to some kind of response to these written questions. how how s it fit together and how does it advance this whole process of ending this investigation conclusively? the sequence is somewhat suspect, isn t it? just as you ve pointed out, chris. we ve waited months and months for these answers. i think it was january that robert mueller started down this path of seeking information from president trump. and now that he s got his hand-picked attorney general in place, now mideahe s ready to g answers. so i think he feels like he s in a position of empowerment at this stage of the game. but nonetheless, he ll get answers. it locks president trump into story. and he can t wiggle out of that for now. i don t think this is going to be 100% satisfactory to robert mueller, because as you point out, there s no ability to follow up with follow up questions, to observe body language or tone or inflection or any of those things. it doesn t preclude robert mueller from seeking a subpoena at some p
de gaulle and churchill walked down the champs-elysees. it s a simple explanation in that we happen to have a low-energy president. you notice every time he goes on a trip, helsinki, the middle east, asia, he makes these gaffes and gets in trouble. he s tired. he doesn t have his executive time, as they call it. and you can be sure he said, i don t want to go out there in the rain. the secret service doesn t say, no, you can t go. he s in charge of the secret service, not the other way around. anyway, while honoring veterans in an american cemetery in france on sunday, the president paused to point out that the veterans were under a tent while he was getting drenched. let s watch. we have a number of amazing veterans with us today, including six veterans of world war ii. james blaine. james? where s james? james, thank you. thank you, james. frank davida?
welcome back to hardball. nbc news is reporting tonight that after months of negotiation with prosecutors, quote, president trump s legal team is nearing completion of written answers to questions posed by special counsel robert mueller. that s according to a source familiar with the matter, who says that those answers, quote, may be submitted as early as this week. the answers. however, the story says that the answers will pertain only to matters relating to russian interference in the 2016 election, not obstruction of justice. i m joined now by barbara mcquade, a former federal prosecutor, and ken dilanian, an nbc news national security reporter. ken, what s the importance that they re going to have these answers within the week? what we don t know is what s precipitating this. is robert mueller threatening to subpoena donald trump and haul him before a grand jury? i think this is part of the negotiation that s playing out between the trump team and the
on all kinds of russia stuff, it seems to me. and i don t think roger wants to go to federal prison. i agree with you. and for the past many weeks, robert mueller has been dragging roger stone s friends and associates before the grand jury. that s where this corsi thing fits in. and it s very clear they have a communication from corsi to stone where corsi suggests he knew about that stone had the john podesta e-mails. which came from the russians. exactly. this is the whole idea. mueller is trying to look if there s a link between wikileaks and the russians and the trump campaign, going through stone and corsi. and if he establishes that, that s huge. that could be collusion. well, i m very hopeful, because we ve been all following this. i guess we re invested in getting to the truth here, barbara. we re hopeful i hope that mueller has something that truly has to do with the russians, with vladimir putin, with his gang over there and trying to undermine our elections in 2016.
that s a nonsan francispartisan. will they do that? i think they have to do that. this is just the party of no. if the democrats become the party of no and the party of subpoena, they will pay more that at the ballot box. that s not going to happen. ion after world war ii, the republicans spent two years issuing subpoenas and truman won. anyway, what do you think, the democrats and republicans, are they going to get together on things like pre-existing conditions? it s not a winner for the republicans. why didn t they do it? well, it s going to be hard. we heard what nancy pelosi said last week, but all of these democrats that are coming into the house, a lot of them ran on that they want to hold president trump accountable. there s going to be a lot of pressure on her like emoluments clauses yes, to do all of these things about tax returns and emoluments. of course! we push that here! and it s going to be very hard for president trump on the other hand to say,