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New book. it says that president obama neither liked nor loathed putin nor did he subscribe to the view that putin was all that tough. if he was that sure of himself, obama said, he wouldn't have his picture taken riding around with his shirt off. joining us now is ben, former deputy national rity adviser and speech writer for president obama and now an msnbc political contributor. his new book is "the world as it is: a memoir of the obama white house", and, ben, you have rave reviews for the book. it is not the typical inside the white house memoir. you are not trying to show how right you we...

Going with cuba. only time it was not read out is if there's a reason to keep it secret. again, makes you think, what's the reason they keep conversations secret. >> the -- there's no telling what else they keep secrets not publicly releasing who visits the white house. what do you see at stake in information like that? us, we don't k the way we used to know who has been visiting the white house. >> gives y picture who has influence in the white house. are they meeting withists and theypes of people who have financial interests in what they are doing. because democrats do note control of congr...

Side, but depress the enthusiasm of the other side, and if republicans continue to feel pretty good about where the country is, that's going to be -- t to helpful to them and is going to mitigate effects of the democratic e enthusiasm seen since the election of 2016. >> so interesting. we get metrics, generic ballot looking at that one, tightening, trump's approval ratings, it's going to take awhile, as we say, for the california results to come in. we'll see what the lessons are there, hints are with respect to party energy, but there's so many variables, and you start to see, especially when...

Book is president obama's reaction to the election night of the election of donald trump. there was interpretation of what your book has to say and the quotes of president obama reflecting, wondering how this happened, wondering what he might have misread about the american voter, about the american public. do you wanto set any straight? are you heang ppl misinterpreting what you've reported the president to have said? >> just one thing. i think what paints a picture of him going through the same process of a lot of us. called me on election night and said, well, that happened. over the course...

So those are the undisputed fact here, lies. sanctions, and direction from senior officials who we know often speak for the president. what does it all mean? i'll tell you this, if bob mueller is painting a picture. he has been doing it quietly, methodically, he feel nos need to clear in the picture at once. but there is a picture taking shape. it has alleged mercenarys, paul manafort and rick gates serving foreign powers, obscure witnesses like george papadopoulos. tonight it has new characters close to the president, a national security official cooperating with the feds and talking about al...