Day 427 of the trump administration, and yet again, here we are tonight covering breaking news out of this white house. As we said, two men who were members of this president s inner circle at this time last night are gone tonight. His lead personal lawyer on rush ai is gone, and of greater impact to our country, so is his National Security adviser. H. R. Mcmaster, the threestar active duty u. S. Army general and combat veteran is out, and will retire from the u. S. Military. And john bolton is in. Bolton is a former u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. , well known as a neocon and a hawk on military matters. Hes advocating iran and north korea, and then some. John bolton will be trumps National Security adviser in 14 months. The president announced this latest move on twitter, his medium of choice, saying the change will be effective april 9, thanking mcmaster for an outstanding job on the way out. We mentioned john boltons service as u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. He was a recess appointee from george w. Bush, serving from august of 2005 to december of 2006. He resigned when his recess appointment ended because he was unlikely to win stand alone confirmation on his own merits from a newly elected democratic majority in the senate back then. The job hes being appointed to does not require senate confirmation. As we know, the president heavily favors fox news. Thats where bolton has been appearing of late as an analyst and where he appearing on the air just tonight to talk about his latest appointment. Making sure that the president has the full range of options presented to him to make the decisions that only the president can make. When the president makes a decision, the National Security adviser is, among others, but one of the leading implementers of the decision, making sure that the bureaucracies out there, get the decision and implement it. And ive been in lots of bureaucracies and ive seen the way that bureaucracies that dont like decisions sit on them. So i know my way around the corridors in washington, and i think that role will also be important. Just so we dont get ahead of ourselves, the first shakeup of today was the departure of the president s lead lawyer in the russia investigation, john dowd. Hes a wellknown criminal defense lawyer with extensive experience and high profile cases. And high profile clients. But this particular client apparently proved too much. Dowd was, until today, the lead counsel on the president s team and had also been as such the main liaison to special Counsel Robert Mueller and team for that possible interview with the president. Now, nbc news has learned that, according to people familiar with the process, dowds decision to exit was part of preparations for such an interview. The future of another member of the legal team, ty cobb, also reported to be in some question. Both then advised the president to take a cooperative approach with mueller, as we covered so extensively here. But that changed somewhat just this past weekend when trump began attacking the special counsel by name. New york times also notes dowd is leaving because the president was increasingly ignoring his advice. He and cobb have also been trying to find ways for the president to avoid a sitdown with mueller, but today trump reiterated his willingness to do so. I would like to. Monday, the legal Team Announced the addition of this man, former u. S. Attorney Joseph Digenova, who insists the russia investigation is a big conspiracy against trump with. The addition of digenova, its easy to foresee a more combative legal strategy emerging. The president is also searching for more legal help in this russia matter, but seems to be having trouble along those lines. The Washington Post reporting that hes struggling to find topnotch attorneys willing to represent him. We have more reporting that may put much of what we have reported into context. According to three people familiar with the discussions going on in the west wing, the president considered firing chief of staff john kelly this month, and not naming a successor, leaving the job vacant, essentially making himself his own chief of staff, something more akin of his role in the Family Business at trump tower in new york. We should note the president s last three hires, larry kudlow, joe digenova, now john bolton, are people the president watched on televise. Lets now get to my leadoff pam. Robert, our mutual friend Maggie Haberman gets that all of life can be explained in some portion of the god father. She explained what happened today as the conclusion of part i, settling the Family Business. To you, the question is how seismic was this day in all the days oh of this administration weve covered . It was seismic, brian. I tweeted back at maggie. It was close to the ides of march. The god father kills his enemies, the president seems to be going after his own team. But its a volatile time for this president. Hes trying to take personal control of his legal team, sources inside tell me. Take control of his administration, his National Security policy. Everyone who works for him is on edge tonight, because they believe hes settling into this presidency, not driven by ideology, but driven by the idea that he wants to be in power, making the decisions. Now, mr. Crowley, our own Nicolle Wallace we recall was the first to report mcmasters eventual exit. She reported probably by the end of the month of march. Your publication tonight goes even further. I want to read this. This is stunning stuff. Trump upended those plans late friday, hiring john bolton, in a move that surprised not only his top advisers but bolton himself. Mr. Crowley, anything you care to add . Good report thing by my colleague. Donald trump is going to do what he wants. I think weve seen that over and over and over again. And particularly at this moment where i think his staff is relatively weak, his communication staff in particular is in flux, hes not willing to be scripted. I also think you sometimes if you want to look carefully, you might see possible patterns in the timing of big trump announcements that come out of the blue like this. I dont want to be too speculative, but i would note that there is a woman who claims she had an affair with trump who gave a Live Television interview tonight that was to some degree swamped by this news. So you do have to wonder. I dont think its unreasonable to say this is a guy very savvy about the media who likes to direct the story back in his own direction. That hes looking at what other stories might be unfolding and competing with the news. Of course, theres the story about a shakeup on his legal team, which i dont think he finds to be terribly flattering. He doesnt like it when people talk about the russia investigation generally. He probably does like the idea that were taking control of his Foreign Policy, pushing out a guy that he was never happy with, and bringing in john bolton. So that would be one analysis. One hesitates to guess what could happen at 7 00 sunday night at 7 00. Vivian, i recall that before you were in the White House Briefing room for the associated press, before you worked for us, you were around the world, places, garden spots like baghdad covering the other end of kind of the bolton era and ethos. So answer me this in your view, who is mr. Bolton and how will this matter in u. S. Foreign policy . Well, brian, i think a 2015 oped that john bolton wrote in the New York Times, the headline read to stop irans bomb, bomb iran. And that pretty much is john bolton in a nutshell. Extremely hawkish, even by the standards of the most hawkish people in the trump administration. He has been very skeptical about irans commitment to the iran nuclear deal. Hes been against it. Hes very skeptical about any negotiations with the regime in pyongyang, with the north koreans, which is ironic, considering President Trump, not ten days ago, declared he would be meeting with kim jongun, the leader of north korea. So thats going to be an interesting conversation behind the scenes. Even dating back to his days in the trump administration, folks in the middle east, as you said, i was in iraq. They know him as someone who is a part of the bush administration. He served for a time as the u. S. Ambassador to the united nations. Of course, he failed to gain senate confirmation, so he didnt last very long in that position. But he has been a Career State Department official, and hes known as someone who is a very outspoken advocate for george w. Bushs invasion of iraq. And hes come out numerous times to say you know what . Forget about the weapons of mass destruction, which we know now were never found. He says that wasnt what the iraq war was about. The iraq war was about removing Saddam Hussein and for that purpose, we did the greatest thing possible. We made the right decision. So the middle east, of course, ive spoken to people from all over the world, not just in the middle east, but europeans and people in east asia right now. All of whom have so much riding on various negotiations, whether the north korea crisis or iran or these other issues and say what will happen next . And with john bolton coming in, with someone that can really push this administration to the far right of President Trump, who isnt particularly idealogical on a number of things and had all these different camps, now more and more these moderates are fading away and people like john bolton are getting a stronger voice in this administration. So its going to be very interesting from a Foreign Policy perspective. Mr. Costa, on that note, help us turn the page to the legal people. There is a certain kind of grab your partner round and round in this era in washington with everyone lawyering up. The president s soninlaw, jared kushner, has a terrific attorney, yet there arent any more abby lowells. And your publication has been reporting about the president s troubles in recruiting further counsel. Why is that . The legal reason is conflicts. They say some lawyers, some partners are included to work with the president but theres a Political Risk associating yourself with President Trump. Someone who controversial, he has all these different conflicts because of the sprawling investigation, this federal probe and all the different firms who have clients who are involved in some capacity. They say if you have a white shoe reputation, you go in and your shoes get muddy. John dowd has a long career in major cases. So many lawyers like ted olson who have the experience that the president is im told he really wants. Hes been telling his aides, how can i get olson . Can i convince him . But theyre just not coming in. So in that situation, hes turning to the people he sees on television. Mr. Crowley, i want to see you something mr. Bannon said today. Well talk about it on the other side. John dowds a good man. I think thats why essentially more aggressive attorneys got brought in that are now i think President Trump is going to war. I think its very obvious hes going to war on this. Viewed another way, just think about the first part of what he said there, in effect john dowds a good man. In effect, thats why hes leaving. Yeah. He wasnt a vicious enough fighter. Its a little confusing, because john dowd did not want donald trump to sit down for an extended, openended interview with special Counsel Robert Mueller, fearing that it could become a perjury trap, feeling there was too much risk. He and ty cobb have disagreed over that part of the strategy. Ty cobb has been much more open to the idea of trump talking to mueller with fewer conditions. And dowd seemed to feel that trump was not taking his advice on that front. So as far as the actual interaction with mueller, dowd was could not get the president to agree with him that you should stiff arm mueller and keep him at a distance. However, at the same time, it does seem that trump and his allies throughout the conservative media and on capitol hill, weve been watching this closely in politico. The rhetoric is escalating. Weve been through cycles like this. People may remember the holidays at the end oh of the year, the rhetoric was cranking up and there were predictions that mueller would be fired. That didnt materialize. But it feels like its cresting again, and maybe even more intensely. And i think Joseph Digenova joining the Legal Team Adds to that. But there is this confusing question about what is the legal strategy when it comes to an interview with mueller . I think thats not been resolved. But trump did say today that he wants to talk to mueller. Ty cobb may be winning that fight. So that is a kind of parallel track that we need to be watching closely, because the stakes of an interview like that are incredibly high. Vivian, because of your aforementioned front seat on this administration, for the folks who may join us over a martini to kind of get caught up on this day in the administration, on the hubbub scale, what is it like to say compared to 14 months ago . In some ways its interesting and things have calmed down. Its a bit more orderly in terms of the organization of the white house. In the old days we were getting sporadic calls. Everybody gather right now, and there wasnt the systematic scheduling and organization that the white house usually has. But obviously behind the scenes, theres a lot of people who are feeling a little bit disenfranchised, sort of shaky because of the fact that theres been so much turnover. And thats not necessarily unusual for a new administration thats just finding its way. But given all of these things, and on top of it, this cloud of the russia investigation that seems to be sort of continuing with no end in sight, we dont really know when the special Counsel Robert Mueller is going to wrap things up. Its obviously weighing very heavily on the morale of a lot of the staffers. And the journalists, we could use one of those martinis, frankly. I was waiting for somebody to say that. The amen chorus now. Robert, youve seen a side of donald trump that i think a lot of members of the public, even the staff hasnt seen, a kind of private side, the leisure side of this guy. The side everyone says he misses about life, trump tower in tower. He didnt have a crippling schedule or a chief of staff. Are we to believe he may be the first president in modern history to go without it with a gate keeper, work flow supervisor, chief of staff in the west wing . Its unusual, but its also not. You look back in history, president carter wanted to have more of a flat operation, people that he could trust inside of the white house. He wanted to be the decision maker. Of course, a different style. Carter studied data. President trump, when you went up to that 26th office of trump tower, it was phone call after phone call, not a computer. Aides coming in and out, making decisions on the fly. He thinks when you talk to him, that style, that approach to management is what made him successful in business in his view. And its what made him president of the United States. That he operated a campaign from his plane, not from hq, not even from his office. He wants to bring that to the white house, because he feels restricted and besieged. Guys, thank you to much for being with us. Robert, vivian, michael, starting us off on a thursday night. Coming up for us, the implications of both of todays big shakeups. Plus, one of our journalists standing by with new reporting tonight on what changes still may come on the trump legal team. Then later, a look at what this john bolton era could mean for the country. The 11th hour Getting Started on a thursday night. You know whats awesome . Gigspeed internet. You know whats not awesome . 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. In light of john dowds departure today, as the president s lead personal lawyer on the russia matter, heres how nbc reports it tonight. Adding that it came down to a difference of opinion, the New York Times writes this that gets your attention. Also in light of john dowds departure today, lets recall for just a moment, the president said this on twitter all of 12 days ago. The failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story saying that im unhappy with my legal team on the russia case, and am going to add another lawyer to help out. Wrong. Im very happy with my lawyers. They are doing a great job. Well, for more on all of this, lets bring in julia ainsley, who coauthored the nbc news reporting on dowds departure, and chuck rosenberg, msnbc contributor. Julia, for folks catching up with the news at the end of the day, how did dowds departure mean a differing strategy on the interview . Are we right to assume that dowd and cobb were saying lets go slow here, lets try to push this back as long as we can, and its feeding trumps instinct that he can charm or get the better of a mueller session . Yes, brian, its not entirely unlike the news you were reporting just moments ago on his decision to get rid of h. R. Mcmaster. Hes getting rid of people who have been more of the moderate voices, the people who have kept the president in line, and bringing in people who are very pugnacious, who will allow him to bring this fight to mueller. He wants the ability to testify, something that john dowd tried to convince him over and over again not to do. Something that john dowd tried to work out some kind of a situation where the mueller team could provide written questions to the white house, that they could then carefully work out the wording so that the president himself wouldnt have to testify. The president said he wants the handcuffs off and he wants to bring in someone not like john dowd, but like joe digenova, who can allow him to go talk to mueller. This is someone jo