national championship in atlanta, but the presence of donald trump could steal the show. what the commander in chief hopes to accomplish. we begin this hour with some breaking news. steve bannon apologizing to president trump and his family for remarks he made in michael wolff s new book, fire and fury. well, that apology includes, i regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding don junior has diverted attention from the president s historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency. that first year documented in salacious detail in fire and fury, which he defended yet again this morning on nbc s meet the press. i went into this and a decent part of the country went into this, his entire staff went into this thinking maybe this can work. it s different, even peculiar, but who knows what can happen here. and that was exactly my frame of reference. i would have been delighted to have written a contrarian
secretary of the department of education, so they really don t care. and pence himself has a bad record for education. the national education association rated him 17% because of his record as a congressman and as a governor. so, it s ironic that they would come and insert themselves into the championship of the college football. and mike pence having a bad record of making it through a football game, as the vice president of the united states. jason johnson, situate this game for us politically, if you could. sarah huckabee sanders, white house press secretary, saying that this is a visit theriot of trump country, in light of who s playing in this game tomorrow night. give us your sevents political import here. i think atlanta s new mayor bottoms would have something to say about atlanta being the heart of trump country as well as most of metro atlanta. look, you know, david, what this really speaks to, and i think everybody else has just sort of touched upon this, donald trump ha
saying his comments about the russia meeting at trump tower were aimed at paul manafort, not donald trump jr., saying my comments were aimed at paul manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the russians operate. he should have known they were not aimed at don junior. also here to weigh in is doug thornell and gop strategist matt mackowiak. great to have you both here. matt, let me start with you and this apology. what difference does it make, coming as it comes now, four days after the publication of this book? is it likely to change much when it comes to the president s estimation of steve bannon or bannon s influence in the republican party? it remains to be seen. it s obviously a very late apology. sounds like bannon was prepared to apologize initially and then took offense at the strong statements that the president put out after the book excerpts
trump jr., for his negative comments. well, bannon s apology came after the white house began to downplay his role in donald trump s presidential campaign. earlier this morning, fire and fury author michael wolff outlined bannon s 2016 role on nbc s meet the press. he made donald trump president. he believes this. not only does he believe this, it s absolutely true. steve went into this campaign in the middle of august. it had fallen apart. it had imploded. it was over. steve was the guy who said, you know, there is a case here. it s the economy, stupid, if we go through florida, ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, we can pull this off. michael wolff will continue to unpack his bombshell book fire and fury here on msnbc. on monday, joe and mika welcome wolff to the morning joe table and then he will sit down with lawrence o donnell at 10:00 p.m.
vindictive person. that s the quote. so look, if you re steve bannon, your power rests really on your proximity to the president and having a platform. steve bannon says he s someone who wants to carry the torch of trumpism, but look, this whole thing comes at a time when steve bannon s financial backers, the mercer family, have cut ties with him. his perch atop breitbart news appears threatened, and then the president saying steve bannon at one point lost his mind because of the comments that he gave to michael wolff. michael wolff, we should say, was on meet the press this morning, as you pointed out, and he highlighted another complicating factor in the relationship between bannon and president trump, that bannon, according to wolff s account, takes credit for trump s 2016 win. take a look. this was his he looked at this as his moment. he made donald trump president, and the president he believes this? not only does he believe this, it s absolutely true. steve went into