Common, they all say he is like a child. Plus, the break with bannon. In the book President Trumps former chief political advisor, steve bannon, lashes out at the president , his staff and his family. The president s response, when he was fired he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. This morning my exclusive interview with the controversial author of fire and fury, Michael Wolff. Also, the russia investigation. Two republican senators take aim not at russia, but at the former british spy who tried to expose Russian Election meddling. Ill talk to one of those senators, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Joining me for insight and analysis are david brooks, columnist for the New York Times. Joy reid, mark leibovich, New York Times magazine and danielle pletka, of the American Enterprise institute. The press. From nbc news in washington, the lodngest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning on our first broadcast of the new year. The winter bomb cyclone that hit washington this week had nothing to do with the frigid weather and everything to do with the book fire and fury by journalist Michael Wolff. It portrays a dysfunctional white house led by a president of declining intellectual capacity and a staff that didnt believe mr. Trump would win the election or necessarily should have. In addition to the president , the other protagonist in the book is his former chief strategist, steve bannon, who has now been excommunicated by mr. Trump for his disloyalty, for now. Heres how the always colorful New York Post played the break between bannon and the president. One takeaway is that the president s allies are engaged in a policy of appeasement and containment. Appeasement by his republican supporters who want mr. Trump to si containment by a staff eager to protect the president from himself and their own reputations from him. But mr. Trump is leaving no doubt that he sees Michael Wolffs instant bestseller as a problem for his presidency. I consider it a work of fiction. And i think its a disgrace. A white house torn apart by infighting and a president isolated, losing allies, with staffers desperately trying to contain what he might do or say. So far 2018 looks a lot like 2017. Collusion now is dead. Theres been no collusion between us and the russians. On the president s first full day back in washington, he attacked his own Justice Department as the deep state, one of 17 tweets on tuesday alone. Encouraging the Justice Department to go after political opponents. Thats very concerning. The president also threatened a war with Nuclear North Korea tweeting i too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more and my button works. By day two, Michael Wolffs bombshell book had mr. Trump lashing out again. Steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Furious, disgusted would probably certainly fit when you make such outrageous claims and completely false claims against the president. By day three, the president s legal team was threatening to sue bannon, wolff and the publisher. In fire and fury bannon describes the june 2016 meeting with the russians hosted by the president s son, don junior, as unpatriotic treasonous, predicting special counsel Robert Muellers investigators will crack don junior like an egg on national tv and speculating that the president s soninlaw, jared kushner, in a longrunning feud with bannon, is involved in financial crimes. Trump allies attacked the insider account. This is obviously on the president. Its outrageous. Hes a sleaze bag. Absurd allegation by someone whos talked to a lot of disgruntled people at the white house. Complete fantasy and just full of tabloid gossip. But by day five, the president clearly not satisfied with defending his own fitness for office, calling himself a genius and a very stable genius at that. Why did you feel the need to tweet about that this morning . Well, only because i went to the best colleges, or college. While bannon attempted to play down the split. Nothing will ever come between us and President Trump and his agenda. Now mr. Trump is calling his former ally sloppy steve, blaming him for the book. Thats why sloppy steve is now looking for a job. Hes a friend of mine. Steve has been a friend of mine for a long time. The author of that bombshell book joins me now, welcome to meet the s you talk about fly on the wall access. Explain to me what that was like. Walk me through how you were a fly on the wall in the west wing. You know, i literally kind of knocked on the door and said can i come in . And they said, okay. And i came in, i sat on the couch, and thats the point of view that ive written this book from. I mean the real intention of this book is to have readers sit with me on the couch and watch whats going on in the west wing. I went into this with absolutely no agenda whatsoever. I have no particular politics when it comes to donald trump. This is really all about human nature. Did you feel as if you were a blessed guest . Meaning that the assumption was, yeah, you can you can talk to Michael Wolff. Weve, meaning the president , was that the a talk to you . I think it was. There was no official i was certainly not brought in to be the you werent invited to write this book. The court chronicler. I was sort of invited. I mean donald trump is sort of, oh, yeah, yeah. I said to him, i said, listen, id like to do a book. And i remember because i remember he seemed deflated, a book. Who cares about a book. And i said, no, no, id really like to do this. Then he named a couple of other authors who he knew who he said, oh, yeah, theyd like to do this too. And i said, but, you know, is it okay . Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So i went around it was basically me saying the president says this is this is he likes this idea. And then everyone would say, oh, okay, great, sit down. Talk. You said something to Savannah Guthrie on the today show. You said whatever it took to get this story. Misled them about your intentions with this book . Let me put it in a different way. I tried to be inaub truce ive. My goal was to keep going until somebody said go away. Right. But in the initial premise of the book were you overflattering or promising that this book would be more flattering than it turned out to be . I certainly was not more flattering than donald trump. Have you ever seen Donald Trumps flattery . Its unbelievable. The first time that i came in, it was it was like, oh, my god, Michael Wolff, unbelievable. Do you know this guy . Hes the best. So im sure i returned a tip of the hat to donald trump. But, was i said i didnt say anything to get me thrown out. Okay, fair enough. You were pretty tough on the coverage of donald trump early in 2017. Heres something you wrote in 2017 in january. To the media it is a given that trump is largely out of control and that the people around him are struggling at all times to save him from himself and largely failing. This view persists, despite trumps victory flattening almost every media assumption about his supposed haplessness and lack of strategy. You thought that the media was too onesided or that was the impression you were giving. When you read this book, you seem to reinforce the entire media narrative you were criticizing. I think that in the beginning the media took this point of view without having had this experience. You know, i went into this and a decent part of the country went into this, his entire staff went into this can work. Its different, even peculiar, but who knows what can happen here. And that was exactly my my frame of reference. I would have been delighted to have written a contrarian account here. Donald trump, this unexpected president , is actually going to succeed. Okay, thats not the story. He is not going to succeed. This is worse than everybody thought. Did you im just curious because its a very tough book. You basically youre sending a message here to anybody reading this book. Did you leave out good stuff because it got in the way of the narrative . Like if people said positive things about him, not saying that you left it out because you thought it took away from the thesis of the book that you wanted to get out there . If i left out anything, its probably stuff that was even more damning. Its that bad. I mean its an extraordinary moment and the last the last several days focused on my book i think are proof of this. This is what happened here, whats going on here. This is, you know, i think not an exaggeration and not unreasonable its not unreasonable to say this is 25th amendment kind of stuff. This is did anybody say that in the west wing to you . All the time. 25th amendment . They would bring up the 25th amendment . Yes. Actually they would say sort of in the midperiod, were not at a 25th amendment level yet. Or they would thats alarming. This is alarming in every way. And then this this went on. Okay, this is a little 25th amendment. So 25th amendment is a concept that is alive every day in the white house. There was an interesting thing at that has gone on for the last number of days. An interesting thing that i especially noticed was yesterday yesterday or this morning, everything i understand its a whirlwind. John kelly said was questioned about these whackado tweets and he said, oh, i didnt see them. Im going to just say like hell he didnt see them. And thats what goes on in the white house all the time. Its how to look away, its how not to confront. Theyre putting their head in the sand purposely . Yes, absolutely. Its how to rationalize this, and you cant confront it. You cant say, you know, this is this is a moment in time. This is a breakdown. You imply that even his children treat him like a child twitter totally disputed that account, said he would never speak about his father that way nor does he even think of his father that way, that he only has admiration. What do you say to that . Somebody said to me about the children, somebody who knows them well, and the phrase was they are tolerant but they have no illusions. And i think that thats thats probably how it goes. He is their father, of course. Not only is he their father, hes their boss. I mean their whole lives are attached to him. But these are the people who have to deal with him every day, and these are the people who on top of everything else, he was not a very good father. He was he was absent, remote, having god knows who he was involved with at any particular moment in time. So these this does not come as a shock to them. Youve had they have come at you hard, pushing back against your book and your credibility. This is what the rnc put out. They even use your book jacket sort of and calling you a liar and a phony. Here is Sarah Sanders from the podium on thursday. I want to get you to react after. The fact that there was a claim that the president didnt know who john boehner was is pretty ridiculous. Ages of employees, which would be super easy to fact check are wrong. Again, it is absolutely laughable to think that somebody like this president would run for office with the purpose of losing. There are a lot of little errors. Theres a lot of them. One page had three in one. Some of them may be copy edits, small factual errors, but it adds up. Why shouldnt a reader be concerned about some of these mistakes . I think a reader should read the book. The book speaks for itself. Errors in there . Do you wish a second it feels as if you didnt get a copy edit. I think i mixed up Mika Mike Berman and mark berman. For that i apologize. But the book speaks for itself. Read the book. See if you dont feel like you are with me on that couch in the white house. And see if you dont feel alarmed, as you say. I want to ask you about your access to the president. How many times did you interview the president for this book, and when was the last time you talked to the president for this book . You know, i spoke i have spoken to the president , as ive said, i have spoken to the president for about three hours through the length of the campaign up until i finished the book. And thats what im going to say. I think the president has said, no, you didnt do this, thats wrong. And i dont want to go let me ask, the white house the white house says the last time that they have a record of you speaking to him was in february of 2017, which is not even through the first 100 days. There were there was that moment, there were several other moments after that. Did he not know that they were interviews . He probably yes, he probably did not think of them as interviews. Were they face to face . Yes. Times you saw him in the hallway . Yes, absolutely. The point that they have made, which the literal point that i didnt speak to him in the oval office, and that is true. And one of the issues here was that they kept saying i kept setting up this thing and they kept saying can we have the questions. And i thought lets avoid that. Elemental one, this book is not about my view of donald trump. It is about the view of all of the people closest to him. Do you from a journalist standpoint, did you violate offtherecord agreements . I did not. You dont believe you did . I absolutely did not. Let me ask you a final question about steve bannon. Why do you think hes disloyal to trump . Why do you think he was so willing to dish the way he dished . I think he was i think he was deeply concerned. I think he is deeply concerned. I think that he found himself in this in this white house with this opportunity, and i think steve is a man of very clear beliefs and principles. And he looks i think this was his he looked at this as his moment. He made donald trump president , and he believes this. Not this, its absolutely true. Steve went into this campaign in the middle of august. It had fallen it had imploded. It was over. Steve was the guy who said, you know, there is a case here, its the economy, stupid. If we go through florida, ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, we can pull this off. Did you at all think he was using you to settle scores with the kids . I think im sure he probably was. I think that he saw this white house as dysfunctional in part, in large part because it was being run by the president s family, people who had, a, no experience but on any organizational level, that meant that they were the family, they could overrule everything. I mean calamity. One final question. You said something in a bbc interview that you thought this presidency was going to hit a wall. Hit a wall by 2020 or before then . I think i dont know when the train is going to finally hit the wall. I think i think the entire narrative of this presidency and this candidacy and then presidency has been its going to hit a wall. And the thing that keeps everybodys attention absolutely riveted, global attention, is that the train keeps going but the wall is still there. I mean one of the things i think about this book and why its hit such a chord and become this cultural moment is its given everybody this focused opportunity to say holy crap. Michael wolff, i will leave it there. I imagine now youve got every author in america hoping they too will have a president threaten a lawsuit for them in order to help with book programming note. Michael wolff will be back tomorrow for his first cable interview on morning joe and then hell join lawrence odonnell, both on msnbc. When we come back, much more on the book and the reaction to it. And later, why is the Justice Department decided to allow prosecutors to go after people who grow and sell marijuana in states where pot is now legal . music plays throughout achoo snap achoo snap achoo achoo snap snap achoo achoo feel a cold coming on . Shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45 . Shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. A whole new concept in skin say heldefense. Etox new absolutely ageless®. Pretox day mask from aveeno®. Its powerful antioxidant formula. Fights pollution and keeps skin looking younger, longer. Aveeno®. 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Back now with the panel. David brooks, columnist for the New York Times. Danielle pletka of the American Enterprise substituinstitute, j and mark leibovich, National Correspondent for the New York Times magazine. President trump is threatening lawsuits. We found that throughout his career donald trump has threatened 30 mediarelated lawsuits but has only actually filed suit four times. Th dismissed and one was settled. You can see those there. David brooks, reaction to mr. Wolff and the book . A, hes got a lot of information that we didnt know, a lot of quotes from steve bannon that i think are totally credible. B, he doesnt normally meet the standards that most of us meet, there are just too many errors so i think its a valuable book but one to be read with skepticism. Im as antitrump as is possible to be. I think there are a lot of people ive spoken to who know trump and work with trump who do exactly who think exactly the way he says everybody thinks, but not everybody in this white house thinks that way. Some think hes deranged and a child. Some like him. Some think hes a problem they can work around. Some think hes strange but in sort of a good way. So theres a lot more nuance here in the way the white house thinks about him than i think is reflected in this book. Let me put up with Jonah Goldberg said, danielle. He writes the truth may not be as horrifying as wolff and terrifying as the resistance fears. The president is a man out of his depth propped up by his staff and a party that needs to believe more than what the facts will support. Jonah, as always, my colleague at aei, is always on point. I think that the truth about this book is that it is the realization of this towns gossip, and thats one of the reasons why its been welcomed so warmly, notwithstanding the errors. You think it fits a narrative . It fits a narrative. Hes an outsider . Really . Of this town he is. First of all, the stories about the white house are not terribly credible. Nobody sits on a couch at the white house for hours on end listening for hours on end because nobody is talking around the couches. That doesnt happen. So the narrative of the book itself isnt that credible. The stories in it, yes, of course, they fit a narrative that i think we all know and understand. But does this tell us anything new about steve bannon, though. Well, you know, i think except that in a normal white house theres a process, theres a chief of staff that is credible and that knows what theyre doing and you couldnt just walk in and be a fly on the wall. This is a white house that from everything that i understand about it is completely disorganized and especially in the period when Michael Wolff says that he was there. There was nobody obviously to filter information to donald trump or to filter who could hang around and talk to his staff. I mean steve bannon, and i was told by sam nunberg whos known donald trump a long time, part of the reason they didnt mind Michael Wolff being there is he seemed to be in the axis of bannon and roger ailes so they trusted he was going to do something positive about them so they were happy to have that narrative written about them. Whats written in this book comports with every single thing that ive heard from every biographer of donald trump, people who are aquaintances and are happy to talk about him. The United States is seen as a child who can either by used or manipulated by those who have agendas or who is completely incompetent or incapable of doing his job is frightening. Its exactly what we heard during the campaign. If this book is to be believed, then it is quite frightening for the American People. Where are you on this . First of all, is it possible to go any higher than number one on amazon if youre going to write a book . Its incredible. I do think both theefz things can be true. I think there are very significant journalistic critiques that you can throw at this book, but i also think it rings true truth about this is absolutely valid. And part of it is what Michael Wolff has said and will say again im sure is this is exactly how people around him or many people around him at the white house, certainly republicans on the hill, speak privately. Now, if you were to ask probably i would say 80 pbl of elected republicans on the hill, what do you think about the presi thing you will hear, i guarantee, is can we go off the record. I think this in a way gives truth to the other part of the twostep. Its, though, the president s reaction to the book is reinforcing some of these narratives. Steve hayes wrote this in the weekly standard. So the president wants a book band, he wants a political opponent in jail and for good measure maybe the former fbi director too. He thinks his former top advisor is insane. This isnt normal, and its not just trump being trump. The preferred dodge of elected republicans. Its a reflection of the president s troubled mind and his erratic irrational judgment. Is this a fair critique . His reaction only reinforces the point Michael Wolff is making. That part is absolute lly tr. The weird thing, theres the child insane level, but then this same week they did an offshore drilling policy change, they did a pakistan policy change, theyre doing marijuana, theyre doing daca, theyre doing iran. Theres like a policy going on which trump must have some involvement in. So the insanity is there, but we shouldnt reduce it to a fairy tale, the man is a king george because there is a policy process going on. Must he have some involvement . If donald trump is also impaired, because i think some of the moat frightening revelations were about the potential that donald trump is not in full possession of his cognitive faculties. If theres a policy agenda going on, its not clear that its Donald Trumps. Its very clear Mitch Mcconnell saying hell sign anything we put in front of him. People who have ajegendagendas, dont care what donald trump does, they can do whatever they want and agendas that were not voted for by the majority of the American People. These are not people who are t accountable to the American People can literally do what they want. Two things. The first is that, of course, policy does actually require the appella president. I dont think we should that happens has nothing to do with him. So theres the admission we see all these problems but they are getting things done. There was a period where they werent getting things done so somethings changed. Maybe thats john kelly. Maybe its Something Else but its happening. But the president s reaction to the book is whats elevated it from being basically tabloid fodder, something we would read in the daily mail or elsewhere, not that i read the daily mail she said, innocently. Thats a british paper. I know, i know, but it is fun. But that has elevated it to be Something Real because his reaction to it has been absolutely staggering. Also whats elevated it is Steve Bannons on the record stuff. He has as much patron st. Currency in that world as anyone except donald trump himself. The break between the two of them is very, very significant, from a pure political perspective. Its base splitting potentially. Maybe not splitting down the months well talk about how steve bannon is back in the fold. With a new book. All right. Well pause it here. Up next, senator Lindsey Graham wants the former british spy who came up with the infamous dossier to be investigated. Why investigate Christopher Steele . Ill ask him that. That comes up next with senator gr what we do every night is like something out of a strange dream. Except that the next morning. It all makes sense. Fedex powers Global Commerce deep knowledge of industries. And, yes. Maybe a little magic. Going somewhere . Whoooo. Heres some advice. Tripadvisor now searches more. Than 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want and save you up to 30 . Trust this birds words. Tripadvisor. Why do people put why does your tummy go grumbily, grumbily, grumbily . No more questions for you ouph, that milk in your cereal was messing with you, wasnt it . Try lactaid, its real milk without that annoying lactose. Good, right . Mmm, yeah. Lactaid. The milk that doesnt mess with you. Thisreally passionate about i really want to help. I was on my way out of this life. There are patients out there that dont have a lot of time. Finally, it was like the sun rose again and i was going to start fighting back now. When those patients come to me and say, you saved my life. My life was saved by a two week old targeted therapy drug. Thats what really drives me to to save lives. Welcome back. Even before President Trump was inaugurated, republicans promised to get to the bottom of russian interference with the 2016 president ial election. On friday senators Chuck Grassley of iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina issued whats called a criminal referral of Christopher Steele to the Justice Department. Steele, as some of you know, is the former british spy who produced the infamous dossier on candidate donald trump. In other words, the two republican senators are asking for an investigation of a man who many believe was simply trying to expose russian meddling. So joining me now to discuss this and some other issues is senator Lindsey Graham. Sna senator graham, welcome back. Thank you. I want to play something you said to me one year ago tomorrow. Here it is. If after having been briefed by our intelligence leaders, donald trus would be incredibly unnerving to me because the evidence is overwhelming. If after the briefing he is still unsure, that will shake me to my core about his judgment. Senator graham, just yesterday the president again referred to the russia investigation as a hoax. Right. I take it you must still be unnerved . Well, the president does now finally believe that the russians stole the emails from the dnc and hacked and clinton. He does . And the russians yeah, yeah. But he believes that collusion is a hoax. All i can say is it is not a hoax the russians stole the emails. They did interfere in our elections. We now know that trump junior met with the russians in trump tower and that bob mueller is doing a great job. Hes the right guy at the right time. He needs to be allowed to do his job. And whether or not theres collusion, bob mueller will tell us. Ive seen no collusion, but the idea of Jeff Sessions being able to investigate the campaign he was on is unacceptable. Jeff sessions did the right thing. It would be impossible for him to look into the Trump Campaign activities with the russians. Mr. Mueller had to be appointed as special counsel. But we need a Second Special counsel to look at the way the department of justice conducted themselves. All right. Before i get to that i want to ask you, does the president s behavior towards russia and Vladimir Putin throughout his first year in office at all raise any suspicions with you . Ive always ive always said he had a blind spot to russia but things are changing for the better. He finally allowed the ukraine to be given defensive weapons. But when it comes to russia, ive said on your show a million times he has an attitude toward putin that i think is counterproductive. The president does believe his intel agencies. He is firmly telling the world he didnt collude with the russians, and we n on that. Were going to let mr. Mueller tell us whether or not this campaign colluded with the russians. I will do everything i can to make sure that mr. Mueller does his job. But theres other things about the department of justice and this investigation that bother me greatly, and i think we need a special counsel to look at those things. How does a Second Special counsel right now somehow not become disruptive to mr. Muellers ability to do his job . I dont think mr. Mueller can look at mr. Strzok, i cant remember the gentlemans name, but the guy that was in charge of the clinton email investigation was fired by mr. Mueller because we discovered emails between mr. Strzok and miss doesnt that make you feel better about mr. Mueller, that he fired before anybody brought it up and it became a rightwing conspiracy . Absolutely it makes me feel good about mr. Mueller but it doesnt make me feel good about mr. Heres what one of the emails said. I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in andys office that theres no way that he gets elected, but im afraid we cant take that risk. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40. This is the guy in charge of investigating clinton who called trump an idiot. When you look at those emails, he had a political bias against trump, but i want to know who was in andys office and i want to know did this fbi agent feel like he had to take the law in his own hands and create an insurance policy against an outcome of an election he may not have liked. Do you think it was a political bias . How do you know it wasnt something that he had found in his investigation . I want to know what the insurance policy was. He was fired by mr. Mueller correctly, but i dont think the department of justice ask investigate themselves. Mr. Orr, the number four guy at the de that produced the dossier. Did mr. Orr interact with mr. Steele . If he did, thats a conflict of interest. During the time that mr. Steele was being an informant for the fbi, we now know he was shopping the dossier to journalist outlets all over the world, which is inconsistent in my view with being a reliable informant. Theres a bunch of stuff about the department of justice, how they conducted themselves that need to be looked at just as much as trump needs to be looked at. Im going to insist a special counsel look at these things. Let me ask you, though, to tie mr. Steele with the word criminal unnerved folks that are friends and allies of yours. Heres mark salter, longtime aide to senator mccain. He writes to you on twitter. He writes this. From all credible accounts, steele is a solid guy who was so worried that americas enemy, putin, had compromising info on trump that he exposed himself to risk to bring it enforcement. Thats the act of an ally, not a criminal. And then he directs that comment to you. What would you say to mr. Salter about mr. Steeles integrity . I dont know mr. Steele. All i can tell you is what ive seen in the classified file. Mr. Steele was on the payroll of fusion gps who was being paid by the Democratic Party to do Opposition Research on donald trump. While he was working with the fbi, he was shopping this dossier all over the world. Thats not what an informant should do. I dont want Lindsey Graham to make these decisions, i want a special counsel to look at not only how mr. Steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the dossier, whether mr. Orr whose wife worked for fusion gps alongside mr. Steele, what involvement did he have in the dossier, and i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton email investigation had a political bias against trump for clinton to the point that it was a sham but i can tell you somebody needs to look. If you believe Robert Mueller should be looking at the Trump Campaign, count me in. But if you ignore all this stuff, youre blind. Mr. Steele is not an american citizen. Right. Do you want him extradited . He was asked to appear before our committee. Come in and tell us what you did. In a public filing in england he was sued for libel based on the dossier. He said in response to the lawsuit that he didnt give the document to buzzfeed, but he did give it to journalists throughout the world, talked about the contents of the dossi dossier. Mr. Comey told President Trump heres this dossier, its unverified. I dont think an informant for the fbi should be taking the product and shopping it around to journalists throughout the world. The system doesnt work that way. Let somebody other than senator graham look at this. I think mr. Orr had a conflict of interest if he worked with mr. Steele because his wife worked with mueller fired, the way he conducted the clinton email investigation should scare us all. It could be trump today, you tomorrow. So the fbi needs to play by the rules too. I support mr. Mueller, but somebody needs to look at the department of justice. Senator, you are painting a picture of a Lawless Department of justice and a lawless fbi, totally filled with political partisanship. Do you really believe this . I believe that mr. Strzok was a political hack. I believe that mr. Orr had a conflict of interest. His wife worked for the organization that produced the dossier. If he interacted with mr. Steele, that is wrong. I believe mr. Mueller fired mr. Strzok for a reason but thats not the end of the inquiry. I believe theres plenty of evidence that the russians interacted with the Trump Campaign and mr. Mueller will get to the bottom of it. The fbi is a great organization, but no organization is subject cant be looked at. If youre not worried about mr. Strzok being in charge of the clinton email investigation given his attitude towards the clintons and trump and what he said, then i think youre blind to the fact that this whole investigation needs to be looked at independently. Ive got to ask you something. The president sort of joked with you the other day and he said, boy, lindsey used to be a great enemy of mine and now hes a great friend of mine. Whats changed . A lot of your friends have been asking me that. Hey, ask the senator why hes suddenly cozying up to President Trump. What would you say to them . Because hes president of the United States. Hes going to make a decision about immigration ive been working on for a decade. Hes president of the United States and going to make a decision about north korea, which is one of the biggest threats to the world at large. Hes going to decide whether or not to stay in the iranian agreement. He beat me like a dog. I used every adjective on the planet. I lost, he won. I feel an obligation to help him where i can. Ive enjoyed working with him. I dont think hes 2017. And i want to help him where i can and we should all want him to be successful. Hes got a lot on his plate. If he asks you to serve in his cabinet, would you say yes . No. Okay. Thats definitive. No ifs, ands or buts. We will not be hearing the name secretary graham on any Cabinet Agency . You got it. Senator graham, that got a laugh from the instudio audience from here. Thats a hard crowd too. Thank you for coming on and sharing your views, as always, sir. Happy new year. Thank you. When we come back, the economy is strong and President Trump often brags about job growth under his leadership. But hows he really doing on to most people, i look like most people. But on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. Fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. Fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. Lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. 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Listerine® bring out the bold™ wiback like it could used to . Neutrogena hydro boost water gel. With hyaluronic acid it plumps skin cells with intense hydration and locks it in. For supple, hydrated skin. Hydro boost. From neutrogena welcome back. Its Data Download time. After a rocky first year in office, President Trump consistently points to one highlight, a strong economy. That includes a booming stock market with the dow climbing 25 and the Unemployment Rate sitting at a paltry 4. 1 . But what about when it comes to jobs . Well, it was a good year, but maybe not as go there were actually more jobs created in 2016. President obamas last year in office. Over 2. 2 million, than in 2017, President Trumps first year, about 2 million. 2017 was actually the weakest year for job growth since 2010. Maybe a sign that a relatively good economy doesnt have much more room for growth. But what about the jobs President Trump promised voters hed bring back during his campaign, specifically manufacturing and coal mining . Well, both industries have seen slight upticks of 1. 6 each but they have a long way to go. But thats not nothing. But even with all of this good news, there are still some economic challenges, including Labor Force Participation and wages. In 2017, the percentage of the population that was actively seeking a job was actually down marginally and that was even with all of the good news about the economy, which should have lured more of these workers back. So while wages were marginally up, about 60 cents an hour, there was not improvement there. The numbers from 2017 while good, not great. President trump will take credit for some of the good job numbers as all president s do, but in truth the jobs numbers from 2017 looked more like a continuation of the recovery trend set in recent years than a new or better direction. When we come back, end game. 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Back now with end game. Were wondering this morning whatever happened to the dont tread on me republican party. This week attorney general Jeff Sessions did away with the handsoff approach in enforcing federal marijuana laws in states where its been legalized. Federal prosecutors now can use their own discretion in deciding whether and how to enforce antipot laws in states where its legal to grow, buy and sell. Now, in addition to the move on the marijuana industry, the Trump Administration also opened up offshore drilling, including in buddy, rick scott, pushed back. And it has threatened to punish states with socalled sanctuary cities. Its a far cry from dont tread on me. But democrats are always for states rights when the republicans run the federal government and the republicans are for states rights when the democrats run the federal government. Joy reid, i thought the most fascinating thing about the pot decision with Jeff Sessions, i have yet to see a single elected republican official praise the decision. Right. It doesnt go with their state rights mantra. But i think what youre seeing out of the Justice Department is the answer to the question of why Jeff Sessions puts up with the ritual humiliation of himself by donald trump. Having this job is allowing him to pursue some of his longtime obsessions. And i think besides stopping noneuropean immigration, his other big obsession has been marijuana. And he has this personal belief that it is the worst drug in the world and that he personally is on a mission to stop its legalization and because you have a white house that is what it is, with who Michael Wolff has described him to be, it frees this attorney general to pursue those obsessions to whatever degree he wants. Republicans dont care as long as theyre getting what they want, theyre allowing him to do. It to defend the attorney general here, as the spokesperson said, they dont make law. They enforce law. If Congress Wants to change the law, they should do it. Congress, they beat their chests, some of them, but i dont see anybody offering up a bill here yet. Offering up a bill would require a fight. It would require going on the record about this. As far as what Jeff Sessions is doing, this is all going to be executed by prosecutors. What will be interesting is to watch the prosecutors who want to sort of selectively find the marijuana user in denver see, i dont buy that they will if they ever want to run for office in colorado. What if they dont. What if they decide they have the same pet issue Jeff Sessions does and all of a sudden you have these cause celebs popping up all over the place who are in great criminal jeopardy. Ill put up a quick poll here. It is the least polarizing ise literally over 50 support among democrats, independents and republicans. Its the only social issue where the lines actually move together. The argument against it is that for upper middle class kids, the weed is fine but there are 9 Million People outside the labor force and they cant pass a drug test and cant get a job. For those guys the prevalence of weed is a problem. So i can see there is an argument for it. The sessions thing is interesting to me because you have all these people in trump world, like sessions, like Lindsey Graham, who are trying to do something good for the country or what thenl is good for the country and theyre stuck working with this guy trump and stuck in an administration which is a snake pit with no sense of camaraderie and no sense of teamwork. Theyre trying to do something good for the country whether you see it or not and theyre stuck dealing with this madhouse. I sort of have some respect for the way theyre trying to struggle through this problem. Can i just say that this is the war on drugs, particularly the disproportionately destroyed the lives of particularly africanamericans and latinos in this country who ironically are going to be doubly pursued now thanks to Jeff Sessions, who isnt exactly a friend to these communities. Those same people are locked out of the industry as its being legalized for affluent mainly white americans who can go in cash rich from california into places where i grew up, denver, start businesses with the cash that they have gotten from silicon valley, et cetera, and the very black and brown people who have been thrown into prison for selling the exact same drug come out and cant even get a license to sell it legally. So Jeff Sessions is destroying lives. He seems to be in the business of destroying lives. I dont see it as doing a thing thats good for the country. I dont think thats exactly fair. Theres a lot of ambivalence among conservatives about pot and about legalization. I think what we see is the reflection of that. There is the dont tread on me libertarian strain that thinks that people should be allowed to do what they want to do. Theres the other strain that thinks are drugs are a corrosive the communities that you talk about. I dont think there is much argument that it is very harmful to certain people that can sit around, not work and have access to drugs legally that perhaps are going to make their fate even worse. But theres another question here which is very interesting, a subtext. Were all talking about Jeff Sessions as if hes kind of a pretty good, pretty serious guy in this administration. May not like these decisions, but no one is saying hes the worst man in this administration. Thats a big but wait a minute, heres whats amazing. I am. Except mark meadows and jim jordan, who want him to resign, two key members of the freedom act and i know its russia related. If anybody needs a dog in this town, i think its Jeff Sessions. He better get one if he wants a friend. The president wants him out. Freedom caucus members want him out. Now you have angry governors of washington, california i think thats success in this town. A year ago we would have said that he was possibly the worst appointee in this administration. Were not talking like that an can we remember that donald trump said wheres my roy cohn and you have Jeff Sessions whos now willing to be his roy cohn pursuing investigations of his former political opponent, willing to turn the Justice Department into a wholly politicized outfit who is there to molify the ego and needs of donald trump. Im sorry, but the only reason anyone wants him to hang around is so that bob mueller wont be fired in his absence. I think that the argument that he is roy cohn is just as good for eric holder. Unfortunately, i am past time but theyll continue this debate. Thats all we have for today. Thanks for watching. Great to be back in 2018. Well be back next week, because if its sunday, its meet the press. You can see more end game and postgame sponsored by boeing on the meet the press facebook page. Before we start, i just want to say if anyone still doesnt have fios, please stay out of the way so your lag doesnt get us all killed, ben. Whats so good about fios anyway . Uh. Whats so great about a 100 fiberoptic network that makes your gaming system actually work awesomely . Hey. Did you take out the trash . Haha, garbage boy dad, i already took out ben. Its not funny. Gaming is best on a 100 fiberoptic network. So get fios. Now, just 79. 99 per month with a 2year price guarantee with a 2year agreement. Your husband wants to stay free from artificial ingredients. You want to stay free from artificial preservatives. And your debit card wants to stay on a diet. Fill your cart with Small Victories like giants natures promise brand. Great prices on over 1,300 items. Eat well for less. Only at my giant