Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle 20170519

Myself. And new details from those close to james comey. The phone call he received from trump and how he tried desperately to avoid this moment with the president. The hug is entirely onesided and comey was just completely disgusted. Plus, go for joe, the president could announce a new fbi director this morning. Former democratic senator Joe Lieberman, now leading the pack. I think he would be a good choice. I think its a mistake to nominate anyone who has ever run for office. We begin today with the president just hours away from embarking on his first foreign trip. It is the president s major opportunity to put some distance between himself and the relentless wave of rough headlines here at home. We got a great team this morning to break all of this news down and i want to take you first to nbcs Peter Alexander live at the white house. Peter, we know that the president met with his lawyers about this new special counsel and hes also talking about it. What can you tell us . Yeah, stephanie, youre right, he huddled at the white house with some of his lawyers including the White House Counsel Don Mcgahn trying to get a better understanding of what the special counsel pro proses would look like. His initial reaction to the announcement was measured saying that he thought this would prove what he has said all along no collusion between his Campaign Aides and russian operatives and hope to come to a conclusion and put this to rest quickly but yesterday in a meeting privately with News Reporters and anchors he had sort of a different sense. He said that the appointment of the special counsel was hurting the country, divides us, shows were not united and spoke about it in stronger terms late yesterday. Take a listen. Well, i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witch hunt and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign. But i can always speak for myself and the russians, zero. So sflooen that comment there was sort of a contradiction. He respects the move but views it as a witch hunt. We wait to see if he has further comment on it and we wait to see whether or not the fbi announcement could come as early as today. What can you tell us about the New York Times reporting about President Trumps interactions with james comey. Seems theyve got a little more info about that. Yeah. So this, obviously, theyve had a lot of new details about the relationship between james comey and the president donald trump. We now know from this times article that comey received a call from donald trump after Inauguration Day where trump basically reached out and wanted to get a better understanding when the federal government would put out the word that he was not personally under investigation. Heres part of the quote from that New York Times article. It writes mr. Comey told the president if he wanted to know details about the bureaus investigations he should not contact him directly but instead follow the proper procedures and have the white House Counsel send any inquiries to the justice department, according to the times sources. One other story thats now being communicated publicly by a friend of james comey is in that meeting that the two had just a couple days after the inauguration, remember when donald trump saw james comey, they shook hands, had the half bro hug as it were, comey as his friends describe it was trying to steer clear of the president as best he could. He was wearing a blue suit, despite being 68 and hoped he would blend into the curtains in the blue room. I want to bring in my panel, joel, he was a Senior Adviser to the Clinton Campaign and is an msnbc political analyst. Ned ryan, ceo of american majority, and a former speechwriter for president george w. Bush and mid wynn charles, an attorney, gentlemen, i always go with the lady first. Ladies first. After Rod Rosenstein met with senators, they came out and spoke to reporters and Lindsey Graham said this now looks like a criminal investigation. What does that tell you . It tells me that during the meeting he probably gave them information that would sort of tilt this investigation towards that direction. Perhaps he, obviously, got information in terms of trumps conversations with comey and things that lead to evidence showing that Trumps Campaign perhaps had some ties with russia. It doesnt necessarily mean a criminal investigation against President Trump. No, no, not at all. It could mean a criminal investigation against people who work fortrum people who worked in the campaign, and things to that effect. Neds jumping in his seat. No. Im behaving myself. You never know. There has never been evidence of collusion, there is no evidence, there will never be evidence of collusion. We dont know. There will not be. You dont know that. Im saying we dont know that. Im saying this is a fairytale that the left puts themselves to sleep with at night and hope they will wake up and Hillary Clinton be president. Never going to happen. Okay. The next chapter holtds on. Before we get to the next chapter. Which is comey. Lets stay in this chapter. Why is it specifically that you dont believe theres any form of collusion . Im going to throw out a few names for you, paul manafort, carter page, michael flynn. And wheres the crime . What i want to go back to, where is the crime . Everybody has gone in such a frenzy there is some crime, some collusion, but was there youre saying there wasnt any. This is why youre having an investigation, ned. There isnt. Reporting the other day, there have been 18 separate contacts during the campaign and the transition between Trump Campaign officials and russians, including their ambassador, including one that michael flynn, we know about, lied. So the notion that you say theres nothing there and there shouldnt be an investigation no, no. Ned an investigation let there be an investigation. Thats fine. To say there should be an investigation and it is a fairytale, are two very different things. Polar opposites. At the end of the day it is a fairytale because there will be nothing to back up there was collusion between trump and the russians to influence the elections. What are we talking about . You have had experts who have testified in front of the congressional hearings and talked about how russia used active measures to tip the election towards donald trump. Can i go back to these are experts with integrity, character, who know what they are doing. Diane feinstein on this issue there is no evidence. Joe manchin, Senate Intelligence committee no evidence. Maxine waters asked if is there any evidence. There is no evidence of collusion. Its going to be an interesting time to focus on President Trump and james comey, and whats been a bit head scratching over the last two weeks the shifting narrative, i want to share a little bit of what weve heard. He took the recommendation seriously and made a decision based on that. Regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. He had the very poor performance on wednesday. I believe thats why the Deputy Attorney general went and wrote his very, very strong letter. You believe that the Deputy Attorney general knew before he wrote that memo that james comey was going to be fired . Yes. What was it that he said that he knew that. He knew the day before. Thats awfully confusing. Let me paint a different scenario for a second. Imagine if donald trump at the outset of this after winning the election said you know what, if russia is meddling in our elections here and any other democratic election around the world, we want to get to the bottom of it and put a stop to it and i want this investigation to go wherever it leads. Imagine the different environment we would be functioning in if we had a president of the United States or president elect who said Something Like that instead of the disassembling weve seen every day since he got elected. That doesnt sound like joel is asking for Hillary Clinton to be nestling up in the lincoln bedroom. What we know from comey under oath, from mccabe under oath theres been no attempt to impede any investigation into supposed fairytale russian collusion. I mean, at the end of the day, the whole thing thats a little bemusing to me about this comey situation is, you had schumer, you had all of these democrats coming out and saying we have lost confidence in comey, we dont think hes the right guy for the job. So fire him on january 22nd. I totally agree with this actually. I think he waited too long. I think he should have fired him immediately. The fbi director serves at the pleasure of the president and should have fired him sooner. We know its highly unusual to fire an fbi director, who by the way is investigating you and your campaign, for collusion into russia and then, for you to get on national tv and say, that you had russia on your mind at the time that you fired james comey. James comey obviously that is part of the problem. The americans are having with this. A close friend of james comey had to say. If you watch the video of it, hes wearing a blue blazer. And he stands in the part of the room that is as far from trump as it is physically possible to be and also against blue drapes. And then at the end right at the end, trump singles him out. He extends his hand kind of reemtively and trump grabs the hand and pulls him into a hug. The hug is one sided. One guy in the hug is shaking hands and the other guy is hugging and comey was just completely disgusted by disgusted . By the episode. He thought it was an intentional attempt to compromise him in public. How is the 68 guy supposed to disappear into the curtains. Mcgabe under oath said this is fully funded this russia investigation is fully funded no attempts to impede it and vigorously pursue it to its end. Good. At the end of the day i dont think they will find anything. I think thats what most americans want. Were all in agreement. We may get word of the president s choice for the next fbi director any minute now. Nbcs Mike Viqueira is live on capitol hill. Seems theres only one name out there right now and it rimes with smeberman. Right. You may have thought it would be a slam dunk in the estimation of republican senators we spoke with. John cornyn said he may be the only person in america who could get a 1000 vote in the u. S. Senate. Not quite so fast. Claire mccaskill minutes after cornyn told us that spoke for a lot of Democratic Senators who said, they want someone without a political background and seen as neutral with a Law Enforcement background. While its likely that if this nomination of Joe Lieberman were to come to pass, perhaps in the next couple hours, he would be confirmed by the senate. Remember they only need 50 votes or 51 votes and they have 52 senators. Its unlikely that he would get perhaps half of the democrats in the senate to go along. Why . Simple her rasy. 2008 he backed john mccain over bieb barack obama and criticized barack obama, the democratic nominee back then and there is a tradition in the senate, stephanie, of almost unanimous support for fbi directors when it comes for a confirmation vote. Jim comey, four years ago, 931. Before that the fbi director, robert mueller, 1001. Even going back to louie free, they didnt bother to vote. They waved their hands over it in the senate, a voice vote for confirmation. This would be a departure from the bipartisan almost nonpartisan confirmation process for an fbi director. Stephanie. Thanks, mike. You must know him. I know very little. I think but its the wrong choice. I agree. Trump needs a pick thats going to be irrefutable, has Law Enforcement experience and will pass the senate with those kinds of numbers, not someone who is going to be controversial, not someone who has no Law Enforcement experience at all, really, beyond being attorney general of the state of connecticut. Does that human exist right now, given how partisan things are . I like ray kelly. I mean hes on the short list. The thing that trump has to do is find somebody, i agree, that says this is a good pick that both sides can say we agree, back to business with the fbi, not to be a circus, to focus on upholding the law. If its not lieberman, kelly, other good names there have been. One of the things i find disconcerting about this choice lieberman has ties to a Law Enforcement in new york that represents donald trump. I think thats unfortunate. And i know the firm a reputable firm, done some work with them but i think that gives it a taint that you dont need. There are plenty of people who are career professionals here who could do this job. Okay. Were going to take a break. Next, as the Russian Investigation escalates, a source tells nbc news that Vice President mike pence was kept in the dark on flynn calling that malpractice. Is pence trying to distance himself from President Trump and breaking news this morning, former congressman Anthony Weiner, god well never get away from him, is expected to plead guilty in connection with his sixing case. How about humor, jimmy fallon had thoughts for the president on how President Trump called the Russian Investigation a witch hunt. Trump started tweeting again. Today he criticized the russia investigation saying this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. The one guy was like, do you still want to see my birth certificate . Emy into an ally . Microsoft and its partners are using smart traps to capture mosquitoes and sequence their dna to fight disease. 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We know what you want from a Financial Company and well stop at. Nothing to make sure you get it. One, two. And we mean nothing. Moments ago Vice President mike pence welcomed colombias president for breakfast at his residence. This comes as a source close to the administration tells nbc news the Vice President was kept in the dark about Michael Flynns warning to the Trump Transition Team that he was under investigation on january 4th. Were you kept in the dark about michael flynn, mr. Vice president . The problem with being kept in the dark, pence led that transition team. Sources tell nbc that this, quote, pattern of keeping pence in the dark, is, quote, malpractice or intentional and neither are either are unacceptable. I want to bri back joel, ned, and midwin. Ne mike pence led the transition team. Does the buck not need to stop with him . If these reports are true this is unaccept fbl he was kept in the dark on these things with mike flynn. More of us are saying this on the republican side. Mike flynn was a bad hire, should never been hired and i wish more republicans would say that, it should never have happened, we should not be losing any more Political Capital on do you wish the president would say that . I actually do wish trump what woo come out and say it. I appreciate it he was loyal guy ned, to whom . Was loyal at some point he has to understand its time to move on from mike flynn. There are costs in politics. He cannot lose any more Political Capital defending mike flynn. Hes got to focus getting back on track to get his agenda passed. Is it not rich to say i appreciate that President Trump, a man on his third wife, blown people up right and left, i appreciate hes a loyal guy, elected president of the United States, be loyal to the American People and if you have someone under investigation probably dont put him in your administration . I totally agree with that. The Previous Administration i agree and i think this was a mistake that should never have happened. Donald trump throughout his life and career has proven hes loyal to one person donald trump. Trump comes first. America doesnt come first. Mike pence doesnt come first. What hes doing isnt serving his administration well. A series of selfinflicted wounds right now causing more damage, not helping them make a case strong enough. The Vice President we had in the Obama Administration we had joe biden who could go out and forcefully make a case on behalf of obama who had credibility and here we have someone who has his credibility undermined every day. Does mike pence realize that . It seems mike pence is distancing himself. The timing yesterday he starts a pack, files to open a pact, doesnt that seem a little the thing i would like to see happen, mike pence has been in d. C. And been an executive and has skillsets, trump should actually be pulling pence into this a lot more. He should not be kept in the dark on some of these issues. He should realize that mike pence is a serious asset and should be using him a lot more to send him out to represent. I think hes a very strong communicator. Dont distance yourself from pence. Bring pence in and let pen be an asset to the administration. I actually dont believe he was kept in the dark,t least when it came to, you know, pick something of these people in the administration. If you are leading the transition team, it is your job to basically identify people, assess their skills, their experience, their knowhow, their level of education and whether or not they can do the job. Im not particularly sure i buy this idea that he was kept in the dark. I find it really convenient, you know, for them to say that, but i just dont buy it. It doesnt pass the laugh test for me. If they did, it is malpractice pop to have the head of your transition be kept in the dark about this and that speaks to trumps chair ter and modus op per ran day di which is disastrous running a trigs or white house. We have to turn to another story because weve got breaking news. Former congressman Anthony Weiner married, of course, to top Hillary Clinton aide houma abedin is reportedly set to plead guilty to a single charge of transferring obscene material to a minor. Whats your reaction . Obviously this is the story we read so much about the sexting scandal. He was under investigation by the federal government so im not surprised that something was going to come out of this. Obviously he was facing more stiffer charges and with that came with stiffer penalties, so for him to plead guilty to this, i think, is indicative of the evidence that they had and i think he just wants this to go away. Its unfortunate, but it is what it is. If you decide that you are going to share obscene materials with a 15yearold girl from north carolina, this is the punishment that you ought to receive. I actually think it ought to be more severe and more stringent. Joel, a lot of blame has been placed on Anthony Weiner contributing to Hillary Clinton and losing the election. Do you have any reaction to this . Well, look, first of all in full disclosure Anthony Weiner was a client of mine when he ran for mayor in 2005 and at that point in his career, and was still a client of mine when this first texting scandal hit. So i come at this from a certain perspective here. It is a waste of a political talent. If you watch him campaign on the streets of new york city, he was magnificent at campaigning. The people will generally give politicians a second chance. But they dont give you a third and fourth chance. So its come to this after multiple episodes and obvious inability of anthony to get this under control in a way that, you know, could save any remnant of his career, probably not save his family either, which is sad because theres a young child involved and i know houma and love her dearly. This has got to be a hard moment for them. What else can you say. Its a waste of a talent. But you dont get more than one second chance. Selfinflicted wounds. We seem to be talking about them all morning. This is the just deserve for somebody who quite frankly was a perv and you know what, at the end of the day, you get you eventually get what you deserve and im sorry, once or twice, were all human and make mistakes. Is this the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, whatever this is, hopefully he will get the punishment he deserves. We totally agree on this. We agree on something. Whats unfortunate is that it had to get to a third or fourth or fifth time. We are talking about girls here who e victims of his sort of predatory activity. Couldnt agree more. Someone in a position of power, he used that position of power to access these girls. So these are very, very serious crimes. All right. We have to take a break. Hours from now, President Trump leaving on his first foreign trip. Is this a chance for the administration to reset, and what would make it a success or failure. Including in his foreign trip, a performance by tobey ket, something seth meyers found was odd. Youre having toby keith perform for muslims . Thats like having betsy devos give the commencement speech at a historically black oh, i see what youre doing. Oscar mawe went back toig the drawing board. And the cutting board. We removed the added nitrates and nitrites, byproducts, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. Every. Single. One. Why . For the love of hot dogs. Will you be ready when the moment turns romantic . 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We begin with russia and syria condemning a u. S. Airstrike against prosyrian government forces. Pentagon Officials Say fighters backing president Bashar Al Assad ignored warnings and advanced inside a restricted zone posing a threat to the u. S. And allied forces. Voters in iran are headed to the polls today for the first president ial election since the 2015 nuclear deal. Moderate president hassan ra hani who helped broker the deal is facing a tough challenge from a conservative cleric. Prosecutors in sweden say they are dropping their rape investigation into julian assange. The wikileaks founder denied the allegations. The driver accused of slamming his car into pedestrians in new yorks times square has been officially charged with murder. Police say one person died and 22 others were hurt. 26yearold Richard Rojas told police he was hearing voices and expected to die. Rojas also faces attempted murder and aggravated vehicular homicide charges. In the death of soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell has been ruled a suicide by hanging. The 52yearold was found dead wednesday in his Detroit Hotel room after performing a concert. Well, President Trump is taking off today, for his first foreign trip as commander in chief. On the itinerary, trips to saudi arabia, israel, vatican city belgium and sicily as the New York Times reports trumps soninlaw Jared Kushner had a personal role in a massive arms deal with saudi arabia that is expected to be announced during trumps trip. The deal is expected to be worth 110 billion over the next ten years, and i want to bring in Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer a former cia analyst, also with me Msnbcs Ali Velshi and cohost of our show vel she rule debuting here on msnbc, 12 30 Eastern Standard Time and joel benson and ned ryan. Ned, i want to start with you, i know the of the trump team wants to turn this page. There are a couple things. His speech that hes going to be giving i think will be really interesting. The themes that i think will be coming out unifying the muslim world against extremism, taking a hardline against iran, but also saying that theyre going to start sharing security some of the security burden in the middle east and juxtapose himself against the cairo speech in 2009 of obamas. Trying to lay that marker down obviously in regards to nato he will be going back to say there is a role for nato, strongly encourage people to put up 2 of their gdp. Israel again, well see, you know, this whole situation with the supposed leaking of information, intelligence from israel. I think that israel realizes their best friend that they have in the entire world is the u. S. So there might be a little bit of a strong conversation at some level, but i think thats going to be anotherreat stefor american israeli relations. I love the fact that hes going to the vatican. I think its a big signal that hes going there on his first foreign trip. Tony, new york, times reports during a meeting with the saudis he picked up the phone called the ceo of lock heed martin and asked to bring down the radar system. He said, im going to be the president whos going to get Business Done . No doubt that was a deal and i think in the context of whats going on i think some deal making here and there may not be a bad thing. Ive reviewed whats in the larger package and its all about trying to give the saudis a more comprehensive, collective security package, some of that will be used for regional purposes. This is not about simply saudi arabia. I think a couple things out of this negotiation were going to see. First im told hes going to propose on his trip an arab nato, something my think tank has been working on for the last two years, the idea of organizing our arab allies in a condominium where theyre invested more in their own security and then also, along that same line, i think hes trying to find a way to send a very strong message, relating to the fact that we need to help the arab world go after the radical extremists, some of them the items in that pbig package are aimed at that, and one of the things hes trying to do is restore confidence in our arab allies. Theres a perception ive talked to a lot of folks and embassies about this a clear perception that the Obama Administration gave far toof deference to the iranian and shia than the sunnis. Thats something hes looking to bring balance to. To pick up on what the colonel is saying, the saudis and gulf arabs have been mad at america for two years now. One because of the iran deal and number two for fracking bringing in all the fracking that made america the Largest Oil Producer in the world. 5 of the worlds population, uses 25 of its oil and while we make our own oil and get most of our imported oil from canada saudi is the swing producer woing hard to keep oil below 50 so amerins dont get back in the oil business. This is make nice with saudi arabia and try to get them to do Something Real in fighting terrorism. We wouldnt actually have much of the terrorism weve got if it hadnt been funded by the saudis for decades. If trump does get an arms deal done here is it a big win for him . I was talking to people on his steam that said this is going to be great for business and First Step Towards peace in the middle east . I dont know that an arms deal is the First Step Towards peace in fact middle east. I agree with alis point if he can come away and really have a true strong commitment from some of the countries in the middle east to fight terrorism i think that would be a success. Lets i dont want to set the bar too low for the president here but in all honesty he needs an errorfree week. Pull this trip off in a way he hasnt pulled off three Straight Days in the white house without making a mistake and misspeaking, if the words radical islam come out of his lips its going to be a problem. Hes going to make a speech about islam. Its going to be very scripted. Theyve got this trip tight. Mcmaster will make sure there are certain words in and not in there. Theyre going to make sure but this guy has a propensity to go off script when he wants to. Stick to the teleprompter. Thats all i ask. If he does that he will be fine. If he doesnt he can cause an international incident, have a breakdown, go to nato, he will be challenged by people at the nato conference like Angela Merkel and macron about his comments on nato. I dont think its going to be good enough to put a bandaid on it and say nato is not obsolete anymore. I bet he keeps it tight. I can guarantee you that mcmaster, dina powell, all sitting there going heres the script. To not say radical islamic terrorism in the state of the union speech and it got in. As a muslim ill say this, President Trumps view of islam is perverted and the perversion of islam was inadvertently or advertently funded by saudi schools for decades. So there are whole bunch of people with a misunderstanding about islam about to get together and talk about islam and has muslims in the world worried. We will have a lot to talk about next week. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein heads back to the hill today to brief members of the house one day after doing the same thing for the senate. So what did he tell senators about the Russian Investigation . Senator Chris Van Hollen joins me next. Before we go, moments ago, the market opened and as you can see, boom, nice little recovery, up 40 already and were just six minutes into the trading day. Ahh. Where are mom and dad . saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico goin up the country. Love mom and dad im takin a nap. Dude, you just woke up im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. Before fibromyalgia, i was a doer. I was active. Then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. My doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. She also prescribed lyrica. Fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves. Lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. 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Northrop grumman command and control systems always let you see the complete picture. And were looking for a few dreamers to join us. The nature of the investigation changed from counterterror to a criminal investigation and what are the repercussions . I assume this has been a counterintelligence investigation primarily, but as Deputy Attorney general rosenstein said, this is going to be up to director mueller, under the appointment he got as special counsel. Lreaction from republican senator john cornyn to Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein after rosenstein briefed the full senate on the controversial firing of james comey as fbi director, and in less than an hour, rosenstein will hold a similar briefing with members of the house. Joining me now is democratic senator chris van lollen. You were in van hollen. You were in the meeting with Rod Rosenstein. Was he explicit that President Trump had already decided to fire james comey before he wrote that memo . That was certainly the way i interpreted his remarks, that the president had made that decision prior to the time that Rod Rosenstein penned his memo to the attorney general. If thats the case, why did he write it . Well, he did not get into those details, stephanie. He did not answer any questions regarding conversations he had in connection with the memo, he did not even acknowledge meeting with the president the day before, which had been reported by the press. Essentially what he said was, the current the next special counsel bob mueller will be tentially investigation all those issues because the vestigation will not only look into collusion between the russians and the Trump Campaign, but also, anything regarding obstruction of justice. And of course any conversations regarding the motivation for the firing of the fbi director, could fall under the obstruction of justice count. Hes sort of punted all those issues to the special counsel. Then did you learn anything . Because there seems to be some disagreement from senators in the meeting, did rosenstein say that it moved from counterintelligence investigation to a criminal one or not . Well, stephanie, if you look at the regulation, regarding the appointment of a special counsel, its very clear, in order to appoint a special counsel Rod Rosenstein had to find, had to determine, that there was cause for a criminal investigation into a person or matter. Where that Tipping Point came in his decision to appoint a special counsel, we dont know. But that is written right into the regulation. I want to be clear, that doesnt mean he made a finding of any criminal conduct, but in order to appoint a special counsel under that regulation, you have to determine that a criminal investigation into a person or matter is warranted and clearly he made that finding. Then, if he punted on many answers because now there is the special counsel making the whole situation more complicated, does that mean well see james comey testify or not . Well thats a big question because, obviously, congress is going to continue its investigation clearly into the counterintelligence aspect of this in terms of the russian instrug instrui intrusion, interference in our elections and things spinning out from that. But there will be a question Going Forward when congress can access witnesses, documents, and thats something that congress is going to have to work with the new special counsel about. Then what was your biggest takeaway . Did you leave feeling like you learned something or you could move forward . It sounds like theres still just a lot of questions. Well, there certainly lots of questions with regards to the facts and again, rosenstein refused to answer them on the grounds that these were going to be issues covered by the special counsel. Look, i think the major takeaway, stephanie, is that the new special counsel has very Broad Authority to investigate not just collusion in the election with the russians, but anything regarding obstruction of justice. And i think if you look back at this week, the fact that we had comeys memo surfacing that he wrote a memo after his meeting with President Trump regarding President Trumps effort to stop the investigation into michael flynn, and now we have the appointment of a special counsel, youve got a lot of grounds to look forward into i mean look at the whole issue of obstruction of justice, not just collusion in the campaign. And i should say, that, you know, President Trump said this is a witch hunt, said its something that he said it divided the country. This is actually something thats united republicans and democrats on capitol hill and if President Trump has nothing to hide he should want to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible and thats what a special counsel will do. Before i let you go, Joe Lieberman appears to be the frontrunner to replace james comey as fbi director. Would you confirm him and vote for him . You know, i took the position some time ago before we had a list of finalists that the head of the fbi should not be a current or former elected official, given the very sensitive circumstances we have here. And i think thats an important line to draw. I think it should be somebody whos not connected with politics, given the sensitivity of this current investigation. All right. Senator, good luck to you. Its a big maryland weekend. Preakness is upon us. Yes, indeed. Thank you. Next, secretary of treasury, Steve Mnuchin, surprise surprise, he and senator elizabeth warren, in a Testy Exchange on the hill. Let me just stop you right there, mr. Secretary. Youre not letting me finish. Im not. Yes, im not. What was that all about . Were going to discuss that when we come back. Alvelshi and i cant wait to dig into this one. Its time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. Michael is a frustrated musician turned urban winemaker. He started city winery to put together all of his loves its a restaurant, a winery and a music venue, and hes taken the leap expanding now to five cities. For more watch your business weekends at 7 30 on msnbc. Brought to you by American Express open. Visit openforum. Com for ideas to help you grow your business. American express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. Find out how American Express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open. Com. Find out how American Express cards and services hey richard, check out this fresh roasted flavor. Looks delicious, huh . Yeah. And how about that aroma . Love that aroma umph craveability, approved irresistibly planters. Hi, im frank. I take movantik for oic, opioidinduced constipation. Had a bad back injury, my doctor prescribed opioids which helped with the chronic pain, but backed me up bigtime. Tried prunes, laxatives, still constipated. Had to talk to my doctor. She said, how long you been holding this in . laughs that was my movantik moment. My doctor told me that movantik is specifically designed for oic and can help you go more often. Dont take movantik if you have a bowel blockage or a history of them. Movantik may cause serious side effects, including symptoms of opioid withdrawal, severe stomach pain and or diarrhea, and tears in the stomach or intestine. Tell your doctor about any side effects and about medicines you take. Movantik may interact with them causing side effects. Why hold it in . Have your movantik moment. Talk to your doctor about opioidinduced constipation. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. Everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Tech when your windshield needs to be fixed. Trust safelite autoglass. For these parents, driving around was the only way to get their baby to sleep. So when their windshield got cracked. Customer we cant drive this car. Tech . They wanted it fixed right. So they scheduled with safelite. Our exclusive trueseal Technology Means a strong, reliable bond, every time. At safelite, we stand behind our work. Bye, bye. Because the ones you love, sit behind it. parents whisper jingle safelite repair, safelite replace. Moments ago, Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney general, arriving on the hill about to sit down with the house, a closed door session discussing that letter he wrote last week about james comey. I want to take you to mike. What is happening right now . Youre right. We did just see the Deputy Attorney general to brief house members and yesterday it was more than an hour with senate members. Democrats and republicans want to believe two different things. Democrats want to know exactly how the comey firing went down and what was Rod Rosensteins role and we heard from several senators who said he knew jim comey was going to be fired before he heard the memo. The tick talk on democrats mind. Republicans want to see mueller take over the investigations. They want to see it moved off the hill, stephanie. Theyre getting bogged down and oxygen sucked out of the hallways and democrats interested in seeing the four congressional committees, no fewer than four continue with their investigation and countless allot of questions. Now we have to turn to money, power, politics. A Battle Royale on capitol hill. Fireworks erupt between Steven Mnuchin and elizabeth warneren. Ali velshi here. First, we have to share what happened yesterday. What do you think it was if that was not right at the heart of it . Youre saying simultaneously youre in favor of breaking up the banks. I never said we are in favor of breaking up the banks and separating. If we had it would have been very simple. We wouldnt have were going to run out of time. Tell me what 21st Century Glass eagle means if it doesnt mean breaking apart those two. Its a complicated question. I bet. Its not actually a complicated one. My friend, ali velshi. Two kinds of banks. The kind most of us know, commercial banks that lend money, put your deposits in and investment banks which buy shares of companies, sell them to investors and help take Companies Public and perform activities for corporate businesses. Then is this not complete double talk. Glassed eagle is is about one thing, breaking up the banks. Roe versus wade is about one thing. Abortion. It is entirely about separating the activities of banking. Something that donald trump said he wanted to do. Something a lot of people say they want to do. I dont know what this is. Clearly, he was asked to explain it. If youre going to reinvent Something Like that, then explain it. When you go head to head with the head of the debating union. Elizabeth warren. You can like her or not like eher. Were going to do it and then not explaining what that means. I have no idea. You and i do this for a living. Do y have any idea what hes talking about . Long on big ideas and short on details. I dont understand how you can call it the 21st century version when it is about one single topic. If i give my deposit to you at a bank, you cant do risky thing with my deposit. Which makes a lot of sense. People depositing their money into jpmorgan and jpmorgan suddenly making outside bets. It is a bit like saying we will have a 21st century epa that allows companies to dump their waste am to rivers and lakes. Epa protects the environment. Im excited to see what Steve Mnuchin has to say about this. What do you think about Steve Mnuchin thinking to this goal of 3 above gdp growth and theyre going to balance the budget at 10 . 3 is very hard to get to. It takes good immigration policy and through the demonstration of health care and that bullet pointed tax reform thing they put out has not demonstrated the wherewithal to get us to 3 . You didnt think 200 words on that piece of paper was sophisticated. Bite your tongue, ali velshi. Show me how to get to 3 . Be sure to watch him tomorrow velshi ruhle. Coming up, Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein has just arrived on capitol hill. You saw him to brief the full house. Well have more on that, next. With type 2 diabetes a lower a1c is a lot about choices. But it can be hard sometimes, cause different sides of you struggle with which ones to make. Well, what if you kept making good ones . Then . You could love your numbers. 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Remember, we just learned he knew already that james comey was going to be fired when he wrote that. Lawmakers demanding answers after a slew of new details in the saga. A friend of the now ousted director saying comey was disgusted with the president. The short list getting shorter in the search to replace comey. President trump said to be very close to a decision at this hour. Former senator and democratic vp nominee Joe Lieberman among the frontrunners. Unclear if President Trump will make that call before getting out of town, but it is possible air force one fueled up for a nineday, fivenation trip. First up, saudi arabia. Our team is here this morning. My viqueira on capitol hill, Peter Alexander at the white house today and on set director of the fbi sean henry and columnist for daily beast and john alder and politics reporter for wall street journal shelby holiday. I know he just came in. Did he say anything . What are you seeing there . He did not say anything as is typical of the attorney general on the hill yesterday and today. Rank and file house members filing in behind me. The situation deep in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and i think we can say