Just as i was watching everybody try to pick this apart, i saw a lot of people on tv, i read a lot of column, people were seizing on the gossip. Some of the more salacious entries, the fact that donald trump doesnt read. Well, you know, we told you that a week first half ago, we asked him. Do you ever read, donald, after the first debate . These are tidbits, and, yes, the washington media is going to just go crazy over them. But lets break this down really quickly before we open up to guests. Just so you know what this means. You now have the president of the United States and the people that were around him during the campaign at the beginning of his Administration One by one falling. You have the National Security adviser the man who spent more time with donald trump during the campaign than anybody else who has now pled guilty and is cooperating with the fesd against donald trump and the administration. Have you the Campaign Chairman during the rnc, who 45d its door busted opened by the fbi, was arrested and now is facing years if prison. You have the man that donald trump told the Washington Post was one of his two top Foreign Policy advisers, also arrested also pleading guilty, also cooperating with the feds. Also apparently the reason why this entire investigation began when he was drunk and talking to the australian ambassador to the brits and then finally, you have Donald Trumps final Campaign Manager and the person who was his political strategist and the man who was one of his two top people in the white house who is now openly accusing, by the way, has been since march. This isnt just steve bannon angry, talking after he was fired i was hearing this back in march. We were telling you as much as we could on the air about it, when he was going after members of the administration. Have you steve bannon now accusing the president of the United States and his people of treason, also calling them liars. We have with us to talk about this and so much more today National Affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc nick heilemann, republican communication strategist rick tyler, the editor of Bloomberg Business week megan murphy, the contributing editor at the Weekly Standard and columnist at the new york post, a man who will have nothing to say about this, john fedoris. The former chief of staff cia National Security analyst jeremy bash and nbc news capital correspondent and the host of casey d. C. Right here on msnbc. Casey hunt. Mika who is under the weather this morning and the flu is going around here. But i want to start, john insteadoris with a tweet yesterday which was if 20 of this is accurate, perk, what were you thinking . What did you do . Look the problem with the book, this fire and fury book by michael wolf, a long time journal writer on topics from the first dotcom mofsz to Rupert Murdock to the entertainment business, an Entertainment Writer played it fast and loose, doesnt source himself well, speculation is talked about in exactly the same way that actual facts that hes gathered to talk about. You cannot sort out the gossip from the fact him its very difficult. This is clearly going to be a problem with this book. Having said that, the portrait of otherive pro other improvisetory chaos t. Portrait is so horrifying that any impression over the last month, even though most of what we read is about six months ago. But any portrait that we read in the last month or any sense we have in the last month the ship is being righted and policy is being made and more serious efforts will be made on dealing with the Iran Protests and stuff like that. Its almost impossible to get back in the mindset 2018 might be a better year. Its serious, its just serious for people inside the white house. John heilemann, you are actually a perfect person to talk to here. You and your former person Mark Halperin every president ial year since 2008 have done a deep dive into all of these campaigns. And i remember talking to you guys in march and prip april and hearing things coming down the track, not specifically, but what, in my conversations with you and my conversations with people inside the white house and my conversations with everybody involved ive got to say this book rings true on just about everything that i read, of all the things mika and i have known about trump over the past ten, 11 years, what we knew over the past 12 to 4 months, what we few after we stopped talking to him, again, i havent read anything in here other than possibly the john bainor an next dote that didnt ring true to me, Everything Else does, it follows everything that all of my sources have been telling me for 12 months now, what about y you . Well, there is so much to say about this effort. I will not embrideer much on what he said about michael wolf. There will be enough discussion over sourcing methods of this book and probably a lot of pushback from some members of the people who are quoted in the book about the ways in which their material got presented. Ill leave it at that. I think there will be some discussion of it. Having said that, i think that there is a reason why the book has made an impression so quickly, it does ring true, a lot of people who reported out of this white house, including me. As a piece of the metta news the bannon stuff is extraordinary, it signifies that bannon one of the rare people in the white house who has not been tarred by the russia investigation has made a determination that the white house, that donald trump is going down and that he believes the place to be historically toblg be on the r side of history is to be criticizing the president , his children, in the starkest possible tones. The notion invoking treason, unpatriotic. His motivations are not pure. He has longtime grudges against people, especially Jared Kushner and ivanka trump. Its interesting yeah, hold on one second. I want to stop you there, and again set up the timing of this as you continue that, because you bring up a good point. Bannon has a grudge. Okay. But whats important here is as you know, as other people that have reported on bannon, though, i would guess anybody that has a good working relationship with the white house knows, steve bannon started talking about elements of this russia investigation in march before it was even on the front pages of the New York Times or the Washington Post. He started saying these people were going down in march. When i first heard it in march. I was scratching my head. Does that, wait, what does don jr. Have to do with russia . So. Right. He was at the height of his power when he was warning journalist, all these people are going down. I think its worth saying some of the things he is talking about in the june meeting, he was not in the campaign at the time. She not a witness. He is speculating on some level, some of the most important speculation you can imagine. Again, its as many up to me interesting about the judgment he was making during the first 200 days of the Trump Administration, while he was in the white house, he was already starting to make claims for a book that would come out some months later that would put him in this position as having been critical of people in the white house because he already saw where things were going, which dominos were falk and how he saw this playing out. The most striking commentary in the book. Again some may be have been offered on the record and in other circumstances, you may hear these sources come forward and dispute it in the days ahead, but the consistency of the picture of the people closest to the president of the United States all thinking he should not be president. He would not be president when they got into the white house thinking that he was not just inequipped, ill equipped for the job, incapable of doing the job, not mentally competent for the job t. Number of phrases people use for stupid, for a moron, for an idiot. The cabinet secretary, the top people in the white house infantalizing the president of the United States. These are not his enemies, these are people that work for him. The array and the assessments all consistent of the closest people to the president working with him as being essentially a child. Its just that is a devastating portrait. Again, one putting aside questions of michael wolf as a journalist that raise true to people who spent time over the last year talking to people inside this white house, that is i think a killing more straight for a lot of people. As i say, these are not democrats, fought liberals, people that want to destroy donald trump. Theyre the people closest to him. Well, its down in palestiniant now. This is something that most journalists in washington, d. C. Have been talking to republicans on capitol hill have heard. Hes a child. Hes got no attention span. He reads nothing. Bob corkerer saying theyre running an Adult Day Care Center there. That sort of a talk you heard from Senior Republicans has been confirmed by a lot of people. Weve all heard it, nobody had the guts to say it on the record. Of course, some people will push back. If you are katie walsh, what are you going to say if you are quoted saying he acts like a child. Of course, there will be people that will say, oh, no, i didnt say that way. Or no, it rings true, whether katie walsh said it or not. Which im sure she did, but if she didnt, 30 about people did. Have you the gary cohn memo, absolutely devastating, saying things we heard about before. We will get back to that portion in a second. Jeremy bash, lets just talk about the law the prosecution, if are you a prosecutor and are you looking at this situation, you are looking at a cast of characterers that one by one by one are turning on the president of the United States and all the president s men and all the president s women, right now, its looking like of the loyalists around donald trump, its now boiled down to trump and his children who are still loyal to him. What is the impact of having the National Security adviser who spent more time complaining in 2016 and seen as the guy that trump trusted to have around him the most, now cooperating with the feds. What does it mean to have the Campaign Manager now, of course, if trouble with the feds, possibly facing a lifetime if jamie . What does it mean when you have one of his top Foreign Policy guys now cooperating with the fbi and now you have his final Campaign Manager, his top political strategist accusing the president and all the president s men and women of treason . What does that do nor the prosecutor . Yeah, first and foremost, there is no loyalty within the trump inner circle. That is clear by bannons comments in this account even as john and others noted. Only 20 is accurate. So the prosecutor can peck apart insideers, really, Donald Trumps world pivoted and turned for the worst on december 3rd of last year when mike flynn pleaded guilty. Because on that day, his, a member of his inner circle, longtime loyalists, someone the president turned loyalty for, he is cooperating, offering everyday and testimony against the mr. President. To your point earlier, joe, bannon clearly gave this interview or series before december 3rd. So whether he knew the president was quote going down or not, he knew something a long time before mike flynn pleaded guilty. So i think this does not auger well for the president s legal strategy. I think bannon has a firsthand knowledge of is the firing of comey. Im sure bob mueller will be talking to him and many other around him about what he saw what he knows about that specific issue. Casey hunt, we have been watching over the past month a sad and pathetic display, my words, obviously, not yours. Because you have to work with these people, from some junior republican members of the house to try to besmurnlg the reputation of the fbi, try to attack bob mueller, try to claim that this is nothing but a witch hunt. You now have steve bannon, a guy that they all would have had their arms around and had their thumbs up taking pictures two days ago, now, steve bannon is talking about treason, what is the impact on well, not just this also the news that it was papadopoulos loose lips that started the fbi investigation and not what jim jordan and others were claiming before . What does all of this news do to their pathetic attempt to attack the men and women of the fbi and whats been the white house response . Well, joe, i think that thats clearly what the thing that is most animating, the president and the white house, whether its from an emotional or practical investigation hanging over the president of the United States, now all of a sudden unof his top advisers has given it more credibility. So, of course, late last night, a lawyer for President Trump and his campaign sent a cease and desist letter to former white house strategist steve bannon. The letter accused bannon of briefing his employment with the campaign about trump and his family to Michael Wolff, quote making disparaging and in some cases outright disparaging statements to wolff and the Trump Campaign. They say his actions quote give rise to numerous legal claims including defamation by libel and slander and breach of his written confidentiality and fawndisparagement agreement with our clients. Liam action is imminent t. Trump campaign threatened legal action without following through on multiple occasions preechlt according to against the New York Times and against women accusing then candidate trump of sexual misconduct. Bannon so far has not responded to those developments overnight. But, of course, earlier in the day the president responded in a ballisticering statement about steve bannon. He says, quote, steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Now that he is on his own, steve is learning that winning isnt as easy as i make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet steve had everything to do with the loss of a senate seat in alabama. Steve doesnt represent my base. Hes only in it for himself. Steve pre tends to be at war with the media, yet, he spent his time at the white house leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in oneonone meeting with me and only pre tends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books him like me, many republicans love the United States of america and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down. Joe, that, when i read that statement yesterday, i have never seen anything like it. No, never seen anything like it. I dont really know where to saturday. Of course, its not if only, if only somebody had warned him about taking steve bannon into the white house. If only, if only someone had warned him about letting Michael Flynn be his National Security adviser, if only ill just stop there. This is a lean i love the most, donald trump attacking steve bannon saying quote hes only in it for himself. Ha ha. Thats Chris Matthews laugh. That is so rich. Hes only in it for himself. And yesterday, apparently, lawyers in washington, d. C. Were able to get their clients to waste a lot of money. Manafort now suing bob mueller. Lots of luck on that, fem larks lots of luck on donald trump suing steve bannon. You can talk about that or whats your bigger take away on all the news that came flooding out yesterday . Well, gentleman, thinking of that scene in the godfather where fredo is out fishing and somebody cuts his neck from behind. So when i read that statement from the president , thats the first thing i thought of. I have never seen anything if president ial politics that is remotely like that anywhere. Its astonishing. This is a president and wolffs telling who is surrounded by people who hate him and hate each other and dont respect him. It is hard to imagine the first six years or a year in the white house, with that much disdain for a guy in the oval office. It is impossible for a presidency to function in those positions. We are seeing this presidency does not function in an orderly way. Its very good news for bob mueller, by the way. And if he wants to kind of paee his people apart, boy, he has a lot to work with. He has a lot to work with. You are talking about the white house and again for those of us reporting on the white house, none of this is shock. We may be stunned by how harsh steve bannon went after the president and all of his people t. Actual news is not that hard. But one of the more jarring memos that came out was from gary coo ohn. Casey, tell us exactly about that memo and what he said. Sure. Michael wolffs book alleges that senior staffers at the white house have low opinions of the president s intelligence. There are many creative words. Quote, trump didnt read. He didnt really even skimp. If it was print, it may not exist. Some believe for all practical purposes, he was no more than semi lit ralt. For Steve Mnuchin and reince priebus, he was an idiot, for gary cohn, he was dumb as bloompg blank. Wolff also writes this, in april, an email originally copied to more than a dozen people went into far wider cirque lakes when it was forwarded and reforwarded. Purporting to represent the views of gary cohn and quite sui singly summarizing the white house. Quote a