Kevin. He and i are good friend. Reporter we will talk to congressman mark meadow of Freedom Caucus fame who could be one of the biggest influencers in the next battle for speaker. This is mtp daily, and it starts right now. Good evening. Welcome to mtp daily im chuck todd here in washington. We begin tonight with the breaking news we have been telling you about an hour now. Nbc news reporting President Trump is now not likely to sit down for an interview with lawyers from special counsel Robert Muellers team. Talks basically collapsed after the fbi raid on home and office and hotel room of the president s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Now its perhaps not a Surprising Development given President Trumps comments about these things. Unofficial president ial adviser Alan Dershowitz predicted this yesterday on this show when he called the raid on cohen a quote Nuclear Option that was not likely to help the negotiations over these talks. Now, this is yet another sign of how the cohen raid made an already High Pressure situation even more volatile. And at this point the president seems to be weighing whether to fire the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein or the special Counsel Robert Mueller or find a way to get rosenstein to be forced to recuse himself. All at the same time by the way he is weighing how to respond what the u. S. Officials are now saying they are confident of it was an assad ordered attack on his own people inside the country of syria. Thats the state of affairs right now of while we dont know which way either decision will go, we do know he is weighing them at the same time. The use of force is arguably the most difficult decision a president can make and requires clear mine. He is not just choosing what targets to strike, he is choosing what message america is trying to send to assad, putin and the world overall. He is choosing a direction for the Foreign Policy for the rest of his time in office and potentially choosing whether to target assad or punish putin. Potentially choosing whether to send more men and women into harms way. Making this decision amid all the pressure of what he calls a witchhunt. Can he ignore headlines like this. John kelly called trump dishonorable from firing me. Thats the first drip from what could be a storm of headlines ahead of the release of james comeys tellall book. Can the president ignore that while kelly is trying to counsel him on syria today for instance. Can he ignore the bar raj of what the fbi was looking for when it raided the office and home of his long time personal attorney mike ali cohen. Can he ignore the calls of those taking to tv to call on him to fire rosenstein two. Week ago he was saying that the u. S. Should be pulling out of syria very soon. Now he is weighing a strategy that goes against his America First mantra from the campaign and may skit the United States to the region for a long time to come. And he is weighing it all while the mooulg Mueller Investigation hangs over him. Joining me now, carol lee who was on the team that broke this story. Carol, explain to me what this means, the breakdown of these talks. Can mueller finish his obstruction of justice investigation without talking to the president . He can, according to the people we spoke with. And one person we spoke with said that essentially he has finished the obstruction portion of the investigation, and was really just waiting on the decision about whether or not the president was going to sit for an interview because one of the things that legal experts say he definitely would want to know is what the president s intent is. Only the president he can gather different documents and testimony from other people, but hearing from the president himself would be obviously an important part of that. But you know, if the president doesnt want to sit down and do have an interview, then Robert Mueller will just move forward. Sources told us that in fact if this interview doesnt happen, if it really is not going to happen, that it could speed up the report that multer would write about the obstruction piece of this. So in some ways, this decision, the fallout from the raid on Michael Cohen is reaching this critical decision. Right. Actually it could then impact this big piece of this investigation that targets the president essentially. Do we know that if mueller may write his obstruction of justice report first. But does it get released first . There is a lot of we just dont really know. Our understanding is that it would go to rosenstein Deputy Attorney general rosenstein and it would be confidential is but its hard to imagine Something Like this would not be sent to congress or somehow released publicly eventually. Right. Now we know the president s legal team, past and present, has never been a big fan of trying to have the president sit down with mueller. Is this a case where now the president has been convinced its a bad idea now . Yeah, you know, its interesting talking to people. They say completely his mood has changed on this. He soured on the idea of sitting down with mueller. He is getting advice saying you shouldnt do this, why would you ever do this, the raid on Michael Cohen has become a catalyst for those folks to unleash and put pressure on the president not to sit down. And he feels that this is, as he said himself, an attack on him and he described it as an attack on the country. So hes changed his mind, at least for now. The thing about trump right. That it changes his mind all the time. The most important phrase, at least for now. Carol lee, thank very much. Let me bring in kimberly atkins, ruth marcus, and danielle pletka. All right, we are trying to deal with both mueller and syria here. Just as the president is trying to deal with both mueller and syria. Thats not easy. Lets compartmentalize. And we know this president struggles with come partmentalizing. Lets start with this, to me its not a surprise that after the cohen raid the president changes his mine. Not a surprise that he gets bent out of shape. Im out of here i am not going to talk with mutualer. The question is whether it was ever likely that he was going to take what seemed to me, and kim can speak to this the dangerous and unwise step of sitting down for an interview with mueller where he was potentially going to be in grave legal jepe do. Ask bill clinton what its like to sit down and speaking and expose yourself to the possibility of the charges of making false statements. I always thought it was unlikely that he would speak. Right. I think its totally fair to say that the cohen raid made unlikely almost unthinkable. But we are leaving out one potential and interesting step here. This is not like you ask somebody to be on their show and they say maybe and then they say no. Mueller has subpoena authority. I have tried to subpoena guests. It doesnt work. Sometimes i can subpoena dan yl and get her to show bup. But thats it. You could subpoena the guest. He thats an aggressive move from the special counsel. The president of the United States has a legal constitution move back. To fight night fight it and ultimately to take the fifth amendment. Something we have never seen before. But never seen before is kind of the trademark of the trump ed presidency. A lot of people are telling the president to fire him. Do you think he does. There is telegraphing out of white house saying the president isnt going to do this, that or the other. But none of them are in the position to know that. Only donald trump knows what he is going to do. He made a tweet about sending missiles to syria. He made the decision about rejoining the tpp during pompeos hearings. What stops him from firing mueller . I dont understand why as he thinks it through it is anything other than a satisfying gesture. By the grown ups in the room he is being told this is your own Nuclear Option. And rosenstein will be replaced by somebody. You cant fire everybody. They are protected by the civil service. You cant fire the investigators. I have a partial answer to that good question. I think firing mueller himself would be a very bad idea. No up side other than immediate gratification. But firing rosenstein im not advocating this, i hope it doesnt happen. But firing rosenstein has some potential upside for the president which is you have someone else in place the solicitor general. The solicitor general, noele francisco who is not an expert in criminal law, more of an appellate lawyer who might be less more willing to put restraints on mueller. So you wouldnt see an you would see a sort of slow motion curtailing of muellers authority as opposed to a kind of nuclear get out of here bob moment. Part of the problem is i understand what you are saying, but part of the problem is the mueller ship has sailed. The cohen raid was really if you wanted to stop him, the moment you wanted to stop him was before that. In addition, donald trump has something important to consider. If he feels that he hasnt done anything wrong among the 98 different avenues that our special prosecutor goes down then doing this makes him lack like he has something to hide. At a certain point he needs to go, you know what, you do what you are going to do, i am not going to talk to you anymore. Doing this also would serve to build whatever obstruction case that exists with Robert Mueller. It is a lose lose. All of this is hanging over his head while he is trying to deal with syria. Nice transition. Bill clinton got accused of wagging the dog. We may never know, the Clinton Administration may have pulled back subconsciously on what they may have done because of political criticism. I remember those days, operation desert fox. We have no idea. But the fact is we know everybody is human. Im sorry, you cant tell me it doesnt have an impact. Im not sure that everybody is human. These days in washington, i dont think any of us can be sure. And that zuckerberg thing didnt give me confidence in that either. Whats going to happen . I think the president is wrestling with two donald trumps. The one who appalled as a human being, is appalled by what he is seeing. And seeing it again is doubly appalling. He wants to do something. He knows that the United States is the only country that can do something. And yet he said just days ago he said, you know, we are almost done there. We are getting out. We have got this sort of dr. Jeckyl and mr. Hyde problem that the president has and then tweets out, we thought this attack was happening last night. It didnt happen and then he says it may never happen at all. There is a challenge here. I think what the president has to do, just as a matter not talking about tactics but strategy. The president has got to decide okay i want to deliver more than just an empty message. For him this is a big red line moment. The question is, what should the objective be . Right . You have got to define the objective . Is it to prevent assad from ever doing this again . You have an idea how to do that, which is destroy every real estate that you can find this the country of syria. Or is the objective to send a message to putin . And what does that look like . This is imagining even to ask that question is imagining a whole different president than the president we have. But his National Security team is having these conversations, no . Yes, but ultimately he is the Decision Maker and he is a Decision Maker who respond to the provocation of the moment and seems to me to be uniquely and dangerously not good at, incapable of looking at the second order effects of his actions. Bring us back to firing james comey. Not smart. And yes, we he needs to be deciding what his goal is. But he is not that good at deciding what his goal is. And he doesnt believe in diplomacy. Everyone you talk to says at the least you have to try to use some sort of incentive to get assad to the table to at least for some time stop this attack on his own people. I dont think thats fair. At this point does diplomacy work. Kerry and lavrov trumpeted this we are going to get i rid of all the chemical weapons in syria. A bunch of hooha. He put purr onnin cho. They are both at the table. Could he have put pressure on syria in order the get assad to the table. I dont think thats the correct calculation with de mass cans. I think russia and iran think they are this close to putting the country mostly under their own control with hezbollah. Turkey is helping, they are going to help the iranians because they think oh, great we can get rid of the kurds. Thats why you can have a strategy of saying im out here on one day and then saying no im going to punish you on the next day. Because that doesnt make punishment convincing. And i want to work with russia but russia is terrible. It is why syria has been the biggest application of the obama administration, and donald trump it is now yours. And 500,000 people are dead. That he is the end game of this whole thats the true tragedy of it all. Anyway, kimberly, ruth, danielle, thank you. Up ahead, the gop shuffle. Now that paul ryan is on his way up. Who will take up the republican mantle or the conservative mantle in the house . Maybe two different people. This is what getting your car serviced at lincoln looks like. Complementary pickup and delivery servicing now comes with every new lincoln. I won. Giving you, the luxury of time. Thats the lincoln way. We use our phones the same way these days. So why do we pay to have a phone connected when were already paying for internet . Shouldnt it all just be one thing . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You can get up to 5 lines of talk and text included at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how you could save 400 or more a year. And get 200 back when you sign up for Xfinity Mobile and add a new line of unlimited. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network designed to save you money. Click, call or visit an xfinity store today. Welcome back. Today in meet the mid terms both the republican and the democrat in one of the most Competitive Senate races in the country is calling on their own states governor to resign. Missouris republican governor Eric Greitens is defiant in the wake of a report released yesterday detailing an extramarital affair but an affair with a woman who described sexual violence, blackmail and consensual and nonconsensual sexual acts. He denies violence, stays the relationship was consensual and insist he is the subject of a witchhu witchhunt. Josh howly, the most likely republican nominee againstst haskel, he called the conduct detailed in the report quote impeachable and said greitens should resign. Now look, if greitens continues to dig in it is detrimenta to the state and haskel. We will have more coming up. Tell me about it. You know, its made me think, im closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. Hm. Im thinking. Will i have enough . Should i change something . Well, youre asking the right questions. I just want to know, am i gonna be okay . I know people who specialize in am i going to be okay. I like that. You may need glasses though. Yeah. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session today with Td Ameritrade. But their nutritional needs remain instinctual. Thats why theres purina one true instinct. Real meat 1. A different breed of natural nutrition. Purina one true instinct. Now, try new purina one true instinct treats. Welcome back. House speaker pull ryans decision to retire is not only setting off a debate over who should replace him, but when. Ryan is adamant he will serve out the rest of his term, both as a member of congress and as speaker. That means jockeying for the next House Republican leader would play out for another seven months with a quote lame duck officer in place. But some House Republicans are already calling for ryan to let a successor take over and eliminate the uncertainty now. For instance, Georgia Republican congressman tom graves said quote we would have more success if there is no am buy guity to what the Leadership Structure would look like. And another quote, a lame duck speaker is a challenge to the conference. It is a probable vacuum and doesnt see how it can be may be contained. Other republicans are fine with waiting to deal with a divisive Leadership Conference until after the mid terms. Why have a contentious vot now those folks ask. Joining me, mark meadows the chairman of the house Freedom Caucus. Congressman meadows, nice to see you. Welcome back to the show. Great to be back with you, chuck. Thanks so much. I know where you stan on whether speaker ryan should stay or not. You believe he should stay the remainder of his term and the remainder of this congress. Let me ask you this. Is there a compromise here, you have some members wanting to know who the next leader is going to be. Could you have the elections now and they dont take over until after november . I dont know thats practical or what will happen, chuck. Obviously its one issue that might be discussed but i think realistically whats going to happen is the speaker tis not going to be forced out. Its going to be more policy driven hopefully getting some things done even in quote the lame duck speaker session. But whats going to happen is behind the scenes there is going to be a whole lot of negotiating and perhaps horse trading that happens to get an heir apparent. I think thats going to happen over the next two weeks not over the next seven months. So you think essentially what i just describe. You think there will be an unofficial well. Mayb