Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20180507

Thinks he would be a fool to testify. Ive got a client who wants to testify. I hope we get a chance to tell him the risk hes taking. So he may testify. Tortured nomination. The president s pick to head the cia offers to withdraw days before facing her own interrogation. I think in her mode of putting the agency before herself, she said if its going to harm cia, i dont need to be part of this. But everyone around her said no, you are the right person to do this. The white house buffed her up and shes going full speed ahead. And live from new york, the porn star takes on the president in a way weve never seen. Rudy, can we speak frey, are you alone . Yeah, im pretty much alone. Is everyone on . Yes. What do you want me to do . Call up Stormy Daniels and fix this once and for all. I solved north and south korea, why cant i solve us . Sorry, donald, its too late for that. I know you dont believe in climate change, but a storms a coming, baby. And good day, everybody. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington, where President Trump is sticking with Rudy Giuliani despite the attorneys string of disastrous television interviews, including sunday morning on abc. What happens if Robert Mueller subpoenas the president , will you comply . Well, we dont have to. Hes the president of the United States. We can assert the same privileges other president s have. President clinton negotiated a deal which he didnt admit the effectiveness of the subpoena. Hillary clinton, no under oath, only a q and a, and we get the questions in advance and they write the report two weeks before. How about writing the report yourself . He also said if subpoenaed the president could take the fifth amendment. He then had lunch with the president and talked to nbcs peter alexander, accusing Robert Mueller and his team of being heavy handed and setting the president up for perjury. Joining me now is Kristen Welker and ashley parker, White House Reporter at the Washington Post. Kristen, first to you. Do we know for instance whether emmet flood, the new white house lawyer, was present for these meetings where Rudy Giuliani says the president and rudy were dividing up the territory, the president would take care of north korea, iran, things like that, and giuliani would take care of Stormy Daniels and things like that . Reporter we dont know for sure, andrea, we do know this is a more aggressive strategy that is being unveiled by the president , by his newly installed legal team. Remember, under ty cobb who is still here, by the way, the motto was, comply with Robert Mueller, get this over as quickly as possible. Now youre seeing the president and lawyers dig in their heels. You heard Rudy Giuliani make those statements, leaving the door open to the president pleading the fifth. And in conversations with peter as well as myself last week, andrea, mr. Giuliani really making the case that hes concerned that muellers team may be trying to lay a perjury trap for the president. And so theyre not going to agree to an inperson interview unless they feel as though the terms are right. And if you read between the lines, and what we heard from mr. Giuliani, clearly its a very high bar from their perspective. So where does this all end up . We know that President Trump has indicated a willingness to talk to the special counsel, but that really came to a screeching halt after his personal Attorney Michael Cohen was raided by the fbi. The president infuriated by all of that. But then in recent days, publicly he said look, he would like to talk to the special counsel again. So its not exactly clear that everyone is on the same page here, andrea. But again, i think that the president s legal team really giving him free rein to be more aggressive. And we saw that on twitter this morning. And lets take another look at Rudy Giuliani on abc with george stephanopoulos. Did Michael Cohen make payments to other women for the president . I have no knowledge of that. But i would think if it was necessary, yes. He made payments for the president , or he conducted business for the president , which means he had legal fees, nony moneys laid out, and ex expenditures. Are you confident his testimony with the Stormy Daniels payment wont contradict the president . Not in any material way. How does this sit with Sarah Huckabee sanders and others when they have to defend others and they have no idea what the president is discussing with giuliani and what Rudy Giuliani is going to say next . Reporter its incredibly difficult. You have white house officials who actually do care about their credibility, and thats why you saw Sarah Sanders last week stressing i am providing you with the best information i have at this time. You know, my best understanding of the situation. But i can tell you, especially those people who are called to speak on behalf of the administration, either in an official capacity or even as surrogates, there is a degree of frustration, when they go out and say one thing, and then the story shifts. It may be true that they didnt know it was going to shift in this way or that way, and they were not deliberately lying or being misleading or only telling a very narrow version of the truth. But it makes their jobs harder every single day. Its not the first time this has happened. This is an administration that does have a credibility problem, and a lot of that starts from the top from the president himself. How much notice did any of them have about the decision from ty cobb and emmet flood and the decision to bring in rudy in the first place . So a lot of that, my understanding, and i dont have a precise answer for you, but it happened on the fly. One thing the white house has done is tried to separate themselves from whats going on with the legal team. So a lot of times you go to them with these sorts of questions, they do have plausible deniability. They say you would have to ask the outside lawyers, ask the president s lawyers. So they find out a lot of different things, sort of in realtime. A perfect example of that is when Rudy Giuliani did that first bombshell interview with sean hannity last week, i believe wednesday night. No one in the White House Press shop, and very few people in the white house or on the president s legal team, had any sense that this was happening, had any sense of what giuliani was going to say or any sense that this was a strategy. It was not something that was green lighted or messaged at all levels oh of the administration. It was the president and Rudy Giuliani hatching it in private, and everyone watched it play out in realtime and then had to try to clean it up. This, of course, is all on snl, which had the cameos to end all cameos on saturday night. So lets just look at that for a moment. Guys, can we please just decide on one line and stick to it . Because our stories are all over the place. Guys, hold that thought. Im getting a call from work. Mr. President , i have lost all credibility. Did you lie to me about the Stormy Daniels affair . Yeah, that sounds like something i would do. [ laughter ] good. Just as long as were on the same page. Im good to go. See you monday. Kristen, i mean, do they see any humor in that, or is this just incredibly painful for the white house every saturday night . I think its difficult, andrea. I think that word credibility is one clearly that this administration feels is putting it on defense. So Sarah Sanders from the podium was just saying on friday really was on defense, she got a number of questions about whether americans can believe what she is saying given that it didnt square with what we now know in terms of the president paying back that 130,000 payment. She continued to insist shes giving the best information that she has at that time. And i spoke with Rudy Giuliani who said look, i apologize, i did leave the entire press shop in the dark. But he says, bottom line, hes not the white house counsel, so its not his job to brief the White House Team on his next steps. But theres no doubt that it certainly i think left a lot of people stunned here, and struggling to try to determine how they should respond, andrea. Ashley, just briefly, the Washington Post i believe counted up 3,000 lies that the president has told. You had dan balls, who doesnt use the l world easily with his column last week, saying that how do people respond to the fact that the president has lied and continues to lie . What does it do in terms of the American People . Thats right. Its over 3,000 false or misleading statements, which i believe is 6. 5 a day. It hurts the administration. Its an unclear question how much it matters, and for him, thats still sort of the key question. But it does make it harder for the administration, when they have a fair point, and they have valid point. And not just on issues of alleged hush money payments, but on the iran deal, on the north korea deal, on policy and politics and legislation, you need credibility and its difficult for them. Thank you both so much. And msnbc contributor Barbara Mcclain joins me now. Barbara, thank you. We know that there is a lot of political fallout from all this. What about the legal fallout from the different issues that giuliani has raised, now taking a harder line, saying the president cant be subpoenaed, can take the fifth. Hes also, of course, changed the story that the president originally told, the facts of the case. I think legally, Rudy Giuliani is creating more problems for President Trump. It seems that he went on a very deliberate media blitz to try to control the narrative. But under the rules of evidence, the statements of a persons agent, including his lawyer, are admissible against the principal down the road. So all these things that Rudy Giuliani is saying could be held against the president , including what he knew and when he knew it, which could maybe solve one problem but create another under the Campaign Finance laws. And the fact that juligiulia didnt seem to understand that the source of the money isnt necessarily the issue under Campaign Finance laws, its the payment. Sure. There could be a donation, but also the expenditure, failing to disclose an expenditure could be a problem. He may have shifted the problem from Michael Cohen to the Trump Campaign being an expenditure. Hes trying to fill one hole but digging another. Lets talk for a moment about the coordination among lawyers. What does this do to emmet flood, an experienced killer lawyer from the williams and connelly firm, who is just joining on . I think if youre emmet flood and youre learning for the first time that Rudy Giuliani is going out and saying these things as you watch it unfold on television, youre not going to be happy about that. It doesnt appear that Rudy Giuliani did his homework to get his facts straight. And rule two, you need to be coordinating among the team. This could compromise a strategy that flood wants to implement down the road. Theres a reason lawyers tell their clients to be quiet and usually lawyers arent out there talking about the facts of the case or the legal strategy. I would imagine that emmet flood is not happy with Rudy Giuliani going out and dropping bombshells out there without some strategy to do so. Among the bombshells is the fact that there could well be more than 130,000, there could be more than 400,000, payments to other people. Does this open up a whole new route of discovery in the civil case . Absolutely. Again, because the statements of a lawyer are binding on the client, i think that there will be at least questions asked whether in the civil case that Stormy Daniels has brought to ask about those things, or in the Southern District of new yorks case, looking at the payments by Michael Cohen to find out if there are additional payments besides this one that were paid, and whether there are other crimes related to that, bank frauds or laundering of money to cover up those payments. So i think hes opened the door to further inquiries of these statements. Barbara, the president and his team were seizing on judge ellis in alexandria, virginia, the judge on some of the manafort cases. So how important is that . It was a hearing, and we dont know how hes going to rule on the motions to dismiss. But does this give them a lot of ammo against Robert Mueller . Yeah, i think it gives them some ammunition. It certainly supports President Trumps narrative that this is a witch hunt. The judge said the only reason youve charged Paul Manafort is you want to squeeze him to sing against President Trump. But the motive of the prosecution is not for the judge to decide. His question is, is there probable cause within the scope of this order, is venue appropriate and is this a lawful charge . The answer to all those questions is yes. Soy suspect in the end he will keep the case and not dismiss it. Even if he does, theres nothing to prevent the u. S. Attorney to refile that case. And if Paul Manafort were to cooperate, so i dont think in the big picture it damages the case very much. But i suppose for the moment, its a setback for the mueller team and gives President Trump some ammunition to fight back. Barbara, always great to see you. Thank you for coming on today. Thank you, andrea. Coming up, cold feet . The white house convinces gina haspel to stay in, for now. But can she survive her Senate Confirmation hear thing week . Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports. Stay with us on msnbc. Mpany sayy threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do . Drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Searching one topic. That will generate over 600 million results. 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[ chuckles ] download the xfinity my account app and set a password you can easily remember. One more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. Welcome back. The president s nominee to head the cia gina haspel is meeting with senators today. She had considered withdrawing her nomination over concerns that reopening the debate about brutal interrogations could damage the spy agency that shes been part of for three decades. Lastminute visits to langley by Top White House officials and a call from the president persuaded her to hang in. But it could backfire. Press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeting a veiled threat at senator feinstein, who commissioned that explosive torture report on interrogation practi practices. Sanders tweeting joining me now is democratic senator ron wyden, who is on the Senate Intelligence committee and opposing gina haspels nomination. Tell me why you are against the nomination. First of all, what has been going on here, andrea, is an a to z coverup. Theres been selective declassification of her record. Theres been a public influence campaign. And there has just been out and out misinformation. And i believe a significant amount of her record can be declassified without compromising what are called sources and methods and the agency is just covering up and stonewalling. Some of the other supporters of gina haspel say privately that one reason they are supporting her is that she is career, shes well liked, and shes not political. And their concern is that one of your colleagues, senator cotton from arkansas, who is very hardline, and they believe to be very political, might be the second choice if she is not confirmed. I just dont buy that reasoning, and ive heard, for example, people say that, in effect, gina haspel would be the only appropriate woman. The fact is, in america, there are scores and scores of well qualified women who can fill Key National Security posts like this. And i think its really insulting to women to say that gina haspel is the only one qualified for this job. And the other criticism of you and others who oppose her is that in the aftermath of 9 11, there was a different mindset. They were concerned about a Second Attack that these extraordinary techniques, the interrogation techniques, which are well defined now as torture and outlawed by the mccain legislation, that they were appropriate for the times, whether you believe it or not, that she was part of the agency doing what she was told. Im a john mccain guy on this, andrea. The fact is, torture is wrong. It reflects horribly on American Values around the world. And very significantly it is not effective. This is an area where theres also been a fair amount of misinformation peddled from the administration. Now, what could they do . What can they declassify . What can they tell you in closed session that would persuade you, if anything . What i want is what i wanted for a year now, and what i believe the American People deserve. I want the American People to know who this nominee is, and what her role was during this particularly important period. Its essentially between 2002 and 2007. I have read the classified information, andrea. I believe a significant amount of it can be declassified without compromising our National Security. This position is, in effect, the most public official in american intelligence, and i think the American People have a right to know who she is. And your reaction to democrats as well as republicans, former directors of cia, who are all endorsing her . I respect a number of these people, and a number of them i know very, very well. But thats not what a democracy is all about, taking the word of a number of former officials. Its about that witness coming forward and really letting us get the details that i believe can be offered without in any way compromising our countrys wellbeing. Senator, if they do not declassify some of the information youre looking at privately, how do you question her at the hearing . What do you want to ask her . That, of course, is the real question. And im going to do my best to ask her about what happened during that period, what was her role in effect, this tapes saga, which i cant get into on this program. But thats the whole point. And i would also point out that the director of the cia has a conflict of interest here, because theyre in effect in charge typically of declassification. So on friday, i and a number of my colleagues wrote the director of National Intelligence asking him to declassify this matter that gina haspels cia wont get into. Senator ron wyden, thank you very much. Thank you for having me. Our pleasure. Joining me now is ned price, former National Security counsel spokesperson, and nbc National Security analyst. Ned, youve worked under gina haspel and you know what a lot of your colleagues are saying. Why support her given the refusal to declassify critical information about a tape that she reportedly wiped, and its a tape of harsh interrogations, and it was done apparently under orders to protect the identities of the interrogators, who were doing this interrogation of an al qaeda prisoner. In many ways i agree with senator wyden. She must and will face tough questions when she appears before congress on wednesday, about the tapes issue and her role in that black site and perspective actions going forward. If she receives an order to carry out torture, enhanced interrogation techniques, would she comply with that . And i think she has to give sufficient answers there. And i think doing so will require more information from the cia. But i think the story that gina haspel has to tell, if shes able and willing to tell it, will be one that depicts a career intelligence professional leading ably in very difficult times in putting forward part of a program that the Bush White House put forward. Shes the first Covert Division leader since the 1970s, since william colby, to be nominated to direct the agency. There are stories, some comparing her to carrie mathison. Is that who she is . Shes brave and courageous, but someone who has the respect and the confidence of the workforce. And speaking with the senator, she is not political. She is someone who will leave lead the agency according to the constitution, the United States of america and the cia. I think she will speak truth to power. I have always known her, ive heard her to be a person that speaks truth to power. My hope is shell be able to tell senators if shes ordered to go down this dark road once again, she would put her foot down and say no, she would not do that and resign. I want to ask you about another intelligence controversy, black cube. New revelations that, in fact, an israeli covert firm was being used by some people connected to the Trump Administration to go after former obama people like ben rhodes, who were involved in the iran negotiations and try to discredit them. Its a very strange story and suggests that dirty tricks were not confined to the nixon administration. What we found here, there is a circumstantial case to be made that a lot of this points back to former white house officials. People like sebastien gorka. Its very odd that ben rhodes and colin call were the alleged targets of this operation. They were not the architects of the iran deal. Yes, they worked on it. But they were the focus of sebastien gorka. If you look at what he said during this time, he consistently harps on these two individuals and then just last night, we learned from a uk paper and from the new yorker, that this intelligence agency, this intelligence firm, was focusing on these very two individuals. You add those two things up, and his fingerprints appear to be all over this. Theres a lot we dont know, but we need to find out more. Were going to try to do that ourselves. Thank you. Great to have you here. Coming up, state of emergency. Lava burning a path of destruction across hawaii. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. What . Directv gives you more for your thing. Your. Quitting cable and never looking back thing. Directv is rated 1 in Customer Satisfaction over cable. Switch to directv and now get a 100 reward card. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Call 1. 800 directv. With dell small businessout your Technology Advisors you get the oneonone partnership you need to grow your business. 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Customer really . singers safelite repair, safelite replace. And i am a senior Public Safety my namspecialist for pg e. My job is to help educate our First Responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. Everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. I live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. Once i moved here i didnt want to live anywhere else. I love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other peoples lives. Together, were building a better california. A terrifying and slowmoving disaster unfolding in hawaii. Lava spewing hundreds of feet in the air from the kilauea volcano has destroyed dozens of homes. The eruption has triggered earthquakes and released toxic gas, forcing nearly 2,000 people to evacuate. Those residents remaining are bracing for more destruction, as the eruptions could last for weeks or months. Nbcs Steve Patterson joins me now. Steve, this is an extraordinary disaster really. Tell us what the prognosis is. Reporter so as you mentioned, the scientists, the officials that are studying this, say they have no idea how much longer this could last. If you looked at previous eruptions to this volcano in the early 80s, that activity lasts for years and years until a town was destroyed in 1990. So this could last the next few days, weeks, months. Who knows . What is happening right now is a very volatile situation. Youre looking at ten of these active fissures, on the east side of the big island, pouring out lava in some cases when theyre active, as high as 300 feet, the size of basically a football field standing on its end. That spews out, pours down into the community. Those fissures can open up just about any time while this eruption event is happening, not to mention the accompanying earthquakes that come with it. More than 500 estimated at this point. The largest on friday, a 6. 9, the largest in nearly 40 years in this area, rattled this community, all the way across the island chain. The most dangerous thing that people are looking at right now is this sulfur dioxide, the chemical that comes out of the ground, spews out high above those communities. It is toxic, specifically if you have respiratory issues, if you have any asthma or lung issues, that can be a deadly substance if you are close to it for a long time. So there are so many factors here. Its why the National Guard is in there trying to keep people away from those areas. They did let rez danlt resident collect personal items, medication, and pets, but only for a few minute because of how volatile the situation is. No idea how much longer this could last. Steve patterton, just extraordinary. The pictures are amazing, but you cant imagine to whats happening to people on the ground. Thanks for being with us. Coming up, the soul of america. What history can teach us about escaping the political divisions of our time. Historian john meecham joins me next. Stay with us on Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Were putting ai into everything, and everything into the cloud. Its all so. Smart. But how do you work with it . Ask this farmer. Hes using satellite data to help increase crop yields. Thats smart for the food we eat. At this port, supply chains are becoming more transparent with blockchain. Thats smart for millions of shipments. In this lab, researchers are working with watson to help them find new treatments. Thats smart for medicine. At this bank, the worlds most encrypted mainframe is helping prevent cybercrime. Thats smart for everyone. And in africa, iot sensors and the ibm cloud are protecting endangered animals. Thats smart for rhinos. Yeah. Rhinos. Because smart only really matters, when we put it to work not just for a few of us, but for all of us. Lets put smart to work. 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The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeav endeavor, and from the goal of that fire and truly light the world. And so, my fellow americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John f. Kennedys memorable inaugural address in 1961, aimed to give hope during a time of emerging social change. The fight for civil rights, diplomatic crises, a struggling economy. And before kennedy, it was lincoln in the civil war, roosevelt and the Progressive Movement and wilson in the backlash against immigrants in the first world war. And other periods of history when hope overcame divisions and fear. Now in an era of new challenges, the fate of the country is being put to the test. Joining me now, john meacham, Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and author of soul of america, the battle for our better angels. Welcome, john. Congratulations on this book. Thank you. Tell us what your research should tell us about how we can respond, how we need to respond at times of crises, and arguably, this is one. It is. And actually, crises are really more of the rule than the exception. Nostalgia is a powerful narcotic, and i know there are a lot of americans who want to think that somehow or another the day before election day in november of 2016, everything was great and now its dark. I think that does a disservice to the people in the past, the women who fought for the right to vote, the africanamericans who fought for first liberty and then suffrage and then equal access. It does a disservice to those who fought for marriage equality, a decision thats only not quite three years old. The story of the country, which is bloody and tough and tragic, is in fact one, where hope has overcome fear. We realized, and this is not a partisan point. I voted for democrats and republicans, its simply a Historical Data point that the country has grown stronger, the wider weve opened our arms. The more liberally, and the nonidealogical sense, the more freely we interpreted the ev sewnian promise that were all created equal. Whats happened is we have had moments where we have had populist candidates who have worked and exacerbated racial anxiety, anxiety about immigrants, anxiety about broad economic and cultural change. But we havent had one, at least in a long time, who rose to the pinnacle of power. Strom thurmond in 1948. George wallace, who won 13. 5 of the vote in 1968. Someone who ran on a platform of segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. And thats within the lifetime of most of us. My native region in the south, and the lifetime of anyone over 40, 45, we had functional apartheid. So there have been moments, off very long and sustained moments, where we didnt do the right thing and answer our better angels. And what has often happened is the voices of the powerless, the voices of protest, the voices of resistance, the voices of those who bear witness, whether its john lewis or rosa parks, have intersected with president ial grace and president ial leadership. It happened with Lyndon Johnson in the civil rights movement. It happened with harry truman integrating the military. And thats when we make our significant leaps forward. But youve got to have those voices who are far from the center of power, holding the powerful to account. And what you are writing here, brings to mind john mccain, who is speaking out from his sickbed and writing and trying to hold to account the distorted politics that we now see. And what we hear is from friends that he will have, in current plan, a Funeral Service at the end of this struggle, with former president s bush and obama speaking and eulogizing him, and he does not want President Trump to be there. Senator mccain is in many ways the embodiment of the best parts of the american soul, as i define it, which is a commitment to fair play, a commitment not to equality of outcome, because we cant have that, but equality of opportunity and a love of country. A love of the fact that this is a country, a revolution that continues to unfold, that is about an idea. Its not about it should not be about race or ethnicity or religion. But its about, as president reagan said, all the pill dpri s pilgrims from the lost places hurdling towards home. And senator mccain, who put his life on the line in the war in vietnam and served his country since then, not a perfect guy. He would be the first one to tell you that hes not. And to me thats what is really important. The other fascinating thing about those two choices of eulogists, is those are two men he lost the ultimate office in american politics. He lost to george w. Bush in 2000, and of course, he lost to president obama in 2008. But i think what the senators choices show us is that that group of people were united, not by a love of self, but to use a phrase that senator mccain likes to use, a love of causes larger than them selves. Not that theyre perfect and we shouldnt overly sentimentalize this, but the only thing weve got is history to give us a sense of proportion and to let us know at what point should we set our hair on fire . And its easy right now to be Walking Around with a lighter and doing it with every twist and every turn and every tweet. What john mccain teaches us, what a great deal of president ial history can teach us, is that this is a long struggle, its a struggle for a more perfect union, and we all have to do our bid to tray to get us to a better place than we found it. John meacham, you are doing so much on that very score. I love this book. I love the cover. So thank you again for all that you do for us. The covers good. You dont have to worry about the rest of it. The rest of it is good indeed. All of it. Coming up tonight on msnbc nightly news, lester holt begins his trip across america, starting in portland, america, thats tonight on your local nbc station. Coming up, vladamir putin gets sworn in for a historic fourth term as russias president. Will it be his last . Stand by, Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Get domo. Itll connect us to everything thats going on in the company. Get it for jean whos always cold. For the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. Give us the data we need. In one place, anywhere we need it. Help us do our jobs better. With domo we can run this place together. Well thats thats your job i guess. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. No surprise, Vladimir Putin was sworn in today for his fourth term at russias president. A kremlin ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance. Pooting a former top kgb member won in march. In power 18 years as either Prime Minister or president. Joining me now, former ambassador to russia and Nbc News International Affairs Analyst and author of a new book from cold war to hot peace. Congratulations on the book. Thanks for having me. Vladimir putin, another term. What are his strengths and weaknesses on the world stage, if you will . Hes been in powary lo arer time, andrea. On to his fourth term. Do it six years and i suspect even beyond then hell be there. I dont think he has a way to step down. Doesnt have a normal way to step aside or a successor. On the strength i would say he is a formidable leader everybody has to deal with. On the negatives i would say everybody has to deal with him. Not like they like to deal with him. Hes a nuisance sometimes. Sometimes more than a nuisance when he invades countries or interferes in elections as he did here in 2016 and as i write in the book we underestimated the challenge that putin and his regime faces both for the United States and our security, but also for democracy around the world. Did we underestimate the disinformation tactics, first used against you . At least you were quite aware of it at the time, but we were always looking at cyber at the newest way of waging war by russia against us. But disinformation has been taking place now for years leading up to the 2016 campaign, of course. Youre right. I experienced it personally firsthand when i was ambassador in 2012. I was accused by the putin regime and his surrogates and Media Outlets of trying to form a revolution against Vladimir Putin and was photo shopped allegedly handing out money to the opposition. I was used in videos suggesting that i was doing all of these illegal activities in russia. And once, probably the low point of my time as ambassador, andrea a video put out accusing me of being a pedophile, suggesting that i did some kind of things and, of course, none of it was true. Of course, we did not know how to deal with it, and i think it was a bit of a, you know, a preshow of what we saw several years later in terms of what happened in our elections. We underestimated both the technology of how to use disinformation, the technology of how to use bots to magnify different kinds of messages, but we also underestimated putins intent, and the audacity that he would do this in the 2016 elections and thats not the last election hes going to interfere in. Hes involved all over the world and the big showdown will be in the president s election in ukraine next year. And the other issue, of course, is this president , who has refrained from criticizing Vladimir Putin. There have been some sanctions now, some steps taken, but how do you explain the relationship between donald trump and Vladimir Putin . I cant, to be honest with you. It is so bizarre. Lets just be honest. The Trump Administrations policy towards russia, i think is actually a pretty good one. Theres a lot of continuity with the Obama Administration and i know both obama and trump people will be mad at me for saying that, and in some ways the Trump Administration has even been more aggressive and deterred Vladimir Putin, for instance, in supplying weapons to ukraine. But President Trump himself oftentimes doesnt support his own administrations policy, visavis Vladimir Putin, and he has this belief that hes been very consistent with that if i could just talk to Vladimir Putin, and develop a personal relationship with him, that will make relations better. I think hes wrong in theory about that, but i honestly dont understand why he wont push back harder on putin with respect to policy matters that are important to american National Security. And the fact is, though, that the Obama Administration let him in to syria and by extension the middle east, he is now a player in battlegrounds that he never had been before. Yes. The longest chapter in my book is called chasing russians failing syrians. The chapter is son long because i talk about missed opportunities as an administration and some things we did not have control over, including what Vladimir Putin did to shore up the dictator, mr. Assad, in syria, and no american wants to go to war with russia over syria. That was not really a choice, but it is true that putin is back and is being more influential in the middle east than at anytime since the end of the cold war. From cold war to hot peace, it is an astonishing book. Thank you very much, mike mcfaul. Great to see you again. Good to see you, andrea. You bet. More ahead. Well be right back. Its time now for your business of the week. Annie warhauser owner of annie glass heard one too many times someones mother loved her glassware. Should have been a compliment, but she took it as an indication she needed to modernize her brand. See what annie did to change her products positive reach millennials on sunday morning, 7 30 eastern on msnbc. Dont juggle your home life and work life without it. Dont skip that Office Meeting for a Board Meeting without it. Dont keep it real. Keep it going. Or simply keep it in the family without it. And dont turn that business trip, into an overdue family trip without it. The more you live between life and business, the more you need someone at your back. The powerful backing of american express. Dont live life without it. And that does it for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Remember, follow us online, facebook and twitter. Chris jansing is up next. Hi there, andrea. I am Chris Jansing at msnbc headquarters in new york. Rudys revolutions. The president s new lawyer just keeps talking. Two bomb schems from his latest tv interview. Is the man brought in to smooth waters with Robert Mueller instead sending his boss into a tsunami. Voice of the people. What do the people think of the president s growing scandals and will they impact the highly watched primaries tomorrow . Plus, melanias message. After a slow start and constant questions about her role as well as her relationship with the president in a few hours, Melania Trump will finally step into the spotlight. Can she shape a legacy separate from her husbands