Addressed Robert Muellers investigation into himself and his campaign and answered a key question about the next steps in that probe. Will the president of the United States sit for an inperson interview with muellers team . Are you going to talk to mueller . Im looking forward to it actually. You want to . Do you have a date set. Heres the story. Theres been no collusion whatsoever. Theres no obstruction whatsoever. Im looking forward to it. Do you have a date set. I guess theyre talking about two or three weeks. Subject to my lawyers and all of that, but i would love to do it. Would you do it under oath, mr. President. Did hillary do it under oath . I have no idea. You have an idea. Do you not have the an idea . Do you really not have an idea. I dont remember. She didnt do it under oath. But i would do it under oath. You reach a higher standard, you would do it under oath. Yeah, absolutely. A note here, the president does not have to be under oath for him to perjure himself. The president made those comments tonight in an informal session with reporters in a strange scene in chief of staff john kellys office. You can see everyone crowded around where he also sounded off on potential charges of obstruction of justice. Do you think Robert Mueller will be fair to you in this larger investigation . Were going to find out. Are you concerned about it . Heres what well say and everybody says. No collusion. Theres no collusion. Now theyre saying oh, well, did he fight backing . Did he fight back. What is collusion. Fight back. You fight back. Oh, its obstruction. Heres the thing. I hope so. Msnbc carol and robert costa, also the Washington Post. Let me start with you, robert. The donald trump i would love to a, its conditional. B, he says subject to my attorney and c we now have a statement from ty cobb saying hes ready meet with him and hell be guided by the advice of his personal counsel. What do you make from that statement tonight . A wednesday curveball. The president s lawyers have been thinking for weeks if not months how theyre going to handle the invitation from the mueller team. Will they respond theyd like to do win answers . Will he actually appear and have an informal interview, would it be under oath . All of thighs are things that were supposed to to be negotiated. Now the president on record to reporters today says hes willing to talk and willing to talk soon. Any sense this was preplanned . This seemed impromptu. According to people inside of the white house, they were taken aback the president decided to walk down to the white house. You never know with trump. People inside of the west wing were taken aback he did this today. Carol, the president was asked about obstruction. It was interesting. He doesnt say of course, of course, i did could not obstruct justice. He says you fight back, they call it obstruction. Which is a different thing. You know, its interesting to me too, chris. Clearly to bobs point, this was way off the script that the white house and even the president s lawyers probably will encouraged the president to follow. But the president speaks in the language of a pugilist. Everything is about a fight and whos tough and whos strong and whos the best and the biggest. And in this language, hes also basically saying they cant get me on collusion. Now theyre going to, because i fought back, theyre going to come after me for obstruction. Thats how i read his statement. It struck me as if maybe it hasnt become clear to him or he hasnt been sort of briefed on what obstruction means. Obstruction is when you try to thwart a legitimate criminal investigation, and that thwarting could have legal jeopardy for him. Yeah, i would imagine that there are people out there who have faced charges of obstruction of justice who would characterize what they did as fighting back. Against what was happening to them. Robert, i want to play you the exchange over the former acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe who has become a bit of a lightning rod thanks to the president and ally foorz censure and condemnation. He is the man reported yesterday in your up in, the president asked him who he voted for. This is the exchanging about andy mccabe. Take a listen. Should mccabe go, mr. President . Should mccabe go . Well, mccabe got more than 500,000 from essentially Hillary Clinton and is he investigating Hillary Clinton . Should he go . Did anybody hear many of my speeches where i talked about mccabe . He was the star of my speech. This isnt now. And i said a man who was more or less in charge of the wife got 500,000. Terry is hillary. Do you regret having him at your acting fbi director. You know what, i keep out of it. You find that hard to believe. Thats the way it fell. Hes been there. Its one of those things. But he was the star of many of my speeches. Bob, ive heard that the president and other people reported the president s is obsessed with Andrew Mccabe and he sounds it there. Theres a clamor on the right about this entire federal probe about the investigations on capitol hill and mr. Mccabe has become a target of a lot of that criticism. It has not been denied by the president , at least in that exact exchanging about whether he asked mr. Mccabe or not about his political affiliation or his vote in the 2016 election. But that question according to people close to Andrew Mccabe raised alarm in the Justice Department, in the Legal Community about what the president was perhaps implying. Does this change anything, carol, the president saying on the record in front of everyone id love to talk to him . It was just a few weeks ago he said ill sign whatever you bring to me to the folks hammering out a daca and ripped it up. As we see him say i would love to talk to muler. It certainly weakens his personal lawyers ability to be tough in the opening bid of the negotiation for the interview. Remember, we reported yesterday, my colleague and i josh, people close to the president said his lawyers were planning on next week having a significant negotiation with muellers team what the parameters were, how much would be in writing, how much would be oneonone facetoface. And some other terms im sure about audiotape, videotape, et cetera. So this doesnt help if they wanted to start kind of with a low bided of asking for less time in person because the president is essentially saying come on. Im ready. Carol and robert, thanks for being here. It was over one year ago or one year ago today actually that two fbi agents walked into the white house to question Michael Flynn about his phone call with the Russian Ambassador. Two days before that, flynn had been sworn in taking an oethsing to uphold the constitution. But in that interview just two days later a year ago today, flynn lied to the fbi agents. Federal crime. He told them he did not talk to the ambassador of russia about new sanctions imposed against russia for interfering in the election. We now know flynn kept that lie to himself. Nbc news reporting today he didnt tell anyone at the white house including the president about his interview with the fbi. Instead, they had to find out about it from the Justice Department. It wasnt till two days later that sally yates, then the acting attorney general for the United States, goes over to the white house to visit the White House Counsel Don Mcgahn at his office to warn him directly in person about what just happened about, what flynn did, about the fact he lied. Yates recounted that meeting in testimony last may though she misstated the date of flynns interview. We began our meeting telling him that there had been press accounts of statements from the Vice President and others that related conduct that mr. Flynn had been involved in that we knew not to be the truth. We also told the white House Counsel that will general flynn had been interviewed by the fbi on february 24th. Mr. Mcgahn asked me how he did. And i declined to give him an answer to that. The russians also knew about what general flynn had done and the russians also knew that general flynn had misled the Vice President and others. That created a compromised situation, a situation where the National Security adviser essentially could be blackmailed by the russians. Two days after her conversation with mcgahn, yates was fired after publicly defying the president s travel ban. Flynn on the other hand lasted another three weeks at the white house, forced to resign only after the sbant substance of his calls with the Russian Ambassador was revealed in the press. Last month flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi and now cooperating with the russia investigation. We know that last year, after yates told the white House Counsel about flynn, mcgahn then passed that information on to a small group of senior white house officials. Reince priebus, chief strategist steve bannon and the president himself. Robert mueller wants to talk to them all. Nbc news reported today sally yates spoke extensively with you muellers investigators last year. Priebus was, too. Mcgahn sat for two days with the special counsel team. Next up is steve bannon. Hes expected to be questioned by the end of this month. Then, comes the president of the United States. Bob bauer served as white House Counsel to president barack obama. Start putting yourself in the position of don mcgahn because he has a job you held. Acting attorney of the United States says your National Security adviser lied to the fbi a few days ago. Is lying in the press or lying to the Vice President , saying things that are untrue and questioned by the fbi and declines to tell you how he did, what are you thinking if youre don mcgahn . I dont know all the facts known to mcgahn at the time. Its very difficult for me to say what don mcgahn did or what i would do if i were in his place. However, it is stra fewest restrictions. If trump was your client, would you be saying, would you be trying to make sure he doesnt talk to mueller . Thats a tricky question. I would like to believe as president of the United States he understands he is uniquely responsible for giving testimony in this case. Why . In the sense that president s have to observe the norm very, very specifically they are not above the law. He stands an stride the Law Enforcement process. For him to refuse to give testimony on any ground over than the fifth amendment is alation of the norm. This is a guy, could you ever imagine a president saying to the acting director of the fbi who would you vote for . No, and he defended it tonight on top of that. He seems to think its fine. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier today also said she didnt think the American Public cared at all about that. My point is if you dont buy into all this stuff, the norms he said originally by the way, some time ago, he said that he was prepared to talk to mueller. Then he said well see. Even tonight in this press report, he says its subject to the lawyers. His lawyers follow up by saying hell have to do it under your guidance. So this impromptu setting, i dont think hes committed himself to anything. What do you imagine that negotiation looks like . Its a very big deal. Yes. Thats putting yourself in the shoes be an not you werent there during this period of time. But its the kind of thing a white House Counsel might find themselves negotiate yag. What do you page that looks like . On the part of the president s lawyers . Yes. With the special counsels team . Yeah. They want obviously the most contained secure flexible setting possible for the president. Youve heard a lot of reports about the potential for a perjury trap. They have a client not disciplined in the way he speaks. If were to believe it, he has defiance syndrome where hes eager not to do what hes been told to do which would raise significant issues for his lawyers giving him advice how to conduct himself in the interview. Theyll be looking to structure that arrangement that protects himself against his own hyperbolic tendencies and mueller is going to want the widest possible access with the fewest restrictions. If trump was your client, would you be saying, would you be trying to make sure he doesnt talk to mueller . Thats a tricky question. I would like to believe as president of the United States he understands he is uniquely responsible for giving testimony in this case. Why . In the sense that president s have to observe the norm very, very specifically they are not above the law. He stands an stride the Law Enforcement process. For him to refuse to give testimony on any ground over than the fifth amendment is alation of the norm. This is a guy, could you ever imagine a president saying to the acting director of the fbi who would you vote for . No, and he defended it tonight on top of that. He seems to think its fine. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier today also said she didnt think the American Public cared at all about that. My point is if you dont buy into all this stuff, the norms and youre not supposed to interfere with the Justice Department or ask for a loyalty pledge from the head of your fbi, then if you dont buy that, then you could also just try to say im not going to talk to you. Thats correct. Bear in mind, republicans are mount agassault on mueller. They may be giving him covering fire to say well, i would have talked to mueller but now i find out there are all these problems with the fbi and the d can oj. Theres a remarkable range of people that talked to mueller. The National Security officials interviewed dan coats, mike about how he cant trust and in the special counsels process, they may say look, he cooperated. He didnt direct these people not to participate. Its against that background he concludes he might say he cant give that interview. Bob, thanks for your time. Still to come, why the department of justice is warning republicans interfering with the mueller probe, adam schiff joins me to talk about that ahead. And why todays news regarding flynns lie to the fbi casts new light on what the president knew and when he knew it in two minutes. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. From godaddy in fact, 68 of people who have built their. Website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. Build a better website in under an hour. With gocentral from godaddy. We know life can be hectic. Thats why, at xfinity, weve been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. Now, with instant text and email updates, youll always be up to date. You can easily add premium channels, so you dont miss your favorite show. And with just a single word, find all the answers youre looking for because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. Download the xfinity my account app or go online today. Mike flynns a fine person. And i asked for his resignation. He respectfully gave it. I fired him because of what he said to mike pence, very simple. The white house line has always been President Trump fired Michael Flynn because, as you heard there elied to Vice President pence. Thats their story and theyve always stuck to it until randomly this past december, ten months later the day after news broke that flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi and was cooperating with the Mueller Investigation, out of nowhere the story changes because that is trump tweeted i had to fire him because elis to the Vice President and the fbi. Okay. That tweet made some news because if the president knew flynn lied to the fbi when he fired him, that means the president knew flynn lied to the fbi when he met with fbi director james comey the next day. And when he asked him according to comey to drop the investigation of flynn, that moment asking your fbi director to not pursue a criminal infraction you know happened, well, that sounds a lot like obstruction of justice which might explain why soon after that tweet blew up, trumps lawyer rides to the rescue making the somewhat implausible claim he wrote the tweet. No, not trump. His lawyer out of nowhere for no reason who just decided to tweet in his clients name who made this unfortunate nat mistake. Okay, sure. But what we learned today fills in some of the holes what trump knew when he fired mike flynn and when he knew it. It took place during a 20day period in early 2017. The fbi comes to the white house one of the questions he asked me when i went back over the second day was why does it matter to doj if one white house official lies to another white house official. Okay. So as you just heard, mcgahn called yates back to the white house the next day, january 27th, with further questions about flynn. That was a morning meeting. Theyre talking in the morning. That very same day, around lunchtime so shortly after yates and mcgahn wraup up talking the president out of nowhere invites comey over to the white house for din ker according to comey. He called me at my desk at lunchtime and asked me was i free for dinner that night. And called himself and said can you come over for dinner tonight. I said yes, sir. That evening, january 27th, President Trump and comey have dinner at the white house. That is when comey sa