The president , john dowd. For more, msnbcs jeff ben tet white house, nbc news and msnbc legal analyst, senior fellow and government toids at the bookings institution, and editor and chief, carrie johnson, and jeff mason, reuters correspondent. Weve had development in the last hour, reaction to the report thats come out so far. What . Richard, the topline takeaway from the New York Times report is the white House Counsel don mcghan, over the fear that the white house was setting him up to take the fall over any obstruction of justice, is now cooperating with the special counsel. Its a fairly breathtaking revelation. The New York Times is reporting that in a series of interviews totaling some 30 hours, mcgann is telling the special counsel about the president s outrage, his anger over the russia investigation and how he has urged mcgann to respond to it. This includes things like firing james comey, pressuring the attorney general, jeff sessions, to do the president s bidding. Also atte
Tonight. The New York Times political reporter ken vogel. Msnbc political analyst and White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post philip rucker. Kwheef Political Correspondent for Politico Magazine tim alberta. And Washington Bureau chief for vice news, shawna thomas. I want to start with a piece that phil cowrote this week in the Washington Post. Quote, President Trumps advisors and allies are increasingly worried that he has neither the staff nor the strategy to protect himself from a possible democratic take over of the house. Which would empower the Opposition Party to shower the administration with subpoenas or even pursue impeachment charges. Within trumps orbit there is a consensus that his current legal team is not equipped to effectively navigate an onslaught of congressional demands and there is broad discussion about bringing in new lawyers experienced in white collar and political scandals. Winter is coming, said what trump ally, in close communication with the white h
Well have a late live update ahead. We begin with a huge announcement that Paul Manafort, the man who offered to work for donald trump for free, is tonight working for the feds. The man who has enjoyed the good life after a lifetime of orbiting at or near the top of the republican solar system has been living in jail of late. Today he pleaded guilty to two federal counts and made a deal to cooperate in all ways with special counsel Robert Mueller. He has admitted to conspiring against the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice. He avoids a second trial in federal court. The deal he signed with prosecutors orders him to cooperate truly, truthfully, completely with the government in any and all matters as to which the government deems the cooperation relevant. You may recall President Trump was sympathetic to manafort praising him for not breaking under pressure from the feds. One of the reasons i respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial. They make up stories
Sure he finishes his job without political interference. And im here to tell anybody in the country who listens, that this is so hypocritical of my friends on the other side. When it was their president , kavanaugh was right. When youre talking about roe v. Wade, its okay to promise the nation it will never be overturned. Its okay to pick a democratic staff member of this committee, but its not okay to pick somebody thats been a life long republican. People see through this. You had a chance and you lost. If you want to pick judges, from your way of thinking, then you better win an election. I voted for two of your choices. Soed mi sotomayor and kagan. I got a lot of crap. Why did i do it . I thought they were qualified by any reasonable measure, given the history of the senate. But we have turned the history of the senate upside down. I found that they were different than i would have picked, sotomayor and kagan, but my any reasonable measure they were qualified. Youve been on the cou
Summer, them determining that, that really is hanging out there with us having no idea where that went. Weve got woodwards bullet proof reporting that mcmaster discovered that. He verified it. It wasnt something that just looked like russian propaganda. The National Security council determined that it was. If we had a functioning congress, that is the sort of thing that you would expect there to be congressional investigations about. Also there does seem to be, as i was talking with mr. Woodward about just a moment ago, there does seem to be real sensitivity within the white house to the questions raised about Jared Kushners finances and business dealings, with all sorts of people close to the president raising the prospect that that might have been the real reason behind lots of his behavior, everything from firing james comey to picking fights with jeff sessions, a lot of people in the white house attributed freakouts from the president and outbursts from the president as efforts to