It was just the beginning. Wolff says 100 of the people around the president questioned his intelligence and fitness for office. I will quote steve bannon, hes lost it. Hes lost it. The bombshell book, distracting from another white house bombshell. The New York Times revealing just how far the president went to try to stop Jeff Sessions from recusing himself in the russia probe. No collusion. No obstruction. We begin, do you really need me to tell you with what . With the most talked about book in the country. The author of fire and fury Michael Wolff levels more devastating charges against President Trump in his first interview since the book went public. His claims, theyre jaw dropping. That the president s own staff sees him as a man child and that trumps own family could be distancing themselves from him. Ive got a great team here to break all of it down. I want to start by hearing from the author himself. Michael wolff spoke, as i just mentioned, exclusively to our colleague Savannah Guthrie at the today show just a few minutes ago. Heres that interview. The book is published as of 9 00 this morning. The president s lawyer sent a cease and desist letter threatening legal action against you and the publisher. They sent that yesterday, before they actually had read the book, but actually what i say is where do i send the box of chocolates . You think hes helping you sell books . Absolutely. Not only is he helping me sell books but hes helping me prove the point of the book. I mean, this is extraordinary, that a president of the United States would try to stop the publication of a book. This doesnt happen has not happened from other president s, would not even happen from a ceo of a midsized company. The president obviously as you know tweeted about you last night. He says, i authorized zero access to the white house, actually turned you down many times. Says he never spoke to you for the book. Its full of lies and misrepresentations that dont exist. Did you to the president . What was i doing there if he didnt want me to be there . Well, let me ask you did you talk to the president . Did you interview him for this book . I absolutely spoke to the president. Whether he realized it was an interview or not, i dont know. But it certainly was not off the record. And you spoke to him at the white house, after he was sworn in . I spoke to him after the inauguration, yes. And i had spoken to i mean, i spent about three hours with the president over the course of the campaign and in the white house. So my window into donald trump is pretty significant. But even more to the point, i spent this i spent and this was really sort of the point of the book, i spoke to people who spoke to the president on a daily, sometimes minute by minute basis. This book was really, in a sense, there was one question on my mind when i began this book. What is it like to work with donald trump. How can you work with donald trump. And what is the how do you feel, having worked with donald trump. I want to get to the substance, what youve written in the book. But to clear this up, because the president is saying its full of lies that you didnt have the access you said you had. I think one of the things we have to count on is that donald trump will attack, he will send lawyers letters. This is a 35year history of how he approaches everything. Do you have recordings of some of these interviews and some of these conversations . Well, i work like every journalist works. I have recordings. I have notes. I am certainly, absolutely in every way, comfortable with everything ive reported in this book. Would you release any of those recordings since your credibility is being questioned . My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility than perhaps anyone who has ever walked on earth at this point. Before i leave it, i will say the president the tweet alludes to, quote, your past. I assume referring to a profile about you in 2004 in the new republic. Reporter said of you the scenes in your writing arent recreated so much as created. Springing from wolffs imagination rather than actual knowledge of the facts. Ive written many books. Ive written millions upon millions of words. I dont think there has ever been one correction. So you stand by everything in the book . Nothing made up . Absolutely everything in the book. Lets talk about the book itself. Because one of the overarching themes is that according to your reporting, everyone around the president , senior advisers, family members, every single one of them, questions his intelligence and fitness for office. Let me put a marker in the sand here. 100 of the people around him. Jared kushner, his soninlaw, ivanka trump, question his fitness for office . Every time i and i want to be careful about who i spoke to because the nature of this kind of book is you kind of grant everyone a veil. But, having said that, certainly jared and ivanka in their current situation, which is in a deep legal quagmire, putting everything on the president. Not us, its him. What are some of the ways the president was described to you by those closest to him . I will tell you the one description that everyone gave. Everyone has in common. They all say he is like a child. And what they mean by that, he has a need for immediate gratification. Its all about him. This letter for the cease and the cease and desist letter. I still have sources in the white house. I know everybody was going, we should not be doing this, this is not smart. And he just insists. He just has to be satisfied in the moment. You said these senior people insults his intelligence. What are the kinds of things people would say . They say hes a moromoron, a idiot. Theres a competition to sort of get to the bottom line here of who this man is. Lets remember, this man does not read, does not listen. So hes like a hes like a pin ball. Just shooting off the sides. One of the more disturbing observations you make in the book is that the president s close advisers, people around him, have noticed him repeating stories, expression for expression you say, within a short period of time. In a shortened period. So they all tracked this. It used to be i know people would point out that in the beginning it was like every 25 or 30 minutes, you would get the same three stories repeated. Now its the same three stories in every ten minutes. Whats the suggestion there . Because that goes beyond saying, okay, the president s not an intellectual. What are you arguing there . You say for example he was at maralago and didnt recognize life long friends . I will quote steve bannon, hes lost it. Lets talk about steve bannon. Heres somebody who was on the record with you. Made some pretty bold assertions. As you mentioned. Has disparaged the president. Yet now in the last couple days, hes a great man and nothing can separate us. Whats bannon doing here . I want to make the president has tried to put this, this book is about steve bannon, is let me say very forthrightly, this book is not about steve bannon, this book is about donald trump. For steve bannon, i spoke to steve as i spoke to many people throughout the length of the reporting here. And really saw a transformation. Not only of steve, but of everyone. Steve, in a way, is most vivid or his language is the most vivid. And the transformation was, you know, we thought this presidency was could work. We thought donald trump is an interesting unique character and we might be able to do something here. And they saw him over that time come to the conclusion he cannot do this job. I am out of time. But your former editor at vanity fair said he wasnt surprised you wrote this explosive book, he was surprised they let you in the door at the white house. Are you surprised . You know, no, im a nice guy. I go in and did you flatter your way in . I certainly said what was ever necessary to get the story. Michael wolff, thank you for being here. Wow, wow, wow. We should definitely mention nbc and msnbc have not confirmed all the details in the book. In addition, we have reached out to the white house for a response to wolffs interview and so far no one has been made available. I got to bring my panel in because theyre jumping in their seatings right now. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Let me point this out, its friday, its freezing out, look at the explosive week weve just had in washington. There is nothing you want to do tonight but watch bob costa. Youre so kind. Tim obrien, bloomberg. And christine quinn, vice chair of the new york state democratic party. Im so glad you guys are all here. What a way to start the year. Robert, i want to start with you. Lets go inside the white house. We have to split it up. How the book is being received. I myself just last night was speaking to speak inside the white house who are saying holy cow. This book, spirit of it, maybe not every word, but i spoke to someone who said 90 of this, this thing is true. Now, the president , he certainly has a different view. You take me inside your white house. Stephanie, i was hearing many stories over the past 24 hours from sources close to the president. They say you have to understand the context about how this all came about. President s elected last year. Everyones somewhat shocked about this development. And wolffs there and says im going to try to chronicle the transition. They feel like theyre in a hostile environment. He seems friendly to them. They grant him access during the transition. And he just kind of hangs around. He keeps writing and talking to people. As they get more in a bunker mentality throughout 2017, wolff is still there talking to many people, developing relationships of trust with some of these sources. And then this book project just keeps going. As it sits on the shelf in their mind, they dont realize its a ticking time bomb politically. But thats what happened according to people close to the president. You got to know the context, costa. I really like that. All right, tim, i want to replay a piece of the interview that stuck out to me when Michael Wolff was talking about jared and ivanka. Listen. Certainly jared and ivanka in their current situation, which is a deep legal quagmire, are putting everything on the president. Not us, its him. Now, i mentioned yesterday, i read the book because two nights ago no one knows who fed my children or put them to bed because you cannot put this down. Talk about, yes, we know jared and ivanka are in a legal quagmire. Theyre professional also at distancing themselves. Are they distancing themselves from the president here . I would find it very hard to believe at the end of the day that ivanka trump is going to distance herself from her father. That just does not ring true to me. Im with you there. I think the trumps are clannish. I think theyve always stuck together. I wouldnt be surprised at the end of the day if Jared Kushner tried to distance himself from his fatherinlaw and they both may need to distance themselves from each other because Jared Kushner could be in a lot of trouble. I agree with everything you said about ivanka. We have to remember with jared, when his father went to jail and that was a very salacious case, all of the parts of it. The setup, the prostitute, the blackmail. Against his brotherinlaw. Jareds father. The nasty politics of it all. Right, it was terrible. Jared never moved an inch away from his father and continued moved closer. And visited him on a regular basis in prison. So i think jared has that same kind of its about the family first. Right. I think the difference there is ivanka isnt exposed to the same kind of legal problems with mueller that jared is. Well, they may have to distance each other, i agree with that. Legally. I dont think hell distance from his fatherinlaw. Personally. Yes, because i think that will be a strategic move, not an emotional it could get complicated though. If were talking about Money Laundering and were talking about Kushner CompanyMoney Laundering and trump family Money Laundering, which family is Jared Kushner going to side with . And jared using his position during the transition to seek favors possibly from chinese or russia financiers to bail out a failing building on fifth avenue. 666 fifth avenue. Right. Jared has skin in the game financially there. The issue one of the issues that muellers going to look at, quid pro quos. Did the trump Team Exchange favors like lifting sanctions in exchange for financial help. Im telling you, if you wrote this in a movie script, hollywood would throw it out because its so twisted, its so absurd. It is. No one would believe this, but here it is, the truth right now in 2018 in america. I believe it. Bob costa, take me back inside the white house because wolff quoted, its not just bannon, he quoted a string of insults that he says came from members of the inner circle. Im talking mnuchin, mcmaster. Last year, we were all aghast it was just tillerson calling the president a moron. Now youve got steve mnuchin, a guy who every single time hes on tv performs what we call the fall mnuchin. How do they go back to the meeting with President Trump, once the president sees all these quotes, including moron, dope, idiot, dumbdumb . Were going to have to, as reporters, go back and check these quotes. Its a complicated process because much of this book is done not on the record, some of it is, but the reporting way of deep background. So quotes are attributed to people but sourced in an anonymous way. This kind of book, thats how it seems to be done these days. Its hard to pinpoint a quote on people. A lot of these quotes are attributed verbatim. Thats going to complicate peoples political status within the administration. Weve seen some quotes attributed to katie walsh, one of the political advisers, already cause some discussion inside the white house about her role. She denies saying those sorts of things. I think this kind of debate about what was really said was wolff taking things and spinning them, are they totally accurate . This is going to be a deliberate that continues and has real cost for a white house trying to stabilize itself. Wheres the burden of proof . Tim, if Michael Wolff ends up having hours and hours of tapes, whether or not they were authorized, i mean, the president is simply saying this book is filled with lies. Well, the one thing that is indisputable here is that steve bannon has not disavowed any of the quotes attributed to him. All of the other sort of shenanigans inside that book, whether all of them are correctly reported, Michael Wolffs methods, are all an issue. But one of the larger things going on here and why it rings true is that this confirms a lot of the reporting that institutions like the Washington Post and nbc and the New York Times and bloomberg have been doing over last year. We know that is an apocalypt apocalyptically inept white house. He is a 7yearold. And everything that youre seeing in this narrative confirms a lot of other reporting thats already been out there. Joe scarborough said the same thing. Joe scarborough said this is information weve all heard for months and months on deep background, now all put out there in one con size book. Much tch attributed to people whose names are there. This book isnt as much investigative as it is confirmtive. This book says to the American Public everything youve heard is true, i saw it. We have it out of bannons mouth. Enough anonymous quotes to put an exclamation point at the end of the season and thats what this book really does. Last night, my colleague, chuck todd, spoke to sam nunnburg about breitbart news. Steve bannon. And the relationship bannon and breitbart have with the president. I want to share that. Theyre symbioticic in a weird way. Breitbart, in a lot of ways, whether people like it or not, is the conscience of the Trump Presidency. Its the conscience of conservative nationalism, and its not going to go anywhere. What does this do to the president and steve and breitbart . Its a really treacherous situation right now for bannon, both personally and professionally. Because the two camps that have elevated him to prominence on the national stage, breitbart and President Trump, theyre now both really considering his status. Ones at war. President trumps going to battle against bannon. On todays front page of the Washington Post, my colleagues and i reported that inside of breitbart theyre debating his own future at breitbart. Bannon is determined to stay. Hes making plans to host a radio show on sirius in the coming days. Rebecca mercer, one of the major benefact benefactors, has walked away from bannon with a rare Public Statement of rebuke. Thats a turn in the relationship. A significant one. She is. I would like to point out some of my own reporting. Merser in that statement says she hasnt had contact with bannon for many months. On october 18, 2017, so thats 2 1 2 months ago, she hosted a Cocktail Party at her home on the Upper West Side of new york city where steve bannon was a prominent guest and she was introducing steve around at that party to different people in new york city who had never met him and was comb playmenting throughout, saying what a great voice he was and a member of the republican party. So clearly things have changed. Its somewhat disingenuous to say they havent had contact for many months. Id say october 18th was just a couple months ago. Tim, i ask you, i want to show some video of a book store in washington, d. C. Thats selling the book. This thing is flying off the shelves like hotcakes. Now, how much of a yes, of course, in d. C. , this thing is going to be so hot. Its going to be so hot in new york. Its going to be so hot in l. A. But take me across the country. What kind of impact will this book, will this message have to the rest of the country . I remember before President Trump was elected, he would talk about the obama administration. He would say the rest of the world is laughing at us. What do you think the country and the world will say after this book .