That George Papadopoulos was a low level coffee brew. That keeps getting stronger by the day and voters saying that Robert Mueller has to be able to finish his investigation, a vast majority of them say. This comes as hundreds of thousands of americans mobilize for gun safety reform. Morning joe was there and well show you some of those images straight ahead. Good morning, its monday, march 26th. With us we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, National Affairs analyst for nbc and msnbc, john heilemann. Former aide to the george w. Bush white house and state departments elise jordan, columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, david ignatius, nbc National News reporter heidi presides heidi p Jonathan Turley. Willie is on vacation and mika has a well deserved day off. Lets begin with the 60 minutes interview with Stormy Daniels. The porn star divulged details of her affair with donald trump allegedly and agreed to tell her story to a sister publication of in touch and later signed a statement denying it but heres how she explained it last night. So you signed and released a statement that said im not denying this affair because i was paid in hush money. Im denying it because it never happened . Thats a lie. Yes. If it was untruthful, why did you sign it . Because they made it sound like i had no choice. Ho one was putting a gun to your head. Not physical violence, no. You thought that there would be some sort of legal repercussion if you didnt sign split the exact sentence used was they can make your life hell in many different way. They being . Im not exactly sure who they were. I believe it to be Michael Cohen. Was it hush money to stay silent. Yes. The story was coming out again. I was concerned for my family and their safety. I think some people watching this are going to doubt that you entered that this negotiation because you feared for your safety. Theyre going to think that you saw an opportunity. I think the fact that i didnt even negotiate. I just quickly said yes to this very, you know, strict contract and what most people will agree with me extremely low number is all the proof i need. You feel like if you had wanted to go public you could have gotten paid a lot of money to go public. Without a doubt. I know for a fact. I believe without a shadow of a doubt in my heart and some people argue that i dont have one of those but, whatever, that i was doing the right thing. I turned down a large payday multiple times because, one, i didnt want to kiss and tell and be labeled all the things that im being labeled now. I didnt want to take away from the legitimate and legal id like to point out career that ive worked very hard to establish and most importantly, i did not want my family and my child exposed to all the things that shes being exposed to right now because everything that i was afraid of coming out has come out anyway and guess what, i dont are a millihave a dollars. So, john, a lot of questions actually that were raised for me by that interview. First of all, you know, he keeps waving around the cd. We keep hearing about pictures. What exactly are they waiting for if this is about truth, justice and the american way instead of just a really big fat paycheck for her from some publication . Also, the threat. Its not like it would have been really difficult to trace down who the threat was from, figure out who made the phone calls and yet you have those two things still hanging out there. And it seemed to me a lot more inconsistencies and a lot more questions about her motives. Yes, she was actually far more compelling than i expected, but, again, sometimes the story didnt line up and just to be really honest, there were a lot of questions that should have been asked. There were a lot of followups about the threat, a lot of followups about the pictures that for some reason Anderson Cooper decided not to follow up on. What was your takeaway. I think probably you and i although we havent discussed it were probably thinking a lot of the same things. Start with this, there is a serious charge the underlying charge here, the notion that in the waning days of the 2016 president ial campaign President Trump through Michael Cohen tried to silence this woman at a time of great political vulnerability, a story that was potentially damaging to him politically, this its a serious charge and nothing about last nights interview in any way diminished the seriousness of what is being put on the table here and its consequence and of historic importance. Number two, i think she came across as a highly credible person on television and so she did her case some good in that sense. I do think that the level of expectation that was raised about what this interview would provide, the kinds of things youre referring to, the reference that he made on this program to the threat which she detailed to some extent in a limited way in the interview but there were a lot of followup questions you want to ask about that. There has been a lot of suggestions about who might have been the person who threatened her. Why was she not asked in more detail about who that person was. Why was she not shown photographs of people that might have been the person who threatened her . There were a there was a lot of expectation raised as you said with the photograph of the dvd the other day. Right. A lot of expectation got raised and most of the expectations that i think people had coming into the interview that they thought they were going the story was going to be advanced in some dramatic material way from what we knew before the interview, i think the interview in that sense fell short and, again, as you said, left a lot of questions that you want to have answered either by her lawyer or by her in other interview forums hopefully relatively soon because i think theres a lot of people with questions still. Again, youre right. I mean, the lawyer was on our show a couple of weeks ago. He teased forward and said you have to watch 60 minutes to find out about the assault, to find out about the pictures. To yeah, the threat of the assault. We found out neither and it just seems like now its moving down the road. We cant tell you i mean, it seems to me that Anderson Cooper could have had two or three pictures he could have flashed number front of her face and said was this the person would threatened . You i think all of us around this table and just about everybody in trumps orbit or in washington, d. C. Could come up with a lineup of three, four or five people that anderson should have shown her if you have a threat that is out there like that. But that didnt happen. Jonathan turley, it seemed to me that of everything that happened last night, you know, the question of whether she was a credible witness, what pictures might be coming forward . What this, what that . When did they happen . What did they say . Where was he perched on the bed. All very salacious, all very irrelevant. At the end of the day you have 130,000 payment made to silence somebody. 10, 11, 12 days before a United States president ial campaign. And it looks like as Trevor Potter said last night, looks like you could have a real problem in terms of Campaign Finance violation. I certainly know if i had done that when i was in condition, if anybody i had known when i was in congress did that where you had somebody paying 130,000 and wasnt reported on your fec filing you would be going to court in short order. What does it all mean. I think there are a couple of things that happened. One is that the stage is set now for a colossal fight in court. Shes obviously released many of the details that the n nondisclosure agreement was designed to withhold from the public. Shes also made official what was eluded to in the past, that she was in her view threatened by this individual in the parking lot. And so now we have to watch for the most obvious steps. I think Michael Cohen is likely to push this out of federal court back into arbitration. I think Stormy Daniels will resist that but in terms of the Campaign Finance issue thats what weve been talking about for a couple of weeks because i think that is a real danger. Ive said from the beginning that this does look like an in kind contribution along the lines of what john edwards was charged with. Now, do you agree, john than, that this actually may be even more compelling than the john edwards case because this happened not a year, year and a half before an election, this happened 10, 11 days before an election and it was obviously hush money and you had somebody, what, taking out a second mortgage or a loan on their home paying it off and then complaining that donald trump never paid it back. Even if trump did pay it back, its not reported before the election. Doesnt that give bob mueller an awful lot of leverage to talk to cohen and say, hey, buddy, ive got you here already. If you would like to give you the manafort treatment and dig in the last 20 years of your work, i can do or you can cooperate with me now. I do think that its stronger because of the timing but i should say that i was critical of the john edwards charge. I thought it was a fairly weak case, ultimately it did not lead to his conviction. But a case cant be made. Whats notable the four categories given to the president s counsel for the sitdown with mueller does not include this issue or a number of other issues. In many ways thats good news for the president because this is a mess. Michael cohen made this much, much worse for his client. It took someone like Michael Cohen to actually make Stormy Daniels look virtuous. It is a serious problem that the president is heading into and hes going to have to find a way to thread this needle. Ainnd Michael Cohen now has lawyer himself and sent a letter to the lawyer for Stormy Daniels and denying it writing, you and your clients false statements about mr. Cohen accuse him of criminal conduct and constitution statute among other claims libel per se and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It would also appear that your statements of alleged criminal conduct are being made to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute which is also improper. The letter continues, i hereby demand you and your client cease and desist from making any further false and defamatory statements about high client, that you immediately retract and apologize to mr. Cohen through the National Media for your statements on 60 minutes and make clear that you have no facts or evidence whatsoever to support your allegations that my client had anything to do whatsoever with this alleged thug. Stormy daniels whose real name is Stephanie Clifford is embroiled in a legal battle over a 130,000 disaster nondiclosure agreement agreemeshe signed daye the election. We heard this weekend vanity fair reported it, we heard it elsewhere, emily fox reported that now mueller is starting to ask questions about payoffs to other women. Are we starting to move down a new trail in this investigation . Oh, i think weve been moving down that trail for quite some time. We harken back to what is said, we dont know exactly what mueller is doing. We dont even were not even coming close to knowing what he has but at least with regard to that, i mean the thing that struck me about the payments, the women, Stormy Daniels appearance last night is that after it was over, i was thinking to myself heres a woman, she admits to spanking the president. The United States, about to become president , having sex with the man who is about to become president and its like change the channel and people are saying, yeah, no surprise. The most important part that she was threatened with physical violence if she told her story and has been continuously bullied and intimidated by this is just the one trick pony of Michael CohenDonald Trumps lawyer. Thats all they know how to do is try to tell people theyll ruin their lives and they should be silenced. The key date for the payment. Exactly. The key date for the payment is everything. This is i dont understand how you can have six figures flowing changing hands and it not be a Campaign Finance violation given some of the lesser charges that so many people have gotten in trouble on in the past. Yeah, heidi, so many of these things that happened with donald trump come at voters so quickly. But when you have the 60 minutes interview like that, suddenly it becomes water cooler talk. Suddenly you have people talking about it around the office, and suddenly people start bringing it up to members of congress. Is there any reason to believe maybe this cuts through the noise and some republican, some evangelical leaders actually start to apply some of the same standards they applied to bill clinton 20 years ago . Yes and no. Yes, i believe that this will now be embedded in our water cooler culture, this is an interview that i imagine well see the ratings were pretty high for this and there was obvious very embarrassing details in here, joe, and quite frankly real similarities between the stories that Stormy Daniels told and that Karen Mcdougal told, dinner in the hotel suite. Do you remind me of my daughter. Statements that he and melania had separate bedrooms and so that lends credibility but at the end of the day, like you said at the top, expectations were raised so high, particularly with a lawyer tweeting that picture of the cdrom. We were expecting to see some kind of evidence. I think that the salacious details mean we will be talking about this for a long time along with the threats, she suggested that possibly there are witnesses that she put her conversations with donald trump on speakerphone so there may be other people out there who can verify it the. Like you said potentially another interviewer will follow up and say, hey, is this a picture of the man that you recognize or, you know, provide some detail, some physical description of who that person may be. Donald trumps detail at the time was very well known. Its not hard to establish who those people were. So i think its the beginning of something. The question is whether avenatti and Stormy Daniels have the evidence they raise the expectations for. Jonathan, it is interests as a young lawyer i remember being told never overpromise. Underpromise, overdeliver and the jury will look possley on you. You know, underpromise, overdeliver, the judge will be presently surprised at the end of the hearing. It seems to me that we have an attorney thats done just the option. He overpromised. He sent out a tweet with pictures of a cdrom suggesting some big explosion and told us two weeks ago that she was threateninged with assault and we would find out more on 60 minutes when, in fact, we found out nothing new on 60 minutes and doesnt it just leave a big question mark over your head, we know what bob mueller wants. We now how bob mueller can leverage this to get Michael Cohen to talk. But we still dont really know what Stormy Daniels wants and why she wants it other than a big payday. Well, i mean the question, of course, is all of those issues that werent addressed. You know, Anderson Cooper didnt pursue those questions so we dont know what will come out after this interview and, you know, anderson felt as comfortable as much as introducing debbie does dallas to the audience. A lot wasnt addressed. Can i ask you that, jonathan. I mean we shouldnt hold him to a lawyers standard but she goes some man threatened me and said, boy, that baby sure looks nice, it would be a shame if she loses her mother. And he doesnt go, who was it . Oh, id recognize him. What did he look like. Does he look like this person that works for donald trump . Did he look like this person that works for donald trump . Its not that hard to follow up. You wonder if they had a deal before the interview. A lot of lack of followup including on credibility. Stormy daniels saying i didnt want my kids to find out about this and it sort of left you with, what, you had a career with dozens of porn movies and you were afraid your kid would find out you had a consensual relationship with the president. Those kind of disconnects werent followed up and the fact is Stormy Daniels is not very credible. She signed false statements. That doesnt mean what shes saying is not true. As you know, joe, we deal with people all the time that have less than perfect records. But were really still wondering what is in that safe and also what is their concrete this terms of evidence that we havent really seen yet . What is clear now this ball is in play. That nondiclosure agreement has been blasted into small bits. What we will see in the next few days will be very important. So now lets go to the man that most people in the Washington Community considers the edward r. Murrow of porn stars and president s, david ignatius, i go to you now. Talk about john yeah, exactly. So we have all of this as a lurid backdrop to a chaotic week where the president enraged conservatives with one of the most reckless omnibus spending bills ever. It was this sort of omnybus spending bill that led us to drive Newt Gingrich out of town in 1998. You then have the chaos of tariffs and china saying, okay, you want to get into a tariff war, great, well go into a full lone tariff war. You had the dow and s p fall a great bit on friday and then you had perhaps most worrying for the International Community and a lot of conservative republicans who arent neocons, the appointment of john bolton and, david, as we look at all the chaos thats moving forward, the first question is, whats the National SecurityCouncil