Alex Witt hosts coverage of national and international news, including breaking stories. When a meeting of that nature, would it constitute a violation of the law . You have to look at what laws, rules, Regulation Statutes are violated here. When did you learn that the Denial Wasnt True . Well, let me tell you two things on that. I was on the case a couple of weeks, and there was a lot of Information Gathering and as Rudy Giuliani said, i had Bad Information at that point. In a situation like this, you have over time, facts develop. Thats what investigations do. Lets start with nbcs white house correspondent, Kelly Odonnell who was covering the president in new jersey first. Before we g to to to the rest o great panel this sunday. What are you hearing right now . The president is certainly going after the Special Counsel today, isnt he . Reporter well, good to be with you, richard, and the president is really hitting a number of his major frequent targets, the Special Counsel, the media and doing some venting
it. Our campaign was talking to people in North Carolina and michigan. Not in moscow. Reporter notable last night when the president was in ohio, he talked about meddling, saying, we have got to stop meddling in the election. He included russia. Also said china, Even North Korea have been participating in that. So a bit of a change there with the president before one of his own Supporter Rally crowds to talk about that, but right back to the tweets alleging that somehow the Mueller Investigation is unfair and mishandled and that the media is somehow not telling the truth as the president sees it. A lot of anger and frustration coming through today. Richard . All right, kelly. Thank you so much. Kelly odonnell, our white house correspondent, running down a lot of what has happened so far this morning. The president s tweet appears to have been a response to this article in the Washington Post reporting that the president is at a precarious moment in his
all last week of the trial of Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman. He took issue with the coverage, he is angered by it, and he is upset that manafort, and the charges that he is facing in the courthouse in virginia this past week have to do with his previous business work. Not with the Trump Campaign specifically, so the president is very rattled and bothered by that, and all of this is sort of conspireing in his mind to leave him agitated, nervous, anxious, frustrated, fearful and were seeing this come out publicly in these tweets and these things he is making at his political rallies at the media. Phillip, as you look at this increased stress for the president , he is brooding and how is he expressing that brooding privately as you were saying in your headline here, but roaring publicly . Well, he is privately having conversations with associates as he always does. He is one who works the phones. He talks to people all day long. He like that is, and he is expressing a lot of anxiety and
worry according to the people he has been talking to, who have told us at the Washington Post about those conversations. He is concerned, but the way it manifests itself publicly is in more of a roar. Its just these attack lines at the media, these Tweet Attacks at robert mueller. We measured the number of times he tweeted the word witch hunt and its increased dramatically and thats because he is adopting a much more aggressive stance publicly against the Special Counsel. He has really devised a strategy to attack, to defeat, to tear down this Russia Investigation, in part, because Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney has assured him privately he Doesnt Think Mueller has anything. And one of the advisers we talked to, rudy has been telling trump that the other guy is bluffing with a pair of twos, and trump feels like he doesnt have much to lose, and he is out there attacking this investigation to try to discredit mueller as best he can. As you say in the article,
you have 14 Administration Officials at least that you have spoken with. And other advisers. Yes, included in this. Phillip, the dynamic that might be part of this Difficulty Forum would be family, and you mentioned that early because its don junior, and you add in his wife, melania who yesterday openly did say through a spokesperson that she necessarily in energy agreed with the president and his interface shall we say with lebron james. You have ivanka trump rekrntly describing how one of the low points for her was a separation of families on the southern border. So the Family Dynamic which he has always at least reportedly held so special, how important is this in terms of the intensity that he is feeling right now, and therefore the brooding . Its always important. The Family Dynamic always matters to the president. I dont know specifically, you know, whether the brooding over the russia stuff has anything to do with what ivanka and melania
trump have been saying publicly in the last few days, but thats something trump surely has noticed. It generates headlines and its not the kind of thing thats going to make him comfortable, but its important to point out that the first lady has done this before through her spokeswoman. Right. She has her own opinions and when she feels differently than her husband, she lets that be known. Phillip rucker, always appreciate you being here, and a great reporting as you know. Thank you. Appreciate you giving us all the detail behind it. Thank you. Lets bring in our legal analyst, and National Security analyst. The one tweet of the reaction to Phillip Ruckers article it appears to be, is the i guess, if you look in the time line, the one where he says and he is alluding to the meeting of his son, and ill read from this tweet here. It says, fake news reporting a complete fabrication that im concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, donald, had in
trump tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal done all the time in politics, and it went nowhere. I did not know about it. All right. So lots of points there. Danny, is he admitting here to something that is conspireing, collusion . The statement is very concerning. I dont know if we can put it back up, but there are two significant sentences in that statement. The first is, this is a meeting to get information on an opponent. Yes, that can be legal, but not when you are doing it with a foreign power under federal Election Campaign law. The last sentence is very significant. I did not know about it. Why make that statement unless youre aware that the previous statement has some inculpatory effect . Unless it incriminates you, why make that statement . And the other statement is what time are you talking about . Did you not know about it that day and you found out about it the next day . Or did you not know about it until yesterday . Those statements will be parsed out for what they admit and then what they still leave open, but either way, they do contradict what trump jr. Has said in the past in testimony, and that could be very problematic, and it could drive a wedge between trump sr. And trump jr. As potential i dont want to say suspects, but potential doers. Frank, your thought here. This has been for those who have been critical of this administration, that word of collusion. The other, c word, conspire. How would you build on what danny said there . Im beginning to think the president s attorney should just have a Popup Veranda Warning on the twitter account. The miranda warning, anything
you say can be held against you. He has conceded that he knew at some time at some time in chronology, he knew this meeting was not about adoption as he publicly had stated. As he publicly told us, and so he knows different now. When did that happen . What i find more interesting is he has chosen to say, to protect himself. I didnt know about this, but my son did, and the others who attended the meeting. They knew what it was, and then of course, everyone does it. Well, no. Everyone does not do it. It is a violation of federal election the campaign act if indeed you are soliciting, accepting or receiving and there are the conspiracy aspects that can be brought into this. This is trouble. His attorneys need to say, you need to stop as im sure has happened numerous times before. You might also ask, he is saying i did not know about it, and now he is saying through this statement he does know about it. Its not only the timing, but how did you find out about it,
and who told him . Previously it has been that don junior said he does not recall discussing this issue with the president. Again, that last sentence quietly arguably admits more than the previous sentence that i did not know about it. There is going to be a temporal inquiry, a time inquiry. When did you learn about it, and adding that you did not know about it, are you admitting that youre at minimum aware that it was a wrong thing to do . Whether you are aware of whether or not it was a violation of federal election law or trump jr. Was aware it was a violation of federal election law, youre admitting that trump jr. Was aware of it. He can certainly act as a answer as to what he perceived his son knowing and everyone else in the meeting knowing at the time, and critical in the next few days will be whether or not well get clarification. When did you learn about the
meeting if you didnt know anything about it . As we know, there were many in this meeting. It wasnt only don junior. Just some of the individuals joining attendance for the trump tower that we know about at the moment. These eight individuals and bob mueller now looking at this tweet. What does he do with it . Its significant. It has legal significance, and whether or not mueller ever sits down with trump, i think the significance of this tweet is kw squarely on don junior right now because we have not seen don junior interviewed yet by mueller, and we were wondering why that is. Is mueller just saving an indictment up and is that whats coming up . Has there been word given to the white house . Are they increasingly concerned . Is that whats generating this twitter traffic . Is it all about don junior . Is he facing a possible indictment . Something is ratcheting up the
president s anxiety, and particularly about don junior, and i think whatever that is is going to play out in the next week or so. Yeah. One has to ask is this equivalent to the lester holt firing of james comey . Im no legal expert, but some will ask that im sure in the coming days as we go forward. Danny and frank, thank you both. Well talk again soon on this topic. Appreciate it. How the president s bound the react to the medias coverage of the tower meeting. Well have that. S a place on earth uhp. I didnt believe it. Again. Ooh, baby, do you know what thats worth . I want to believe it. [ claps hands ] ooh im not hearing the confidence. Okay, hold the name your price tool. Power of options based on your budget and well make heaven a place on earth yeah oh, my angels ooh, heaven is a place on earth [ sobs quietly ]
allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. If youd rather be home, ask your doctor about neulasta onpro. Pay no more than 25 per dose with copay card. The president today adamantly denying a report by the Washington Post he is anxious about his son, donald trump jr. Getting into legal troubles because of that 2016 Trump Tower Meeting. Joining me now, the reporter, and our political reporter for nbc news. Ally, we have been watching the report this morning. It starts with a rally in ohio. Absolutely fevered up. They are bringing in the troops, talking to his base. We have seen an equal, if i can say this, an equal amount of energy, but now coming out against the press, and also maybe not knowing it. Maybe knowing it, that he has potent potentially admitted knowing something about that meeting
with foreign representatives. Is this what you are hearing and any response from the white house . Reporter richard, no. There is nothing here from the white house, but the idea of the shifting goal post that the president and his legal team have been introducing to this debate is notable and its something that i think when you look at this, they say, collusion is not a crime, and meeting with political opponents is not a crime. They are trying to redo the rules of the debate. It has no impact necessarily on the legal battle although it does give mueller more fuel to the fire when he is looking at trumps tweets. But in the court of Public Opinion when the president goes out there and maligns the media who are clearly moving this story forward, you had phil rucker on before with the great piece talking about how the president is reacting behind the scenes and then mounting his public reaction to it in a very strong and forceful way traying trying to say, look. The media cant be trusted. I was in tampa earlier this week
and i asked several people that i talked to there, hey. Do you think the media are the enemy of the people . To a t, they all told me yes. I asked why, and they said, they have an agenda and its different from mine. The idea that facts are shifting and this group of people are willing to look at whatever the president says, and say, i give him the benefit of the doubt and the media are probably lying, fact facts be damned, thats notable when you try to shift the goal post on russia, collusion, and whatever mueller is investigating. The president in that very statement that we had on the screen there said, you know, the meeting was legal. That its just normal in the world of politics, but the difference is in this case is that there is another detail, and that is you are talking about a representative of a foreign power. Reporter yeah. Absolutely. I mean i think, you know, we have seen the narrative about this meeting shift over the last
year, you know, first it was about adoptions. Then, you know, it was definitely about adoptions, but donald trump didnt author the statement saying that, and then yes he did, and then he said, it Wasnt About Adoptions and then, you know, theyre just feeding us these crumbs and saying no, its something different. It leaves us all to wonder, the next thing is i didnt know about it, and were left to wonder, you know, youre a micromanager. Your chairman campaign chairman, soninlaw and son were in the room. Did you not know about it . Thats the next big question, and when someone comes out and says, i didnt know about it you wonder doth he protest too much . The question has been whether it is a defense here, the president is coming after, again, false news, calling it more than those who may have opinions. Those who need to correct themselves, but going in the space of using very, very strong
wordings, such as this, you know, enemy of the people. And today he took it even further on twitter saying that he could media could cause war, and are very dangerous and sick. So ali, you have been out there, and you have seen this. You have seen what the crowds have done in response to you sitting there and reporting. Is the president trying to redirect here as he looks at the heat and this brooding that Phillip Rucker has coauthored in his piece . Reporter again, i think it all goes back to the court of Public Opinion because i have been on the Campaign Trail, and then obviously on the Campaign Trail with trump as president , and over the course of the past three years, the war against the media is not new. He uses it whenever he thinks he has been backed into a corner and and he says the messenger is not to the to be trusted. It makes sense for him to want to malign the media if he is in deep legal trouble, or his son
is. Of course, Paul Manafort is on trial, and this is the president s attempt to redirect, and the white house and the folks around the president is always said this is his direct line to the American People. Right. Reporter its his direct line the get his opinion out there unfiltered and they take it for whatever he says. When you go to these rallies, they are more than willing to believe whatever the president is saying because he is already invested in them, and put into them this sense that whatever the media is telling them, and they believe that. I asked, do you trust any news media . They said, well, fox, but sean hannity, and the guys during the day are losing me a little bit. Fact checking is viewed badly. In news specifically, his aides are saying at least on this sunday, kellyanne conway, and john bolton, youre missing a detail. Take a listen. I think the president s entire point is this. That we do have a news media that includes some reporters. It really refers to those who arent always telling the truth, and who are giving emotion over information. I think the issue of press bias has been around for a long, long time. There is press bias. People, you know, people get stories wrong, and people are called out for it, and we should be called out if we make a mistake. This is taking it to a completely different level. Thats the president s view based on the attacks that the media made on him. There have been other administrations that have been highly critical of the press as well. You can go back, i remember John Kennel Kennedy cutting off the white house scription it was the harold tribune. But close. I was much younger then. What can i say . This adversary relationship is typical. Is it typical . Reporter no. Certainly not. I think what would be t