If its tuesday, all eyes are on wednesday when Robert Mueller is set to testify on capitol hill. Good evening, welcome to meet the press daily. Im Steve Kornacki in for chuck todd. Buckle up for a busy hour ahead of late breaking developments ahead of muellers testimony before two house committees. Right now Judiciary Committee democrats are preparing and strategizing behind closed doors. House Democratic Leadership is expected to hold its weekly meeting this hour. Later tonight the full intelligence committee, republicans and democrats, will huddle together. The president is once again lashing out at the investigation. There is some late drama about the involvement of one of muellers top deputies in tomorrows hearing. So lets typhoon in starting with perhaps the biggest questions ahead of tomorrows hearing, what is mueller going to say. On the eve of his testimony, some democrats, including chairman of Judiciary Committee are accusing the Justice Department of trying to silence mueller. The Justice Department sent out this letter to mueller yesterday layering out everything he couldnt say in their view instructing them that, quote, any testimony must remain within the boundaries of your public report. Told them not to discuss any reactions or anything about uncharged third parties or any investigative decisions he made that arent already in the public version of his report. It is important to note this is guidance that mueller apparently sought from the Justice Department after he publicly stated his testimony wouldnt go beyond the report. Still some democrats think doj has gone too far. I think its incredibly arrogant of the department to instruct him what to say as part of the opposing coverup by the administration to keep information away from the American People. Ahead of tomorrow, some Top Democrats are seemingly trying to tamp down expectations. I dont know what the impact of the hearing will be. Im, i think, very realistic in my expectations. People are pretty dug in on not just trump and russia but they are just dug in on this president. If that appalling display of racism over the last two weeks wasnt enough to move people, is there anything that bob mueller can say that will. But still the five hours of public testimony could be seen as something of a hail mary for some democrats representing their last best chance at demonstrating to undecided voters that muellers report does contain damaging information about President Trump, conduct that might even be impeachable. Tonight were left with two big questions. What are democrats hoping to get tomorrow and what will mueller deliver. Lets turn to reporters covering all angles. Heidi, my nbc news colleague. Shes on capitol hill. Shes been talking to judiciary members there. Hallie jackson, nbc news chief white house coordinator. Ken delaney, National Security and intelligence correspondent and bob acosta at Washington Post and msnbc political analyst. Heidi, let me start with you where the action is on capitol hill. We mentioned democrats on the Judiciary Committee. They are huddling. House Democratic Leadership, a meeting due there, the intelligence committee, democrats and republicans alike, they are going to be meeting tonight. A lot going on. You hear adam schiff kind of setting the expectations low for this. Is this how democrats are looking at this or are democrats looking at this and say theres going to be a breakthrough tomorrow. Theres always hope but you dont want to set the expectations theres going to be a breakthrough. Thats what we hear over and over again from the members of the judiciary. Sorry, apparently were having some audio difficulties there. They are going to try to fix that. We will get back to you. I apologize for that. Let me turn to ken delaney. Hes on set with me. You mention we see nadler saying this is an attempt to silence Robert Mueller. He has doj guidelines. He doesnt have to follow them. Apparently hes no longer a doj employee but he did seek them from doj. Is there anything to what nadler is saying . They arent binding, many are policy considerations. The law is, he cant talk about classified or grand jury information. It doesnt bind somebody not at doj. It doesnt matter. Robert mueller already said he intends to follow this guidance. He intends to keep his testimony within the four corners of this report. He asked for this and may use it as a crutch to prevent him from answering certain questions he doesnt want to answer. I talked to adam schiff over the weekend about this. He said its going to be a balancing act. How much do we want to fight with Robert Mueller to get him to answer questions that arent contained in the report. There are certain questions they would love him to answer. For example, would donald trump have been charged with a crime of obstructing justice if he was not the president. Robert mueller isnt going to go there. He made the decision not to address that question in the report. He decided he would present the evidence of obstruction but not the legal conclusions. I think what democrats hope is the next best thing, to take the public through that evidence, which they think is very compelling. They think they can convince some percentage of undecided voters theres serious misconduct here. Heidi there on capitol hill, let me go back to you and let me also apologize to our viewers. You might have thought something was wrong with your set. You were probably hearing heidi loud and clear. We might have had an issue on our end. I think our viewers could hear you well. Heidi, in terms of the bar and where the democrats are setting that for tomorrow, what are they expecting, a turning point or just more refrenchment in terms of both parties. Yes, steve. Given that only 10 of the public has even read the report, they are saying that a well choreographed recitation, the movie version, if you will, of the written report, is going to be very damning. However, they acknowledge that given the way the Committee Works and constraints using the fiveminute rule, meaning each member only has five minutes, they are behind closed doors right now tightly scripting how that would work. Based on my reporting an speaking to members, as well as an attorney who is advising them on this, they are going to have a few foundational Building Blocks. Those Building Blocks are going to be number one totally blow out of the water the false hoods repeated over and over by the president and even the attorney general that muellers report concluded there was no collusion, no obstruction. Weve heard those words over and over again, yet right there in the report mueller goes to pains to say he was not measuring collusion, he was measuring criminal conspiracy. And he outlines 12 different instances of potential obstruction. The last Building Block of the foundation, steve, is that they want to make it clear to everyone that mueller is emphatic that he was operating under that guidance that he could not indict a sitting president. They want that to be made clear and then build the facts out from that, especially when it comes to volume 1, they say they want the American People onto know. For instance, 100 different contacts that the Trump Campaign very much invited the help of the russians, that they used the help of the russians in the form of wikileaks, that the Russian Military reached 126 million americans with disinformation and with information meant to stoke tensions, and then move onto the obstruction portion of the testimony as well. That is the general template. They are behind closed doors right now finetuning that. Let me bring in Hallie Jackson covering this from the white house. Hallie, what are we expecting tomorrow from the president , from the administration . Do they have a plan here, or is the plan basically see what the president tweets. Probably the second one, steve, more than the first. It is not some grand coordinated strategy with carefully rolled out laid out way to combat some things Robert Mueller may or may not say. Instead people are taking a wait and see attitude. We know everybody invested in this are going to be watching it, that includes those close to President Trump. He knows, of course, this is happening. Hes been talking to allies and advisers about the hearing, not im told in an angry way but more frustration generally inside the white house that yet again democrats in the view of some republicans that the president is close with, democrats are yet again sort of demanding to hear more about a Mueller Report that republicans believe was pretty clear and should lay a lot of this to rest. You talked with heidi and ken about why democrats believe that is not the case but i do think the president will be somewhat engaged in this. Hes been giving mixed messages at least publicly whether he will or will not be watching. Yesterday he said i wont be watching it. Yeah, i probably with. Knows his habits, he will engage in some of it. Remember, this is going to begin in the morning when the president is typically watching Cable Television anyway. All the networks will be walltowall with this including Cable Networks as well. The bottom line, allies looking for backups on the committees, Judiciary Committees, intelligence committees who presumably will be asking very pointed questions intended to show the Mueller Report was not, in fact, as damaging to President Trump as democrats believe and are trying to show themselves. Youll see a lot of the back and forth. As for the big question everyone asks will the president be tweeting . Listen, hes somebody who has thrown curve balls in the past. At times you expect a tweet has chosen not to tweet. In front of a conservative Young Persons group, the president did bring up sort of obliquely, Robert Mueller, his testimony, russian obstruction and interference in the 6election, which is an indication this has been on his mind. I wouldnt be surprised to see something from him at some point tomorrow. Robert costa, obviously this is a big moment on capitol hill, a big moment for his presidency, is this a turning point in terms of democrats have to make a decision affirmatively whether to go forward with impeachment or not to do it. Weve seen the most recent Public Opinion poll and its still not there in terms of overwhelming numbers. The most recent Washington Post poll 37 supporting it. Is tomorrow seen by the white house and by washington in general as sort of the moment where if its there, if democrats are going to have what they need to pursue impeachment, youre going to find out tomorrow . Thats the view among many of my democratic sources, not just about President Trump but about attorney general bill barr. If mueller says anything that would raise questions about the integrity or the rollout done by mr. Barr about the Mueller Investigation and its conclusions, you could see House Democrats not only continue to deliberate whether to move forward with impeachment but whether to move beyond just holding mr. Parr in contempt of Congress Perhaps to impeach him. This is a decision point, an Inflection Point for the democrats. They are looking not only to tell the story of this Mueller Report but to see if they can draw him out on any obstruction point. Thats one of the main goals tomorrow. Ken, take us through, there was a curious piece of news, maybe you could fill us in on whats going on and what it means this afternoon. Mueller apparently requested to have his top deputy sworn in and to testify along with him tomorrow. Republicans objected. He wont be testifying but he will be there. Whats going on there . Democrats dont want that either. They want Robert Muellers testimony. They dont want the testimony of some guy nobody has ever heard of. His name is aaron, decorated consider terrorism investigator, chief dipty of fbi and deputy special counsel. He knows a lot about this investigation. Robert mueller was 74 years old, something of a figurehead, a manager in this investigation. It makes sense he would want his deputy at the hearing to fill in the blanks in case he doesnt have the details at hand. The way they have worked it out, hes going to sit next to him as his counsel but will not be sworn in as a witness. The idea here, i saw all sorts of speculation about this, is your reporting suggesting this is somebody who can provide details on some answers maybe where mueller isnt equipped to . 100 . Thats the idea. Mueller wanted him to be sworn in as a witness so he could actually testify to the details but Pete Williams is reporting he will not be sworn in, sit behind him as counsel and mueller can confirm with him and he can whisper answers in muellers ear. Heidi, democrats and how they are approaching this tomorrow, you mentioned possible approaches republicans can take. What are the concerns democrats have . Are there any concerns, i should ask, that democrats have . All those republicans who get the shot at mueller tomorrow that republicans might end up having some success going at him. Are there any concerns democrats have along those lines . Definitely, because the speaker herself has given a mandate to all of the Committee Members on her side of the aisle to keep the drama down low. They really want muellers words and the weight of his words to speak for themselves. However, the strategy could be very different on the other side of the aisle with republicans digging into talking points, trying to paint a picture of this investigation essentially being politically motivated, speaking about the former agents, fbi agents whose texts became public, talking about the origins of the socalled dossier. If anything, that could lead to a moment of tension, which then we know how that all works with the Television Cameras and the attention that could get in the news replay. That is their concerns. Robert costa, in terms of poll six and the democratic side, a lot of indications Judiciary Committee chairman jerry nadler, he behind the scenes pushing to go forward with commitment. The House Speaker not so eager. Talk about those dynamics if you could. The House Speaker, nancy pelosi, she sees the polling data that does not show impeachment at this moment to be a rally cry for many voters across the country. Certainly many democratic voters, core democratic voters would like to see that happen and many voters are interested in holding President Trump accountable. Impeachment is not a threshold that is really there in the minds of many Democratic Leadership sources of mine and others. So you have the chairman here who wants to move forward, who sees the pressure from the left. He has to prove to the speaker in a sense, when you talk to her allies, that this is the right move for the party in the summer of 2019 ahead of a major Election Year coming off an election in 2018 where they focus on health care and economic issues, is impeachment really the turn they want to make. This wednesday hearing, this testimony will say a lot about the strategic choices the democrats make. Okay. Robert, heidi, hallie, ken, thank you all for being with us. Ahead when Robert Mueller answers questions tomorrow, how much will he actually say to fo say. Two top fbi Officials Join me next, one that worked with mueller over a decade. Thats next. E that worked with mueller over a decade. Thats next. Yo, jer we gotta get to the show. I was looking for a sign. Get on the bus. I need something to believe in. Throw my hands up to the ceiling. Oh sky wont you give me a sign. Tell me will the world one day ever be mine . Jeep wrangler. Freedom to do it all. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United StatesPostal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes crabfest is back at red lobster with 9 craveable crab creations. Like crab lovers dream with crab. Crab. And more crab. Or for those who want it all. New crabfest surf turf. 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