And however much her father and boss savaged Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, tonight the Senior Adviser to the president , a Public Servant who also happens to be the president s daughter, has an email problem. Specifically, the Washington Post reporting that ivanka trump, quote, sent hundreds of emails last year to white house aides, cabinet officials and assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules according to people familiar with a white house examination of her correspondence. White house ethics officials learned of trumps repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed through much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official white house business using a private email account with a domain that he shares with her husband, jared kushner. The article continues the discovery alarmed some advisers to President Trump who had feared his daughters practices bore similarities to the personal email use of Hillary Clinton, an issue he made a focus of his 2016 campaign. And a reminder 33,000 emails are missing and they say, oh, shes fine, shes fine. Crooked Hillary Clinton, oh, shes crooked, folks. Shes crooked as a 3 bill. Lock her up is right. No. Tonight, a statement from the spokesman for ivanka trumps lawyer reads in part, while transitioning into government, until the white house provided her the same guidance they had to others who started before she did, ms. Trump sometimes used her private account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family. Just tonight, the top democrat on the House Oversight committee, congressman elijah cummings, democrat of maryland, tells yn news the committee will likely investigate these new allegations against ivanka trump when the democrats take over the house next year. Of course, this is just tonights headline. And it comes after a weekend that saw the president diminish the commander of the Bin Laden Mission and the mission, itself. He changed the name of a member of congress, changed the name of a california town, went on another tear about raking and cleaning on our forest floors, and gave himself an aplus as president. More on all of that in order as we continue. And on top of that, he had a lot to say about the Mueller Investigation and his choice to lead the justice department, actiac acting attorney general Matt Whitaker who has been publicly critical of the inquiry. Trump was asked about it in the Chris Wallace interview that aired yesterday. Did you know before you appointed him that he had that record and was so critical of Robert Mueller . I did not know that. I did not know he took views on the Mueller Investigation as such. If whitaker decides in any way to limit or curtail the Mueller Investigation, are you okay with that . Look, he its going to be up to him. But you wont overrule him if he decides to curtail i would not get involved. A source close to whitaker tells nbc news he intentionally tried to catch the president s attention by raising his profile as an onair cnn legal commentator. The incoming chairman of the house intel committee, democrat adam schiff of california, has indicated that House Democrats plan to investigate whitakers appointment come january. The president got schiffs name wrong this weekend while complaining that the congressmans been, talking about the fact that acting attorney general Matt Whitaker was not approved by the senate, but not mentioning the fact that bob mueller, who is highly conflicted, was not approved by the senate. We should point out this is, in fact, a red herring. Unlike the attorney general, muellers job does not require senate approval. For the record, though, the last times he did require senate approval, as fbi director, the votes were 980 and 1 000. Today, three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit in federal court to block whitakers appointment. Also citing the lack of senate confirmation. Meanwhile, politico reports that the president s lawyers have said thanksgiving is an informal deadline for him to finalize his written responses to Robert Muellers questions about the 2016 election. Trump had previously claimed to be ready and eager to sit down for an interview with the special counsel, yet over the last few months he and his lawyers seem to be less willing to talk to mueller. Now it seems as if that door might have closed. Is that your final position, that theres going to be no sitdown interview, and nothing written or in person on obstruction . I would say probably. Probably. I mean, i can change my mind, but probably. I think no interview. I think we wasted enough time on this witch hunt, and the answer is probably. Were finished. With that, lets bring in our leadoff panel, shall we . On a monday night. Kimberly atkins, Washington Bureau chief for the boston herald. Jo colvin. And jeremy peters, political reporter for the new york times. So, kim, trump, you were there, i dont mean to dredge this up but you know this already. Trump said to his rally crowds during the campaign that the Hillary Clinton email fracus would turn out to be bigger than watergate, it would result in an administration consumed by investigation, and now what are we to make of tonights headline . Is. Well, its quite ironic, isnt it, that we have the exact same situation and explanation, how possibly could ivanka have known these were the rules . I suppose she was under a rock for the past several years. If thats the case. But we have just as you pointed out, i mean, this isnt the first time that private email use has been an issue in this white house. It was an issue reported with her husband, jared kushner, and at that time, we had democrats from the House Oversight committee who were trying to bring an investigation to that, but the republicans shut it down. Now we have the democrats taking over. And thats going to be one of various investigations that we can certainly see open up and this isnt going away any time soon. And jill, how do you think her explanation will fly . Kind of the ignorance of the law explanation . Well, she can certainly make that argument, you know, the spokesman for her attorney was making that argument tonight as the story was breaking. But i think, you know, as you were just saying, its very difficult, given the way that the president ran his campaign for anyone to be able to stand up there and honestly say, convincingly say, that they didnt realize that they were not supposed to be using private email addresses when they are conducting official government business. You know, if you look at some of the emails that were released by the Good Government group that brought the foias that eventually led the administration to discover these emails, these were conversations ivanka trump was having not just with staff, not just with her assistants or secretaries. These were conversations she was having with the Small Business commissioner, with wilbur ross, the commerce secretary. You know, people at the highest levels of the trump administration, discussing, you know, possible administration business. So it makes it very difficult to raise any type of argument saying she didnt know what she was doing. That said, you know, the spokesman for her attorney, abby lowell, trying to make very clear, at least tried to argue this is very different from the clinton email situation, claiming that there was no classified information, claiming no emails were deleted. Trying to make the case this is something thats very different, but as you can see from the posts story, there are deep concerns within the white house that this is too similar. Jeremy, mike flynn might have been the guy who delivered it with the most gusto of all, but lets remember, lock her up was about emails. That chant was born of emails and nowjeremy, here come the democrats and that angered every last one of them. Oh, yes, absolutely, not just because of the hypocrisy of it all, brian, but because donald trump has always believed that he gets to live by one set of standards and rules, and set the norms and everybody else just has to do whats right. Whats the law . He never really thought that the law or the constraints of history or the office that he now holds as president applied to him. So i find it hard to believe that hes going to see that theres much wrong with what his daughter has done here because, you know, we are, after all, talking about his daughter. I think to your point, the fact that democrats are now in charge of congress and have the investigative power to look into this is interesting in that it is just one piece of, i think, what we are going to see in the weeks and months ahead, especially the issue you alluded to at the top of the program, and that is the acting attorney general and what the House Democrats are able to do about that. The incoming chairman of the house judiciary committee, jerry nadler, said that mr. Whitaker will be the first person that he is subpoenas so we should definitely be on the lookout for that. That could get very explosive. Kimberly, indeed, on these democrats suing on the whitaker matter, frank fegluzzi on this Network Earlier today said this is a very fraught moment for whitaker. Well watch that together, talk about it on the other side. If youre whitaker, youre trapped in a corner. If you do take overt steps to quash the investigation, to limit it, to limit the budget, youre going to find yourself testifying before the special counsel team. Hes already, i think, being looked at for whether he plays a role in obstruction. If mueller can investigate why comey was fired and whether thats obstruction, he can certainly look at why sessions was let go and the whole move to replace him with whitaker. So, kim, to put it mildly, a kind of risk versus reward calculation for whitaker and for trump kind of concurrently. I think its absolutely right. I mean, i think its difficult to believe what the president said that he never considered anything that whitakers views on the Mueller Probe. Obviously, the Mueller Probe is the one thing that the president s talked about more than anything. Clearly, he did. He thought he was making a slick move here, but, you know, you cant outslick a slicker. If you have he is in this political spot, given the attention that hes received that a move will definitely be investigated as potential obstruction. You also have, again, democrats coming in in control of the house with the levers there to continue investigations on this, so he is in a very tough position politically, and a tough position legally as these challenges mount. This isnt the first one. This is actually the third thats been made in Court Challenging the constitutionality of his very appointment and thats something thats going to be forced at some point for the Supreme Court to take up. And jeremy, the president made a dirty word with the spelling of adam schiff of california. I heard ron klain an hour ago say it was third grade humor. That may be an insult to the american third grade. What do you make of this . Is think it just really show how frayed the president s nerves are these days. Really kind of what an isolated bubble we know through our reporting and through the reporting of others hes been living in. I mean, this skipping the veterans event on veterans day of all people, this president who holds himself up as this great champion of our armed forces. I think you see it in what you alluded to earlier with the tweets that dont really jive with reality, brian. You have the president talking about not just what we saw in florida in the recount and there being instances of infected ballots that he never offered any proof for, but hes also gone on and on about the commander in charge of the bin laden raid, also not appearing to understand that its not the armed forces that was responsible for finding bin laden. It was responsible for taking him out. Not for finding him. Thats the intelligence apparatus responsibility. So in addition to insulting this known military hero and making something up about him, that hes a, quote, Hillary Clinton supporter, in the president s words, you have the commander in chief fundamentally misunderstanding the role that the military plays in our National Security. And were going to talk with john brennan in our next segment about that very thing. Jill, i want to relive some of this weekend in california. We saw the president with his black crisis raincoat on touring the fire damage. He did not like the messiness on the forest floor that he found and tried to express what he saw in the town of paradise. Paradise, california. So heres a collection of some of his comments. Im committed to make sure that we get all of this cleaned out and protected. I was with the president of finland and he said we have much different were a forest nation. He called it a forest nation. They spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they dont have any problem. You dont see whats going on until you come here and what we saw at pleasure, what a name right now, but what we just saw, we just left pleasure. Paradise. Paradise. And what we just saw at paradise is just, you know, its just not acceptable. Jill, all you have to do is focus in on the governor of california and roll larry david theme music and its done for you in advance. What did you make of his fire outing this weekend . You know, this is another example where you have the president who is standing out there in this moment of tragedy, these moments that happen again and again, whether its shootings or fires or other national tragedies, where the country looks for the president to be the consoler in chief. Looks for him to say the right thing. To try to bring the country together. To try to bring some solace to those people who are suffering, who have lost everything. And instead, you have the president who stands up there and tries to blame california for the wildfires that its suffering, while citing a conversation with finland that nobody in that country seems to have any recollection of. Im not sure if the president thinks that people physically take rakes and go through the whole forest floor to clean it out. Its unclear exactly what he is picturing there. Then to be standing amid the wreckage, you know, of the town that had been completely decimated and having to be reminded by reporters of exactly where he was standing and where hed visited. I think its an indication, number one, of some potentially shoddy, you know, staffwork of them not making very clear to him exactly where he was, repeatedly, but also this example, once again, of the president kind of finding ways, it just seems to be the way that he approaches things sbri intrinsical intrinsically, finding ways to nitpick and criticize and mistakes he makes that prevent him from being able to bring people together in these moments of tragedy. Indeed, the president of finland said they never discussed the cleaning and the raking of the forest floor. People of finland, though, can always be counted on. They were on social media this weekend launching all kinds of different cleaning and raking parodies after they heard the president s comments. Be that as it may. Our thanks on a monday night as we start a new holiday shortened week. Kimberly atkins, jill colvin, jeremy peters, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Coming up, more on the president s attack on the man in charge of the raid that killed bin laden. John brennan was in the situation room that night. Hes standing by to join us now. And later, the performance grade the president says he hates to give himself, but awards it, anyway. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a monday night. Wednesdays. At outback, theyre for steak and beer. Walkabout wednesdays are back get a sirloin or chicken on the barbie, fries, and a draft beer or cocacola all for just 10. 99. Hurry in wednesdays are for outback. Outback steakhouse. Aussie rules. Little girl and boy land for outback. While you dwell within it you are ever happy there daddy, its christmas childhoods, joyland never let go of your dreams. The mercedesbenz winter event is back. Lease the glc 300 for 459 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. [ready forngs ] christmas . No, its way too early to be annoyed by christmas. You just need some holiday spirit thats it this feud just went mobile. With xfinity xfi you get the best wifi experience at home. And with xfinity mobile, you get the best wireless coverage for your phone. Youre about to find out you dont even know where i live. Hello see the grinch in theaters by saying get grinch tickets into your xfinity x1 voice remote. A guy just dropped this off. Hehehehe. Bill mcraven, retired admiral, navy s. E. A. L. , 37 years, former Hillary Clinton fan. Special operations. Excuse me. Hillary clinton fan. Who led the operations, commanded the operations that took down Saddam Hussein and that killed Osama Bin Laden. Says your sentiment is the greatest threat to democracy in his lifetime. Okay. Hes a Hillary Clinton backer and an obama backer, and frankly he was a navy s. E. A. L. 37 years. Wouldnt it have been nice if we got Osama Bin Laden a lot sooner than that . President trump is facing growing criticism after that. After suggesting retired u. S. Navy admiral William Mcraven should have caught Osama Bin Laden faster. Lot to talk about there and we will. Earlier today, trump doubled down on his criticism writing that he apparently attempted to warn all of us ab