prison term cooperates. Goldberg warned the president that he should be prepared for cohen to be possibly wearing a wire with the prospect that he might be facing prison time as a result of this investigation. We should also say that, you know, Michael Cohen hasnt been charged with anything yet but these raids on his home and his office have caused a lot of concern. The president s own lawyers and cohens lawyers trying to hold back some of the information that the federal agents might have collected in those raids, john. All right. Abby phillip for us in florida. Thank you very much. Lets talk about all of this. Joining me is my panel. I want to go back to manus reporting. This question to republican lawmakers, will you support the president in his reelection bid which hes already announced. The president s already announced by the way. I thought it was early to ask that question but i was really struck by the way these lawmakers answer. Watch ron johnson and bock corker who were on new day this morning asked the same question. It could be a completely different world by 2020. We have a 2018 election first, so listen, i understand the kind of got you question youre engaging here, this is way too early to be talking about it. I have no idea whos going to run for president in 2020 and im not about to say who i will support for that, so we have no idea whos going to run. Whether the president runs again or not i think is very questionable candidly why wouldnt he . I dont know. Why would he . Their answers are just weird. Alex, its very interesting listening to them speak. Its not just corker who has his issues with the president but john thune and cornyn. Its extraordinary to hear a senator, particularly a major like ron johnson whos not a maverick in the party. Hes a pretty good soldier for the republican party, to call it a gotch you question, that if you would have asked a democrat in 2010, are you supporting barack obama for reelection, theyd say yes. Or you ask a republican that question about george w. Bush, theyd just say yes. Its not a gotch you question. Its a really easy question, in fact, so easy that you probably wouldnt even bother to ask you. Manus reporting is really revealing and its not the first time the prospect that bob corker raised about who knows if hes going to be on the ballot. Thats not the first time ive heard that from a republican in congress. Its not the first time weve heard it from actually people who are closer and more aligned with the president. Chris christie has said publicly well see. Hes new to the political process. Well see if after four years of this he wants to to it again. It would be surprising given hes already filed for reelection, given he does Campaign Rally and spending money from his campaign account. Salena, we havent seen this question asked. Normally the question you get asked is do you want the president to come campaign for you in the midterm, would you stand beside him in a midterm . Thats different from this. Ive seen distance with both obama and bush. This is a weird kind of distance. Well, if President Trump was a traditional president , this wouldnt this wouldnt this would surprise me, but we saw all along even in the primary process in 2016 where there were Establishment Republicans who were unwilling to campaign and or throw their support behind him. Hes not of the traditional mold and weve seen it happened to traditional president s in 76 in 1980 and in both parties in 1992 with president h. W. Bush when he was challenged by pat bu canon, so we do do this and i think the thing we should even look at is how much weaker our big parties are. Theyre not the Central Force any more with voters, both republicans and democrats alike. And i think were going to see more of a distance from what the establishment wants on both sides of the aisle than what the voters want. Really fair point. If you look at the people who did not support the president in the election in 2016, a lot of them are on their way out. Speaker paul ryan. Im talking about you right now and donald trump moves forward. Salena, if i can, i want to shift to the Mueller Investigation and the way that the president answered or didnt answer the straightforward question, are you going to fire Robert Mueller or Rod Rosenstein. He didnt say yes, but he didnt say no there. How do you assess . Right. Well, this is classic trump, you know. I mean, theres two different answer thats he gives. Theres the tuesdaythursday trump. Where he says one thing on tuesday and thursday his mind is completely changed. And theres the not answer answer. Part of it is not that he hasnt made a decision but part of it is he wants to drag the media along and not answer so that it becomes a thing and then he can turn around and say, see, see how they talk about me. I answered that but they dont think i answered that. Thats part of his persona. On Rod Rosenstein, alex, it is note be that cnn has reported the white house has been drafting talking points to besmir much him and there are republican members of the house who are taken action and laying the ground work to take action against him and democrats, even republicans say this is all part of some grand plan. I think we always have to be really careful about ascribing a grand plan to this president and this white house, but it does seem overwhelmingly clear at this point. The president would like to get rid of basically all of these investigators, every one whos touched the investigation. Hes made that clear about jeff sessions. We know that he has raised with aides the idea of getting rid of mueller himself, but he hasnt gone there and salena is right that sometimes he makes up his mind and drags it out. We also have seen enough with him over the years now. There are times when he has a certain impulse and he expresses the impulse over and over again and he also knows that he cant quite go there. Theyre drafting the talking points. House members are looking at the possibility of contempt hearings over documents theyre trying to get for him. Last question on Michael Cohen here. I want to talk about the legalities of whether Michael Cohen flips or not. It was notable to me from a political standpoint and relationship standpoint that he called his former divorce lawyer and real estate lawyer to ask him whether he should be concerned about this other personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Heres clearly concerned. Hes clearly making calls on this. This is clearly preautopsying some of his time. Sure i also think we need to think about the loss he has, right, that loss of that confidant, that loss of that personal friend, that he could just pick up the phone and say, hey, what do you think about this or that . He lost that relationship at least temporarily with cohen. So it makes sense to me that he calls someone else to try to sort of gauge the wilderness to see whats going on. People always need a connection and he lost his most important one in terms of looking at things legally and also personally. So im not surprised, but im not quite sure it means anything yet. Those of us who have known donald trump know Michael Cohen. The president says he is willing to leave a meeting with kim jongun if its not fruitful. More on that high stakes sit down or high stakes walkout. Plus a new legal storm brewing, the attorneys for Stormy Daniels says he might sue the president for def ma fashion over the president s tweets and we have new developments on Michael Cohen as well and in a fair and accusations of blackmail, criminal indictment turmoil in missouri over mounting allegations against the states governor. In minutes a judge decide whether to toss the felony charge against him. If you have not been following this case, its bonkers. Hi, im bob harper, and i recently had a heart attack. It changed my life. But im a survivor. After my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. Its for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. Brilinta is taken with a lowdose aspirin. No more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. 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If you dont like where this meeting is headed, bolton says, just leave. Cnns Michelle Kosinski has the details here and this really seemed to prestage some of the president s comments on this, michelle . Reporter look at this meeting, just the fact that youre having it is historic. It doesnt have to be super long. It could be less than an hour and still be considered a success and if the north koreas arent playing ball, basically, you can just leave. Listen to what the president said yesterday. If i think that its a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, were not going to go. If the meeting when im there is not fruitful, i will respectfully leave the meeting. Reporter so the North Koreans have been saying all of the right things. Theyve been saying that theyre willing to talk about denuclearization. Now south korea says that theyre also willing to not insist that the u. S. Keep that the u. S. Remove troops from the korean peninsula, which has been a Sticking Point for decades, really. So the North Koreans clearly are reaching the point that the u. S. Wants them to be, but the president says hes going to be flexible. He wants to have this meeting. Hes looking forward to it. He thinks it can be successful, but if its not going his way, he could stand up and walk out of there. That would be pretty dramatic. Indeed it would. Michelle, the president also made a point of talking about russia during this press conference, what did he say . Since this has been such a story lately, now we know that it was the president who decided not to go forward with sanctions, even though some in his administration, at least we know were ready to go. There were still drawing up the details of what the newest round of sanctions would be on Russian Companies but he was the one who decided not now. So yesterday, he did clarify some of this, saying that he would be willing to impose more sanctions when the russians really deserve it. He also said that nobodys been tougher on russia than donald trump. I will say, talking to people in the Foreign Policy community, some people were surprised that the u. S. Was going to do another round of sanctions now. Its like they kicked out these russian diplomats, they did more air strikes in syria, there wasnt a huge russian response that was going to be very negative, so why impose another round right now and the president is now saying, hes wanting to wait until possibly russia does Something Else and would be even more deserving of them. John . Michelle kosinski for us at the state department. Thank you