Secret memo now in the hands of the special counsel. Andrew mccabe says the president wanted to fire james comey over the russia investigation. Why did Rod Rosenstein say otherwise . Remarkable story from ukraine. Russian reporter thought to be assassinated. Turns out he is alive and a plot to kill him was foiled. That is such a cloak and dagger story. We have fred plooieitgen on tha one. Good morning. Welcome to early start. Im christine romans. Im dave briggs. Who is kim yong . Kim kardashian met with the president. Kim thongun. You cant make that up. Breaking overnight. Russias foreign minister meets with kim jongun in north korea. Sergei lavrov in a meeting in north korea says there must be a solution to the problem. That must pit russia against the United States. Mike pompeo is set to meet again in new york city with Kim Yong Chol. For the latest, lets bring in Nic Robertson in seoul. Set the chess board. Russia now moving into the picture. Reporter Sergei Lavrov in north korea saying it is not russia ya russias right to interfere in the process and lays out a set of conditions or ideas that the outcome of the summit should go before the United NationsSecurity Council or some parts of it. Clear effort to try to internationalize with a oneonone north korea and United States summit. He also says and this seems to be a warning about President Trumps high speed diplomacy here. He said they shouldnt try to rush to agree everything all at once. They should take their time. These are delicate diplomatic ideas discussed and plans laid out. Russia very much appear in the words of lavrov, despite what he says about not interferinterfer having a lot to say of the summit with kim jongun should or could go. This comes on the back of the last couple weeks where president xi has had two meetings with kim jongun. Indicating that was unwanted and upsetting the runup to his own summit. Secretary pompeo with Kim Yong Chol in new york today will have a chance to get the u. S. Position in front of the north koreans to bridge the gap. Nic in seoul. Thank you. Crucial questions in the russia investigation this morning. Did the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein provide cover to donald trump over the decision to fire james comey. The New York Times reports that Andrew Mccabe thought that was the case after talking to rosenstein. The memo mccabe wrote about that discussion is in the hands of the special counsel. The memo says rosenstein told mccabe the president wanted russia mentioned in the investigation and firing comey. Doing so could be a problem for the president. Mccabe cited the handling of the email investigation of Hillary Clinton. The president and allies used rosensteins role to suggest he should have recused himself over the Mueller Investigation. The Justice Department declined to comment. President trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani out front of the Mueller Probe reinforcing the time line fline for getting investigation wrapped up. File his report by september 1st. Will he fire him if he doesnt file the report . I dont think he is going to fire mueller. Mueller is creating his own problems. Giuliani echoing the president s line of attack with the veiled threat to muellers team. Well challenge mueller to write whatever you got. Take your best punch with your 13 democrats there. You couldnt find a republican . You have a group that is a lynching mob. Let them do their job. Boy, were ready to knock the heck out of you with our report. Giuliani defending the president s report that he tried to get attorney general Jeff Sessions to unrecuse himself on russia. Giuliani said even if this was true, it is not obstruction of justice. And a volley of tweets from the president saying he wished he had picked a different attorney general. Giuliani thinks the president will not fire sessions before the investigation ends. I dont think the president will touch him. Mueller or rosenstein. It will be worked out. Has he ever said i would like to get rid of Jeff Sessions . I decline to answer that. Former attorney general Michael Mukasey say it serves no purpose. President trump weighing in demanding an apology from abc. Instead of condemning the remarks from roseanne, he tweeted. This bob iger called valerie saying he does not tolerate comments made by roseanne. Gee, he did not apologize to me over the horrible statements made of me on abc. Maybe i just didnt get the call. Here is sarah sanders. Where was bobs apology to the white house staff for jemele hill for calling the president or anyone associated with him calling him a white supremacist. Where was the apology over Kathy Griffins photo showing her Holding President trumps decapitated head . This is a double standard. No one is defending the comments. They are inappropriate. That is the point he is making. Roseanne tried to clarify it was an explanation and not an excuse. She said she is not a racist and never was and never will be. The company that makes ambien issued a statement yesterday. Joining us from washington is tal kopan. Lets start with the president and sarah sanders. A lot of me, me, me in the tweets and explanation from the press secretary. What is missing is simple condemnation of racist remarks. Should we be surprised or par for the president s course . Should we be surprised . I dont think the tweet was particularly surprising. I think everyone was waiting to see what he would say when he did weigh in. Of course, he never had to weigh in. This was his choice. Roseanne is an outspoken supporter of his. To a certain extent, it called into question that whole political aspect of the reboot and her twitter feed and that thing. That allowed for the president to come in with an opportunity. You are right. The glaring missing piece of that comment was condemnation of what she actually said and the underlying sentiment. This, of course, one tweet of valerie got the most attention. There was a series of stuff that critics could claim was antisemitic. A series of stuff that came out. The president set up his press secretary to use the Daily Briefing to air grievances against the abc network. Even Conspiracy Theory that donald trump jr. Retweeted too. Yes. I was mentioning while all pharmaceuticals have side effects. Racism is not one of them. That is how crazy it got yesterday. An interesting New York Times piece today with pullouts of ben rhodes book. A long time obama adviser. I wanted to read a couple of theseme these. It goes to the mood in the country right now. This is ben rhodes quoting the president. He read a column reading liberals forgotten how important identity is to people. It promoted an empty cost momo globalism that made many feel left behind. Maybe we pushed too far, mr. Obama said. Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe. That is absolutely right. You know, lets remember that president obama did not just kind of campaign for Hillary Clinton. He basically staked his reputation on the election of Hillary Clinton. He said if you appreciate what i did, you should vote for Hillary Clinton. So it is not necessarily surprising that an election that elected perhaps what you could argue is the polar opposite of president obama would rattle him a little bit. I think democrats who really believed not just obama, but the message they were delivering was the one the American People wanted to hear. You wake up the morning after the election and you have to question all of that and wonder what were the American People hungry for and was it the strong rhetoric from the president on immigration or was it the notion of nationalism and retreating into america. Is that what resonated . That is what president obama was grappling with sps inin those m. Republicans have run more than 14,000 ads on immigration for the upcoming mid terms. The central issue for them when we move ahead. We will talk about that in 20 minutes. Thank you. Lets talk about money. U. S. May make good on trade threats metal tariffs on allies creating another trade battle. The Trump Administration granted the few temporary exemptions with the steel and aluminum in march. It gave eu, canada and mexico more time to negotiate. Those expire in less than 24 hours. The white house did not get what it wants from talks, so it plans to hitallies with the tariffs. Targeting 8 billion in items from paul ryans home state and Mitch Mcconnells home state. And this could affect nafta renegotiations. Wilbur ross will discuss this today. T another set of tariffs could derail those talks. The Administration Says this is america first. This is going to be an interesting couple of days and weeks ahead as they try to figure out strategy. Ahead, the stuff great movies are made of and spy novels. This was real. The reporter faked his own bodeh to avoid assassination. Guess who he didnt tell ahead of time . The story from moscow next. Polk county is one of the counties that you dont think about very much. Its really not very important. I was in the stone ages as much as technology wise. And i would say i had nothing. You become a School Teacher for one reason, you love kids. And so you dont have the same tools, you dont always believe you have the same. Outcomes achievable for yourself. When we got the tablets, it changed everything. By giving them that technology and then marrying it with a curriculum thats designed to have technology at the heart of it, we are really changing the way that students learn. And i cant wait for ten years from now when i get to talk to them again and see, like, who they are. A lot of paints say ordinthey can do the job,ver. But just one can behr through it all. 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Reporter dave and christine, this was an absolutely bizarre story that unfolded after initially blasting the russians for allegedly killing Arkady Babchenko, including the Prime Minister of ukraine coming out and essentially saying on his Facebook Page, that he holds the russian government accountable. Russians fired back and said it wasnt them. It turned out all of it was staged. At some point during the day, a press conference where Arkady Babchenko allegedly been killed, showed up. He was very much alive. He confirmed this was part of the operation by the Ukrainian Intelligence Services. They got wind of the russian plot to kill babchenko. They say the only way they could have prevented that plot and tried to find the people behind it was to stage the mans death. Firstly, i would like to apologize for what you had to go through because i have buried friends and colleagues many times. It is a sickening feeling when you bury your colleagues. You are sorry they forced you to experience. Reporter interestingly, even babchenkos wife did not know he was part of the operation. He came forward and apologized to her for what he called the hell she had been going through in the time that she thought he was dead. Ukrainians are calling this a brilliant operation. They are very happy. Russians absolutely fuming. They ripped into the ukrainians. Calling it russophobic attacks. Dave and christine. Sorry, honey, for faking my death. Ahead, the stanley cup final from vegas to the nations capital. It is all tied 11 thanks to the efforts by that netminder. No one happier than Lindsay Czarniak. Caps fan on deck with the bleacher report. E moreeco dev to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you where were changing withs . Contemporary makeovers. Then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. 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The capitals stealing momentum back with the win last night after they lost one of the best players in their history. This pregame show is ridiculously awesome. It literally keeps you glued to your seat like the halftime show at the super bowl. Washington had to find composure. Ovechkin scored on the power play. With two minutes left, the goaltender holtby with the stick save. Unreal. No hiding how big that was for them. The capitals win 32. Everyone is talking about the sensational save. One of the things to help us win a game and move forward. We have a goal in mind that is bigger than the save on social media. Just own it. It was spectacular. Unreal. People will talk about that for years to come. To nba. Game one of the cavaliers and warriors final tonight in oakland. They dont want to hear it is boring or bad for the nba. This is a different path each team took. Warriors on the brink of pulling off the incredible third championship in four years. Can you believe that . Golden state, heavy favorite to start the series. Lebron james once again led his group back to the finals. Somewhe something he has done for eight straight seasons. If you dont like the match up, lebron says someone has to stop them. Teams have the opportunity to beat the cavs in the last four years and the opportunity to beat the warriors in the last four years. If you want to see somebody else in the post season, you have to beat them. Thats what you got movies and music for. Save the drama for your mama. The goose is loose. During the rain delay in detroit, wild goose decided to take over the field and entertain the crowd. Before the game could start again, there was a wild goose chase. It looked like it ran out of energy and went right into the scoreboard. It was okay. Look at this. Wow. It was contained. It was fine. Detroit would go on to win 61 and give credit where credit is due. To the rally goose. His goose was cooked. They are no joke. Geese. I say goo