And good day, everyone, im Andrea MitchellIn Washington where President Trump is reportedly pressuring his legal team to secure a sitdown with the special counsel. Robert mueller has a new Interview Offer on the table for the president. What personal attorney Rudy Giuliani calls slight improvement by investigators in their offer. Three sources briefed on the matter are telling the New York Times that the mueller team wants to discuss possible coordination with Trump Associates and russians and whether President Trump tried to obstruct adjustmenjustice. The special counsel is willing to accept some written answers from the president but wants the ability to ask followup questions of the president. Peter alexander is at the white house. Bob bauer is here with me. Peter, what do we know so far about this possible Interview Offer . It appears from this that as of now mueller is not really
considering the possibility of pushing it all the way to a subpoena for an unwilling president , which could be months of litigation all the way to the supreme court. Reporter andrea, were not hearing from the special counsels side, obviously, most of the information coming from the president s legal team. Rudy giuliani saying there was some slight movement, referring to a letter that the president s legal team received on tuesday. The reason that was notable is it was just the next morning, yesterday morning, that the president went off on the Mueller Investigation and called on Jeff Sessions in his most explicit, direct call to this point, effectively to shut down the Mueller Investigation. Guiliani says, and you were talking about the idea there would be some written questions and some oral questions as part of this potential interview, according to our sources. Giuliani says the focus, according to him, remains on collusion and obstruction, as he describes it, prepresidency and postpresidency, andrea. Interviews with political figures and news updates. Easier just because of the way he simply cannot control what he says. When we talk about mueller, according to the giuliani team, the president s team, somewhat narrowing their request to focus on the meetings with the russians, which is conspiracy to commit Election Fraud or whatever, to meddle, to hack, whatever you want to call it, and then also separately the obstruction, going back to comey and a lot of the other sort of nexus of comments, statements, pressure. Most recently, this extraordinary Tweet Storm Yesterday against both Jeff Sessions and mueller. What do you make of that, if those are the things that mueller is really zeroing in on . I think the negotiation is very much in muellers interest. If this comes to a fight over a subpoena, mueller wants to present to the court his effort to accommodate the president any way he can. In the same way, trump saying i really want to do this but my
lawyers wont allow me, mueller wants to show that hes trying to avoid a confrontation. I dont think mueller will give in on the Obstruction Charge which the president s lawyers dont want included at all, either written or oral, although now theyre saying them entertain a couple of questions, they probably wont agree to followup questions on that topic. Is it your read that mueller knows at the end of the day, it may have been 80 in the nixon supreme court, but this is a different supreme court, a different era, and different facts of the case . I actually dont agree with that. I think mueller is prepared to battle that out. I think mueller would have a high confidence of winning. Bob bauer, thank you so much for your expertise. Peter alexander, before you go, a quick question about ivanka trump being asked by axios if she agrees with her father and her boss, because she is a white house staffer. The president of the United States repeatedly calling the
press the enemy of the people. Lets watch. Do you think the word, enemy of the people . Sorry . Is the enemy of the people . No, i do not. Thats not a view thats shared by your family . Are you looking for me to elaborate . Sure. Ivanka and the worthy mike allen, great question. She has carefully separated herself from some of her fathers statements in the past. This one really noteworthy since the president has not backed off on that at all. Andrea, i think youre right, its noteworthy that she says that. I think the frustration of ivanka trumps critics here and outside this white house is that she doesnt wield more power inside this west wing to convince her father to sort of dial back some of that fierce rhetoric, notably there as it relates to the media, but
broadly on some of the other policies, more importantly, that he has been putting in place, including the Family Separation Policy. She noted today that that was a low point of her time at the white house, and people who are upset with the way the white house has conducted things say there are still families separated, still children who are not with their parents, she should be fighting actively for family reunification. Peter alexander, theres supposed to be a Press Briefing in an hour or so, well see how that goes. Bob bauer, thank you so much. In the Paul Manafort trial, the defense won a small victory over their clients big ticket performance. Rick gates is now expected to take the stand against him. Joining me from outside the alexandria courthouse, ken dilanian and barbara mcquaid, a former u. S. Attorney. Barbara, from inside the courtroom, tell us what happened
has all it needs but hes not going to allow the government to, he used the phrase gild the lily, to show these photographs which he worried may be overly prejudicial to Paul Manafort. This could be very complicated for a jury, its a long paper trail. Does this materially weaken the case of the prosecution . Its hard to tell, andrea. Just to be clear so our viewers understand, there are pictures of suit jackets that were admitted into evidence. But there are many more pictures that the judge has blocked, including pictures of manaforts entire closet filled with hundreds of suits and also pictures of lavish renovations at his home in the hamptons. We just heard testimony about nearly a Million Dollars he spent on landscaping including a flower bed in the shape of an m. The prosecution would like to illustrate that but judge ellis
is arguing, manafort is not on trial for being rich or for spending lavishly. He thought this would unfairly besmirch manafort. Its absolutely true that while we in the audience may think the prosecution is being too meticulous and is hammering too much evidence home, the jury is not always paying attention. Its sometimes hard for juries to follow things. And what the prosecution does not want is the jury to fail to convict because they didnt understand the evidence, andrea. And as a former prosecutor, how important do you think is this decision that theyre now signaling, barbara, that rick gates will in fact be on the witness stand, the former Deputy Chairman of the campaign . I think they did make it pretty clear, greg andres, the lead prosecutor said today they fully intend to call rick gates as a witness. Today they said that they werent sure whether they would or would not call him. Today they made it pretty clear
it is their intent to do so. His value as a narrator, in many ways they could make their case without him, based on documents and transactions. But one Defense Theory that seems to have emerged is that it was rick gates who was the one manufacturing Fake Invoices in an effort to steal money from Paul Manafort. It may be necessary now to put rick gates on the stand to refute that theory and explain the governments theory of the case. Barbara and ken, thank you both so much, a Beautiful Day out there in alexandria, virginia. Thanks for being with us. Coming up, slamming on the brakes. President trump moving to roll back president obamas auto emissions standards. This really matters, its important. Well have a report coming up in our inside scoop, right here on Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Come here, babe. Going to court to challenge that new Health Care Plan, claiming it is unconstitutional. Lets get the inside scoop on all of this from nbc chief Environmental Affairs correspondent anne thompson. Heidi przybyla. In effect, the Obama Administration put these standards in place in order to increase Fuel Efficiency to reduce the impact of climate change. And so by stopping the increase in Fuel Efficiency standards at 2020 today, in effect the Trump Administration has set off an
environmental civil war in this country. California governor jerry brown says he will everything to fight what he called this stupidity on every level, because along with rolling back the Fuel Efficiency standards, the administration also wants to revoke californias waiver to regulate its own pollution standards, its own tailpipe standards. California has set the bar for the country for decades now on that issue. And 19 attorneys general and the Attorney General of washington, d. C. Have said theyre going to file a lawsuit against the administration to stop the rollback of these standards, because they say the country needs to do more to protect the nation from the impact of climate change. Just to put an Exclamation Point on this, we both remember when los angeles was always covered in smog. Right. The change in the air quality in california over the last decade or so has been really
if i recall the data from when they first were proposing to undercut obamacare legislatively, 20 Million People are affected by preexisting conditions. If you have a Health Care Plan that is short term, doesnt cover preexisting conditions, and has a lot of other, you know, things that are eliminated from obamacare, youre really undercutting the whole premise of National Health care. This is the latest iteration of what the president promised to do when he didnt get that vote through in congress which is to undercut the entire law. This is a number of bites that the president is taking at this to try and rip it apart. Thats why youre seeing this separate lawsuit that im reporting on today by major cities, who say what youre doing here in effectively undercutting this law is leaving us holding the bag, because theres fewer insured people, more people who are uninsured visiting emergency rooms, were having to pay for that, we can prove damages, and that youre
doing this intentionally, andrea. Theres been a lot of dispute about this Take Care Clause in the constitution that says the president must faithfully uphold the laws of the land. This is different, youve never before had a president who said this is the Law Of The Land but im sabotaging it. He just said yesterday on rush limbaugh, i think im almost done with tearing up obamacare. Jeff, as weve been absorbed with the mueller probe, the president ial tweets, theres a lot happening at the regulatory level that we dont see as much of at evaluate pa, ryan zinke in interior. And only last week, i think, they first nominated a white house Science Adviser, the longest theyve gone without having a Science Adviser in the white house. The one thing i was thinking today, looking at both these stories, it reflects again the impact of elections. We spend a lot of time talking
about the controversies, about the palace intrigue going on at the white house. But real policy things are happening as well, not just a rollback of obamaera issues but things that will affect this country for years and years to come. The environmental piece is interesting a interesting, that we were talking about earlier. Yes, President Trump and his administration have tried to be very industryfriendly. But one interesting aspect to changing these rules for Car Companies is it forces them as well to have to deal with different sets of standards in different parts of the country. Thats not always easy for Car Companies or industry as well. Environmentalists are also taking issue, not surprisingly, with the Trump Administrations suggestion that doing this will lead to fewer accidents and healthier people. Thats a very strange claim as well. Anne, you also cover the vatican, so brilliantly. The pope spoke out against the Death Penalty today. I know its been part of the vaticans position on this, a long time. Is todays statement more definitive, if you will, about the Death Penalty . It is. In effect what pope francis did today was to change the teaching of the Catholic Church on the Death Penalty, to say that the Death Penalty is inadmissible because its an attack on the dignity of the person. This builds on statements that were made by st. Pope john paul ii and benedict xvi. Pope francis has long been a foe of the Death Penalty. Hes now made its inadmissibility a teaching of the Catholic Church. Thats whats significant today. Thank you all so much. Coming up, call to action. A democratic member of Homeland Security and House Judiciary now pushing to protect the mueller probe, thats next. Capital one and hotels. Com are giving Venture Cardholders 10 miles on every dollar they spend at thousands of hotels. Brrrr i have the chills. Because of all those miles . And because ice. Is cold. Whats in your wallet . Its heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. What guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. Its not an order. Its the president s opinion. And its ridiculous that all of the corruption and dishonesty thats gone on with the launching of the witch hunt, the president is not obstructing, hes fighting back. The president is restating his opinion. Hes stating it clearly. Theres a reason that the president is angry and frankly most of america is angry as well and theres no reason he shouldnt be able to voice that opinion. White House Press SecretarySarah Huckabee sanders trying to explain the president s twitter tirade, threatening both his Attorney General and the mueller probe. Joining me now is democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson lee who serves on the judiciary committee, also Homeland Security. Thank you, congresswoman, thanks for being with us today. I know were getting ready for another Sarah Sanders interaction with the press, as brief as it may be. I wanted to get your reaction first of all to the president s threats, basically. He really upped the ante yesterday against both jeff
sessions, who is recused and so cannot fire bob mueller, but also, most importantly, against the Mueller Investigation. Do you think were reaching some kind of really dangerous Inflection Point here . First of all, congratulations to a powerful woman with knowledge for 40 years. Oh, thank you. Thank you for your service very much. Thank you very much. Were seeing a breach of the rule of law of historic proportions. Anyone who is an historian, political scientist, average voter, knows as they watched the presidencies through the decades, last ten, 15 years, theyve never seen a president of the United States, not their operatives or their staff or their press people, go so squarely against democracy and the rule of law, as evidenced by the shenanigans of this administration and particularly the president. As a Senior Member of judiciary and Homeland Security, ive
never seen it. Many president s were investigated, nixon had his midnight massacre, which looks like small potatoes now. Clinton had his episode and people were attacked the Special Prosecutor at that time. But never directly by the president of the United States. George w. Bush, president obama, everyone has had their share of reviews of their tactics and policies. In this instance, this president has gone directly and squarely against the rule of law. He is on the brink, he is on the precipice. He is clearly touching upon constitutional violations that no preside