Trumps former Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort. He faces more than 300 years in prison. And you can hear me now . Farmers make their way to capitol hill demanding action as the president s tariffs begin to limit their market opportunities. These expert markets are critical to my business, to my familys way of life. Lets begin today with President Trumps constantly shifting narrative on russia now its third day. And if theres one thing we know about this president , its this. If you want to know whats really in his head, you wont get it from prepared statements. Youll find it on his twitter page. Ive got a great team to break it down. First, let me explain what were talking about here. President trump has spent the morning online, defending his summit with Vladimir Putin and the resulting outrage from capitol hill to newspaper opinion pages, remember, it was only a couple days ago, he took putins word over that of his own intelligence agencies. And that brought a tidal wave of bipartisan criticism. Well, this morning, hes walking back his clarification that was just yesterday afternoon. Lashing out at critics he says would rather go to war than see him get along with russia. Hes also insisting that people, vote, at the higherends of intelligence actually loved his fr press conference, touting the potential for positive results in the future. This from a president who clearly was forced into damage control mode by his own aides who is insisting that he simply misspoke when he took putins side. Heres what the president said and then how he tried to fix it. My people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others, they said, they think its russia. I have president putin, he just said its not russia. I will say this, i dont see any reason why it would be. The sentence should have been i dont see any reason why i wouldnt, or why it wouldnt be russia. So, just to repeat it. I said the word would instead of wouldnt. And the sentence should have been, and i thought i would be maybe a little bit unclear on the transcript or unclear on the actual video. The sentence should have been i dont see any reason why it wouldnt be russia. Sort of a double negative. So, you could put that in. I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself. Well, the double negative, of course, doesnt explain why he didnt correct himself in any of the tweets he sent. Or, by the way in two Fox Interviews he did after the summit. And note that while the president s support for the Intelligence Community was part of his prepared statement, he also added his own unscripted caveat. I accept our Intelligence Communitys conclusion that russias meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. Theres a lot of people out there. And another clear sign of where the president s head is at. Take a look at this closeup of his statement. It appears he crossed out a line about bringing anyone involved in election interference to justice. While adding his own note that reads, quote, there was no collusion. And this morning, were learning more about how that statement came to be in the first place. After the president made his remarks in helsinki, chief of staff john kelly was reportedly so upset that he tried to pressure the president into walking it back. Then gave republicans the goahead to speak out publicly against the president s comments. In the end, nbc has learned that Vice President pence and secretary of state mike pompeo had a private meeting with trump, personally urging him to make the socalled clarification. All that reportedly over the objections of john bolton. I want to go straight to Nbcs Kristen Welker live at the white house for us. This is fascinating, you could actually, kristen, get whiplash trying to follow this back and forth. But is what were seeing this morning, a man who was pushed to doll a clarification in the first place and is back to saying what he wants to and not what somebody wrote for him . Reporter the white house denies that narrative, chris, but that is certainly one of the Big Questions this morning. Is president saying what he really believes and did do we really believe what he was saying next to Vladimir Putin. And i said this morning, is he not walking back the walkback in the defiant tweet this morning. Saying everything in helsinki. She disputed that characterization. She said thats not the case. She said, big picture, that the president thinks its important to work with Vladimir Putin on a range of different Foreign PolicySolutions Everything from syria and there is steep criticism in not only how the president handled the situation in helsinki, but how hes handled it in the days to come. You have democrats and republicans who say his walkback wasnt enough. His clarification of the would wouldnt word is just a tiny bit. 2 doesnt account for the fact that that he heaped praise on Vladimir Putin. And it doesnt seem to account to the fact that he talked about his Intelligence Community and the president seems to believe in joint Cyber Security agreement. Those are in the forefront here at the white house that this administration is going to need to contend with. We know theres also a lot of discomfort within this white house about what happened in helsinki. Were going to hear from the president a little later on today, chris, who is going to hold one of those cabinet meetings. To what extent is he going to answer questions . To what extent is he go to be defiant . Thats what were watching for. We know this president doesnt like to apologize. He doesnt like to admit mistakes. The fact that he admitted making a mistake yesterday is significant. But what will we see today . Thats the big question. Apparently, the concern is that it would make him look weak. And we could expect him to speak before that cabinet meeting. I want to bring in my panel, phil rucker, Washington Post. Celina maxwell, sirius xm, susan del percio, a republican strategist. Lets start with the reports that john kelly, mike pompeo, Vice President pence all intervened to force the president s hand. Give us a sense of your reporting, how much pressure was there . Was it mostly coming from capitol hill, his aides . What else can you add to kristens reporting . Well, the post is reporting as well that pompeo, kelly, and Vice President pence were involved in helping to convince the president to come out yesterday and make that statement. But hes feeling pressure from all over. Including on fox news where some of his regular reliable cheerleaders were sort of in a loss for words in the immediate aftermath of the helsinki summit. The president does not take kindly to these negative headlines. He watched i lot of it. He consumed a lot of it as he flew back home. There were reports that he was particularly upset when we saw what Newt Gingrich had posted because Newt Gingrich has never been critical of this summit. Thats right. That helped convince President Trump that he had to do something. Its important to point out what he said yesterday was only a fraction of what he said facetoface with putin. He has three days yet to confront putin, yet to woarn putin against any future attacks in the 2018 midterms which is something that members of congress are concerned about. Let me go to my panel, theyre sticking around. Seven tweets in 24 hours. I want to unpack a lot. First, why is he even bringing up war . Because hes donald trump and thats what he does. Unfortunately, donald trump thinks war is a shiny object. Its what we saw him do in north korea. Its one his goto things. Here it is some people hate the fact that i get along with president putin of russia. They would rather go to war than see this. Ill ask you to explain, hes calling this trump derangement syndrome. That comes from the bush administration. The bush derangement syndrome was the label for progressives, everything that bush did, we hated. Complained about it. No matter what bush did. I think hes trying to adapt that for his purposes. I think the problem for him is what happened on monday was a deep betrayal of the country. He sided with a dictator who attacked our country over our own intelligence operatives in a moment in which we have more information than weve ever had before based on the indictment, exactly what happened, exactly where the money went, how it flowed. And their strategy in trying to help him win the election. I think instead of looking through the attack in the prism how it helped him personally or how it impacts him personally, we should be thinking and the president ultimately should be thinking how it impacted the country. Because it wasnt just an attack on democrats. It was an attack on america. Susan, once you realize you have this epic problem that everybody is coming out against you, who sits down in a room and says lets change one word for another . I think thats probably the best thing they came up with. Lets face it. The president doesnt like to make admit hes made a mistake. So, they probably sat around and this was probably the only thing that they could so, you have john kelly calling republicans on the hill and saying, especially, you know, use this hes essentially using republicans as a weapon here. I mean, how do you even call a republican and say, go ahead, speak out against your president. This is the chief of staff. Its the chief of staff. Hes also a general who served his country with honor and distinction and was probably outraged with what he saw. Like many others were. Now, hes in a position that he couldnt speak up. There are, however, a lot of republicans, some did, but there should be more republicans speaking up and against this president. If this would have been if we would have seen an attack, a cyber attack against the National Grid or the new york stock exchange, this president would have been outraged. And it would have been a very significant problem. This was an attack on our democracy, and he stood there in helsinki and refused to hold the perpetrator, putin, accountable. Well, i think we also had a lot of people on capitol hill who are supposed to be a check. Thats their constitutional job. Thats right. Thats what they do. These are coequal branches of government. And they said, i support the Intelligence Community. But they would not say, no, its not okay to stand next to a murderous dictator and acquiesce to him. And seeing, by the way, he accepts the Intel Community conclusion, and then saying that it could be other people also. For the second time, by the way, in as many months. I mean, this is not the murderous dictator he sat next to. Not everybody sat back and pondered their own political futures. Right. Some people stood up. John mccain, of course, who has always been a voice in these issues had a very, very strong statement. But Ryan Costello on pennsylvania 6 was just on the air. I want to play for you what he had to say. We dont know what was said by our own president in a twohour meeting. But we know what that following press conference was, and the fact that nothing was said for 24 hours. Its deeply damaged. We shouldnt sugarcoat that. And we couldnt accept that a double negative that a should instead of a shouldnt or a shouldnt instead of a should is going to make this go away because thats not the case. Can we go back to what happened to this meeting even though there are calls for interpreter whose job it is to parse National Security issues sand things that may or may not be classified. The Russian Military said they were ready to implement interNational Security agreements. We dont even know what that is. I mean, do we have any idea . We have no idea, chris. And thats a really important point. President trump sat down with putin for two full hours with only their interpreters. There were no note takers. There was no secretary of state. There was no National Security adviser in the room. He didnt have sort of the normal entourage that one would have. And the reason that note takers go into these sort of meeting so the u. S. Government would have a record of what was discussed, what President Trump says and what putin says. But theres no record. To aprovide details of what was discussed in that meeting. And its also worth pointing out that neither trump or putin is a particularly reliable narrater. Both of those exaggerate the facts. They lie sometimes. If trump were to come out of his meeting and tell the aides what was said theres no way to rely on that to make that factual. How are you Foreign Policy, part of a Foreign Policy team, and you dont know what was said on a oneonone meeting with leader of russia . Let me ask you, finally, is Congress Going to do anything. Senator mcconnell is indicating that he may push more policy to deter russian interference. Sanctions may happen. But thats not enough. We have to go back to what was the fundamental problem, which was an attack on our democracy. Sanctions are not nudgenough. Right now, theyre airing out some appropriations for a ballot security. Thats insane. We need to have people stand up. The president cannot get away with letting this go away between one or two cycles. We have said this before, is it going to be different this time . Probably not, but i do agree with susan that the republicans need to finally stand up to the president because this is really not about partisan politics in this moment. Russia could decide in the 2018 midterms to hack the republicans and support democrats because their ultimate goal is sowing chaos. And theyre very successful. We dont know what was said in the meeting. This isnt about midterms, the house, who controls it, the senate. This is about american democracy. We really need to start putting our elected officials both democrats and republicans all the time to defend it, otherwise theyre breaking their oath of office. And remember, what Vladimir Putin said in front of everyone is he wanted donald trump to been president. Sand Paul Manafort sand Robert Mueller asking for immunitity for a slate of five witnesses to testify. And for their names to be secret. What could that signal . But first, theres still stoso much to talk about as President Trump tries to clarify. Seth meyers with another mogul currently in hot water. Your defense is that you meant to say the opposite of what you said . Thats like papa john claiming that he went to say whitie. Woman i stay active by staying in rhythm. And to keep up this pace, i drink boost optimum. Boost optimum with 5 in 1 advanced nutrition helps support muscle, energy, bone, normal immune function, and vision. Boost optimum. Be up for life. You might or joints. Hing for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in Clinical Trials to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Lets get the party started. Its going to be a beautiful night. This whole place is awesome. Having the time of your life woo to the woman of every hour. Youre too kind. They mean sophie. I know that. Dig in the Dancing Queen rated pg13. Weve got new and actually somewhat mysterious developments in the russia probe this morning. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking to give five potential witnesses immunity to testify in Paul Manafort upcoming trial. But heres the mystery, we dont know who they are, because mueller also asked a federal judge to keep these five names under seal unless theyre actually called to testify. Trumps former Campaign Chairman is in jail after having his bail revoked. Jury selection in the first of two trials set to start one week from time. Nbc Investigative Reporter tom winter joins me now. Its the use immunity, which basically means, chris, anything they say on the witness stand if called to testify will not be used against them in any future proceeding or criminal case or any case. So, basically, they have immunity, the second they step on that witness stand to testify truthfully and accurately that even if its incriminating against them that testimony is struck from any further proceedings immune immunizes them . Exactly. Thats the advantage for people who are going to testify. Wie dont know who they are and we wont know unless they take the stand. Unless they take the stand. The other thing i want to point out, they technically have to testify about things that manafort has been charged with. Theres a lot of speculation, what could they say . What could they indicate . Well it really has to be narrow in scope to the charges that manafort faces here. This is really a situation i think if people are expecting a Bombshell Development to come out of this testimony, its possible, but, really, it has to be towards things that manafort is charged with. Manaforts lawyer wanted the trial to be moved but the judges basiccy said it doesnt matter where you move, Everybody Knows whats going on here. Theres pretrial publicity, obviously, we seem to talk about this case every single day. And theres also a lot of interest in the washington, d. C. alexandria area that the trial is going to be held. The second thing look at the voting records in the election, most people in the area where the jury is picked from voted democra