Then the message is those are not impeachab offenses. At the end of the day theres only one way to deal with this problem whether we impeach him or not is to vote him out of office. The numbers shows the president s credibility is taking a hit. 58 of americans believe hes lied to the public about matters under investigation by the special counsel. This as the president continues to blast that investigation. They tried for a coup. Didnt work out so well. And i didnt need a gun for that one, did i . So there you heard the applause. Heres former defense secretary and cia director leon panetta responding to what people are saying about that report. The president really treats the American People like were all chumps, and that somehow he can say whatever he wants, and that, you know, the American People will accept it. Also this morning new questions about what Rod Rosenstein did to stay in charge of the special counsels investigation. The Washington Post reporting that the Deputy Attorney general told the president quote i give the investigation credibility. I can land the plane. Now a former chief spokesman at the doj under obama now questioning rosensteins approach. The way to understand rod is that hes weak and always been wage. He was weak at the beginning of the investigation when he signed off on the comey firing and gave the president the excuse despite having read the Mueller Report why he fired comey. It was over the russia investigation. Today President Trump will be rallying in green bay, wisconsin as he skips the white house Correspondents Dinner in d. C. For yet another year. Meanwhile the secret service detaining the man who owned the phone anthony on the stage as the president walked out for a speech at the nras annual meeting. That 31yearold denies throwing the phone and claim that someone actually stole it. Lets get straight to the white house now. Nbcs hans nichols. Were talking about rosenstein. When we talk about that matter what more do we know what exactly went down . Reporter morgan, good morning. We are learning this morning about what Rod Rosenstein told the president back in september when his loyalty was questioned. Now a lot of this is coming from both the New York Times and Washington Post. This morning the Washington Post is basically saying Rod Rosenstein promised something to the president. I can land the plane. I give this investigation credibility. The question is, how far did he go . Did he promise the president a certain outcome in the Mueller Investigation . We obviously dont have a direct transcript of this call. What were doing is relying on Washington Posts reporting. They have people familiar with the matter. Rosenstein was trying to save his job. Remember back in september the New York Times reported that rosenstein had suggested wearing a wire. Now on thursday night an event up in new york rosenstein admitted he was under a great deal of stress and pressure but also critical of the news media in this entire process. Some of the nonsense that passes for breaking news news today would not be worth the paper it was printed on. If anybody bothered to print news these days. One question i have yet get from reporters is, is it true that you got angry and emotional a few times over the past two years. Heck, yes. Didnt you . Reporter now rosenstein made a couple of other remarks on thursday night. He was critical of the Obama White House saying it was under their watch that this russian interference happened and also seemed to contradict the general view here at the white house that interference didnt tip the scales, the election and just a few facebook ads in the words of jared kushner. He also said we just know the tip of the iceberg of russian interference in the 2016 election. All right. That was hans nichols. Joining me now is Congress Reporter with politico and chief White House Correspondent with bloomberg news. Thank you both for joining us this morning. Sara, let start with you. The Washington Post reports that Rod Rosenstein not only discussed the Mueller Probe with President Trump but reassured him he gives the investigation credibility and quote can land the plane. Sara how concerning is this . This is something that House Democrats are certainly going to be infuriated by especially after the way we saw attorney general bill barr come out of the gate after the Mueller Report and he was showing so much support for President Trump he was using President Trumps exact wording to say there was no collusion. So the democrats were already highly skeptical of the way doj has been handling the situation and to have this report come out certainly going to be driving fuel to the fire here and democrats will be seizing on this in the next several days. Which is interesting. You hit the nail on the head when you talk about the skemt m skepticism. Rosenstein was a witness in this investigation. Could he have been compromised . In the broader sense of the wore it depends as to when were going to hear from special counsel bob mueller testify before congress. Look the calls up on capitol hill for there to be public testimony from the special counsel are only intensifying. Lawmakers are set to return from recess this week. Beyond that attorney general william barr set to testify publicly again for the first time before Congress Following the release of this report on may 2nd. So, i think that these questions are going to be asked of these officials. But i also think that poll in particular the majority of americans more than half of them saying they are not necessarily, you know, supportive of there being brought articles of impeachment as of now is something that a lot of democrats are heeding to, including House Speaker nancy pelosi. Look shes a political referee. Shes got to navigate the calls on the campaign trail and the calls within her caucus for there to be impeachment while also trying to manage policy initiatives that are set to be coming, being brought to the discussion. Shes going to be meeting oneonone with President Trump this week, this week at the white house. Speaker pelosi and President Trump not talking about impeachment but infrastructure. Sara, what are your thoughts on this. Were talking about pelosi becoming a referee. What does this mean for the integrity of the dojs investigation . Is it compromised . Well thats something House Democrats will be trying to figure out, of course, as they go ahead. They have a lot of plans to bring in more witnesses, more officials, more former officials for a slew of hearings in the next several weeks but its not year if they will get any of the witnesses they are asking for. Its not clear if bob mueller will testify on capitol hill. These are the Big Questions that democrats have to wrestle with as they see these new poll numbers. That poll included 62 of democrats who do support impeachment. That puts a lot of pressure on pelosi from her left base. At the same time shes protaekt lot of moderate freshmen democrats representing seats that were formerly republicans. She has a lot of moderate democrats that she needs to protect and only about 36 of independents want to see impeachment go forward. Thats the number shes paying attention to here. You talked about that 62 number but 58 of americans who say that trump lied, of them 19 are republicans. Is that actually more than you would have expected . That number, it does show, there are, of course, republicans willing to support democratic efforts here. That might be the never trump republicans weve seen. Not exactly clear. These are only the first poll numbers weve seen because of the Holiday Weekend and some delays to get to andy poling here. So its going to be a demographic were watching closely. Only 10 of republicans support impeachment. Even if you have republicans say more than that number, 19 saying they believe that the president lied, only 10 believe that they think impeachment should go forward here. Even in the Republican Party some of their numbers are split. Kevin i want to go back to the point that sara was making about the numbers thinking the president lied. 58 of americans in that poll think the president has lied to the public about matters under investigation by the special counsel. So does this show us, kevin that people really arent buying the administrations messaging in the wake of the reports release . Yes. I mean look, you dont have to look at the polls. Go to the dinner conversation of any political family around the country when folks are talking about the Mueller Investigation. To both points that both of you are making in terms of how this would move forward the question for democrats right now is if they pursue impeachment and i want takes more than a year, virtually every source that i talk with that works with this white house says bring it on because it would last more than a year. Theres no way that there would be a conviction in the senate, the republican controlled senate. Then youre right up against the 2020 president ial. So you got republicans saying bring it on. You got Speaker Pelosi walking a very narrow tight rope. The folks who are out on the campaign trail. When i talk to staffers of the campaigns of senator elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, to some extent former Vice President joe biden they say they are listening to the frustration of what voters feel and the mistrust they feel of the administration but very quickly i would add they are also listening on the policy issues, on medicare, on the environment, Green New Deal initiative, affordability for access to health care. They are hearing those issues as well. And i think we cant we cant note that enough. Its interesting you talk about the frustration because also when im talking to voters you hear the frustration around the lack of authenticity. I want seems with these polls thats also what the voters are trying to tease out. Who is authentic and who represents my interest. I want to thank you both so much for joining us this morning. Thanks for waking up early. Fears of socialism on capitol hill. What republicans plan to do about it in a new book. Stay with us. Also just a quick programming note. Al shortstopton will sit down with the leading 2020 contenders. Watch not just black and white tonight at 8 00 eastern right here only on msnbc. One hour pickup order . Got it. Ran out of ink and i have a big meeting today. And 2 boxes of twizzlers. Yeah, uh. For the team. The team . Gooo team. Order online pickup in an hour. Now get an extra 20 off with coupon. At office depot officemax. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Plants capture co2. What if other kinds of plants captured it too . If these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. Carbon capture is Important Technology and experts agree. Thats why were working on ways to improve it. So plants. Can be a little more. Like plants. Voting for your favorite has never been easier. Just say vote for world of dance into your xfinity vmo. Um jennifer, its called a voice remote, not a vmo. Yeah, i just think vmo has a nicer ring to it. So, just say vote for world of dance into your xfinity vmo to choose your xfinity fan favorite to join the world of dance experience on my its my party summer tour. Cast your vote by saying vote for world of dance into your xfinity x1 voice remote. Or as jlo likes to call it, your vmo. President trump stepping up his attacks on democrats this week, doubling down on his unsupported claim that Robert Muellers investigation started because of democratic opposition research. I really say, now we have to get down, because this was a coup. This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government. These are sick people. These are sick, sick people. So lets see what happens with mccabe and comey and brennan and clapper. They were in on the act. And lets see what happens and lets see how high it goes up. The biggest problem with the Mueller Report he didnt mention any of this. He didnt mention strzok and page and mccabe and comeyen and the lies and the leaks and the overthrow. All right. So joining me now is jake sherman coauthor of the hill to die on the battle for congress and the future of trumps america. Hes a Senior Writer for politico. Thank you for being with us. Lets get right into it. The president is vowing to fight all subpoenas from House Democrats while accusing former top officials of attempting a coup. What exactly, jake, is his end game here . How are those accusations really going to affect the power dynamic between him and congress . I dont know what his end game is because its not a sustainable position for the administration to say im going to ignore actions from congress, all subpoenas, all requests for testimony. Im not sure how long he can sustain that and what his plan is here. He he can try to take it to the court. Most administrations, frankly, at least pretend that they are going to cooperate with congress and then dont. Or do it in a limited accepts. So its impossible to understand what the president is aiming for. Furthermore if he want legislative accomplishments he has to in some way cooperate with congress. When you speak about congress what about the effect for Congressional Republicans. Do the findings of the redacted Mueller Report shift the political calculations of Congressional Republicans in anyway . Is there a threat of not having the president s backing . Is it still a factor for those republicans up for reelection. No. Overall republicans believe that the Mueller Report or at least they say the Mueller Report has exonerated the president and frankly they believe it exonerates their behavior over the last two years which has been to protect the president and not investigate him, not conduct oversight when they were in control of congress. I think they benefit politics have swayed in their favor. What about the other side. Whats your take on the divisions among democrats surrounding impeachment. We heard so much chatter about it. Is it inevitable or expected they may overplay their hand . Its possible they overplay their hand. I think impeachment as i think in the last hour was discussed, theres a clip of adam schiff basically saying its a really tricky political calculation for them. Obviously, the president would be acquitted because the senate is held by republicans. So for at that lot of democrats they are banging their head against the wall and not something they want to do. Lets talk about this division. You interviewed the president after republicans lost control of the house and he expressed relief thinking it might be more workable for him now i can say folks lets go. Give me legislation. If we like it well work on it. Was this the usual boasting from the president or did he think it would be easier to work with a divided congress . Far be it for me to get in the president s brain too much but he did say that. He did believe that republicans were too nit picking. He believes, he thought, he said that democrats would be able to give him bills and he would say yes or no, sign it or not. This was actually a real narrative coming out of the white house for months during the campaign season. Republicans and the white house kept saying over and over again the senate is what matters, were is going to lose house to and its not that big of a deal and it was befuddling. Now the president is facing a barrage of investigations that threaten to swamp the last two years of his first term and impact his reelection. It was stunning to hear how little he cared about it at that time and even after the fact. Speaking of stunning i have to admit one of the most interesting parts i found, you spoke with Mitch Mcconnell and hes promising his constituents if hes reelected and continues to be the senator majority leader hell block legislation that he teadeems as socialist. What about his own power. How the president has affect ed him being able to do his own job . Mitch mcconnell have found many ways to navigate the Trump Presidency to his advantage. We detail this in the book. He reshaped the federal judiciary for decades to come in a conservative way and has used the president s kind of lack of understanding of washington and his, the fact that hes new to town to take over that process and thats been very advantageous for mcconnell. Mcconnell has really used this presidency to achieve what he wants. Its been stunning to see him. It was never illustrated more than the kavanaugh episode which he worked with the president very, very well to get brett ha kavanaughs nomination through. One of the most contoda were oscar mayer deli fresh and you may know us from. Your very first sandwich, your mammoth masterpiece. And. Whatever this was. Be