Transcripts For MSNBCW MTP Daily 20171201

Taxes in the senate. I think its a very good piece of legislation. This is mtp daily and it starts right now. Good evening. Im chuck todd here in washington. Welcome to mtp daily. Folks, this is a fivealarm fire for President Trump. No other way to put. Former National Security advisers pleaded guilty lying to the fbi last year. The guilty plea, thats the tip of the iceberg. Noe most importantly, hes cooperating and seemingly very willing to talk to those above him. Taking instructions from senior or very senior people in the trump transition team. Were about to find out who they are. We can report one is Jared Kushner. According to two people familiar with the manner. It isnt hard to speculate who the others could be. Because there werent many people on the trump transition more senior than flynn, except for, perhaps, mike pence or donald trump. This is a fivealarm fire for the president because mike flynn sits as the nexti icxus of the allegations facing trump. In cahoots with the russians and second tried to ob struct instru obstructs justice. Dramatic incite who flinn was talked to when advising mr. Trump and who hes now willing to talk about with bob mueller. Flynns value is made even more apparent when you look how the president has continually tried to protect flynn from prosecution. In fact, even tried to potentially shut down the fbis investigation into flinn when he took office. I understood him to be saying what he wanted me to do was drop any investigation connected to flynns account of his conversations with the russians allegations. What hes talking about in the clip are what flynn just pled guilty to lying about. The president s outside counsel ty cobb today says nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than mr. Flynn. Okay. Technically right, frankly, we think hes wrong here. Pretty much everything about this guilty plea implicates the president and his inner circle. Look at the Court Documents themselves. Read like a road map to people above flynn. A very Senior Member of the president s team directed flynn. Discuss what ifnig to communicate to the Russian Ambassador about the u. S. Sanctions. Folks, those were the sanctions we imposed on russia for interfering in our election. Were going to cove the story from all of those angles tonight. Frankly more. We have ken delanian, nbc news intelligence and National Security reporter, d. C. District court today and Hallie Jackson and speak to anne milgramilgram former federal prosecutor breaking down the legal ramifications. Ken, start with you. Flynn cut a deal. Its a serious charge to lie to the fbi, but he avoided what could have been much more devastating charges here to the point where people williams said, this is a pretty sweet deal for mike flynn. Explain. Reporter it is for now, chuck. Of course, nothing prohibits Robert Mueller from bringing charges in the future. For right now, yes. Weve been reporting for weeks that Robert Muellers examining flynns work with turkey and a potential quid pro quo around gulan, the turkish dissident. None of that is mentioned in the documents. A single charge of lying to the fbi carrying with it a fiveyear prison term and a lot of factors suggest he would never do a day in prison. The main factor, whether Robert Mueller is satisfied with his cooperation, that he tells the truth about everything that he knows. Not only about these interactions with the russians during transition but any collusion with the russians to interfere in the election campaign. About this transition, weve long known mike flynn didnt tell the truth about interactions with sergey kislyak. The documents today show he did it with coordination with senior officials in the trump transition, one of those being Jared Kushner. The white house is going ahead, folks confirming it, they have a different sort of caveat. Its Jared Kushner and others, that what they were directing him to do had nothing to do with russia and everything to do with the United Nations and israel . Correct . Reporter thats right. There are actually two different episodes lloyd out in the Court Documents. One, december 22, 23, 2016, u. N. Resolution condemning israel for settlements in palestinian territories the Obama Administration planned to abstain on and let pass. The israelis hated that resolutions and the trump team hated it, wanted to stop it. According to these documents, one of the things flynn called the Russian Ambassador sergey disl kislyak and we reported directed to do that by Jared Kushner. 9 second thing laid out, response to the obama sanctions. Flynn saying, dont worry about it. Dont react. Well going to be in office soon and take another look at this. Both of those things arent violated american tradition of we have one administration at a time. Before you take office you dont make a deal with a foreign power. A law on the logan act seems to make it illegal. 1799 law never prosecuted. One Law Enforcement official today told me he believed they lay out a conspiracy to violate the logan act. You have a conspiracy, chuck. Ken, sirens, let you go. Appreciate it. Let me go now to chief White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson. Hallie, got to ask yous in the white house, saw the ty cobb statement. We havent seen today . A president s tweet. Reporter donald trump. Correct. Whats going on . Reporter listen, no tweets. No pool spray. Right . Supposed to see the president , albeit briefly earlier this morning around lunchtime. That was abruptly canceled. No reporters allowed into the oval office as originally scheduled. Those are opportunities when we get a chance to shout questions at the president. You know the name mike flynn would have been shouted. I can tell you in four words that the mood is according to at least one person who is close to the president talking to our team. Very, very, very bad. I think there was a real sense among the people in the president s orbit that this could have real implications for donald trump in some way. That said, the public facing response, only come from ty cobb, no Sarah Huckabee sanders yet or any other faces you might expect to see on this harks been, hey, everythings okay. Were moving along. What flynn did implicates only flynn, cobb says, and this investigation remember, cobb has been saying this. The inhouse white house lawyer, saying this all along. That we expect this investigation to come toonclusi. The issue, two of them. Briefly, one you know, this is the closest person to the administration. This pen was in the administration. Not a Campaign Adviser or transition person the white house can try to distance itself from. Somebody with the highest level of clearance who was in the innermost of inner circles for donald trump from inauguration day. Sure, only 24 days, but mike flynn was there. That cannot be erased. Other question i think one of judgment. Donald trump promised to hire the best people. Brought on mike flynn, now charged in this special counsel investigation and who knows what other shoes will drop. I think that as weve been asking for a while, is donald trump standing why in . Does he regret that . Donald trump so far stood by mike flynn. You know, chuck, mike flynn, one of the few National Security folks came out early, stood for donald trump. For the president that counts for a lot. The most frequent traveling companion who wasnt a paid staffer on that campaign with the president. Got to ask you about the issue of flynn and when we learned via the Washington Post that he discussed the sanctions issues with the Russian Ambassador, because both the Vice President to another sunday show, mike pence and Reince Priebus to me on meet the press both said they knew nothing about this. They grilled mike flynn and mike flynn at the time basically were denying it on mike flynns behalf, later saying mike flynn lied to priebus and lied to pence. This this plea deal seems to imply at least some people in the transition knew this. Could it really be mike pence and Reince Priebus were left out of the loop . Reporter hitting the nail on the head where the story goes from here. An interesting conversation i just had in the last hour with somebody at the white house. This source. Pressing them on this particular point. The pence part of this is significant, remember, thats the reason President Trump said that mike flynn was fired in the first place. Not for misrepresentations to Reince Priebus, specifically because he misled mike pence. It appears to turn out based on these documents that other people knew that flynn was misleading pence. The response i got was interesting. No comment. In the middle of a conversation about a number of topics, but this sort of shut at least this one official down and appeared as though that this source at least didnt want to get out ahead of some of these developments you are now bringing up. In a little reactive way to some of this news, chuck. I think its a sign that the white house and officials are treading very, very carefully here. I think that there are a few people who want to stick their necks out on this and would rather digest, see some of the headlines. See how it plays and go from there. It will make meet the press sunday real interesting. Appreciate that promo for sure. Try to get a better understanding from the legal perspective. Hallie, thanks. Joining me, anne milgram, a former federal prosecutor and former attorney general in the state of new jersey. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. Let me start with what did we, what did you learn today from this plea deal and whats the bigger deal . That mike flynn pled guilty or that mike flynn is cooperating with bob mueller . There are a couple things. First, youve already said. This is an enormously important plea and cooperation agreement. So there are, a very small consent trico conse consentric circle. Its enormously significant. The second point, which i think you touched on is that people dont cooperate against themselves. They cooperate against other people. So here someone like Michael Flynn is going to have to offer the United States government a significant amount of information that the government finds truthful about other people who are involved in this whole question of ties to russia and influence in the campaign. So it is very significant, because we know that flynn is cooperating and that he will have been in the room and that he will have a great deal of information about what took place during the campaign, during transition and 24eeven i the white house and i add as much as weve learned today, chuck, there is still so much we dont know. This is a among the slimmest plea documents ive seen, cooperation agreements. Interesting. I was curious about that there. From what you have read in this, what clue does it give you about the direction where its going . Obstruction of justice direction . Or in the collusion direction or is this frankly, both paths and this takes him down both. Could be both. Difficult to know based on what we have and the only thing i think we know for sure, mueller is a lot more than hes given us. Keep in mind, this investigation into flynn has been going on essentially a year. They knew he falsified his statements about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador. They knew that in february of 2017. So were now in december. Its taken them a long time, im sure investigating a lot of different aspects of flynns business dealings and other dealings, but still, we know that they have something in mind when looking at Something Like this. In the middle of bingeing billions flo s now. En episode somebody flips, essentially the Hedge Fund Guy buys off the flipped guy. Now, the president cant buy off anybody. But the president can pardon somebody. Could somehow the president blanket pardon mike flynn to the point where then he could walk away from cooperating with mueller . I mean, im someone, a former federal state and local prosecutor. Very hard for me to believe that the president of the United States would blanket pardon someone like Michael Flynn. The whole point of flynn, and entire United States of america now understands this that he is cooperating against other members of the trump inner circle and of the administration. I think the American Public will want to know. What information does he have to give . And who is he cooperating against . I think this is really the first chapter of a book where all of us are going to want to see the future chapters. I think its hard to imagine just pardoning someone at this point. Hasnt been convicted. Theres not a legal basis. Interesting you said you cant believe it, sounds like he could do it if he wanted to. As a rule, you can only i know hes president. Well dealing with a president that loves the unprecedented. None of us should say nothing could ever happen in the current circumstances but i would be very, very skeptical that will come to pass. And the at this point, is paul interesting to me, because somebody asked me, well, hasnt Paul Manafort flipped . Nope. He hasnt flipped. Flynn has. Is Paul Manafort less useful now that muellers gotten flynn . I mean does that make i dont think so. Remember could he still be equally helpful and eventually cut a deal limbs . Still helpful. Remember, these are sort of, again, sort of concentric circles related to the same question of, did the russian government what did the russian government do with our election and do it in conjunction and in partnership with the Trump Campaign . Manafort is an incredible important part of that conversation when it comes to his ties with russia and work as the chair of the campaign for a period of time. Keep in mind, he can walk in at any point. Flynn walking in before charged by a grand jury. Walked in, will plead guilty. The government showed a lot of evidence against him and convinced him to plead. To cooperate. But manafort may still come in. All right. Anne milgram, waiting for the next chapter to read or watch or unfold. Appreciate it. Coming up, the limits of loyalty and the flynn trump dynamic. Of course, if its sunday its meet the press. Talk to Senate Intelligence Committee Member susan collins, Dianne Feinstein as well as former Trump Campaign officials including Cory Lewendowski and david bostic. Stay tuned. Is in full swing. you are going to be a big surprise. whining aww, i see a big puppy. I see a biig puuppy. Hey greg thats ford, americas bestselling brand. Now get exclusive holiday offers, with 0 financing for 72 months across a full line up. For a limited time, get an additional 1,000 cash back on top of 0 financing for 72 months. Get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. Get these exclusive offers when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night, so he got home safe. Yeah, my dad says our insurance doesnt have that. What . you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Welcome back. President trump values loyalty but doesnt always exhibit the same loyalty to his people he demands from them. Flynn the exception to that at least so far. Immediately after flynn was fired, the president came to flynns defense. And hes barely wavered since. General flynn is a wonderful man. I think hes been treated very, very unfairly by the media. As i call it, the fake media in many cases. I said i dont think he did anything wrong. If anything he did something right. You know, he was just doing his job. I do feel badly for him. He served the country. He was a general. Like it had to be done immediately. This man has served for many years. Hes a general. Hes a, in my opinion, a very good person. Folks, you can make a convincing argument we wouldnt have a special counsel named bob mueller or any special counsel if it wasnt for President Trumps attempt to protect flynn from james comey. Now that flynn pled guilty, will the president s statements stay intact . Referred to flynn as a former Obama Administration official. What do you think . More mtp daily in 60 seconds. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United States Postal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Let me bring in tonights panel. Eugene robinson, Washington Post columnist. Michael steele, senior advise and White House Correspondent for the Washington Post. Welcome all. I have to say, obviously this is a big deal. But is it, like, watergate type a big deal . Implications like that, anne gearan . I mean, we dont know yet. It certainly seems like a watershed. Weve had many things that have been described watershed like, oh, okay. Watershed meaning something changes on the other side of the shed and things happen. This does feel different. It feels like one of those consequential friday when Something Big drops and the world changes. Somebody above mike flynn . Arent many above him. When you look at not just the charges he pleaded guilty to, but all the stuff he was not charged with today. All of the stuff weve heard about Michael Flynn about turkey. You know, arrangements and dealings and all of that, and no mention. No mention of his son. That seems to indicate that he is of extreme value to bob mueller, at least bob mueller thinks he has something of extreme value. Bob mueller didnt buy a pig and a pope. Proffer from flynns attorneys before making this very, very generous agreement. We still have unanswered questions. One of the biggest has to do with he did plead guilty on, that part, your newspaper break as story of this sanctions issue. Within day, within hours i think basically, apparently Reince Priebus and Vice President pence both grill flynn and say, is this true . He denies it. They go on, Reince Priebus, to me, on meet the press. Mike pence to Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday both deny it. Left out of the according to this document, he is talking to people in the transition. Either pence and priebus were left out, highly possible. Right. Or theyre lying. Yeah. I mean and either one of those things could potentially be really useful to mueller in his investigation. Right . He can leverage either. Whichever of those things is true. It is great leverage. Over mike flynn and potentially over other people. And presumably all of those people involved know exactly how that next step is likely to play out. Mike pence is one of the only experienced Public Servants in this room. I find it very unlikely that he deliberately went on television and lied about something this important. I dont buy. It and somebody else, second most unlikely person to make a mistake like this, Reince Priebus. Been around town. And knows, know how to, like, not say anything. Right . But to do something other than Vice President can filibuster. Exactly. Like a nart. Senator. Whos taking the most tums today . Jared kushner . Donald trump jr. . Or is steve bannon throwing in some tums . Dont forget, he was a senior transition official, too. And could meet the description, you know, of someone descriptions, too, at the time. Yet hes not here. I think, look, Jared Kushner is on a maalox i. V. Drip today. Really. Face it. He hes the only one in government. In government. Very closely fits the description of the senior official. Was he in the white house today . To your knowledge . To my direct knowledge, no. I have no reason to think he wasnt. I didnt lay eyes on him, and i didnt see him at the party. When reading through this guilty plea. A larger story. At one point somebody pointed out, seems as if mike flynn was representing turkey. Jared kushner representing the interests of israel. And you had Paul Manafort representing the interests of ukraine here or parts of ukraine. This is, was a this was not, a corruptible thing to have in your the thing is, because there was money involved in all of those cases. Right . Financial interests involved. I dont know financial aspects in the kushner but definitely the other two. The other two about money. Billionaires, israel, that we dont know, no. But one would have to assume that bob mueller is looking into that as well. All right. Got to throw it did you see the breitbart headline . Throw it up here. Check it out. Got it up . It says, over by thanksgiving . White house lawyer ty cobb was disastrously wrong. As we know, breitbart headlines, mr. Steele, usually means, mr. Bannon may be sending a message to his friend the president. He had been anticobb strategy the whole time. Yeah. Seems as though this talk happy, its all going to blow over. Best of all possible worlds sort of strategy, if you can call it a strategy, is clearly not something thats going to work. Its not an effective defense. You know bannons instinct is always the bulldog. Fight, fight, fight. Exactly. Mr. Sunshine is not his style. And would you be shocked if the president wanted to either shake unp or add to the legal team . Im sure thats what bannon is telling him to do, the headline and probably on the phone telling him. Nows the time. More aggressive, cooperation. Will the president take away from, cooperation hasnt worked . Well, and saying that theres nothing here hasnt worked either. So now that there clearly is something. I agree. Might well shake it up. Does this impact some business on the hill . How compartmentalizing can your party guys get . Thinking about this. Remember the 90s, talked about the split screen. Monk ica lewinsky and whatever else. In the middle of passing tax reform in the middle of this. Weird. Doing it ever since the president rode down that escalator in trump tower. Republicans on capitol hill continue to focus on getting things done for the american people. All they need, enough functioning digits to wield a pen. This all came, biggest story happened with the russia probe 12 hours ago had to do with the president trying to convince senators to end the intel probe. To me this flynn flip actually makes that story 1,000 times worse. It does. Does it not . Hadnt thought about that, but youre right. Talk one second about the other part of the the flynn news today about the israel thing. That is fascinating. This is the first were hearing of it. Not an consequential legally bas fascinating what he was asked to do. Weigh in changing policy under the previous administration. Certainly unprecedented. Probably not illegal. Probably not. Yeah. Well see. Exactly. All right. Stick around. We have a lot more to unpack and might get to taxes. Coming up, moments away from that senate vote on the tax package that only can change the lives of every single american. Thats all. Well be right back. Im only in my 60s. Ive got a nice long life ahead. Big plans. So when i found out medicare doesnt pay all my medical expenses, i got a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if youre eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. The rest is up to you. Call now and find out about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Like all standardized Medicare Supplement insurance plans, it could save you in outofpocket medical costs. Call now to request your free decision guide. Ive been with my doctor for 12 years. Now i know ill be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] youll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. Plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. See why millions of people have already enrolled in the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. Dont wait. Call now. Sometimes i think, why did i do that. Take risks. Im gonna teach you how to make something happen. Dont rinse the pan, this is where we gonna make our sauce. Instead of using parsley, were going to use the carrot tops. Theyre gonna say, where did you learn that. Did you learn that at the masterclass or did you go to paris for a year . Im Wolfgang Puck and this is my masterclass. hard exhalation honey . Can we do this tomorrow . grunts of effort can we do this tomorrow . If you have Heart Failure symptoms, your risk of hospitalization could increase, making tomorrow uncertain. But entresto is a medicine that was proven, in the largest Heart Failure study ever, to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading Heart Failure medicine. Women who are pregnant must not take entresto. It can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. 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There are small hurdles still ahead. Well update you with the latest after this. You might take something for your heart. Or joints. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. We are the driven. The dedicated. The overachievers. We know our best investment is in ourselves. We dont take no for an answer. We fight for what we want. Even for the things that were once a given. Going to college. Buying a home. And not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. But were only as strong as our community. Who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. Sofi. Get there sooner. Welcome back. Of course we continue to follow todays big news of former National Security advisers Michael Flynn flipping, agreeing to plead guilty lying to the fbi and avoid for now prosecution on worst crimes. The fourth person on the Trump Campaign charged in the mueller investigation. Joining us now to put some of this in context here and what its like when a white house is under siege like this, a man whos worn many hats in washington. Leon panetta. Mr. Panetta, welcome back to the show, sir. Good to be with you, cluck. So let me start with that. Okay. Youve been in a white house thats been had a deal with a special counsel investigation, a deal with staffers worried about their personal legal fees and things like that. And when key witnesses suddenly flip or turn or new information, everybody gets nervous. Explain. How bad is that to a staffs morale in a white house . Well, it certainly has an impact on operations, thats for sure, because you know, it casts a shadow over the white house. And members of the staff are aware of that. And at the same time, youre trying to stay focused on the mission of the white house. On the issue that you want to draw attention to for that particular day. On the issues youre working for for the president , but when these kinds of stories break out and it appears that an investigation is moving, it is going to detract from the attention of that staff to the job theyre supposed to be doing. No question about it. The other aspect of this, of course, its intertwined with the National Security issue, namely, russia, at a time when weve got a lot of tricky diplomatic crises around the globe. Some of them have to do with russia, and i guess what is the how do other how do you think other countries are reacting today to what theyre seeing . Do they view this as an opportunity to move against the United States a little diplomatically . Does this mean they will view the president as weak . What do you think theyre thinking today . Well, theres no question that there have been a lot of bad messages going out to both our allies and adversaries regarding our commitment, whether well stand by our word, whether this whole America First kind of approach. I think our allies are asking a lot of questions about whether the United States will play a role in terms of world leadership. This issue clouds the whole issue that much further, because now the question becomes, is there, is there a link here between the president and the russians . Was there involvement with the russians in terms of interference in the campaign . And if that is the case, can this administration be credible when it comes to dealing with the russians on a series of other issues . Whether theyre going to move on countries that are the former soviet union. What are they going to do in syria . What are they going to do with regards to nuclear proliferation, with regards to a number of different issues including cyber . So the credibility of the United States, i think, as a result of this is very much at issue. It isnt just a concern about what happens to the president. Its a concern about what happens to the United States of america at a very difficult time. Let me ask you about one of the specific allegations in here that has been sort of, i think theres a gray area whether, is it illegal or simply unethical. This idea that the Incoming Administration before they took over was strategizing about a United Nations vote involving israel, and you had, of course, one part of what we learned here in this plea agreement. That Jared Kushner among others directing mike flynn to make these outreaches, which many in the Obama Administration thought was an overreach, but theres overreaching and doing something illegal. Where do you see this fitting in . Well, theres no question theres always been this approach that we have one administration at a time. And a newly elected president has always abided by that principle. Largely because you cant have two president s. It would impact on the credibility of the United States. So generally, Incoming Administrations really are very careful not to take action that could in anyway disrupt something that the Current Administration is doing. This was very unusual. I dont whether it breaks the law or not, you know, i think thats probably a stretch. But it clearly breaks the principle that a new administration refrains from doing anything that appears to impact on United States policy, and they through the plea today and through the kind of evidence that were getting, theres no question that they were trying to do that. Is this any different than, say, the incoming reagan administration, you know, somehow potentially helping to orchestrate the release of hostages on the president s first day in office . Is that a comparable situation . No. I dont think it is. Because you know there obviously there were some efforts made to try to see whether that could happen. I dont think they locked anything up, you know, that really firmed up what the approach would be. In this situation, clearly they were they were saying to the russians, if you dont say anything, were going to be kind to you when it comes to the sanctions that president obama had put in place. There was clearly a quid pro quo going on here that i think raises some serious legal issues. But would it have been any different to you if they did it their second day in office . I think it would have made a hell of a difference. Once theyre in office, if they want to cut a deal with the russians, thats okay to you . Absolutely. One final question before i let you go. In light of this unprecedented cultural evolution of this country regarding men and women in the workplace, and bad behavior by men in power. Is bill clinton the original sin here . Do you view what happened in that era differently now with hindsight eyes . Do i view it say it again . Do you view sort of it differently now, perhaps, than the way, than the lens of the late 90s . Meaning, did too many of you and your fellow Party Members excuse his behavior too much . I i think i think were in a, in a different period now. That really raises concern about the direction of our country. I dont know whether you know, id like to believe this country can be a great country as it is, and can really be in renaissance in the 21st century, but i also think theres a chance that the United States could be in decline. You know, we have we have a tough time just governing the country. Its very dysfunction. Theres a lot of divisions in terms of our fears and hates and prejudices, and the mere fact that this president continues to tweet and lie and undermine the whole process of government, i think all of that feeds into a concern that i have that the United States is in this kind of downward spiral. I think thats a real concern. And a lot will be determined in these next few months as to what path we take. No. I understand that, but on the bill clinton question alone, having to do with this revolution thats taking place among men and women in the workplace. Do you view the accusations against bill clinton in the late 90s differently through todays lens . I dont think theres any question that, you know, those standards have clearly changed. Weve seen an awful lot change today in terms of, you know, the women that are coming forward and registering their concerns about the kind of assaults that have taken place. Yeah. Weve changed the standard since the time that bill clinton was in office. But i think its moving in a much better direction, and its the kind of direction this country needs to move in if were going to be honest and truthful with ourselves. Secretary panetta, leave it there. Always good to have you on. Appreciate you coming on sharing your interviews. Well be right back. Is made. But right now, our bond is fraying. How do we get back to us . The y fills the gaps. And bridges our divides. Donate to your local y today. Because where theres a y, theres an us. Discover card. I justis this for real . Match, yep. We match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. Whoo i got my money hard to contain yourself, isnt it . Uh huh let it go whoo get a dollarfordollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. Coming up, we now know who mike flynn was talking to and maralago, when looking for guidance on the russian sanctions. Well reveal that name for you, right after this. Shawn evans its 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. And at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. Today were bringing you americas number one shave at lower prices every day. Putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. As one of those workers, im proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. Gillette the best a man can get. Time for the lid. The panel is back. Okay. We have learned, nbc news figure it out or k. T. Mcfarland, the person phoned at maralago to essentially get a read what he was supposes to do soonon sanct. Did she really so can be really not. The hard this inc. To believe is they were left out of the lop. If they were, that is stunning. Well, i think it goes to this idea that particularly during that period there was a division in the Incoming Administration between the quote unquote Establishment Republicans represented by pence and priebus and initialled from trumpian and she would have been on that side of that divide on the flynn side of that divide. Right. And it was, its sort of a debate between do we break the crockery or not . Do we do these sort of transgressive things or fought. She was on the transgressive side. Do you think kushner end up, kushner and ivanka, i feel they have been setting up this idea they have been thinking of leaving, a couple weeks ago, both your paper and the New York Times both seem to have indications, something is umm here with kushners tenure here at the white house . This all gets wrapped up with the fact we are hitting the oneyear mark. Thats sort of a logical and respectable time for people to leave either because the higherups want them tore leave or they want to leave themselves, its graceful. Weve done a year of getting this new ship sailing and now its time to do something else. Certainly if they want to leave on their own, thats sort of a llajical time to do it. Theyve told people theyre not going anywhere. Right. I mean, at least on the surface, theres no obvious reason that they have to. As weve all learned, what they tell us on the record and what we learn in our own reporting and what they tell us turns out to be true. On the record, theyre saying, were hunting for a new mansion here in washington, d. C. At the same time we have a president with no experience in elected office who brought in two family members with no experience in government or Elective Office who effectively cant be fired, thats not a recipe for good governance, we have seen a few changes the new chief of staff, the best example of that to impose order and regular government on what was at least initially the worst chaotic white house in american history. From their point of view, though, the decision i think is is it better for us to leave and go try to protect the family brands that are having difficulty or is it better to stay and put out fires that could become conflorida dpragss . Speaking of should i stay or should i go . Brexit is off . Exit stage left, no, i love them, but i call the shots, we disagree. Thats one tweet, did everything donald trump does in one incapsulated thing. Confused. Yet confirming. Yeah, right. I mean we dont think he is going anywhere tomorrow or next week, again, hes sort of in the oneyear club. The, the expectation he would leave sometime early next year. If im President Trump, the last thing i need now is one more ticked off official who is wealthy enough and cares enough about his own legacy to run down the president to make himself look better roming the countryside, this is not a good time to have that. Something else struck me, too, about, so the plea deal happens with flynn. I think flynn flipped over the last few days, the last week, but, you look at this and all of a sudden im think, oh, wait a minute, they may want tom cotton to stay on the senate intel committee. They may not want to go through a fight right through this window. Exactly. I think they may want to stand back. Or at least buy time. Obviously, trump and tillerson are not on the same page ever and they dont really get along. They confirm it. He confirmed it. They dont like talk or whatever. But i think the president would like to keep him there for now. To your point that they always Say Something and do the other thing. They said when it was announce thad flynns attorney was no longer communicating with the president. Oh, no big deal nothing to see here. But right after that is when the tweet storm and all of the noise started. Right. Thats whats going to be interesting, when he still hasnt tweet and today ty cobb is in the office. Today john kelly is in the office. Saturday morning is a much different story in that west wing. Yep. For sure, whatever the president says about what happened today. Right, exactly. His mood. And were likely to get an indication of that either tonight or tomorrow or certainly by sunday. I have a feeling its when he wakes up in the morning and starts digesting what he sees. I think its like scar face, two 82 guns bladesing. He doesnt know what mueller know, that itself the problem. All right. Guys, thank you very much, happy friday. Coming up, why President Trump is campaigning south of the border. Actually, were going to call it east of the border. The alabama border that is. Well be right back. Morning on the beach was so peaceful. Until. It. Wasnt. Dont let type 2 diabetes get between you and your heart. Because your risk of heart attack or stroke is up to four times greater. But there are steps you can take to lower your cardiovascular risk. Talk to your Health Care Provider today about diabetic heart disease. And find out more at heartoftype2. Com. Your heart and type 2 diabetes. Make the connection. In cased you missed it, trump has decided to campaign for roy moore and hes found a way to do it without stepping in the state. In case you missed it. He is expected to hold a Campaign Rally one week from today in pensacola, florida, thats four days before alabamas special election, the last time i checked, pensacola, florida, not in alabama. In case you had missed is, pensacola is so close to the border of alabama it shares the same media market as mobile, that means all local News Coverage of the president s rally will reach alabamas fourth largest city. The affiliate is in mobile. When im watching the mobile affiliate t. White house said earlier this week the president is not planning any trip to alabama to campaign for roy moore. So while thats technically true, its just barely true. The reality is the president is apparently campaigning for him in the air waves of alabama. Thats all for tonight. Well be back tomorrow with more. We wont be back until monday, sunday with meet the press. The beat with ari melbourne starts right now. Its all yours. Thank you, todd. This is december 1st, december 1st, 2017. Can you mark it down. This is the day that everything changed in the russia probe. This is the first time a former white house official has pled guilty to a russiarelated crime. Former National Security adviser, mike flynn admits he lied about russia and he will cooperate. Its a bombshell coming on d