Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20180413

He could exccompel him which could be even more interesting. I dont think he wants to. Yeah. I dont know if i told you but he went to princeton and he is a st. Pauls guy. He is a real smart fella. Hes super smart. Real smart, but i still if i were president of the United States and i had lawyers that thought i was too stupid to talk to Robert Mueller. Yeah. Id take it personally. You are like i have done all this stuff and they still think im too dumb. They think im a moron and i cant sit down just right across the table and talk to this guy. Thats what he does. He talks he makes deals. Thats what hes thats who he is. Right. Could you see that like the finale of the apprentice, them saying, hey, i want to talk to suchandsuch and Donald Trumps people like mark burnett did mark burnett ever whisper you better not sit across your table at the apprentice because you are too stupid. He would roll mueller. He thinks he can roll mueller but, willie, his lawyers all think hes dumb. They really do. Thepg hes too stupid to talk to Robert Mueller because i guess they think Robert Mueller has a better education than donald trump. Wouldnt you be insulted . I would be deeply insulted by that. I think the president s believes he is his on best advocate and would love to sit in the room with bob mueller. Somebody said remember in watergate we had the tapes, we had find the tapes. Right. In this case the tape was on the nbc nightly news with lester holt on may 11th, 2017, where the president said, yes, i fired james comey because of the russia investigation. Right. You remember the fugitive, that great movie with harrison ford. Sure. It would be like the dude like standing in front of everybody at the beginning of the movie. I did it. You know . Because thats what donald trump has already done. Right. By the way, alex, get the russian tape because the confession and him smiling with the russians, thats just the best where he is confessing to the russians, hey, i get pressure off of all of us because i fired comey. He is a nutjob. Relieves the pressure. It relieves the pressure. All right. With us on set we have washington anchor for bbc i would be so insulted. Katty, would you insulted if your lawyers thought you were too stupid to talk to somebody like Robert Mueller . Yeah, and if i was a trump type of person that very insult might be the kind of thing that might drive me to do something rash. Well, i mean, donny, hes isnt he his own best advocate . By the way, you know, talking about princeton, im a wharton man, he is a wharton man, he would be defending wharton also. And he was a fordham guy. But i think he needs to validate that. I think his dad probably paid a lot of money to get him into wharton just so he could have the degree. Trump would never run from a fight, right . Hes going to sit with mueller. Of course he is. Hes running from this fight, though. I dont think hes a coward, do you . If he didnt talk to mueller it would make him a coward. You wouldnt think he is a coward. We know he is not a coward. He is acting like a coward or, mika, i guess his lawyers are just thinking he is too stupid to sit down with Robert Mueller. I dont know. Donny, do you think thats what hes doing, he thinks hes too stupid . You know, i actually think deep down he does think hes too stupid to be honest with you. Are you serious . I think right now theres these little birdies on each ear, one is going you are not stupid and the other one is going mika, i think he needs to raid the confidence code. Maybe he does. You know its number two on the best seller list, katie kay. 71yearold president 71yearold president s who have a problem keeping track of things. If he didnt talk to comey he would be very smis sieve, he would be submitting to comey and saying you are stronger than me, i cant talk to you. Thats what would be going on there. That would be it. With us we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press jonathan la mere who read the james comey book. Thank you. I went to a good school, i was able to read the book. Donny deutsch is with us and in Washington National political reporter for nbc news carol lee who has the big scoop this morning about the brewing obstruction of justice case Robert Mueller is building. Monday mornings raid on President Trumps personal attorney has white house allies on edge and up and upended the delicate negotiations with the Mueller Probe. Last night the Washington Post reported that trumps allies worry that federal investigators may have seized recordings made made by Michael Cohen. Quote, cohen who served for a decade as a lawyer at the Trump Organization and is a close confidant was known to store the conversations using digital files and then replay them for colleagues. Cohens attorney declined to comment. That takes us to nbc news exclusive new reporting on the Mueller Investigation. Cooperation between the white house and the special counsel is believed to be damaged beyond repair by mondays raid of President Trumps attorney. Nbc news reports that months of talks collapsed this week and Robert Muellers team is now moving forward without a president ial interview according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Carol lee, you were the lead reporter on the knee that broke the story for nbc. Take us through what we know and especially on the obstruction of justice report that bob mueller is reportedly building. Sure. There is a number of ways in which this raid on Michael Cohen is ricochetting through both obviously the significant elements of the investigation and what they may find, but also just in the reaction that the president s legal team is having to this and the president himself. What we learned is that he has soured on the idea of an interview at least for now, he is feeling much more defiant and combative towards the Mueller Investigation and that essentially the raid on cohen upended these negotiations that they had were having with muellers office about a possible interview. So really may have sealed the fate of whether or not that interview happens. We learned that they were much further along than we had previously thought in terms of coming to some sort of possible agreement about an interview. They were discussing final sticking points just as this raid was unfolding and this so so theres that piece, and then, you know, we also learned that when it comes to the obstruction portion of the Mueller Investigation that muellers team is essentially finished with that piece of investigation. Carol, to prove obstruction they dont need trumps interview, do they . Thats what people we spoke with said, that, you know, hes done all the interviews, talked to everybody else, looked at all the evidence and the interview with the president was kind of this last step in finalizing that portion of the investigation because the one thing that they dont necessarily get from interviewing other witnesses and looking at documents is an explanation from the president about his intent and obstruction is obviously all about intent. So, carol, if we can leave this graphic up right here for our people in the car, the areas of the Mueller Report on obstruction, the firing of former fbi director james comey we just talked about, the president s response to the report in the 2016 trump tower meeting, remember, drafting on air force one that memo that said the meeting was about adoption, of course, it turned out to be about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. Then trumps dangling of pardons before witnesses who perhaps were going to testify against him and then finally the pressuring of attorney general Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the russia investigation which he of course did, much to the frustration weve heard even again this week of President Trump. So what does all this mean, then . If mueller is not waiting for a president ial interview, what does it mean about the pacing of this and when might we hear the results of his investigation . Well, we dont know exactly, but what weve been told is that if he decides to not subpoena the president and, you know, just goes without an interview on this portion of the investigation, that would really speed up the process for submitting some sort of report on this of what his findings are. We were talking to people who said that the expectation was that that would happen within the next few months. The president s legal team was asking mueller as a condition for an interview to set a time frame for that within three to four months after he sat down with the president without an interview, mueller is not obligated to do anything like that and he can move on his own time frame. So it could actually really speed up the process for finalizing a report on this obstruction piece. It could speed up the process but also, donny, trump could actually help himself by sitting down with mueller. I know that his lawyers are afraid for him to do that, but at this point all he could provide since its about his state of mind i dont know what youre smirking about. Hold on a second. Im serious. Mueller right now looks at the facts and they are there. This is state of mind depends obstruction depends so much on state of mind that im dead serious. There is i know there are down sides for him sitting down with mueller, his lawyers think he is too stupid to do that, but there are already upsides where they can say what you were you saying when you did this with the interruptions . Oh, i was just talking about you can a match a mitigating factor to every single incident and instead of allowing prosecutors without his testimony to put the worst possible interpretation on every event, you put the best. The reality is its never going to happen. Hes going to fire all of them. You can go to the bank on that. I love when people he cant, hes not. If you know donald trump, you know anything about him, he is not going to let this continue as its continuing. He knows there are certain things that cannot come out. I will take any betters, please call into 1800morning joe. I didnt know that was a bet line. Thats the bet line. Donnys date line. There will be a saturday or a sunday or a tuesday night massacre so its not going to come to this. You can go to the bank on this. I dont care if its constitution he will be very happen to start that constitutional crisis. Jonathan, im not so sure of that because the one thing that donald trump does seek to recognize over the first year and a half is that the worst thing he has done, the most damaging thing he has done, the single action that has caused him all the hell of the past year was the firing of james comey. Yes, and he has told people around him that he wishes that had gone differently, which is obviously a bit of an understatement. We also know despite that he has had conversations in the last couple weeks toying with that idea about firing Rod Rosenstein, trying to end the Mueller Probe. He feels like it has crossed lines. The red line of dont venture into my business. He feels like in this last week with the raid into Michael Cohens office that its also venturing into his personal life. If the access Hollywood Tape is in play. These are things that are to him here is the thing, though, here is the thing, if he fires mueller the investigation not only continues, it gets worse. You have hearings in the senate because you have the head of the republican judiciary committee, the Senate Judiciary committee saying it would be suicidal. It becomes a meltdown politically, but the Southern District of new york is the one investigating the access Hollywood Tape, the other payoffs. They have all of cohens recordings. Thats not that goes on whether bob mueller decides to spend the next ten years in the south of france or not. Snyderman, he continues with his investigation whether mueller is in the south of france for the next ten years or not. There is nothing donald trump can do now to stop this. Anybody watching billions this year . Yes. Of course. So the attorney general would say, mr. President , the horse is out of the barn. He is a great character. You are not going to get the horseback in the barn. Now, you can shoot a lot of ponies, but the horse is out. Right. Thats what hed say, right . The portion that is in the Southern District is going to continue. Thats going to happen. Eric snyderer man, hes going he and donald trump have a complicated history. Complicated is a nice thing to say. Long time add varies. I think that schneiderman would happy i will take the ball and run with it. Donald trump would say im doing this on behalf of the country. Somebody has to take a stand. Youre not listening. It doesnt matter. It doesnt matter. Hes still going to do it. The genius of mueller is to have put roots down from bits of this investigation into other jurisdictions and thereby protecting the investigation for the American People. He has known all along that donald trump wanted to fire him and the prospect might come even though this would be politically catastrophic potentially for the white house where he would go ahead and pull the trigger and thats why he has done exactly what he has done. By the way willie willie, the guys that have done deals right now, the last person that wants this to happen is Michael Flynn because if mueller goes away and the investigation which it wont, but if it did, he would have the attorney general of pennsylvania bringing up on kidnapping charges, the kushners schneiderman will be on the r h kushners no matter what. When you have mueller sharing the information with them and the Southern District of new york doing it, suddenly other u. S. Attorneys decide they want to do it, suddenly it becomes such an epic nightmare for donald trump. Here is the problem, thats a rational well thought outage sis of what comes next, you have considered the consequences and why you think its a bad idea. When donald trump is cornered he just punches the guy in front of him to get him out of the way. He knew exactly what was going to go on on hannity two nights ago with the Bulletin Boards and the whole thing. Thats a great show by the way. He knew what was rachel thinks its a great show because she beats him all the time. He knew who was going on that show and according to some reporting yesterday may have spoken and instructed some of the people who went on that show and the argument, the entire thesis of that show was that Rod Rosenstein has to go. Trump sent out a tweet make sure everybody watches hannity tonight. If he is not feeding that narrative he is supporting that jonathan, its trial balloons, he sees what sticks and what doesnt stick. This is not sticking because, again, talk about the reaction from the republicans on the hill, especially the senators, when people started talking about this. Well, this would be the moment where you would think that some republicans who have been refusing to stand up to this president no matter what he has done, this would be the line that would be too far and people have said to him, you know, when the Rosenstein Mueller talk a few days ago popped up there was an effort to have a bipartisan support for legislation on the hill that would protect mueller, something to this point has not gone forward. Mitch mcconnell has not said he would bring it to the floor just yet but there seems to be more of an effort to protect this, to sanctify this investigation. No nun around the president thinks that firing him is a good idea. I had people saying that that was a onesource story with steve bannon. Steve bannon says talking to white house a former white house insider who would be steve bannon. That plot of getting that war room back together also has a bay way of not just defending the president but puts steve bannon back inside his good graces. Doing something again that would destroy his presidency according to the head of the judiciary committee, republican. Mika, donald trump is obsessed on something right now. Cable news. Have you seen the front pages of the paper, the paper that he reads. He is obsessed with this james comey book and james comey if you would lift that up, please, mika. James comey says that when he was fbi director can we just pause for a second and let that art soak in for our audience. That donald trump was absolutely obsessed with what the daily news is calling the weewee bit and saying can you imagine me with hookers. Now you kind of can some would say. So this is the comey book, the comey book is coming up next and we are going to be talking about you will also see in the daily news its the photo. There was nothing i had another teaser like it was not dom deif you look at this the no teasers on this cover, mika. The entire thing whats the back page . Red sox. It doesnt matter. Whats coming up next, mika . That was it. We will be right back with much more morning joe. Bp is taking safety to new heights. Using drones and robots offshore so engineers can stop potential problems before they start. Because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. Depend silhouette briefs. Feature a comfortable sleek fit. As a dancer, ive learned you cant have any doubts. Because looking good on stage is one thing. But real confidence comes from feeling good out there. Get a coupon at depend. Com were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . This is a story about mail fullbodied. And packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you oh hi sweetie, i just want to show you something. Xfinity mobile find my phone. [ phone rings ] look at you. This tech stuff is easy. [ whirring sound ] you want a cookie . Its a drone i know. Find your phone easily with the xfinity voice remote. One more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around. So number two on the New York Times best seller list would be confidence code for girls by katty cane. Is that true . Yes, number two. Its really exciting. People are interested in getting that for their girls and thats the bottom line. Its dads as well as moms are buying this book. A lot of dads. This is a true story im not just saying this with katty sitting there, i walked into my tenyearold daughters bedroom last night, confidence code next right to her. We wrote it for her, those girls. Mika, that raises a question that troubles me. Yeah. If thats the number two book on amazon best seller list New York Times. New york times. The New York Times. So i was sort of its got to be a diet book. Whats number one . Number one on New York Times i dont know but number one on amazon this morning is a book that is likely to set white house tempers ablaze this morning. Fired fbi director james comey has memoire higher loyalty, truth, lies and leadership it provides his personal and detailed stories about the president. One of the more searing passages details a meeting with the incoming president when the director of National Intelligence James Clapper presented the Intel Communitys assessment of russias interference in the 2016 campaign. Comey says that during the discussion trump sat listening without interrupting and asked only one question, quote, but you found there was no impact on the result, right . So think about that. Comey says he found it extremely revealing. He writes, wrote, they were about to lead a country that had been attacked by a foreign adversary yet they had no questions about what the future russian threat might be. Comey says instead with members of the Intel Community still in their chairs, quote, the president elect and his team shifted immediately into a strategy session about messaging on russia meaning their own pr. He said they focused on how they could spin what we just told them. Quote, speaking as if we werent there Reince Priebus began scribing what a press release about this meeting might look like. Then priebus, mike pence, sean spicer and trump began debating on how to position the findings on how comey describes it maximum political advantages. He was keen to emphasis there was no impact on the vote meaning that the russians hadnt elected trump. As comey tells it, clapper had to remind them, as he had already just a minute before, that, quote, the Intelligence Community did not analyze american politics and we had not offered a view on that. But, mika, just think about it. I mean, you have your top intel leaders in america coming to you and telling you that the russians had tried to interfere with american democracy, that they had evidence that the russians were interfering with american democracy and yet Donald Trumps political team, his Vice President , his chief of staff, everybody immediately blew right past those concerns, immediately said, well, how can we spin this to make it look best for first of all, it shows it shows how bush league they were to not say what every other president or president elect would say which would be thank you so much for your assessment, we greatly appreciate it, we will be getting back to you, let them go out of the room and then start your political plotting and scheming. Yeah. They werent even insightful enough to do that. Given where Reince Priebus came from and sean spicer came from i can kind of understand that might be their area but i dont understand pence. Where is your voice, dude . What is up . Dont you understand how to govern and whats important . And whats important about whats being put in front of you . You needed an adult in the room. There was no adult in the room. None. Its staggering. Jonathan lemire, you actually were able to read the whole thing . Why he. What else understood out to you. Thats a theme that you just hit upon, that this president does some things very differently and in comeys estimation does not pressure up to his predecessors, comey served under obama and george w. Bush. The ep log his final words of the book are that Donald Trumps presidency threatens much of what is good about this nation. He says he is untethered to the truth. He compares him to a mob boss suggesting he is demanding loyalty, pledge of loyalty not to the country but to himself and his own ambitions. He is abscessed with the allegations in the moscow hotel room, saying that he wants comey at one point suggesting to comey that he would like him to investigate the idea that there is this tape because there is a 1 chance that Melania Trump thinks its true and even if its a 1 chance he is upset about that. His comeys response he said i tell him, sir, its your decision but i think that would be a mistake. First of all, if you say its not true its hard to investigate something and prove that its not true. If we go after it, if we launch some sort of probe it will call attention to this and call attention to the idea that we are investigating here. There you have, willie, james comey actually trying to warn the president not to give this dossier too much oxygen. Right. Then of course again, i mean, its just so ridiculous to see what everybody is doing attacking comey when it was his letter ten days before the election that helped elect donald trump and it was the fbi leaking out that Hillary Clinton and bill Clintons Foundation was being investigated that helped donald trump get elected president. Its interesting. He writes about that. I havent read the whole book, i have read several of the excerpts that have come out, but the part about the Hillary Clinton press conference in jewel of 2016, he took a lot of heat for that, for giving the long explanation of all the wrong he saw and then saying no charges should be pursued. Does he have any regrets . Does he look back on that moment in time at all and say maybe i should have handled things differently and what about the letter that he put out ten days before the election . He is clear about the press conference that he does not regret doing it. In his estimation the department of justice there was precedent for having a press conference even when youre saying we are not bringing charges, the Michael Brown incident a few years before. He says, though, he wishes he had done it differently. Acknowledges that he felt like that he buried the lead, that he sort of didnt get to the point that they were not going to bring charges with her to her until the end and after a lot of wind up of criticism, he feels like he wishes he had done that differently. He wishes he had used different messaging, too. I believe he used the phrase extremely careless to describe her use of the email server. In his estimation he recognizes he writes that that was too similar to grossly negligent which is actually a sort of criminal term. Wasnt that, though, a battle inside the fbi whether they use grossly negligent or extremely careless . There is some. He has second guessed that decision but does not regret having the press conference. He talks about his anguish over ten days before the election with that letter to congress when investigators come to him and say, hey, with he found these emails on the laptop of anthony weiner, husband of a top Hillary Clinton aide and he said that there is no doubt in his mind that we had to proceed with the investigation. The decision was do we reveal it or not and he said he erred on the side of transparency despite some disagreement within the building and they went forward. Anthony weiner and bill clinton thanks for trump. So that was just a side note. When is this book out . Its out next week. Out next week. Its already number one on amazon, donny, which means a lot of people are buying it. Yeah. Theres interesting tidbits in there, but i dont want to not sell the book, but theres nothing in there that we kind of dont already understand and comprehend that this is james comey is a man of honor, a man that has built his entire career on the truth and from day one he and donald trump came from different cloth. There is a few nuggets in there, but i dont think if you are somebody going in and you are a trumpian i dont think its going to open your eyes. And yet the rnc is really pushing back, they are funding websites called lying comey and they are really this is becoming which is questionable in itself, i think. Its deplorable, actually. Its kind of disgusting, maybe thats just me. The news of the week that has trump up at nights is what happened in Michael Cohens office. I think this will be an annoyance. In his mind he thinks theses things are connected. This is part of the deep state trying to undermine him. The president is at a pretty fragile moment about how upset he is about the cohen raid and so on. I think seeing james comey who is about to start a media blitz, not only are we talking about the book in advance, but comey is doing a series of interviews in the coming days that is going to incense the president. We will have to watch for the reaction. Jonathan, because you have written the book, if comey had written a book that did not have a book about the advertise of Donald Trumps hands and how tall he was and whether he had been wearing goggles under the sun bed would this have been a more effective take down of the president than it is at the moment . Im wondering whether that personal edge to it that reveals in comey a pettiness almost leaves the book and the message therefore open to a certain amount of fair criticism . I think comey has left himself open to some criticism here. People have suggested that he is a bit the common knock against comey he is a began stander, seeks attention. Which the president has said. Both people on the right and left at various times have said that. Comeys defense would be this shows his eye for detail, that he is an investigator and these little notes are his way of recreating the scene. It takes away the impartiality that he might have been able to summon from the nature of his job. A lot of people are certainly talking about the comey bombshell. Its interesting, comey had an interesting response when trump said melania thinks there is a 1 chance that that happens. He said i went home and i dont think if somebody suggested this situation with urination and a prostitute urination is a better word than pee. My wife would think that there is a 1 chance. I think if you are saying that you are actually concerned that something might be revealed, but thats just me, you know, surmising at this point. Joe, you began this and mi mika, you began this adventure a little over ten years ago. If somebody would have said to you ten years into the show you would be holding up that newspaper that suggested think about this at that time President Donald Trump is being accused of this, would you just not continue the show . What would you have done at that point . Yes, i question every moment. Every morning. By the way, this sunday msnbc headliners takes an indepth look at james comey. The special hour is hosted by chris matthews. Watch sunday night 9 00 eastern on msnbc. Coming up on morning joe, when asked about a possible military strike on syria, the president says, quote, well see what happens. Well try to sort through the administrations mixed messages ahead. You know, i used to be good at this. Then you turn 40 and everything goes. Tell me about it. You know, its made me think, im closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. Hm. Im thinking. Will i have enough . 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Just the result of dell emc working with callaway to gather data and design bestinclass clubs, transforming the player into a bonafide golfer. Oh maybe it is a magic wand. Magic cant make Digital Transformation happen. But we can. Thats the power dell emc, part of dell technologies. So weve been talking a lot about the hannity show that the president promoted on his twitter feed the other day to make sure everybody watches this takedown of mueller that sean hannity did for him. So when youre doing the president s bidding, sometimes things you dont get the whole story, you know, you get one side of the story because they want to help President Donald Trump. You get one side of the story, also the people we are attacking, Robert Mueller, who is extraordinary that you had ethically challenged sycophants, this quizlings as Walter Isaacson called them yesterday attacking a man who has spent his entire life serving this country. I mean, he led a marine rifle platoon in vietnam. Bob mueller was awarded a bronze star. Bob mueller was awarded a navy commendation. Two. Several medals. He got the purple heart. Bob mueller was awarded the vietnamese cross of gal land tree. He chose to remain in vietnam when he could have easily gone home. After this American Hero who didnt even have to be there had been shot through the thigh. But the president s lackees, theyre calling mueller corrupt, theyre calling him the head of a crime family all to defend a person who refused time and time again to answer the call of service when america needed their service. Donald trump wow. Donald trump was somewhat athletic young man, he played football and tennis and squash, yet unlike Robert Mueller, donald trump took five deferments, four for college and one for bad feet. This guy that played football, golf, tennis and every sport he could. Ask yourself about those also leading trumps charge against a war hero. Where were they . Newt gingrich opted out of service himself taking student and marriage deferments over and over again during the vietnam war that bob mueller chose to fight for, to defend this country, shot through the thigh, continued fighting and defending this country. We have joe degeneva he said in 2003 that he was classified for an eye issue but he also said i think you have to think very seriously about since you did not serve particularly at a time of war whether or not you should ever seek public office. When you didnt serve, when you had a chance to serve. Also consider the ethics of the people who were attacking mueller, other people. Sean hannity who kept pushing seth rich conspiracies after his parents and loved ones were begging him to stop making the immeasurable pain that family was feeling even worse. Newt gingrich punished by the house for raking in money from the speakers chair and he is the one who compared Robert Mueller, American Hero, vietnam war hero, and also fbi agents, the same fbi agents that have defended us after 9 11, that defend us every day, that are working around the clock right now as you wake up in america to stop the next domestic attack from isis. Yes, Robert Mueller, war hero, American Hero and the men and women of the fbi were compared by Newt Gingrich to mass murdering thugs. Were supposed to have the rule of law. It aint the rule of law when they kick in your door at 3 00 in the morning and you are faced with armed men and you have had no reason to be told youre going to have that kind of treatment. Thats stalin, thats the gestapo in germany. That shouldnt be the american fb fbi. I remember in 2003 or 2004 when ted kennedy compared our men and women fighting in iraq to brown shirts. I was pretty rough on him. I am and so were all the other republicans and other conservatives. I just i want republicans on capitol hill, i want the people who run fox news to look at that tape. Now, i know newt and ive liked newt, but i want newt to look at that tape again and i want him to ask himself, and i want fox news to ask themselves, and i want republicans on capitol hill to ask themselves, and i want conservatives across america to ask themselves are you comfortable with a spokesperson, a lackey for the president of the United States comparing the men and women of the fbi who protect us every day, comparing them to nazis who slaughtered upwards of 12 Million People . Newt, are you really comfortable comparing the fbi to Joseph Stalin . I ask those leading fox news, i ask republicans on capitol hill, conservatives across america, are you really comfortable attacking Law Enforcement officers and personnel who were protecting your children against the next isis terror attack on american soil, comparing those fbi agents to Joseph Stalin, a man who killed between 25 and 40 million of his own people . Now, you know, the difference between joe stalin show trials and his mass slaughters, the difference between adolf hitler and his show trials and his mass slaughters or you could say mao and his show trials and mass slaughters and the United States of america is actually at the end of the day we are a nation of laws, a dictator cant just say, hey, go break down doors. Because we have a rule of law. We have a United States constitution. We have legal procedural safeguards. We have the bill of rights. Every one of those safeguards given to us from our Founding Fathers, each one was checked off. And there is a federal judge, Newt Gingrich, somewhere in new york city that you are also comparing to Joseph Stalin and adolf hitler because they signed off on the warrants. And actually, when you start comparing Robert Mueller to stalin or hitler, you are not attacking Robert Mueller, you are attacking the United States of america, you are attacking the United States constitution, you are attacking the genius of our Founding Fathers to make sure that for over 240 years those sort of abuses havent happened here, and theyre still not happening here. You owe Robert Mueller an apology, you owe the men and women of the fbi an apology and you owe the American People an apology. We will be right back. Pology, y women of the fbi an apology and you owe the American People an apology. We will be right back. How do you win at business . Stay at la quinta. Where were changing with stylish makeovers. Then at your next meeting, set your seat height to its maximum level. Bravo, tall meeting man. Start winning today. Book now at lq. Com searching for answers like where to treat, can feel overwhelming. So start your search with a specialist at Cancer Treatment centers of america. Start with teams of Cancer Treatment experts under one roof focused on the delivery of precision Cancer Treatment. Start at one of the Cancer Treatment centers of america hospitals near you. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com experts Appointments Available now. Joining us now, National Political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. Well get to jonathan in just a moment. But first, we must go to hong kong to the tweet desk. Willie geist is standing by. Hope theres not a delay. Willie is it. Clean feed this morning. I wanted to add a point to what you just said. Why does he always look to the right off your Newt Gingrich comments. Heres a tweet from 11 months ago from Newt Gingrich. He writes this. This is a quote. Robert mueller is a superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. Media should not calm down. So it makes the whole thing worse, what you just explained is that he knows better. What happened . Are we still doing this is that Newt Gingrich knows better. He knows who bob mueller is. He knows that he is a man of integrity. He said he was a man of integrity. So now hes going to compare him to the gestapo when he passed information along to the Southern District . He knows who bob mueller is, and hes out spinning now. From a fantastic choice and a man of integrity to a nazi. In the space of 11 months. So the question has to be what has happened to Newt Gingrich in the course of the past 11 months . Why has he decided that he is going to sacrifice his own integrity and reputation, slam somebody who he said was a good choice in the service of the president. Isnt calista in rome or something . I think so. I think she was in line for the vatican, wasnt she . Did that happen . Newt is a quality guy. Newt was having an affair while his wife had cancer, so hes a quality guy. He has the right to stand up there and compare well, im more interested in the fact that he is a historian of sorts. Doesnt he write history books and document hes a historian of sorts. Again, he knows better. He knows he knows what the men and women of the fbi do every day. He knows about Robert Muellers integrity. In fact, willie, he wrote about it just 11 months ago. He knows that comey or that Robert Mueller has committed his life to service of this country when he could have been making millions and millions of dollars instead. But hes chosen service first. Its worth underlining one more time. That clip you showed of Newt Gingrich was on the show that the president of the United States pushed his 50 million twitter followers to go watch. He knew what was going to be on the show. Oh, id say he produced it personally. Joe, youve been around politicians your whole life. To answer the question, why does he do it, is it simply to stay relevant so he exists . Is the selfesteem so low in the sense of self because it is clear whats happening. Trump or newt . No. Im talking about newt. Is it just, i will do anything, i will make any dance with the devil as long as anyone will listen to me. I will say blue is black. Youve been around these people your entire life. So, its split up. People sell out for different reasons. People humiliate themselves for different reasons. I dont know why gingrich is doing it. Maybe it is to stay in his good stead. Maybe he thinks hes going to get an appointment. Some people will humiliate themselves to get an appointment. Other people will humiliate themselves and lie for the president of the United States because they want to make money either on direct mail perhaps or lobbying the president of the United States. Fli for instance, paul ryan people want paul ryan to come out and tell the truth. Paul ryan is not going to tell the truth about donald trump because paul ryan wants to get a really big, fat paycheck. I dont know specifically about this and paul ryan, but lets just say if paul ryan started telling the truth about donald trump today, his power as a lobbyist would go down the drain. So there are a lot of different reasons. Joe digenova, maybe he just likes being around power, or maybe he makes a lot of money lobbying as lawyer for clients that are associated with i mean jonathan, you know how washington works. So much of this can be traced back to just greed and money. Thats right. It is to have that access to that bigtime job coming later that you dont want to burn bridges. Donald trump is still popular among republicans. He still has powerful friends out there. There are people who would find if ryan suddenly spoke out now, that would be an act of betrayal against the Republican Party and therefore he would limit his ability to make a lot of money once he leaves office. I read a book in 2004 attacking george w. Bush for spending too much money, for having a wilsonian policy. Republicans, lot of the same people, Laura Ingraham i remember after the first debate trashed george w. Bushs performance. She attacked me. Hannity attacked me. They called me rhinos the last three years of bushs presidency because i was attacking him for being a big spending Big Government republican and the second george bush leaves town his buicks not even left city limits, theyre all attacking him. He wasnt a real conservative. Weve got to fight back against people like george w. Bush. Because theyre scam artists. It is all about money. It is all about ratings. It is all about speaking to the tribe. They say, oh, im here the a msnbc so i must be a liberal. No, i say what i want to say. I attacked obama. I attacked george w. Bush. I attacked romney during his campaign. Im attacking trump now. The thing is we have no tribe following us. We have people from all tribes following us. But for them, the very people who are attacking me for telling the truth about george w. Bush, the second bush left town, guess what . They started attacking bush. And the second donald trump leaves town, guess what all of these people are going to do . Mark it down theyll say, we were there all along, we were concerned about donald. Heres what i said. If you read between the lines, when i was speaker of the house, you can see that i was quietly i was deeply disturbed. Working behind the scenes to try to stop his abuse of constitutional norms. Thats what they will say. Ive been around it long enough. Im an old guy at 55. Seen it before. It is going to happen, the second trump is out of town. You remember the end of lion king . You remember what happened to scar . The hyenas jumped him and devoured him . Thats exactly whats going to happen to donald trump. And those hyenas are all going to be these republican sycophants that right now are comparing the fbi to nazis. Go for it. I want to let you know that what you say today will be remembered by the federal bureau of investigation and the men and women at the Justice Department and the men and women and the cia and the men and the women in the nsa. And the men and the women who have committed their lives to upholding, protecting, defending the constitution of the United States. You may think that you can just wash it to the side, these attacks of our Law Enforcement officers or the people who are keeping us safe from islamic radicalism that you talk about all the time. But when donald trump leaves town, your words will ring forever. Your attack of Robert Mueller, your attack of the federal bureau of investigation, your attack of the very people who are the front line of defense against terrorism, against our families, against our churches, against our schools, against our communities, against our country. Good luck with that. Well be right back. Badda boom. This year, were taking it up a notch. So in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, wow, maybe ill glow too if i book direct at choicehotels. Com. Who glows . Just say, badda book. Badda boom. Nobody glows. He gets it. Always the lowest price, guaranteed. Book now at choicehotels. Com directv now gives you more for your thing. Your letting go thing. Your sorry not sorry thing. Your out with the old in with the new, onto bigger and better thing. Get the live tv you love. No bulky hardware. No satellite. No annual contract. Try directv now for 10 mo for 3 months. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit directvnow dot com look, ive seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, i hope there are tapes. Okay. There are no tapes, but there is a book and james comey is telling his side of the story. It is quite a book. Welcome back to morning joe. Its friday, the 13th. Donny deutsch is with us. Along with washington anchor for bbc i think youre giving donny short shrift. I might be gracious and share the legendary moniker. I think mike is a big enough man when you come in this glasses that arent in pastel color. Washington anchor for bbc news america, katty kay. White house reporter for the Associated Press, jonathan lemear. And carol lee who has the reporting about the obstruction of justice case Robert Mueller is building. And msnbc contributor, carol lenig who had the reporting that trumps allies worry that federal investigators may have seized recordings made by Michael Cohen. Also with us, National Political reporter for axios, jonathan swan. Well get to you this block and former u. S. Attorney, barbara mcquaid. Good to have you all on board this morning. So jonathan, lets go to you. Talk about the measures that are being swann. Jonathan swan, lets talk about the measures that are being taken to by the trump team to discredit well, weve been talking about mueller, but also comey. Well, i actually just want to bring before we get to that i want to bring up one really interesting thing that ties in to all of this from the book, which is that there is a scene in the book where he describes a phone call straight after he got fired, comey, from john kelly, the current chief of staff, where kelly says to him he felt sick about the firing and was considering quitting because he didnt want to work for dishonorable people. Two months later he is the white house chief of staff, so i thought that was a very, very telling moment from the book. Now let me ask you about kelly. Because this has been in the news. Weve heard, time and again, that kelly has wanted to quit, hes wanted to get out of there. But hes had people like james mattis, general mall tttis, say you really need to stay on. What can you tell us about where kelly currently is and whether it is true that, despite his distaste for so much that goes on in there, he is not going to quit voluntarily. He keeps threatening to quit. This is something that he does like honestly, pretty regularly. Hes been doing it for about six to eight months. He will have meetings and hell grumble on his way out, well maybe i should just quit. There was a moment on the day that david shulkin, the Veterans Affairs secretary got fired, that is not over that incident, but that particular day kelly had a huge fight with the president in the oval office. People thought that he left early. Some of the staff thought that he was actually leaving full stop. So it just keeps happening but we dont get any sense of whether this is terminal or not. But one thing thats really interesting, a recent development, is john bolton has come in to run the National Security counsel. Now kelly did not want him to run the National Security council. In fact, kelly suggested to President Trump that mcmasters deputy, Ricky Woodell should take over his job. Not only did he get overruled but john bolton just got rid of him. So kelly, i mean to some extent is losing control of policy, but theres also the huge problem with personnel. So i think hes in a very difficult spot and his future is unclear. All right. So weve got incredible reporting in the Washington Post by carol lee and carol lenig. So Michael Cohen was taping conversatio conversations . How many . What conversations . Why was he doing it . Yeah. Yesterday i was saying actually, lordy, there may be tapes. I think that its fascinating, my colleagues and i at the Washington Post had been hearing for a while that the president s personal attorney, also most importantly his personal attorney during the campaign, had a habit of recording conversations, particularly ones that would be with adversaries though, people that he might want to have some leverage over. And he stored those in a digital form. I was told last night that there is a strong concern and a strong belief that those recordings were all seized by the fbi because all of Michael Cohens Electronic Devices were taken by agents on monday. His phones, his computer, all of it. So what do we know about who he was recording and why . And how . Again, what im told is that he has a habit of recording conversations he thinks will be important or useful to him later. One of our colleagues heard that he liked to replay some of the tapes and say, hey, look what i have on this guy, or look how i can if this guy tries to lie to me later, here i have it on tape. So it strikes me that while it might be the thing thats most interesting is whether he ever recorded conversations with the president , it strikes me as possible, but its far more likely that he had recordings of people he might have been negotiating with. The reason thats interesting is, as you guys know, the raid was searching for communications he had with donald trump, but communications he had with people who were getting paid off essentially to not report certain stories or not deliver certain stories. The National Enquirer in particular. Their communications with Michael Cohen are also under scrutiny. Wow. So many questions. Catty, go. So carol, spell it out for us in terms of these recordings and the raid and actually where it may lead in terms of an investigation against donald trump, just clarify some of that, what these recordings would show if they were recordings with people who might have been paid off or were organizing payoffs. Where would that lead us in terms of conclusions about Donald Trumps legal liability . Sure. Great question, catty. So, remember that this search appears to be looking for mr. Cohens communications with people during the campaign when it appears he could have been playing a very Important Campaign role stop and shut down bad, negative publicity. In fact, there is some language in the warrant that specifically asks for all his communications with donald trump personally and all communications with others in the Trump Campaign about negative publicity that might arise during the runup to the election. So if Michael Cohen was having conversations lets just i dont want to speculate and say we know something we dont, but lets just say he was talking with somebody who how they needed to shut down a particular kind of conversation so it didnt come up in the campaign, and he was doing that with a Campaign Official or with a source of information. That might prove a conspiracy of an inkind Illegal Campaign contribution that Michael Cohen was providing, or that ami, the National Enquirer, was providing. So carol lee, lets fold in your reporting and make this note. There is a new Washington Post abc news poll that shows 7 in 10 . Is that the number . 7 in 10 support muellers focus on russia. So they support the probe. You a your reporting among other things is mainly trump wont talk . What else . Well, what we learned from talking to a bunch of sources is that the president has shifted in his view of an interview with Robert Mueller, at least for right now in this very moment. He doesnt want to do it and he is not inclined to sit down and do this interview. This all happened, its part of the fallout from this raid on Michael Cohen and what we learned was that at that same time that that raid was happening the president s legal team was in the final stages of negotiations on what the parameters of an interview would be. They were talking about several final sticking points on how long it would be and when Robert Mueller would issue a report. Now our sources say that both sides are proceeding as if an interview is very unlikely to happen. What that means specifically for the obstruction of justice piece of the investigation, according to people we talked to, is that that time frame for when that report could be finalized could speed up. The president s legal team was talking to Robert Muellers office about him issuing a report within three to four months after the president would have sat for an interview. Our understanding is that without an interview, if mueller proceeds and decides he is not going to subpoena the president , that he can close out that portion of the investigation and issue an obstruction of justice report much earlier. Just to sprinkle in a couple more numbers from that Washington Post abc news noll, you have clear majorities on several questions supporting bob mueller. 69 support him looking into collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russian government. 64 support mueller investigating trumps business activities. And 58 support mueller investigating whether or not trumps associates paid hush money to women who say they had affairs with him. Willie, i want to stop on that 64 to say, that to me is the kill shot more than anything else. If youre going to look into this guys business obviously a lot will come out of the cohen raid youre going to come up with things that have not even been talked about or thought about at this point, beyond the russian collusion, beyond the obstruction of justice. You are going to see things done in a certain way that people clearly i dont think understand how donald trump is conducting business the last 20 years. Jonathan, we have seen something happen over the past month or two. I think it probably has been since the indictment of the russians by Robert Mueller and people read through it or at least saw news about it and they said, wait a second, this is real. And so you have 70 of americans saying we want the Mueller Investigation to continue on collusion. Now almost 65 almost twothirds of americans are saying we want Donald Trumps past business dealings investigated, as well. This has really expanded. Robert mueller has become a rarity in american politics, a man who has the trust of over twothirds of the American People. That just doesnt happen in america anymore, and a lot of it, i guess, has to do with the way hes conducted this investigation. Head down. No leaks. No showboating. Buttoned down, head down, no leaks. Thats exactly right. It shows the sort of effort on the right to undermine muellers credibility has not been successful. His poll numbers have only gone up in recent weeks and every time the president launches an allcaps tweet that screams witch hunt, it feels more and more desperate. I think you are right. Thats what the hannity segment was about last night. Newt gingrich is calling an American Hero whos committed his entire life to fighting in the vietnam war when newt was running around trying to seek as many deferments as he could. While donald trump was running around trying to seek as many deferments as he could. A guy who decided no the to cash in and make tons of money into law, that decided instead that he wanted to keep serving his country. And they desperately attack this American Hero. Why . The desperation is setting in. Right . Right. It seems that way. There is absolute concern morning trump and his allies that there is real momentum behind the probe. I think muellers high standing shows an appetite among americans to have a figure of integrity and credibility when it seems like our politics dont have a lot of that at this particular moment. To back up what carol said, the president has said all along that he wanted to talk to mueller, he wanted to sit down, do his investigation. His lawyers have been counseling against it. They seem to be on a path to get there in some fashion or form, but everything our reporting says as well is that seems very unlikely now. Barbara mcquaid, you heard that report that theyre moving forward under the assumption there will be no interview with the president of the United States. Carol also reporting that in effect the obstruction case has begun to take shape and they have the four bullets carol laid out including the president s intent to fire comey, the report on the trump tower meeting in 2016 saying it was about an adupgs wh adoption when it was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. How important do you believe it is to get President Trump in the chair across from bob mueller . Or is it . Well, one of the main reasons to get President Trump in the chair is to get his side of the story. If there is any legitimate defense here, if he had any proper motive as opposed to a corrupt intent, then you want to hear it. Youd like to hear it at this stage and maybe avoid going down the path of reporting potential criminal charges. But if he doesnt want to, at some point Robert Mueller has to make a decision is it worth using a subpoena to compel him, which could escalate to some constitutional crisis, or at the very least, cause severe delay in what he wants to do. Or simply say ive got enough, ive got enough evidence of corrupt intent. Ive given him a chance to tell his side of the story and if he doesnt want to avail himself of that, then lets just go forward. So it seems like that is where Robert Mueller is. Hell have to make that decision, but it sounds like he has concluded, lets just go, here is the evidence i have. It is likely, if he is Going Forward, sufficient evidence to prove all of the elements of the offense which includes that corrupt intent. Muellers obviously kept a pretty tight lid on his investigation. From the bits though weve been able to decipher from some of the reporting weve seen, what does it look like to you as a prosecutor who has done these kind of things where this case is right now . Where does bob mueller stand . It sounds like he has completed the obstruction of justice phase and that he continues to investigate the links with russia phase. So kind of two different segments of the case. But it sounds like he may carve out the obstruction case, which is a more finite case really. Only a few discrete acts would constitute obstruction of justice. If hes exhausted all the interviews and looked at all the documents related to that, sounds like maybe hes ready to put that piece before the American People. The russia piece involves people and financial records all over the world and may take some time to be able to conclude that part of the case. Jonathan swan, Robert Mueller will be presenting his findings to rod rhodesenste rosenstein. Question is what he does with it from there. Question to you is, what is his standing at this point . The president wants to get rid of him. It is not black, it is not white. It is very clear. Theres no sorry, theres no grey about it. He wants to get rid of Rod Rosenstein. His legal team, ty cobb, don mcghan, desperately trying to persuade him not to. Seemed yesterday from that tweet that at least hes deferred for who knows how long 24, 48 hours, a month, a week. It is impossible to know. What we do know you talked about it earlier sean hannity, there isnt a Communications Director in the white house right now but to the extent that one exists, sean hannity is close to the Communications Director. Lou dobbs. You could say an amalgamation of the two of them, the Communications Director. What they are saying on air is what the president believes and he wants to get rid of them. Look, there are people who are very sanguine about it. When you talk to republicans on hill, they say oh, its never going to happen, we dont need legislation, et cetera, et cetera. Im not of that view at all. I dont know how where they derive their confidence from. Because the president privately has been completely right up to the edge, to the point where staff have been incredibly concerned. And that raid on Michael Cohens office wasnt just another incremental news story in the russia case. That was a very, very important story because any time the investigation goes near Donald Trumps business, his anxiety levels go way up. And it is a completely different order to any of the other stories that have come out over the last few months. It is a very, very important story. Carol lee, as i heard donny actually say the other day and im sure your reporting shows it there is a real fear that once you lift up that rock, you see much in 20 years of dealing thats just going to cause the investigation to expand even more. And again, its worth repeating because apparently donald trump and republicans dont understand this that investigation is moving forward in the Southern District of new york, independent of Robert Mueller. Yeah. And, joe, i would also add that our reporting showed, among the people we spoke with who are familiar with this investigation, the expectation is that there could be a flurry of activity around the oneyear anniversary of Robert Muellers appointment, which would be next month. And whether that means additional things like weve seen this week or other indictments, we dont know. But theres the expectation that particularly as we get closer to the fall when we have an election that there will be a significant amount of more activity. The other thing that we learned is that the president if Robert Mueller were to subpoena the president , the president s legal team has been discussing how to push back on that. One of the things that they talk about is to make an argument that if you cant insight a preside indict a president , you cant subpoena a president. It is something that if Robert Mueller were to do it, it could tip off a constitutional crisis and certainly a very combative battle with the president. Carol leonnig, as you take a look at whats being covered in this raid of Michael Cohens office, Michael Cohen has everything. Thats one thing thats clear. Hes trumps personal attorney and has been for how long . 15 years. My god. So he has everything. Thats chilling. Or it should be. More than an attorney. But fixer. The guy whos out there doing things. Exactly. On behalf of President Trump. We know there are obviously this issue of payments to women, payments that we know happened. The question is was there any violation of the Campaign Finance law. There is the access Hollywood Tapes which are being focused on. I wonder if that means there are more tapes that were concealed. I believe there were a lot more tapes. Carol, what can you tell us . That nbc had. No, my question to carol actually is, what are we learning about mike the cohens loyalty that everyone talks about . He has this deep loyalty for the president . Would he be willing to lie and conceal for trump . So, Michael Cohen is fiercely loyal, if nothing else. His loyalty to the president and to donald trump for many years. Its hard to find someone of that level, that degree of loyalty. His fierceness actually is one of the hallmarks of the relationship. I mean there are some amazing fourletter words that people have heard if they have brought up things that were embarrassing to donald trump and threatened to go public with them. There have been some Amazing Things that he has said to reporters which would im glad we dont have recordings of those. However, i would stress that this is part of the reason, mika, that the president lost his mind on monday when he learned that his own communications, by name, were being sought with mike the cohen. As for Michael Cohen flipping, thats really hard for me to see but that is central in this case. While Robert Mueller has kicked this, essentially, to the Southern District of new york, you can totally imagine that the goal ultimately is to put Michael Cohen up against the wall on the issues of potential bank fraud, potential Campaign Finance violations, potential wire fraud, all of which are things mentioned in the search of his properties. And tell him, look, youre in big trouble here and we need your information about things that happened during the campaign and about communications you had with donald trump that may not be reported. You know, i remember, donny, reading the process when you actually had gates going through this painful process, the feds were coming after him. We started getting reports that his family, you know, his children, his wife were asking him, begging him, hey, cooperate with the authorities, we dont have the money for this, we dont want to see you go to jail. I heard you and other people say and it is true i had not really met cohen in the past but he attacked me. Said he was going to sue me. I called him a thug over twitter and these were my younger days when i was a little more hotheaded back when i was 54. Really. I met him and it was like nothing happened. He was a nice charming guy. Sort of playing a role. But also from everything ive heard, hes a guy who loves his family desperately, who cares about his children desperately. And you can just see the writing on the wall. He knows hes done things that turn him sideways with the law. Is he really not going to see his children for 30 years . Is he really not going to see his wife for 30 years . I dont buy that. I think hes going to end up, like gates, doing the right thing and cooperating with the authorities and telling them the truth. Michael is a friend of mine. Day before yesterday i spent a lot of time with him. And michael is fiercely loyal. He really and he has i hear that. But fiercely loyal to his family, right . He has tremendous affection. Also there is his identity is caught up in it. He believes, and he has served this man and he has not done anything wrong, he genuinely believes that. Obviously thats up for the u. S. Attorneys to decide. He also understands whats coming at him. He is not a fool. He is not a dumb guy. And yes, Michael Cohen, i do believe this is all going to come down on Michael Cohen and Michael Cohen is going to have to do some searching, soul searching and where he is. He is a very proud man. Ive also heard from people he has done his job over the years and hes at a point, wait a second, i just did my job. How am i in this position . He knew that knock on the door he said to me, there was going to be a knock at some point. He understands this. Mike the cohen has a lot of soul searching to do. I think at the end of the day all of us in that position would side with our family. I cant speak for Michael Cohen and whats going to happen. But he is a man with a lot on his shoulders right now and is holding up incredibly well. Incredibly well. But it will come down to that. It will come down to that. It comes down to the question are you going to be more loyal to donald trump and his children . When Donald Trumps not even loyal to his own children. Are you going to be more loyal to your wife and your own family if they are asking you to cooperate and tell the truth so your children have a father for the next 30 years. Were starting to learn that this country is littered with people who have got close to donald trump and are now facing the prospect of how much it could burn them. Whether theyve made a faustian deal like Newt Gingrich talking about the gestapo or Michael Cohen feeling like he was just doing his job and thats going to cause them problems. Barbara mcquaid, it is very complicated and there are several investigations going on. Muellers also now new york. If mueller wraps up his investigation when the report comes out next month, just clarify for us what happens to the Mueller Probe after that, and then what happens to the other legal probes . What kind of a legal landscape are we looking at Going Forward . Well, i think even after Robert Mueller submits a report on obstruction of justice, if he does sort of bifurcate them in this case, it sounds like he will continue to work on the russia interference piece of the case, that that one is not nearing conclusion, so that he would continue that work. Then his other investigation now in the Southern District of new york will also continue. That could expand in other ways. So there now seem to be sort of three xoepcomponents to all of and those will continue. I know Robert Mueller has a reputation of acting with urgency, so i think even that other piece, the russian interference, he will push to reach conclusion as soon as he possibly can. Barbara mcquaid, jonathan swab, carol leonnig, carol lee, thank you all. Still up this morning, law professor Jonathan Turley says President Trump could be building a strong case against himself. And Senate Republicans like orrin hatch say firing mueller would be damaging to the country but so far the party isnt ready to protect the special counsel through legislation. A group of republicans are on a mission to change that and they are taking that message straight to the American People. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Why is dark magic so spellbindingly good . Its a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. Like these mountains, each amazing on their own. But together . Magical. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. You can do it. We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. Whoo while saving for the things accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. If that isnt a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president , then what has our government become . Im tom steyer, and like you, im a citizen who knows its up to us to do something. Its why im funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. Yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger whos mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. And they do nothing. Join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing whats political and start doing whats right. Our country depends on it. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you as a prosecutor, Robert Mueller spent decades going after financial fraud and terrorism. As head of the fbi under george w. Bush, Robert Mueller has been trusted to put americans first. I have a lot of confidence in Robert Mueller. This is our Justice System and it needs to play itself out. Call your representative and tell them to protect the Mueller Investigation. Wow. That is a group called republicans for the rule of law, out with that new ad in an effort to protect Robert Mueller. Really good. Joining us now, one of the people behind that group, editor the a large at the weekly standard, bill krystal. Also, Jonathan Turley who has a new piece in morning warning President Trump that he could be building a case against himself if he fires the Deputy Attorney general. And here on set, former advisor to president george w. Bush and cocreator and executive producer of the circus on show time, mark mckinnon. Mark is back from russia where much of the season premier of the circus takes place. Well get to that in a moment. Fascinating. Good to have you all on board this morning. We begin though, of course, Jonathan Turley, im wondering if you look at Rod Rosenstein, if the president fires him, or keeps him, i think the president might still have a problem. Which choice would be better . Oh, theres no question that the wrong choice is firing him. It is possible to build a case of obstruction against yourself, even if you didnt commit the original crime. It is hard to do. But this president could very well achieve that. And the problem is that firing rosenstein is not just the wrong thing to do, it wouldnt work. Rosensteins an institutional player. He is doing what anyone would have done in that position. You cant get rid of the rosenstein problem without getting rid of the institution. Because what rosenstein is saying is that mueller came to him and said, i have evidence of criminal acts that are not within the scope of my investigation. Do the critics of rosenstein expect him to say, well, thats just too hot to handle . Because that would be a political decision. Instead, he said, well, give it to prosecutors in new york and let them investigate. So the president is in a very bad position if he tries to stop this investigation of cohen. Cohen was searched for things ranging from Stormy Daniels to taxi medallions. Theres a lot in between those two polars. Jonathan, its willie. People have said now its become gospel, if bob mueller were fired, two set off a constitutional crisis. I dont think we spend enough time talking about what that means exactly. Youre just the person to ask that question. What would it mean if Rod Rosenstein were stifired . The Deputy Attorney general could take the action of firing mueller. What would happen next for President Trump . It wouldnt achieve what President Trump would want from such an act. This is not personal. So if you fire rosenstein, it will be the next man up. Now you can pick someone who will do this deed. He could find his bob bork who was the final nigguy in the saturday night massacre with nixon. But at the end of the day it wont alter in. Say mueller is fired. Congress, if they really wanted to protect mueller or to keep this going, would pass the independent counsel act. Im not a fan of the two bills on the hill that people are supporting. They dont change the standard. Mueller can only be fired for good cause. But if you take a look at that standard, it is extremely broad. All those bills do is give you review by this court. But the review is still whether the standard is satisfied. And that standard is very broad. But at the end of the day, either you are going to have a new investigator or this is going to get kicked over to congress as an impeachment proceeding. Now you are much better off if you are the president to have this handled by a prosecutor who will be focused on the elements of the crime. I still think he has a great defense on obstruction of justice. But if you push it into congress, theyre not as focused on those elemental issues as to what constitutes obstruction and whats an affirmative defense. So the backdrop to all of this, we have james comey coming out with a book officially comes out on monday but is already number one on amazon on his experience with donald trump. He makes a lot of interesting allegations and expresses a lot of concern about what he saw when he was interacting with the president. But bill krischris krystal, the rncs putting out their own information about mueller and liein comey which there is a website that theyre actually funding thats really pushing back at the former fbi director. Tell me about this ad and how it came about and why you think it is important. It is important because americans need to defend the rule of law and protect the Mueller Investigation as best as we can. Republicans unfortunately have been silent. The official republican organizations, the rnc, is attacking comey in a totally unseemly and inappropriate way. They can defend the president if they cant but going after the former fbi director . Just childish, but also very i mean it is embarrassing. Decent republicans need to speak up. Theyve been quiet so far but silence can g acquiescence is as bad. We can say it doesnt really solve the problem if he fires rosenstein, down the road it could be worse. Trump could buy time. Were probably too confident this works out well. Ive been struck listening to the conversation. Nixon was forced out of office. Joe mccarthy ultimately was discredited and mccarthyism went away. We are pretty confident these things work out. Thats good. The american system usually works. But trump is not stupid in this way and he could get away with it. The combination of his pardon power, his ability to fire people, and the acquiescence of republicans in congress, and to some degree around the country, is a very toxic combination. I think people are too confident that it is all going to be fine and i think the key players here are republicans on the hill and the way to pressure republicans on the hill i think is to have republicans around the country say step up step up and just let the Mueller Investigation bill, let us talk for a second. We like what youre doing but you got to let us talk. First of all, there are polls out this morning that show 70 of americans support muellers investigation. Something like 65 , 64 , want mueller to investigate the finances. What do you think about hatch saying what he said full stop . The chairman of the judiciary coming out saying it would be suicidal. Lindsey graham has. Do you sense that some republicans are starting to do that . And do you think that your ads will give strength to more republicans to follow up on those examples . Yes and yes. I think its moved in the right direction belatedly. I just want to give them more of a sense of urgency and less of a sense, as Mitch Mcconnell continues to say i dont really think anything is going to happen so there is no need to consider legislation. Jonathan turley may be right this legislation isnt exactly right. Well, fine, lets have markups and get good legislation that protects mueller around lets speak up what really would happen if rosenstein were fired, or mueller. Lets not be so big about i dont think it will happen and im sure things will work out okay. The sense of urgency i guess is what we are trying to convey with this ad, with this organization. The response has been excellent. Lots of people around the country saying thank god someone is speaking up for the Republican Party for decent republicans. One final point. I think it is very important for the Republican Party not to simply be the party that went along with trump, that attack comey, that said nothing as trump threatens the rule of law in this country. If republicans were able to this is about the country, not the party really quickly because we have other guests. I know you are excited about this. Im shocked, really . Other guests . I know. I apologize. Youve known Newt Gingrich for a long time. Ive known Newt Gingrich for a long time. What does it say about Newt Gingrich . What does it say about joe digenova . What does it say about sean hannity . What does it say about these three people calling Robert Mueller a member of a crime family and Newt Gingrich comparing Robert Mueller around the men and women of the fbi to nazis and Joseph Stalin . In one of our ads we have a quote of gingrich praising the Mueller Appointment six, nine months ago. It is terrible. It is a disgrace and it needs to be repudiated. That is exactly the faustian pact that you were talking about, joe. Jonathan turley, one quick question. Ive spoken to a group of republicans over the course of the last three or four days who, like you, have been slightly skeptical about the Mueller Investigation when it comes to collusion with russia and obstruction of justice. They dont seem to think they didnt seem to think that there was much there. But ive noticed a switch amongst them in the course of the last few days with the raid on mike the cohens office and now they seem to be taking this all a lot more seriously in terms of the outcome for the president. I think thats true. It is a dangerous thing when Michael Cohen is driving this defense. He is the ultimate blunt tool. He is about as subtle as a doubleheaded ax. To have him be the mover of this strategy is really quite unnerving. I think Stormy Daniels and the nationNational Enquirer paymee serious problems. But cohen himself is a very serious problem. He is a very reckless lawyer. The fact that he would tape himself raises a host of more problems. Was he in a consensual state . Was this a twoparty consent state . Otherwise, it is unlawful. There is a lot of other issues dealing with those tapes. You wonder if they were on the phone and somebody was if a different i dont know what the law is. New york is he could do it in new york . Yeah, one party in new york. Its one party in new york, but he practices around the country. Right. Okay, bill kristol, Jonathan Turley, thank you, both. Thank you, bill. Thats a great ad. It is. You know, i used to be good at this. Then you turn 40 and everything goes. Tell me about it. You know, its made me think, im closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. Hm. Im thinking. Will i have enough . Should i change something . Well, youre asking the right questions. I just want to know, am i gonna be okay . I know people who specialize in am i going to be okay. I like that. 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And use the joint damage simulator to see how joint damage could progress. Ask about enbrel. Enbrel. Fda approved for over 18 years. Booking a flight doesnt have to be expensive. Just go to priceline. Its the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40 . Just tap and go. For the best savings on flights, go to priceline. Xfinity watchathon week. Television is back, starting april 16th, enjoy free access to tvs hottest shows from netflix, hbo, showtime, starz and more with xfinity on demand or the Xfinity Stream app. Youll want to tap out of your regular life and go binge while someone else stands in. Blargh uhhmm. Good luck. Blargh uhhmm. Mark mckinnon, the new season of the circus premiers on sunday reporting from inside russia. Morning joe has this exclusive look at your rare interview with the editor in chief of russias english language network, russia today. Take a look. There is a lot of people talking about the notion that were in the middle of a new cold war. Im curious about whether you think thats hyperbole or whether you feel like tensions between the United States and russia are in fact at a kind of boiling point . This is the worse its ever been. Thats what everybody feels in russia. Whats brought us to this point . What triggered this . We dont really know. Its not us who are imposing sanctions. Its not us who are expelling diplomats. We are only answering. There hasnt been a single move that russia did to the u. S. First. So what happens now . It depends on your country. We want to be friends. But to expel more diplomats, to impose more sanctions, if you do more of that it is going to escalate. If you dont, its not. Thats it. We are not doing anything. Mark, that doesnt sound like the editor in chief you remember baghdad bob . Thats moscow margarita. Sounds like a Government Official speaking on behalf of putin. No question, it is not only run by, it is funded by the russians and she is the tip of the sphere. Shes named 27 times in our intelligence reports on how the american elections were funded. Shes the tip of the spear of that whole election meddling report. And so think about all the news that went to russia this week. The poisoning, the throwing out of the diplomats, the Election Hacking related to facebook, syria and the chemical bombings. It was an incredible time to be there in moscow. We also went to st. Petersburg. We walked to former russian trolls and tying this all together to get perspective on this new cold war. I was with ambassador huntsman when all of those diplomats were thrown out. All of his key people, chief of staff. From an historical perspective, it is pretty unprecedented to have this kind of muscular diplomatic response on both sides. So it is very intense and it was a great time to be there and capture all that. What is their view of President Trump. I know she is pushing back against america more broadly but they kind of dig him. They think hes like putin. A strong man and kind of an authoritarian. On the other hand they think weve gone mad with everything were throwing at him. But i think also as ambassador huntsman said that he feels like theres been a significant diplomatic response with through the u. N. And with london, and that they feel there is a good coordinated response going on right now. Do the russians feel any more under pressure because of the poisoning and reaction that that had and the fact that you really did have, for the first time, a concertifiedsecerted attempt an i think the fact President Trump is now speaking out. It is not just good cop bad cop. It is bad cop bad cop with him speaking out. I think the russians feel like theyve overplayed their hand a little bit and are a little bit on their heels. Be interesting to see what kind of diplomatic back door they might try to seek to deescalate the situation. Weve always liked john mun s huntsman a lot. How is he navigating all of this . It was really interesting to see him on that day when onethird his staff were thrown out. They were friends and leagucolls of his, obviously. I also got the sense he was the right man in the right place at the right time. He was kind of built for this. He said im glad im not running for the senate in utah. This is what i feel like im meant to do. Whats it feel like to be in russia on a personal level . It felt intense and weird and edgy and you feel like people are following you. You have all kinds of paranoid conspiracy things. We had burner phones. People bump into you, oh, mr. Mckinnon wait a minute. I know you havent seen the show. Was heilman detained at any point . He should have been. I heard hes riding shirtless through moscow on a horse. Will he sell tickets . The new season of the circus premiers this sunday on showtime. Circus premiers on show time. Thank you. President trump talks to european allies ahead of a strike on syria. Germany said, count them out. Where things stand now, next on morning joe. Directv now gives you more for your thing. Your letting go thing. Your sorry not sorry thing. Your out with the old in with the new, onto bigger and better thing. Get the live tv you love. No bulky hardware. No satellite. No annual contract. Try directv now for 10 mo for 3 months. More for your thing. Thats our thing. Visit directvnow dot com swho live within five miles of custyour business . 54, like these two. And that guy. Or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness. Namaste. Whichever audience youre looking for, well find them were the finders. We work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. Anywhere, any way your audience watches. Consider them found. Xfinity watchathon week. Television is back, starting april 16th, enjoy free access to tvs hottest shows from netflix, hbo, showtime, starz and more with xfinity on demand or the Xfinity Stream app. Youll want to tap out of your regular life and go binge while someone else stands in. Blargh uhhmm. Good luck. Blargh uhhmm. We are having a meeting today on syria, a number of meetings. Well see what happens. We are looking at them very closely. We are looking very, very seriously, very closely at the whole situation and well see what happens folks. Its too bad the world puts us in a position like that. Now we have to make some further decisions. They will be made fairly soon. That was President Trump ahead of a meeting with the National Security team yesterday, still walking back a tweet that missiles over syria are coming. The president spoke with britains theresa may and Frances Emanuel macron regarding a coordinated response. German chancellor merkel says her country will not take part in any military action. Meanwhile, reports out of the uk say u. S. Intel have observed russia, trying to shield them from potential strikes. Joining us now is marine veteran and author of redeployment, phil clyde. He has an essay coming up entitled left behind. He discusses how two decades of war eroded the troops. As we stand on the edge of 17 years of war, these ends have become smaller, indeed almost pa thetic. While america, as a whole, chooses to express love for military in gooey, Substance Free displays, we wait for a coherent, National Policy that takes the countrys wars seriously. Without a Political Leadership that articulates and objective worth dying for, its no surprise that soldiers sometimes stop caring about the mission all together. If you think is mission in your country is sending you on and is pointless and impossible, you are only deploying to protect your brothers and sisters in arms. It is not the taliban or al qaeda or isis trying to kill you, its america. Phil, one of the great frustrations about what happened over the past month in syria has been the fact that, based on David Ignatius reporting, going to the front line, they do, after 17 years of war have a mission that at least those on the tip of the sphere are trying to beat back isis in syria. They have a mission they believe in, but they cant get washington, d. C. To tell them what to do and a commander in chief that changes his mind every three days. Thats a problem. I think the problem is deeper than that. I have been talking to marines and soldiers in afghanistan or back from afghanistan for years now who had difficulty saying what the mission is, articulating the mission or the mission keeps changing. I got an email like that in 2012. This is nothing new. I think the way we talk about military policy and the way we make it and the degree to which, i think, congress is no longer involved and the American People dont get involved in Holding Leaders Accountable is the problem. You are talking about 2012. I talk about a story out of pensacola, florida in 2005. I asked a special ops guy going off to afghanistan how much is iraq getting in the way of succeeds in afghanistan. If we werent in iraq, could we succeed in afghanistan . Sure, sure we could if we put 400 troops in pakistan. That was his way of saying we will never succeed in afghanistan. 2005. That level of hopelessness has been present for a long time. What i think a lot of Service Members would like, certainly what i would like is for us to regularly have the president go before Congress Every two years explain what the mission is, explain what the benchmarks for success might be, explain what resources we need to be successful to have an adult conversation about it and congress should fill the obligation to vote on war plans. We are operating on a force from before the iraq war, fighting groups that didnt exist then. Everybody washed their hands of it and the Political Leadership slides to the thing that costs the least, politically to do. What that ends up being is half measures where we are not willing to pull out, but also not willing to commit the resources to make the mission achievable. This is no surprise to the people on the ground. You served three tours in iraq . I was in iraq in 2007. Excuse me. So, i wonder, when you listen to some senators, when you listen to the president , read tweets, just in a cavalier fashion, talking about war and what they might do, as someone who has been on the ground and seen what it looks like, smells like, feels like, how do you respond to that when President Trump tweets the missiles are coming, russia. That could imply men on the ground, men dying, families left behind for seven, eight tours. You have seen what it means. What do you think when you hear that stuff . The toughest guys i know dont engage in tough guy posture. The other thing that is very clear is even for people who are really gun ho, we are talking people who are going over for their seventh time, eighth time, ninth time. I talked to a ranger, i mentioned in the piece, hes got three kids, him and his wife have never actually had two years together because they keep deploying. You know, at a certain point, you want to actually see that the sacrifice you are making is leading to longterm stability. Thats not just about sending a few missiles here, a drone strike or special Operations Team to kill a bad guy. We have been doing it 17 years. We know you need more. Every member of the military leadership for years has been saying war is not just the military function. You need the state department. You need u. S. Aide pams. When we leave, we dont want to create a vacuum like in afghanistan and in iraq. The only thing that we ever seem to be interested in is these quick strikes that make us feel good and allow for some tough guy posturing, but theres no follow up. At a certain point, have we not learned after 17 years, thats not enough . Phil, we will look for your piece in the issue of the atlantic. Thank you very much. Thank you. James comeys memoir is already a best seller and has the white house pushing back. Well dig into why they are so concerned. And the president s interview with bob mueller is about to happen after the raid on Donald Trumps personal attorney. We are back in one minute with a packed 8 00 a. M. Hour. s going thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. Hes a show boat, hes a grand stander, regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. When i decided to do it, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. The president had his chance to take shots at jim comey. Now its comeys attorney, the new book by the fired fbi director describes donald trump as unethical, untethered to the truth and with smaller hands than his own. Comey paints the president as a mob boss, at the same time, slamming fellow republicans for staying silent when they know better. Welcome back to morning joe. We have washington anchor for bbc news. Her book, confidence code for girls number two on the best seller list. Donny deutsche is here and carol lee. Didnt we used to call donny a legend . Just donny. Barnacle came up with that. I like mike, but i think i like mike. We are going to get to jim comey in a minute. First, monday mornings raid on the president s personal attorney. Yes, this has his white house allies on edge. The negotiations with the Mueller Probe. The Washington Post reported trumps allies worry federal investigators may have seized recordings made by Michael Cohen. Cohen, who served as a decade as a lawyer for the Trump Organization and a close confident stored digital files and replayed them for colleagues. Cohens attorney declined to comment. That takes us to nbc news exclusive reporting on the Mueller Investigation. Cooperation between the white house and the special counsel is believed to be damaged beyond repair by mondays raid of President Trumps attorney. Nbc news reports months of talks collapsed this week and Robert Muellers team is moving forward without a president ial interview, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Carol lee, you were the lead reporter on the team that broke the story for nbc. Take us through what we know and especially on the obstruction of justice report that bob mueller is reportedly building. Sure. Theres a number of ways in which this raid on Michael Cohen kind of is ricocheting through both obviously the significant elements of the investigation and what they may find, but also in the reaction that the president s legal team is having to this and the president himself. What we learned is he is soured on the idea of an interview. He is feeling defiant and combative toward the Mueller Investigation. Essentially, the raid on cohen up ended the negotiations that they had or were having with the office about a possible interview. It may have sealed the fate of whether or not that interview happens. We learned they were much further along than we previously thought in terms of coming to some sort of possible agreement about an interview. They were discussing final sticking pounlts as the raid was unfolding. This, you know, theres that piece. You know, we also learned when it comes to the obstruction portion of the Mueller Investigation, muellers team is essentially finished with that piece of the investigation. The proof of obstruction, they dont need trumps interview, do they . Thats what people we spoke with said. Hes done all the interviews, talked to everybody else, looked at the evidence and the president was part of the last step in finalizing that portion of the investigation because the one thing that they dont necessarily get from interviewing other witnesses and looking at documents is an explanation from the president about his intent and obstruction is obviously about intent. So, carol, we can leave this graphic up for people. The areas of the Mueller Report on obstruction. The president s response to the report of the 2016 trump tower meeting, drafting on air force one the memo that said it was about adoption, but it was getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. Then witnesses who are going to testify against him and the pressuring of attorney general Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the russia investigation, which he did, much to the frustration, we heard from President Trump. If mueller is not waiting for a president ial interview, what does it mean about the pacing of this and when might we hear the results of the investigation. We dont know exactly, but we have been told, if he decides to not subpoena the president and go without an interview in this portion of the investigation, that would speed up the process for submitting some sort of report on what his findings are. We were talking to people who said the expectation was that would happen within the next few months. The president s legal team was asking mueller, as a condition for an interview, to set a time frame for that within three to four months after he sat down with the president. Without an interview, mueller is not obligated to do anything like that and he can move on his own time frame. It could, actually, speed up the process for finalizing a report on this obstruction piece. Speed up the process, but also, donny, trump could help himself by sitting down with mueller. I know his lawyers are afraid for him to do that, but, at this point, all he could provide, since its about his state of mind hold on a second. Im serious. Mueller, right now, looks at the facts, they are there. State of mind obstruction depends so much on state of mind that im dead serious, there is, i know there are downsides to him sitting down with mueller, his lawyers think he is too stupid to do that. What were you thinking when you did this with the russians. Oh, i was talking you can attach a mitigating factor that every single incident. Instead of allowing prosecutors without his testimony to put the worst possible interpretation on every event, you put the best. The reality, its never going happen because hes going to fire all of them. I love when people say he cant, hes not. If you know donald trump, you know anything about him, he is not going to let this continue as its continuing. He knows there are certain things that cannot come out. I will take any betters call 800morningjoe. I did not know that was a line. Ask for murray. There will be a saturday, sunday or tuesday night massacre. Its not going to come to this. You can go to the bank on this. I dont care. Hell be happy to start that process. Jonathan, im not so sure of that because the thing donald trump seems to recognize over the first year and a half, the worst thing he has done, the most damaging thing he has done, the single action that caused him all the hell of the past year was the firing of james comey. Yes. He has told people around him, he wishes that was differently. That is an understatement. We know, despite that, he had conversations in the last couple weeks tooling with that idea, firing rod roadenstein, ending the Mueller Probe. He feels its crossed lines. He feels in the last week with the raid in the Michael Cohens office, it is also, you know, venturing into his personal life like the access Hollywood Tape. To him, they are more than undermining him. Here is the thing. If he fires mueller, the investigation not only continues, it gets worse, you have hearings in the senate because you have the head of the republican judiciary committee, the Senate Judiciary committee saying it would be suicidal. It becomes a meltdown politically, but the Southern District of new york is the one investigating the access Hollywood Tape, the other pay offs. They have cohens recordings. That goes on whether bob mueller decides to spend the next two years in the south of france or not. Schneiderman, he continues with his investigation whether mueller is in the south of france for the next ten years or not. There is nothing donald trump can do now to stop this. Anybody watching billions this year . Yes. The attorney general said, mr. President , the horse is out of the barn. Hes a great character. You are not going to get the horse back in the barn. You can shoe a lot of ponies, but the horse is out. Thats what he would say. The portion in the Southern District is going to continue. Thats going to happen. By the way, Eric Snyderman is going. Donald trump has a complicated history. Complicated is a nice thing to say. Adversaries. I think snyderman would happily do it. Im doing this on behalf of the country. I dont care what half. Somebodys got to take the stand. Donny, you are not listening, it doesnt matter. Doesnt matter. The genius of mueller is put roots down from the investigation in other jurisdictions. Hes known all along donald trump wanted to fire him. The prospect might come, even though it would be politically catastrophic for the white house where he would go ahead and pull the trigger. Thats why hes done it. By the way willie, the guys that have done deals right now, the last person that wants this to happen is Michael Flynn . Because if mueller goes away and the investigation goes, which it wont, but if it did, he would be on kidnapping charges. The kushners, no matter what. Once you get rid of mueller and the state ags coming in and mueller sharing information and the district of new york and other attorneys want to do it, suddenly, it is such an epic nightmare for donald trump. Here is the problem, thats a rational well thought out analysis of what comes next. You considered the consequences. When donald trump is cornered, he punches the guy in front of him. Consider his actions over the last couple days. He knew what was going to go on on hannity with the Bulletin Boards. A great show, hannity, by the way. Rachel thinks its a great show because she beats him all the time. According to reporting, he spoke to people who went on the show. The argument, the entire thesis of the show is Rod Rosenstein has to go. Still ahead on morning joe, as jim comey tells it, donald trump didnt wait for the intel chiefs to leave the room before spinning the story on russia for a political advantage. Those details are next on morning joe. Hes playing with us. No, hes trying to tell us something. Lets see what forensics thinks. Sorry im late. What did i miss . Wanna get away . Now you can with southwest fares as low as 49 dollars oneway. Yes to low fares with nothing to hide. Thats transfarency. Accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. If that isnt a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president , then what has our government become . Im tom steyer, and like you, im a citizen who knows its up to us to do something. Its why im funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. A Republican Congress once impeached a president for far less. Yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger whos mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. And they do nothing. Join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing whats political and start doing whats right. Our country depends on it. Bp is taking safety glasses to a whole new level. Using augmented reality so engineers in the field can share data and get expert backup in the blink of an eye. Because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. A car you can command when does that require mindcontrol . No. Just some mindblowing engineers from the Ford Motor Company and pivotal who developed fordpass, allowing you to reach out to your car from wherever you are to check your fuel level, unlock your doors and start your engine. So when youre ready to go, your car is, too. Magic cant make Digital Transformation happen. But we can. Thats the power of pivotal, part of dell technologies. Number one on amazon this morning is a book that is likely to set white house tempers ablaze this morning. Fired fbi director, jims comey, his memoir, higher loyalty, truth lies and leadership provides personal and details stories about the president. One of the more sering passages details a meeting with the incoming president when the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper provided the assessment of russias interference in the 2016 campaign. Comey says during the discussion, trump sat listening, without interrupting and asked one question, quote, you found there was no impact on the result, right . Think about that. Comey says he found it extremely revealing. He writes, they were about to lead a country attacked by a foreign adversary and had no questions about what the future russian threat might be. Comey says instead, with members of the Intel Community in their chairs, quote, the president elect and his team shifted into a strategy about messaging on russia, meaning their own pr. They focused on how they could spin what we told them, speaking as if we werent there. Reince priebus described what a press statement about the meeting might look like, then priebus, pence, spicer and trump himself, began debating how to position the findings for, as comey describes it, maximum political advantage. He adds, they were keen to emphasize there was no impact on the vote, meaning the russians hadnt elected trump. As comey tells it, clapper had to remind them as he had a minute before, the Intelligence Community did not analyze american politics and we have not offered a view on that. Mika, just think about it. You have your top intel leaders in america coming to you and telling you that the russians had tried to interfere with american democracy, they had evidence the russians were interfering with american democracy and, yet, Donald Trumps political team, his Vice President , his chief of staff, everybody immediately blew past those concerns, immediately said how can we spin it to look best . First of all, it shows how bush league they were to not say what every other president or protect which is thank you for your assessment, we appreciate it, we will get back to you and start your political plotting and scheming. Yeah. They werent even so insightful enough to do that. Given where Reince Priebus and sean spicer came from, it might be their area. I dont understand pence. Where is your voice, dude. What is up . Dont you understand how to govern and what is important and what is being put in front of you. You needed an adult in the room. There was no adult in the room. None. It was staggering. Jonathan, you were able to reed the whole thing. What stood out to you . Thats a theme, this president does something differently, in comeys estimate, does not measure up to predecessors. Comey served under obama and george w. Bush. He says in the epilogue, his final words of the book is Donald Trumps presidency threatens much of what is good to the nation. He untethered the truth. He compares him to a mob boss, demanding loyalty, a pledge of loyalty, not to the country, but to himself and his own ambitions. He is obsessed with the allegations in that moscow hotel room, bringing it up time after time, saying he wants comey, at one point suggesting he would like him to investigate the idea that theres this tape, you know, because theres a 1 chance that Melania Trump thinks its true. Even if its 1 , that upsets me she would think that. Comeys response, sir, its your decision, but i think that would be a mistake. If you say its not true, its hard to investigate and prove that its not true. If we go after it, if we launch a probe, it will call attention to this and call attention to the idea we are investigating. Coming up on morning joe, the president appears to be striking back at comey, at least by extension. Hes set to pardon Scooter Libby, prosecuted. Up next, we talk to valerie plain whose identity of a cia agent was revealed by libby as a political payback. This is a story about mail and packages. 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That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you we told you earlier that james comeys new book is likely to set white house tempers ablaze and here we go. The president just tweeted a short time ago. Here is what it says. James comey is a proven leaker and liar. Virtually everyone in washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked classified information for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to congress under oath. He is a weak and untruthful slime ball. I mean so much the white house is right. As time as proven, a terrible director of the fbi, his handling of the crooked hillary which helped you get elected president. The handling of the crooked Hillary Clinton case and the events surrounding it will go down as one of the worst botch jobs jobs of history. A great honor. That got through a guy that now, 70 of americans say should be investigating collusion into russia. Its almost as if he saw the daily news this morning. This is the daily news, a new york newspaper. Donald trump reads it every morning. Mika or donny, what does it say he was obsessed with. I cant see. You go to me for the delicate matters. In the supposed dossier, donald trump was doing twisted things with prostitutes in russia. They are alleged, not proven. Why is he obsessed with something, to the point that we know how much he cares about melania. He thought there was a 1 chance melania would believe it, he wanted to prove there was no tape. Very obsessed about something that doesnt exist. Can you imagine me with hookers, the president said. Leave it there. Since President Trump brings up lying, its appropriate to say the Robert Mueller investigation has resulted in convictions of lying. George papadopoulos accused of lying. Looking fabulous in greece. Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. Looking fabulous in a beard. His lawyer, who wants to look like you, alex this is a cool looking dude. I like his z hair. Pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. Pleaded guilty. This is proven, they are admitting to it. Looks like a young joe scarborough, doesnt he . If he was that ugly. That guy is good looking. Trump asked the fbi to lie. Its important to remember this comey thing. Trump puts out the tweet, this is a conservative effort, Sarah Sanders put out a video saying comey has no credibility. Lyingcomey. Com. This is an allout response to the book we have been talking about all morning. Wow. The president will direct to fox news as he directs people on fox news of what to say about him. If you are looking at branding, if you are looking at who Americans Trust the most, who Americans Trust the most. Its fascinating. Last week, fox news showed a poll that showed that Americans Trust cnn a lot more than they trust donald trump. Msnbc, a lot more than they trust donald trump. Fox news a little more than they trust donald trump. Last week, the media wins huge in this poll against donald trump in matters of trust. So, you know, comparing them, this week, the other target of his acrimony, Robert Mueller. Another poll, 7 in 10 americans want mueller to continue with the collusion part of the russian probe. 64 of americans want Robert Mueller to investigate Donald Trumps shady business dealings. 5658 of americans want Robert Muellers investigation to look into pay offs, possible pay offs to these women that could have, most likely violated federal election laws. David was a famous ad guy. He had a saying that the customer is your next door neighbor, your wife. Its not a faceless person. People, at the end of the day, are not stupid. They can be sold and sold for so long. Whats interesting is a majority of republicans want this investigation to go forward. Whats happening is, people start to realize, the very people donald trump was going to help, they are seeing, what is he doing for me. That tax thing, i got that check at the beginning. The internal apology that many people did for trump, yeah, but, i know hes a slime ball, but. The backside of that but is not agreeing. The combination of this constant pounding, i think it is finally dawning on maybe into that 30 that the emperor has no clothes and the more he barks at this point, the more silence it brings on. I just, we are seeing a moment now that in the next two or three weeks, i think we are going to see history being made. I think hes going to make his moves very, very vee. Ly. Someone else guilty of lying is in the news. Administration official tells msnbc news he plans to pardon Scooter Libby, a former chief of staff to dick cheney was convicted of lying to the fbi, obstruction of justice. Didnt he just attack james comey, claiming he lied . In connection to the leak of cia officer, valerie plains identity. I pardon everybody. Well, valerie joins us now. Thanks for being on the show. What is your reaction to this news . Good morning. Thank you for having me. Look, this is not about me. This matter was settled a long time ago and donald trump has decided to go where george w. Bush did not. Scooter libby, as you noted was convicted of serious crimes. The special prosecutor in that case, Patrick Fitzgerald said there was a cloud over the office of the Vice President. George w. Bush looked seriously into the matter and he decided not to issue a pardon. Apparently, dick cheney, his Vice President , felt otherwise and badgered him, literally badgered him up until the very last day of ws presidency and created a deep rift between the two men that has not been repaired, yet. This is, i feel this is yet another indication of Donald Trumps deep disrespect for those who served and sacrificed for this country, something he hasnt done a lot of. Remind our viewers, for those who have not been following your case minute by minute, ever since your name was revealed, what happened to you when Scooter Libby revealed your name . Yes, i was a covert cia operations officer. I loved my career, proud to serve my country. My husband, former ambassador joe wilson wrote an oped piece in the New York Times in 2003. In it, he went after the central rational that the Bush White House gave to invade iraq, which was the imminent threat of nuclear war was so dangerous that we needed to do this. So, the Bush White House was not happy with that and, as a result, the political payback was my covert identity was betrayed by senior white house officials. That began years long character Assassination Campaign against both of us. We were called traitors, liars, members of Congress Called me a glorified secretary, you know, because im a girl, i guess. This ended in 2007 or that aspect of it with Scooter Libbys conviction by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who, ironically, was appointed by comey. Valerie, its willie geist. All these years later, as you think about it, do you believe it was Scooter Libby who leaked your name or richard . I think there was quite a few. It wasnt just one. There was clearly a white house conspiracy because this went against joe wilsons oped piece went against the narrative that the white house was frantically pushing out to the American Public of why we needed to go and do this war of choice in iraq. So, there were others, but special prosecutor fitzgerald felt that he could only bring convictions against Scooter Libby. I find the fact that we are revisiting this matter that has been settled to be really curious right now because this is in the past. But, for donald trump, this has everything to do with his future because what donald trump is floating, what hes putting out there is the idea that you can pardon people for serious crimes against National Security. I think he has an audience of three, perhaps more. That would be paul manafort, Michael Flynn and kushner. Valerie, its don deutsche. I agree with the all of a sudden timing of a pardon out of nowhere. You spent your life serving this country at the cia. You have watched this president denigrate the Intelligence Services of the country, the fbi and the cia. Just, on a personal note, as you hear that, as you feel that, we feel outrage as people watching it. He is assailing you and people who have given their lives. Talk to me as one of those people, just from a gut feel point of view. My personal sense is that i didnt think my contempt for donald trump could go lower, but he surprises me each and every day. My former colleagues and the Intelligence Community, these are people who truly serve their country each and every day without recognition and how he has gone after those who have served his country when his own history of deferments when asked to, you know, when he was eligible for the draft is really shameful. I think he is setting this up so that this is a strong signal to those that may be considering cooperating with the special counsel with muellers investigation and i find what he just tweeted out this morning about comey to be absolutely shameful. All right, valerie, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. Thanks so much. Please say hello to joe. Up next, President Trump blames the special counsel for the bad blood between russia. He used that term before. They disagree, that key moment from mike pompeos hearing is next on morning joe. This is what getting your car serviced at lincoln looks like. Complementary pickup and delivery servicing now comes with every new lincoln. I won. Giving you, the luxury of time. Thats the lincoln way. And its also a story mail aabout people and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. Hold on dad. Liberty did what . Yeah, Liberty Mutual 24hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. My dad says our insurance doesnt have that. Dont worry i know what a lug wrench is, dad. Is this a lug wrench . Maybe . You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. You are not going to believe this. What . Its been two years. Since what . Its the twoyear anniversary its changed the world in a way. Kind of like when you are in the middle of it, the frogs in the water, boiling it. You just dont realize you have greatness in your midst. Yeah. I know. What is this the twoyear anniversary of . Do people understand what they were watching when the beatles were on ed sullivan . It is the twoyear anniversary of willies sunday today. Willie, are you going to celebrate . You are going to change the world. We are going celebrate. Here is how. My guest, bill murray. No does he bring the little animal . Here is the deal. No publicist, no manager, no nothing. He moves through the world alone. Love bill murray. Hes got a 1800 number to call. It goes for anybody. He calls the number, leaves a message. If murray is interested in talking to you, he calls back. We didnt hear from him. He walks into the green room at the today show and announces to everyone in the room, i want to do that willie geist show. They call me. Have him come to the hotel tomorrow morning, so i did. I went to the hotel. Good year to celebrate. We are going to blow it out and do a two parter. We are doing the sunday podcast. As you know, you shoot for 45 minutes to an hour. Now you get all 45 minutes. Youll get 45 minutes with bill murray after you watch the seven minutes on sunday. Stop, just stop. Balloons and tricks. Theres going to be a give away. Its a favorite thing. The budget is low. My sunday, its church, dinner after church and the kids and i are going to sit around the hearth and keep our hands warm and we are going to listen. Can i have a promo . It is a great show. Theres a lot of its willie. Its all willie. The ladies love willie, the gentlemen love willie. We love it so much, we think you get to leave early today. Really . Yeah. Like now . Yeah. See you later. Thank you, willie. Overshadowed by the president s troubles was the confirmation hearing of mike pompeo. Hes known as a fierce allie and signaled at least one break with his boss. This morning, President Trump tweeted out that much of the bad blood with russia is caused by the fake and corrupt russia investigation. Do you agree with that . The historic conflict between the United States and the soviet union, now russia is caused by russian bad behavior. Would you argue we need to implement the rest of the sanctions in a way that holds russia accountable for its interference . Yes, maam, every day. If i may take a moment please. Theres more work to be done on catsa and other sanctions. I readily concede that. Vladimir putin has not yet received the message. Joining us, senior fellow and council on foreign relations, max boot. Also, d. O. D. Official and wmd commission, dr. Evelyn bar kus and professor of Political Science and International Studies at stanford university, former u. N. Ambassador to russia. Mr. Ambassador, rate mike pompeos performance . I think what he said about russia is absolutely right. I agree entirely with what he said. I have a slight disagreement. He inferred we have had continuity and conflict with the soviet union and russia for 3040 years. It hasnt been that. Its been up and down. There are times we are cooperating with russia because they had different leaders and a different regime. But, for today, hes got the right message. Evelyn, you talk in a piece that you wrote that President Trump still doesnt take russia seriously. I would think thats an understatement. But, what are your biggest concerns given the fact he cant intellectually wrap his head around it . I think we have the beaurocracy up to the cabinet level, they are slowly taking the right positions. They are slowly implementing this sanctions package that Congress Passed last year. You heard him reference it, thats great. Above the level of the president , hell let them, hell approve, presumably he approved the sanctions and approved the expelling of the diplomats, the most recent expelling of the diplomats in the light of the poisoning in the united kingdom. The the president doesnt speak clearly about the threat imposed by russia. When they say rush that is to blame, he hedges with, well, we want to cooperate. This wishy washiness, i think its dangerous. It allows the American People to be too relaxed about the russia threat. In a day of incredible news yesterday, the pompeo hearings didnt get what they should have. I think it was great hearing them. He said this president needs a baby sitter, are you going to be that baby sitter, mr. Pompeo . Are you going to standup to the president when you feel he is wrong . How did pompeo do on that . Did he convince enough senators when it comes to issues he will standup to the president if he feels he needs to . That was a comment about corker. This is what the president s supporters are saying, so you can imagine what critics think in terms of pompeos performance, i thought he did a good job. He basically presented himself as the opposite of rex tillerson, talking about how he is going to be more accessible and revitalize the state department, not planning further talks. Pompeo addressed those. He talked tough on russia, as we have been talking about. I think the big area where he punted was when asked about whether trump contacted him and other intelligence chiefs to try to put pressure to end the Mueller Investigation. He claimed he didnt remember, which is not credible. At the end of the day, i suspect he will have his nomination confirmed, something that the Washington Post editorial page just endorsed because theres a general feeling that, you know, he is qualified, he is close to trump. He has more mainstream Foreign Policy views than donald trump. So, as you suggest, as bob cork you know, the hope is that he will babysit trump. The fear is he will simply tell trump what he wants to hear. The fear is thats how pompeo got the job in the first place in the last year, telling trump what he wanted to hear. Mr. Ambassador, as we move towards possible conflict in syria and also a possible meeting between kim jongun and donald trump, im curious how you would look at the president s Foreign Policy team. Now that it looks like youll have pompeo at state, as National Security adviser, and of course mattis at the pentagon. Is that a team of rivals . When it comes to russia . Are those actually three Foreign Policy thinkers who were fairly consistent in their skepticism of Vladimir Putin and russia . I think the skepticism is shared by all three of them. I think as evelyn said earlier, actually the policy of the Trump Administration towards russia i think has been pretty consistent. A lot like the obama policy, by the way, in many regards. Its just the president has never signed up to it. Even in his tweet storm a couple days ago, on the one hand, hes saying hes going to pivot in this harder line and in the next line hes saying its bob mueller and all those former obama people at fault. So that tension is going to continue. However, with this team, i dont think the dramas going to be with russia. I think the dramas going to be all about north korea and iran. And there i think you have some tensions between, on the one hand, secretary mattis, and on the other hand, the two new members of this team. Yesterday one of the things that was clear he a difference between some of the senators and mike pompeo, when pushed, pompeo said yes, actually, he agrees with the president , that the iran deal should be torn up. Were just a few weeks away from resort ification. Doesnt bode particularly well, does it, for the longevity of the deal. Was this for me . Yes. Sorry, i didnt hear my name. Thats a huge mistake, because as ambassador mcfall just said, you know, north korea is the issue looming over the horizon. If we tear up the agreement with iran, you can bet the north koreans are going to be even more dangerous in terms of their willingness to play dirty when it comes to making a deal or pretending to make a deal. Its going to be hard enough with north korea. We cant keep our word when it comes to the iran deal, its going to be really difficult. Max boot, well throw you that question as well. It seems when it comes to the iran deal, actually james mattis may be by himself. Yes, i think mattis is the great voice of restraint and moderation. Kind of ironic because in the obama administration, he had a reputation as being an uber hawk on iran. Today i think hes somebody who is very reticent to undertake military action. I think he is still rolling the president s desire to start bombing syria in retaliation for the chemical weapons strike because hes very cognizant of the second or third order of consequences of doing that the possibility of striking Russian Troops on the ground, so i think he wants to go very slowly and be very careful about what hes doing, and also i think thats the case on north korea where, you know, john bolton has been this super, super hawk who has been advocating preventive war against north korea as recently as a month before he was appointed as National Security adviser. And mattis is somebody who is opposed to that. And its been reported that he has not even wanted to provide the white house with military options on north korea because i think he rightly views that as being such a catastrophic mistake. So i think the fear now is that with bolton and pompeo on this National Security team, that they will play to to Donald Trumps militaristic instincts. Remember, trump is somebody who thinks militaristic is a word of praise. The fear is bolton and pompeo will reinforce those instincts and leave mattis isolated as the voice of caution and moderation. So here we sit in an administration where a man named mad dog for his exploits and war is the moderation in the administration. Evelyn, michael mcfall, thank you all. Weve been talking about james comeys new book, but another bestseller, the kofd co confidence code for girls, we want to bring the author, claire shipman. Becoming your amazingly imperfect totally powerful self. I know as a father of a daughter and three . Three daughters. Three daughters you want to hear this. And i have two daughters. We all want to know how to communicate this effectively to our daughters. Im glad its number two. Im glad people care. Catty, go. You write a lot about women who need to know their value. Rock the boat. Ask for pay raises. Ask for promotions. We need to start with our girls. At the moment, were training our girls to be people pleasers. To be perfect. To color in the lines. Not to be disruptive in class. Thats great for getting you a grades. Its not good for women who will speak up for themselves. As parents, as dads, as teachers, encourage our girls not to be perfect. My agency, all my top executives are women. Thats why were so successful. What mika talks about, they would never pound their fist and say i want a raise. They wanted to please me. As a ceo, that was wonderful. If i was advocating for them though times are changing. The chapter, failure is your best friend. Im raising a 10yearold and a 14yearold and i have a grown daughter. Give me some news i can use. It is counterintuitive for parents especially in this achievement culture, everybodys worried about grades. Now were saying teach your daughters to fail. But youve got to start exposing them to risk early and to step out of their comfort zone. So what do you do . Encourage them to try an activity theyre not that good at. Look for ways they can stretch themselves. Talk to them a lot about that process where they might grow through the process. We have a lot of tips in the book about how to deal with failure. How to move on. But theyve got to be able to challenge themselves and know from their parents that failures all right. How about this thing. This is the big if youre raising daughters, this is the killer. The smart phone. Theyve shown the incidents of depression are at 50 . Youre constantly graded at what youre not its a terrible landscape. Its going in the opposite direction of everything youre trying do. That increases the desire it amplifies everything. You used to be able to have the bus stop, your friend at school, you get home and put it behind you. Now its not. It follows you everywhere. The desire of the girl to have a perfect online image. Girls are having things like their fake instagrams where they can be loose and their other instagram where they have to be perfect. Terrible for this whole idea of taking risks. One of the things we teach girls is youre not everybody elses headline. You have a problem in school, you get a bad grade, you dont make it on the soccer team, not everybody is talking about you all the time. I think this is important for girls to realize. I know when im working through know your value to teach women to understand your vlu and communicate it effectively, theyre trying to do something that is not engrained. What you all do with this book which is brilliant is start from the beginning. Start teaching these things so they become instinctive, claire. I think we found out it was so critical, too, because we were writing this in the middle of the me too explosion and we realize, we have to create a speakup culture for girls. Girls have to understand that its okay to say things that make other people uncomfortable. They dont have to please people all the time. And i think its so important. Youre right. If we can teach them at an early age, advocate for yourself. You dont have to have everybody like you when they get to be 25 and they hit, you know, the workforce and they dont understand these skills. How to do it. Exactly. Well go through a lot more tips on how to grow confidence in young girls. At the website, knowyourvalue. Com. The book is the confidence code for girls. Catty kay, claire shipman, thank you, both. Thank you. Things we couldnt get in earlier this week because there was just too much stuff going on. We meant to do this monday, tuesday, thursday and friday. Last week mikas brothers mark was given swedens polar star by the swedish ambassador to the u. S. Its a really big honor for that countrys royal family for diplomatic service. I can tell you, mika, you and i and everybody associated with mark saw a level of dedication not only for the United States and people he serves here but also the peel ople of sweden. A firstclass example of how our ambassadors should act overseas. Out tonight, the thing what . Im going out to a club tonight. You can wear that and nothing else and that would be very donny. All right, final thought of the week. Final thought. One of the most momentous weeks i think weve had in a very momentous year and a half. Everybody take a break for the weekend, we hope. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage. Thanks, mika. Final thought, donny deutsch, youre too old to hit the club. Good morning, everyone, im stephanie ruhle. A higher loyalty. Fired fbi director james comey blasting the president as unethical and untethered to truth in his new book. His story rings true because it is a common theme. The president of the United States putting loyalty above truth. This morning, an inside look at the tellall. And off the table