Now. Good evening once again from our nbc news Head Quarters here in new york. Im Steve Kornacki in for brian williams. Day 8 40 of the Trump Administration and the legal and political challenges facing this white house are multiplying. It has been six weeks now since the special Counsel Robert Mueller ended his investigation which had loomed as a potential giant threat to the trump presidency. Now the drum beat from democrats is getting louder for mueller to appear before congress and to testify about his report. The question . Whether trump and the white house will try to stop him from doing so. Heres what the president had to say about that today. Will you allow Robert Mueller to testify . Well, im going to leave that up to our very great attorney general, and hell make a decision on that. Bob muellers no friend of mine. I had conflicts with him. We had somebody that is in love with james comey. He liked james comey. They were good friends. This is a potential reversal from one he wrote mueller should not testify. Earlier this evening james comey who was fired exactly two years ago today had this to say about mueller and about trumps remarks. I respect him. I dont think we have that kind of relationship. You think mueller should testify . Of course. And explain his thinking. The president says this report is a complete exoneration of him. Why wouldnt the special counsel be permitted to testify . Tonight trump is also coming to the defense of his son, donald trump junior who is now facing a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence committee which is carrying out its own investigation of russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Two sources tell nbc news the subpoena was served in mid april, several weeks ago but they would not say when or if theres a deadline for the president s son to respond. Trump junior gave testimony to the Judiciary Committee in 2017 and senate committees. Its been reported the Intel Committee wants to question him again about the trump tower meeting back in 2016, and about the trump tower moscow project. The president says he was caught off guard by the subpoena. I was very surprised. My sons a very good person. He works very hard. Hes now testified for 20 hours or something. A massive amount of time. The Mueller Report came out. Thats the bible, the Mueller Report came out. And they said he did nothing wrong. Should he fight that subpoena . Well see what happens. And tonight trump juniors sisterinlaw offered a more forceful defense. This is over. The Mueller Report is complete. This is harassment of our family, harassment of the president. And the White House Acting chief of staff meanwhile Mick Mulvaney says the senate Intel Committee should have issued a warning to the administration. To subpoena the president of the United States son and not get a heads up i thought was bad form. The senate Intel Committee is led by a republican, richard burr of North Carolina. Hes facing a backlash from many in his own party for the subpoena of the president s son. John cornyn of texas sits on the Intel Committee gave voice today to that criticism. I think we now know everything were going to know about that, especially now after the Mueller Report has been concluded. This smacks of politics, and i think we have an important job to do to try to keep the Intelligence Committee out of politics. This afternoon the committees vice chairman, a democrat, mark warner from virginia defended the subpoena and burr. Theres been plenty of times the chairman has been under pressure to shut down the investigation before we finish. Were going to go about our business and making sure that we get the kind of responses we need in making sure we continue to just follow the facts. According to another republican senator on the Intelligence Committee roy blunt of missouri, burr explained the reasoning for the subpoena at a closed door lunch today with fellow republicans. Burr apparently walked them through the process of deciding to issue the subpoena and the efforts to get trump junior to return to testify. Blunt said that Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell was among those in attendance and that the committee expects to finish his investigation near the end of august. On the other side of the capital, House Democrats are not backing down from their standoff with the white house over efforts to access muellers full unredacted report as well as other documents and witnesses. Today House Speaker nancy pelosi summed up her battle with the administration. Do you agree with chairman nadler that the country is currently in a constitutional crisis . Yes. I do agree with chairman nadler. Impeach or nothing . Its not that. Its a path that is producing results and gathering information, and some of that information is that this administration wants to have a constitutional crisis because they do not respect the oath of office that they take. And tonight james comey offered his own assessment of the health of the republic. Are we in a constitutional crisis as nadler and House Speaker pelosi say we are . I dont think so. I think were in a time where our constitutional design, the genius of our founders is going to be tested, and i think its up for it. And here for our leadoff discussion on a thursday night, phillip rucker, annie carny, matt zapatoski, and jeffrey kramer. Thanks to all of you for being with us. Let me start on the mixed signals weve been receiving from the president and the white house in terms of how they plan to approach this standoff with congress. Youve had the president saying over the weekend as we mentioned tweeting over the weekend that he does not think that mueller, the special prosecutor, should be testifying. Then today seeming to change his public tone on that. Youve had the president saying he believes there should be no cooperation from the administration on these investigations that democrats have initiated but now you have this report. I can read from it tonight from the New York Times saying behind the scenes trump has asked some confidants why they should not reveal everything in the report, he has also said he wants everyone to move on so he can concentrate on a president ial agenda. A sentiment he expressed on twitter throughout last weekend. Its interesting reporting there annie, because it suggests for all the public posture maybe theres some uncertainty about the strategy. Well, i think there is definitely uncertainty about the strategy. I think for trump it likely comes from the fact that hes going mostly off of media reports and how things are playing than having actually read the entire document himself. In terms of his flip today and saying hes going to leave it up to barr to decide whether or not mueller should testify. It was a reversal of his weekend position. I was told there was talking him down, and there is a sense there could be a legal argument for barr to make that mueller did not choose to prosecute the president. Therefore, he shouldnt say another word, and the president s lawyers think that could be a winning argument for barr to say no. Theres another school of thought that maybe mueller testifying isnt a slam dunk and the show would go on for trump. This comes back to also the dichotomy of if he thinks he was totally exonerated and mueller did his job and is an American Hero or if he thinks its not that. He keeps going back and forth between victim and victor. Its all part of the same big split in his thinking about what happened here. And phil, that report from the New York Times that i was quoting from there suggests that perhaps the white houses attitude here is to be provocative with the democrats in congress to essentially call the question, move forward with impeachment or move on from the whole thing. Do you have a sense that the white house is trying to either trigger something on the impeachment front or try somehow to get it off the table . I think j steve, were mistake ton think theres a grand strategy at play. And what annie laid out is right. The president s reacting to News Coverage and the sense every day of whether hes winning or losing. Whats missing is entek chul consistency. He knows its not what the report said in full, and that hours of testimony on camera by mueller would be not only an extraordinary block buster moment in washington but could be politically damaging for the president. It would air a lot of bad behavior thats documented in the report but in a compelling sort of live way on video for americans back home to watch and consume and take note of. Matt, its interesting. One of the things democrats in congress as they pursue the investigations as the subpoenas start flying, one of the things they seem to be coming up against are replies from the investigation saying what youre looking for, theres no obvious legislative purpose for it. Therefore, not going to be any cooperation thats forthcoming here. That equation as i understand it could potentially change if the house were to open a formal impeachment inquiry there. Latitude for pursuing information and pursuing testimony, documents from the administration would greatly increase. Is the argument to open an inquiry for that purpose to get cooperation, to compel cooperation for the administration its currently lacking. Is that gaining steam among democrats . It seems like the leadership is still opposed to impeachment talk. I mean, you said at the top that nancy pelosi believes were in the midst of a constitutional crisis, but shes still sort of stopping short of saying and i think were headed to impeachment or lets open impeachment proceedings. And of course, she would be the critical voice on that topic. Its hard to see for me how we could be in a constitutional crisis and not be at the point of impeachment like whats the point past constitutional crisis that would spark impeachment . But leadership among democrats has so far been very reluctant to go full boar into the impeachment. There seems to be a swell among the further left side of the party toward impeachment. And as you say yarks that gives some Better Foundation to these requests for documents and things the democrats are making. But a lot of these are just murky and undecided legal questions. Its not a guaranty that if you initiate impeachment proceedings you overcome concerns. I think well see a years long battle in the courts probably starting with this contempt over bill barr turning over the full Mueller Report and underlying documents and extending to witnesses like mcgahn and other people. You heard in the clip we played james comey weighing in on the question of whether as jerry nadler and others are saying were in a constitutional crisis. Hes saying he doesnt think so. I wonder. The counterargument to the claim that this is a constitutional crisis is okay, well, congress has made requests and put subpoenas out. The administration has indicated its objections. Now it does quick off a potentially lengthy, potential for court proceedings. Does that put us in a constitutional crisis . No, it doesnt. I think jim comey was measured in his response. The process is there. Congress has requested certain documents. Theyre now requesting certain witnesses. If the Administration Says no or refuses, it goes to the courts. The system is working as it was intended. But i think his other comment was also spot on. Its going to be tested. We havent been tested like this in quite some time, and these are obviously very unusual situations. So a crisis, no, but unusual and testing of the system . Yes. But what i think i agree with what was just said is the process itself is certainly going to be lengthy. There might be some things truncated such as mcgahn testifying or some documents but there could be lengthy process that certainly goes well into 2020. Theres also this issue now we mentioned it, the subpoena from the Senate Intelligence committee with a republican chairman from North Carolina of donald trump junior. We heard the president reacting to that today. Annie, do you have a sense formally. The president was noncommittal on what action he was going to take. He wasnt pleased by it. In terms of how trump is going to handle it, do we have a sense of the strategy . I think his advisers are telling people hes not going to come in person. Theyd like to plead the fifth and maybe offer a written statement of some sort. What weve seen so far unfold is very ugly. Weve seen anonymous attacks from people close to don junior attacking bur. Weve seen very weve seen a split in the Republican Party with lawmakers who are up for reelection who cant afford to alienate the trump base attacking burr. Burr is not up for reelection. Hes thinking about his place in history and his legacy and standing firm. This is really this move has opened up a real split, and weve seen people like tillis come under pressure, and thats one thing i heard, trump was privately saying that if tillis didnt Say Something and speak out, he would fire up twitter and attack him for not doing so. He has a primary challenger on his right in his race, and trump could have offered him support. So its just coming now to politics and who needs trumps base and who doesnt need him. Its the first fissure in the Republican Party opening up in an ugly way. Its interesting. Rand paul, thom tillis, john cornyn. A number of republicans up for reelection. Some navigating the potential for primary challenges. I wonder the significance of this subpoena that we now know it went out in the middle of april. It went out a couple weeks ago. It went out before Mitch Mcconnell took to the senate floor yesterday and said case closed. Does is there a potential here at all that burr and how he handles this Going Forward might change given the Political Developments that have taken place after the subpoena went out . Certainly theres potential for that. I mean, burr could presumably come under pressure from Mitch Mcconnell and others in the senate. We saw the senates number two or high ranking senator from texas john cornyn speak out very aggressively about this. But we should remember whats at issue. Its not a criminal investigation like the Mueller Probe was. This is a sort of Fact Finding Mission investigation by the senate into the russian interference in the 2016 election. Theyre not trying to drag don junior to testify in order to arrest him or send him to jail. Theyre trying to get information about the interference campaign to try to improve the u. S. Intelligence systems to prevent that kind of interference in the future and bringing back witnesses for a second round of interviews is a natural part of this investigative process. Jared kushner, don juniors brotherinlaw, what came back for a second interview in march. Theres a practice of this happening and its i think why burr probably figured he would get some cooperation from don junior. On the exples it legal questions, if youre a lawyer for donald trump junior looking at this, phil is saying a Fact Finding Mission. No legal exposure. Is that how they should be thinking about it . Its an accurate statement. If youre he or his defense lawyer, theres always jeopardy. Youre going to walk in and talk about the trump moscow project. Were already on record saying you didnt know much about it. That contradicts what other witnesses have said. You want to be very careful. Any lawyer would have him be any careful walking into that scenario, and if you can, have your father as a shield, play the card as best you can. I think the last place don junior wants to be is before anyone answering any questions about trump moscow on the record. Were going to squeeze in a quick break. Coming up a deeper look at the extremely consequential day. It happened exactly two years ago today when james comey was fired. Well read you the termination letter that President Trump never sent. And later, brand new polling from the first in the nation primaries tonight. Well dive into the numbers including a surprising way age is playing a role in the democratic race. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a thursday night. Before she puts them in the dishwasher. So what does the dishwasher do . vo cascade platinum does the work for you. Prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. mom wow thats clean vo cascade platinum. Moving . Thats harder now because of Psoriatic Arthritis. But youre still moved by moments like this. Dont let Psoriatic Arthritis take them away. Taltz reduces joint pain and stiffness and helps stop the progression of joint damage. For people with moderate to severe psoriasis, 90 saw significant improvement. Taltz even gives you a chance at completely clear skin. Dont use if youre allergic to taltz. Before starting, you should be checked for tuberculosis. Taltz may increase risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, symptoms, or received a vaccine or plan to. Inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz, including worsening of symptoms. Serious allergic reactions can occur. For all the things that move you. Ask your doctor about taltz. The president today fire