Colonel vindman and the ukraine debacle. We also learned today this familiar face is coming back to the white house as a counselor to the president. Plus, as Mike Bloomberg sizes up super tuesday, donald trump attempts to size down the former mayor who quickly reminds trump they know a lot of the same people and what people are saying about him back home. All of it as the 11th hour gets underway on this thursday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york, day 1120 of this trump administration, 264 days to go until the 2020 president ial election. And tonight in a new interview, the attorney general bill barr, who has been nothing but supremely loyal to and protective of the man who appointed him to office, seems to be saying two things. Sure, he intervened in lowering the recommended prison sentence for trumps friend roger stone who is a convicted felon, but he went on to say that the tweets from the president , which is how we know how President Trump wanted the sentence lowered, those tweets really make his job impossible. Barr spoke to abc news about his decision to overrule federal prosecutors who had lowered federal guidelines recommending a 7 to 9year prison term for stone. He goes on to seem to complain about the president s social media habits. I had made a decision that i thought was fair and reasonable in this particular case. And, uh, once the tweet occurred, the question is, well, now what do i do . To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, uh, make it impossible, uh, for me to do my job. Im not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody. Whether its congress, newspaper, editorial boards, or the president. Did you talk to the president at all about your decision regarding the recommendations . Never. Just as barr was talking, the president was sounding thankful for his attorney general during a radio interview with geraldo rivera. Have you ever wondered what your life would have been like if you had picked william barr instead of Jeff Sessions when you yeah, my life would have been a lot easier. The countrys life. Yep, my life would have been a lot easier. What about i might have been less popular, because they say they like that i fought it. They like that he won. They like that my base is much more energized. New reporting from the New York Times indicates the loyal attorney general may be pursuing another legal area of great interest to his boss. According to the newspaper, trump justice officials investigate being the governments response to russias election interference back in 16, may be searching for reasons to accuse obamaera intelligence officials of hiding evidence or manipulating analysis about the kremlins operation. The times notes that john durham, the connecticutbased u. S. Attorney temporarily assigned by barr to lead this investigation, is scrutinizing the actions of avowed trump enemy john brennan, the former cia director under obama. Tonight brennan was asked about it. Is there a criminal investigation now on analytic judgments and the activities of cia in terms of trying to protect our National Security . Im certainly willing to talk to will durham or anybody else who has any questions about what we did during this period of time in 2016. Clearly it is another indication that donald trump is using the department of justice to go after his enemies in any way that he can. The day started with news of some unexpected comments from trumps former chief of staff john kelly who has decided to speak candidly now about what he saw on the inside, and he did so at a college appearance in new jersey last night. As reported by the atlantic, kelly defended Lieutenant ColonelAlexander Vindmans decision to speak out about that phone call with the president of ukraine and described trumps request for investigations as an illegal order. Quote, we teach them, meaning soldiers like vindman, dont allow an illegal order. And if youre ever given one, youll raise it to whoever gives it to you that this is an illegal order, and then tell your boss. Kelly criticized trumps efforts to win over north korean dictator kim jongun saying, quote, he will never give his Nuclear Weapons up. I never did think kim would do anything other than play us for a while, and he did that fairly effectively. Kelly also slammed trumps decision to reverse a decision to oust eddie gallagher, the navy s. E. A. L. Convicted last year of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter. Quote, the idea that the commander in chief intervened there, in my opinion, was exactly the wrong thing to do. Had i been there, i think i could have prevented it. It did not take long for the president to respond, and he did so this way. Quote, when i terminated john kelly, which i couldnt do fast enough, he knew full well that he was way over his head. He misses the action and just cant keep his mouth shut. Kelly actually left the administration 3 1 2 weeks or thereabouts after his departure had been announced. And now another official in exile, former National Security advisor john bolton has come to kellys defense. Bolton writes, kelly is, quote, an honorable man. John and i have disagreed at times, but he has always served his country faithfully. As all of this is happening, the president bringing some former white house staffers back. Former Communications Director hope hicks is returning with a new title, counselor to the president. Shell be assigned to work out of Jared Kushners wide ranging west wing operation. John mcentee, President Trumps former body man who was fired by former chief of staff kelly and escorted off the white house grounds over security clearance issues, is also back. Hes expected to lead the president ial personnel office. Axios also reports that trump, quote, has increasingly become furious with what he sees as a federal government full of never trumpers and that trump feels hes surrounded by snakes and wants to clear out all the disloyal people. President also said hes thinking about changing the policy of having National Security officials and staffers listen in on important phone calls. Thats what theyve done over the years. When you call a foreign leader, people listen. I may end the practice entirely. I may have i may end it entirely. And late today, trumps current National Security advisor weighed in on that. The president can have whatever phone calls he wants without other people being on the line. But i think generally the president is happy if, if hes got some of his aides with him. My experience is he actually enjoys having the vicepresident or myself or secretary pompeo with him. On that note, here for our lead off discussion on a thursday night peter baker chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Hes among the uh thoerz of the book currently in wide circulation, impeachment, an american history. Also with us nancy cook, White House Reporter for politico. And robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Good evening and welcome to you all. Robert, id like to begin with you. If you tell people often enough, dont believe what you see, they start to take your word on it. Having established that, can you, please, give a pass at interpreting the attorney generals words for us . The attorney general for months has been frustrated with the president s tweets, but he has not articulated it that publicly. The Washington Post reported deeply on that tonight. You can read it online. Based on my reporting today and conversations with white house officials, the president feels unbound at this moment. Post acquittal, this is a new phase of the presidency. He is someone who is now bringing in not only his loyalist like hope hicks back into the white house. When it comes to active court cases, criminal sentencing, he feels free to speak out. The Republican Party in lockstep with him on capitol hill. The Democratic Party having already gone through impeachment in the house, and he is not listening to advisors telling him to hold back. Peter baker, talk about things like the desire to be on the phone alone when talking to foreign leaders, things like the desire to purge the payroll of all but those known to be loyal. Yeah, look, this is a president who has felt burned from the beginning by what he considers to be the obama holdovers and career employees around him. Remember, two of his early conversations with foreign leaders, one with mexico, one what australia, were leaked to roberts paper and i think he was very, very upset about that. It took at the very beginning the lesson that he cant really trust anybody. I think thats been in his head now three years. What we saw, of course, with this impeachment was a lot of questioning about his conversation with the president of ukraine. Whether, in fact, his asking of president zelensky to investigate vicepresident biden and other democrats constituted improper coercion of a foreign power to advance his domestic political gains. Hes not going to allay suspicions if he, in fact, does follow through on this and cuts people off those phone calls. That will only, in fact, increase the suspicions. Remember, he had a conversation with vladimir putin. He took the notes from the interpreter. People have been wondering ever since what that conversation was like. Youre in a cycle now where he doesnt trust the people around him and hes closing in and pushing out people he considers to be disloyal. All of which then increases the suspicions of the people outside his circle about whats going on there. And, nancy cook, we note some of the cast members from season one are coming back. Talk about that. And talk about generally a white house staff in a postimpeachment and the democrats fear a postoversight era as they see it. Well, i think that what we saw today was that the president brought back aides and elevated aides he felt really close with. Hope hicks is a very key ally to him. She was a Communications Director and press secretary, but really she was someone who had his issues she was very loyal to him. She was someone who could talk him off a ledge. She was well liked in the west wing. Him bringing her back is like bringing back a security blanket. And she will be a very key figure as we head into the campaign. He also elevated his body man who has had his own security clearance issues to lead the office of president ial personnel, which sounds like a fairly wonky job but is a huge one. That office is responsible for filling hundreds of jobs throughout the federal government. And so what weve seen is that he is elevating people who are loyal to him and who are loyal in particular to Jared Kushner. And another way to look the that, this is really Jared Kushner bringing back people who are close to him and it will definitely give him his own power center in the west wing. Robert costa, beyond popular films we dont usually talk about things like retribution in the public sphere. Not in foe light circles and not out loud. Talk about the theme of retribution. Retribution is animating this presidency at this critical moment. Based on my reporting, the president is not only seething publicly about past enemies, current enemies, but its the mueller report, the russia investigation that continues to dominate much of his thinking. You saw him today lashing out about why the department of justice has not prosecuted figures from that investigation, including former fbi director james comey. Hes also growing frustrated with attorney general barr. Much of the narrative among his critics is barr is compliant with the president in their view, but you also see the president becoming more isolated from his attorney general in this sense. He wants that durham report. John durham investigating the cia and others to come out so he can weapon ize whatever the doj finds. That report has not come out promptly. It has frustrated the president and created a bit of tension between a seemingly loyal attorney general in bill barr and President Trump. Nancy cook, weve just been handed, theres more from the abc news interview with the attorney general apparently. It was conducted by their veteran justice correspondent pierre thomas. Well play this. This has to do with the now famous phone call to the president of ukraine. Were you surprised when the president mentioned you when you heard he mentioned you on the july 25th call, and he did so five times and kind of created the impression you were working with giuliani . Yes. Your reaction when you heard it . Um, i was a bit irritated by it, but, uh, you know, the conversation jumped around, so im not sure what he meant by some of what he was saying. Nancy, i dont mean to call for opinion, but ill repeat, when youre told often enough not to believe what you see and then something comes along that challenges that, it makes you hesitate. What do you think is going on here with the attorney general and the president . Well, i think that there has been tension for a while and politico reported tonight that there has been tension between barr and trump. And i think that what barr was trying to do with this interview was speak to the president through his favorite medium, television, and try to tell him, you know, back off. Lets give the Justice Department give the optics of independence. Please dont do this. Please dont tweet. And i know that theyve had those conversations before, but i think that its interesting that barr chose to so publicly break from the president on tv. Its almost like hes trying to send trump a message. Peter baker, talk about the kind of palpable sense of helplessness on the political left. On the subject, we talked about retribution. Lets talk about recourse. What do the vindmans do . What do the four feds on the inside of d. O. J. Who did as much as they could, as our guest reported last night . They cant hold a press conference. What they could do was kind of shout from inside the institution in the form of withdrawal from this case. When structures of the government are under attack from inside the government, who to see about that . Who is going to report stuff in the future . Yeah, thats a great question. And youre right. Theyre not holding press conferences. The four prosecutors who withdrew from the case, one resigned altogether, they made their statements in legal filings. It was literally a onesentence filing with the court saying, this attorney is withdrawing from the case. It felt like a thunder bolt because it was so extraordinary what the implication of that sentence was. And i think youre seeing a career work force in the federal government, whether it be in the Justice Department or the state department or the military very much on edge, very much uncertain where this is heading. They have been told by the president of the United States that they are part of a kabal, they are part of a deep state enemy. There are lots of them frustrated with the professional bureaucrats around them. They never saw him wage huaraz overtly as this one is. He would say its the other way around. Theyre the ones who have been plotting against him. But its caused this extraordinary moment in washington where you have a president and the government he leads at odds in a most, you know, palpable and fraught way. And if this president is going to win reelection and have five years still to go, you can only imagine what that five years is going to be like. Robert costa, what are the chances that the attorney general has been affected by press coverage in this instance . I noted tonight lou dobbs really went after bill barr like he was made of hamburger meat, and very little happens over there by accident. I cant speak to his mindset, but based on the Washington Post reporting today, the attorney general felt compelled to speak up, not just to have a conversation through television with President Trump, but a conversation with his own department, personnel on edge, about how these attorneys were withdrawing from the case, an institution on the brink with its reputation for independence and integrity. And so as much as the attorney general has been friendly, politically supportive of President Trump, he also leads an institution and is to remain the leader of that institution, his allies say he felt the need to Say Something so it didnt seem like he was floating along and doing the president s bidding. Three terrific guests helping in our effort to figure out just what it is thats going on on a night like tonight. To peter bake, nancy cook, robert costa, thanks for helping us out. Coming up, two wealthy new yorkers starting their day trading insults on social media as one does. A closer look at bloomberg versus trump. Which can only get uglier from here. And later, we found out what happens in vegas. That is, when all the democrats decide to focus their attention there. The 11th hour just Getting Started on this thursday night. These folks dont have time to go to the post office they use stamps. Com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Somebody said, uh, you know, that hes taller than me. Calls me little mike. And the answer is, donald, where i come from, we measure your height from your neck up. Thats pretty much how it went between trump and bloomberg today. Trump went at bloombergs height, saying mini mike is 54 mass of dead energy. Hes 57. Saying he hates crazy bernie and will with enough money possibly stop him and he further predicted bernies people will go nuts. Now, bloomberg, for his part, said this. We kn