The latest Political Developments of the day and interviews with top newsmakers are featured. Were not doing enough. Look at these five people. Heres the thing, john. There is a whole Cottage Industry of distraction folks. This is a distraction from x or distraction from mueller. Im not sure that was the case because there are a lot of fires happening now around this administration. The Robert Mueller, Paul Manafort, Special Counsel, Jeff Sessions fire series is one of them. There is also the election en r interference fire, big deal. I had conversations with folks on the other side of folks on capitol hill, both parties. One consistent theme i heard in relation to election interference, Leadership Starts at the top. I asked point blank, who do you talk to in the white house, who do you talk to in the administration . Nobody, we dont know who the point person is, we dont know what their strategy is. This is somebody who is at a high level over there. This seemed to be a way of the white house coming out to be able to say, weve got this. We are working on this. But, john, if it was a Janitorial Crew as you described it, which probably doesnt do justice to the high level of folks we saw in the room here today to be fair, there were some more messes made frankly,
february 2017. The whole attack is to undermine american confidence in election systems and the vote and democracy. So they are doing essentially what they have pledged to do in their positions. I am going to serve out my role. Now, the problem with this is director wray said this is whats happening in my agency. And then he sort of allude well coordinate amongst ourselves up here the this is not how you run a strategy to counter russian interference. It comes with a mandate. Its the president who is the leader. Its the National Security staff that coordinates it. The nsa director basically said we will launch a counterattack. He sort of put that on the table today. That is unheard of in cyberspace because were more vulnerable than any other country in the world. What if we do that . Are the other parts of government prepared . Is wall street prepared for a financial attack . Is our Infrastructure Ready . This is a really it seems like the parts know what their missions are and what they should be doing. No one at the top is really putting lets list tone what hallie
jackson said and phil said. All of them raise fundamental question. Youre frustrated with the narrative. You want to soft the problem. You need actions to coordinate. Its easy to solve that problem. You have the president of the United States take the bull by the horns and go out and lead on this. Why is it these five people can get out and say this stuff and donald trump still either cant or wont . Thats the big question. The easiest thing to do if they want to signal how serious they are about this is do what any other president or lawmaker or politician would do in their place. The president will come out to that rostrum and he would say, heres our fivepoint plan for stopping russian interference in the election. They didnt do that. And the only conclusion you can draw is they cant do that because he wont do that. And i dont know why and thats what the russia investigation is basically for. You would think that at this moment when the president is being investigated on suspicions that he or his people were colluded with russia, that they would take pains to be aggressive when it comes to the our own intelligence
agency saying were under attack. And yet even at this moment they have chosen not to do that from the top. Its very strange. You look like dr. Freud on this matter because you have a view that ive heard you expound about why donald trump captain say these things that go to his psychology, his insecurities, his political vulnerabilities. But please, hold forth. And its not just the explanation close to him and people who work for him provide when you ask this question. He believes any suggestion of russian interference in his election Dee Legitimatizes his win. He got elected because of his charisma, not because of his message, not because he was the superior candidate, but because russia helped him. He had a hand from putin. U. S. Intelligence did conclude russia did interfere in the election, they did so to help President Trump and putin said himself a couple weeks ago next to trump that he wanted trump to win that election. So there is not a lot of doubt about that, but trump himself cannot bring himself to fully sort of say it and acknowledge it publicly because he views it
as seeding something, as a weakness. Hallie jackson, whenever you have new information, there is like a little bit of tremor in the force. I felt it just now so i think there is a chance maybe you have something you want to say was that tremor coming from its wiggling. Whats new hot off the press on your end down there . Let me just say this. Im told now, our teams as we are reporting out the events of the last two hours, my colleague Peter Alexander who is sitting back in the booth tells me a white house official says the president wanted these five people. He asked for these five top officials to come out and do this briefing today and do this in front of the media and do this just before, by the way, the president gets on a plane, heads up to pennsylvania and then goes out to bedminster where he will be hunkered down for a little while which i think is a notable point here. And just to play off what phil is talking about, that freudian look, what people say who are close to the president , president president himself also tip toes right up to that line when hes asked about these questions in response by touting what he believes was this big election victory and pointing to
all the states hes won and talking about the number of people who voted for him. I think that is an indication, very publicly from this president , of what youre seeing phil talk about. So hes the most van hollen ubl preside voluble president in history the twitter machine. According to this reporting, i have to get these five people out in front of the camera raises an interesting question. I want to raise what hallie raised when we started the program, something dan coats said, something he said before. I want to play the sound. An extraordinary thing, were this far from helsinki and dan coats is still saying what happened between donald trump and Vladimir Putin. In the run up to the helsinki summit, u. S. Officials, ambassador to nato, ambassadors to russia said the president would raise the issue of malign activity with president putin. He didnt discuss that, at least at the press conference. Youre saying today that the president has directed you to make the issue of election
meddling a priority. How do you explain the disconnect between what you are saying, his advisors, and what the president has said about this issue . Im not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened at helsinki. Okay. Thats the director of national intelligence, right . Hes an important guy, supposed to know a lot of stuff. He said this before to andrea mitchell. Its how many days since andrea did that interview where he didnt know what happened between trump and putin. Hes saying x number of days later i dont understand what happened between trump and putin. Nick, help me out here. How can that be . Because the president wont tell him. I dont know, its as simple as you think it is. Does he even remember . That meeting was arranged to leave as little of a paper trail as it is possible for a president of the United States to ever leave. So for some reason the president wanted there to be a bit of a veil of secrecy around that meeting, but what is more
striking as you point out is, our top intelligence official doesnt know what happened and he cant be told. There is no way to interpret this its not an oversight. The president hasnt had a chance to connect with coats and let him know what happened. He want it had to be a secret meeting. Its still a secret meeting even from the people who should be at the highest level of government to know what happened. That is an Act Of Intent. What does one read in that Act Of Intent on Donald Trumps part that hes still keeping this secret from dan coats and presumably others . I think this is why we had the series of announcements today because when i talked to friends either in government or out of government, current republicans who will just always vote for republican, that Helsinki Press Conference was like oh, my god, is this a m manturian candidate . When you watch that press conference, everything thats been said about trump, you start to say, wow, what if this is true . Were having this reaction today about election interference. He knows that this is a mistake, but yet he wont talk about that press conference. He did not even communicate to d. N. I. Coats he was going to extend the invitation to Vladimir Putin to come to the United States. And when coats was on stage and shocked about that, as he should be because he should be the first person thats told about this, he has to go back and essentially negotiate with the president to calm his anger from what i understand. So this is a crazy scenario and even with all the pressure and i think a lot of that Apprecia Pressure is from capitol hill, the institutions donald trump is in charge of. Even with all that pressure, he will not take the next step and say i am going to be tough on russia and heres what im going to do. Hallie jackson, were going to lose you and i cant let you go without asking one last question. On the basis which you just reported donald trump said these five people should go out and make this statement, right, the logical implication would be trump is not going to attack them later tonight on twitter or on stage at his rally in pennsylvania. But thats the logical implications. Do you have any sense, given
what youve observed overall your time covering this president , that theres no chance that now trump, because of his insecurities about the legitimacy of his election, is not going to go out and undercut all five of these people in the coming minutes, seconds, hours . I dont know, john. Any topic on any question at any point in this administration, if you can ever get me to say donald trump would or would not do something, i think that is risky and dangerous. For a reporter to do, just based on the past practices of this president , i will say this. From what we have been reporting out over the last maybe 3, 4 days or so, the president is stewing, but he is stewing on what is happening on the Robert Mueller side of things, Paul Manafort day three of the trial. Were the president to go off script in pennsylvania, it seems likely based on what the president has said publicly he may riff on that. He may riff on the Koch Brothers as the feud heats up. Has he undercut his own
principles, his own top officials in the past . Yes, he has. Will he do it again this time . Probably. No crystal ball here, john. Lets just say probably. Not for sure, but probably. Hallie jackson, youre awesome. Phil rucker, equally awesome. Still really awesome. Thank all three of you. Theyre sticking around. When we come back, we have Donald Trumps private rage over the Mueller Probe now on full public display. Is he putting himself in even more legal jeopardy . Plus, with trial of trumps former Campaign Chairman now in his third day, we will look at how and why donald trump and Paul Manafort may have been a match Made In Heaven for each other. And its a simple question. Is the the president has decided its not worth an answer. When i found out i had agerelated macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. My doctor and i came up with a plan. It includes preservision. Only Preservision Areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the National Eye Institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. Thats why i fight. Because its my vision. Preservision. Also, in a greattasting chewable. Your Digestive System has billions of bacteria, but life can throw them off balance. Realign yourself, with align probiotic. And try new align gummies, with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health. Instead seek some answers in written form, according to one person. Joining us now for this conversation from the washington post, National Political reporter and the moderator of washington week, the robert costa. Paul butler, former federal prosecutor now georgetown law professor. And joining me at this table, rick stengel, and mimi roker, now distinguished fellow at Pace University law school. I know why nicolle complains about our long titles. Guys, its great to see you here. Robert costa, i want to start with you because of phil rucker, one of the great trump psychologists, youre a man with the window into the president s psyche. Whats going on here . I sense from your reporting and from what weve been watching that you had at least some kind of a theory, some insight into what it is thats fueling the president to behave in the way that hes behaved, especially
yesterday with this tweet in which he seemed to obstruct justice right here in front of the whole american public. John, you have to separate the president s actions from his tweets. Talking to mayor giuliani today and other white house officials and trump advisors, they say the president , of course, is furious as he watches Paul Manaforts trial. Hes unhappy with rod rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general. Hes unhappy with Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions. This is obvious. But he has not moved to fire them. He knows theres a political fallout should he ever move in that direction. What theyre really mounting is not so much a policy war or legal war, its a public war, a political war about the credibility of this ongoing probe. Thats all ahead of that expected report from mr. Mueller. So, bob, i want to stay with you and ask you this. The president said in his tweet yesterday, we spent now more than 24 hours kind of agog at it. There are theories that drove
him to send that morning tweet. Some having to do with the notion that hes still upset, angry about the original sin or what he sees as the original sin of Jeff Sessions recusing himself. Others saying that hes in a panic mode because he thinks that maybe mueller has the capacity has more on him on Obstruction Of Justice than he previously believed. Whats your sense of the various theories if its right trump is in a state of rage and that rage fueled that tweet, what do you think the source or the primary source of that rage is . The timing is notable because we know on tuesday evening bob mueller gets in touch with Rudy Giuliani and jay sekulow, the president s lawyers. Wednesday morning he tweets about ending the investigation. Thats a juxtaposition. Based on my reporting, he was watching the Manafort Trial talking about advisors about trade deals. Feeling he was always distracted by the mueller investigation. And he has just erupt the at
different points during his socalled executive time when hes in the residence with twitter. This is the president alone. This is not him in the oval office necessarily coming up with some kind of strategy with advisors. This is the president , his aides tell me, being his own strategist, almost his own lawyer as he confronts all of these challenges. Paul butler, you know what they say about lawyer a client who has himself for a client who treats himself as his own lawyer. I want to play for you right now some Rudy Giuliani sound to get to one of the things costa just mention the what the strategy might be on the part of the president and his team as they confront the question that they have confronted now for months, which is whether to sit down for an interview with bob mueller. Lets listen to giuliani right now. Is he still interested in meeting with mueller . Well, hes always been interested in testifying. Its us, meaning the team of lawyers, including me, that have the most reservations about that. As lawyers, i dont know, you all watch television. I dont know if you find a
lawyer on television that ever thinks their client should testify. Why should we believe that, though . Because everything that he says indicates the opposite, that he doesnt want to really . I havent heard him say that. Ive heard him say i want to be interviewed if my lawyers can reach an agreement on what the ground rules will be. Weve had a hard time doing that, but were still im not going to give you a lot of hope its going to happen, but were still negotiating. We havent stopped negotiating. So, paul, you just listened to Rudy Giuliani who is a lawyer and certainly plays a lawyer on tv. What do you take from listening to that about how the president and his team are thinking about this prospect . Rudy giuliani is a bad lawyer with an even worse client because his client does not take good legal advice when it comes from folks, usually other than giuliani. We know that, in part, because even giuliani has suggested that the president should stop tweeting, because every time he tweets about this probe, he digs in further in terms of his
exposure to Obstruction