Question on so many minds tonight how could such tragedy unfold in a horse of worship. What were the signs . The 11th hour begins now. With the, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in north korea. Day 291 of the trump administration, and tonight finds the president on the other side of the world. Landing this hour in seoul, south korea, which will put him roughly 120 miles away from kim jongun, about 30 miles from the dmz border to the north, easily the most tense stop of his 12day asian trip. And back home the crush of russia related events is a huge preoccupation. As is the drum beat of record low numbers in terms of polling responses on what this president has done or not done in office thus far. A new cnn poll says 36 of americans approve of the job trump is doing as president. A new low for him in this poll. 58 disapprove. Its one of several polls out just these past few days showing record low numbers. Nbc news has him at 38. Pugh research 34. Fox news 38. And on the russia front the issue that will not go away, former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate rick gates back in court today. The judge decided they need to stay on house arrest. He did make one exception for gates. Hes allowed to leave home tomorrow just for enough time to vote in the virginia gubernatorial election. Nbc news also has some new reporting on special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. The headline on this one reads mueller has enough evidence to bring charges in flynn investigation. Three sources say mueller is applying renewed pressure on flynn following the indictment on manafort. And as muellers investigation progresses incrementally, it can be easy to lose the forest for the trees. The Washington Post has put together a big picture look at where we stand to date, and its all under a headline that certainly gets your attention. At least nine people in trumps orbit had contact with russians during campaign and transition. This examines the contacts from done junior, jared kushner, trump attorney michael cone, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, carter page, jeff sessions, Michael Flynn and the Campaign Foreign policy adviser j. D. Gordon. Here are just some of the ways trump allies have defended those individuals and those contacts. Paul manafort, who is a good man, also by the way, Paul Manafort was replaced long before the election took place. He was only there for a short period of time. Even general flynn was a volunteer of the campaign and then obviously theres been discussion of Paul Manafort, who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time. Carter page is an individual who the president elect does not know and was put on notice months ago by the campaign. Im very disappointed in jeff sessions. You can fire him. I could. Well see what happens. But i was i pond a man to a position and then shortly after he gets the position, he recused himself. I said whats that all about . Why didnt you tell me that you were going to do that and i wouldnt have appointed you. As far as my son is concerned, my son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, bt a russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast. Mr. President , do you remember George Papadopoulos during that march meeting . I dont remember much about that meeting. It was a very unimportant meeting. Took place a long time dont remember much about it. With that lets bring in our leadoff panel on a monday night. Robert costa, Nbc News National Political reporter carol lee, who is one of the by line reporters on this new reporting about Robert Mueller and jeremy bash. Good evening. Welcome to you all. Carol, your piece, again, you were one of three by lines, deservedel got a lot of the attention this weekend. It was kind of a case you could see people shifting their focus almost a next man up kind of thing. Right. What are we comfortably reporting tonight about the status of the flynn investigation, which you point out certainly seems to be a classic squeeze play. Right. Thats exactly right. What we have been told by multiple sources that the special counsel has essentially gathered enough evidence to bring charges in the investigation into not just Michael Flynn but also his son, michael g. Flynn. Now, the significance of this, you know, is that this is the first, as we all know, Michael Flynn served in the white house, and this would be the first time this investigation is moving that close to somebody who had served inside the white house. The other key piece here is that we know that the special counsel is not just looking at things that you would expect like did Michael Flynn lie to the fbi, did he properly disclose his contacts with foreign officials, but also what he did while he was serving those 24 days inside the white house specifically as it relates to his dealings with turkey. And that opens up a whole other avenue that hasnt so much been zplord as some of these other things that we know Michael Flynn did, such as not registers as a Foreign Agent when the Justice Department said he was doing work that would have benefited a foreign government. So we dont know exactly where this is going to go. The reason why weve worded our story so carefully is because this could go in the direction of charges being brought. This could go in a direction of Michael Flynn and or his son deciding to cooperate with the information if theyre not already. But this is clearly a move by the special counsel in the wake of the Paul Manafort indictment to put a real tight squeeze on Michael Flynn. Carefully worded stories are good. Okay, jeremy bash, put on your lawyer hat. Lets say you are representing mr. Flynn, perhaps even mr. Flynn and his son. What are you thinking and what are you hoping tonight, incidentally, as we watch live Camp Humphreys as the president and secretary of state arrive there. Go ahead, jeremy. Yeah. I think the Flynn Legal Team has to be worried about three main claims. First, unrecommending sterd lobbying on behalf of the government of turkey. Secondly, potentially conspiring to deport or maybe even kidnap one of the turkish leaders enemies who is a resident of pennsylvania. This figure who mike flynn talked with some folks about trying to get him out of the country. And third, of course, lying to the fbi when he was National Security adviser and he was questioned importantly about his conversation with the Russian Ambassador after the Obama Administration put sanctions on russian for their meddling in the election. So they are facing jeopardy on a number of fronts. I think its important to distinguish, this is a guy, mike flynn who unlike manafort, mike flynn served in the highest levels of our military, the head of the Defense Intelligence agency, held the highest security clearance and during the president ial campaign he received Intelligence Briefings from the cia and from our Intelligence Community and so he had access to all that information while he was potentially conducting these illegal acts. Is this purely transactional as weve seen it on the tv shows. You give and you get and you up the antion your recollection of, you know, i can speak to this one conversation i had with the president and you hope that time gets taken off at the other end . I think theres an element of that, although i would remind folks that mike flynn is a very big fish. He was National Security adviser. Yep. Of the United States of america. So this is not just an effort to get someone up higher in the food chain. Hes pretty high up there. All right. Robert costa, what do you hear on all of it . Also, how the Trump White House and the trump circle are reacting to this. Following up on those comments, especially carols sharp reporting, we see this is a time of choice for general flynn as he faces this grand jury investigation. And no one inside of the white house and around President Trump, who im talking to is really aware of how this is all going to unfoldment and it has some people on edge to be sure, because they are weary of flynn. They know he may be in a tough financial situation personally. Does he become someone who in their description flips and starts to really talk to the special counsel about all elements of not only the Trump Campaign but President Trumps orbit of network and associates and the Foreign Policy front. And robert, you go back a bit with donald trump and this campaign. The axe i dont mean at the time in the early days was all the best people were gone. They were spoken for. They were hired. So a lot of the outer rings of the Foreign Policy intelligencea werent there. Is that when the kind of russian cracks and fiz urs started appearing and this started seeping into the trump circle . Thats exactly right, brian. I remember if the spring of 2016 i went to the trump hotel, still unfinished trump hotel in washington with my colleague bob woodward at the Washington Post to interview then candidate trump and we encountered one of these Foreign Policy meetings. All these different figures, sam clovis and others around the table meeting with the candidate in kind of a ram shod way. It wasnt a formal meeting that you would expect out of a president ial campaign and people like carter page and sam clovis were not part of that beating heart of the Foreign Policy establishment in washington. Thats not any excuse. This is a major president ial campaign. At the same time it was evident to me as a reporter that these were people who were operating on their own islands, sometimes in coordination with the campaign, sometimes on their own, and they were not the people youd really find as a reporter on Foreign Policy in washington. Yeah. I just think people forget the genesis of that and how kind of unstructured this campaign always was. Carol lee, i dont want you to engage in ramp ant speculation, tempered by knowing you wont anyway, but what else can you gather from even the publicly available moves youve witnessed from the mueller team. In addition, what you may have gathered and been told about where they are . Well, i think what youve seen is a very method cal, calculated investigation where, you know, if you look at it from going to the outer circle into closing in on the bigger, bigger fish, thats how this feels that like its going. I also think that this this idea that the trump that mike flynn may have done something while serving as this president s National Security adviser is a very significant development. And specifically, you know, that the special counsel is looking into whether he made moves in regards to turkey with the expectation that he might receive millions of dollars on the other end of that if he were to be successful. This is something thats clearly this investigation as a whole is starting to take a toll on the president. Polls are starting to show that and thats only going to get worse for him. This Washington Post piece that mentions the nine people that have been gotten to around trumps orbit. Youve got some consistency here in tell us of russian trade craft. The general pattern of russians appearing to try to find soft spots, to find the soft under belly of the campaign to make contact. After 30 years running and managing russia operations. So no rookie. Quote, i just think there is way too much smoke out there for there to be absolutely no fire. Do you concur to that based on all that you know, jeremy . Yeah. If you look at the situation with papadopoulos, he clearly met in london with someone who looks like a cut out or hand her for russian intelligence. And also tonight we got the fist glimpse at the testimony of carter page, who testified last week in front of the House Intelligence Committee. The transcript was relead tonight. He details all of the russians he has met with and interacted with from a business perspective over many years. Its clear that russian government officials and intelligence were all over carter page. They may even have sent him to the Trump Campaign. He may have been unwitting that they were trying to use him to get inside that campaign. Weve got the president overseas. Weve got this russia preoccupation and then we have 535 individuals in the building behind you underneath that dome, elected representatives of the government. What are they doing and what are they thinking right about now about the trump circle, their ability to work with them and get anything out of this effort . Theres a lot of action, actually, brian. And theres a lot of silence. And what i mean by that is when we look at what the House Intelligence Committee is doing, interviewing carter page, releasing the transcript today, youre seeing these congressional investigations, which have been pretty slow over the last few months, start to pick up speed and provide new information on this national skpugs investigation. At the same time the republicans control both the senate and the house. And when im talking to lawmakers up there, they dont want to talk about russia or President Trumps conductor anything about the campaign. They want to talk about the proposal on taxes. Well see how long the republicans in power will be able to avoid having this be at the forefront. Journalism gets no fresher than this. Our great thanks to you. Up next, will the president change his language toward little rocket man now that theyll be only about 120 miles apart . Well cover the south korea leg of the president s trip, Getting Started as we mentioned, at this hour on the pacific rim as the 11th is just Getting Started on a monday night. Building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral. From godaddy in fact, 68 of people who have built their. Website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. Build a better website in under an hour. With gocentral from godaddy. Pressure relieving comfort, and our 90day, complete satisfaction trial, will make tossing and turning a thing of the past. Plus, during our veterans day savings event, save up to 500 on select Adjustable Mattress sets. Find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic. Com. Throughout history, the one meal when we come together, break bread, share our day and connect as a family. [ bloop, clicking ] and connect, as a family. Just, uh one second voice guy. [ bloop ] huh . Hey . I paused it. Bam, family time. So how is everyone . Find your awesome with xfinity xfi and change the way you wifi. Rocket man should have been handled a long time ago. This shouldnt be handled now, but im going to handle it because we have to hamds it. Rocket man is on a Suicide Mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. The era of strategy patience is over. Some people said that my rhetoric is very strong, but look whats happened with very weak rhetoric over the last 25 years. Some of the president s rhetoric on north korea and its leader and the threat that the north poses to all nations within its reach. Starting tonight this trip the president is on will put him about 30 miles south of the dmz with north korea, give or take, and we will get to see if proximity has an effect on language. We have a First Class Panel to talk about the Korean Peninsula tonight. Steve submit is with us. And the mccain president ial campaign and a devoted student of u. S. History. Sue my terry is senior fellow of the korea chair at the center for strategic and international studies. A former senior Senior Analyst ke cia. Bob kerry is with us former u. S. Senator from neck. Former governor, a member of the 9 11 commission, former navy seal who was one of the 73 living recipients of the medal of honor. And we welcome our panel. We want to get a report from the traveling white house. Jonathan la mere is in seoul, south korea to cover the president s visit and set the scene for us after what im told is about a three second satellite delay. So jonathan, lay out the stakes for the president s arrival. Hi, brian. Its tuesday afternoon here in seoul. The president as you say has just touched down here in south korea, where hes greeted with a lot of uncertainty. There are a number of questions facing him. Three in particular. First, what sort of relationship does he have with the south korean president , president moon . We just saw two days in japan where it was almost a buddy movie with Prime Minister abe this. They ate meals together, they golfed together. They even had custom made hats together. He has no such close ties with this president. Theyve only met once. And they