this with a great degree of satisfaction. russia got away with it. they carried out a massive information operation against the united states, an information operation that was designed according to u.s. intelligence to help president trump, and now they have gotten away with it. trump has long denied that the information operation even happened, and he denied that his campaign actively colluded with the russians, although they did on many occasions flirt with the russians, meet with the russians, solicit help regarding e-mails from the russians, but the mueller report concluded that the amount of coordination that was taking place and the meetings didn t rise to the level of a criminal conspiracy. so russia can look back and say it carried out this information operation to disrupt american politics, to help its favored candidate, and it got away with it, and that only encourages russia to do the same kind of
rosenstein to get rid of the special counsel, perhaps the most glaring example that we have seen of obstruction of justice in the mueller report. it s critical to hear from don mcgahn. and unlike many others, he seemed concerned about what was happening to say the least in his testimony, which i m sure everybody would love to hear more exactly about what he was thinking there and what his reaction was to what he was asked to do. nbc s mike mebley, and michael schmidt, thank you very much. there are other things happening on capitol hill believe it or not, for the first time in seven months, overwhelming confirming mark esper as defensive secretary, 90-8. it ends the longest period of time the pentagon has gone without a congressionally confirmed leader in its history. all eight no votes came from democrats and none of the six senators running for the
work, bill crystal. your reaction to the president. it would be astounding, except we have been astounded so many times. my reaction is this is why he can t have a second term. first term he was checked in various ways. jeff sessions, jim mattis, general kelly, a lot of people prevented him from doing certain things he wanted to do. he has filled his administration with yes men and women. it s going to be worse. think if he gets reelected. how emboldened is he now. how emboldened will he be if the mueller report comes out. challenged by a democrat in 2020. he will have won reelection. a second term will make the first term look like business as usual. if you look at what he said, he may be ignorant of the constitution, may not understand what he s saying, i believe he means what he s saying. he s shown a willingness to use executive action, national emergencies as negotiating
that would not be wise on their part, just wouldn t be wise, mika. no. well, i think we have to watch and learn today. we ll see what happens. still ahead on morning joe, the senate finally passes a bill to compensate 9/11 first responders and this picture says it all, a smiling jon stewart standing by as mitch mcconnell walks past. plus, don mcgahn has a starring role in the mueller report. his name mentioned hundreds of times. as democrats want to hear more and are set to take the e-white house lawyer to court to make it happen. we have new reporting on that. you re watching morning joe. we ll be right back. you re watching morning joe. we ll be right back. maria ramirez?
dishonest as any attorney general since john mitchell. he was for the most part an institutionalist and tried to keep it between the lines, despite the fact that barr did everything he could to mislead or outright lie about the findings of the mueller report. he has already sent a letter seeking guidance from the justice department, guidance that he knows would further prevent him from painting outside of any lines. what do we expect from this guy. is it fair to call him an institutionalist, and will that be his default setting rather than really letting the american people know what was behind his thinking in this report, and why they should be concerned about these ten instances of the president possibly breaking the law, obstructing justice. well, joe, he certainly is