clear that donald j. trump is a target of the investigation. we ll have legal analysis what that means for a possible indictment in just a moment. meanwhile trump s former running mate is now his newest challenger in the 2024 presidential race. we ll have more from mike pence s campaign launch. plus that hazardous haze that s been covering the northeast is expected to kick back up today. we ll get the latest time line for when the wildfire smoke from canada could finally clear out. good morning and welcome to way too early on this thursday, june 8th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. nbc news has learned that former president donald trump s attorneys have been told that trump is a target of the justice department s investigation into the former president s handling of classified documents after he left the white house. prosecutors told trump s attorneys about their client being a target in that probe during their meeting monday at the doj headqu
you still believe them to be true? yeah, of course they ll sue me again when i say that, but yeah i do. they want me to lie. basically they re suing me in order to lie to them. i m sorry, i can t do it. and the most important thing it doesn t have to be absolutely true. it has to be supportable. they have to prove i was deliberately lying, which i wasn t. rudy giuliani continue said to standby his lies about two former election workers from the state of georgia just days after a federal jury decided he must pay the women $148 million. but those women aren t done yet with the former new york city mayor. plus an update on the biden administration s push for a scaled back israeli offensive in gaza. it comes as israeli officials say they are considering what the next phase of the war will look like. and also ahead, we ll explain how trump administration immigration policies are playing a large role in ongoing negotiations over foreign aid. good morning and welcome to w
today after an unexpected twist in the donald trump classified documents case. in the new indictment filed thursday, federal prosecutors accused trump of attempting to alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence. inducing someone else to do so, and showing classified documents to visitors at his golf club in bedminster, new jersey. the new york times suggesting the new charge highlights long running obstruction questions and the new yorker, with this take. the boss and his botched cover-up. joining me now is peter baker, msnbc political analyst, chief white house correspondent for the new york times, and coauthor of the divider, trump in the white house 2017 to 2021. welcome, my friend. hey, by the way, peter, your book coauthor and wife wrote that last one. and the indictment record says,
some of these members they don t know what to ask for. there s numerous different things they re frustrated about, so we ll listen to them. we ll solve this. we ve got a small majority. there s a little chaos going on, but the focus i always keep is joining us now play book coauthor and the chief washington correspondent for politico ryan lizza. great to see you. let s start there with rebellion from members of the far-right. let s get your analysis how mccarthy is playing this. and do we think this is step in the right direction to his speakership being threatened? well, just when and i plead guilty to this, a lot of us were writing analysis that speaker kevin mccarthy had sort of tamed the most ram bungtious members of the house freedom caucus with
and play book coauthor. i want to get a sense of how you think all of trumps legal cases could impact his standing in the gop. the institution writes quote, trump ability to call the shots in the upcoming republican primary is being tested. many of the primaries will feature an internal fight between trump endorsed candidates and mainstream republicans. for example, trump endorsed 12 candidates running in republican primaries. if his word was as powerful as he thinks it is, opposition to the candidates should melt away. but that s not happening. very few of the races are cake walks for the trump endorsed candidate. how are these legal set backs going to hurt trumps standing as a king maker in the 2022 primary and ultimate his attempts at a come back in the 2024 presidential election. it s hard to know. i think it s less about the