Of the evidence. It is not a witchhunt, no. I think hes got a job to do. Clearly hes flirting with obstruction of justice. Plus congressman steve alise, still in Critical Condition after yesterdays shooting. A nation still shocked but briefly united. Steve in his own way may have brought some unity to our long divided country. Senator jeff link joins us live ahead of tonights congressional baseball game. What virginias primaries this week tell us about which party will win and about the National Mood more than a year before mid terms. This is mtp daily and it starts now. Good evening, i am chuck todd in washington. Welcome to mtp daily. We begin offering prayers for speedy recovery of republican congressman Steve Scalise, remains in Critical Condition after yesterdays horrific shooting while practicing with his colleagues for tonights congressional baseball game which will be played as scheduled. Were expecting to hear from a close friend, congressman richmond. He was just at the hospital where scalise is being treated. Well bring you his remarks as soon as we see them. The incident put our toxic Political Climate into focus and theres hope it gets better but the prospects are daunting. The latest political bombshell reverberating through the capitol is strong evidence toxic politics might get worse before they can get better. Former Senior Intelligence official tells nbc news, special counsel bob mueller is indeed investigating President Trump for possible crime of obstruction of justice. This confirms reports in the Washington Post and the wall street journal, and comes one week after ousted director james comey testified he was directed to drop investigation into russia, the Michael Flynn part. Mueller wants to talk to director of National Intelligence, dan coats and National Security agency chief Admiral Mike Rogers and one of his former deputies. Nbc news and others reported that coats and rogers refused the president s request to publicly clear him and his campaign of colluding with russia. Perhaps bigger news if possible is President Trump reportedly questioned the Intelligence Community assessment that russia interferes in the 2016 election. Going to pause here. We have senator richmond, going to get to him, get an update on congressman scalise. Lets go there now. Just a little history on it, the game has been in existence for over 100 years and in times of war, we would not play but for the most part well over 50 baseball games. If im correct, democrats have the lead. Since i have been here, it was steve and is chance to go after each other on the field. He handed out bats to his team, fancy, louisiana made red bats. Because the republicans would never pitch to me in a game, i actually took his fancy red bat to the plate with me because they were going to walk me anyway. I remember him screaming from the dugout that bat was expensive and it is not to be used in a game. I said to beat republicans we dont need to use it. But after yesterdays incident, it really put a different spotlight on the game. One of the areas where republicans and democrats come together for a good cause, boys and girls club, the literacy project, and now the Nationals Baseball Academy which is similar to urban Youth Academy in new orleans. I will tell you that we will miss steve on the field but steve has a long fight ahead of him and the good thing is i know steve and i know that he is a fighter and whether that fight is for the next two weeks, two months, two years, we know he will fight all the way to the end. When we got the news of the shooting through Republican Baseball practice, we were at our democratic baseball practice and i was there with my threeyearold and joe barden who coaches the republicans was at the republican practice with his tenyearold. And just reminds you that we signed up for this as elected officials and we put ourselves out there so that we could do what we call Public Service to contribute back to the country. Reminds you our families didnt. As i thought about steves wife jennifer and his two children, it reminds you that they didnt sign up for this. But the other point tells us we have a Real Mental Health crisis in this country, and whether it is the rhetoric or a bunch of other things, this is not the country that we know it is not the country we sacrificed to make a more perfect union. This country is probably on the verge of going backwards in terms of peace and tranquility and all those things, but nevertheless we will continue with the game tonight. Senator richmond giving a limited update i think on the congressmans fight here medically, totally understandable, keeping a lot of that private as you would understand and of course talking about the history of the game itself there. Any other Additional Information he provides, we will bring it to you as well. Lets go back to the other big news of today, that was President Trump reportedly went to the nsa and qstned the Intelligence Communitys assessment that russia interfered in the 2016 election and did so in a phone call with Admiral Mike Rogers. The call appeared to raise concerns at the nsa because it was documented in a memo by Rogers Deputy director. The wall street journal reports during the call the president questioned veracity of the Intelligence Community judgment that russia interfered with the election and then tried to persuade mr. Rogers to say there was no evidence of collusion between his campaign and russian officials. Obviously none of that has happened publicly. Admiral rogers hasnt done that. Reporting raises serious questions. Did mr. Trump want them to walk back the intelligence . Speak with one of the reporters in a moment. The outside counsel responded to the news by weirdly not denying that fact that theres investigation into obstruction of justice. The lawyer said this. Fbi leak of information regarding the president is outrageous, inexcusable, illegal. The president lashed out against special counsel, called the investigation a witchhunt again and seemed to attack muellers team by calling them very bad and conflicted people. The president is also pushing this narrative, that part of the investigation is somehow over. Quote, they made up a phony collusion with the russians story, found zero proof, now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice. Folks, by all indications in our own reporting, the investigation into trump russia collusion hasnt been closed, if anything it has been expanded. Guess what, they can walk and chew gum at the same time, ask the man that ran the investigation until last month. Do you believe donald trump clued wi callused with russia . Thats a question i shouldnt answer in open setting, that will be answered by the investigation i think. The big picture for trup is that this investigation is metastasizing beyond what russia did. Now it involves the president , former Campaign Manager and former National Security adviser. Investigators want to talk to Jared Kushner and the top intelligence chief, already have public testimony from the former fbi director. Now that this is inside the white house, theres a lot of folks that work with the president that may find themselves called to testify to muellers investigation, which means what . More lawyers, more people involved. Lets return to the big scoop in the wall street journal, that the president s conversation with his nsa chief wasnt just trying to convince comey to back off. Paul, welcome to the show. I want to talk specifically on this phone call. We knew earlier that the president , reporting that the president asked dan coats and mike rogers to see if they could convince comey to back down on mike Michael Flynn. Looks like this was more than that. We understand after that clip we heard from james comey, after he came out and said the investigation will determine whether or not there was collusion between the campaign and russia. We understand trump did as you say contact director of National Intelligence dan coats and Admiral Mike Rogers, head of National Security agency. In a phone call with mike rogers he asked that mike rogers come out and say theres no evidence so far of collusion between the campaign and russia, but also during that conversation he expressed skepticism over the Intelligence Community assessment that russia intervened in the 2016 election. I assume if he had a basis why he doesnt believe it, it would have been reported by you. Do your sources not say, did the president have a rationale why he questioned the Intelligence Committee on this . From what we understand, limited information on this, that he was sort of asking to be walked through again why it is that the Intelligence Community unanimously is so sure about the conclusion they came to that russia did play a role in intervening in last years election, and that in addition to that he was trying to convince admiral rogers to come out and say publicly that there was no evidence at the present time of collusion between his campaign and russia, something he pressed with jim comey as well. All right. So we have jim comey meets with the president first time, decides to document every interaction. Obviously nsa mike rogers felt the need to document it. Is his deputy with him during the call with the president . From what we understand, he was privy to the call, the nsa deputy, rick ledger, career nsa employee, and he wrote memos documenting, at least one, documenting that phone call between the president and nsa head mike rogers, and we understand that the senate Intelligence Committee wants to get a hold of that memo, would like to have more information from the nsa deputy, he has since retired, on what transpired in that meeting, what the president asked admiral rogers to do, and what exactly was discussed. This is quite a paper trail already being developed if looking to build an obstruction of justice case, theres suddenly comey memos and rogers memos. You would assume what rob erlt mueller would do is look not only at the memos that jim comey has already said he submitted to him but also look more broadly about what was the president asking other people in his administration to do and why. Theres one person in this sort of trio you never hear about. We know the president apparently asked dan coats to do something, we know the president asked mike rogers to do something. It is hard to believe he didnt make a similar request to mike pompeo to the cia, yet he has stayed out of this reporting. I believe it has been reported that mike pompeo was in the meeting with dan coats, where that was mentioned. I think the reporting said that it is inevitable, they brought up coats and rogers, it is inevitable that a similar request was made of pompeo, at some point he will be brought forward as well. I havent seen reporting on that, but we know he was in the room with dan coats. Another advancement in the story. Thanks very much. With the president under investigation for possible obstruction of justice, worth noting mr. Trumps Closing Argument in the 2016 election was that his fa was that his foe would be the subject of endless investigations. Hillary is likely to be under investigation for many years, probably concluding in a criminal trial. The work of government would grind to a halt if she were ever elected. She will be in court for her entire tenure. Hillary has engaged in a criminal massive enterprise and coverups, like probably nobody ever before. If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial. Honestly, look, it is going to be virtually impossible for her to govern. The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time. A little more breaking news here. Nbc news just confirmed that Vice President mike pence has hired his own outside counsel to handle anything having to do with russia. Lets bring in tonights panel, jennifer palmieri, and matthew couldnt net ee, editor in chief with Washington Free beacon. The president went on an unusual afternoon tweet storm. Usually theres either morning or the evening, but this afternoon, and it is all mueller related. Tweet number one at 3 43 eastern time. Why is it that Hillary Clintons family and dems dealings with russia are not looked at but my nondealings are . 3 56. Crooked h destroyed phones with hammer, bleached emails, and husband meet with ag days before she was cleared and they talk about obstruction. Matthew, i want to give you a little insight what i thought today, how much focus on russia, how much focus on the tragedy that happened yesterday and this fight that Steve Scalise is clearly fighting for his life here, and the president decided to make sure the focus went right back on russia. I think the Washington Post decided. No doubt. They say yes, the president is under investigation. Do you know it is a mueller leak . Someone close to the investigation. Fair enough. I did say that for all our favorite President Trump playing to form, art of the deal, never let the critics get a shot without firing back. So hes firing back. Were moving from a reality tv presidency into court tv presidency. So all the shows on hln about legal battles with attorneys and whats unusual is this is the subject of the investigation inserting himself but i think it is a picture of our future. Jen, a lot of folks on the right who are not yet theyre very skeptical of the president but not yet to jump on him. Noting hey, theres nothing wrong with donald trump borrowing a page from the clinton play book, aggressively go after special counsel, the more partisan the special counsel feels in the atmosphere, the less some of the hits sting. Is that a clinton strategy . Is that a fair reading of what the clinton strategy was in the late 90s . I think that it is true it was partisan but thats because it was partisan because the underlying matter wasnt a matter of National Security the way that this underlying matter is, which is about russia trying to influence the election. But i think a difference between the clinton strategy and this strategy is in my day, in the Clinton White house, people like me got out of the way, you did what lawyers said was in the best interest of protecting the president and making sure that you were not putting them in legal jeopardy. He has a lawyer that lets the client drive the strategy, putting himself in more jeopardy. I think is he letting him drive the strategy or is this what donald trump does, as someone watching as the nation has watched him, this is what you expect donald trump to do when he feels backed into a corner, when he thinks of himself as being under investigation, you think of when he fired james comey, he told him he wasnt under investigation, then by his own behavior, went on tv and said he fired james comey because of the russia thing, that brought on another investigation. You also have the president feeling the heat in a way he hadnt before. We are at a point, now the Vice President felt like he needed outside counsel. You would assume Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions may feel they need outside counsel if dealing, they may already have it. You have to have anybody that may have been in the room with the president making these directives to the nsa, this is how an investigation paralyzes the white house. Why many republicans didnt want special counsel appointed in the first place because whether it is in the clinton presidency, reagan presidency, george h. W. Bush presidency or george w. Bush presidency, once you have a prosecutor with very little oversight and a lot of resources, these investigations take on a life of their own. We face years of the president and his team being dogged by a roving investigator. Trump is doing his best to accelerate the process. May not take years. Thats the head scratcher. Even in the last week, it has accelerated. I thought this lawyer Statement Last week was really reckless, but now you have theres three big developments in the last day, i would say the horrible shooting, that seems to have sobered up the hill in general, including republicans. You have news of obstruction of justice investigation. And then you see why do we know about whats happened at the nsa, why do we know the nsa turned President Trumps request down. People are coming out to protect their own reputation, and this seems to be gathering. In an odd way, the more the president puts pressure on folks to help him, the more they seem like i better document everything. Yeah. In some ways you think that if he is putting pressure on people, people understand that at the end of the day, donald trump is going to be loyal to himself. James comey learned that, people around him, chris christie, people around him at certain points for certain reasons and were then used for all they could be used for and thrown out of the white house, and i think people understand that. Thats