Plus, the white house deflects criticism over Michael Cohens cash flow from at t, saying the president cant be bought. This is actually the definition of draining the swamps. And later, one year of Robert Mueller and his russia investigation. Regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. This is mtp daily, and it starts right now. Good evening. Im Steve Kornacki in new york, in for chuck todd. Welcome to mtp daily. We begin tonight with developments of the last 24 hours that can perhaps be summed up as trumpism on overdrive or trumpism run amuck. Whether its mock iing john mccain, noting quote, hes dying away or the immigration when the president dressed down his secretary during a Cabinet Meeting probabilitying here to nearly resign. Or the hook the other way posture when it comes to the president s personal lawyer, profiting off of his access to the white house or the president sticking up for the embattled epa secretary. In both cases, cohen and pruitt it may seem like drain the swamp but neither has been cut loose. They would not deny reports that a communication staffer mocked john mccain because he was, quote, dying. Im not going to comment on an internal staff meeting. Does the white house not think you need to condemn these remarks. Again im not going to validate a leak one way or the other out of an internal staff meeting. Are you saying she didnt say this . Im in the going to validate a leak out of an internal staff meeting one way or the other. Involving the president s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, the white house claimed there isnt anything swampy about cohen being paid millions of dollars by corporations like at t as it tried and failed to get the administration to greenlight a merger. I think it proves that the president is not going to be influenced by special interests. This is the definition of draining the swamp, something the president talked about repeatedly during the campaign. Welcome to what has seemingly become a daily ritual in trumps washington. A never ending cycle of leaks, outrage, counterattacks and ultimately paralysis. There is a chunk of congress that blames all of that on the president and there is another chunk that rushes to his defense. And there is the chunk of folks who seem to say just get me out of here. Dozens of members of congress are now retiring. Some of them already out the door. Most of them republicans. And some of them not shy about saying why. Too many republicans expect unquestioning blind unquestioning loyalty and obedience to President Trump no matter how absurd or destructive the comment or may have. On the other side, too Many Democrats offer resistance to President Trump even if they agree with him on a given policy or position. Im joined now by republican congressman charlie dent of pennsylvania. You just heard from him there. That was his farewell address on the house floor. His ley last day in congress is tomorrow. We have been told this will be his last interview as a congressman. Thank you for taking a few minutes to talk. Let me start with whats in the news today. The comment reportedly made by a white house staffer about john mccain. There is the reported near resignation of the dhs secretary after being dressed doesnt by trump. There is Michael Cohen and touchdown. There is scoot pruitt and the ethical controversies around him. Is this the kind of day that makes you say im glad im getting out of here. I think we just call that friday anymore. Yeah, i guess i am. I mean there are a whole host of issues here. I could comment on each one if you wanted me to. The mccain issue i guess is really unsettling to me. I experienced something quite similar, steve, during the campaign in 2016 at a Tea Party Debate during the general election. I had i was being criticized i hadnt endorsed donald trump. And i wasnt going to. In part about the comments he made about john mccain. And when i said that, somebody blurted to out something disparaging and i said he is a great hero a great man, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. But people say these thing. Im at a loss. Ms. Nielsen. The secretary, i was on the receiving end in the cabinet room over health care. I dont work for the president. Thats apparently how he treats some of his staff from time to time. Let me dig down on the mccain issue. You mention the comments during the campaign. It was the summer of 2015. Donald trump was a candidate for president. Folks were trying to figure out was it for real . He was out in iowa. He said i prefer people who werent captured. Along those lines. There was conventional wisdom that that was it, air came out of the trump balloon, no way republicans were going the stand for it. Leaders and voters would turn on him now. Instead, the trump phenomenon continued to take off n. Light of that experience in 2015, the fact he could win the nomination, win the presidency, you hear these reports coming out of the white house right now about this comment. Does this bother your party at all when you boil it down . I tell you what, if i had said some of those comments at any time during my career i would be disqualified and i probably wouldnt be a congressman. Had i said those things about john mccain or mexicans or muslims or charlottesville. Why was he able to get away with it . Thats a great question. Im not sure i have the answer to that. I dont know that anybody has the answer. All i can say is that if a congressman had disparaged john mccain in that manner i suspect it would be difficult for them politically or made chents about mexicans being rapists i think was the term that was used. And there were other harsh terms. They would be i believe disqualifying comments for most candidates. Particularly in a swing or a marginal district. I dont know how you frofr some of those types of remarks. I want to take this interview and focus a little bit about expectations. You are leaving now, versus the beginning this trump presidency. Let me start on election day 2016. You are running for reelection in pennsylvania. You are expected to win. You do win. You are going back to congress. On election day when you are casting your vote or showing up at your Victory Party was it your expectation that night that you are going back to congress and the next president is going to be a democrat, Hillary Clinton . Yeah. I cant didly state yeah thats what i thought, that i was going to win. And i thought that Hillary Clinton was actually going to win the election. At least in pennsylvania, i thought that was the case. I thought that she would win. And so i was probably like most people pretty surprised when donald trump prevailed. At that time, that night i said im going to try to make the best of this, work with the president and support him when hes on the right track and check him when hes moving in the bad direction and call him out when he is going off the rails. Most of us felt that we wanted them to be successful and wanted him to be successful and work with him. Let me stay on that. The mccain thing is a good example of this, where so much that has been happening in the last year and a half since donald trump became president its unprecedented in a way for a president to behave this way, but its also consistent with what we saw during the campaign. So you were hoping for the best when he got elected. Im wondering, if you really think it would be any different than it was during the campaign . No, i didnt have particularly high expectations, to be perfectly honest. Although i was hoping that he would make some good hires. On the National Security front i thought he did make good hires early in his administration. I thought v. A. Secretary shulkin and others, mcmaster, tillerson, et cetera, all good people. But the chaos that we saw during the campaign, that frenetic nature of it and all the controversy carried on in to the administration. And i guess nobody should have been advised by it based on what we saw. Is there an area, though, where he has pleasantly surprised you . Yeah. Look, i think the president i believe the president is moving on the right track on a lot of the deregulatory front. I thought the tax reform on balance was beneficial, particularly the Corporate Tax reform. It was necessary. I believe on the va, under secretary shulkin the department was moving the right way. I work on va funding and i work closely with him and the administrations team. There have been a number of years where i have worked with him and i have been encouraged on some policies. There are others some of the bigger concerns sometimes for me have been on the Foreign Policy front at times the president emes seems to want to walk away from various american agreements or commitments, whether nafta, tpp, south korea he threatened to pull out on that. Disparaging comments about nato. I didnt support the Iran Nuclear Deal but i dont think we should have two Nuclear Crises going on simultaneously. I worry about his walking away from commitments. These are american commitments, even if they are ones we may not have agreed with at the time, we have to honor commitments. Im curious how you would put that all together then. Because you have raised concerns here that are very unique to this presidency, seem serious in terms of the direction the country going, the discourse in this country is going, chaos not white house, Foreign Policy concerns and not really being surprised you say based on what you saw in the campaign. When you take that whole package and you think back to election day 2016, and this country was either going the elect Hillary Clinton or donald trump that day, would the country be better off, as you leave congress right now, would the country be better off today if Hillary Clinton had been elected versus donald trump . I guess, steve, my answer to that would be if Hillary Clinton were the president today, all the anger and the energy would be on the republican side and the democrats would be in a very defensive position. I had a lot of concerns with secretary clinton. I couldnt support her. I didnt. And i suspect we would be dealing with a different set of problems and issues right now. The American People desperately wanted change in 2016. And they just simply couldnt accept Hillary Clinton but they were willing to take a risk on donald trump. Many of the people who voted for donald trump are friends of mine. I know them. They basically they have concerns and reservations and some of them would say to me i am voting for donald trump but im voting for you, too, to keep an eye on him. Trump supporters. I guess when im hearing there is a zero sum gain. Im trying to get a sense if its balanced in your mind. You say there were thing about Hillary Clinton that deeply concerned you. If you play out the worst Case Scenario of your expectations for Hillary Clinton, does it put new the same place you are in now with donald trump . Is it worse than where you think things are now with donald trump . Is it better . Well, if hillary were president she would certainly be much more conventional in many ways on the Foreign Policy front, i believe she would be, you know, much more attentive to the needs and concerns of our allies. And we would probably not be making these comments that seem to be somewhat sip of athletic to the autocratic rulers, putin or duterte in the philippines and that she would be a pith more cautious and conventional on the foreign front. I think that would make a difference. On the domestic front i suspect she would have done more of the same, hyper regulation and hyper tax policy and i think the economy would have suffered if she had become president. What i learn over the last several years is that many people felt the economy wasnt moving or growing as fast as it should be simply because there was too much fear of washington. Washington was too much of a meddling force. This is where President Trump has an advantage over hillary. I think he got that message. And i think the economy in part moved forward because of his economic policies with the exception of trade. I disagree with the president s policy on trade which i think is going to harm economic growth. Although hillary had similar positions that was very much protectionist in many ways as donald trump. Final question here. You talk about the idea of serving as a check on donald trump, as sort of a balance to him. When you look ahead to the possibility of democrats taking over the house this fall from republicans, is there a part of you that says from the standpoint of having a check on the president that that would be healthy for the system to have democrats have the house and trump have the presidency . Look, i have so many friends in the House Republican conference, i certainly support them and support the majority and have been supportive of it for years. At the same time, i have said to my House Republican colleagues that you know we have to exercise our article one powers not just when there is a democrat president but when there is a republican president. We have a responsibility to conduct serious thoughtful oversight. That might mean we will do some things that will bother the administration, the Trump Administration. But thats okay. Thats our job. And the truth is, the democrats are the same way. When there is a democratic president and they were in charge, they were easier on oversight. I guess thats what im asking, though, if there is sort of a natural it is a human thing, right, when our Party Controls things we are going to go easier. When the other people, maybe not. From that sandpoint, if thats human nature, do you think maybe for the sake of the system, what you are expressing all these concerns about, that to have a Democratic House with a trump president might be a healthy thing. Well, i would rather not. Believe me, i would rather not. But we may have one. The truth is, the new governing philosophy it seems is more about separation of Political Parties than separation of powers. And this is not specific to my party or to the democratic both parties are guilty of this right now. And its we have got to get back to a better balance where congress reasserts its authority. We have lost a lot of power to the executive branch over many years. It just didnt start with donald trump. This has been going on for years. I think we are in many respects a weaker institution than we had been. We have to reclaim those powers. The speaker, paul ryan and john boehner before him really struggled in part because they really had a difficult time enforcing any discipline, getting people to vote for things that had to get down. That weakened the speaker because of the internal fighting and i suspect a day may come where you can actually see if you might have to have a diplomat coalition to elect the speaker if each party becomes as divided and factualized as they have been. Charlie dent we will let those be your final words in what i think is your final interview as a member of congress. Thank you for taking a few minutes. Good luck in your post political career. Thank you steve. Always great to be with you. Ahead, the Mueller Investigation. One year later. Nearly a year now since the d. O. J. Launched the probe into russia ties, house how close are we to answers . With this clever little app called audible. You can listen to the stories you love while doing the things you love, outside. Everyones doing it shes binging. Theyre binging. And. So is he. So put on your headphones, turn on audible and binge better. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Sure. Mom,whats up son . Alk . I cant be your it guy anymore. What . You guys have xfinity. You can do this. Whats a good wifi password, mom . You still have to visit us. I will. No. Make that the password you stillohave toovisit us. Thats a good one. [ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. 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And so certainly the president has not been influenced by any or his administration influenced by any outside special interests. Welcome back. Lets get the our panel. Emily jane fox, van it fair senior reporter. Bill crystal, editor at large of the weekly standard. And kyle wright. Host of the United States of anxiety. Thanks for being here. Emily, lets start on this question here. Michael cohen, the at t payments. You see Sarah Huckabee sanders being asked about that today. Im trying to follow the logic there where she says actually this sort of exxon rates them on this idea that they are draining the swamp. What did you make of her reply and what they are trying to communicate there . Its hard to make sense of it. I guess what she was trying