Analysis and discussion of the days top stories and compelling issues from Lawrence ODonnell. Joining us now intelligence and National Security reporter for nbc news, politics editor at theroot. Com and former Chief Adviser or al gore and a former senior aid to president obama. When a trump tweet ends with National Disgrace, a tweet that includes a misspelling by the president , it reminds me of the days when misspelling was a National Disgrace when done by the Vice President of the United States, dan quayle on the word potato, days that no one can really remember at this point. Here is the president and the only reason i read the tweet is to note the level of hysteria, which increases in direct proportion, it appears, to just how disturbed the president is by the news hes reading or being read to him in the New York Times. Lawrence, you can almost say he was unhinged. You could, yes. By the way he seems to be
responding to these things. I have to say i have been avoiding that word sin
News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Back in the jury room. So how this all unfolded, just after 11 00 a. M. , the jury did send a note to the court asking the judge, judge, what do we do if we cant come to a unanimous decision on one of the 18 counts. That implies that perhaps they have reached a decision unanimously on the other 17 counts, but they havent said that definitively. What the judge had to do was he had to come up with instructions to give the jury as it pertained to them going back and deliberating yet again. That just happened. In just the past few minutes, the judge instructed the jury, go back into the jury room and continue to work on that one final count. Try to continue to work, to come to some unanimous verdict on that one remaining count. Outside of the presence of the jury, the judge indicated that he might be prepared to accept a partial verdict if they werent able to come to a conclusion on that one remaining count that they seem to hav
Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters in new york. Day 578 of the Trump Administration. And tonight the president of the United States is coming off a vicious string of personal attacks, comparing people to dogs and rats and calling Robert Mueller discredited and disgraced. He is neither. And now tonight the president is talking about what is at the heart of all of it. The russia investigation. Now that he knows his white house lawyer has testified fully before the mueller team. This afternoon, reuters interviewed President Trump. They report, he is, quote, worried that any statements under oath he provides to special counsel Robert Mueller could be used to bring Perjury Charges against him. Quote, trump echoed the concerns of his top lawyer in the probe, Rudolph Giuliani, who has warned that any sitdown with mueller could be a perjury trap. Reuters quotes the president as saying association if i Say Something and he, meaning comey, says something, and it is my
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president is trying to say i have control and power here during a news cycle when there s questions whether he lost control of his legal operation don mcgahn answering 30 hours of questions. i m not sure if that s what he was trying to say or not. the context of his overall frustration with that probe, he said he felt like things were going really well for his administration broadly, for the country broadly, but not in that particular area. so it was in that broader context that he was giving that answer. on the subject of whether or not he will testify, answer questions under oath to robert mueller s team, let me read you what he said and in the greater context is very interesting too. he indicated he s not inclined to do it. if i say something and comey says something and it s my word against his and he s best friends with mueller, so mueller may say i believe comey, even if i m telling the truth that makes me a liar and that s no good. that s the type of language rudy giuliani h
actually. reporter: the president now echoing the concerns of his attorney rudy giuliani, that an interview could be a, quote, perjury trap. saying, it s my word against comey. and he s best friends with mueller. so mueller might say, well, i believe comey and even if i m telling the truth, that makes me a liar. that s no good. how do we know what the truth is? you re talking about whether or not the president asked james comey to go easy on michael flynn. that s right. they will possibly charge him with perjury should he give that answer. that s why i m saying, in situations like this, the prosecutors, the truth is relative. reporter: the debate over an interview coming as sources tell cnn that the president was unsubtled that he did not know that the conversations between the white house counsel don mcgahn and mueller lasted 30 hours over several months or that his legal team did not conduct a full debriefing with mcgahn after the fact.