On to say the decision to give the interview was ultimately the president. That as he is apparently not done trying to clean up the mess he made. Listen to what he said to fox news today. I had dinner with the queen. I met with the Prime Minister of the uk. I was with the head of france. I was with all these nations, and i constantly am, constantly talking to them. And, you know, that puts us in a we have many, many conversations and im just thinking, gee, if they say we dont like your opponent, am i supposed to put the president of france, am i supposed to report him to the fbi . That makes absolutely no sense. And let me tell you why. Because the president is comparing meetings with World Leaders to taking dirt on your political rivals from foreigners. When obviously there is no comparison. Absolutely no one would suggest that the president of the United States cant have conversations with foreign leaders without reporting them to the fbi. Nobodys saying that at all. Its not what this is about. Does anybody really think the president of france or the queen of england would turn to the president , President Trump, during a dinner and say, hey, mr. President , want some dirt on joe biden . No. Does the president even think that . No, of course he doesnt. He is resorting to his old tactic of distracting and deflecting from something he doesnt want you to Pay Attention to, something that he screwed up. He wants to distract you from the fact that he said this. I have information on your opponent. Do you call the fbi . I dont think if its coming from russia you do. Ive seen a lot of things over my life. I dont think in my whole life ive ever called the fbi. In my whole life. You dont call the fbi. You throw somebody out of your office. Al gore got a stolen briefing book, he called the fbi. Thats different, a stolen briefing book. This is somebody that said we have information on your opponent. Oh, let me call the fbi. Give me a break. Life doesnt work that way. The fbi director says thats what should happen. The fbi director is wrong. Its really unbelievable. I mean, every time i see it. I know you feel the same way. And he said this too. Campaign this time, foreigners, if woish, if china, if someone else offers information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the fbi . I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. Theres nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, norway, we have information on your opponent, oh, i think id want to hear it. You want that kind of interference in our elections . Its not an interference. They have information. I think id take it if i thought there was something wrong id go maybe to the fbi if i thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with Oppo Research, lets call the fbi, the fbi doesnt have enough agents to take care of it. But you go and talk honestly to congressmen, they all do it, they always have. Thats the way it is. Its called Oppo Research. That was not Oppo Research what he was talking about. Okay . So compare that to the president trying to backtrack today. Of course you have to look at it because if you dont look at it youre not going to know if its bad. How are you going to know if its bad . Of course you give it to the fbi or report it to the attorney general, or somebody like that. And this. If i dont listen youre not going to know. Now, if i thought anything was incorrect or badly stated id report it to the attorney general, the fbi, id report it to law enforcement, absolutely. And this. I dont think anybody would present me with anything then because they know how much i love this country. Look, the president is still all over the place. You can see he just keeps digging. Hes all over the place. But to be absolutely clear you dont have to listen to the details of exactly what kind of dirt a foreign country is offering. What you can and what you should do is just refuse to take any information on your rivals from a foreign power. Thats what the law says, period. Well, theres more tonight from the president s interview. Did you hear this . President trump denying he told his former White House Counsel Don Mcgahn to fire Robert Mueller, insisting to Abcs George Stephanopoulos mcgahn was just trying to make himself look good. He lays out a lot of evidence, including the episode where you ask your White House Counsel Don Mcgahn, you tell him, mueller has to go. You call him twice and say mueller has to go, call me when its done. I was never going to fire mueller. I never suggested firing mueller. Thats not what he says. I dont care what he says. It doesnt matter. That was to show everyone what a good counsel he was. Why would don mcgahn lie why would he lie under oath . Because he wanted to make himself look like a good lawyer, or, or he believed it because i would constantly tell anybody that would listen, including you, including the media, that Robert Mueller was conflicted, Robert Mueller had a total conflict of interest. And has to go. I didnt say that. Okay. So don mcgahn lied to make himself look like a good lawyer, or he didnt lie. He believed what he said. But anyway i didnt say i wanted to fire mueller. But that is not all here. Lies came up again when the president said he refused to testify to mueller under oath because he didnt want to get caught in a lie. But if you answer these questions to me now why not answer them to Robert Mueller under oath . Because they were looking to get us for lie frs slight misstatements. I looked at what happened to people, and it was very unfair. Very, very unfair. Very unfair. I gave them 1. 5 million pages of documents. Right . I gave them 400 or 500 witnesses. I let don mcgahn testify. I let him he was the white house counsel. I let him but you knew he was doing an interview. You didnt answer questions on obstruction. Wait a minute, i did answer questions, i answered them in writing. Not on obstruction. I dont know. I answered a lot of questions. They gave me questions, i answered them in writing. Not on obstruction. Look, george, youre being a little wise guy okay, which is typical for you, just so you understand, very simple, its very simple, there was no crime, there was no collusion. Sorry. Okay. Lots to unpack there. You heard the president said say he thinks mueller was trying to catch him in a lie. But the best way to avoid that is obviously to tell the truth. Then theres all the obfuscation about 1. 5 million pages of documents, 400 or 500 witnesses when the point is why the president refused to answer questions on obstruction. Why did he refuse to answer questions on obstruction . Thats when this president resorts to a petty insult and then insists there was no crime and no collusion, even though we all heard Robert Mueller say this. If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. And there is news tonight from the Justice Department as well to tell you about, the doj to absolutely no ones surprise releasing a legal opinion supporting treasurys refusal to hand over the president s tax returns to the chairman of the house, ways and Means Committee, even though the tax code makes it very clear that chairman richard neal has the authority to request them. Like i said, no surprise since the attorney general william barr has been giving the president pretty much everything he wants. Youve got to wonder whether they think that we wont notice any of this. But its hard not to notice this, that this is the anything goes white house. Theres the president s refusing to fire Kellyanne Conway after a government watchdog recommended she be removed for repeatedly violating the hatch act, the person the president actually appointed. Thats the act that bars federal employees engaging in politics while serving in their federal roles. Hes okay with that. Im not going to fire i think shes a terrific person, tremendous spokesperson. Shes been loyal, shes been shes just a great person. Based on what i saw yesterday, how could you do that . They have tried to take away her speech. And i think youre entitled to free speech in this country. No one is trying to take away Kellyanne Conways free speech. Just trying to keep her from being a partisan on the job. But for the president its all about your loyalty to him, not right and wrong. Weve been talking a lot about some of the outrageous things the president has said. But this, this is just plain awkward, okay, i want you to listen to the president s answer about whether hell endorse Vice President listen closely, whether hes going to endorse Vice President mike pence for president in 2024. Well, its far look, i love mike, were running again but, you know, were talking about a long time so you cant put me in that position but i certainly would give it very strong consideration. 2024 is a long way off, though, it really is and no president would endorse anybody this far out but still, thats still kind of awkward, right . Speaking of awkward, things went to a strange place today as the preponderate was defending his planned new paint job for air force one. The boeing 747 has had the same color since jfk was president. First Lady Jackie Kennedy had a hand in the design but President Trump thinks it is time for an update. I like the concept of red, white and blue and the classic and i think its going to look much better, actually. You know, the baby blue doesnt fit with us and people get used to something and it was jackie o, and thats good but we have our own jackie o today, its called melania, melania, melania t. So lets take a look at the president s planned paint job on the left. Where have i seen that before . Its all just facts were pointing out here. Its kind of hard to believe sometimes that im actually having to report this with a straight face. A lot to talk about tonight including the president s inner circle, saying that explosive interview with abc never should have happened but whose fault is it . Were going to dig in all of that with max boot, Douglas Brinkley, Jennifer Rodgers and thats next. Award winning interface. Award winning design. Award winning engine. The volvo xc90. The most awarded luxury suv of the century. They use stamps. Com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. 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But they say they dont think the fallout will be significant, that Trump Supporters likely dont care. But it sounds like the knives are out inside the white house for sarah sanders, the departing press secretary, shes being blamed for giving abc access to the president. Max boot, Douglas Brinkley and Jennifer Rodgers are here. So listen, lets just talk about the everything that i discussed in the open of this show. Not meant to be humorous, straight news. But when you read it and you hear the answers that they give, its you can see why the late night shows, its so easy for them, i would imagine. Im sure they will tell me its not that easy. But the material just writes itself. Max . No, i think thats right, don. I mean, believe me, two and a half years ago if you told me that donald trump was going to become president of the United States and he would act like this i would say, wow, this is the craziest thing you could possibly imagine. This is fantasy, science fiction, it will never happen. But it has happened and it keeps happening. There are still days when i wake up where i say i cant believe donald trump is president of the United States. Hes acting like this. At some level we have to accept it and this is the truth and this has become our new reality and we get acclimated to any new reality. I just hope that after trump is gone from office this is not going to be a permanent norm. I hope this will be seen as an aberration rather than as the new way president s are supposed to conduct themselves. How can people, even his supporters, look at the interviews especially the one he gave to abc news and listen to the answers and say, thats okay, how can any rational person listen to that and say, oh, thats fine . I think Trump Supporters think every once in a while he goes to crazy town. That was just a kaleidoscope of weirdness we just saw here, the abc interview was a bad idea, having George Stephanopoulos hover of his desk was a bad idea, the optics were bad. Trump let loose, like a hog running out of the tunnel going in 50 different directions. He has no discipline. As much as some people say hes a master of twitter and the media, it shows utterly idiotic judgment on display here. Ive got my hand up. Why was it a bad idea for him to do an interview where he is challenged . Why is that a bad idea . Because hes not contained. And the best thing when trump did well on his trip to europe it was at normandy with a monitor. When hes left to his own devices utter chaos reigns and now they have to pull it all back and try to apologize for the white house, hoping the next news cycle will just move on and people will forget about this whole dirt on his opponents foray. And people are inundated and many times they do that. Jennifer, i want to bring you in but before i do that i just want to play what the president said a couple of days ago and what he said today, okay, watch this. You dont call the fbi. Give me a break. Life doesnt work that way. The fbi director says thats what should happen. The fbi director is wrong. Of course you have to look at it. If you dont look at it, youre not going to know if its bad. How do you know if its bad. Of course you give it to the fbi or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that. Jennifer, does that count as a walkback . I dont know. Its clearly illegal to take any help at all from a foreign person. The Founding Fathers doesnt want foreigners to interfere in our elections. And that includes our president. It should include our president. He knows if he looked at the Mueller Report that don jr. Came pretty close to being indicted for taking help or trying to take help from russians for the election. So he knows that its wrong. Hes been told its wrong and yet he still wants to say, well, i should listen, i need to decide for myself. No, all you need to do is say im not interested, hang up the phone, call the fbi, i was approached by someone, he said hes a russian, he said he had help for me, and youre done. Is he laying the groundwork for don jr. s defense, is this really about the defense of his son . I think that ship has sailed. Don jr. Is not going to be indicted. I think hes literally laying the groundwork for what might happen in 2020, where maybe he gets information, i dont think it would happen the same way it happened last time but what may happen is he may come out and say hey, everyone i have something to tell you when they told us Elizabeth Warren was born in canada we called the fbi. In one breath says he does the right thing.