that s why we ve had a successful 2017, why we re going to continue to do great things as we move forward in this administration. for his part, donald trump today responded in person for the first time to steve bannon, his former chief strategist, who was a key on the record-source for the book, slamming both trump and his family members. in a statement trump claimed bannon lost his mind after leaving the white house. did steve bannon betray you, mr. president? he called me a great man last night, so he obviously changed his tune pretty quick. thank you all very much. thank you. i don t talk to him, i don t talk to him. i don t talk to him, that s just a misnomer. michael steele, former chairman of the rnc, msnbc political analyst. jr. rubin, conservative columnist for the washington post, msnbc contributor. this is extraordinary stuff. it does appear that there was not only just one-way loyalty between trump and his aides but
for the book, slamming both trump and his family members. in a statement trump claimed bannon lost his mind after leaving the white house. did steve bannon betray you, mr. president? he called me a great man last night, so he obviously changed his tune pretty quick. thank you all very much. thank you. i don t talk to him, i don t talk to him. i don t talk to him, that s just a misnomer. michael steele, former chairman of the rnc, msnbc political analyst. jr. rubin, conservative columnist for the washington post, msnbc contributor. this is extraordinary stuff. it does appear that there was not only just one-way loyalty between trump and his aides but zero loyalty between anyone and one another, anyone back and forth between the president and his staff. how surprised are you at how many people were willing to dish dirt on the president of the united states and his family? some in quotes. not surprised at all. because remember, this is an
for the president because he can say, look, i knew it wasn t going to make the investigations go away. i hated comey and i wanted him to go. we need more information. exactly. there s so much to wonder about because we don t know the context of the letter and the contents matter here, but david, the fact that he did not send this letter and apparently it was drafted before the letter from deputy a.g. rod rosenstein that was submitted as part of his firing, what does that tell you? we won t find out, but it was stephen miller, the domestic adviser who has a fire brand that helped trump draft the letter and just the fact that it went from four pages to four paragraphs, that was the statement trump released explaining that shows there was clearly problems with it, but the fact that this got to mueller shows that the process is working. this was released by the department of justice straight to mueller without the white house s permission and that
united states. but democrats are pouncing on that and saying this is really just for show. the democratic national committee said in a statement trump s noult today is a wilted fig leaf to cover up his remaining conflicts of interests and his pitiful record of charitable giving. donald trump has not released his tax returns so we don t know how much he has donated to charity himself. we do know through tax records that he has not given to the trump foundation since 2008. but over the coming weeks, we re going to see a lot more of this, donald trump showing the american people the ways in which he s going to try to disentangle himself from his multibillon dollar business the trump organization. we re expecting him to make an announcement on that next month. it s christmas and on christmas we tell the truth. i will tell our viewers that you
devoting so much time and energy to the presidency and solving the many problems facing our country and the world, i don t want to allow good work to be associated with a possible conflict of interest. shuttering the foundation isn t unexpected because it s been under investigation by the state of new york since september. but democrats aren t buying mr. trump s explanation. the deputy communications director for the dnc saying in a statement trump s announcement today is a wilted figure leaf to cover up his remaining conflicts of interest and pitiful record of giving. shuttering the foundation may not be that simple. the press secretary for new york s attorney general tweeted last night the foundation cannot legally dissolve till the investigation is complete. leland? so lauren, we have the trump foundation as it relates to donald trump. we also have the trump foundation as it relates to his son eric. that s done a lot of.