Was, quote, on my team. This report also says trump wanted to ghost write republicans questions and pressure on to rosenstein, who is overseeing mueller. This reportedly came recently in a december meeting at the white house, as rosenstein was preparing to testify before congress. Trump also wanted to know where the special counsels russia investigation was heading. That is obviously a nono. The report says that rosenstein answered, well, of course were all on your team, mr. President. And sources say he suggested those questions to the members of congress, specifically during the hearing of the house judiciary committee. Ultimately rosenstein was asked this. Is it ever proper that a director take a loyalty pledge. Nobodys asked me to take a loyalty pledge other than the oath of office. Tonights news is clearly a new example of donald trump allegedly asking about the allegiances of top officials investigating him at a time he knew he was the subject of a criminal probe. Dont get tired of these stories, the fact that theyre repeating makes them worse, not a subject for fatigue. We can add to that other accounts from nbc news as well as the Washington Post about trump asking fbi director comey for a loyalty pledge. He asked specifically for loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. Reports are saying that trump kept doing that, asking everyone who touched this investigation with loyalty. Lets to the run down, comey aid jim baker, hes been reassigned, now the news Rod Rosenstein is facing these attacks, he is literally the target of this memo fight tonight, that republicans want released and Jeff Sessions, trump blasted him for recusinrecusing, yes, from russia probe. Its quite a crackdown and big news for the night. Joyce, is this reported loyalty request by trump of rosenstein inappropriate . You know, this is a continuation of the disturbing trend that we have seen, ari, where this president completely fails to understand that the loyalty and the obligation of Justice Department employees is to the constitution and the country, and not to the president personally. So Rod Rosenstein answered questions on the capitol hill apparently shortly after this meeting, and said he had never been asked for a loyalty pledge. Perhaps he interpreted this differently. But given the entire course of conduct, it looks inappropriate, it looks like a president who should have known better, but couldnt help himself from trying to run the country like a business and not like a democratic form of government. And betsy, i want to get to some of your reporting on the memo as well. But first your reaction to this report breaking tonight that even after all was said and done and exposed, this report tonight breaking that the president pushed and prodded the man overseeing mueller, rosenstein, to find out if he was, quote, on his team. It certainly seems significant and his actions toward federal Law Enforcement are pretty much continuing without interruption, hes very comfortable asking people to sort of swear their loyalty to them. Theres something i want to say specifically by rod, that he himself as an individual has a lot of deep concerns about this memo, that trump said last evening that trump said he was going to release. Theres a report that steven boyd wrote in a letter that it would be extraordinarily reckless for nunez to release this memo and that he has seen no evidence whatsoever in any wrong doing. And that Rod Rosenstein was involved in writing that letter. Additionally, theres no reason to believe that rods mind has been changed whatsoever based on the fact that chris wray, the fbi director was able to view the memo. Its just another piece of the friction and the very different views between Rod Rosenstein and president donald trump. Very different views is one way to put it, and another is that Rod Rosenstein has a clear understanding that theres a thin line between his current role as muellers supervisor but also that if Rod Rosenstein gets canned over russia, he will then be like mccabe and comey, another part of this group of people dealing with this president s very unusual and often times reckless approach to an open criminal probe. Thats rod and don mcgahn obviously understand you can be out real quick. Turning to the other big story on the memo and your reporting, betsy, in the daily beast, devin nunez wont say if he worked with the white house on the antifbi memo. This is a very controversial memo about these misdedes and it links to rods by targeting him. Nunez made a few comments before responding, im not answering. Quite a story youve got here betsy. Walk us through white that exchange is significant. We released that story yesterday before the home the specific comment that nunez made was the chairman will not entertain this question, the question came from ron quickly quigley firsted a nunez if he worked with the white house in putting together this very controversial memo. Quigley did not take that as an answer. When politicians say not that i know, it often meets that theres a lot more to the story. He said can you say with confidence none of your people talked to none of the white houses people, as quigley pressed him for a fuller answer, the chairman cut him off and said he was not going to answer that question. I mean honestly, sometimes my job is to use simple words, not the fancy wins, it sounds like he was busted. It sounds like he was busted in his own proceeding that he has very controversially stepped back from in not a full recusal and now is back involved, because if it was a simple recusal, we would report it and that would be it. But now he looks shady about whether hes secretly working on Donald Trumps defense team. And if you want to do that, you can go meet up with john dowd and resign from congress. But working on both at once and not making that public is a big deal indeed. The larger memo battle is that tonight the fbi is working as hard as we have seen to keep this classified information to be released which of course could be this week. The fbi released a statement saying we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally affect the memos accuracy. The republicans are still pushing to get this memo out. I want to talk to republican John Davidson and the larger panel stays with me. Congressman, are republicans wrong to push for the release of this information in this way . Theyre putting a lot of reliance on basically a majority staff memorandum. We dont know what all the ju d underlying information on this is. And the fbis obviously going to protect the nature of the bureau, because the memo seems to be critical of the bureau. This isnt the first time we have seen this kind of thing in washington, but it is clearly a majority staff opinion, its not evidence per se, and it will rise and fall at the end of the debate on its own merits. Im not sure respectfully what you just said. I know its a majority staff opinion, youre referring to the fact that it was gathered by republican staff. Are you inferring that that makings it perhaps less strong evidence . It is a narrative of what happened, and from what i gather the narrative is very critical of the way the fbi handled things. Go ahead. This isnt the first time, this is the way things work in this congress. To see this back and forth where members tend to protect their quarterback, the president , when theyre under assault and create the appropriate narratives. The public is going to have to judge. But my point is its not my place to say. When you say not evidence, what you mean is the narrative, a. K. A. The story that republicans want to tell from the committee may have its own agenda, but its not actually itself smoking gun evidence. Its a narrative. Its an interpretive narrative. Democrats have a memorandum thats not being released thats saying the opposite. And ultimately the public gets confused on this. Let me press you on that, when you say that the public gets confused, what if the full facts have never been publicly been used to release this kind of material related to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before . We havent had that many fisa issues come before the house. But i think its unprecedented to that extent. But this whole arlgument is unprecedented when you get into whats going on between the attorney general and the investigation. Bob costa, when republicans and youre reporting today, what does it tell us when the republicans are reporting that the fbi is bad, does that change your mind at all . Theres concerns theres an institutional battle between the institution of the Republican Party, and the institution the Republican Party has long venerated, the Justice Department. They want to move forward with this scrutiny, though they cautioned me today, if this memo is released, they dont think its going to have that significant of an impact in the public consciousness just because it goes after the service warrants but its not as explosive as it seems to be portrayed by some of its proponents. Joyce vance, what do you think . Its interesting, nunez obviously has some history with the white house in doing their bidding, if hes not their water boy explicitly, hes doing an awfully good job of carrying their water, in respect to this russia investigation, and all eyes have been looking toward the memo for days. So at the end of the day, this memo and its release ease appea be very critically viewed by current and former doj leaders, were talking about the 702 or fisa rules that could impact both sources and methods used in intelligence gathering, that could be very damaging in ways a House Intel Committee might not appreciate but that a foreign intelligence Gathering Service might be able to take advantage of. And congressman, isnt there that concern that the criminal probe remains open when it is closed and theres a result, people will have a Better Vantage Point to understand this, but trying to release piecemeal information about who was under surveillance under what probable cause standard, via carter page or whoever else under these rumors is not exactly helpful . It depends on what your point is, if your point is to undermine whatever conclusion the special counsel comes up with i havent seen it, but my understanding is its not evidence of a smoking gun per se, its just a conclusion based on some facts. And institutionally, its going to be damaging and critical to the Justice Department and the fbi. So you can understand their role. I dont know what secret information is being released or not released at this point. But institutionally, you can understand where the opposition will be. But from a political point of view, and i chair that Campaign Committee through a couple of cycles. Im afraid there might be a lot of disappointment when it comes out that theres not a smoking gun. Bob costa, final word to you, the congressman remains of the view that this may be the dog catches the car and doesnt know what to do with it . That can certainly be the case, but the Republican Party pretty broadly speaking has become critical of the Justice Department, of the fbi, of the entire russia probe, many lawmakers have said that it ends sometime soon, they see this memo as part of that whole effort, its a battle, they feel engaged in a political war, its not just a memorandum. Congressman tom davis, joyce, i have more to ask you later in the show. Coming up, a different story, this focus on whether Stormy Daniels really did sign an agreement to keep quiet an alleged affair with donald trump. Do you have a nondisclosure agreement. Do i . If you had a nondisclosure agreement, you could most certainly say i have a nondisclosure agreement. And do you remember paul ryan . He used to be a republican leader who was tough on donald trump . I disavow these comments, i regret those comments he made. Sort of like saying someone that cant do their job because of their race ryan has become trumps quote silent partner in undermining the rule of law. Youre watching the beat on msnbc. That youll ever need staying ahead isnt about waiting for a chance. Its about the one bold choice you make, that moves you forward. the one and only Cadillac Escalade. Come in now for this exceptional offer on the Cadillac Escalade. Get this lowmileage lease on this 2018 Cadillac Escalade from around 879 per month. Visit your local cadillac dealer. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient from around 879 per month. Originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Your new brotherinlaw. You like him. Hes one of those guys who always smells good. His 5 oclock shadow is always at 5 oclock. You like him. Your mom says hes done really well for himself. He has stocks and bonds your dad wants to go fishing with him. Your dad doesnt even like fishing. You like your brotherinlaw. But youd like him better if you made more money than he does. Dont get mad at your brotherinlaw. Get e trade another potential scandal for the Trump Administration that in any other presidency would be the top story for months, adult film star Stormy Daniels continuing to speak out about her affair with trump. Last night on jimmy kimmel she seemed to imply that she may have a nondisclosure agreement with trump. You either do or dont have a nondisclosure agreement. Which if you didnt have a nondisclosure agreement do you have a nondisclosure agreement. Do i . If you didnt have a nondisclosure agreement, you certainly could say i dont have a nondisclosure agreement, right . Youre so smart, jimmy. Liz, is this an important story at this point . Absolutely. And this should actually be a story thats on the front page of every newspaper, if there were any other president , if there were barack obama and she had cheated on his wife with a porn star and then paid her to keep quiet, obviously there would be a million committees about it and a mill your stoion about it. I think theres two reasons why this isnt as big a story as it should be. One is that this is a story about a woman who relationship woman that was consensual. If it wasnt consensual, that would be a bigger store. If you compare it to other things that he lied about, and other things hes being accused of, the russia probe for example, thats much worse. There she is, doing media talking about this, she might be the loudest person with an nda in recent public history, which is certainly her right. I mean the president talks a lot, people who say they have links or history to him are certainly able to come out in the public square. If she violates this nda which reportedly exists, then she would be in breach of a contract for silence. You can contract to do things or not to do things. When theres a breach, the only civil remedy is to sue her. And if he sued her, it proves the underlying problem to pay her to keep quiet. The first person to have outplayed trump is a porn star. At the same time i believe whats coming out of my mouth because nothing is shocking anymore with this president , you know, i think if you look at last nights interview, i think that a lot of people are underestimating how smart she is, i think it was sourt of a nothing burger, basically by saying she did not have an nda is admitting that she probably does have an nda, and it puts donald trump in this bind that you just remferenced, and if he goes a off and sues her for violating this nda, then and also has his role as a public official may cut against what is potential a First Amendment argument that this is something she may have a right to talk about in a political context. It we know he uses ndas a lot. Up next, my promise, the beat special report, the new report that donald trump wanted another loyalty oath this time from Rod Rosenstein, overseeing mueller, and it comes as we learn tonight mueller wants to question a former trump advisor, about, guess what . Obstruction. 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Roads nowhere to be found. and its exactly what youre looking for. . The other top story tonight, bra breaking news, President Trump asking Rod Rosenstein for loyalty. And hes the subject of the secret memo were fighting about tonight. Were seeing two russia stories unfolding side by side. One that trump wants you to see, release the memo. And one he doesnt, bob mueller tightening his grip. On the first story, trumps own fbi director making waves tonight with his rare public rebuke saying this memo is reckless and even dangerous and muellers story moving forward with key interviews, including that man, his former advisor. Im mark carillo and this is ma mark cassowi krshs s. Corolla was going to be the sean spicer of trumps criminal defense team. Then he quit. Now news breaking trump will interview him and he is a man who saw inside Donal