The Washington Post in this russia investigation. Times journalist Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman report President Trump spoke to witnesses about their conversations with special counsel Robert Muellers team. We will talk with Michael Schmidt in just a moment. They write according to three people familiar with these encounters the special counsel has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators. In one episode the president told an aide that the white house counsel, don f. Mcgahn ii, should issue a statement denying a New York Times article in january. The article said mr. Mcgahn told investigators that the president once asked him to fire the special counsel, robert s. Mueller. Mr. Mcgahn never released a statement and later had to remind the president that he had indeed asked mr. Mcgahn to see that mr. Mueller was dismissed, the people said. In the other episode, mr. Trump asked his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, how his interview had gone with the special counsels investigators and whether they had been nice, according to two people familiar with the discussion. Now to the latest from the Washington Post. Robert mueller has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the seychelles just before the inauguration of donald trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the Incoming Administration and the kremlin. Apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter. In january 2017, erik prince, the founder of the private military company blackwater, met with a russian official close to president Vladimir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of u. S. russia relations. A witness cooperating with mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the trump transition could meet with an emissary from moscow to discuss future relations between the two countries. The post goes on to note an associate of erik prince, lebanese businessman george nader, attended and helped organize the seychelles meeting. Nader for himself has testified before a grand jury and is cooperating with the mueller investigation. That should be enough to talk about over these next few minutes. And first things first. Lets begin with tonights New York Times piece and the coauthor, Michael Schmidt, who is with us by phone tonight. Michael, it seems to me there are two competing concerns here in your story. Trumps concerns over what was asked and what was said to the special counsel, and the concerns of those who are hearing trump is asking about what happened with the special counsel. Theres a longstanding expectation and advice that folks who are in the center of an investigation should not speak, either with prosecutors or with witnesses, as it could create an appearance of trying to interfere with an investigation. And the president has disregarded this, disregarded it back in february 2017 when he spoke to jim comey about the flynn investigation, and now as the investigation intensifies, engaging with Reince Priebus about his interview, engaging with don mcgahn about reports that mcgahn had been told by trump to fire mueller. And if youre someone who is concerned about the appearance of obstruction, these types of things would alarm you. You point out in the story, you and maggie do, that i forget the wording you used that hes very curious, and such an effort by him to find out, hey, what did you guys talk about in there, would be natural if not proper. Tell us about one of your stories that you and maggie also coauthored back in january 25th that prompted one of these conversations. We reported that last summer, trump had gone to mcgahn and asked him to get rid of mueller. And in the aftermath of that story, trump was very upset, especially because this had come out that mcgahn had told mueller about this and mueller knew about it. Trump went to rob porter, who was still at the white house at the time, and told him that the President Trump said that he wanted mcgahn to put out a statement that this was not true and that he would get rid of him if he didnt do that. Porter relayed that message to mcgahn. Mcgahn and the president then had a confrontation in the oval office in which the president said, look, this never happened. And mcgahn had to remind him of what had occurred over the summer when trump told him to call rosenstein and say that mueller had these conflicts and needed to go. Just an incredible yarn. Michael schmidt, one half of the writing duo of schmidt and haberman on the board tonight over at the New York Times supplying our lead story. Michael, thank you as always for being here with us on the show. And here to react now further, chuck rosenberg, a former u. S. Attorney, former senior fbi official, currently an msnbc contributor. And we welcome back mika oyang, attorney and former staffer for the house intelligence and Armed Services committee. Good evening and welcome to you both. Chuck, if you watch too many movies or legal shows on tv, you go around using phrases like, witness tampering. Is there anything legally wrong, if this story in the New York Times proves true, if the president had at least these two encounters with people, and say, hey, what did the special counsel ask you about, what did you tell those guys . You probably dislike when it lawyers say, maybe. But maybe. And heres why, its a maybe. The first thing that prosecutors do, and i was prosecutor for a long time, is ask witnesses, who else did you talk to . The first thing Defense Attorneys do, at least good ones, they tell their clients, dont talk to anyone else. At the very least theres an appearance of impropriety. More than that, the witness tampering statute that you alluded to, brian, requires not that you succeed at tampering with the witness, but just that you try an endeavor, an attempt is sufficient to trigger the statute. You cant really tell just from this reporting whether or not the president was trying to influence their testimony or get them to withhold testimony. But in the larger patchwork of all the things hes been saying and doing, maybe thats what he was trying to do. And if in fact he tried it, whether or not he succeeded, that is witness tampering. Now mika, is it notable to you that witnesses and or lawyers or both felt strongly enough about this to have gone and reported it to muellers staff . Yeah, i think that is significant. It shows that they dont think that this is innocuous. They also know that hes not supposed to be asking them about this. One of the challenges you see in these questions is, even though hes been advised by his lawyers not to ask anyone, he cant help himself. And its this kind of impulsiveness and erratic behavior that really will cause him problems down the line if hes speaking to federal investigators. And chuck, what about i looked at several of the Cable Networks tonight. I saw a graphic on the screen that said obstruction of justice. Does this match any definition of obstruction of justice that you know . Absolutely. Theres a lot of overlap between the obstruction of justice statute and the witness tampering statute. Incidentally, body of them only require an attempt. Again, whether or not you succeed at obstructing justice, whether or not you succeed at tampering with a witness, the fact that you tried is enough to trigger it. And frankly, a prosecutor could charge either or both in this situation. Mika, tossed into this story like a grenade is the fact that john kelly is present for at least one of these encounters with the president. Now what does that do to john kellys chances of getting a request from across town to talk to muellers folks . If he doesnt have one already, he will now. Hes been present in so many of these conversations, in so many instances with the president. Hes very trusted by the president. He will get that request, then the question will be how much does he provide to mueller what does he know . I want to throw up the Washington Post story on the screen. As people look at that, i have a question for you about this meeting. Its a complicated story to tell. Perhaps just as complicated as to ask a guy like you, if you werent present, you werent invited, you didnt know bill in realtime, how do investigators go about finding transportation records, guest lists, what was talked about, at a meeting that was shrouded in secrecy for good reason in the seychelles for Goodness Sake in 2017 . If you look at other indictments that have surfaced youve seen this Investigative Team is very good at uncovering stuff. Airline travel, you get out of the country and get back in youre going to need a passport, thats all recorded by customs. Hotel and lodging. Credit card records. Phone calls. Text messages, emails. Everywhere we go, every one of us leaves an enormous digital trail. You cant go to the indian ocean without doing that. Mika oyang, erik prince is a very interesting individual. He and his company came along just at a time when the American Armed forces decided it was a good idea to contract out more of our war fighting and support work, and that made him a very wealthy, connected man. He happens to be brother of the current education secretary, betsy devos. Fit turns out that erik prince didnt tell the whole truth to a congressional committee, what kind of trouble is that . I think that hes actually this meeting and his attempt to set up a back channel, especially if hes not being truthful about it, will cause him a lot of problems with his business. Because in doing business with the United States military, in wanting to get security clearances, you have to go through these same processes that have tripped up so many others and you have to be truthful about that process. Lying in the security clearance process can get your clearances revoked which means that you cannot get the business anymore. So it may also cause him problems with trustworthiness as a partner for the military. And you really have to trust the people that youre working with when youre asking them to provide security for you. Were always grateful of to be able to talk to you, two of the very best in the legal business, mika oyang and chuck rosenberg, thank you for explaining all we had to explain here at the top of the broadcast. The other lead story today and tonight, the latest in this case of the porn star versus the president. And news tonight of an attempt to silence the woman suing donald trump. And then later, Jeff Sessions goes to california and then goes after california in a speech. Then the governor of california goes after him. Well have all of it for you. The 11th hour is just getting under way on a wednesday night. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, just like it should you know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Were back and we have a lot more to get to. New reporting from nbc news reveals that President Trumps longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, is trying to silence the porn star, Stormy Daniels, over her alleged relationship with the president. Stay with us here. Last week, cohen obtained a secret restraining order. More on that later. Through an arbitration process that warned daniels shell face penalties if she starts to talk. The news comes one day after we learned that daniels, whose real name is stephanie clifford, filed a lawsuit against President Trump. In it daniels alleged that an agreement not to disclose her intimate relationship with the president is invalid because trump never actually signed the document. The hush agreement as its called in the suit directed 130,000 to be given to daniels in exchange for her silence. Michael cohen says he used his own personal funds to facilitate the payment. He also said neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump Campaign were a party to the transaction. And that neither reimbursed him for the payment directly or indirectly. Cohen has said, in fact, that President Trump vehemently denies the allegations. We should note that daniels is not suing for money but for the freedom to tell her story about her alleged affair with trump, which of course she could eventually sell for a high price. The Stormy Daniels drama was, of course, a major theme at this afternoons White House Press briefing. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about this story relating to daniels 12 times, including multiple questions about what the president knew. Did the president approve of the payment that was made in october of 2016 by his longtime lawyer and adviser, Michael Cohen . Look, the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. This case has already been won in arbitration and anything beyond that i would refer you to the president s outside council. Did he know about that payment at the time, though . Ive addressed this as far as i can go. The payment, did he know about the at the same time at the time . Not that im aware of, and again, anything beyond what ive already given you, i would refer you to the president s outside counsel. Stormy daniels attorney just spoke to my colleague Lawrence Odonnell tonight and addressed sanders claim that the case has been won in arbitration. I personally like miss sanders, i think she has a nearimpossible job. But the fact of the matter is, and im confident she didnt know it was nonsense when she effectively told that to the world. But its absolutely bogus. Its nonsense. Any claim by the administration that donald trump won in arbitration is no different than me claiming that i won the super bowl a few weeks ago. Its cleat hooey. Well, on that note, here to talk more about all of it, peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times and msnbc political analyst. Shannon petty piece, White House Correspondent for bloomberg. Danny savalas, criminal defense attorney and msnbc analyst. Gingerly be very tender with us who are laymembers of the audience. When i ask you to describe what this arbitration process is that sarah Huckabee Sanders is saying the president won. The arbitration process is a form of alternative dispute resolution. And what it means is Companies Love these, big companies, rich folks, because they offer a private, a secret way of resolving disputes in a way retired judge . Exactly, retired judges will often become arbitrators. Its a private court. You can resolve your claims there. Usually you can define the parameters of this secret tribunal in your contract. You can say, theres no appeal. If you read this agreement, and everyone has access to this complaint and this agreement, the terms are so in favor of d. D. , david dennison, whoever that may be. David dennison can pick the arbitrator. David dennison can pick the state, the laws of the state that he wants. David dennison can decide that theres no appeal. David dennison has all the power as to the arbitrator. So that when Sarah Sanders said they won in arbitration, they didnt really win. The contract allowed them to walk over to an arbitrator of their choice and say, question of us a tro, give us a temporary restraining order. And you can see in the arbitrators order that she looked at it, decided that she really didnt have a choice but to issue a tro. That was done without any due process. Why . Because the contract allowed for it. Thats why Stormy Daniels and her team have to invalidate this contract. Because it has an arbitration clause that will keep the trump team exactly where they want to be and thats in arbitration. Peter baker, lets swing back to the News Business and that equals what the publica knows out of the white house today. This arbitration term put this right inside the white house today. Yeah, it did. For the first time in a way the white house has tried very hard to sort of sidestep this story, doesnt want any part of it, you can understand why. When Sarah Sanders today at the briefing did disclose this idea of an arbitration result that was favorable to the president , it seemed to put the white house right in the middle of it. It seemed to acknowledge there was, in fact, a real dispute here. That there is, in fact, an issue that the president has not himself addressed, which is, what is the situation with his relationship with this woman . What kind of arrangement was made that resulted in her getting 130,000 from the president s lawyer, how did that money get authorized, so forth. We dont really have answers to those questions. She didnt give us the answers to those questions. It doesnt sound like the story is going away very soon. Shannon, this is a first indeed for the presidency. Its a first for all of us. This storys been doing a slow build. Its been out there. But given what we watched in todays news cycle, fair to say its going to stay for news cycles to come . Yes. Because now its a legal dispute. Its not just sort of a tabloid story about an affair. Now we have a legal battle and a court battle between two Stormy Daniels is someone who doesnt seem to be backing down from a fight, and Michael Cohen certainly is someone who does not back down from a fight. He is a street fighterstyle lawyer. He fancies himself a godfather character. He is nicknamed the pitbull. Hes not backing down either here. I see two big personalities, neither going away any time soon. Counselor, i heard Stormy Daniels lawyer on television this evening. When asked the overarching question, did donald trump know . He answered it this way. For donald trump not to know, it would have meant that his attorney, on his behalf, negotiated and drafted a detailed agreement, gained in negotiations, cut a check for 130,000, and then entered into arbitration without ever telling the client, which would be a violation of ethics. Correct . I agree on all fronts. In fact, theres several it call issues. In addition to those you just mentioned, lawyers are not supposed to pay settlements on behalf of their clients. If you look at this agreement, though, theres no indication that cohen signed it on behalf of trump as his attorney. He signed it on behalf of some entity called ec. So that makes it even more challenging for trump to say that, yes, im a party, i can enforce my rights against Stormy Daniels, if theres a big blank space where he was supposed to have signed the agreement. Now, again, they want to keep it in arbitration and they have to the daniels team has to convince the court to keep it out of arbitration and keep it in the court, because believe me, the trump team, even though they didnt sign, he didnt sign that agreement, will try to bring it right back to arbitration. Shannon, despite the president s words yesterday, is the truth that this administration is having a hard time filling and keeping west wing jobs filled, and is a news cycle like today part of the reason why . Its a record level of turnover. Its about 40 turnover rate so far in this presidency. Theres vacancies on top of vacancies on top of vacancies. Theres people doing three jobs, four jobs, in this administration. Chief of staff john kelly is without deputies. Hes a man doing a job that you typically have four deputies with about two deputies right now. There is an enormous amount of turnover going on at this white house. Its only going to get worse with gary cohn meeting. Mcmaster our reporting indicates is going to be leaving next. Yes, its incredibly difficult to recruit people for this white house, and throw in more, you know, drama in the news cycle, not to mention all the drama thats created internally, but the external drama too. The white house just does not have the allure that it has in past administrations for people who really are at the top of their game. Always excellent, thank you so much. Peter baker, hes done nothing wrong, has been asked to stay late tonight, well see him on another topic later. Record turnover rate. You heard our last discussion. Republicans sounded alarm bell and a white house essentially saying, nothing to see here. Were back with all of it after this. Fred would do anything for his daughter. Get in, fred even if it means being the back half of a unicorn. Fear not fred, the front half washed his shirt with gain flings and that smell puts the giddy in giddy up. Thats because one gain flings pac has more freshness than a whole bottle of the other guy. Gain. Seriously good scent. I could be more president ial than anybody. I can be more president ial if i want to be. I know the best people. I know the best managers. I know the best dealmakers. We are going to win so much. Were going to have win after win after win. You people are going to get sick and tired of winning. Our program is working far beyond our wildest expectations. As weve been reporting, recent developments are testing the president s theories and confidence about leadership, particularly the rate of staff turnover at the white house. According to the folks at brookings, the Trump Administration has seen a 43 turnover among senior aides in 13 months. That, of course, is a record turnover rate for the west wing. Yesterday came word of another big departure. Chief economic adviser gary cohn announcing his resignation just hours after the president insisted that everybody wants to work in the white house. Well, today the white house was asked about the rather constant personnel changes. So far this year, six Top White House staffers have resigned. The president says there are more names to come. Why are so many people leaving this administration . This administration has had a historic first year. Were going to continue to do great things. This is an intense place, as is every white house. And its not abnormal that you would have people come and go. The president s got a number of very accomplished, smart, capable people around him. Gary cohns decision was apparently prompted by the president s plan to impose these tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Nbc news reports tonight that its unclear when the president will actually sign off on those tariffs. Hes now considering an exemption, a carve heat out for countries like mexico and canada. Today he continued to press the case for his proposal. We have finally given american businesses a level playing field. And youll see more of this in the coming weeks. Were bringing it back. Our jobs have been stolen from us. Our businesses have been taken. Our factories have been closed. Its all coming back. Mr. Trumps tariff proposal coupled with the impending departure of gary cohn is raising concerns among top congressional republicans, some of whom believe the president may be veering too far from core party beliefs. Here to talk about it tonight, the appropriately named michael steele, former chairman of the ive been working on that all day former chairman of the Republican National committee and an msnbc political analyst. And talil, White House Correspondent for bloomberg. Welcome to you both. Michael, what is the level of chaos . Steel and aluminum are not topics that come up in every American Home every day. But when you screw around with these, and what it could cause as a counterattack . Weve seen the Ripple Effect already. Our allies especially. Which apparently no one around the president or the president really accounted for. Reacting the way they did. And the truth of it is, this is a reactionary policy. This is a policy born out of things that have nothing to do with the Economic Foundation of our economy or the direction the president really ultimately wants to lead. It has to do with other things. And so the party right now is sitting there going, you know, this is a space weve never been in before. We are free traders. Were not about putting tariffs and imposing tariffs. Were thought about protectionism. Remember how much they railed against rand paul and ron paul on Foreign Policy and their protectionist policies. This is a different space for a lot of leaders in the party right now. And what is frustrating for a lot of us is they seemingly are just going along with it. You know, theyre doing sort of halfmeasures of protest and speaking out a little bit. Theyre speaking out a little bit. If this is a foundational principle, if this is something that is important to how you articulate a vision and a future for the american economy, i think you would stand up a little stronger than weve seen. The president knows this. Hes able to take advantage of it. And this is where he is. About he says in that clip, i love it, pay tax to what he said, i can be president ial if i want to be. And that sums up everything that the partys had to deal with over the past year. Talil, we were led to believe the president may sign this thing as early as an event tomorrow, but there is no event scheduled on this for tomorrow. Instead theres talk of carveouts for countries like canada and mexico. And thats fraught to open that door, as you know, because then the conga line begins of all the countries who feel they have a special pleading to make. Yeah, thats right. That sort of takes us back towards the very early days of this presidency where there was so much chaos, they were rolling out various executive orders that had not been vetted. This is a similar process where the president is sort of vacillating from one position to the next. A week ago when he announced these tariffs for the first time, a lot of the people within the west wing were surprised to hear that the president was going to go ahead with this. Many people thought that this decision was not going to be made for several weeks and maybe even months. Now when the president rolled it out, it appeared he did not really have the specifics lined up, and now theyre sort of rushing to try to get the papers together, make sure everythings able for the president to sign. Looks like now its not something thats going to happen tomorrow as several people in the administration said earlier today, it could get pushed. Theres this mad scramble among members of the republican party, both on capitol hill and within the west wing, trying to get the president to sort of tailor this decision, make some changes, and maybe even sort of scale this thing back so that there isnt this major Ripple Effect where our allies in europe and other parts of the world are retaliating and causing prices to go up for american consumers. So theres a lot thats in flux several days after the president first made this announcement. Michael, to your point about not seeing through the consequences, this is going to affect the trump base, its going to affect all of us who buy washer dryers, refrigerator freezers, cars in a real way. So are you prescribing backbone to your fellow republicans . I am. You have to at some point recognize that there is a price to be paid for all of this. A price to be paid for the chaos, a price to be paid for the lack of focus and direction. And, you know, yes, you passed a tax cut. Okay . Does not an administration make, that is not American Economic policy made that way. Theres so many different components of this right now that need to be brought to heel. You look at this tariff effort, the president did you talk to republicans would have told them, why dont you do what reagan did, just impose quotas on chinese steel. Hello. Just put a quota. Guess what, were going to limit the amount of steel youre going to bring into the country. And would require someone in the west wing saying, hey, you know what Ronald Reagan did. Right. So, you know, there are examples that this president , this republican president , can look to from other republican president s who handled these types of situations in a way that didnt alienate our allies, put us on an economic collision course with them, with a trade war. But more importantly, keeping safe the american pocketbook. You know, the consumers pocketbook. Because youre absolutely right, your car, your refrigerator, even your can of beer, despite what weve heard, is going to cost you more. Talil, i owe you one. I had to shorten you tonight because of time. You can represent aluminum alongside the appropriately named michael steele. Our thanks to both gentlemen tonight for coming back on our broadcast. Youre going to want to hear from Vladimir Putin had to say about our country today. Thats next on the 11th hour. President Vladimir Putin spoke very highly of the american president today. In awe interview with a russian journalist, putin said trump made a very good impression on him, adding, its possible to negotiate with him to search for compromises. But notably, following the unanimous finding that russia meddled in our election, something even our own president now admits, putin took a shot at the u. S. Government saying he was disappointed in the american political system, adding, it has demonstrated its inefficiency and has been eating itself up. Focus on that last line there as we welcome peter baker back to the broadcast. Before he joined the New York Times, he was, among other things, moscow cobureau chief for the Washington Post, a man with a lot of experience in that corner of the world. Peter, are these good days to be Vladimir Putin . We caution that translation can do a lot of things, russian to english, so take everything with a grain of salt but we get the gist. We do, i think. These are good days to be Vladimir Putin. In a little over a week hes about to be releaked. Nobody doubts that. Hes got the election wrapped up because theres no real competition. Everything is under his control. Hes playing out these days before the election in an interesting way. Hes toddling back and forth between sort of an antiamerican tone he took last week when he introduced this new supposedly new Nuclear Missile they plan to roll out, and he used, in fact, animation showing such a missile attacking, what, florida where the president of the United States has a vacation home. And then today and this week he says he likes President Trump, hes got good relations with him, he can do business with him. So hes playing on our dysfunction at the moment and hes not wrong to say the system here is eating itself up to some extent, to a large extent he has some responsibility for that, according to the intelligence agencies. I wish i had his yotes in front of me. We had retired fourstar general Barry Mccaffrey on our broadcast late last week for a little bit of a reality check on russia. All the stats he used would be familiar to you. He called them Something Like a fourthrate military power with one functional aircraft carrier, their societal problems, and on and on and on. The point was i think that all of this has elevated them way beyond their global rank. Theyve taken on such an importance in American Life. Did you ever think in your American Life youd see that day come . Its interesting, right, theyre not the soviet union, they dont have the economic power they once did. Yet they are playing on a big stage and theyre playing in lots of different corners of the world. Theyre playing not just here in our country in our political debate, theyre playing in syria, the middle east, theyre playing in iran, theyre playing in the far east with north korea. And we saw in the last 48 hours they seem to be playing once again possibly even in our own ally of britain where the poisoning of a former russian spy has now been confirmed by scotland yard. And the question is, is it a repeat of what russia did a few years back with Alexander Litvinenko in the poisoning incident. They seem to create great impact for low cost. Thats one of the things they have been trying to specialize in the last few years, given their limited resources. And wont that take all of the west ganging together to stop it, and wont stopping it first take an aggressive move by the United States, and more specifically, the president of these United States . We heard the president Say Something interesting yesterday. He did say at his press conference with the swedish Prime Minister that russia did, in fact, meddle in the election in 2016. That was a big deal. It was a big deal. Then of course he said, other people might have meddled as well. He said hes going to make sure it doesnt happen in 2018. He didnt say he would bring this up with Vladimir Putin and some more robust way. Remember the last time he and Vladimir Putin talked about it, he said putin denied it and he, the president of the United States, was inclined to accept that denial, which of course very few others in washington do. So were in this sort of odd place right now with russia where theyre not certainly a friend, but the president of the United States is trying to make sure he doesnt treat them like an enemy either. Peter baker, always our great thanks, one of the true thoughtful people we try to have on this broadcast as often as we can talk you into staying up late with us. We really appreciate it, thank you, peter. The u. S. Attorney general took on the state of california today. And california fired right back at him. Well have it for you when we come right back. At the Marine Mammal center, the environment is everything. We want to do our very best for each and every animal, and we want to operate a sustainable facility. And pg e has been a partner helping us to achieve that. Weve helped the Marine Mammal center go solar, install electric vehicle charging stations, and become more energy efficient. Pg e has allowed us to be the most Sustainable Organization we can be. Any time you help a customer, its a really good feeling. Its especially so when its a customer thats doing such good and important work for the environment. Together, were building a better california. You dont see this every day. The u. S. Attorney general took on a single one of our 50 states today, speaking in california. Jeff sessions formally announced the Justice Department under his direction filed a lawsuit against the state of california claiming their sanctuary laws restrict the ability of our federal immigration agents to do their jobs. In a speech before a Law Enforcement official, sessions took on the state and included the oakland mayor, who had recently warned residents there of upcoming immigration raid. California, we have a problem. A series of actions and events has occurred here that directly and adversely impact the work of our federal officers. So heres my message to mayor schaaf. How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our Law Enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders that did not go over well. California governor jerry brown wasted no time pushing right back on his home turf, arguing the attorney general was performing a political stunt to please his boss. This is really unprecedented. For the chief Law Enforcement of the United States to come out to california and act more like fox how dare you . And this attorney general is maybe hes trying to keep his job because the president is not too happy with him. California, by the way, went for Hillary Clinton by 30 points in the election. We should also note trump is the first president since ike to skip a visit to california in his first year in office. Truman made it there two and a half months into his presidency. Trump is slated to make his first visit as president to california next week. Well, with us tonight from l. A. , christina belatoni from the l. A. Times. Weve had an invitation in to Governor Brown to come on this broadcast and were nice, i just want him to come on and say his name. Its been for a year. He doesnt normally do that but i think it took what sessions said to get him to that podium today. That is exactly right. It is very clear from browns actions. Jerry brown used something that used trumps tones and used the word sad in all caps in his tweet. He was clearly frustrated. He doesnt normally come out and do news conferences. He joined the attorney general. That clip there was one of the mild ones, he mentioned the russia investigation, said that had something to do with this. He said this is going to war with california. When you have a governor who chooses his word and public appearances carefully, you know this has gotten under his skin. Its important to point out the mayor of oakland, who attorney general sessions went after, shes a brown protege. This is the city he was mayor of in addition to the fact that he supports the law for a lot of reasons. Am i wrong to assume that a lot of people in the most populous state in the union will throw down over these ice raids intended to send people out of this country . Yeah. This is a very hot topic here in the state. Certainly the sanctuary state law, its important to know when it passed the Legislature Last year, it was scaled dramatically back and compromised with some of those same Law Enforcement officers that sessions of speaking to today. There are three provisions that the government is going after. Yeah, this is something that has pretty wide support in the state. The last poll we talked about in our story today had more than 60 of the state supportive of the measure and President Trump has less than a third of support in the state and i suggest there will be continued protests that we saw today with attorney general sessions, i think thats going to happen on tuesday when trump comes to los angeles. Play the role of an gop advance person and if you were deciding where his trip goes, we havent been told yet, perhaps you have, where would you send donald trump in his first visit to california okay, Orange County is a given just after his first year being president . Hes going to do these border wall prototypes in san diego and hes actually raising money. We had a bit of information today at latimes. Com how theyre doing a big fundraiser in beverly hills, the highest you can donate is 250,000 to benefit the rnc. I dont think edo much else other than that. Wed love for him to come talk to us for an interview. Theres a lot you can do in l. A. He has the Trump National golf course there. I would imagine hes going to visit it or maybe stay there. We havent heard the exact details of his movements but well be covering it very closely because this is very near and dear to californians. Since hes been elected, youve seen a Resistance Movement in this state and an activism really unprecedented that is fuelling what were expecting in the midterm elections that are going to be very critical here in california. Its among the reasons we are always going to try to have you on and were happy to air your invitation so, mr. President , go to the l. A. Times editorial meeting. Governor brown, please commonly our broadcast. Theres so much to discuss. Christina belatoni, thank you for coming on our broadcast tonight. Today we learned yet again a promise hasnt been kept. What needs happen now when the 11th hour continues. Im leaving the track behind, but im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. 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Under donald trump and its current leader david shul kin is in big trouble. Shulkin is already under fire for his personal travel. Now theres a 150page report by the internal watch dog at the v. A. , it deals with the sprawling d. C. Medical center and it says Veterans Administration officials knew of staggering problems for years but did not fix them. It tells stories of patients placed under anesthesia when they didnt have the proper facilities. Having to run across the treat to borrow supplies and taxpayer waste like this. The v. A. Rented inhome hospital beds for three patients for nearly 875,000 when they could have just purchased them for 21,000. One of the easiest things for a candidate to do is to campaign on a promise of doing more for our veterans. Those same promises, again to be fair, have been made by our candidates for generations. And yet because our men and women in uniform continue to sign up to answer the call, we make more veterans every day, every day more of them become the responsibility of the v. A. , and its a huge responsibility and its probably time politicians stop talking about the enormous debt we owe to all of them and repay that debt instead in the form of the quality care they all deserve. That is our broadcast on a wednesday night. Thank you so very much for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. We have Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren both joining us in the show. We begin with breaking news trump has been talking to witnesses in the mueller investigation. Joyce vance and Barbara Mcquaid are both former federal prosecutors. The story is hes talks with Reince Priebus and also don mcgahn been things they talked to mueller about. That strikes me as a bad idea. Im not a lawyer. What do you say . Its a terrible idea. And if i was the president s lawyer i would have firmly advised him to have no contact with any witnesses particularly about the topic of their conversations with mueller and his team. So the signals to us that the president likely is a very uncontrollable client. It doesnt really rise at least the reporting that weve seen