He wants, north korean caliber of the owe pabedience. No attorney general. No special prosecutor is safe the moment trump decides to dump him. He tweeted he has the complete power to pardon. This morning he took another shot at attorney general sessions. Quote, so why arent the committees and investigators and our beleaguered, theres a shot, attorney general looking into crooked hillarys crimes and russian relationes. Whatever they were. Axios reporting President Trump is so unhappy with attorney general Jeff Sessions that he raised the possibility of bringing back Rudolph Giuliani to head the Justice Department according to west wing confidence. Giuliani denied he was being considered for the pog though he may not have heard that conversation. He recuses himself. According to nbc news, one source said giuliani can best be described as spit balling. Today an an lunch with interns, he rolled his eyes when asked about sessions. Lets watch it. Mr. President [ inaudible ]. Thats the president behaving like an intern. An interview with the New York Times, President Trump criticized attorney general for not letting the president know that he would recuse himself. Lets watch that. Well, session should have never recused himself. If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job. This warning to robert mueller. Mueller has finances unrelated to russia. Is that a red one . That is a breach of his actual i would say yes usa todays heidi and david kate johnson, making of donald trump. Thank you all. Lets start with heidi. He is operating on two fronts. We have this attack on the attorney general and on mueller. Is there any doubt that trump will do what he has to do to save himself . I think he is pretty transparent, chris. He have had president s in the past who have been accused of executive overreach or doing things in secret. This is right in front of us. And it has begun from the very beginning with attacks on the intelligence community. Attacks on the media now on his own attorney general. No question that he is going after sessions because he said it was because of his recusal. Not because of the job that sessions is doing as attorney general. Arguably he is fulfilling trumps agenda more than any other cabinet member at this point. Immigration. Targeting, preventing himself from being challenged, impeached, whatever by mueller. The amazing thing is he is totally transparent. The president making it clear. As heidi said, he made it very cleary wants to have a clear road to exoneration. The way it do that is get sessions to quit. Pick somebody to replace him. Do what he is told to do. What he is told to do is fire mueller and not name another special counsel and drop this whole thing. Right. But im not sure how he thinks he will get that. How he will get an attorney general who is actually going to do the saturday massacre on whatever day it happens. It seems to me that his annoyance with sessions is possibly just that. Could be that he just cant get out of his head the yiidea that sessions recusal started this cascade of events even though it didnt. But trump seems to believe that. What he seems to be doing now, what he did with shawean spicers make it impossible for him to stay. So the beleaguering he is the one beleaguering. He is talking about his own attorney general and putting sessions into a position where he has it resign. Out of humiliation. Oh, yeah. You add great job at San Francisco examiner once and now you are doing this book. Tell me, what is trump capable of doing here . Donald will do anything to save himself. Including if necessary of throwing members of his own family under the bus. He is in full survival mode here. So you shouldnt be surprised at anything that donald does. I agree with heidi. He is quite transparent as a candidate. He talked like the presidency was adictator. As president he acts as if he thinks the presidency is a dictator. I was at the l. A. Times in San Francisco. Oh, i thought so. You have to answer for him, too. Let me ask you about this shot and shift. Shift does a lot of tv time. He may be running for president sp. Calling h calling sleezy. Sleezy is just about the worst thing you can say about a politician. Tell me about that tendency, to give people nicknames and things like that that he has shown already. Destroy someones reputation if they get in your way. This belittling of other people is tactic of donalds his whole life. This isnt something new. And not the least bit surprising that he will continue to in various ways attack anybody. Donald has two modes. Adoration and survival. Thats it. Two sides to the coin. Adoration and survival. And he is so far in over his head on this job that as i predicted he is becoming more and more erratic as time goes by. Lets look at usa today. An amazing front page. Top of the fold. Already at 42 , here it is, woke up this morning. I read the paper. Says americans poll, split 42 to 42 on impeaching clinton. I mean, impeaching trump. To me, look, they havent run a case to court. Havent taken them to the house judiciary committee. 42 of people want to get rid of this guy. Only 42 want it save him. 4 are dropping off. I voted for the guy to i want him impeached. What i thought was more notable in the poll is that 46 think hes not making it to the end of the first term. Just 27 think that he will. We know the country is evenly divided. Only 27. actually acknowledge that despite their wishes they dont think he will make it. I thought that was an astounding piece. It would be hard to anyone someone that would pass mustard. You know, open voir dire. They have made a decision. 42 say get the guy out of here. Now we dont need a trial. Of course. Thats political question, right . You get a political answer. Ultimately impeachment is a political process. And remember, jerry there is a lot of information on this russia thing. Jerry ford said the reason he pardoned mix pardoned nixon in part is because he believed it would be impossible to get a fair jury to try him. The idea is not without precedent regard trump. If trump is removed from office and isnt tried, convicted and in prison he will spend the rest of his life doing what nixon didnt do. Nixon shut up and came back trying to revive himself. Donald the attack the legitimacy of the u. S. Government. Im not sure he will obey the court. We have seen it with the nepotism thing, right down his direction. Look what he did to his predecessor, accusing him of being an illegal immigrant. He is ruthless with this stuff if it benefits him. I think it helped to get elected president. Of course it did. Thank you. As i mentioned, the president has a pattern of ruthlessly getting rid of anyone creating a problem for him. Fired his Campaign Chairman after the New York Times reported manaforts dealings with a Political Party from ukraine. Jared kushner delivered news at a breakfast party. M manafort rejected stepping down. Glancing at his watch, we are putting out a press release 9 00 a. M. That means you resigned. Thats kushner. Then firing of michael flynn. And again after media reports embarrassed the white house by revealing flynn discussed sanctions with the russian officials. The white house had known about it for weeks but finally got around to doing something. According to President Trump flynn did nothing wrong but fired for misleading the vice president. Here he goes. Fired him fo because of what he said to mike pence, very simple. Mike was doing his job. Calling countries and his counter parts. So it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if i thought he wasnt doing it. I didnt direct him but i would have directed him, because thats his job. In may, the president fired james comey and suggested to lester holt that the russia investigation is the reason for his firing. Lets watch. In fact when i decided to just do it i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. An excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. That they should have won. Were going to get to it next segment. But a little tease now. Kushner a pure little guy, dont like publicity, got a job at the white house, doesnt like publicity. Shy little guy. Then you read how he fired manafort. 30 second. This excuse this excuse he didnt know this excuse he didnt know what was in the emails. He didnt read the subject line of the email . If he cant read the subject line of the email, what is he doing working in the white house with this huge portfolio that his fatherinlaw gave him. Come to the meeting, its important. Then he blamed it on his assistant. This is the most amazing amount of bs charitable interpretation is that he and his fatherinlaw have not made the transition from being the sole proprietiers, from a company to make the decision, or from the apprentice maybe these guys are ruthless. In over their heads. Theyve had enough time to figure out that much. So thats the charitable interpretation. Everything that jared confronted is a fact he couldnt change. Oh, i dont remember. All this bs they do when they dont want to tell the truth. And they didnt. Next, where are we going with this guy you have written about. Where are we going with trump . Is he willing to fire the speci special prosecutor by in effect firing the attorney general. How far will he go . Donald will wait until last possible minute to take actions because he doesnt know what will happen. And it is pretty clear under the constitution he cant pardon himself. Because it goes against the idea of checks and balances in our constitution. By the way, to do it, he would have to acknowledge he committed crimes against the United States. He has to admit he is a criminal if he tries to pardon himself. Well see. Im not sure. Im not sure it is that complicit. This court is pretty republican. Im not sure he couldnt get five votes on this court. He has gore spis such waitinging to help him out. Coming up, President Trumps soninlaw, Jared Kushner, says he met with russians on four separate times during the 20 sf election. But he said he never cluded with them. Think about the purpose of that. Plus the showdown this week on the health care. Even as he turns up the pressure republicans look like they still dont have the votes. They dont. Can a sitting president be indicted . Ken starr says the answer is a big yes. What does this mean for the president . Thats ahead with the roundtable. Let me finish with trump. This is hardball where the action is. Oscar mayer deli fresh ham has no added nitrates, nitrites or artificial preservatives. Now its good for us all. Like those who like. Sweet those who prefer heat. Sfx a breath of air and those who just love meat. Oscar mayer deli fresh. Sweet backpack, check. Thats the family taking care of business. Awesome notebook check. But who takes care of them . Office depot office max. This week, these composition books are just 25 cents each. Taking care of business top democrat senator Dianne Feinstein is calling on attorney general Jeff Sessions, Jeff Sessions to testify as soon as possible. Before the committee. Chuck grassley finds the Washington Post report that discussing campaignrelated matters with the russian ambassador. This gets bigger all the time. She wroets, quote, if this is true it is directly contrary to the testimony general sessions gave under oath during his confirmation hearings. Well be right back. E trend ana. Hey. Hi. Hi. His confirmation hearings. Well be right back. The testimo gave under oath during his confirmation hearings. Well be right back. But we just compared historical claims to coverages. But we have those new audits. My natural language api can help us score those by noon. Great. See you guys there. We would not miss it. Watson, you gotta learn how to take a hint. I love to learn. Watson, you gotta learn heri think i might burst. Totally immersed weekenders. Whatever kind of weekender you are, theres a hilton for you. Book your weekend break direct with hilton. Com and join the summer weekenders. Hey youve gotta see this. Cno. N. Alright, see you down there. Mmm, fine. Okay, what do we got . Okay, watch this. Do the thing we talked about. What do we say . Its going to be great. Watch. Remember what we were just saying . Go irish see that . Yes im gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. Find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. Welcome back to hardball. Everything we have seen from Jared Kushner, a carefully crafted pr effort. Top aid to the president spieling ear it ear this morning as he visited capitol hill with a closed door meeting with staffers. Meticulously drafted 11page statement kushner down played but did not encounter four figures with the campaign and the transition. Then speaking later to the White House Press, rather than capitol hill reporters, Kushner States a short public photo op delivering scripted remarks at a podium bearing the white house insignia. Here is what he had to say. Let me be very clear. I did not collude with russia nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on russian funds for my businesses. And i have been fully transparent in providing all requested information. Donald trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won. Suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him. He didnt take any questions. Just went right back to the white house. No questions. Now john fearry and ron reagan, arthur and msnbc political analyst as well. Ron, i saw a pr stunt today. Couple of things. They made a point of going back to White House Press corps. They got the people, have to cover the president all the time. Then the bogus defense, no one said that Hillary Clinton lost because the russians involved. They said russians got involved and trump helped them. I think there is a lot going on in the press conference, everything but the truth. I think the guy add lot mohad a power and a lot more ruthless. Look how he fired manafort. Comes out like simon pure. Im a shy guy. Thats the nart got part that g. I bought a newspaper in new york and i married Donald Trumps daughter, but i dont want publicity. Give me a break. Your thoughts . Youre right. This is all about optics. This was mr. Kushner goes to washington. He was talking for the Jimmy Stewart role there. But out in front of the white house with the white house podium in front of him as you said, smiling ear to ear. H hey. Nothing to see here. Im an innocent sort of guy here. When you examine his statement and you think about the context and the history of all this, that it paints a rather different picture here. We are meant to believe that he is so innocent and so naive about all of this. That he just sort of stumbled into meetings with russian, you know, former intelligence agents without really knowing whats going on. But you know, theres always a tell about these sorts of things. When youre lying and these people lie constantly, the whole family does, you always slip up somehow. And if you look at his statement, his written statement, he mentioned it, he says of course he knew nothing about why this meeting was taking place. Then he mentioned as an aside, when he entered the meeting they were talking about adoption and he was surprised to discover they were talking about adoption. Why would they be surprised if they were talking about organic developments or newest developments in denture cream since he had no idea what meeting was about by his own representation there. This whole thing stinks. And if hes so naive that doesnt know that meeting with russian representatives before youre even in the white house is a little troubling, he is certainly too naive to handle middle east peace, Opioid Crisis and rebuilding the government and too naive for a security clearance. John, did you believe him today . I did. Youre right about the pr strate strategy. I thought it worked well. I read the statement. I thought it was pretty convincing. But im the kind of guy who would think that a guy like Jared Kushner, not really a political animal, First Campaign he was part of, he probably didnt know all of the things happening tsh first of all, he gat meot a private and confidential, were meeting with people about the russia situation. Meet with russians who say they will help your fatherinlaw win the election and hurt hillary. He knows all this going into the meeting. Now he says, i dont know what it is about. All this is a fact. What he said in his statement was that he is supposed to be in the campaign you said russia he said it was this is about russians putting a you believe it was about russia i dont think he he might have. I dont know. It says private and confidential. Rush yasians we russians were supposed to help us. Why did he show up . When the bosss son says show up, you show up. Facts he cant deny, show up at the meeting. What he deny says this aspect. Like when i filled out the forls,forl forms, i didnt admit all the me meetings, my assistant pushed the send button. Come on. Both time the assistant pushed the accepted button . What are you willing to give your 30 of the country willing to buy any crap you give them . I will say this. Normal i know, i know several members of congress that today refile whatever forms they had. I know do you that all the time. I also know assistants sometimes make mistakes. Im willing to give Jared Kushner the benefit of the doubt. He is new to politics. Im willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Does this square with mr. Innocent here . Paul manafort how did he say manafort, in 30 seconds, move out the door. I think he could be a tough businessman. I dont think there is any doubt, but he didnt know much about politics. Here is a guy assigned middle east portfolio. What do we make of that . Working people and all kinds of stuff to get jobs for working class people. He is freighto on one side and michael on the other. Aeighto on michael on the other. Ighto on o michael on the other. Ghto on on michael on the other. Hto on one michael on the other. To on one michael on the other. You cant have it both ways. He is ei