Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20180422

Post that attorney general Jeff Sessions recently told the white house he might quit if President Trump fired his deputy, rod rosenstein, whos, of course, overseeing the russia investigation. The post reports that according to people familiar with the exchange, quote, sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House Counsel Don Mcgahn last weekend, as trumps fury at rosenstein peaked after the Deputy Attorney general approved that fbi raid april 9 on the president s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. In the phone call with mcgan, sessions wanted details of a meeting trump and rosenstein held at the white house on april 12, according to a person with knowledge of the call. Sessions expressed relief to learn that their meeting was largely cordial. Sessions said he would have to have had to consider leading as the attorney general had trump ousted rosenstein, this person said. Tonights story says the president has derisively nicknamed Jeff Sessions mr. Magoo and rosenstein mr. Peepers. And about sessions, the president has been famously willing to publicly thrash his attorney general, ever since he recused himself from the russia investigation, and on the day of that raid involving trumps attorney, Michael Cohen, he went at him again. He should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself. And we would have used a put a different attorney general in. So he made what i consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country. But youll figure that out. This new reporting on sessions reminds us that President Trump is facing a number of serious legal battles that could pose a grave danger to his presidency. The fbi raid, which as the Washington Post mentioned, was approved by rod rosenstein, was part of a larger criminal investigation into Michael Cohen by federal prosecutors in new york. The Washington Post also reports tonight the former attorney for porn star, Stormy Daniels and playboy model, karen mcdougal, who were both, by the way, paid to keep quiet about their alleged affairs with donald trump, says he has been cooperating with those new york prosecutors. Its been reported that many of the president s the allies fear that case may ultimately be more damaging to him, the new york case, than even the Mueller Investigation writ large, and that some even believe that cohen might start cooperating with the feds. Earlier on this network tonight, harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, told us that that could be why trump recruited Rudolph Giuliani as counsel in the russia case. Where i think the problems may lie are in the Southern District of new york, where Rudy Giuliani used to be the United States attorney. I think this does send a powerful message to Michael Cohen. The message is, hey, stay strong. We have a really good lawyer in our team, on our team, to focus on the Southern District of new york, where your problems are. Keep in mind that Michael Cohen and his client, donald trump, are also battling a lawsuit filed by porn star, Stormy Daniels. Well, today, a federal judge in california refused to grant their request to delay that case until cohen explains just how his fifth amendment right against selfincrimination could be an issue because of the criminal investigation. Also, trump has renewed his fight against jim comey, whose memos detail the president s concern about the russia investigation and his apparent effort to get the former fbi director to drop his inquiry into then National Security adviser, michael flynn, which he denies. Today, the white house unleashed its response. What fbi director comey has done is basically decide, as he put in his own book, in the beginning, that he is driven by being prideful, driven by being overconfident, driven by his own ego. James comey has a lot of editorializing within these memos. At no point within them, and frankly in his testimony last year, before congress, both in march and in june after he was fired, does he allege that the president asked him to do anything inappropriate. When you look at james comey, he has a real credibility problem. And the Democratic National committee has launched a surprise legal attack on the president , filing a multimilliondollar lawsuit in federal court, alleging it, the dnc, was the victim of a conspiracy by the trump campaign, russian officials, and wikileaks to disrupt Hillary Clintons campaign in favor of donald trump. Its a lot to talk about. We have the people for it. Lets bring in our leadoff panel for a friday night. Matt apuzzo, New York Times reporter, msnbc contributor, and a man who was just awarded his second pulitzer prize. Vivian slamama, nbc news political reporter covering the white house, and daniel goldman, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. And since there are home Team Advantages around here, counselor, you get to go first. What does this report in the Washington Post about sessions mean to you . It really demonstrates the gravity of what would happen if rosenstein is fired. Jeff sessions has been under attack by his tone president , by the commander in chief, by the head of the executive branch since the very beginning of his tenure, as we heard in the clip you played earlier. Yet he has withstood all of the humiliation, all of the embarrassing attacks, and he has remained in his position. He has not resigned. And hes even ruled contrary to some things that trump wanted, such as appointing another special counsel. So this when people ask, what will a constitutional crisis look like, this starts to give some indication that if Jeff Sessions is willing to resign over rosensteins firing, one can only imagine what else will follow, if that occurs. Some people on social media tonight instantly said, well, this is a huge favor to the president , who wants rosenstein and sessions gone together, though cooler heads have said, what the president doesnt want is what this will do to the Justice Department and confirmation hearings that will necessarily come along. Not only the confirmation hearings, but the reaction is going to be vociferous, both from the democrats, obviously, but also the republicans. And it is going to grind everything to a halt in washington, generally. And it is going to prolong this investigation. It is not going to end it any sooner, if he does that. Let me ask you a decidedly uncomfortable question about Alan Dershowitz. Here it is. On another network, as they say, theres been an ongoing tv drama between jeff to obin and mr. Dershowitz. He has accused mr. Dershowitz of carrying mr. Trumps water on a lot of tv appearances. What we just saw mr. Dershowitz do could be construed as a message to Michael Cohen, hang on, the cavalrys coming. This is why we hired rudy. Number one, do you believe thats whats going on . And number two, does rudy have that much charm in the Southern District of new york to derail an investigation like this . I think Alan Dershowitz has some legitimate points, but i think he goes too far in many of the things that he says. By saying that everything is criminalized if you want to find it is wrong. Its flatout wrong. I dont know that Alan Dershowitz is trying to send a message to Michael Cohen or otherwise. I think the better message might have been the Scooter Libby pardon, that if you stick around, ill take care of you, like i did with Scooter Libby. But at the end of the day, the Southern District of new york is going to go forward with their investigation and theyre going to follow it to the end. Rudy giuliani is, obviously, a very wellrespected former u. S. Attorney there. But when i was there, i dealt with former u. S. Attorneys. I dealt with former executives and once you leave the government, youre on the defense side, youre no different than anyone else. So, either mueller or the Southern District. Theyre going to finish their investigation and Rudy Giuliani may be able to negotiate some agreement, as to an interview or something, but hes not going to be able to make the investigation evaporate. Fair enough. And thank you for the honest answer. Hey, vivian, how does this look, this sessions matter specifically, politically, within the Trump White House . Reporter well, obviously, sessions has been under fire since day one and, so he has recused himself from the russia investigation. This is something that has gotten really under the skin of the president. He has repeatedly expressed his frustration. You just showed one of many clips where he did that. But, obviously, when Jeff Sessions pushes back on these issues and if theres an incident where he says this compromises my integrity as an attorney, as a prosecutor, as the attorney general and i might have to quit as well, obviously, that just adds to this cloud that is hanging over the white house, with regard to this russia investigation, where they are trying so hard to kind of carve some sort of a positive spin on this whole situation and unfortunately, its not really worked out for them. Theyve tried very hard to make this look like comey, for example, is leaking information. And you have the Michael Cohen situation right now. You have the situation with Robert Muellers investigation, where they assert that its a witch hunt and that they are being framed for all of these things. When you have Jeff Sessions coming out and saying that he will actually step away, too, it really compromises everything that the white house is trying to achieve in terms of trying to make it look like this is not a legitimate investigation. So it really it was really a startling revelation of something that plays well to Jeff Sessions in this whole entire episode. Mr. Apuzzo, where does mr. Cohen, as we head into a weekend, where does he stand legally and whats the anxiety level among intimates of the president , as far as how much trouble he may be in, but perhaps worse, how much trouble he could represent for the president . Sure. You know, we could we could get a sense of the seriousness here from the Court Hearings and from the filings. The search warrant on cohens offices, his safe deposit box, his computers, his phones, theyre looking for evidence of fraud, Campaign Finance violations, and theyre relatively far along in their investigation. So i think its pretty clear to say, this is a serious investigation. Obviously, there are people around the president , around mr. Cohen, who expect that this will ultimately lead to some sort of charges. And there is a growing sense around, you know, around trump world that cohen represents a threat. Because this is a guy who has always said, ill take a bullet for the president. I guess its sort of easy to say that in the abstract, but when the Justice Department the the one pointing the gun, do you really want to take the bullet. My colleagues have an interesting story out tonight saying you know, over the years cohen did try to serve as this fixer and body man for the president , but the president really didnt treat him all that great. And would berate him or threaten to fire phim. So i think the question now is, for a question that has always really put a premium on loyalty, how much loyalty has he engendered in Michael Cohen. Does Michael Cohen going to really be loyal to the president if a threat of indictment or a threat of serious charges comes down, or even just the threat of a long and protracted court fight that has the potential to bankrupt just about anyone. Daniel, something we just kind of skimmed by at the top of the broadcast seems to me could be more important than just a brief mention. The former attorney for miss mcdougal, former playmate turned model for Stormy Daniels, adult film star, is now working for the government. Its been reported tonight, he was unhappy to learn that potential recordings of his phone calls with Michael Cohen were vacuumed up in this fbi raid. Now, how damaging hes not one of the larger figures in this investigation, but how damaging might just that, flipping that one person, be . Well, i think what i read is that hes cooperating by giving documents and materials. And what i expect them to be looking for is his communications with Michael Cohen and with ami, who was the one who entered into the nondisclosure agreement with karen mcdougal. And what the rural routes apros looking for was to see if there was any, for lack of a better word, collusion between Michael Cohen and ami, to make these payments. Because now, once you have two or three, theres also the payment to trumps doorman from ami, and you have multiple payments right on the precipice of the election, now that starts to look like a conspiracy to violate the Campaign Finance laws and its a stronger case when you have multiple examples of that, than just the one that weve known about with Stormy Daniels. And for the folks wondering how that could be illegal, isnt the point that its at some point, the allegation is that its a de facto donation meant to change the course of an election. Right. The term is in kind. If Michael Cohen actually did pay 130,000, that would be an inkind contribution to the campaign, if the government can connect that payment to the campaign itself. And that the reason for the hush agreement is to avoid the negative publicity in advance of the election. Ami as a corporation has different rules, but it would be further evidence that that was the purpose for the Stormy Daniels payment. And Michael Cohen could be on the hook for Campaign Finance violations, if thats the case. So theres also cooperation and theres cooperation. And apparently the latter case is turning over documents and materials. Vivian, last night, the view was, who among the republicans in the house, perhaps, thought the comey memos were going to be exculpatory for the president , because at first blush, they did not read like that. I want to play for you what joe dee engi digenova said about the comey memos. Well talk about it on the other side. I dont think that theres any doubt that these 15 pages of james comeys notes constitute a suicide note. He has deceived congress as a result of the substance in this memoranda. He has deceived the american people. And i must say, he has deluded himself. It is quite obvious that the president is an incidenocent ma. And look at the time, vivian, here we are 11 15 eastern time, youre holding up your phone, im going to read it off a piece of paper from donald j. Trump. James comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a special council, misspelled. Therefore, the special council misspelled was established based on an illegal act . Really, does everybody know what that means . Vivian, you get to explain. Brian, we see the pattern here. And the sound bite you just played really shows the defense that the white house and President Trumps lawyers are going to take in terms of basically james comey did something illegal in their mind. And so as a result of it, the special counsel is relying on illegally leaked documents and information. And so it is legitimate. And this is basically their efforts to really establish the fact that this is what they call, and weve heard many times, quote unquote, a witch hunt. And this is something that is not has no basis for any legitimate accusations against the president. And so, obviously, this is weighing very heavily on his mind. Here we are at 11 17 at night, eastern time. The president is in florida and this is something that is weighing heavily on his mind right now and always. And ever since we saw it in the last couple of days, obviously, because jim comey released his book and has been doing a number of interviews. But even, especially last week, when Michael Cohens offices and home were raided by the fbi and suddenly, all of these communications with donald trump, the Attorney Client privilege, as hes put it out there, was vulnerable. It was out there for the world. So donald trump is very, very nervous right now about what that means for him. This is a president who in his past life relied very heavily on nondisclosure agreements in terms of the way he did business in general. So suddenly all of these kmupgs communications, these socalled private communications are vulnerable. Four threats to the president and presidency, mueller, cohen, comey, stormy. Any one of those names chief among equals . I would have to rank them. I wouldnt put stormy up near the top. Although the wrinkle to that is for cohen, it becomes a problem, because if you are facing the possibility of a criminal investigation, the last place you want to be is in civil court. So, i cant imagine cohen, we saw that he dropped that his liable lawsuits against buzzfeed. You know, we see that he wants a delay in the Stormy Daniels case. The last place that cohen wants to be is in a civil courtroom when he has the possibility of a criminal case going on. So those two kind of go together. I mean, look, mueller is still mueller is still the special counsel counsel. Yeah. We still dont know what he has up his sleeve. He has the ability to pull intelligence from all corners of the federal government and intelligence agencies. Thats where the jourt of major attention is still focused. Hopefully we get some resolution and were all sort of wiser for it. Its been a long year for us. Speaking of wiser for it, that, ladies and gentlemen, is a twotime pulitzer recipient. Matt apewza, vivian salama, thank you. Coming up, the breaking news, what it could mean for trumps upcoming meeting with kim jongun. And later, its always been important for donald trump to be called a rich guy. As important as it is today as it was 30 years ago and there are tapes to back that up. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a friday night. Was enlightening. You dont like my lasagna . No, its good. Hmm. Oh. Huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. Blow on it. You see it, right . Is there a draft in here . Im telling you, its so easy to get Home Insurance on progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents. But we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. North korea announced tonight that that country has suspended nuclear and longrange missile tests and that it will also shut down its Nuclear Test Site. Its a development of note in whats been an extremely tense situation ahead of those planned negotiations between the Trump Administration and pyongyang. President trump wrote on twitter these words, quote, north korea has agreed to suspend all Nuclear Tests and close up a major test site. This is very good news for north korea and the world. Big progress. Look forward to our summit. Here to talk about it, joe cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund and author of Nuclear Nightmares securing the world before it is too late. A book we thought might be appropriate to put on the screen. And jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon, hes also an msnbc National Security analyst. Joe, im trying to not be naive when i ask, who believes the north is going to denuclearize because we ask them to . Were a long way from denuclearization, and if donald trump thinks hes going to go to the summit and come back with kim jonguns Nuclear Weapons in the cargo hold of air force one, hes delusional. But the arrows are starting to point in the right direction with todays announcements, the odds went up that the summit will happen at all, and the odds went up that it might be a successful summit. What does kim want . Kim wants this summit to happen. He wants the validation, the legitimacy that will be conveyed by him meeting with the president of the United States. So he is throwing out a lot of carrots to donald trump to convince him to come. And in the process, hes making some gains for us and u. S. National security. Hes agreed to end longrange Nuclear Weapons tests, longrange missile tests, Nuclear Tests, shut the nuclear site. Is this good . This is great. Is it reversible . Yes. But if you want somebody to denuclearize, the first thing you have to do is stop them from Going Forward, and thats partially what happened today. That part you said about their craving validation, donald trump has given them that tenfold in discussing him so much, in talking about him, even in giving him a derisive nickname, it kept him in the discussion. Thats right, but those nicknames, were a long way from dotard and rocket man now. You saw President Trumps tweet today. It was respectful. It was diplomatic. We see a diplomatic process going. Kim jongun is a lot smarter than he looks. Hes driving this brilliantly. Hes got a summit for the first time with the south korean president next week, a week from tonight. This is all Building Momentum that may be irresistible for the president of the United States. Hey, jeremy bash, as they say, we have this just in to us from maralago. Big night there, and you would think someones watching tv. From the twitter account, this just came out a minute ago. A message from kim jongun. North korea will stop Nuclear Tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, also will shut down a Nuclear Test Site in the countrys northern side to prove the vow to suspend Nuclear Tests. Progress being made for all. Jeremy, your turn. Well, nobodys smarter than joe on these issues and i agree with his overall take. I think there are reasons, though, even though were on the right track, the diplomatic track, to drive under a yellow caution flag. First of all, the north korean dictator is not giving up his Nuclear Weapons. Hes merely saying, i have enough testing data, i have all of my weapons. I may even have the ability to deliver to the United States. We dont know that for certain. And, therefore, i dont need to do further testing in order to maintain my deterrent capability. I agree with joe. Were a long way away from the end result we all need, which is effectively north korea dismantling its Nuclear Program. Second is the North Koreans have made these promises in the past, and Everybody Knows that in the mid2000s they made similar promises to get rid of their program. They cheated and proceeded along a very dangerous path. And third, i worry about the way the summit is being set up here, brian, kim jongun has grabbed the initiative. Hes going to put us on the defensive, demand concessions from us, and if were not willing to make them, then we look like were not Going Forward with the diplomatic track. Joe, if i asked you to make a case that sanctions are working and that the hidden driver of a lot of this is that sanctions are working, how would you make that case . Theres no question that this north korean economy has been hurt by these sanctions, but it hasnt stopped him from making these tests. He did more tests last year than his father and grandfather combined, both nuclear and missile. But heres what kim said today in the announcement of this, that now is the time to turn from the Nuclear Program. He says, weve completed it and turn to the construction of the socialist economy. Thats what he wants to do. To do that, he needs to have normalized relations with the United States. He needs to have investment from south korea and japan. He needs to open up to the world, and thats what he wants. Thats what he wants from the summit. So if were going to give that to him in part, what are we going to get . What are we going to get in addition to what he did today . Can we actually not just stop the Nuclear Program but start to drive it in reverse . This is going to be a step by step process. Its going to take a long time to negotiate this. And even longer to verify that its actually happen ing. Im also thinking of another friend of ours and thats barry mccaffrey, who routinely calls north korea a third rate nation, a third rate military. I heard an author and expert this week theorize that kim jongun may fight geneva as a site for the summit solely because theres no guarantee any of the aircraft kim would use can make it all the way there without refueling. It kind of underscores that they have been living behind a curtain, a lot of it unknown to us, and are not at the leading edge of technology. Yeah, its a fourth world country in so many respects, brian, and we are elevating kim jongun undoubtedly by putting him next to the president of the United States. That may be troublesome. The other thing i wanted to mention, and joe knows this all too well as well. President macron from france is going to be coming here this week, and the main issue on the agenda is the iran deal. The Trump Administration is going to try to get france to pull out of the iran deal with the United States and how does it look to the world if were basically saying obamas iran deal is terrible. Its awful. We got to get rid of it, but yet this deal with north korea, its terrific. We have to embrace it. Very inconsistent messages, and something that i think will cause a very destabilizing effect in the middle east. Be brilliant in 15 seconds. Its one of the strongest arguments for keeping the iran deal. We dont trust north korea and they dont trust us. And they will trust us less if we break our word and pull out of a solemn agreement we made with the rest of the world including iran. And that, ladies and gentlemen, watching at home is why we invited these two gentlemen to discuss this topic and we will indeed have them back. Joe and jeremy, our thanks on a friday night. Coming up for us, what it means for life inside the west wing now that a key role is missing. That and more when we come back. Behr presents ordinary versus overachiever. A lot of paints say they can do the job, but just one can behr through it all. Behr premium plus, a top rated interior paint at a great price. Family friendly, disaster proof. Find it exclusively at the home depot. Previously treated withd platinumbased chemotherapy, including those with an abnormal alk or egfr gene whove tried an fdaapproved targeted therapy, who wouldnt want a chance for another. . Whod say no to a. . Who wouldnt want a chance to live longer. Opdivo nivolumab . Over 40,000 patients have been prescribed opdivo immunotherapy. Opdivo can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. This may happen during or after treatment has ended, and may become serious and lead to death. See your doctor right away if you experience new or worsening cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; diarrhea; severe stomach pain or tenderness; severe nausea or vomiting; extreme fatigue; constipation; excessive thirst or urine; swollen ankles; loss of appetite; rash; itching; headache; confusion; hallucinations; muscle or joint pain; flushing; fever; or weakness, as this may keep these problems from becoming more serious. These are not all the possible side effect of opdivo. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including immune system problems, or if youve had an organ transplant, or lung, breathing, or liver problems. A chance to live longer. Because who wouldnt want. That . Ask your doctor about opdivo. Thank you to all involved in opdivo clinical trials. We need to help more tocalifornians get ahead. D, thats why Antonio Villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools. And new Career Training programs. As mayor of la, he brought police and residents together to get illegal guns off the streets and keep kids out of gangs, and on the right path. Thats Antonio Villaraigosa. A governor for all of california. Welcome back. The president s frequent shifts on key positions, creating confusion within the administration. It was just this week u. N. Ambassador nikki haley was caught off guard after the white house walked back russian sanctions that she had announced publicly on sunday morning tv. In an article entitled trump gets lost in translation amid west wing shuffle, politico points to the staff changes as a factor for the growing confusion, writing, quote, some of the president s allies attribute the recent spate of public disconnects to the departure of loyal aides who were skilled at translating his impulses into legible stances on key issues and perhaps more importantly at keeping all the relevant white house and agency staffers in the loop on big decisions. Well, with us to talk about it tonight, we welcome to the broadcast the coauthor of that piece, nancy cook, White House Reporter for politico. Also with us, jonathan allen, Nbc News National Political reporter. We want to let you know, he is coauthor of shattered inside Hillary Clintons doomed campaign, which comes out in paperback on may 1st. Same great content, less to carry. So we welcome both of you. Nancy, how big encapsulize your reporting for us in this way. How big a moment is this right now as we speak . Well, this is a big moment of transition in the white house. Theres just a number of key top staffers that have left in the last few months, and it just means that theres fewer people to, as you said, keep people in the loop on policy decisions. And we saw that with the u. N. Sanctions. Michael anton, who is the National Security Council Spokesperson resigned. He wasnt in the loop too. Perhaps he could have kept nikki haley abreast of a very fluid decisionmaking process on the sanctions. Weve just seen a number of other people who have left. Rob porter, who was the staff secretary, who would have double this. Gary cohn, and then hope hicks, who is one of the president s trusted aides. So its just this big vacuum of people who arent necessarily there to be close to trump. And then just to keep people abreast of how fast hes changing his mind and sort of actually what is happening. Jonathan, its hard to get a straight answer and separate out the hyperbole. When you listen to some people, the state department has been hollowed out. You can roll a bowling ball down the hallways and not hit anybody. I will ask you for the effect it has had, especially with kind of president s direct acolytes now missing. Talk about the whipsaw effect, how it careens through the administration. What starts in the oval office or generally the west wing. Well, i mean number one, throughout the administration, youve got an inability for people at the agencies to know not just where the policy is headed but all the twists and turns its going to take along the way. The lack of consistency makes it harder for them to do their jobs. But in addition to that, youve got a situation on capitol hill. We all remember the president s negotiations on immigration with Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi. And then going through that, going back and forth, there were some problems already. But those problems as nancy and andrew in their piece talk about whats going on at the white house in communicating on policy, you also see that on capitol hill just in the last couple of weeks on trade policy in particular. You know, the president has a real problem right now and certainly republican candidates have a real problem with his trade policy hurting farmers. You know, our big export markets for Agricultural Products are china and mexico, and so renegotiating nafta and slapping tariffs on chinese steel and aluminum, even though they havent been implemented, youve got the threat of reciprocation from china. What youve got is a president whos trying to make these bold policy pronouncements, and then he comes back and finds out members of his own base and the legislators are concerned about what that might do to them not only substantively but also politically. Its very difficult for republican candidates running for congress to know where these trade policies are going to end up, so they end up with very mixed messages about how they support the idea of punishing china, but they understand their own constituents are going to suffer. Then the president goes out and says, hey, farmers can take this. Theyre going to bear the brunt of it, but they can take it. Then suddenly he has to have a big powwow with republican senators to try to walk it back, and he tells them he wants to do subsidies. Heres a whole new policy hes talking about. They dont want to have anything to do with it. They dont like farm subsidies. You can see how its confusing not only for the legislators but also for the candidates as they try to explain what theyre going to do to help their own constituents and, you know, the democratic strategists i talked to see a real opening, and the republican strategists i talked to are deathly afraid that the impact on farmers is going to have a real be a real problem for them in the midterms. Nancy, take that example jonathan just gave us. There are supposed to be fully staffed shops, public liaison, political liaison, legislative affairs, the white houses lobbyist on capitol hill. Theyre supposed to be up and running, but their jobs are made more difficult if every 12 minutes theres going to be a policy gyration that affects a huge swath of the american economy. Absolutely, and this whole past week was really dominated by foreign affairs. And this is at a time when the National Security council has seen a huge amount of turnover. So theres a new National Security adviser john bolton who just started. There have been four top people at the National Security council who are leaving as bolton remakes his team. He Just Announced a new deputy tonight. But as this was going on against the backdrop of this, the white house is trying to decide should they do air strikes against syria. Should they do economic sanctions. What is going to be their where are they going to meet with north korea. So theres all these huge Foreign Policy decisions that are happening as the players on the National Security council are drastically changing, and that makes the policy making really hard. Jonathan, a question i ask to like folks like you on this very broadcast, how did the trump agenda advance today . Well, the trump agenda did advance today in particular north korea as your last guests were talking about. I mean it is a step forward to see kim jongun say that hes not going to do these tests anymore, whether or not, you know, he has the data he needs and doesnt need to do the tests. Its a step forward to see him closing down the site. Look, the trump Foreign Policy with north korea is a big break from, you know, where the obama Foreign Policy was on it, and theyve been pretty consistent in this idea that they can you know, at first it felt like more brinksmanship with north korea, and they felt like ultimately that would bring kim jongun to the table. Right now hes walking toward the table. You know, its still midstory. We dont know how its going to end, but i think there are people in the trump Foreign Policy world that would, you know, would like a little bit of credit for moving things in the direction that theyve moved. Good answer. Thanks for staying up late with us on a friday night. Nancy cook, jonathan allen, our thanks. Because every so often we like to compare where we are to normal and because were preparing to cover a somber event tomorrow, we thought this friday night would be a perfect opportunity for a conversation with our friend president ial historian and author michael beschloss. So, michael, i have asked some form of this to you a number of times. I have a list here. Mueller, cohen, comey, and stormy. Just take the existence of those four. How can we compare these times to anything close to normal in your lifes work and study . Well, have you ever seen a president with this kind of legal trouble coming from all directions . You know, we used to think that Richard Nixon was the Gold Standard for that, and it was nothing like this in terms of the number of dangers from different places. And the other thing, brian, is that during nixons time, there was a general feeling you shouldnt sort of bother a president in office with legal trouble unless he had done Something Like watergate. For instance, as you well number, when nixon was enmeshed in that scandal, there was a grand jury that wanted to indict him for conspiracy to cover up the watergate burglary. They didnt feel that that was possible, so thats how he became an unindicted coconspirator. 1997 there was a case decided called clinton v. Jones which says that a president doesnt have immunity from civil litigation. So all this is sort of coming to roost with donald trump. Weve never seen a president with this kind of distraction. Michael, the president did something that actually seemed normal this week, and i want to read you the Washington Post coverage. Trump complained this week about Supreme Court justice neil m. Gorsuch, saying the judge had proved too liberal in recent cases according to Administration Officials who heard about the complaints. Associates said he was incensed that gorsuch had voted against the administration on an immigration case and it renewed his doubts that gorsuch would be a reliable conservative. Now, this is a complaint weve heard from president s. I guess my favorite case is eisenhower having appointed the great new jersey irishman, brennan, the towering liberal. Ike to his day said it was the biggest mistake he made as president. Sure was. You and i have competed for years in our knowledge of Supreme Court history and once again i defer to you. Its a great example. Finally weve got a case where donald trump has done something that there really is a history of in the presidency. Great example. Kennedy complained that byron white, whom he appointed to the court, was too conservative. Nixon complained that Harry Blackmon was too liberal. George h. W. Bush complained that david souter was a lot more liberal than he expected. Thats a thread that goes right through American History right up to donald trump. And i have to ask about this somber event you and i are going to be part of the coverage of tomorrow, and thats the memorial for barbara bush. It does, as so many departures do, it feels like a sign post. It underscores something about our times, and i want to say that in addition to their daughter, robin, barbara bush was predeceased by civility. That is absolutely true. You know, she was basically in politics for, what, 52 years from the time she first campaigned for george h. W. Bush for the senate from texas, 1964, till the time she campaigned for jeb bush in 2016. Look at how things changed in terms of civility and also the role of american women. [ drum roll ]. Emily lapier from ames, iowa. This is emilys third nomination and first win. Um. So, just. Wow um, first of all, to my fellow nominees, it is an honor sharing the road with you. And of course, to the progressive snapshot app for giving good drivers the discounts no, i have to say it for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. Safe driving im using my own money. Im not using the lobbyists. Im not using donors. I dont care. Im really rich. So i have a total net worth, and now with the increase, it will be well over 10 billion. But here, a total net worth of 8 billion. Net worth, not assets, not liabilities. A net worth after all debt, after all expenses. The greatest assets, trump tower. 1290 avenue of the americas. Bank of america building in san francisco. 40 wall street, sometimes referred to as the trump building. Many other places all over the world. So the total is 8,737,540,000. Now, im not doing that im not doing that to brag because you know what . I dont have to brag. I have a total net worth and now it is important that donald trump that he be portrayed as a rich man, a billionaire. As the first president to remerge from the world of reality television, trumps wealth and the image of a wildly successful businessman were both essential to the apprentice. And each episode ended in a mock board room, even though because he ran a family company, trump didnt have a real board of directors. All of this is in the news because of a Washington Post story quoting journalists who used to work at forbes. Reporter Jonathan Greenberg writes that trump lied to him about his wealth over 30 years ago in order to be included in the forbes 400 list. He claims in may of 84 donald trump called him pretending to be a Trump Organization official named john barron, a pseudonym trump has used before. Greenberg says, quote, when i recently rediscovered and listened for the First Time Since that year of the tapes i made of this and other phone calls, i was amazed that i didnt see through the ruse. Although trump altered some cadences and affected a slightly stronger new york accent, it was clearly him. Barron told me that trump had taken possession of the business he ran with his father, fred. Here now, a portion of that recorded conversation. Okay, whats your first name . John. John barron. Does fred trump make any Money Management decision . Oh, yeah, sure, hes the chairman. Donalds the president and fred trump is active. Hes an excellent guy. You know, theyre very close, the relationship of the two is, as youve heard or perhaps you dont know, but theyre very close. But trump is active in the business. Yeah, we have this really strange technical thing, mr. Barron, in terms of who owns, you know, who holds the equity. I mean, are you saying that perhaps for tax purposes, its been the ownership has been transferred to donald trump . Correct. Thats correct. And when you say in excess of 90 of the ownership . I would say in excess in fact, its really closer to even the ultimate, but in excess of 90 , yes. Greenberg writes that he and forbes did push back on trump at the time, but eventually he learned that trump should not have been on the first three forbes 400 lists at all. Quote, in our firstever list in 1982, we included him at 100 million. But trump was actually worth roughly 5 million, a paltry sum by the standards of says supermoneyed peers, as a spate of government reports and books showed only much later. Greenberg goes on to write, quote, it would be decades before i learned that forbes had been conned. In the early 1980s, trump had zero equity in his fathers company. According to freds will, portions of which appeared in a lawsuit, the father retained legal ownership of his residential empire until his death in 1999, at which point he left it to be divided between his four surviving children and some of his grandchildren. The white house declined to comment on greenbergs story and the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. Another break for us. And coming up, figuring out just what the president meant when the 11th hour continues. You totanobodys hurt, new car. But there will still be pain. It comes when your Insurance Company says theyll only pay threequarters of what it takes to replace it. What are you supposed to do . Drive threequarters of a car . Now if you had Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, youd get your whole car back. I guess they dont want you driving around on three wheels. Smart. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. In the 2018 lexusxus saes and es hybrid. Standard lease the 2018 es 350 for 399 month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. I just drank tons of water a proall the time, it was never enough. My dentist suggested biotene. My mouth felt more lubricated. I use the biotene rinse and then i use the spray. Biotene did make a difference. [heartbeat] im jimmy, this is my definition of fresh since 1983. Last thing before we go here tonight. Lets call them the Little Things that were still getting used to about this presidency. Take, for example, the tone and tenor, the subject manner and content and spelling of the president s tweets. And its true we really shouldnt refer to them as tweets. That diminishes what they are, which is short president ial statements. They may be, at times, illthough illthoughtout, they may be done on the fly and at all hours, but the folks at Real Press Sec bot on twitter, they may have the right idea. They present each twitter utterance by this president reformatted as a official statement by the president , laid out on letterhead as the way statements from the president used to look. The problems today were spelling errors and the wrong name. We have already this hour recorded tonights two misspellings of the word council, as in special counsel. And earlier today, you could hear english teachers all across the country saying in unison, if youre going to call the former fbi director shady james comey, spell shady corre cor without the e. It has still not been corrected. Tonight it was former congresswoman and former dnc head, Wendy Wasserman schultz. The problem with that is her name is Debbie Wasserman schultz. While it was later corrected, Maggie Haberman wondered if he was thinking of wendy waszerstein. And while we may never know, its all part of a new dnc, this stillnew world of the Trump Presidency, as yet another week in the Trump Presidency comes to an end. A week that included a statement of condolence after the death of barbara bush that was dated last year. That is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. Thank you so much for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. Alaho, everyone. Its my personal favorite holiday of the yore, 4 20. The president is in triage mode as his simmering legal battle s erupt into an allout war. Those fronts, the mueller front, the stormy front, the cohen front, and the comey front. All coming at the end of a week packed with developments on each of these fronts, the president arguably worse off on all of them. What remains unclear is which of these fronts pose the gravest danger to Donald Trumps presidency. Is it special counsel Robert Muellers front