investigations besides the obstruction of justice case. so it doesn t really tell us anything. i think pete is right, we really can t guess. and all the predictions have been wrong so far. i have said from the beginning i didn t think it was wrapping up as soon as people said it was. i personally am ready for this guessing game to be over, pete, so i m excited for you to report that this actually is coming. my information is that the mueller report is coming out last tuesday. there you are. another story you re tracking is the arguments around the president, his hotel and the emoluments clause. the ever-popular emoluments clause. this is the first time a federal court has chewed over what it means in our entire history because there s never been any litigation about this. today the fourth circuit court in richmond heard arguments because a judge in maryland said a lawsuit can go forward brought by the attorney general of maryland and the district of columbia who are saying it s
welker. you just heard her asking questions of president there. also joining us, michael steel, former spokesman for house speaker john boehner, and former democratic congresswoman donna edwards. kristen, the mccain topic, that was your question there, he said, i was never a fan of john mccain and i never will be. and this is obviously something that has caught the attention of course of john mccain s family, his daughter meghan mccain urging him to spend time with his own family. pretty remarkable that he is still focused on this. and i would just add as well that democrats frankly were expecting the vote that john mccain took on obamacare, the president seemed to be offering an opposite narrative to that. reporter: really important point, kasie. and it is just remarkable that you would see the president of the united states continue to attack a senator months after his passing, particularly
it felt exactly like germane described, it was because i watched your segment that i knew what was going on. newly unsealed court documents revealed today show special counsel robert mueller obtained warrants against the president s former attorney and fixer michael cohen dating back to the summer of 2017. we re also learning how much evidence prosecutors already had against cohen even before they searched his office, home, and hotel room in april of last year. joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams and jill wine-banks, former assistant watergate special prosecutor and msnbc legal contributor. pete, what s significant about the timeline here? you know, we ve noted that there were a series of headlines in july of 2017, when this was unfolding, about that trump
because of popular revulsion at some of the things that the president says and does. speaking of middle of the road voters and the president, for that matter, there are some republicans facing backlash at home this week over specifically backlash at home this week over that national emergency vote. it s cutting both ways. roy blunt voted against the president and was disinvited to a republican event in missouri. cory gardner voted with the president and was slammed in a denver post editorial. what do you think this says about the state of the republican electorate right now? i think it says that the republican electorate remains fiercely loyal to the president. the base of the republican party is at this point still fiercely loyal to president trump and those that defy him do so at their peril. i think that most of the senators who voted for voted against the president on this issue are not in cycle in 2020. the great things about being a senator is you don t have to run every
explain it is that the president continues to argue against a dead man because he s a man who can t speak. and i think that for the president of the united states, what this means is that he s more focused on what happened a year ago, two years ago than he is on doing his job today and being accountable to the american people. and, you know, people can see that for what it is. and it s really rather disgusting. and michael, i don t want to lose sight of the fact that one of the things the president was attacking the personal character of john mccain and of course this was the same week that marks the return of john mccain as a prisoner of war. this is a president who did not serve. what does this kind of say about the values of the party at this point? i think it says a lot about the values of the president and the fact that he does not honor the military services, the