mueller s team is not leaking and tonight s story does not change my judgment. i could be wrong. the sourcing is very ambiguous, as many skillful reporters will do that intentionally. that information could have come from lawyers and other people who have been interviewed by mueller. i just wanted to put that out there. michael schmidt is a skillful reporter. let s put that out there as well. peter, you re at the white house. what s the mood been like lately? what s the mood like today? well, you know, it s every day. when they thought they were getting off to a nice slow start to the new year, it s opened with a bang instead. they thought they d have more time to prepare for this book as we re about to talk about in the next segment. they thought they would have a little more leeway and breathing space given the big victory on the tax cuts just before the holiday. instead, boom, right out of the gun, they re facing questions about the president s mental health, the russia investig
that is tonight s last word, the 11th hour starts now. new york times, how the president tried to stop attorney general jeff sessions from recusing himself in the russia investigation. knowledge now in the hands of robert mueller. plus, the bombshell book that has rocked the trump world, set to go on sale early despite a legal threat to cease and desist. and the trump white house now facing questions on the president s mental fitness for office. the 11th hour begins now. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. i am katie tur in for brian williams. day 350 of the trump administration brings a bombshell report on president trump s attempt to interfere in the russia investigation. the new york times headline tonight, obstruction in kristen
sze a sha as trump struggles to keep grip on the russia investigation. michael schmidt of the times writing, he gave firm instructions in march to the white house s top lawyer. stop the attorney general jeff sessions from recusing himself and the justice department s investigation into whether mr. trump s associates had helped a russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. the times citing two sources saying mcgahn tried and he failed. the report goes on. mr. mcgahn was unsuccessful and the president erupted in anger in front of numerous white house officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him. mr. trump said he expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him in the way he believed robert f. kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother john f. kennedy. and eric h. holder, jr., had done for barack obama. you might remember last week president trump sat down for an impromptu 30-minute interview
satisfaction, they resulted in another round of trump s dissing bannon. author michael wolf f will be a guest on the today show tomorrow morning. let s bring in jonathan la mere associated press, and david jolly, former republican congressman from florida. gentlemen, welcome. good to be with you, katie. about 20 minutes ago the president tweeted about this book, obviously going to make michael wolf pretty happy with the continuing book sales. i authorize zero access to white house. actually turned him down many times for author of phony book. i never spoke to him for a book. full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don t exist. look at this guy s past and watch what happens to him and sloppy steve. he s got a new nickname. we should also point out that michael wolf was in the white house quite a bit, right, jonathan? we would see him. he was a fairly constant presence in the white house. so even though he authorized no access, he was there. he was there.
huckabee sanders a little earlier about this today. listen. has the president threatened with 20 lawsuits and only pressed two. why should they be concerned? regardless whether or not there is a lawsuit, they should be concerned about peddling fake stories. they should be concerned about putting out information that is not true. they should be concerned about the fact that we re spending all of our time here focused on talking about this instead of things that people in this country care about. i think that is a really sad process, and i think that that should be everyone s concern. is the president committed to following through with these lawsuits? i think that s a question you d have to talk to his attorneys about and whether or not that move forward and what that looks like. david, i imagine if a book came out about past administrations like this book, it s hard to imagine one of those happening because i don t think anybody would have this sort of access. but if one did,