Investigation came in early march. During negotiations over a possible interview between donald trump and bob mueller. And it was in early march that we learned about the first signs of problems on trumps legal team. On march 10th, the New York Times reported that trump had approached bill clintons impeachment lawyer, emmitt flood. The president responded to that news account with a tweet slamming the paper and praising his own attorneys, john dowd, thai bob, and jay sekulow. Dowd, the main counsel handling the Mueller Investigation, left the legal team later in march. A friend of donald trump told the Washington Post that dowd was frustrated when the president ignored his advice to refuse an interview with the special counsel. The president has repeatedly expressed his willingness to talk to mueller. Mr. President , will you testify to special counsel robert mueller, sir . I would like to. Are you going to talk to mueller . Im looking forward to it, actually. But i would do it under oath would you be willing to speak under oath, to give your version of events . 100 . And tonight former u. S. Attorney joe digenova, who agreed to join trumps team then had to drop out due to conflicts, had this to say about muellers efforts to interview the president and about the Deputy Attorney general supervising the investigation. Lets say this, first of all, about Rod Rosenstein. His conduct from the beginning of this has been a disgrace. Legally and every other way. He is an embarrassment to the administration. It is truly too bad that he cannot be fired. Now we are told that mueller wants to interview the president of the United States, who knows nothing, who has been a witness to nothing, who is not a target of the investigation. The president should not agree to an interview. The president should at the most answer written questions in a very limited area, and he should never, ever be interviewed. Too bad about those conflicts, those two seem like a match made in heaven. With us tonight carol leonnig, political investigations reporter for the Washington Post. Jeremy bash, former chief of staff for the cia and pentagon, former counsel to the house intelligence committee. Chuck rosenberg, former u. S. Attorney and former senior fbi official. All three msnbc contributors. Let me start with you, chuck. Because you and i havent spoken since carols bombshell report with her colleague robert costa, dropped a little more than 24 hours ago. But i want to ask you about this notion that people aligned with the president are saying publicly and privately, john dowd who was the president s lawyer reportedly left in part over a disagreement about this, that no one even on the president s side thinks that the president can be trusted to survive an interview with bob mueller. Well, nicole, he can be he can survive it if he tells the truth. I mean, at least i guess the point is nobody thinks hes capable of telling the truth. Well he seems to have struggled with that in the past. This is not a place where you walk in and make stuff up. For a whole bunch of reasons. Including the fact that if you happen to be under oath, it can be perjury. And even if youre not under oath, nicole, you could be guilty of a different felony, making false statements to the fbi in the course of their investigation. So i could understand why some people wouldnt want their client going in under those circumstances, and frankly, this is a hard call for good attorneys when they have clients who are cooperative and listening. And that does not seem to be the case here. Chuck, let me ask you about something you and i have talked about off of television. Let me put you on the spot on television. Just because somebody is a subject at one hour doesnt mean that their status couldnt change and they couldnt become a target at another hour. Is there some concern that theres something that could transpire in the course of an interview that could change the president s status . Well, sure. So he could admit truthfully, which seems unlikely, his role in certain events, including an obstruction of justice. Or you can just become a target having been a subject because the prosecutors and investigators learn more about you as time rolls on. These are all categories in which and in which people do and can shift. The fact that youre a subject one day, nicole, certainly doesnt mean you cant be a target the next. That can come out of your own mouth or it can come out of the mouth of other witnesses. Jeremy bash, let me read you something a former federal prosecutor told me today. He said, muellers report, which in legal circles seemed to be in carols piece, which was chock full of bombshells, seemed to be the one that more former doj officials, former prosecutors, were talking about today. The revelation that bob mueller will deliver a report about the president s conduct in office, potentially about obstruction of justice. This former federal prosecutor said to me, muellers report doesnt preclude mueller from indicting literally everyone else around the president , but trump will be dealt with just like ken starr dealt with president clinton. The report puts the impeachment process in motion. Do you agree with that assessment . Absolutely, nicole. I think a report from a special counsel is, in effect, a roadmap for impeachment and removal from office. And that does not in any way prohibit the special counsel from bringing criminal charges against an array of other individuals close to the president. I think, you know, for several months now weve sort of been thinking about a report as potentially a private report, that maybe only Rod Rosenstein would see. I think the reality is if the president is a subject of a criminal investigation, if his conduct is being investigated by bob mueller, and bob mueller comes out with a comprehensive, narrative report, then i think Rod Rosenstein is going to come under a tremendous amount of pressure to not only share it with congress but share it with the american people. Carol leonnig, congratulations on this report. I spoke to your colleague robert costa on our program at 4 00 today. I want to ask you about, you had very Detailed Analysis from what seemed like people in the know. Former u. S. Attorneys with very nuanced analysis of what the decision to interview witnesses, not in front of the grand jury, might mean and about whether it was bob muellers intention to present the obstruction of justice case in the form of a report where it pertained to the president all along. Can you flesh out that legal theory for us a little bit tonight . So weve talked to a lot of people over the last several months, really, about the issue of a report. And i have to say, nicole, its been one of these vexing qualities of reporting where you have not enough to report, you think youre on to something, you keep hearing the word report, and you just dont know whether or not its real or not, or if its gossip or scattershot. In this instance, we felt that we had enough people who were hearing it from muellers own lips or from the lips of people on his team that there was a plan to write a report about specifically the president s actions and alleged obstruction of justice. And back to your question about the legal sort of standards here, most of the legal experts weve spoken to, including u. S. Attorneys, strongly doubt that mueller will charge a sitting president with a crime, if he ever were to have evidence of such a crime. That he will be guided instead by Justice Department office of Legal Counsel opinions, both in 1973 and in 2000, which say that a sitting president is immune from prosecution, criminal prosecution, and that mueller, if he finds evidence that rises to the level of criminal prosecution, or even is just incredibly worrisome, will put all of that in a report and will ultimately kick this to the political process. The other branch of government to handle. Because the Justice Department, again, under this legal finding, is not able to prosecute a sitting president. Chuck rosenberg, let me ask you about that sound that we played at the top of the show. That was joe digenova. He was a candidate to be added to the president s legal team about the time that if you sort of wind back the clock based on carol and robert acostas reporting, it would be about the time john dowd would have informed the president he learned from the special counsel that he was a subject, not simply a witness, in the investigation. Could we unpack some of the reasons that we now become pretty clear why mr. Digenova, and his wife, who represents mark corallo, a onetime spokesperson for the president s legal team, who walked out the door, said he would have nothing to do with the team after he thought there was a directive from hope hicks and perhaps higher up to lie, to craft a statement aboard air force one that amounted to a lie about don jr. s meetings with russians. And i ask you this because carols reporting brings the obstruction of justice case back into the spotlight. We talk alternatively about the collusion case and the obstruction of justice case. Watching that clip with joe digenova, we know what kind of approach he would have taken. If you could speak to the president being a subject and the president not able to be represented by someone who represents potentially a witness in the investigation of the president perhaps obstructing justice. Right, it seems to be a classic conflict, nicole. A single lawyer cant represent two people who might have opposing interests or opposing views in the same matter. If theyre representing mark corallo, and they appear to be and mark turns out to be a witness against the president , then digenova should not also be representing the president. Hes getting information from two people that would be contradictory and conflicting. And so clear conflict. I think it makes good sense that mr. Digenova is not in the case anymore based on what i heard him say in that clip. It seems like the type of attorney that the president might like to have on his side. That said, he cant. Its a conflict, and he has to just represent one person. And jeremy, it he seems to be working his own way around those conflicts by giving the president advice where he knows hell have the president s undivided attention, on fox news. But i traveled back in time because another thing that happened during this period where we know thanks to carols reporting he was learning that he was a subject of the investigation was that they reached out to ted olson. Ted olson, a highly regarded figure not just in conservative legal circles but across the ideological spectrum. Ted olson its my understanding said he would have nothing to do with representing donald trump. Hes since appeared on this network saying theres too much chaos for this to be good for anyone. But it just illustrates the schizophrenia to have talked to joe digenova one day and ted olson the next, and to be incapable of recruiting either man onto his team, speaks to the ongoing problem of the president really having a oneman legal operation. Yeah, and the president s going to need some legal heft here. If he tries to oppose bob muellers request for an interview, bob mueller could go to the grand jury and get a subpoena for the president to testify. I think what would ensue would be essentially a legal battle between the department of justice and the special counsel and the president s legal team over when and where the president will be required to give testimony. Of course in the clintonken starr investigation, they ended up doing it in the white house, there was closed circuit television. I think this would be a running gun battle, a legal battle between the jay sekulows of the world and bob mueller. I put my money on bob mueller. I think the trump team may have thought they might have had to take this all the way to the supreme court, which is why they might need to find an appellate lawyer like ted olson, but of course ted olson said no. We heard from sally yates tonight, interviewed by our friend matt apuzzo at georgetown law school. Lets listen to that and talk about this on the other side. I think it would be a huge problem for our country if he fired director mueller. Were not talking about some tangential issue here. Were talking about the issue as to a foreign adversarys attack on our democracy. And who was involved in that, if anyone, in the Trump Campaign or the president himself. You know, those are issues we need to get to the bottom of. Do you have any sense, carol leonnig, from your reporting and really taking our knowledge as a viewing public to the next level and understanding that the president is not merely a witness in the russia investigation, or the obstruction of justice probe, he is a subject, which is not as bad as being a target, but he is a subject. Do you have any sense of the president s state of mind or the people closest to him when it comes to bob muellers status . We heard joe digenova say basically theyre stuck with rosenstein, they cant fire him, but they do call him a disgrace, and the president himself has attacked bob mueller on twitter, an uptick of outcries since your reporting or perhaps since they became aware of it. Whats your sense of sort of the state of mind of the president and his legal team visavis rosenstein and mueller . So the president s frustration level has been, you know, kind of like a roller coaster for the last 14 months. Up very high, spiking, taking a break, spiking again. His frustration according to the people close to him and even some of his advisers, legal advisers, is that how can i be president when every single headline every week is about whether or not i am legitimately the president . Whether or not the russians essentially inserted me into the white house because of their efforts to interfere in this election . I dont think im overstating his level of anger at the idea that hes an illegitimate candidate. He hates that notion and finds it infuriating. Because he doesnt believe he did collude with the russians. Whether or not any of his campaign allies did, they clearly had a lot of contact with some interesting russians. Whether or not they were engaged in a conspiracy to defraud our government, well see. But what we have reported over the last several months makes clear that the president still views this investigation itself as illegitimate and has said privately to his aides that he wishes he could fire rosenstein, that he wishes he could fire mueller, he wishes this would end. I think it was in february, you must forgive me on my memory of the dates, last night feels like last year. Its been a blur for you, im sure. But if my memory serves, in february the president was speaking about maybe it was january the nunes memo. Again, if anyone remembers that. He was discussing the nunes memo as something that would soften the ground and make it possible to have people realize that rosenstein was doing a terrible job managing the Justice Department and the fbi and probably needed to go. So again, is he obstructing justice . Or has he just lost his composure about an investigation he thinks is unfair . Were over time. Im going to break some rules just to fill in, let check rosenberg try to answer that question real question, youve got 60 seconds. Hard question to answer, im not sure im going to need all of that time. Look, as carols reporting has been great, i think were seeing the president s concerns bubbling to the surface. Whether or not that constitutes obstruction, gives us some evidence of his state of mind. Perhaps, but i think it really remains to be determined. Im as curious as anyone else to see where it goes from here, nicole. Thank you for that. Im going to give jeremy bash your last 30 seconds, go. I think there is a conspiracy to meet with russians, to talk to them, and to plan to get dirt on hillary clinton. Thats been established in multiple ways. I think the only real question is, did the president know about it . And i think the idea that don jr. Held this meeting and didnt tell his father about it, i think really strains credulity. Youre all so amaze, you got me in trouble. Caroline and jeremy bash and chuck rosenberg, thank you so much. Coming up, donald trump unleashed, now delivering on his iconic goto stump lines from the campaign trail but finding its not as easy as he thinks. Speaking of which, here comes his nextbest option to the wall, troops on the southern border, as soon as tonight. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a wednesday night. Oh, look. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, working, just like it should we use our phones the same way these days. So why do we pay to have a phone connected when were already paying for internet . Shouldnt it all just be one thing . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You can get up to 5 lines of talk and text included at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how you could save 400 or more a year. Plus, for a limited time, get a 250 prepaid card when you buy any new samsung. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network designed to save you money. Click, call, or visit an xfinity store today. As far as syrias concerned, our primary mission in terms of that was getting rid of isis. Weve almost completed that task. And well be making a decision very quickly, in coordination with others in the area, as to what well do. Youre inclined to pull the troops out . I want to get out, i want to bring our troops back home, i want to start rebuilding our nation. That was President Trump on tuesday saying he wants u. S. Troops out of syria. But today the white house said the United States would remain in syria despite those remarks. And nbc news reports President Trump reluctantly agreed in a meeting with his National Security team tuesday to keep u. S. Troops in syria for an undetermined period of time to defeat isis. One Senior Administration official said, he wasnt thrilled about it to say the least. This as the Washington Post tonight, a new report on Trumps Campaign promises running into difficulties. The report says trump is returning to gutlevel basics that got him elected, but at every front he has faced resistance from within his own coalition. Immigration hawks have been infuriated by his inability to build the border wall. Many military leaders and Foreign Policy strategists have been alarmed by his promise to remove troops from syria. And republicans on capitol hill have protested the rising signs of a trade war with china. Joining us, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times peter baker, and anita kumar, White House Correspondent for mcclatchy newspapers. Peter, lets start first with this news today that there was a real struggle with the president , that the National Security team usually what reporters like yourself who cover white houses like the one in which i worked unearth is that theres a divide within a president s National Security team. What was reported today by nbc news and others is that the struggle was between the National Security team and the president. And they had to convince him about the strategic importance and the National Security imperatives of leaving troops in syria. So pretty stunning turn of events. Well, it is, youre right. It is striking, absolutely. Its in keeping with things weve keen now for 14, 15 months in which the president has tried to reconcile his Campaign Promises with the advice hes getting from the National Security team hes put around him. Look back at the afghanistan decision, whether to put troops keep troops there or not, whether to put more troops there. Look at the decision as to whether or not to cancel the iran nuclear deal. His staff tried to find ways to push that off. That still may happen. But for the moment theyve kept him from making what they thought would be a precipitous decision. Look at his promise to cancel nafta. They convinced him to negotiate instead. They have moderated some of the tariff threats that he made on steel and aluminum, for instance. So the syria thing youre seeing is part of a larger duality we have detected. We talked about that on your earlier program today, between the president and his National Security staff. Russia being the obvious other example. And its a question of how long that can continue. Whether john bolton now coming in as his National Security adviser will be more in touch with the president and more able to execute the vision that the president has articulated, even if his own National Security staff doesnt agree with it. Nina, i guess the contradiction between donald trump, whos so attracted to the alpha aspects of the job, being undermined, what he wants to do as commander in chief was overruled, he was backed down from his Public Statement as i guess a quad lat, he made those comments in the east room in response to a question from Steve Holland from reuters about syria. Not 24 hours later, his National Security team had backed him down from something hed already announced publicly. How sustainable is it for the president to be undermined by the reality and the impossibility of that which he states publicly . Right. I mean, i think were going to see this continuing to happen. Youre talking about the Washington Post was talking about him unleashed. I mean, the more hes confident and emboldened to kind of say what he wants to do and just talk about it without consulting people, without having a real discussion about it, were going to see this happen over and over again. We saw that a lot this week with immigration. Hes been tweeting about it for three days. And its clear that the staff was not ready for whatever plan he had, if he had a plan. Now suddenly here we are talking about sending the National Guard to the border. And clearly they were not ready for that and they didnt have that in place. So, you know, its only hurting him, his own, you know, staff, and undermining exactly what he does want to do. So i dont know how sustainable it is but i think were going to continue to see it happen. And peter, just another example i think today. We know the president likes to watch cable news. When the president launches a what sounds like and looks like to the markets a trade war, even fox news watches the market tumble. Larry kudlow went out and spoke to our own Kristen Welker and tried to clean up the president s remarks on that. Lets watch and talk about it. Is it possible that these stiff new tariffs against china are, in fact, a negotiating tactic and wont go into effect . Yes, its possible. Its part of the process. I mean, i would take the president seriously on this there are carrots and sticks in life. But he is ultimately a free trader. He said that to me, he said it publicly. So he wants to solve this with the least amount of pain. Peter baker, im sure someone on twitter will fact check me but i have never heard donald trump say i am a free trader, have you . Well, he says from time to time, i believe in free trade. But it has to be reciprocal trade. He always qualifies it. Thats not what larry kudlow said, larry kudlow said, he is a free trader. And the Republican Party used to be for free trade but donald trump isnt. The truth is with donald trump you can probably find him saying a lot of Different Things on almost any different issue and point to that particular moment. The most consistent thing he has said, of course, is the free trade agreements of the last quarter century or so have been bad for the country, have been poorly negotiated, and that he plans to rip them up or change them to the benefit of the United States. Not exactly the message that larry kudlow was sending today. Larry kudlow was trying to reassure our trading partners, trying to tamp down the idea this is going to be kind of a global conflict over trade. And theres something to kristens question which goes back to what we were just saying. Is his talk about ripping up the iran deal, ripping up nafta, pulling out of syria, how much of this is intentionally maximized in order to gain advantage in negotiation in which his Good Cop Bad Cop staff pulls him back from some seemingly extreme version of events to something more tenable that the allies and other partners have to meet him more in the middle . Thats an interesting question that i dont know we really have a good answer to. Anita, ill ask you to answer this. How much of this is ill throw out a bushera word, strategery . Donald trump feeds the base soothing message of im for protectionism, im against trade, which is exactly what a lot of his workingclass base wants to hear. When the republicans on capitol hill lose their mind, larry kudlow comes out, when the markets lose their minds, comes out, tries to soothe the waters. Whos donald trump going to side with . Hes trying to soothe the waters but donald trump hasnt backed down on the tariffs at all, we just havent heard that from him. I really believe he believes some of these things. He made these promises and talking to people that are close to him, talking to people in the white house, theres nothing more important to him than keeping those promises, or at least looking like hes keeping those promises. He said hed do these things, he wants to do them. So yeah, he is appealing to his base and he wants to do that. And you know, its more i think just saying that he can do these things, i mean the dhs secretary was at the white house today and said something so interesting talking about this situation at the border, she said, if we knock down a piece of the wall or the security, Border Security thats already there and, build something new there, thats Donald Trumps wall, and he delivered on his campaign promise. So, i mean, theyre doing what they need to do to fulfill some of those promises. Just making things true. One day at a time. Peter baker and anita kumar keeping track of all of it for us, thank you so much. A member of the Senate Judiciary committee joins us next to discuss what that Mueller Report on the president s conduct in office could mean for President Trump and whether it might represent the early phase of a potential impeachment process. The 11th hour back after this. 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. You may need glasses though. Yeah. Schedule a complimentary goal Planning Session today with td ameritrade. More now on what were learning about a pending report from the special counsels office. An opinion piece in todays Washington Post by greg sargent highlights its importance writing, mueller is planning a report on trumps conduct, particularly as it relates to actions on his part that could constitute obstruction of justice. The piece then poses this question, will muellers findings ever get released in some form . Most likely yes, but there are some very unpleasant scenarios that could intervene, including the very real possibility that Congressional Republicans will do all they can to keep muellers report under wraps. In the end, the information will land in the house and Senate Judiciary committees. Senator mazie hirono, democrat from hawaii. Thank you so much i was going to say, for staying up with us, but its not so late for you. Thank you for being with us. Let me ask you first about this Washington Post report and about the revelation in that report that bob mueller does plan on producing and delivering a report on the president s conduct in office. How concerned are you that that could contain details of the president obstructing justice . Well, id like to know whether the president obstructed justice. Id like to know what the russians did and continue to do to interfere with our elections. Id like to know what the President Trump and his team had to do with the russian efforts. I would like to know all these things and i think the public deserves to know whats in the Mueller Report once he issues it and once his investigation is completed. If you look at the recent history of at least one committee, im thinking of the house intel committee, theyve essentially functioned as a political arm for the president , releasing their memo on the russia investigation over the grave concerns of the president s own appointee, the director of the fbi, christopher wray. What is your degree of concern about whether or not youll be able to see the report and whether or not youll be able to share bob muellers findings with the public . Well, i certainly will be among those who call for the public to know exactly what happened and to see the substance of the report. So my hope is that, in the Judiciary Committee that chuck grassley, our chairman, would be just as concerned and would support the release of the report so that the public can know what the heck happened. H. R. Mcmaster, the president s fired National Security adviser, becomes the latest outgoing trump official to ingest some truth serum and sound a far more frightening alarm bell about russia and the fact that the russians have not paid enough of a price for their role in meddling in 2016. Do you have confidence that the president has permitted his National Security team to do the things they need to do to protect our elections . Or do you worry that testimony from the fbi director, from the head of the nsa, the remarks from h. R. Mcmaster are sort of cries for help and signals to people like yourself that we are not getting ourselves on a war footing for russias potential intervention in 2018 . I dont think we have a coherent strategy that involves the various departments that have something to do with responsibility for getting to the bottom of what the russians are doing. So that would include homeland security, the secretary of state, the department of defense. And so some of these people have come before both my Judiciary Committee, as well as the Armed Services committee. And i and others have asked, so what is your role in making sure that we have a way to prevent russia continuing to interfere with our elections . There are all kinds of, well, thats not really our piece. But they each have a piece and theres no coherent strategy to counter what the russians are doing. And this is why the Mueller Investigation is so critical to getting to the bottom of what the russians did and what the president and his team did. Of course. And bob mueller has already indicted 13 russians, ending the debate about whether or not they committed crimes in 2016. Yes. I think the president is still in denial on that score. I agree with you. Senator mazie hirono, thank you for spending time with us, were grateful. Will epa boss scott pruitt survive the growing number of scandals around him . Youll hear what the white house said about that today when the 11th hour continues. The president promised to drain the swamp. His behavior has actually seemed very swamplike. Why is the president okay with this . The president s reviewing the situation. When we have had the chance to have a deeper dialogue on it, well let you know the outcomes of that. But were currently reviewing that here at the white house. White house says President Trump is not okay with the growing list of controversies surrounding epa chief scott pruitt. Hes come under fire for renting a d. C. Apartment at a steeply discounted rate from the wife of an energy lobbyist. Pruitt said it was temporary until he found a permanent residence but the Washington Post reports tonight pruitt didnt have a fixed address for a month after he left and spent many of the following weeks traveling with his round the clock security detail. He also faces backlash after two close aides received big pay raises. Pruitt claims he had no idea. Here he was on fox news. Now if youre committed to the trump agenda, why did you go around the president and the white house and give pay raises to two staffers i did not. My staff did and i found out about it yesterday and i changed it. Both these staffers who got large pay raises are friends of yours, i believe from oklahoma . They are staffers here in the agency. Friends of yours . They serve a very important you didnt know they got these large pay raises . Not until yesterday. One of them got a pay raise of 28,000, the other 56,000. Do you know what the Median Income in this country is . No. 57,000 a year. Okay. So one of your friends got a pay raise thats the median they did not get a pay raise. They did. They did not, i stopped that yesterday. Joining us now eugene robinson, pulitzer prizewinning columnist for the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst. Charlie sykes, longtime conservative radio host, author, and msnbc contributor, and a man like myself without a country. Let me start with you, charlie sykes, im going to resist the tempt taking to say swamp, swampy, swampier, swampiest. Get in on this scott pruitt scandal. Well, you know i wont resist the temptation. Because the swamp keeps getting swampier. You know, this is a president whos surrounded himself with grifters so theres a pattern here. Theres no question that this is the kind of behavior that weve seen so common within this administration. But i suspect pruitt might survive because, number one, what hes doing so is central to the trump agenda. The president sees him as effective. Hes popular with the conservative base. Hes getting air cover from conservative media. In what alternative universe do we think that donald trump is going to hold members of his cabinet to a strict standard of ethical probity . Ive often thought if it wasnt for the russia investigation, we would be talking about the kleptocracy, the selfdealing, the nepotism, the use of government power to enrich themselves. But, you know, this is this is the new normal here in the trump swamp. Eugene, and but, you could say all those things about jeff sessions, the base loves him, hes enacting big chunks of the president s agenda, all those immigration policies that are popular with the base. I wonder if you think that tonights interview on fox news where were sure that the president saw it was sort of a dance for your life moment for epa for pruitt . Well, i think it was kind of a dance for your life move. And you know, that interview i think was not good for pruitt. Look, ed henry was really, really pressing him. And i think trump doesnt like to be embarrassed that way. Have cabinet members embarrass him. You know, on the one hand hes torn, obviously. Because on the one hand, scott pruitt is the creature from the black lagoon, so ill go to the swamp thing too. But on the other hand, he is one of the most effective members of the trump cabinet. Hes just left and right, hes gotten the epa out of the business of fighting climate change, which many people believe is an existential threat to the planet. He is working on clean water rules now. Getting rid of fuel economy standards. All this is stuff that i think is just awful and horrible, in my opinion, but it is part of the trump agenda and its what the president wants him to do and hes doing it very effectively. So i think the president will be torn. But hes not going to stand much more of that sort of thing on fox news. All right. With all those swamp references, these guys are stuck with me now till the end. Coming up, if he cant get the wall, why not send troops . The 11th hour back after this. Trust and loyalty. You and lantus. You go together, so Stay Together. Stay together with a 0 copay, youve got zero reasons to leave, and every reason to stay. Lantus is used to control high blood sugar in people with diabetes. Do not use lantus to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if youre allergic to insulin. Get medical help right away if you have a serious allergic reaction such as body rash or trouble breathing. Dont reuse needles or share insulin pens. The most common side effect is low blood sugar which can be lifethreatening. It may cause shaking, sweating, fast heartbeat, and blurred vision. Check your blood sugar levels daily. Injection site reactions may occur. Dont change your dose of insulin without talking to your doctor. Tell your doctor about all your medicines and medical conditions. Check insulin label each time you inject. Taking tzds with insulins like lantus may cause Heart Failure that can lead to death. Stay together with the lantus 0 copay. Lets Stay Together talk to your doctor or visit saveonlantus. Com. President trump signed a proclamation tonight directing the National Guard to be deployed to the southern border. This came a day after trump surprised reporter with an off the cuff announcement about military involvement, and today, Kirsten Nielsen said members of the National Guard could arrive tonight. The most interesting thing to me about the briefing was neither Sarah Huckabee sanders nor secretary nielsen would deny that the president was inspired to do this after watching fox news. Charlie, surprise or should i stop being surprised by that . We should stop being surprised by that. Hes definitely afraid of making ann coulter mad at him. For about five minutes he was trying to pretend he didnt get rolled on the wall. Then he spends the weekend with people like Steven Miller and lou dobbs and sean hannity and ann coulter gets mad at him. The one constant in this presidency, is that he does not get cross wise with his base. Theyre telling him, look, even in a presidency where nothing matters, this matters. You have to look tough. If you go all squishy on this, you will disillusion your base, there will be these former trumpers. Io s you see that playing out. Hes sitting there in the white house watching fox news, hears about these caravans, thinks he has to look tough and strong. He knows he doesnt have a wall, so now well have National Guardsmen down on the border. Eugene, from the New York Times report on this topic, while the president couched his ideas and urgent response to an onslaught at the southern border, last year, the number of Illegal Immigrants caught at the border was the lowest since 1971, said the United States border patrol. Not exactly part of the resistance. What do you make of the collision between, i dont know, the mirage or the propaganda he sees on fox news and the reality of what you would presume to be one of the most important age y agencies in the donald Trump Presidency . Those two things have not been on the same planet. Theyre not in the same reality. Look, you know, barack obama had sent mobilized the National Guard to go to the border. George w. Bush did the same thing. They did it in moments where there was particular pressure on the border. There is no such particular pressure on the border now. Its all about the wall or the lack of a wall to tell you the truth. In fact, the lack of a single foot of wall having been built other than those demonstration walls that he built in california. And hes ann coulter has been picking on him and he had to do something. Whos afraid of the big bad ann coulter. Charlie, let me get you on the record on the big story of the day, this news that bob mueller is preparing a report specifically on the president s conduct. It syncs with reporting ive heard and other organizations have heard that current and former white house staffers have been pressed specifically about the president s conduct. Do you see these efforts to shore up the trips to the border when he couldnt build the wall at the border all as an effort to gird them for what he fears may be coming down in the future fear future from bob muleer . Its certainly part of it . I know some people are imagining this is good news that the president is not a target. Theres three things you can be, you can be a target, a subject, or a witness. What we found out is that hes not a witness, he is a subject, which is close to being a suspect. Hes under investigation. We know that the special prosecutor is now going to issue a series of reports. That takes you back to the ken starr era. Ken starr did not indict bill clinton. He came one a report that led to impeachment. All of this, you know, continues to this pattern of getting closer and closer. And now the big question is, youve been talking about this all day. Will the president be so arrogant that he will sit down with bob mueller . Will he ignore his smarter lawyers and go into that situation . Because what could possibly go wrong . Let me ask you to try to answer that, eugene. Well, you know, its unclear to me that he will actually have a choice. He is the president , so he can say no. If he wont agree to sit down with bob mueller and mueller wants him, he can get a grand jury subpoena and seek to compel the president to appear. And then there could be a court battle over that, whether the president has to speak. You know, i hope it doesnt go all the way there. But mueller has a lot of cards in this fight. And so its not clear to me that the president absolutely could avoid sitting down with mueller if he really wanted to. Theres a whole lot of things there. A quick break for us. I have antivirus, but my computers still slow. Thats not right. Maybe if i reboot. Whats with all the popups . Why does it keep on crashing . This is taking forever. I think its time for the fixmestick. Fixmestick is a plugin virus removal device. Its the smart, simple, safe way to clean your computer yourself. With fixmestick you dont have to replace your computer. It helps you keep your files, and your privacy. Fixmestick reboots your computer from a system on the stick, so that it can remove the malware that got past your Antivirus Software. Its the smart, simple way to clean an infected computer, with a whole lot going on inside the stick. [computers sound] alright, this computers powered down. Lets reboot from the stick, and start scanning. Fixmestick contains 3 independent scanners, and connects to more in the cloud, for fast and effective detection of the latest threats. I thought so this one got around the Antivirus Software not a problem. Were on it. Todays viruses sabotage the computers they infect, like a burglar who gets into your house, and deactivates your security system. Once your computer is infected, its far easier to clean it with an external device. Thats what makes fixmestick so effective. Ok, i see spyware, trojans, keyloggers, and here it is, the rootkit the fixmestick is like having your own it department in the palm of your hand. And because it connects to the internet, its always up to date. Coffee were going to need some more coffee down here. Anyone, coffee . Advanced technology in an external device has enabled people all over the world to get the upper hand against viruses and malware. Try it for 30 days, and see for yourself why more than a Million People trust fixmestick to keep their computer fast, clean, and safe. Call us today or visit us online. Thats our broadcast for tonight. We hope to see you at 4 00 p. M. Eastern tomorrow right here on msnbc and back again at 11 00. Thank you for being with us. Good night from msnbc news headquarters in new york. Tonight on all in they know what is coming and it is devastating. New revelations about roger stone and possible collusion with wikileaks. Plus, the special counsel still investigating President Trump. We know what we did and what we didnt do. So none of this comes as much of a surprise. Why the white house shouldnt take a victory lap over reports the president is not a criminal target. Then we take this seriously and were looking into it and well let you know when we finish. Scott pruitt hemorrhaging reports as scandals envolope the epa team. And good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Tonight new evidence would could be the missing link between the Trump Campaign and its associates and russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. We know that the president of course, cheered russias actions out in the open promoting democrats stolen emails on the campaign trail and explicitly calling for russias help. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press