House Communications Director. The president also shocked lawmakers yesterday and of course the nra by embracing new gun Safety Measures that went well beyond what the democrats would ever have expected from the president. Jeff sessions then fired back at the president of the United States with a statement defending the integrity of his Justice Department. That as the Washington Post published new reporting that the Mueller Investigation is now examining the president s apparent efforts to drive out the attorney general last summer. And to cap off the day, last night as you were going to sleep the New York Times breaking news that Jared Kushners business got big loans from a billionaire after regularly hosting him at the white house and even discussing a possible job for him inside the Trump Administration. And yes, my friends, that was all yesterday. So whats today going to hold in store . Willie, who knows . This morning joe, thursday, march the 1st. Willie, my god, i dont know where to start. The gun meeting was shocking enough. The president of the United States actually did what no republicans have been willing to do and decided to side with 60, 70, sometimes 90 of the public and go against the nra. That was shocking enough. Hope hicks was shocking. I mean, it was an extraordinary news day and then in the middle of it you saw an ap poll that came up that says 57 of americans think the president of the United States is a racist. You know, the fire hose analogy has become kind of a cliche but it was never more true than yesterday. Just a fire hose of news coming out. Any one of those stories would have been a story of the year perhaps for a previous administration. The one weve been talking about on set is the one you just mentioned which was that gun meeting where you had a republican president of the United States laying out on Live Television the case for gun control. And it was no slip of the tongue. He went through taking guns before due process, raising the age to 21, floated the possibility of an assault weapons ban, no concealed carry reciprocity, expended background checks. Stunned republicans sat and watched the performance and democrats couldnt believe it. Were going to talk about that and more in a little bit. Lets get into whos here. Former aide to the george w. Bush white house and state department, National Political reporter for nbc news, associate editor of the Washington Post and historian john meech ham, his new book, the soul of america, the battle for better angels will be published in may. Looking forward to that. Jean robinson, were going to go through all the stories, but i dont know where to start. I dont know you cant even say what the big story of the day is because the kushner story last night is shocking. It is going to have reverberations. Its exactly what mueller and his investigators thought that maybe he was playing both sides of the street and then nbc news that broke yesterday that mueller now is king and what does donald trump know . Did he know about the dnc hacking beforehand . Did he plan it . I mean, you know, again, this guy doesnt ask questions that he doesnt know the answers to and then of course that gun meeting which of course pretty extraordinary where he even criticized pat toomey for criticizing the nra. Where do you start . Unclear. All of that plus the departure of one of the most important people in the white house, i would argue, because of her closeness to donald trump. The person who was at the center of that meeting on air force one where a false story was conco concocted that about the the meeting with the russians. It could, you know, potentially be a big part of some sort of obstruction of justice case, day after she testified to having told white lies about and for the president. And i i imagine that has a really elastic definition. You know, just before we went on, i counted seven, you know, stories of the week, not just stories of the the day, but at least stories of the day, if not the month that all happened yesterday, and frankly, some of us were not going to sleep when that kushner story. So it is just extraordinary. If you want to boil it down, chaos and corruption, i think would be the you know, the overarching theme of yesterday and lets not forget open warfare between the president and his own Justice Department. They had that dinner last night with Jeff Sessions, and the solicited general and rosen stein photographed to send a message back to the president that were united and you know, you have to deal with us on that basis. Just extraordinary. It is. Willie, take us through it. Lets start with that story yesterday. The white house in some disarray. The resignation of hope hicks. Hicks is the fourth Communications Director to step down from the white house following shaun spicer, and anthony scaramucci. Hicks says she wants to explore opportunities outside the white house writing quote, there are no words to express my gratitude to president. I wish the administration the very best as he continues to lead our country. The white house was sad to hear the news. Said this in a statement. Hope is outstanding and has done great work in the last three year, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side, but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities i understood. Im sure we will Work Together in the future. The announcement comes one day after she testified in the House Intelligence Community saying among other things she had occasionally told to tell white lies but she says she never lied about anything connected to the russia investigation. The New York Times, hicks departure is not related to her testimony and sanders says its been in the works for several weeks and didnt happen overnight. Still a white house official says hicks told trump about her decision yesterday and several sources tell nbc news they were shocked. This is the latest in a long list of major white house departures since Trump Took Office just over 13 months ago. So at best, joe, the timing suspicious here, literally the day after hope hicks testifies before the Intel Committee, she walks away from the white house. And the day after she testified, the day after a lot of people seized on the fact that she said she occasionally told Little White Lies but i think more importantly, it also comes to the time when the Mueller Investigation is really starting to pick up. We had two reporters yesterday come on our show saying their sources inside the Mueller Investigation say things are starting to move at a very rapid pace. Bob mueller is not nibbling around the edges anymore. Hes going straight in and hes asking the questions, did donald trump know about the russian hacking of the dnc . Did he plan things out . Things are things are about to get pretty ugly inside the white house and the question is for somebody like hope hicks, why did you stay that long . I mean, its theres not much good news for a lot of a lot of people and hope hicks also of course involved in that air force one meeting, the drafting of the memo. She was just sort of a courier, but at the same time, i mean, shes got to get ready for mueller. Shes got to get ready for a trial. I mean, its things could get ugly. Well, watching hope hicks over the course of the campaign and then her time in the administration, there were just so many moments where, you know, looking at it as a former press staffer you would think wow, how is she doing this . How is she, you know, able to stay when the president is, you know, say charlottesville and saying there are very good people on both sides or just the daytoday chaos that comes with this administration. You look at how it collided with her personal life this year with the she was responsible for staging the response when rob porter, the staff secretary was accused very credibly of beating his wives and so she was involved in, you know, pulling down john kelly with that response, you know, helping to o orchestrate the response to orrin hatch. Really saw that representation tarnished a little bit and as the Mueller Investigation has heated up its less about giving testimony to the House Committee yesterday. Thats the investigation you really want to stay clear of. Yeah, and willie, you also have people talking about general kelly. Im not so sure he had anything to do with this, but two days ago we hear the news about Jared Kushner, that an insiders insider for trump suddenly being shut out of certain classified material. Hope hicks leaves. I dont know if general kelly had anything to do with it but its certainly something that he would want which is get get the trump tower people out, move in the professionals. You cant overstate how close hope hicks has been to donald trump. She came up to the trump organization, not through the president ial campaign or the white house. She worked with ivanka many years ago and joined him from day one literally of his president ial campaign. You can hear in his statement and statements of ivanka and others how much she meant to him. We want to get now to the nbc exclusive, that special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly looking into when and how donald trump learned emails from the Democratic Party had been hacked by russian operatives during the 2015 president ial election. Multiple people familiar with the election tell nbc news muellers team is asking witnesses pointed questions about whether trump was aware emails had been stolen and also whether he was involved with their release. Last january, u. S. Intel officials concluded Vladimir Putin himself ordered the operation that ultimately hacked the email accounts of the Democratic National committee and Clinton Campaign chairman john podesta. Those were released to the public through wikileaks. Mueller is said to be asking specifically about the following trump overture that trump made to russia just days after wikileaks began publishing the email. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are pliszing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. So this is your reporting here, obviously donald trump as he does so often has left a piece of video tape for bob mueller to look into or a tweet in some cases. What specifically do you think bob mueller is on to here . I think the main question is whether the president somehow either from someone in his campaign, from someone outside his campaign who perhaps spoke with someone in his cam pin pain or spoke with him that he had some sort of knowledge that this was going on in advance before the public knew and you know, whats significant about this development is that it shows the collusion question, the idea that the president is cleared of all wrong doing which he keeps saying is not true. The collusion question is very much still active and not only that, its very much active when it comes to the president himself. Its not just people around him. And so so it shows that and it also shows that this is moving very quickly, but its not ending any time soon. It seems to be, you know, theyre still asking questions about these significant pieces of the investigation. Theres a name thats been talked about a lot when it comes to wikileaks and its roger stone, a guy who was in the news again yesterday for his connection to wikileaks although he didnt have anything to do with wikileaks. It was a form of collusion. He seemed to be settling. Where does he fit into this puzzle . The questions that are being asked are there were a lot of questions about the president s relationship with roger stone. Theyve known each other for a really long time. The questions are, you know, that muellers team has been asking is you know, did they still communicate, how was he fired, was he fired . Whats the relationship like and so you know, hes very much he boasted about his connections to wikileaks. Hes, you know, kind of bragged about this, and and the question that investigators want to answer and perhaps already know the answer to is whether there was some way in which he communicated this whatever knowledge he had to the president to where the president was aware. Roger stone said they didnt discuss this and he maintains he didnt have any contact with assange and was not involved in the efforts to leak these emails. Well talk about your reporting throughout the morning. Attorney general Jeff Sessions is pushing back against President Trumps criticism and sending what some see as a message of solidarity. On tuesday sessions announced the Inspector General would look into devon nunes, but his decision was met by skepticism yesterday morning. I have a few questions because doj and fbi highest standards, right . Highest power in the land as far as Law Enforcement is concerned. This guy, he works for the doj and hes going to be investigating the doj . Should we be worried about that. He apparently is a man of integrity. So thats on fox and friends. Later President Trump tweeted this. Why is ag Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potential massive fisa abuse . Already late with reports on comey. Isnt he an obama guy . Why not use Justice Department lawyers including the president did disgraceful. Sessions then released a statement of his own writing we have initiated the appropriate process that would assure complaints would be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary. As long as im the attorney general i will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor and this department will continue to do its work at a fair and impartial manner according to law and the constitution. Amid these new tensions between the president and his attorney general the Washington Post reports special Counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating the period of time last summer when President Trump seemed determined to drive sessions from his job. A key area of interest is whether these reports were part of a month long pattern of obstruction of jugs tstice from oval office. All declined to comment. And President Trump apparently referred to him as mr. Mcgoo. Trump has told associates that he has hired the best lawyers his entire life but has stuck with sessions who is not sufficiently loyal. On the an verse niversary, a bu proof vest with his name em blazened on it as a gift. We see the president of the United States expect loyalty from his attorney general. Yeah, hes completely ignorant, as to what the attorney general is supposed to do, what the Justice Department is supposed to do, and the wall thats supposed to be between the president and the Justice Department and the fbi. As ive said several times, j n john, the example of where the president got involved with the fbi, and it was a six month scandal it seemed but theres so much theres so much to tackle here and feel free to Wander Around the buffet and have whatever you want with the news stories that we have here today. But whats remarkable again, you have a president attacking his own attorney general, the attorney general punching back, a puicture of the attorney general and several of his deputies showing unity and donald trump again just shooting himself in the foot. Youve got a respected ig whos going to come back and what hes going to find is that you had four republican fisa judges who granted warrants and anybody whos not completely ignorant of the process knows that doesnt just happen. They dot their is and they cross their ts, so once again, donald trump appearing to look as if he wants to obstruct an independent investigation and at the end of the day it does does him no good. Does none of his allies any good and does his political standing and his legal standing no good. Well, at least we were warned. I dont think there was a lot of doubt during the campaign and im thinking about the staff shakeups as kind of a precursor to this as as you know well and Everybody Knows well, for a long time when donald trump was running for president , basically there were three or four people around him. I remember talking to someone who talked to him about joining the ticket who came back from the meeting saying, you dont even need a minivan to put that Campaign Structure in a car. It was that small. It was that tight. And most importantly and i think this is one thing that may link all of this at least tenuously, it was entirely about the prn y personality and the whim of the candidate himself and this common denominator here for all the drama youve described is that we have a president who has no genuine id logical convictions and who is driven to a remarkable degree, a way that we may not even appreciate by what he sees on a rival cable network. Its a remarkable thing. One thing historians always try to do is figure out the information ecosyst