Why . Because information is powerful. Thats our closing thought for you. And that does it for the beat. I also want to say a big thank you to Ayman Mohyeldin and Chris Jansing for anchoring all last week. I will be back here at 6 00 p. M. Eastern tomorrow. Hardball with Chris Matthews starts right now. Big bad wolf. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im Chris Matthews back in washington. Well, the president spent the weekend defending his mental stability. And look, ive been away for two weeks and ucome back to that kind of news. And perhaps more telling, his defense of his military or mental stability only raised more questions about, you guessed it, his mental stability. And then there is the new hope of the resistance. Like other heroic figures, she goes by one name and one name
president. On saturday, President Trump tweeted, actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being really smart. I went from a very successful businessman to top tv star to president of the United States on my first try. I think that would qualify as not smart but genius. And a very stable genius at that. That was the president over the weekend. Well, the president told reporters he tweeted about his stability because of the charges in Michael Wolffs new book. I consider it a work of fiction. And i think its a disgrace that somebody is able to have something, do Something Like that. The libel laws are very weak in this country. If they were strong, it would be very helpful. You wouldnt have things like that happen where you can say whatever comes to your head. But just so you know, i never interviewed with him in the white house at all. He was never in the oval office. I guess sloppy steve brought him into the white house quite a bit. And it was one of those things. Thats why sloppy steve now looking for a job. That would be steve bannon, of course. Another guy he doesnt like. According to Michael Wolff, the author of the new book, the people around the president think something is wrong with their boss. Lets watch. Everybody in this white house, and i keep saying this 100 , because it is 100 of the people closest to the president , to donald trump, believe that there is something wrong here, something something fundamentally wrong. Something that scares them. As a matter of fact, they went from if there is any reason they stay in the white house now, its because they are scared. They believe they have a responsibility to the american people. Well, that scarce you. Meanwhile, axios report theres is actually much less to the president s schedule than meets the eye. Jonathan swan sitting to my left here writes President Trump is starting his official day much later than he did in the early days of his presidency, often around 11 00 a. M. This is largely to meet trumps demands for more executive time, thats in quotes, which almost always means tv and twitter time alone in the residence. Trumps days in the oval office are relatively short, from about 11 00 a. M. To 6 00 p. M. And during that time he usually has a meeting or two, but spends a good deal of time making phone calls and watching cable news in the dining room adjoining the oval office. For more im joined by Jonathan Swan i didnt mean to be sarcastic. Jonathan swan of axios along with susan page and Washington Post eugene robinson. This is a great group to start me back. I have to tell you, when youre away for a couple of weeks and youve been reading all this stuff, what the hell is happening . The president of the United States is out there tweeting his mental defense, claiming he would pass the kind of Competency Test you would get when your relatives put you away. I mean, is He Commedemented . Your reporting. My own reporting is there are
white house staffers that question his stability is it mental stability or iq . Is it brains or stability . I would say its both. Really . However. It is complete nonsense that it is 100 as Michael Wolff claims. That is just an seconddegree murder. Give me a percentage. Its hard. Its hard to know. Circumstances it high . I would say its reasonable. Its a reasonable percentage there are senior staff who are who deride him privately, who i would say have contempt. Why are they still there . I worked in politics for years. And you worked for somebody. You were loyal to that person. Thats why you were working for them. I mean you always need a job, but thats why you were working for them. How do you defend why these people are still if theyre dumping on their boss . Its better that you have good people there protecting the country. So they believe he is a little nuts and they got to protect the country from him . 100 there are people who believe that, yes. Susan, you are reporting there are people in the white
house who believe this president is unstable and part of their patriotic duty is to be there to keep him from going off the rails . Yes. I think thats some of the reason people are at the white house and in Senior Administration feel. You know what youre saying here. This is historic. I think weve had people like President Wilson who got sick at the end, his wife had to be his caretaker. We had people who had deep depression like abraham lincoln, gene. Yeah. But we didnt have anybody like this, this people thought he was starkers. Not that i can remember. And nixon at the very end when he was drinking too much. Right. Nixon at the very end. And toward the end of Ronald Reagans term, there were questions about, you know, whether he lost a step, right. But not unstable. Not unstable. Not like this. Nobody to my recollection has questioned, number one, a president s basic fitness for the job in terms of his ability. Is this 25th Amendment stuff . Is this the sense that maybe says somebody well have to come in and take him out some day
under the constitutional amendment, where you basically have the cabinet vote him out . That is the dilemma with those who think the 25th Amendment is how this ends. You need the Vice President and the cabinet that the power should be transferred to the Vice President. I think that is a very hard thing to envision. Its a left wing fantasy. This 25th Amendment is a left wing fantasy. Because . Because susan just laid it out. There. Is a reasonable number of people in the white house who think he sun stable. Not 25th Amendment. Unstable . Well, irrational, volatile. Michael wolff says the 25th Amendment is discussed every day in the white house. Absolute nonsense. Absolute nonsense. I agree that 25th Amendment is not going to happen. Its just ridiculous to assumele that, unless he is just barking at the moon. Literally, unless he is clearly off his rocker. Okay. Its not going to come up and its not going to happen. Impeachment is more likely than the 25th Amendment. If the democrats win control of the house and the Special Counsel comes back with a damning report, it is conceivable, politically conceivable to have impeachment. More likely than any of that is look out. I think next time if the democrats win their house this fall, the Subpoena Power will be used next spring. Exactly. And they will act. Subpoena power. They have a huge number of democrats who want to impeach him now. By the time this thing goes its course, trump must know. Congress has a power to restrain and constrain an out of control executive. And i think if the democrats were to win control, that would be the most likely thing. Lets take a look at this. White house advise wed all watched this today. It was on yesterday. But its been around all day. Stephen miller defending his boss on cnn in an interview with jake tapper. They quickly grew heated, id
administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this cnn flunkie. Is trump actually watching this in realtime, or does stephen say guess what . You got to see how i did on cnn. He is the president of the United States and he is watching this stuff over the weekend. Isnt he playing golf or doing Something Like that . Chris, if you dont think this whole thing was orchestrated for exactly what we saw, they havent jake tapper they have not given jake tapper on cnn, they have not given him a single Senior Administration official for weeks. To send Stephen Miller, the most provocative one out, there it was blood sport. They went no to provoke this. Of course, of course. Jonathan is absolutely right. They obviously wanted this fight. Theyre not in the habit of providing Senior Administration officials to gone jake tappers show. They just dont do that. This is the 39 still with donald trump. Just for donald j. Trump. Its for him. One of the reasons he was on was to publicly behead steve bannon. That was one of the purposes of him going on that show. You mean turkey, go on there for Stephen Miller go out there and gut him. The sloppy steve he calls him now. Anyway, he was his hero. In a statement, steve bannon backtracked a bit from his criticism in the wolff book of the 2016 trump tower meeting with the russians. Remember that . In june of 16. He called it treasonous and unpatriotic. Yesterday bannon wrote donald trump is both a patriot and a good man. My comments were aimed at paul manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the russians operate. He should have known they were cunning and not our friends. According to Michael Wolff, however, that isnt true. Lets watch. I like steve. Im grateful for the time he gave me, the insights he gave me, and i dont want to put him
in more hot water than he is already in. That statement was false . It was not directed at manafort. It was directed directly at don jr. Meanwhile, the steve bannon statement doesnt seem to have helped. According to bloomberg, trumps aides are tracking who came out with full throated criticism of bannon over the weekend. And they put out the word that the president is keeping score. Bannon hoped his statement would begin to put the episode behind him. A half dozen source describe almost the exact opposite. Trump remains angry at the disloyalty of his former strategist. Susan, put this all back together. What is going on . Is there anybody still i keep thinking. I was away. And i kept watching all that is going on in this country, i kept thinking this reminds me of the Shakespeare Play julius cease
so caesar. Eventually he had no real friends. He had sycophants, but he had brutuss around him. Who is besides the sycophants who get paid and do what theyre told, is there any grownup person around twloump is still a trumpite and is still loyal to him . Who gets on the phone i like the guy, he is smart, he is running the country well. Are there people like that . Tom barrack . People like that . Who are not from the trump world, who have independent standing and who are still close to him. I think the Chief Of Staff kelly is one who comes closest. Someone who can tell the truth to trump and have standing with trump. Does he believe in him, though, or does he believe he has to contain him . I think thats a fair question. I think he has recognized the limits of his ability to contain trump. So i think he tries to do what he can do. And he actually seemed to be more a defender of trump than you might have expected when he took the job. Lets go back to how we started the segment. You Secretary Of Defense reasonable number of people in the white house dont think the president s got it together. To be clear, they dont think
he is mentally deranged. They think that he is not up to the job, that he is unqualified for job, i. Unfit for the job. Doesnt have the requisite knowledge. You could use the word unfit, but again, theyre not making psychiatric diagnosis. More he is ignorant and things like that. Almost everyone who cover the white house hear that privately with all that conversation. The outside view, at least i do, im watching this. I watched president s since i was born practically, since ike. And i never heard a president who seems to be so reactive. He cares what anybody says. He is the opposite of say ike who said the hell with that guy. Exactly. He is super sensitive to any sort of criticism. And thats the way he is. I got to say, though, that i have spoken with people whove known him for many, many years who think hes different now whom. Think he has that something isnt quite the same. That he hes more sensitive, th
hes got more of a hair trigger, that he is less able to digest and sort of process complicated information than he was before. Now i have spoken with people who have said that. And i havent known him for 40 years. So i cant evaluate that thats out there too. The pressure of having so many people dislike what he is doing. He has done things that make himself very unpopular. Anyeyes, could say its not the first time a president s Mental Fitness has been questioned. In fact, back in 2014, not a million years ago, donald trump tweeted im starting to think i there is something seriously wrong with president obamas Mental Health. Why wont he stop the flights . Psycho thats trump talking. He was talking to the u. S. Response to the ebola outbreak. He wanted the president to stop travel from west africa. He was using the words about Mental Health and psycho. I mean, he really doesnt have much to defend here about what people are saying about him right now. There is an old saying, there is a tweet for everything. Literally Everything Trump says, you can go back and find where
he said the opposite. And that would be the truth. Thank you, susan page. I saved that. You european robinson, it is great to be back. Jonathan swan, youre back from aussie land. Program note. Michael wolff, author of Fire And Fury which they even want in nigeria, everybody wants a copy, inside the Trump White House will be our guest here tomorrow night on hardball. I can bet well open the show with him. Coming up, the russia investigation goes on. Trump keeps saying there is nothing to see there. But talks are under way about a potential interview with the president and Special Counsel rober Robert Mueller getting together, i think under oath. Plus, after that impassioned speech last night at the Golden Globes, there are a lot of people seriously talking about Oprah Winfrey to run for president. And it does make sense. She has the charisma to take on a trump. Something the rest of the democratic contenders may be lacking. By the way, they havent proven any charisma yet. Ill say that. And the Hardball Round Table with three big scoops that youll be talking about tomorrow. Finally, let me finish with trump watch. Im back. This is hardball, where the action. With zero Dollar Copays on select plans and Reward Points on prescriptions. So no matter where youre going or who you are, its worth the trip. Well help you find low cost prescriptions including zero Dollar Copays on select Medicare Part d plans. Walgreens. Trusted since 1901. In addition to defending his mental state, the president this weekend also announced he was postponing his fake news awards, socalled, originally planned for this evening. Tonight the president tweeted the fake news awards, those going to the most corrupt and biased of the Mainstream Media will be presented to the losers on wednesday, january 17th rather than this coming monday. He said that. And the interest in and importance of these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated. Unbelievable. Well be right back. President denied he is even under investigation and said the probe reflects badly on this country. If Robert Mueller asks you to come and speak with his committee personally, are you committed still to doing that . Just so you understand, just so you understand, there has been no collusion. There has been no crime. And in theory, everybody tells me im not under investigation. We could have done it two ways. Well could have been very closed and it would have taken years. But sort of like when youve done nothing wrong, lets be open and get it over with. Because honestly its very, very bad for our country. Its making our country look fullish. Well, now nbc news is reporting, however, that initial talks are under way for a potential interview between the president and Robert Muellers investigators. Three people familiar with the matter say the president s legal team is discussing a range of potential option for format, including written responses to questions in lieu of a formal sitdown. But theyre also seeking potential compromises that could
avoid an interview altogether according to two of the sources. Simply the Washington Post is reporting an interview could come in t