Two individuals . What makes this so striking is sean hannity has really ascended within the american right as the Republican Party has gone through convulsions during the trump era. It is hannity, his platform, and others at fox news who have often had the president s ear, who are, in their own way, shaping the way Different Things play out with the Trump Administration, urging the president to stick to its hardline positions on immigration, to move forward in a conservative way on health care. And as the president really just turns to his family and more and more, hannity is seen as a trusted friend. And i cant emphasize enough in my reporting how that trust for hannity, that confidence in him as an associate really underscores everything thats happening. And one more before we change topics, and that is your reporting that it was hannity who knew sekulow first and may have handed off jay sekulow, the idea, the lawyer, to President Trump who was in need of counsel. Because of that trust he has with hannity, when he has to
make crucial decisions like with his legal team, of course he talks to his family and his staff. But hes looking for hannitys guidance. He sees him as a fellow traveler, a new yorker, someone who has a connection with the conservative community, someone who is connected to his base. So, yes, he looked at jay sekulow because he had the imprint of hannity. Victoria toensing, joseph digenova, these are people who are seen as hannityblessed. That doesnt mean they have full say, that theyre going to go all the way with President Trump, but they have an entry because of hannity. Peter baker, lets swing back around to the west wing. This president by all accounts needs counsel. He needs lawyers, needs them urgently and badly, though its tough to find especially because this case already has left the station. A million documents or thereabouts have changed hands. He needs an agenda. So what is the level of unsettledness in the west wing
that you can report . Well, you know, the thing is we ask that question a lot, and the truth is they get sort of inured to these constant gyrations. People who have been there 15 months and people that have been there only the last few months have learned that topsyturvy is the order of the day. So they are stressed. Theyre beaten down, and theyre tired, but theyre not surprised i think by a lot anymore. They feel that each day is going to bring more and more surprises and more and more challenges, the likes of which most presidencies would see only over the course of a full term, much less in a single day. But thats the nature of working in this white house. And i think that anybody who has worked there now for any period of time has to come to accept that. Otherwise theyre going to have to look for ways out. Jill, i feel the need to go back all of about a week in this
administration and reask of you how rare is a noknock search and seizure on the home, office, and hotel room of a White Collar Lawyer in new york . And, part b, how much trouble is Michael Cohen in, in your view . It is unusual to have a noknock search, but in this case apparently there was at least some ability to obtain emails, which obviously created a sense that something might be destroyed. And so for the second time in an investigation related to donald trump, there has been a noknock search in order to avoid evidence being destroyed before it could be gathered together. And i would say that Michael Cohen is in a lot of trouble when you add, in addition to all the evidence that mueller might be getting im sorry, not mueller the Southern District of new york. This does not involve mueller at
all. You also have the Mcclatchy Scoop that there is evidence he was in prague, which means he may be related to collusion, not just to some kind of bank fraud, the payments of hush money, which would be a serious problem for him. So theres a lot going on, and he does not seem to have a legitimate legal practice. He has, at most, three clients according to his own claim. One of those clients saying, not so sure he was really my lawyer. And one probably had a onetime deal with him for settling a Hush Money Claim as well. Hey, robert, let me read you the work of some of your colleagues. They write, quote, trumps team has reached out to robert c. Bonner, a former federal judge, former member of president george w. Bushs administration, about representing trump too. People familiar with the outreach said bonner is a former customs and Border Protection commissioner and is credited with ushering in a more consolidated government approach to securing americas borders in the wake of the 9 11 terrorist attacks. I understand an upside of Counselor Bonner would be that hes retired and would not bring any complications with partners
objecting to him taking on this client, robert, but any indication he wants work this badly . Its a revealing report from my colleagues tonight for that reason that so many attorneys at the White Shoe Washington law firms are declining the president s legal team offers because they say theres too many conflicts. Its also a political risk. They dont like to articulate that publicly but they do so privately. You see bonner. Hes inching closer. Still at this point its still the hannity friend, jay sekulow. Ty cobb is there. John dowd is gone, another retired lawyer gone from the legal team. Theyre also recognizing inside of the white house tonight, even though the president s at maralago, that hes not going to be likely doing an interview with the special counsel. So really do they need an expanded legal team . Perhaps if things ramp up. But at this moment, theyre sliding by, not comfortably, but doing so with their limited team. Peter, neil cavuto conducted a revealing interview with Mitch Mcconnell that aired tonight. I want to air a piece of it. Well talk about it afterwards. This has to do with the question to mcconnell, are you going to put to the floor any piece of legislation that protects, codifies, envelops robert mueller. Heres the answer. Well, thats not necessary. Theres no indication that mueller is going to be fired. I dont think the president is going to do that. This is a piece of legislation thats not necessary in my job. Im the one who decides what we take to the floor. And well not be having this on the floor of the senate. In fairness, he went on to say he thinks trump should not fire mueller in addition to thinking he will not. But what is this all about, do you think . Well, look, thats the line of a lot of republicans these days is this is not necessary to actually pass legislation because we dont think the president s going to do it, and we dont think the president should do it. Theyre sending him a message. Theyre sending him a warning, please dont put us in this position because we dont think this is a good idea for either you or the party. They think the idea of actually passing legislation, of course, would outrage the president , maybe even provoke him in a way that might be counterproductive and would only increase the dysfunction within the party where they have a congress and a president in effect on opposite sides. It would be a verdict of the congress if they passed legislation like this that the president cant be trusted, that he in fact isnt able to restraining himself and abide by the rule of law as they see it. So theyre trying to straddle a pretty tough line here between both warning the president away from doing something and actually trying to take action on it. Lets put this on the screen. It took our friend bill kristol no time to say on twitter, i didnt realize that in choosing mitch as majority leader, all the other duly elected republican senators were abdicating all their authority and responsibility. Now, jill, i have something for
you to watch and listen with us, and that is eric holders appearance on this network tonight. And something he said about robert mueller, how mueller goes about the business and the structure of this investigation. Hes building from the bottom up, you know. And people have to understand that this is going to take some time. I always thought this was about a two year case. A twoyear case. Jill, does that sound about right . You know, we were very lucky in watergate. We were able to go from may of 73, the verdict in the Obstruction Case was in january of 75. So it was very quick. But we had extraordinary luck in having the tapes and having a very terrific cooperating witness in john dean. So two years is not excessive in a prediction when you have so many additional crimes beyond just obstruction or collusion. In this case, there may be many, many other crimes. So i would say thats a pretty
accurate thing, and ive often said that we have to be patient because getting it right is really important. And you Dont Want Mueller acting any way ahead of his own schedule. He has to have a really solid case, stronger than he would need against almost any other defendant. So you want him to be very careful and take the time that he needs to proceed with this. Robert . The real question to ask leader mcconnell, its not about firing mueller. Its if the president decides to fire Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein, who oversees the mueller probe. Thats the really challenge moment for republicans because it doesnt look like the president s going to move directly on mueller. Its does he shake up the justice department, and how do they respond to that kind of crisis in. So much to discuss on a tuesday night. Our thanks to three of The Very Best in the business to do that. Robert costa, peter baker, jill winebanks. Thank you all. Coming up, after being hung out to dry on the matter of those russia sanctions, a fight broke out today between nikki
haley and larry kudlow, and heres a hint. Kudlow didnt win. Plus the latest developments on a breaking story. The highest level meeting between the north korean dictator and the american government. And later, Nicolle Wallace and john meacham join us with their memories of the matriarch of the bush family, barbara bush. The 11th hour is back after this. Crisis . Play do it like this. He hasnt already urks and they will go directly to any sort of companies related to equipment and chemicals assad used. That was u. N. Ambassador nikki haley on sunday morning, highlighting this new round of sanctions on russia that she said would be rolled out on monday. But on monday, white house officials said trump had not yet decided on those sanctions. Then earlier today, chief white house economic adviser larry kudlow told reporters, quote, she got ahead of the curve. Shes done a great job. Shes a very effective ambassador, but there might have been some momentary confusion. Well, that turned out to be a mistake. Nikki haley fired right back, telling fox news, quote, with all due respect, i dont get confused. And now larry kudlow has apologized to nikki haley, telling the new york times, quote, she was certainly not confused. I was wrong to say that, totally wrong. As it turns out, she was basically following what she thought was policy. The policy has changed, and she wasnt told about it, so she was
in a box. With more tonight, we welcome anita kumar, White House Correspondent for mcclatchy newspapers, and jonathan lemire, White House Reporter for the Associated Press and an msnbc political analyst. Anita, as they say, this is not a good look. Its not. There were so many so many things wrong with what happened today or this week. But nikki haley stood her ground, right . I mean she had the right information at that time, and the white house put out talking points to surrogates, potential surrogates, saying the exact same thing. So she had the right information on sunday. Its that the president or the administration changed their mind, but what larry kudlow did today is what you dont do in your first two weeks or ever at the white house, which is you make this argument, you make this fight public. Right now people looking at whats going on in the white house dont know who is speaking for the white house. This is the problem theyve had for the last 15 months. So, you know, theyre contradicting each other, and theyre having these policy fights in public. So none of that was very good, but you were right. Nikki haley ended up on the right end. She stood her ground, and he apologized. But still not a good look for the white house. Jonathan, i agree with katy tur who came out today in defense of retiring the phrase got out over ones skis. So lets put that aside and lets say that nikki haley has earned high marks in her brief time in this job. Lets say she has proven to be a quick study and we all thought enjoyed a good working relationship with the president. So having said all that, how do you think this happened . First of all, somewhere Rex Tillerson, i assume in texas, is nodding his head very sympathetically about being the sort of voice of the Trump Administration on a world stage and yet seemingly undermined and undercut by a colleague or the president himself. Youre right. Nikki haley to this point does
enjoy has enjoyed a Good Relationship with the president. They speak often. They speak often in the same language. They have been known to consult. Haley will call the white house, consult with the president before she goes out there before the u. N. Or makes some sort of significant Public Statement to make sure she has the language right, that shes capturing his essence. This is a moment, though, she also, however, has gotten on the white houses radar and the president s in particular for her own ambitions. There was a sense that she wanted Rex Tillersons job in foggy bottom, you know, last fall, before of course he eventually was fired and pompeo is going to be in instead. There is a belief among some trump advisers that shes eyeing the white house, that she could certainly be looking at 2024, or if this president is particularly damaged, maybe even 2020. So i think there is a little bit of tension there. But on the whole, she is someone who has been seen as the president views as a good soldier, has said the right thing. But the lesson here more than anything else is the only person who speaks for trump on the world stage is trump. Anita, i do note Joe Scarborough said this week in this studio he thinks she could beat donald trump. Well see how that argument goes over in the west wing. But i want to show you something glenn thrush tweeted out today. Its under the heading what a difference a day makes. On the left, mondays a1 headline in the new york times. Trump to punish russia for aiding attack by syria. On the right, as we were saying, heres tuesdays lead story. Trump declines to add sanctions against russians. Anita, two points here. Number one, in some parts of the world, this kind of thing Still Matters greatly, and a lot of the world is watching if not the whole world. And, number two, here we are back again to the central issue of russia. Right. I mean its not lost on a lot of people that the issue that the president changed his mind on again is russia. So hes done a lot of things in
the last couple weeks that have been really tough, tougher than hes ever been on russia, calling out Vladimir Putin in that tweet, you know, obviously the syrian strike. You know, syria supported by russia, so that was just as much against russia. The sanctions which had been long waited for, but still were hearing language from him and his spokesperson, sarah sanders, saying he still would like to meet with Vladimir Putin. He still hopes they have a Good Relationship. You know, on and on. It just seems that hes still very conflicted about it. So, you know, the administration has been tough the last couple of weeks. But here he is again saying they were going to do something and then changing his mind. Do we have the tweet from steve schmidt, who tonight has been very active on social media. The first person to resign from this cancerous administration on principle will look back on that day the same way Powerball Winners look back on the moment they bought their golden ticket. Trump has made haley look like a fool. If she stays, it will be at the cost of her dignity. Jonathan, steve is often very direct. Lets talk about damage to this. Does kudlow, the new kid in the white house, someone known to a lot of us because he was at cnbc for many years does he suffer damage, and does haley remain kind of an untouchable . Does she take on even more aura because of standing up in this case . Well, the president is fond of the new toy, the shiny new object, and thats what larry kudlow is right now. Hes only been there a couple weeks. He to this point is seemingly in the president s good graces, although it must be pointed out he was informed of the tariff decision after it was made. This was two weeks back or so when the president decided to up the ante against china. He made the decision and then told him as opposed to consulting him ahead of time. I think kudlow saying, look, you misspoke or whatever, perhaps that buys him some good will among others in the administration. This is a president we know doesnt like apologies. It will remain to be seen how that is viewed. As far as nikki haley goes, i think she is watched warily by some, who are concerned perhaps about her ambitions, but i think shes seen as an effective spokeswoman. She is someone when Rex Tillerson was seemingly undermined by the president on a near daily basis, haley seemed to be more in lockstep with the oval office. She will be, as we enter into, with tonights news, you know, the next stage in negotiations with north korea, shes going to be seen as an important player in that, you know, especially when we dont actually have a Secretary Of State just yet. So, you know, as with any trump adviser, to be det