Gets underway on a friday night. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters. This was day 827 of the Trump Administration and as we come on the air this friday night we have two major stories from two of this nations great newspapers that lead us to two Big Questions that we will take on in order tonight. One, just who is Rod Rosenstein, other than a man in a critically important job and what exactly has he been doing behind the scenes. The second question is did the russians change any Election Results in our country in the last president ial election. Well get to both of those. The president for his part stayed on the attack, railed on the Mueller Report. He claimed he was exonerated, while slamming the report and promising the retribution. Today in the friendly confines, he framed the work of muellers team as an attempt to remove him from office. They tried for a coup, didnt work out so well. And i didnt need a gun for that one, did i . Corruption at the highest level, a disgrace spying for a overthrow, and we caught them. We caught them. This morning he attacked democrats efforts to bring in witnesses, hold hearings, and denied one of the key conclusions in the report. I never told don mcgahn to fire mueller. If i wanted to fire mueller, i would have done it myself. It is very simple. I had the right to. I let white House Counsel mcgahn testify. I let everybody testify. [ inaudible question ]. Wait wait. With all of this, with all of this, with all of this transparency, we finish with no collusion, no obstruction, right . Then i get out the first day theyre saying lets do it again and i said that is enough, we have to run a country. We have a very great country to run. Congress will hear testimony this week from trumps handpicked attorney general william barr who has come under fire for the handling of muellers findings. The judiciary committees from both chambers will question barr wednesday and thursday of next week and that brings us to the deposit attorney general that bar inherited. He gave us the investigation, one Rod Rosenstein. And the questions about him tonight like how savvy and inside player is he really . This career federal prosecutor, harvard law graduate who was in internship was for a massachusetts u. S. Attorney named robert mueller, this man who the president has privately called mr. Peepers. Has he been currying the favor of the president all along to keep his job . Here is what raises all of the question tonight. The Washington Post today detailed that rosenstein reportedly told trump something certain to remain in charge of the investigation. It focuses on the fallout and the article from the New York Times. You will recall it september 2018 we reported on it widely at the time. Its sad that after the 2017 firing of james comey he suggested wearing a wire to secretly record the president. He talked about the 25th amendment. The post now said after that rosenstein was called on the carpet and he was forced to explain himself to a Furious White House and was reportedly tearyeyed in a meeting with john kelly. On a subsequent phone call with trump he sought to assure the president that he was on his team and he would make sure that trump was treated fairly. I give the investigation credibility, rosenstein said, i can land the plane. That made us stop and remember where we heard that phrase. Im landing the plane right now. Ive been willing to discuss my letters and the process Going Forward and im not going to get into the details of the process until the plane is on the ground. Back to the Justice Department that can sound more like an airport quoting again from the Washington Post, on multiple occasions Rod Rosenstein told trump he was not a target of muellers investigation. That was important because we know that hearing that was critical to this president. Now to the other story. Tonights downright scare yes story in the New York Times about our last president ial election. The times focuses on the likelihood that Russian Hackers obtained access to at least one florida election system in 2016 even though state officials had originally believed no computers had been compromised. The Mueller Report said the fbi believes it enabled the gru, Russian Military intelligence, to gain access to the network of at least one florida county government. Again, under this headline, Russian Hackers gained access to at least one florida elections network, but which one . The times reporting tonight says the florida secretary of state office in tallahassee said it had been unable to learn what county it was, floridas governor is set to meet with the fbi in coming weeks. Today the fbi director was asked about the russia threat and the security of our next election. The fairly Aggressive Campaign that we saw in 2016 and described in the special counsel report and has continued unabated, it is a 365 days a year threat and that is absolutely continued. We recognize they will continue to adapt and up their game and were viewing 2018 as just kind of a dress rehearsal for the big show 2020. Given that, here for our leadoff discussion on friday night, we are joined by sussan page who just notably became the biographer of barbara bush. The book is called the matriarch. Josh ger steen from politico and also jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and pentagon. Jeremy, i would like to begin with you given tonights news. We saw today the president saying he was the victim of a failed coup, and you cant help but view this from that backdrop tonight. It lands with a thud, the story about a hacked election system in the state of florida given your back ground in the intel business, how do you view this story . Very concerning, brian, i think we have all been concerned about the hacking of the voting machines. The story said it is the tallied and how they are displayed. In florida in 2016, the spread between trump and clinton was a little over 100,000 votes which is not a lot in a state as large as florida. A large number of electoral votes there, a single hack of a single county voting tabulation system could make the difference. Josh, people are going to be concerned after reading stories like these and they should be. Can you help ensure us that the good people of government will work awfully hard to understand investigate this to run it down and stem off the next one in 2020 . No, i cant assure people of that because there seems to be tension between the two things that you mentioned. We have an investigation that seems to have been thorough by the fbi to get to the bottom of what the russians were up to in 2016, but the question about applying that as run into a few obstacles. There is some officials that dont take this very seriously or they think they can solve this on their own and the other problem is that there seemed to be some reluctance in some quarters of the federal government to share the details about what the fbi has discovered with the people on the ground who could fix it. There is always tension there and it seems like there is a standoff at the moment where folks are concerned if they reveal the details of what fbi discovered it could expose sources and intelligence methods, but they could maybe not get serious about fixing this for next time. Susan, we can all agree, even sober witnesses of what has been going on for the next year all things russia have been a hallmark of this administration. The odd carveout for russia, lying about russia. Talk about this megatrigger about stories about legitimacy. We think President Trump has not taken the response that other president s may have taken to the continuing disclosures about russias successful efforts in some cases to meddle in the election that put him in the white house. And to joshs points, hurdles to woo would be, one would be in the white house and the president s denying in believing in his own Intelligence Services conclusions in the fair to muster a nationwide response an assault on the most fundamental aspect of our democracy which is free and Fair Elections that are not affected by foreign meddling. Put that maybe at the top. Jeremy bash, the other story is about mr. Rosenstein. We heard during the attorney generals performance that the american people, not the president , are supposed to be the client of the attorney general, the Deputy Attorney general, and the d. O. J. Do you think this raises legit mass questions as to who rosenstein saw himself working for . I think he bought himself an invitation to testify before the house judiciary committee. Appropriately brian should look at role of the department of justice leadership in bringing the Mueller Report into the department and in summarizing it and holding that press conference as well as the revelations in tonights post story about reassuring the target of the investigation that hes going to be okay, that he will land the plane. I think if Rod Rosenstein said anything to the president , he should have said mr. President i cannot discuss this investigation with you. The appropriate way to discussion this with the department of justice is in bob muellers witness chair. Does this just add to the petina of questions and dirt surrounding what should have been the fair dealing of administration of this investigation . Well i think that the charitable interpretation and the prevailing wisdom was that Rod Rosenstein was on a tight rope walk here. He was trying to keep it going without some kind of cataclysm of additional firings from the white house and some kind of conflagration that is bad for the president and the country and the Justice Department and that he had managed that pretty well. It seems sycophant toward the white house doesnt seem to have tapered over time. As rod was preparing to leave the Justice Department, you begin to hear fewer implausible phrases praising the white house and praising the president as someone committed to the rule of law, and that rhetoric has continued right up through the last few weeks. Through last night actually. And that is what is leading, i should say again, a reevaluation of maybe they were too generous to rosenstein. In their assessment of how he was handling this. Susan page, tomorrow is the white house Correspondents Dinner and extending a first this president continues not to attend. He is instead holding a counter rally in green bay, wisconsin tomorrow night. Here is a guy alleging a failed coup today as we sat in the friendly confined of the nra. He could say it strikes me just about anything tomorrow night, susan. He could. And he may. And previous president s have chosen not to attends the white house Correspondents Dinner. There is no crime. What is the president has done that is different from previous president s is instruct all of his officials to in effect boycott the dinner. It is one more step in the deterioration of the norms that kept the capitol afloat. It is not that it is so great to have dunner with somebody, but it is a sign of respect for the role of the institution of the press and the democracy. We dont hear much about that from this administration. Susan, if memory serves, the dinner begins with the toast of the president of the United States, whether he is present or not. Is that still the case, do you remember . I think the dinner may close with a toast to the president and the presidency. I would assume that would go forward as in the past. Something tells me the toast will not be returned in kind, from green bay, wisconsin, but well see. Plenty to talk about when we come back on monday. Our thanks to our big three starting us off on a friday night after yet another consequential week and to susan page and gosh gurstein and jeremy bash. And coming up, what the Mueller Report had to say about the public statements, the stuff we could hear and see about the possibility of pardons and their potential to obstruct justice. 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You inspired us to create internet that puts you in charge. That handles anything. That protects whats important. And reaches everywhere. This is beyond wifi. This is xfi. Simple, easy, awesome. Are you going to pardon Paul Manafort . I dont talk about that. I think it is all very sad. He worked for me for a very short period of time, but he happens to be a very good person and i think it is very sad what they did to Paul Manafort. That is an example of what well talk about. And Paul Manafort was chairman of the campaign. One of several instances cited where President Trump stopped short of ruling out a pardon for someone and in this case Paul Manafort and tonight were called uncovered, diving into the parts of the Mueller Report that havent received wide news Media Coverage and look at what the special counsel team had to say about trump and whether he was trying to signal or convince manafort not to cooperate with the government. He was found guilt august 21st of last year. He pled guilty to charges in washington, d. C. Both of them with the feds. He signed a plea agreement to cooperate with the feds. That agreement was later torn up after the feds established that manafort had lied to them. Here is a portion of what the Mueller Report says. Quote, there is evidence that the president s actions had the potential to influence manaforts decision whether to cooperate with the government. The president and his personal counsel made repeated statements suggesting that a pardon was a possibility for mania for the and making it clear the president did not want manafort to flip and cooperate with the government. And the Mueller Report represents this exchange between manafort and rick gates, quote, in january 2018, manafort told president s personal council and they were going to take care of us. Manafort told gates it was stupid to plead saying he was in touch with the president s personal counsel and repeating that they should sit tight and be taken care of. Gates asked if anyone mentioned pardons and no one used that word. Lets bring in the former assistance attorney for the district of new york. Nelson, talk about the use, the dangling of pardons that really only one person can do at the end of the new day as a vehicle to potentially obstruct justice. Look, the president s power to pardon is in the constitution. There is no limits on his power to pardon. Other than that he may not pardon impeachments. That does not mean that the president cannot be called in to question for the way he exercises that president ial pardon. For example, lets assume he was given 2 million to pardon someone, does anybody think that would not be a crime and that would not be wrong to accept a bribe, to offer to pardon somebody . Precisely the role of the congress to look at the conduct of the president and the version of his powers and to see whether or not it constituted an overreach and clearly in this case it did. I want to read for you something else. This is a little legal ise from the Mueller Report. Many discouragement of cooperation with the government and other occurred in public view. While it may be more difficult to establish that publicfacing acts were motivated by a corrupt intent, the president s power to influence actions, persons and events is enhanced and here comes the important part, by his unique ability to attract attention through use of mass communication. And no principle of law excludes public acts from the scope of obstruction statues. If the likely effect of the access to intimidate witnesses or alter their testimony, the justice systems integrity is equally threatened. Nelson, if acts of wrongdoing are spoken in public on realtime on twitter while the helicopter awaits on the sauj lawn is it any less of an act of a doing because it is not behind closed doors. No, the legal words youve read make that clear from mueller, but it is Donald Trumps m. O. The more brazen he is, the more overt, the more then later on he said you saw what i did there, didnt you . I did it publicly. That is the way he lulls the system. Into angryezzing to what he does. I may have talked about a pardon, but i did it on television. The point is did Paul Manafort hear it . Did it shape his behavior . Did donald trump say it intending to shape Paul Manaforts behavior . And the answer is pretty clear, yes. Nelson, cunningham, this is why we asked to you come on the air on a friday night and as always we thank you for doing so. Greatly appreciate your time. Coming up for us now that he is officially running, joe biden is collecting Campaign Donations in a big way and making talk show appearances. The results so far on both fronts decidedly mixed. Well explain when we come back. Well explain when we come back. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. 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Joe biden spent the better part of his first president ial interview answering for how he has been around women and treated women in the past. The host of the view where he was given a very warm reception, pressed him to apologize to anita hill for how she was standled in 1991, her testimony during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings but biden refused to do that. Im sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way to get this thing done. I did everything in my power to do what i thought was within the rules to be able to stop things. I think she wants to say im sorry for the way i treated you, not for the way you were treated. I think that would be closer. But im sorry for the way he is was treated. If you go back and look what i said and didnt say, i dont think i treated her badly. Joe biden recently called anita hill, it was a conversation she told cheryl of the New York Times left her feeling deeply unsatisfied. With us tonight, a take on this topic, nancy cook and susan page has kindly agreed to stick around for this conversation. Susan, john harris reminded us yesterday that joe bidens Political Year is more years than john f. Kennedy was able to spend on the earth. It has been just about half a century. It should also be noted joe biden spoke this morning in a soulful and emotional way about the loss he suffered in loss that had him and megan mccain in tears and a good many people that watched. But then there is a question. About women and about anita hill. Susan, the question is if he doesnt have a good answer on the view, on day one of his media campaign, when will he have a good answer . It could not be a surprise these issues were raised. In this interview and by the way in just about every interview in the foreseeable future. How could he not have a crisp, disciplined compelling response. Instead he had a meandering one. That left no one satisfied. It is kind of a sorry not sorry answer. It was a passive voice. The mistakes were made voice. That is not a satisfying response. Did he not put this issue to rest. This is something he will continue to face. We saw his strength. He can talk about the empathy from the grief that he suffered in his life, but he also needs to be able to answer these questions in a better way than he did today. And nancy, biden chose to stress the charlottesville issue as part of his announcement and that struck a chord with a lot of people. I think before people saw over again that imagery and heard it in his words, they had forgotten how dark that period was and how hurt they had felt as citizens. Then the president with prodding from the news media chose to talk about the age, for the record trump is 72, joe biden is 76, here with all of that is the president on the white house lawn today. Mr. President , how old is too old to be president . I feel like a young man, im so young. I cant believe it. Im the youngest person, im a young vibrant man. I look at joe, i dont know about him. I dont know. Look, if he looks young and vibrant compared to me, i should probably go home. So nancy, i guess we can take away from this that at least joe biden is getting under the skin of one donald trump very early. He is and joe biden has been under the skin of President Trump way before the midterms. This is something as i have been talking to his political advisors and people in the white house, biden is the democratic that the trump campaign, the president himself, have been most worried about for months. They see him as someone who could cut into Donald Trumps part of the electoral map key to his success in 2016, it is rust belt states in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. They see him as someone that can appeal to White Working Class voters. They make up a huge part of the president s base. And they just see him as someone with years of experience. Which is something that President Trump has had to learn on the job. It is not something that he saw on the table. As we saw in the launch video, biden will be very aggressive by calling out some of the low moments of the trump white house. That includes charlottesville. He went straight for that moment and called it out. And that was pretty aggressive right out of the gate. Susan, i have so say that trump may see biden as the most likely guy to threaten his reelection. There is the 19 and counting other democrats and the fact that were eight months away from the first primary. This wont be a straight line. He will not be, he is in a strong position now, 6. 3 Million Dollars raised in the first 24 hours, but this is not a slide to the nomination, it never is. Particularly with a field like this. We have candidates that will make the opposite case, that joe biden is talking about his experiences. Eight years as vice president. Some of the other candidates can emphasize they have very detailed proposals for future problems to address where the party needs to go, a more progressive party, one that is younger, more female, and the last time that joe biden ran, for the president ial nomination himself. This was going to be a roller coaster. We will see other candidates to emerge to challenge the two frontrunners, Bernie Sanders and joe biden. Nancy, if i asked you to draw a pie chart of energy output, how much White House Energy is being consumed by the notion of 2020 looming out there . I would say you know maybe 20 at this point. I think when i talk to white house officials and political advisors last week they were very happy the Mueller Report came out because there was a sense of something that it was hanging over the president and now he could really turn to 2020. We have seen that has not totally happened in the past week. The president still seems very concerned by the Mueller Report, the congressional investigations, the potential subpoenas of the former aides and very worried about that. Theyre definitely paying attention to 2020, and i think trump is focused on in particular candidates who he sees as threats like biden. But there is so much hanging over the white house and the election as susan said is very far away. Two terrific journalists and two bylines to look for, nancy cook and susan page, thanks for joining us on a friday night. And coming up for us, trump claims to know many generals who call robert e. Lee their favorite among generals. We happen to have a retired fourstar general standing by to talk to us. Well ask him among other subjects when we come back. Ts wk makes it beautiful. Ts wk state of the Art Technology makes it brilliant. The visionary lexus nx. Lease the 2019 nx 300 for 359 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Plants capture co2. 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Whos already won three cars, two motorcycles, a boat, and an r. V. I would not want to pay that insurance bill. [ ding ] oh, i have progressive, so i just bundled everything with my home insurance. Saved me a ton of money. Love you, gary you dont have to buzz in. Its not a question, gary. On march 1, 1810 [ ding ] frederic chopin. Collapsing in 226 [ ding ] the colossus of rhodes. [ sighs ] Louise Dustmann [ ding ] brahms lullaby, or wiegenlied. When will it end . [ ding ] not today, ron. When will it end . [ ding ] craftsmanship and technology that have made the rx the leading luxury suv of all time. Lease the 2019 rx 350 for 409 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. We did not pay money for our great otto. There was no money paid. There was a fake news report that money was paid. I havent paid money for any hostage and ive gotten approximately i think it is 20 or 21 out. We dont pay money for hostages. The otto case was a very unusual case. But no money was paid for otto. That is the president responding to this report, that north korea submitted a medical bill and demanded 2 million before releasing the late Otto Warmbier from their custody. The denial began this morning at 7 12 a. M. Eastern time to be exact. His next post raised more questions than answers including who it is hes referring to, why the odd spelling of the mystery officials title, apparently on our payroll. President donald j. Trump is the greatest Hostage Negotiator that i know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances have been released in the last two years. No money was paid. Nas a that is according to the chief Hostage Negotiator and were searching for that title. For more on the u. S. And north korea and then some lets turn to general barry mccaffrey, a decorated from vietnam and a drug czar that has served on and off for president s and now a nbc analyst. Does the ransom story sound plausible to you . Yes, my take on it, and by the way, it is essentially a criminal regime. They sell counterfeit currencies and drugs. They assassinate their own family members and senior official. The survival of the family is all that is going on in north korea. I think they did present us with a 2 million bill, they were sent to get poor Otto Warmbier out. They found him essentially unconscious in a coma. And he had to sign a paper that we owed them 2 million to get him out of country. I think that is what happened. Whether they subsequently paid it or not is less clear. But it just underscores again the nonsense of talking about kim jongun as somebody youre in love with, someone that didnt know about warmbiers condition. This is just a fantasy way of understanding the north korean regime. Imagine these two pals, kim and putin, having their own summit this week, what do you think is going on there . Is kim just loving these days, the relevance he craves, he gets these pictures back home where the folks see him hanging out with these world leaders. He is hanging out with us. He had three with president moon of south korea. He had two with mr. Trump. He continued to produce material for Nuclear Weapons, maybe as many as 60 Nuclear Weapons now. He continues to manufacture irbm missiles and to work on his prototype icbm. He did pretty well. What did we get out of it, i think nothing. The thing to be concerned about, can he beat the economic sanctions . Russia is a poor country. They cant do much to help them. China is the key, what will china do. I have to get you to robert e lee. You heard the president today say that the general as he knows, and he indicated that those stationed or dispatched to the white house said that lee was their favorite. I cant help but call out your alma mater for maybe making a huge mistake when they unveiled a statute of ulysses s. Grant. Are we sure they didnt choose the wrong general, general . You know general Stanley Mccrystal wrote a very thoughtful oped about why he would no longer have a picture of robert e. Lee in his office. Obviously tactically he was a brilliant officer. He prolonged the civil war, 800,000 dead, he was a slave owner. He mistreated his slaves, and he pursued fugitive slaves and he lost the war, thank god. Primarily because u. S. Grant and sherman. So i think the bottom line is that we should not honor robert e. Lee. We recognize he is worth studying from a military perspective and in his individual sense, no doubt he was an honorable man but that war was all about slavery and he was the primary reason in many cases of it lasting as long as it did. General stick with us while we get in a break. When we come back well talk about the somewhat uncomfortable role the u. S. Military finds itself in along our southern border. That when we come back. Er that when we come back considering . 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The number one rule is do no harm, and this is harm. We must act now. Learn more. Text titlex to 22422 welcome back. There are reports that the pentagon is preparing to expand our military involvement along the southern border. Here is what were talking about. The Washington Post has obtained documents detailing a need for more of the following military lawyers, cooks, drivers, to help Border Patrol officials with the influx of migrants, u. S. Policy prohibits military from interacting with migrants so special waivers would need to be approved and were fortunate to still have with us tonight retired u. S. Army fourstar general barry mccaffrey. General, i mention the word uncomfortable before the break and it is a meek word for this situation but this entire situation, which many argue is a bonafide crisis at our southern border, puts the u. S. Military in a deeply uncomfortable position. Yeah, i think that is a fair characterization. Ive had a lot of experience dealing with those border issues and with mexico and central america. We have around 5,000 troops in the border now active and National Guard. It is a half billion dollars in fiscal year 19. And many cases this is nothing new. Weve had troops there off and on for the last 20 years. What i opposed when i was in uniform and still oppose as having armed elements of the u. S. Military on the border. We dont want to militaryize the borders and we want the customs and Border ProtectionLaw Enforcement officers with primary responsibility. Now whether it is engineers building roads, National Guard troops helping unload trucks so that Law Enforcement can search them and those are all legitimate missions. Now were gradually creeping we just had a incident with two National Guards accosted by six mexican Army Soldiers and disarmed, apparently. That is and but the president of the United States then responded with a basically an aggressive warlike statement. That is not what we want. Mexico is not a military threat to the United States. Nor does it intend to be. So we have to cool this thing down and this is a Law Enforcement responsibility, not the u. S. Armed forces. Well put, general barry mccaffrey, thank you so much for coming on the broadcast tonight as always. We deeply appreciate it. Coming up for us, his role in u. S. History is already cemented. He is one of only 45 u. S. President s. The interesting part is what he has had to say about u. S. History and well have that for you when we come back. You when. Choosing to foster a child is choosing to nurture and emotionally support children in urgent need. Its not just about opening up your home; it is also about opening up your heart. Consider fostering. Ifor another 150 years. The fire going to inspire confidence through style. Im working to make connections of a different kind. Im working for beauty that begins with nature. To treat every car like i treat mine. At adp were designing a better way to work, so you can achieve what youre working for. Hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. And if youve got cutrate Car Insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. So get allstate. And be better protected from mayhem. Like me. With peak season berries, uniqcreamy avocado. And a dressing fit for a goddess. Come taste what a salad should be. And with panera catering, theres more to go around. Panera. Food as it should be. [kno king] memories. What we deliver by delivering. If we had the absolute right to fire mueller, in the meantime i didnt do it. Im a student of history. I see what you get when you fire people and its not good. Last thing before we go here tonight, those remarks right there along with what the president had to say today about robert e. Lee, it all got us to remembering his past forays into u. S. And World History and weve saved some of the special moments along the way. Frederick douglas is an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and being recognized more and more i notice. So few people remember, but republicans are the party of abraham lincoln. A lot of people dont realize that abraham lincoln, the great abraham lincoln, was a republican. Most people dont know he was a republican, right . Does anyone know . People forget, we have to embrace it. Had Andrew Jackson been a little bit later you wouldnt have the chrism war. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with the civil war and he said there is no reason for this. He saw what was happening with regard to the civil war and he said there is no reason for this. People dont ask that question. But why was there the civil war . Why could that not have been worked out. France is americas first and oldest ally. People dont know. That france helped he is insecure our independence and people forget. People dont realize the korean war has not ended. Yeah, thats what im talking about. 400 square feet of freedom. Who had the courage and jebb jebber and generosity to have a pole a patriot that agreed to speak with us on the condition he remain anonymous. My name is donald trump. I love fighting for the flag. It is all he talks about. The number one golf course in the state of california. It is a nice course. But what is important is this flag. And its message of freedom, a message as important to donald trump as it was to the 13 original colonies. The 13 stripes represent still it is a nice course. The number one rated golf course in the state of california. Better than pebble beach. Donald trump on world and u. S. History to bring this week to an end and so that is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. We thank you so much for being here with us. Have a good weekend and good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. We begin tonight with breaking news. The breaking news on this friday evening, a new mueller related story and this calls into question the performance of Rod Rosenstein. A new story hot off the presses of the Washington Post. It accounts for a time when mr. Rosenstein was trying to save his job. You may remember the New York Times account about him wearing a wire. You see the headline in the post. I can land the plane. How he tried to mollify trump and protect mueller and save his job. The post is reporting is that rosenstein tried t