Amendment strategy not answering Robert Muellers questions on the ground his answers would tend to incriminate him and claim that as justification for taking the fifth which trump himself associated with gangsters but also on the political ground now that the Mueller Investigation is out to get him. Indeed, President Trump is going to new extremes in his attempts to put the fbi on trial by alleging now that he, the subject of a federal investigation, is somehow the victim of fbi spying, thats his word. The president s eketively staged a crisis to convince the country that muellers not being fair to him and therefore, he donald trump has a right not to answer his questions. Its an excuse the president is setting is up to justify a number of escape routes. Pleading the fifth with special counsel mueller or in a most extreme move shutting the probe down all together. This morning trump launched his most egregious assaulted on our Law Enforcement institutions to date saying look how things have turned around on the criminal deep state. They go after phony collusion with russia, a madeup scam and end up getting caught in a major spy scandcan dal, the likes of this country may never have seen before. What goes around comes around. Believe it or not, thats the president of the United States talking. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Certainly when it comes to the fbis use of an informant in their investigation of the trump campaign. In his washington Washington Post column today it, david ig nay shish asked the question lost, isnt that what the fbi and its sources are supposed to do . Ignatius adds, trump is running a circus of distraction. But at the interest of the ring remains mueller, silent and unblinking. Nevertheless, the president has managed to pressure the department of justice and the fbi to sit down with his republican acolytes tomorrow. Trump leading this circus parade is already out there declaring that bad things happened. Lets watch. When they look at the documents, i think people are going to see a lot of bad things happened. I hope its not so. Because if it is, theres never been anything like it in the history of our country. This was a terrible situation. What were doing is were cleaning everything up. Its so important. What im doing is a service to this country. Everybody wants to solve, but a lot of bad things have happened. We now call it spy gate. Youre calling it spy gate. A lot of bad things have happened. I want them all to get together. Theyll sit in a room. Hopefully theyll be able to work it out among themselves. Joining me now are three contributors, joyce vance a former federal prosecutor, Michael Schmidt is a reporter for the New York Times and David Ignatius a columnist with the Washington Post. When i watched that today, i have to tell you all today, i reminded myself of joseph welsh in the mccarthy hearings back in 54. I never nude how far trump would go. Today i realized hell go all the way today. He came up with this Conspiracy Theory about spying and spy gate and how this was all something new and awful by the federal government to capture him all to avoid detection in whatever he did with the russians your thoughts . Your reporting . I mean, the interesting thing here is that he continues to push this notion but he still seems afraid to actually do anything more severe like go after rosenstein or replace sessions. That i think is where congress is keeping their eye on him. What would he do at that level. I think to some extent republicans look at this and say look, hes making noise. Its an Inspector General investigation and they can live with that. The real question will be when rosenstein do what he wants him to. In this case, it looks like rosenstein has done that. But the president looks like hell continue to beat this drum and he continues to launch on to a narrative about this informant that at least our reporting doesnt back up. This informant was not someone inside the campaign. It was someone that talked to two of these Campaign Officials who had contacts with russians to find out whether they were, you know, these conversations had happened to corroborate them. As someone pointed out to me, it would have been more aggressive for the fbi to go and knock on the doors of some of these folks with badges and sit them down for interviews and something that could come out publicly and could have damaged the campaign at the time. But the fbi took the more sort of quiet more secretive route and ran this informant up against these folks. Joyce, tell me about this because when criminals are or rather suspected criminals defendants go into a trial, theyll come up with anything to get the jury to think of some other possibility to get reasonable doubt. I understand that. This is the president of the United States. His way of creating reasonable doubt among his people, an the trumpies out there is to come up with this Conspiracy Theory that the United States government was out to get him engaged in something that was horrible something to do with spying on him and hes completely making this up. Your thoughts something that prosecutors tell juries to do and that an maybe the American People need to do here is to hang on to their common sense. Prosecutors always tell juries go back and consider the evidence and think about everything that youve heard but you dont have to check your common sense at the door. You can take it with you. Here weve got a situation where the president is saying that the fbi was out to harm him, that there was a conspiracy against him and yet, the fbi did nothing to damage him. They didnt go public with the story of the investigation. There was no leakage on russian contacts before the election. If anything it, trump makes a really weak case here that defies common sense. You know, david, i saw a picture like most of us in the paper today, a news photo of da mass skurks parts of damascus completely destroyed in the fight against isis. I was thinking that as sort of a picture of whats going on with our american institutions under trump. Without going too far, hes attacked the free president , civility in political debate and now attacking the institutions of the federal government the executive, the fbi, the Justice Department. I wonder how much damage hes willing to do to protect himself. Thats a horrifying image to imagine that the institutions of our government are like the ruins of damascus. But like you, i was shocked to hear the president say he was facing a criminal deep state by which he meant the Intelligence Community of the United States. Its astonishing. I wrote this morning that he has been engaged in a circus of distraction. That circus goes back to the campaign. It goes back to october when the allegations were first made by the Intelligence Community about russian meddling. In january of 2017 when the Intelligence Community made deeper arguments. Month after month, theres been a new series of claims about trump tower was bugged by president obama, then it was the fake dossier compiled by christopher steele. Again and again theres this effort to distract from the basic issues of this investigation. Michael, on front page reporting which youre an expert at, we are in a situation where trump as beautifully used the basic sort of trade craft of reporting. You have to write down and put in the paper what the president says every day. However, look what he said today. Theres rudy guiliani, his attacks now. Giulianis out there saying apparently for the president now, the president would like to talk to mueller. He keeps changing every couple of days to keep the press listening to him promising a decision within two weeks he told the Washington Post, i guess i would rather do the interview, it gets it over with and makes my client happy. He added a caveat, truth is relative. They may have a different version of the truth than we do. Separately giuliani told buzzfeed tonight he hasnt spoken directly with trump in a couple weeks. This game he plays on one hand of his hands and his other hand is out there the trashing people like comey seems like hes playing the straight front page press like a banjo because people keep reporting. I know you have to do it, but i just did it myself. This nonsense of giuliani acting like hes been talking to trump, he apparently hasnt been, just keep bouncing the ball, keeping it noisy and all the time trashing the prosecution. Yeah, im not sure exactly what the strategy is. What we do see is this constant drum beat against comey. Giuliani thinks this will come down to trump v comey and it will be up to the publics opinion who to believe. They think thats a winning argument for them and think comey diminished his credibility during his tour and the Inspector Generals report that will come out will help them. This is a place that the president they think will be okay in. I think that jew has landed some punches in the past few weeks but im not sure what it really means in the end. Its been a lot of noise. Its been a lot of aggressiveness. This is exactly what the president wanted. He wanted a Television Lawyer to go out and make his case. John dowd and ty cobb did not do that. Giuliani is doing that in a much more aggressive way. Winning a few points here but im not sure that that matters in the end. The Associated Press is now reporting how the president is spin slg legitimate news reports to make questionable allegations. Trump made one ally, told one ally this week he wanted to brand the informant in this case a spy. Believing the more nefarious term spy would resonate more with the media and the public. Let me go back to the judge to joyce on this. You create a vast conspiracy and use words like spy and spy gate trying to distract the jury which is beak his 40 of the country, have them learn the music, learn the lyrics start to say spy gait. Today he was like jimmy two times independence goodfellas teaching the people outside the white house how to say the word spy gate. Hes teaching everybody that so in the bars this weekend theyll all be saying it. Its horrible. And hes doing everything he can to destroy this country and his government so he gets off scotfree. Your thinking . Its really despicable conduct from the president of the United States. This idea that hes inserting it characteristicizations of conduct by Law Enforcement that he knows arent true in an effort to prejudice the people of the United States against the fbi, against the Intelligence Services who protect us is really i just think in many ways something we were not prepared for it as a country. And because we were unprepared for a president who would sort of stoop to these depths, we dont always hear a cohesive response from Law Enforcement. Prosecutors though doesnt responded in public. Weve seen that from mueller. Prosecutors bide their time. In many cases defendants will go to the press and try to create a negative narrative. Prosecutors respond when theyre in the courtroom and we know muellers team will have their first opportunity to do that this july when manafort goes to trial. We may or may not hear the full story here. But at some point im confident that there will be a report to congress and the entire collection of evidence that mueller has put together will be available for the public to see. During the Freedom Riders Movement in 1961, david. Jimmy know you know this history, mr. Siegenthaler of the Justice Department told someone during the riots in alabama, he said im from the federal government which got him hit over the head with a lead pipe and left down in the street by the cops to die. Is that the atmosphere trump is cooking up now, this hatred of the fbi especially out in the stix where they like him . Hes creating an hatred level which is going to be frightening in its reality as it takes form over the next several months and years . There always has been asus pigs of the federal government, of big government, of authority. Dont tread on me is a kind of a National Idea of liberty. I do worry that by targeting so directly the fbi and intelligence agencies by turning their legitimate count ker intelligence efforts, lets remember, this began as a Counter Intelligence investigation into something thats suspicious, thats spy gate, thats a scandal. He really is, as youve been saying, as weve all been saying trying to mobilize the country against the institutions that in the end keep us safe. Its a very, very reckless strategy, dangerous strategy. Well, the guy who rides the tiger ends up in his mouth. Well see. Joyce, michael and david. Its one of the rare times donald trump has spoeng the truth. He told lesley stahl that the reason he bashes the press is so when they write negative stories about him, no one will believe them. Hes tearing down this countrys institutions our system of government, our Law Enforcement and our free press to save his skin. Plus the Risky Business of speaking for donald trump as Mark Lieberman reports the more the White House Communications team defends trump, the more its people damage their own credibility. They should. And woman power. Heres good news. Will 2018 be is the year that women candidates and women vote ares make the difference . After last night, thats looking more and more like a prospect. Let me finish tonight with trump watch. Until today, i didnt know how far he would go. This is hardball where the action is. Say carl, we have a question about your brokerage fees. Fees . What did you have in mind . I dont know. 4. 95 per trade . Uhhh and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee . Guarantee . Where we can get our fees and commissions back if were not happy. So can you offer me what schwab is offering . Whats with all the questions . Ask your broker if theyre offering 4. 95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. Allow you to take advantage of growth opportunities. With a level of protection in down markets. So you can be less concerned about your retirement savings. Talk with your advisor about shield annuities from Brighthouse Financial established by metlife. The New York Times first reported today that President Trumps soninlaw Jared Kushner has finally been grant aid regular security clearance. His background checks have dragged on for over a year fueling questions whether the Mueller Probe turned up any evidence he was a security threat. According to a person briefed on matter, that was not the case. The times further reports mr. Curbnerss clearances were approved by career officials and that the president was not involved in the process. Nbc news confirmed kushner met for a second time with special counsel muellers team. That interview lasted more than six hours that included questions on the comey firing. Well be right back. People said it just made a mess until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. They thought someday it could become fuel and power our cars wouldnt that be cool . And thats why exxonmobil scientists think its not small at all. Energy lives here. Need a change of scenery . The kayak price forecast tool tells you whether to wait or book your flight now. So you can be confident youre getting the best price. Giddyup kayak. Search one and done. At fidelity, our online u. S. Equity trades are just 4. 95. So no matter what you trade, or where you trade, youll only pay 4. 95. Fidelity. Open an account today. Throughout the campaign, donald trump bulldozed over whomever or whatever stood in his way. He attacked political opponent often in very personal terms but his most ruthless attacks were on the press something thats continued since the election. Here he goes. As you know, i have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth. If you want to discover the source of the division in our country, look no further than the fake news and the crooked media. For the most part it, honestly, these are really, really dishonest people. And theyre bad people. And i really think they dont like our country. I really believe that. Theyre bad people. Theyre bad people and theyre dishonest people. They dont tell the truth. They dont write the truth. Look whos talking. Yesterday, veteran cbs journalist lesley stahl shared this insightful exchange she will with the president about why he keeps up those attacks on the press. At one point he started to attack the press. And and its just me and my boss and him. And he has a huge office. Hes tab attacking the press and there were no cameras. There was nothing going on. I said you know, that is getting tired. Why are you doing this . Youre doing it over and over and its boring and its time to end that, you know, youve won the nomination and why do you keep hammering at this . And he said you know why i do it . I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when he write negative stories about me, no one will believe. You for more im joined by susan page from usa today and Brent StevensNew York Times columnist and msnbc political contributor. Susan, you first then brett. This is Something Else. Hes willing to destroy anything