Against was mike warner who worked with pompeo quite a bit in his Senate Intelligence committee. Warner coming out and saying i cant vote for him but i wish him the best. Im watching the senate floor on a monitor here and im not sure who theyre still waiting for. The vote is i was just told the vote is over. Youre think theyre still waiting for one more vote . Yes, its possible. Theres no other reason why they would keep this open. Its possible somebody was still at lunch or had to run off with something else. They have to keep these open as long as necessary. The senates pretty collegial about this to make sure anybody who wants to vote does get the chance to do so. That gives you the road map for how the rest of this is going to go. Mike pompeo will be confirmed as the next secretary of state. Now its just a question of when over the next few minutes. It look the as though there was this fight within the Senate ForeignRelations Committee and now you have, as you said, a pretty comfortable margin. Can you say overall what turned it or is every individual reason every person has an individual reason of their own . Yes, i think you see a couple of Different Things at play. The rand paul switch was a big deal. When President Trump convinced rand paul to vote in favor of pompeo and he had previously been planning to vote against. It took this idea that pompeo might fail in the Foreign Relations committee off the table. I think that was a big shift. Probably locked any republicans who had their doubts in place and it might have made it easier for some democrats who are in tough reelection fights who want to be able to show they can work with the president open some things. Made it a little bit easier for them to do so. And i think thats potentially why you see so many of these red state democrats having to run for reelection this november casting votes in favor of pompeo. Now they can go home and say, look, we felt this guy was satisfied, were able to work with the president when we think its in our states best interest. Its a relatively easy kind of olive branch vote for some of these red state democrats. Especially when they know its a foregone conclusion pompeo will be confirmed anyway. Garrett haake, thank you. Mike pompeo becoming the 70th u. S. Secretary of state. In the meantime, we want to get to that stunning president ial interview that might be construed as donald trump just letting off steam, but instead, with stunning swiftness, its having a very realworld impact. Just within the last hour, Justice Department prosecutors used President Trumps own words to undercut a key claim made by his longtime attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen has been the subject of a federal investigation ever since fbi agents raided his home and office earlier this month. For weeks now, cohen has been jockeying with prosecutors over just how much of those seized materials prosecutors can review. His lawyers argue most of that material is protected by Attorney Client privilege. But that privilege apparently does not stand if cohen had only a limited role as trumps attorney. This doesnt have to do with me. Michael is a businessman. Hes got a business. He also practices law, i would say probably the big thing is his business. I have nothing to do with his business. Mr. President , how much of your legal work was handled by Michael Cohen . As a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny, tiny little fraction. But my goal would represent me and represent me on some things. He represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal. He represented me. And, you know, from what ive seen, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no Campaign Funds then why is he pleading the fifth . Because hes got other things. Hes got businesses. From what i understand, theyre looking at his businesses. So weve got the president seeming to minimize his attorneys role as a lawyer. And acknowledging for the first time that cohen represented him concerning Stormy Daniels. But thats a bit different than these comments from the president just a few weeks ago on air force one. Mr. President did you know about the 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels . No. Why would Michael Cohen say this . You have to ask Michael Cohen. He is my attorney. Youll have to ask michael. The president s admission today immediately prompted a response from Stormy Daniels lawyer. Ill tell you, huge, hugely damaging admission by the president because according to what he said on air force one a few weeks ago, he didnt know anything about the agreement. Michael cohen went off and did this on a lark and mr. Trump knew nothing about it. Danny cevellas, msnbc legal analyst, joins us now. We want to start at the federal courthouse with news on the judge overseeing cohens trial there. What can you tell us . The judge, kim bah wood, hav decided the massive amount of documents that cohen and trump say were seized by the federal government in the Southern District of new york here will be reviewed by a special master, a former federal judge herself, to determine what documents are Attorney Client privilege and what documents are not. This, by any accounts, is a victory for the cohen and trump team because the default position is for the government to allow a filter team of prosecutors to review the documents for privilege. Cohen and trump had asked for themselves to review the documents which was always a long shot. Judge wood has essentially split the difference and landed in the middle appointing a special independent special master to review these privilege documents. The downside is that this may take significantly longer than if the government had been permitted to use their own filter team. So are we talking weeks, months potentially here . Its hard to say. That depends entirely on the number of documents seized and the number of documents that cohen and trump will argue that are privileged and should be, should remain privileged. All right, let me go to now what we just heard from Michael Avenatti. He said the president s admission is hugely damaging. Seth, do you see it that way or is this just the president letting off steam . Hes somebody known for inconsistencies anyway. No, i think its a big problem for the president. Hes stepped on another land mine right in the context of ongoing litigation. His lawyers and he have taken the position in the last week or two these documents that were seized and were subject to the Attorney Client privilege and should not be viewed by the government. Now hes gone on record saying Michael Cohen did very little work for him in the legal context. They will be hammering that point at every turn with the special master and ultimately with judge wood to say look, hes not even acting as an attorney. Whether its 20 documents or 10,000 documents, this is a Pretty Simple process because the president himself, who is the client and who controls the Attorney Client privilege, telling us he didnt use cohen very much as his lawyer. I guess theres different ways you can interpret this. Thats what lawyers often are paid to do. When the president said he does a tiny, tiny little fraction of, you know, my Legal Business, does that necessarily mean its a tiny fraction of Michael Avenattis im sorry, of cohens Legal Business . It could be, in fact, couldnt be, that he actually that takes up a lot of his time. Wheres the line here . Right. There are two major points to be taken from the president s comments. One is that he says a tiny tiny amount of legal work was done, of his legal work was done by Michael Cohen. But the other thing that is significant is that he says Michael Cohen is, and im paraphrasing, primarily a business man. The Attorney Client privilege only attaches to legal advice. Business advice. Just general chitchat does not create an Attorney Client privilege. So those two components are very significant. You can see the circle, the university of documents claimed by cohen and trump be to be privileged to get smaller when it relates to Business Advice and smaller again as trump says only a tiny amount of his Legal Business was done by cohen. Seth, you also heard the president there justifying Michael Cohens use of the fifth amendment. That doesnt jive with what weve heard from him in the past. I just want to remind folks. So he pleaded the fifth amendment. What are we going to do with this guy . What happened . He pleaded the fifth, right . He pleaded the fifth. Where is he . Fifth amendment, fifth amendment, fifth amendment. Horrible, horrible. Pleading the fifth amendment in front of congress. You saw that today, yesterday. Fifth amendment. When you have your staff taking the fifth amendment, taking the fifth so theyre not prosecuted. Taking the fifth amendment. How about that . You see the mob takes the fifth. If youre innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment . You can legitimately ask that question. On the other hand, it is his right to do this. Whats the impact of this . I think theres a huge impact but not for traditional reasons. A jury would never hear that a criminal defendant pled the fifth. Of course that is not a normal criminal case in a jury that would be sitting in manhattan. Is going to know that he pled the fifth, making it that much more likely that they would find him guilty. So right now mr. Cohen, his lawyers are trying to decide what to do. Do they go through the litigation against the Southern District of new york if theres an indictment . Or do they cooperate with the government . If it makes it more likely a jurys going to convict, it pushes him further away from mr. Trump and closer to the prosecutors in the sourp district of new york who which of course can share information with bob muler if mr. Cohen knows stuff relating to the russia investigation and maybe thats why were starting to see mr. Trump, the president , distancing himself a bit from mr. Cohen. Let me ask you this quickly, seth, ill start with you, just based on what weve seen over the last less than 24 hours, is the president s jeopardy higher or about the same . I think its getting higher for the reasons i just stated. Anything that drive ms. Cohen closer to cooperate could be devastating for the president. As weve been hearing, he worked as mr. Trumps fixer. Theyve had a close relationship for ten years. We can only guess to what mr. Cohen knows, whether its obviously related to the Stormy Daniels matter or, even more importantly, to the russia investigation. These events call mr. Cohen to be closer to cooperating, that is something that will be troubling to trump. Danny, you agree . I do. The factor here is whos going to offer Michael Cohen the best deal in a deal is ever offered . On the one hand, donald trump could arguably pardon him, but on the other hand, the government in theory could offer a nonprosecution agreement. Which is not preferred by the u. S. Attorneys policy but its something that would be even better than a pardon. So Michael Cohen is really feeling the pressure. Irrespective of the fact they definitely could be considered to have won today in court. Danny cevellos, seth waxman, thank you. We appreciate their expertise. On any other day, the big news would be the withdrawal of the president s nominee to head the va or the grilling of epa administrator scott pruitt on capitol hill. For a laundry list of alleged ethical lapses, accusations he called half truths and twisted. But all of that has been eclipsed by the stunning president ial interview thats been described as a rant, a meltdown, or as hally jackson put it on twitter, the president seems to have a lot he wants to get off his chest. It covered a wide range of topics starting with the defense of his va secretary nominee. These are all false accusations. These are false. Theyre trying to destroy a man. By the way, i did say welcome to washington, welcome to the swamp. Tommy is a leaker and hes a liar. Not only on this stuff. Hes been leaking for years. He is guilty of crimes. And if we had a Justice Department that was doing their job its your Justice Department im very disappointed in my Justice Department. You look at the corruption at the top of the fbi, its a disgrace. And our Justice Department, which i try and stay away from but at some point i wont. Our Justice Department should be looking at that kind of stuff, not the nonsense of collusion with russia. Michael represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal. He represented me and, you know, from what i see, he did absolutely nothing wrong. I would give myself an aplus. Nobody has done what ive been able to do and i did it despite the fact that i have a phony cloud over my head that doesnt exist. Join meg now, michael singleton, former deputy of staff. Dana milbank is a Washington Post political columnist. Surmichael, you could hear, i dont know if it was angle, frustration, but definitely you could hear something in the president during that interview that caused him to raise his voice repeatedly. Whats going on here . Look, i think theres been a dark cloud over this white house for quite some time. If you listen to that interview, the president sounded frustrated, hes flustered, hes ann annoyed, agitated by this process. That comes with being in politics, right . Traditionally, political leaders would not state these grievances publicly. Thats whats so different about donald trump and what makes this matter even worse is that by stating these grievances publicly, he is hurting himself, particularly with the Michael Cohen issue, as your two previous legal analysts stated. Politically speaking, i think this gives democrats even more leaverage as we head to novembe. I think a lot of republicans, even those who do support the president are not going to be eager to come out in november as they were last in 2016. Remember, hes not on the ballot in november. You think about all those things coupled together, i dont think this is good for the Republican Party and i dont think this is good for the white house. You just heard what the president said. He rates himself in a plus. In all of these things, hes being mistreated. The people around him are being mistreated. He did that obviously on fox friends and hes already, you know, preaching to the choir. Having said that, you already have a filing in court within an hour related to what he has to say. What do you make of what you heard today . You know, it wasnt so much as it was a 30minute long orl tweet in which he vents. When he raises his voice, thats when hes in all caps. Where theres no character limit. He was in all caps for a lot of it, use ago ling a lot of exclamation points there. Here, he was actually doing it audibly. I think this is the dang are that the president has. Now you have Rudy Giuliani trying to negotiate with mueller about an interview the president will give. Theyre terrified about this for just this reason. You never know what is going to come out of the president s mouth. Let me ask you about one thing, he continued to rail against the Justice Department. Weve heard him do that before, dana, but he claims he stayed away from the Justice Department but hinted about possibly changing his mind and getting involved. What do you take away from that . Thats another profoundly unhelpful thing. In this relatively short span, he worsened his situation in the Stormy Daniels lawsuit. He worsened his situation visavis the mueller investigation. Should again send schiffhivers t shockwaves to capitol hill. You never know what hes going to actually say. If he sits down with mueller, who knows what admission hed make without even realizing hes making it officially. You think, suhmichael, this is another instance of hes shrugging it off, even if hes watching cable television, even though he denies hes watching it, he often comments very specifically on things that happened on cable television. It goes back to the campaign, he could stand on fifth avenue, shoot somebody down and get away with it. Do you think theres no filter because he thinks there are never any consequences . Well, right, but i think the president is about to get a lesson 101 in politics. There will be consequences and those consequences will be felt in november. Even real clear politics, which is sort of puts all the polling data together to get an average, democrats are ahead of us. I dont foresee that changing. You think its difficult now, chris, for the president to even work with republicans who control both the house and the senate . Just imagine how difficult its going to be if democrats control the house. And the democrats, they do not have any type of mandate from their voters to work with this president. So i think its going to be very, very difficult for donald trump to govern effectively under the type of behavior hes displayed thus far. Once again, this is not in his interest. Its not in the interest of the Republican Party