Day 287 of the Trump Administration brings us new information about the russia investigation and its connection to the current u. S. Attorney general. The president s soninlaw, and the man who used to run his Campaign Among others. Lets start with former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort and his associate rick gates, both back in court today. The judge expressed concern about them being a flight risk so both men will stay on home confinement with gps monitoring until at least next week. We also learned that Jared Kushner has already turned over being involved in a conversation about russia before the election. The other brings us back to this march meeting attended by both trump on the right and sessions on the left. And in the middle, advisor George Papadopoulos who is now cooperating with muellers investigation. Nbc news reports that during this meeting, for instagram, papadopoulos offered to use his russian contacts to try and set up a meeting between trump and vladimir putin. Sessions rejected the idea. The New York Times spoke to a different person in the meeting about a pitch, the pitch, from papadopoulos. And writes, mr. Trump, listened with interest. Mr. Sessions vehemently opposed the idea. Campaign advisor j. D. Gordon recalled and he said that no one should talk about it because it might leak, he said. Its important to note that sessions is the one who shot down the idea and reportedly vehemently opposed it, because when he testified under oath to the Senate Intelligence committee about anyone from the campaign who might have been in contact with russians, he said this let me state this clearly, colleagues, i have never met with or had any conversation with any russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Further i have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump Campaign. Well the discrepancy has democrats calling for sessions to come back to testify again under oath. And it wouldnt be the first time. During his confirmation, he testified that he had not met with any russians, but he had. Look, he has contradicted himself so many times in the last, since january, that it really is hard to believe that he has been telling the truth at any one at any one point. Now as all of this unfolds, a new poll takes the temperature of where americans stand on the russia investigation. A Washington Post abc news poll finds 58 of americans approve of the way muler is handling the investigation, 28 do not. Thats more than a two to one margin. It also found 37 think trump is cooperating with the Mueller Investigation, 51 do not think hes cooperating. And 49 of americans think its likely the trump committed a crime in connection with russias work to influence our election, 44 think its unlikely he committed a crime. To our lead off panel tonight. Welcome to all of you. Joyce, let me start with you. There is just this constant trickle of new information about people connected to the Trump Campaign who had something to do with russia. May or may not be a suspicious and its face accept that everybody denied they had anything to do with russia. The cumulative incidents that were starting to hear about will certainly lead to interest on the behalf of muellers team. Obviously they have a lot of information that we dont have in the public. Perhaps theyre not surprised by any of these new public disclosures, but the more contact we find out individuals had with russia during the campaign, after the campaign, the more difficult it becomes for them to explain it away. These excuses of i forgot or it wasnt significant, it wasnt what you asked if he about, once we have three or four events in someones trajectory, it starts to look what prosecutors call willful blindness like their ostrichlike sticking their head in the sand, trying to ignore evidence of contact with russia as opposed to truly being unaware of it. And we to want remind everybody, shannon, about the exchange that the president had with julie pace of the Associated Press several months ago when, for the first of many times he was asked quite directly about his knowledge of his Campaign Team and their connections with russia. Lets listen. Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with russia during the course of the election . Well, i told you, general flynn obviously was dealing, so thats one person, so he was dealing as he should have been during the election . Nobody that i have. I have nothing to do with russia. To the best of my knowledge no person that i deal with does. So shannon, what do you think this means that we just saw that polling thats indicating that americans are beginning to the numbers of americans who are suspicious of the president s involvement with russia are growing, he has vehemently denied this and yet in the face of more russian interference in the election and evidence of it, he still has not take an position that he understands the seriousness of that. Well, still nothing has shown that he knew of any collusion or he knew of meetings taking place, you know, that piece hasnt necessarily come out yet. And been flushed out yet, but of course, this was a tight knit campaign of people who worked on this campaign said, not much happened that, you know, candidate trump now President Trump didnt know about. This wasnt a big Bureaucratic Campaign spread out over two cities. This was a pretty tight knit group. So, i mean, that is going to be a question people are going to ask of whether or not he knew about this. I mean what this does for his public perception, i mean, i think the country really is sort of fallen on, you know, two sides of the fence with everything that he does. Whether its russia, whether its comments about the flag, his tweets, you know, his policies, you either love them or hate them. Certain meetings, but why is this all going to Jeff Sessions at this point . Well, its just the drip, drip, drip of information and happens to be about jeff sessionings right now and as far as the white house is concerned, thats just fine with them because its not about President Trump. Just as the news of the first indictments on monday being about manafort and gates, the white house initially, their reaction was, see, not about us, no collusion, this is just White Collar Crime issue, itll be dealt with. That obscures some of the deeper anxieties that they have. Its fascinating if you step back and realize that this is a white house and a president in a defensive reactive posture, theyre watching tv just like the rest of the country to find these things out. Theres not really a possibility of them going back and doing a selfvet because this campaign was so free wheeling, it was just flying by the seat of their pants and it was really led by donald trump. So he may not have known about these conversations taking place, doesnt mean they didnt take place, but that may shield him a little bit. But in terms of protecting themselves now, knowing whats coming, very difficult for them to do that, and i know that even though the president is going to make phone calls to reporters and say everything is fine, im not worried, tells you something, one that he feels the need to make those calls and make those declarations, but also, they know inside this white house that whatever manafort knows, manaforts doing and jail time right now. If he doesnt cooperate or perhaps come forward. Right. So hes being set out there as an example if he doesnt cooperate, but that case isnt over. He may cooperate. He may give some information. And you have news today that the mueller folks are getting materials from kushner who was at bedminister with the president the weekend they made the decision to fire james comey. So theres so much of this still to go, i know the white house likes to say, see, no collusion, and sort of check off each day. So hes like they didnt get us today, but there are a lot of days still to come. Joyce, when you look at it from Paul Manafort or rick gates perspective, if theyve got information to trade, theyve got decisions to make as to whether theyre going to give that information in exchange for his eli says, less jail time or no jail time on what looks like a solid indictment. What if they dont have information to trade for . Thats bad news. Thats a solid indictment against them. Well, they can still plead guilty, theyll get credit for acceptance of responsibility and get a lighter sentence than they would otherwise, but i think its unlikely that they dont have information to offer here. We dont know what kind of information that might be. It could frankly be limited to information about other white collartype transactions, perhaps apps, dealings overseas or it could be information about what went on during this campaign. But i think the idea that they are as involved as they were to this tune of millions of dollars, and that they dont have information that would interest federal prosecutors, that seems extremely unlikely. Shannon, i want to bring up this picture again of that meeting in which George Papadopoulos and Jeff Sessions and donald trump were all at. Each time somebody comes out with information that may be connecting people or maybe connecting all of them to russia, the white house down plays it. And they have now described this picture as having been taken for instagram to basically quiet everybody down, to say that, you know, people who were saying you dont have a Foreign Policy team. They said this group never met again as a group, and theyre down playing the whole thing. Papadopoulos as coffee boy and low paid, low level volunteer, what do you make of this . Well, we keep finding out more and more. It seemed like initially it was as you were describing, you know, papa who . Carter page what, and like theyd never heard of these people. And then, of course, little bits come out more and more that, you know, there was this meeting with sessions and the president where he did speak up, that, you know, there was a dinner that carter page had with sessions where he mentions this trip to russia, that there were other meetings that papadopoulos was in with the National Security advisors. So were starting to learn more and more, but i still do hear from people in the campaign who did not these figures were doef nitly not part of the inner circle. They were definitely not advisor level, trump tower type inner circle figures. That is one thing people are consistent about during the campaign, but i think the idea of them being the coffee boy, were starting to find out information that says it was, tfrs more than that. Joyce, what do you make of the strategy then where mueller has started at the top with manafort and at the bottom possibly with papadopoulos, what do you make of his strategy and where it leads . So one of the hallmarks of a good prosecutor is that you dont delay a case when its ready to indict. And i think thats what were seeing here. The manafort case, that piece of the case was ready to move forward. And its clear that mueller has established different teams within the special counsels operation, we see different lawyers signing off on the Manafort Indictment than we saw on the papadopoulos line of case. And so those teams, although there may have been a little bit of coordination here, i think that theyre moving forward with their cases separately. But one thing that did happen when these indictments were released to the public view is that we got a good sense of how mueller is working. And although papadopoulos may be at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of cull. Ability and indeed thats what were forced to conclude by the fact that he is now looking at a sentence of zero to six months, were also seeing an elegantly crafted message that people who lie will be held accountable, but also people that cooperate with the investigation and provide information will have Better Outcomes than those who dont. Manafort was obviously being courted by the special counsels office. They obviously reached out, told him that he was a target and would have given him the opportunity to cooperate, and instead he chose to let them indict him, perhaps playing for a pardon at some point, but he will be on a very different trajectory than papadopoulos with his guilty plea. Eli, Jared Kushner has come into play in the last couple of days. There is talk, probably, from the bannon camp that the president is very angry at Jared Kushner, holds him responsible for the decision to fire james comey and for other decisions that have taken them down a road they dont want to be on. Is that the palace intrigue at the white house or something to that as far as you know . That aligns with what our reporting says. He is still talking to the president and serves him well and his interests to continue to sort of sew mistrust between the president and other people in his ear. Jared kushner, hes an easy target at the moment to blame for some of these things. He was there for the decision to fire jim comey, the worst decision in american political history. So we know what steve bannon think abouts this already. I would go back to joyces point about mueller sending this message. He is sending this message before his folks have met with Jared Kushner, with hope hicks, with the real inner circle the message is if youre lying possibly about anything, ill come after you. He is basically saying, i know so you can tell me the truth, and question work together. Or, you could be obstructionists and, you know, look what manafort is facing. I dont know if thats exactly what the message is, but i mean, clearly hes not, hes playing hardball with manafort and sent that message before, theyve talked to reince priebus, theyve talked to a few other folks, but they have not gotten to the inner circle, those are coming. And this whole thing, i know we had indictments this week, but this is still very much an early stages. Shannon, joyce, eli, thanks to all three of you. Still ahead tonight, president and republicans have a tax plan, but can they pass it . Up next, the white house staying on offense says the indictments of Robert Mueller have nothing to do with the trump white house. Steve schmitt and Eugene Robinson are coming when the 11th hour continues. When you have a cold stuff happens. Shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. I trained as hard as i could to stay alive. I have more than 30 pieces of shrapnel still in my leg. But i still push myself to the limit. If it werent for my tempurpedic, i wouldnt be able to sleep on my left side at all. The tempurpedic veterans day Savings Event is here, and now is the time to take advantage of this incredible offer. Save up to 500 instantly on select tempurpedic Adjustable Mattress sets. Find your exclusive retailer today at tempurpedic. Com. Sflmpl welcome back to the 11th hour. A veteran of the Bush White House and mccain campaigns, both are msnbc political analysts. Good evening to both of you gentlemen. Steve, i want to play for you what Sarah Huckabee sanders said on monday about the russia investigation, and then lets talk about it on the other side. But look, todays announcement has nothing to do with the president. Has nothing to do with the president s campaign or campaign activity. The real collusion scandal as weve said several times before has everything to do with the clinton campaign, fusion gps, and russia. Papadopoulos is in on the campaign, it is specifically about the campaign it has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign. It has to do with his failure to truth. That doesnt have anything to do with the campaign or the campaigns activities. Steve, its remarkable to draw that sort of distinction. I dont think it logically exists in the minds of most americans. I mean, most of us can figure out a campaign is different from a presidency, but so many of the team members are the same and theres a continuous threat. What do you make of that strategy . Well, first time the dishonesty is just breath taking. Theres no normal democracy anywhere in the world where you see that type of lying from the podium of the seat of executive power. You just dont. Nowhere, not in candie, australia, great britain. Second, it has everything to do with the campaign. Paul manafort was the chairman of the campaign. Paul manafort, Jared Kushner, donald trump jr. Were in a meeting with russian nationals who represented themselves as being part of the russian government for the purposes of delivering dirt on Hillary Clinton. Later, the president of the United States from aboard air force one directed a lie to the American People, trying to cover up the real purpose of that meeting. All of this nonsense talk about fusion gps, the clinton campaign, just like the Trump Campaign engaged in opposition research. There is nothing illegal, nothing unethical about hiring an investigator, hiring a researcher to find out information through public records or other sources about a potential candidate for president of the United States. It is materially different than what happened with regard to the Trump Campaign where officials representing themselves to be part of the russian government contacted the campaign to collude with, to work with, to favor one candidate against the other meddling in our election process. And thats before we get to the massive ru