cox, mtv news senior political correspondent and host of the broadcast "with friends like these." and also joining us joan walsh, national affairs correspondent for the nation and an msnbc political analyst. so joan, the gauntlet has been thrown. president trump is accusing jim comey of the federal crime of perjury. >> yes. >> yesterday. and one of the things he says he perjured himself about, of course, of course trump didn't ask for his loyalty. >> this is my favorite part of this whole stream of consciousness thing he did today, lawrence, because he really was making it up as he went along. i don't know him. why would i ask for his loyalty? why would i ask him to pledge his allegiance to me. what he never said is the simple truth. he is independent. he doesn't work for me. i would never ask for that. i know that's not the place of the president to say something like that to the fbi director. so as he is just grabbing lines out of the air, he doesn't grab the simple one which grab the si one, which should be the truth but of course it isn't. >> yeah, anna, his lying defense is based on the wrong reasons. >> right. presumably, he does ask for