We know you love it, so get more of it, with applebees new bigger bolder grill combos. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Welcome to kasie d. C. Im kasie hunt. We are live from washington every sunday from 7 00 to 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight it turns out the most consequential thing released from james comey this week was probably not his book. Plus, Climate Change and the president s legal team. The outlook is cloudy for Michael Cohen. The Attorney General and Rod Rosenstein. And later, we are witnessing a genuine thaw in relations with north korea or are we witnessing the art of the deal as written by kim jongun . Bill richardson joins me live to
talk about the hermit kingdom. But first we start with two images. The first an actual photograph of four president s and their wives. The photograph was taken by paul morris at the funeral for barbara bush. In the center you can see george h. W. Bush, behind him his son george, his wife laura, his arm around the clintons. On the edge Melania Trump and Michelle Obama arm in arm. The other image, youre going to have to conjure for yourself. The sitting president , donald trump at maralago, tweeting 29 times since friday about Michael Cohen, james comey, michael flynn, the special counsel, about a form aide that he calls drunk and drugged up loser. And what he calls a thirdrate reporter named maggie haberman. He insists that she is someone who i dont speak to and have nothing to do with, but there they are in the oval office. She has interviewed him multiple
times. To talk more about all of this, i want to welcome in my panel. The cofounder of Foundry Strategies and msnbc political analyst rick tyler. Pulitzer prize winning White House Reporter for the Washington Post and msnbc contributor my friend ashley parker. Nbc news intelligence and National Security reporter ken dilanian and White House Correspondent for Pbs News Hour and msnbc contributor yamiche alsindor. This is the first time ive seen you on the air since you won your pulitzer last week. Congratulations to you and all of your colleagues. Thank you. At the Washington Post. But weve talked a lot about this theme that the president is isolated and increasingly as time has worn on he seems to be more and more isolated. I think it certainly set into sharp relief for me the difference between that photograph where he was obviously excluded and what has gone on over the course of the weekend. Do you think this is the most isolated time yet for this president . Yes and no. I mean, if you look at his west
wing and his white house, theres been stunning turnover, and not just across the board. But some of these people who are really sort of comforts to him, hope hicks, his trusted communications advisor, keith shiller, his longtime body guard who played a key role there, a number of people who he really knew and was familiar with and liked. That said, he still does what hes always done, hes always had a kind of small group of people around him and he still stays in touch with them late at night on the phone, when hes down at maralago. John kelly, his operator. Hes surrounded by people, might not be the Chief Of Staff wants him to be around but hes not purely isolated. Ken dilanian, What Potential Damage has the president done with these tweets that have been sort of aimed across the board . Ink chuck todd was talking this morning on Meet The Press how it feels like the focus is russia, russia, russia. The weight of this investigation sort of pressing down more on the president and the country as a whole. You mean aside from damage to our national fabric, kasie . It makes him look guilty at the end of the day. The way he is continuing to attack anyone that he feels can hurt him in the russia investigation, anybody that seems to be a witness. Although interestingly he hasnt attacked Michael Cohen yet because he believes his lawyer and longtime confidant may be on the fence and there may be a chance he can flip and there is a chance he might not flip. Donald trump has words of support for him this week. Yamiche, weigh in on this question. What was your take . We watched and talked, going to talk more about barbara bush later on in the show. Sort of the dignity and grace that she showed on the National Stage and the contrast with, you know, the events of the last year. I think there are two things. The first is there is this kind of stunning moment where President Trump said people keep saying im going to fire Robert Mueller, im going to fire Rod Rosenstein and then Rod Rosenstein, but they still are here. Theyre still people that are working and i havent fired them. It felt like for a couple
moments there, i would say i wont venture to say a whole day people thought oh, these people are going to have their jobs, theyre not going to go anywhere. He talks about james comey setting off the investigation of the special counsel, its built off an illegal act. What does that mean . It started to he will like, okay, is he building a case or dropping crumbs for why hes going to fire these two men and why hes going to try to stop this investigation . There is that one thing. During a funeral while everyone is watching the bushes, while everyone is kind of reminiscing on what the quorum is like and how beautiful the casket, i think the nation as a whole was kind of pausing to think about all of those things. You had donald trump go on a rant of all rants that really showed that the Republican Party is in completely different hands now. This is not the bushes. As much as people might have made fun of george bush and he had his on issues with katrina and the war on iraq, people thought he was someone who didnt have any decorum, was tearing away at the national
fabric. I think youre right, there has been some george w. Bush nostalgia that has people papering over some of the things we remember of his presidency at the time. Rick tyler, whats your point . I think yamiches point is a good one. Perhaps it is those people in the photograph who are going to be the ones that are permanently outside the frame. Many of those people ran against each other, but they were still able to appear in the same room at the same time. They hadnt diminished or demeaned themselves to the point where it just would be embarrassing. Now, the white house a little bit of cover saying the Secret Service would have created disruption on the funeral and it would have. But i think trumps presence there would have created a much larger disruption. And i do think the bushes who i have disagreed with many, many times, but its hard to argue that they arent honorable people. I remember visiting the bush library, which you can argue is a propaganda place, but perhaps any president ial library presents the best history possible. I read a letter by george
h. W. Bush to his boys during watergate and he was concerned about the way his boys would perceive watergate. And it was a father instructing his younger sons and it was about character and honor and dignity, and were lacking that in this white house right now. So, speaking of those tweets, in a series of other tweets throughout the weekend, the president is questioning the legality of the special counsel, claiming that james comey illegally leaked classified documents. He also slighted his own Attorney General, quote, gop lawmakers asking sessions to investigate comey and Hillary Clinton. Good luck with that request meanwhile, the Washington Post reports, Jeff Sessions warned the white house he might have to leave his job if President Trump fired his deputy, Rod Rosenstein. On the call reportedly to don mcgahn last weekend, sessions expressed the difficult position it would put him in. The call came after rosenstein approved the raid on cohens offices and home. Ken dilanian, what are the
ramifications of these potential dominos if sessions does think if rosenstein goes i have to resign, too . I do not think the congress would approve 509 Attorney General in the first place. But that aside, i mean, it seems like that would, in fact, spark the crisis based on this reporting. Absolutely. They certainly wouldnt approve an Attorney General without that person promising to continue the Mueller Investigation as its happening. So, leaving that aside, i mean, actually one of the implications of this sessions threatening to resign, is that a motivating factor for donald trump to make this happen . But look, that would absolutely cause a crisis in congress and in the executive branch. Donald trump could put acting people in who could potentially remove Robert Mueller, but as james comey said many times this week, you would have to fire the entire Justice Department and the entire fbi to make this investigation go away. The documents, the findings, those would simply go if mueller was removed, they would go to u. S. Attorneys offices, the fbi would still have them. They dont go away. The investigation doesnt close. Ashley, the rumor mill on Rod Rosenstein seems to ebb and flow, if its the tides, i dont know what it is, every few days or a week we seem to get a new round of the president is about to do this, another report he thought about Firing Mueller at such and such additional time. Where does that stand right now . How secure is Rod Rosenstein . First understand we have to put it in context. The president often sort of floats ideas and bounces things off of aides and friends and says, you know, im so fed up with him. I think i should fire him. What do you think . Do you think i should fire him . And that doesnt what do you think . That doesnt mean its necessarily going to happen. And as yamiche mentioned earlier he said in the Press Conference, look, people have been writing these stories four or five months and these two men are still here, arent they . And thats true, and there is sort of an adage people say, Pay Attention to what the president says, not what he does. Although sometimes he does do the thing hes saying, such as firing james comey. So, its tenuous. Right. You bring up comey as well. I want to play a sound bite that we have from Susan Collins on Meet The Press this morning because it seems to me that in some ways comey did some damage to himself over the course of the last week. Take a look. I cannot imagine why an fbi director would seek to essentially cash in on a book when the investigation is very much alive. He should have waited to do his memoir. I think this is an interesting assessment from a senator who is, by all accounts, you know, carries some antipathy towards donald trump. She raises the question we talked about this initially that does this potentially and ken dilanian, im interested to know your opinion on the impact of the investigation. Politically, rick tyler, do you think that james comey did himself well over the course of the last week . Is he did he survive politically as the standup courageous guy he set out to paint a portrait of himself in this book . I think its kind of a break even. We have to remember something. James comey was fired. They took away a mans career. A prosecutor that went all the way back to when he worked for Rudy Giuliani and before that. They took away his career. They also besmirched him publicly. He had a right to make his case. It couldnt be done in sound bites. I read his book. I disagree with some of the things hes done and said. Did he make a mistake he thinks he made a Mistake Writing about the size of the president s hands and his hair and other things. Im sure the publisher had more to do with that than james comey did. He certainly did take us inside the room. I think the book is interesting. It does give justification of why he did a separate Press Conference from the Justice Department about reopening the investigation of Hillary Clintons emails, which i profoundly disagree with. But he has a rationale for that and people can decide on their own. But i think on balance, he probab
probably broke even. Ken, is it your opinion he helped bob mueller or not . I think there is the potential. In terms of the impact of the investigation, if mueller didnt want this to happen, really put his foot down, it wouldnt have happened. Its not that these words are going to interfere with the investigation, but the damage that he may have done to his credibility, as you say, going to the size of Donald Trumps hands and the color of his skin and just appearing to be cashing in, i agree with Everything Rick said. Susan collins is raising a fair question. To the extent he is a crucial witness in any Obstruction Of Justice case to be made against donald trump, i think this could do some damage, yeah. And, yamiche, with the memos coming out after the book was released, the memos do seem to add credibility to whatever may have been taken away from him from his references that some people interpreted as maybe below the belt takes. The memos were coming out and democrats were clamoring for them. It bolstered his case and damaged his credibility. It was such a partisan response to the memos. You had republicans jumping and running, it shows this is not Obstruction Of Justice. Nancy pelosi tweeting donald trump has a contempt for the rule of law. As a reporter, i saw, not only did we know about the details of the memo. There was a part where james comey said he would give him honest loyalty. He called me back a couple months later, couple weeks later. You remember that thing about woods i told but . Basically, i remember that. It showed he was trying to hold onto his job. Hes thinking of his career, ten years down the line i want this to be a whole thing i can close and i can serve. In reality i think if hes looking back, hes probably i think doesnt feel as great at the idea that he had that Loyalty Hanging over his head because the memos dont paint him as someone saying, donald trump, you cannot say that. That is completely unethical. Thats not there. I dont know it helped his credibility. Ashley, whats your take, do you think the memos bolstered comeys stature across the board or is yamiche right . I dont know. Thats a good question. My understanding, im not a legal expert, Those Memos Written Extelemunmporaneously C used as something happened and they would be very valuable to Robert Mueller and his team of investigators. The memos do bolster his account of what did happen. Hes sort of been very consistent in that, what leaked out in the news reports, what we then saw. But as yamiche said, i do think everything is sort of at this point seen through a partisan lens. People will pick and choose what they want to take from that. It also came out in response to the republican investigators who want these hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of documents that rosenstein has no hope of fulfilling, which will set up a pretext of why he needs to be fired. There is talk of republicans
trying to impeach him. He says, okay, ill send over the comey memos. He does. What happens . Within one hour they are leaked. I mean, these supposedly illegal classified memos and now everybody gets to read them. Theyre a whole lot of nothing really. So what do you think the fbi what do you think is going to happen when the fbi sends over a million documents, many of which are classified . Theyre going to leak. Th thats what capitol hill is best at sometimes. The president tweeted 29 times since friday. It can be hard to keep up so we here at kasie d. C. Distilled them to under 20 seconds for you and, oh, we put them in the president s own words. Almost. Nancy pelosi called numbers maggie haberman. Stallone. Drunk, drugged up. Loser. Washington post kim jongun. Southern white house. Debbie wasser man schultz. Johnson. And the dishonest media. The dishonest media, much more to come on our show tonight. The State Of Play in tennessee is awkward. Well talk about the unfolding mid terms there. Plus, new reporting just out on the Trump Administrations approach to kim jongun. But first, the dog eat dog world of the trump legal team. Plus, join us on twitter at kasie d. C. Throughout the show. Please, this is my favorite, join in using the hashtag dogs watching kasie d. C. Send your photos of dogs. Weve had cats, birds, no iguanas. If you have one go ahead. Everyone watching the show. Well be back in just a minute. Im your phone, stuck down here between your seat and your console, playing a little hidenseek. Cold. Warmer. Warmer. Ah boiling. Jackpot. And if youve got cutrate car insurance, you could be picking up these charges yourself. So get allstate,
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