He wasnted suppose to meet with kim jongun but he did. I just think that every indication we have is you should resign. Im concerned you have no idea whats going on within your agency. Stunni inning comments abou relationship with personal attorney Michael Cohen. Michael is in business. Hes really a businessman. Fairly big business. I dont know his business. He also practices law. I would say probably the big thing is his wbusiness. How much of your legal work was handled wi Michael Cohen in. A tiny fraction. He would represent me on some things. He represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal. He did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no Campaign Funds. Why is he pleading the fifth . Because hes got other things. Joining me now is nbc White House Correspondent kristen welker, Ashley Parker. White house reporter for the washington post. These comments would become an issue where he is prepared to say he wants to take the fifth amendment. Whats the legal implication of what President Trump said about Michael Cohens role as a lawyer. Reporter the entire reason the parties are here in court today is because Michael Cohen is making the argument that a large number of the documents and records seized during a raise raid of his offices and home may be privileged. Now you have President Trump saying hes a businessman and not an attorney and number two that he handled a tiny amount of legal matters for President Trump. Those two statements alone undercut the entire point of Michael Cohen and President Trumps own attorneys here today who are arguing that there are terabytes worth of information and records that may be privileged and the attorneys for cohen and trump should be the first to look at, review and determine whether or not these documents are privileged. Its hard to make that argument today. The president offered saying he has enough time to do this. Whats the implication of the fifth amendment . What does that tell you about Michael Cohen and his representation of the president . Reporter hes filed a document indicating in a civil matter he would take the fifth amendment which is a prudent decision by cohen and his legal team. He may possibly answer questions which the government or prosecutors will certainly use against him in the criminal matter. I want to ask owe about Ronnie Jackson but the president on air force one in april. Lets play what he said when asked about Michael Cohen and the payment to Stormy Daniels. Did you know about the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels . Why did Michael Cohen you have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. Youll have to ask michael. He was saying and its hard to hear. We put the words up there for those listening on radio, he was saying youll have to ask Michael Cohen. Hes the attorney. Kristen, where do we stand with this about the president s knowledge or lack of knowledge about whats going on with stormny daniels in a relationship hes denied. That clip you just played under scores the political problem for the president. You heard him there on air force one say you have to ask Michael Cohen about that. Now Michael Cohen is pleading the fifth. That was contradicted by the president s own words when he said he was representing him on this deal. Not waying in on the payment. The very first time we heard the president. Really highlights the fact this is a political problem for the president. Not to mention when the president was out on the campaign trail as a candidate taking very sharp aim at clinton staffers who pled the fifth in relation to her e hamail investigation. In one instance saying only people with the mob plead the fifth. He stressed today he doesnt think Michael Cohen did anything wrong. Michael avenatti said the fact hes pled the fifth is like a gift from heaven. You have Ronnie Jackson, Ashley Parker jump in here. The back story on Ronnie Jackson and the exit strategy just before 8 00 this morning east coast time when the president was about to go on with fox and friends. We get this statement finally withdrawing. It was anticipated for many hours. There wasnt a real exit strategy. You had the president first in that press conference with french president macron undermining Ronnie Jackson saying about the man that he nominated to go through this process. If i were him, i wouldnt do it. The two of them met and the president changed tones and wanted to fight. Everyone in the white house understood this was a doomed nomination and he would not get through the gauntlet of capitol hill. You saw the entire press apparatus going out and pushing for this nominee who they in their heart of hearts knew would go down and this morning this out come happened but with a lot of unnecessary steps. It looked wad f eed bad for the house, Ronnie Jackson and werent gratifying for anyone. Who takes the hit for this with the lack of vetting . All these months after they failed to vet the National Security advisor. Once again an impulsive nomination and no background check. Thats exactly right. I mean this was someone who sort of chosen unilaterally by the president for a couple of reasons. He spends a lot of time with the president. The president said he saw dr. Jackson every single day and got to know him and got to like him. As we have seen in a number of picks, not just this one, what matters more is personal chemistry. The president defended him. This sort of shows the pitfalls of not just thoroughlily vetting someone but barely vetting them at all. Who among us would not want to be told you could live to 200 years. Thank you very much. Good to have all of you starting us off today. By the way and Intelligence Committee and everybody else found no collusion. Theres no collusion with me and the russians. Nobody has been tougher to russia than i am. You can ask president putin about that. Nobodys been close to as tough as me. We hear this nonsense. Theres no collusion. They have this witch hunt going on with people in the Justice Department that shouldnt be there. They have a witch hunt against the president of the United States going on. A lot of chew on here. The implication of what the president said on fox and friends this morning. The president wads giving one marching order for his interview this morning. You need to say Michael Cohen was your lawyer. We need that because you have contradicted that. Michael cohen has said neither one of you discussed it. He wasnt in communication about it. We need you to do that. In true fashion hes not disciplined and has very little adherence to fact. He said cohen only did this tiny fraction of work for him and he was mostly a businessman. The government said of all has to documents the president is saying only a tiny fraction deal with any legal issue cohen was representing the president on. The president also spoke about james comeys memos were about me. He didnt write those accurately. I went to russia for day or so because i own the Miss Universe pageant. Everybody knows the planes are there. He said i didnt stay there. Of course i stayed there. I stayed there very short period of time. His memo said i left immediately. I never said that. I never said i left immediately. So comey has written a memo and testified to that under oath. Theres an argument whether the president said i didnt say i didnt stay overnight. The president has no credibility on these issues. Hes been shown time and time again to misrepresent things. I was intrigued by the quote of the president saying ask putin. Well, apparently he did ask putin. Did you guys interfere in our election and putin said no . That was at the g20, i think. Exactly. Comeys testimony has been very consistent. Theres little question this is an accurate reflection. The president is responding to received that he did spend the night in russia. Hes trying to clean up what he misrepresented to james comey. The other part is the continuous attack from the president and others against comey saying the memos were leaked and they were classified. Can you clear that up . Is there any merit to that since they were upgraded to confidential which is a classification after the fact but at the time he gave them to a New York Times person or colleague. They were not classified. Thats my understanding. We were able to release them. I think thats right. This is part of what the president does. He attacks people. The original cambridge analytica. He laid out many more connections between cambridge analytica, steve bannon and others. Thats correct. We asked for mr. Wileys permission to share some of the con tent. There were connections between wikileaks, julian assange, they shared the same lawyer. The russian actors, bad actors. One of the key facts on the issue of collusion which the president continues to deny but theres significant evidence is right a of that meeting of trump tower where the president s son and soninlaw and Campaign Manager made it clear they were interested in russian help. They were disappointed with what they got at the meeting. They really wanted the dirt on hillary clinton. We know on tuesday he met with Robert Mueller and team. Are they dangling the possibility of trump meeting with mueller and team. Do you think thats a facade . I dont know. I think its intense. He was the subject of investigation that he previewed the october surprise. He has much said it was coming. After he made the revelation, Rudy Giuliani said i told you about this. He would later walk that back. They may implicate whether he notice from fbi agents in new york or other information about that development. Thank you very much. Thank you. Coming up, the heat is on. Epa chief scott pruitt confronted wi Congress Members about his growing list of controversies. So, whats new . We just switched to geico and got more. More . Theyve been saving folks money for over 75 years. A company you can trust. Geico even helped us with homeowners insurance. More sounds great. Gotta love more. Right, honey . Yeah geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. So lets promote our spring travel deal on choicehotels. Com like this. Earn one free night when you stay just twice this spring. Allergies. Or, badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com you know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Epa chief scott pruitt facing tough questions today on capitol hill. Even some signals from the white house that he may not be long for the cabinet. Pruitts future appears to be hanging by a thread, his performance could be for an audience of one. His boss, the president. Facts are facts. Fiction is fiction. A lie doesnt become truth just was a it appears in the front page of newspaper. Those who attack the epa and me want to attack and derail the president s agenda and undermine this administrations priorities. Im simply not going to let that happen. Its great to see you. Hi. We have so much to dig here. Theres been not enough attention paid to what hes doing in terms of science deregulation. Real effects on clean air, clean water and other things. The money hes spent, the people hes brought around him. The whole extravagant surround and his involvement with lobbyists. This hearing today was supposed to be about the proposed budget for the epa which the president wants to cut it by 30 . That really has taken a backseat to two things. First of all, as you said, the administrator is performing for an audience of one, President Trump and from that angle hes doing a very good job. He has tied himself to the president talking about the accomplishments that the epa has made under President Trump in reducing regulations in trying to tamp down government over reach. In the questioning you have more heat than like. The republicans are praising that effort to take back the government overreach where the demonstrates are using yes and no questions to get to some of those very issues you mentioned. The 43,000 sou00 sound proof. The first class luxury travel. The extended security that exists around administrator pruitt. One of the funniest moments came today with congress joe bar ton who is a republican for texas. He took a panl out of democrats hand book and asked if flying first class was illegal. He said no and ive made some changes. He couldnt even get to that. I want to play retaliation against employee who is have been whistle blowers. I think your actions are an embarrassment to President Trump and distract if the epas ability to carry out the mission. If i were the president , i wouldnt want your help. I would get rid you have. Its been roreported that five a employees were demoted or retaliated against after they raised concerns about your spending. Is that correct . Yes or no. I dont recall a conversation to that end. Ill take that as a question. There you see the strategy. That makes your point. Among the things that have come out is that he claimed he never talked to the lobbyists landlord of the low rate condo while he was living there. Thats not the case. When he went to morocco he spent the weekend in paris not in morocco to talk about liquefied national gas exports and lobbyists represented the only lng exporter and its not in the mandate of the epa. Its the energy department. There are other instances as well. Administrator pruitt wads asked about that today if he thought that created any kinds of conflict of interest and he tried to dodge that question saying thats been approved and he wouldnt they couldnt pin him down. He wouldnt be pinned down on that issue. When you look at the way the epa has been administered its the democrats and many critics say its an abusive power and waste of taxpayer money. Thats what they are trying to get to today. Great to see you. Thanks so much. Coming up, the perfect storm. Why michael avenatti, Stormy Daniels lawyer is loving President Trumps admission this morning about his client. A wealth of information. A wealth of perspective. A wealth of opportunities. Thats the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. Straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. To help you grow and protect your wealth. We need to help more tocalifornians get ahead. D, thats why Antonio Villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools. And new Career Training programs. As mayor of la, he brought police and residents together to get illegal guns off the streets and keep kids out of gangs, and on the right path. Thats Antonio Villaraigosa. A governor for all of california. We have breaking news. The federal judge overseeing the case involving the evidence seized from the president s personal lawyer has announced shes appointing robert jones to be the special master of the case. Shes the federal judge joining me now lisa green. Danny, first to you. This the former federal judge who will be looking through the various documents seized to determine what is impressive lenled, what is not. Do i have that right . Yes, you have that right. Barbara jones is substantial experience not only as a federal judge but in white collar investigations and in prosecution. She is as judge wood said specially suited to handle this job of reviewing a large number of documents and determining issues of privilege. I want to play more of what we had this morning on fox and friends from the president talking about Michael Cohen and his representation. Let me play it for you and ask you about it on the other side. But michael would represent me and represent me on some things. He represents me like with this cra crazy Stormy Daniels deal. He represented me. From what i see he did nothing wrong. There were no Campaign Funds going. Why is he pleading the fifth . Hes got other things. Hes got businesses. From what i understand they are looking at his businesses. Looking at his businesses. One of his businesses was working for the trump organization. As danny has seen downtown this made the governments job a lot easier in the argument they want to quickly go through the documents. The attorneyclient privilege may not be as big of a factor as one thought. If the president is saying very little work done for me that reduces the number of documents, the number of messages, phone texts and whatever that might be considered privilege. Michael avenatti jumped on this. Cohen pleading the fifth, does it matter in. I think it matters. It matters in the criminal case and i think it should matter to the american people. This is nothing short of a stunning development. Can you give us why should it matter in. You give us insights why he would be doing this right now in. Well, i thin