space where he was supposed to have signed the agreement. now, again, they want to keep it in arbitration and they have to the daniels team has to convince the court to keep it out of arbitration and keep it in the court, because believe me, the trump team, even though they didn t sign, he didn t sign that agreement, will try to bring it right back to arbitration. shannon, despite the president s words yesterday, is the truth that this administration is having a hard time filling and keeping west wing jobs filled, and is a news cycle like today part of the reason why? it s a record level of turnover. it s about 40% turnover rate so far in this presidency. there s vacancies on top of vacancies on top of vacancies. there s people doing three jobs, four jobs, in this administration. chief of staff john kelly is without deputies. he s a man doing a job that you typically have four deputies with about two deputies right
turnover among senior aides in 13 months. that, of course, is a record turnover rate for the west wing. yesterday came word of another big departure. chief economic adviser gary cohn announcing his resignation just hours after the president insisted that everybody wants to work in the white house. well, today the white house was asked about the rather constant personnel changes. so far this year, six top white house staffers have resigned. the president says there are more names to come. why are so many people leaving this administration? this administration has had a historic first year. we re going to continue to do great things. this is an intense place, as is every white house. and it s not abnormal that you would have people come and go. the president s got a number of very accomplished, smart,
president trump said that he wanted mcgahn to put out a statement that this was not true and that he would get rid of him if he didn t do that. porter relayed that message to mcgahn. mcgahn and the president then had a confrontation in the oval office in which the president said, look, this never happened. and mcgahn had to remind him of what had occurred over the summer when trump told him to call rosenstein and say that mueller had these conflicts and needed to go. just an incredible yarn. michael schmidt, one half of the writing duo of schmidt and haberman on the board tonight over at the new york times supplying our lead story. michael, thank you as always for being here with us on the show. and here to react now further, chuck rosenberg, a former u.s. attorney, former senior fbi official, currently an msnbc contributor. and we welcome back mika oyang, attorney and former staffer for the house intelligence and armed services committee. good evening and welcome to you both. ch
asked and what was said to the special counsel, and the concerns of those who are hearing trump is asking about what happened with the special counsel. there s a longstanding expectation and advice that folks who are in the center of an investigation should not speak, either with prosecutors or with witnesses, as it could create an appearance of trying to interfere with an investigation. and the president has disregarded this, disregarded it back in february 2017 when he spoke to jim comey about the flynn investigation, and now as the investigation intensifies, engaging with reince priebus about his interview, engaging with don mcgahn about reports that mcgahn had been told by trump to fire mueller. and if you re someone who is concerned about the appearance of obstruction, these types of things would alarm you. you point out in the story, you and maggie do, that i
for the payment directly or indirectly. cohen has said, in fact, that president trump vehemently denies the allegations. we should note that daniels is not suing for money but for the freedom to tell her story about her alleged affair with trump, which of course she could eventually sell for a high price. the stormy daniels drama was, of course, a major theme at this afternoon s white house press briefing. sarah huckabee sanders was asked about this story relating to daniels 12 times, including multiple questions about what the president knew. did the president approve of the payment that was made in october of 2016 by his long-time lawyer and adviser, michael cohen? look, the president has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. this case has already been won in arbitration and anything beyond that i would refer you to the president s outside council.