Wrongfully impacts the midterm elections, which is what the democrats always intended us . The president tweeting. He also said there is no obstruction. Its called fighting back. He labeled muellers team the 13 angry democrats in charge of the russian witch hasnt. Actually, technical point here, Robert Mueller is a registered republican. As he has done in the past, President Trump teased he has damaging information about muellers investigators. Just wait until the courts get to see our unrevealed conflicts of interest. Thats trump again. He didnt explain what he was talking about, of course. Meanwhile, trumps newest lawyer Rudy Giuliani in his media blitz this weekend taking a hardline tone against muellers investigation. Giuliani told nbc last night that mueller and his investigators were being heavyhanded and were setting the president up for perjury. Lets watch. Lets talk about the mueller investigation. The president saying again on friday that he wants to speak with mueller, answer his questions. So are you prepared to make that happen . Not after the way theyve acted. What is your because theyre trying to trap you couldnt put a lawyer on this show who wants to keep his law license to tell you he should testify. It kind of tells the American People a glimpse of what we have to deal with day in and day out with the abuses not so much of bob mueller, but of the people who work for him. I mean, theyre way over the top. When you look at the questions they pro pound, what do you think, what do you feel . Its like come on in and commit perjury. Joining me right now is senator Richard Blumenthal of connecticut. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary committee. Betsy woodruff is politics reporter for daily beast and an msnbc contributor. And paul lbutler is a former federal prosecutor and an msnbc analyst as well. Always start with the center on this question. Is Rudy Giuliani being clever like a fox . Is he raising the noise level and keeping the stormy story all over the news 24 7 now, to distract the subject, distract everybody from the russian probe which is the real danger the president is facing, or is he just doing it wrong . Because he is supposed to put this story behind the president , and he is putting it out every night and pushing it forward. I think he is doing the president a disservice. Whether he means it as a distraction, he has certainly put the president in a very, very precarious position politically as well as legally. He has directly contradicted him and his denials of reimbursement. He has in effect joined him more closely with Michael Cohen. Yeah. In a bed of quicksand. Its a legal quicksand for him. And there is no such thing as a perjury trap unless bob mueller would violate department of justice what is paerjry trap . Well, a perjury trap is ordinarily, speaking as a former prosecutor where you call a witness into an interview or the grand jury without any real evidence on him and literally ask him questions that are designed to trap him in a contradiction so he can be charged with perjury. All the president of the United States has to do is to tell the truth. Thats all he has to do. What do you think ken starr was doing with the president let me go to the prosecutor on this, paul. What do you think president clinton was facing when ken starr put him in the box and out of nowhere goes from paula jones to Monica Lewinsky . And we all saw the face of the president , like most people, what . I didnt know that was coming. So, again, this was negotiated is what President Trump should do. Usually the grand jury, youre the witness in there by yourself with the prosecutor. The deal with clinton was that his defense attorney could be there and the questioning was limited. Im sure that mueller be willing to do Something Like that with trump, but trump is afraid because he knows the truth will implicate him. Again, the question for bill clinton was relatively simple, did you have a sexual relationship with ms. Lewinsky. And clinton got kind of cute with it. Again, if youre before the grand jury, you have to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We know donald trump has a really difficult time with that. Betsy, the pr part, the Political Part i should say. I know the legal question raising the noise level, which is what rudy is doing its what were talking about all weekend. Saturday night live, whats her name, Stormy Daniels on saturday night live playing herself. Ive never seen it. Its a travesty. Anybody who is 20 years old now thinks this is american democracy. We wouldnt have gotten this far. Its crazy time. But its raising the noise level. That helping trump because were not talking about russia, which is what would bring him down . I dont think us talking about russia is going to be what may or may not bring the president down. The reality is mueller is doing his own work. He is going to do it regardless of whether we cover it or talk about it or what is happening in the outside noise. The outside noise doesnt matter to mueller. What mueller is working on is his own project. That said, we cannot overstate the dramaticness with which the president s legal team has changed in the last week. Not only giuliani sort of coming of age and doing so much tv all day, every day. But additionally another lawyer started a the white house i believe on wednesday named emmet flood. Emmet flood is take over for ty cobb. Now ty cobb was the guy that was very amicable towards mueller. He would say positive things about the Mueller Probe to the president. Cobb is now on his way out. And the guy who is replacing him, emmet flood, is somebody who is seen as a much tougher, much more aggressive and much less likely to support the idea of having the president sit down. Weve been talking about it all and what rudy is up to if he is up to anything logical. He says in answering george stephanopoulos. George did a great job, pushing him a lot of points on abc. George asked him a great question. Is this the only case basically where he paid off somebody to keep quiet . And he said well, there may have been others, yes. Well, he didnt have to say there may have been others. He could say i dont know. Is that the defense, this was not an electionrelated decision to pay her off 130, to be blunt about it, it is something he does all the time . When ever there is a relationship they have to cover up, they have to hush up, they pay some money out of this regular draw he has of 35,000 a month. That seemed to be giuliani defense to protect him against the charge that this payoff was related to an election, therefore an fcc violation. What do you think . The defense would be it was personal, not political. And we do it all the time. Will that work . And it aint the first time. Right. And i have to keep my former mistresses quiet to protect me against my wife. Right. Will that work in court . It will not work in court. Why not . In my view. I think even before we reach that point we will have a reckoning to take your opening very, very seriously, because i think that giuliani interview indicated that a subpoena to the president of the United States is increasingly necessary and indeed unavoidable. I think were going to have a confrontation, even before that point is reached in court. Today Rudy Giuliani told the wall street journal that the president s legal team hopes to decide whether President Trump should testify by may 17th. By the way, thats five davis the iran decision. This weekend, giuliani told trump said trump could defy a subpoena from Robert Mueller. Well, lets get to your point, senator. Lets watch rudy denying the necessary here. What happens if Robert Mueller subpoenas the president . Will you comply . Well, we dont have to. He is the president of the United States. We can assert the same privilege as over president s have. Are you confident the president will not take the fifth in this case . Oh, how can i ever be confident of that . When im facing a situation with the president and all the other lawyers are, in which every lawyer in america thinks he would be a fool to testify, ive got a client who wants to testify. Please, dont he said it yesterday. And jay and i said to ourselves, my goodness, i hope we get a chance to tell him the risk that he is taking. So he may testify. To the senators point, paul, what about the risk of defying a subpoena . Nixon couldnt defy. The Supreme Court came down against him, 80. They said you have to testify. You have to give over the tapes which brought him down. Bill clinton, his attorney Robert Bennett that. Decide theyd had to respond to the danger of a subpoena, the threat of a subpoena. So why does this lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, think that he can defy a subpoena . So their argument is that the paula jones case was about a civil matter. This is a criminal matter. And the nixon case was about evidence as opposed to testimony. At the end of the day, that will not persuade the Supreme Court. It may go all the way up there, which would take a long time you. Think if they really want not as long three or four months. Yeah. But at the end of the day, the Supreme Court is going to say youre President Trump, not king trump. No man is above the law. Let me ask you, senator, because this is a tricky question. Im looking at it this way. People around here think jeanrobert son in the end will say you have to honor the conservative. Hey may be a conservative, but he is an institutionalist. You can never figure out kenn y kennedy. What do you think the court would do . I cant say it will be unanimous, but all of the legal reasoning and principles that led to the Court Unanimously saying to Richard Nixon you must provide those tapes will. That was a more liberal court. It was a more liberal court. But remember, this is about law enforcement. Yeah. Its about the construction of our constitution. Its about whether our constitutional design prevents despotic president from abusing his power to prevent him from being investigated and brought to justice. I think thats how i end the show with that question. Gentlemen and betty, will the trump people accept the fact that he defies the subpoena . Would the 47 stick with him . I think without a doubt. I think they would say the deep state has tried to subpoena President Trump and he needs to keep fighting. Thats the moment of truth. This is big casino. The prospect of President Trump pleading the fifth to mueller raises significant political risks thanks in part to his own past comments. Here he was, the president , in september of 2016 talking about Hillary Clinton campaign aides. Lets watch that. Her staffers taking the fifth amendment. How about that . They have five people taking the fifth amendment. Like you see on the mob, right . You see the mob takes the fifth. If youre innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment . You know, he talks like a guy on the street corner. What are you doing . You taking the fifth . You have the coat open, the big tie. And he is talk like he might know some of those guys. What do you think of that . He says we all grew up with the idea, fifth amendment. Remember joe mccarthy, fifth amendment communist . If you take the fifth amendment, youre a commie. And we have to begin the conversation not that he was right, of course, but that was the slur. With we have to begin this conversation as good lawyers do by saying everybody is entitled to the fifth amendment, and a judge will instruct a jury no adverse inference from it. Yeah. There is. But the American Public knows that it is for the president of the United States to take the fifth amendment is a staggering admission of criminal liability. It would be earth shattering for the president of the United States. Would you advise trump to take the fifth if you were back practicing . I would advise him not to take the fifth amendment. Would you advise him not to tell the truth . And i would advise him to tell the truth. Even if it brings him down on russia and the rest of it . Well, he presumably thinks he is innocent of any wrongdoing. Okay. Mr. President , did you ever talk to anybody in your campaign about talking to the russians . Did you ever . What does he say . I never talked to papadopoulos. I never talk todman fort about the russians. I never talked to my kids about the russians. I never talked to roger stone about the russian. And thats the point, chris. The question would be did you conspire with the russians to subvert our democracy. And his answer would be i cant say because it would incriminate me. If i told the truth, it would incriminate me. What does that say . A friend of mine, a lawyer in philly, involved with politics all his life once told me if youre not running for office again, take the fifth. What do you think of that, paul, that advice to a client . As a defense attorney, anyone who has a competent lawyer would advise President Trump to take the fifth. Again, hes got one posture as the subject of a major criminal investigation. Right. But another posture as the president of the United States, the presumed leader of the free world. But if he lies he wont be president. Well, thats up to congress. Thats anybodys guess. I think its big its the reckoning is coming. I think what you said the fact that Rudy Giuliani is out there saying dont testify, even if youre subpoenaed. I think thats the heart of the question. Is it a monarchy or is it a Constitutional Republic . Thank you, senator Richard Blumenthal as always, and as always of connecticut. And thank you, Betsy Woodruff for being here as the reporter on the thing. We we have a reporter, a politician and a prosecutor. Coming up, Rudy Giuliani continued his about the Stormy Daniels. He is out there muddying the water about what trump knew about the hush money payment. Rudy says he got everything straightened out. But for rudy and trump, the credibility gap is what you think it is, not good. Plus, how much damage has trump brought to the political situation in this country . Its to the point where john mccain is reportedly telling friends he doesnt want the president coming to his funeral. Jon meacham talks about the dark days in american politics with us tonight. And some republicans running in primaries are still trying to out [ trumpet playing ] outtrump, trump. But there is worry Don Blankenship could end up the winner tomorrow making it easier for joe manchin to get reelected. Finally, let me finish with trump watch, and you wont like it. This is hardball, where the action. Thank you. Call in the next ten minutes. And if thats not enough, well look after your every dollar. Put down the phone. And if thats not enough, well look after your every cent. Grab your wallet. beeping sound computer voice access denied. And if thats still not enough to help you save. Oh the new one well bring out the dogs. Mush dogs barking the old ones just fine well do anything, seriously anything, to help our customers. Thanks. Ally. Do it right. This is not just a yard. Its where memories are made. And you have the best seat in the house. The john deere x350 select series with the exclusive mulchcontrol™ system. Nothing runs like a deere™ well, god help us. President trump is ready the make an announcement on the iran nuclear deal. This afternoon the president tweeted ly be announcing my decision on the iran deal tomorrow from the white house at 2 00 p. M. Trump has until saturday technically to decide whether to extend sanctions related to iran under the obama deal. Earlier today President Trump berated former secretary of state john kerry, attacking him for reaching out to World Leaders in an attempt to salvage the accord. Trump tweeted the United States does not need john kerrys possibly illegal shadow diplomacy on the very badly negotiated iran deal. He is the one who created this mess in the fist place. Thats trump. Well be right back. Your brain changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. I want some more of it. I try so hard, i cant rise above it dont know what it is bout that little gals lovin. Applebees new bigger bolder grill combos. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Just tell me what do you need for this to all go away . A resignation. I solved north and south korea. Why cant i solve us . Sorry, donald, its too late for that. I know you dont believe in climate change. But a storms acoming, baby. What do you think of that ever happening in your life . Welcome back to hardball that was of course saturday night live with Stormy Daniels playing herself, Stormy Daniels. And while she was the talk of late night, Rudy Giuliani also made plenty of noise this weekend, adding to the confusion surrounding the daniels controversy. Days after launching a blustery media campaign, Rudy Giuliani appeared on fox