But offers no proof. I hope its not so, because if it is theres never been anything like it in the history of our country. While Rudy Giuliani says truth is relative and that Robert Muellers team may have a different version of the truth than we do. My guests this morning, senator jeff flake of arizona who attacked the president and also congress for failing to respond to President Trump. And, patriot games. Nfl owners vote to find teams whos players kneel during the National Anthem. Who gets to define how to be patriotic. Joining me for inside analysis are nbc news chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell. Eugene robinson, amy walter, and Matthew Continetti editor and chief of the free beacon. Welcome to sunday, its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning and a happy memorial day weekend wherever you are. We have two big stories were following this morning, first north korea when President Trump released his letter canceling the planned summit with kim jongun earlier this week it was clear can he so with some regret. The president wrote, i felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me. Someday i look very much forward to meeting you. Well now it appears they might meet after all. Here was mr. Trump last night. Its moving along very nicely so were looking at june 12th in singapore, that hasnt changed. And its moving along pretty well. So well see what happens. And after kim met unexpectedly yesterday with president moon of south korea, north korea reported that kim had a, quote, fixed will for a historic summit. Were going to get to the north korea story in a moment, but were going to begin with President Trumps the other big story with him, his weapons of mass distraction. The president and his allies spent much of this week trying to make the case that the fbi planted a spy in the Trump Campaign. While we learned there was no evidence for this charge, heres what we were not focused on while debating that charge. We werent focussed on this story about another trump tower meeting in 2016 between donald trump jr. And emissary of saub and the emrights who offered to help the Trump Campaign. And then there was this story, that donald trump jr. May have lied to congress about those new contacts. Then there was this story that got overshad dods that a Russian Oligarch met with President Trumps lawyer in trump tower 11 days before the inauguration. And then this story, that President Trumps ally saw the dirt on Hillary Clinton from wikileaks founder during the campaign. All of these potential bombshell stories could have dominated the week but they area overshadowed as President Trump showed once again how skilled he is in shaping false narrative to his advantage. We now call it spygate. Youre calling it spygate. Perhaps fearing that mueller is closing in, the president is applying a wellwarned tactical playbook. Number one, distract with an invented crisis that attacks the investigators without evidence to plant a seed of doubt. Claim, president Obama Wiretapped trump tower. Theres no evidence of that. I have not seen any evidence of this. Lets see whether or not i prove it. I just dont choose do it right now. This weeks claim, an fbi confidential informant who collected information on Trump Campaign aides after suspecting russian interference in the campaign is bigger than watergate. Number two, brand the crisis. According to associated press, mr. Trump wants to brand the fbis confidential informant, a spy, believing the more nefarious term would resonate more in the media and with the public. The president used some version of the word spy 24 times in 15 tweets over ten days. He wasnt alone. Now youre saying that there could have been an fbi spy . The fbi may have had a spy im shocked to hear that they put a spy in the campaign. A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign. Spygate. Spygate. Spygate. If in fact this occurred could be one of the biggest scandals in history. All without evidence. All have you do is look at the basics and youll see. Number three, if accused of wrongdoing, use the im rubber youre glue defense pinning anything youre accused of on your opponents. The only collusion is the democrats concluded with the russians and the democrats concluded with lots of other people. Take a look at the intelligence agencies. Whatever the left accuses you of doing, theyre doing themselves. Finally, number four. If still caught with irrelevant reput itable facts closing in, assert that all facts are relative anyway. The president s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the Washington Post on wednesday hes concerned that mr. Trump will per injury himself if he grants an interview to Robert Mueller because, quote, truth is relative. They may have a different version the truth than we do. Joining me from phoenix is senator flake from arizona. Welcome back to meet the press. Thanks for having me on. Before i get to the question of whether truth is relative, and im sure you have a strong opinion about that, i do want to start with north korea, the overnight developments here, the president indicating summit likely back on. Let me ask you this. While weve had this debate is it going to happen, is it not going to happen, are you any clearer in understanding what the summits about . What are we negotiating . Whats on the table and what isnt . A loift us have been skeptical that north korea will ever agree to total denuclearization. I think they believe theyre in the position theyre in kind of as a nuclear peer with us because of their Nuclear Weapons. They obviously see the libya situation as something they dont want to get into. So i think many of us question whether theyre going to get there. But let me say, a freeze would be better than weve had before. So theres nothing wrong with saying, hey, they may not denuclearize, but we could have a better situation than we currently have. But i do think a lot of people are questioning where exactly we are. I hope that along with the summit, i hope it still happens, theres a lot of behind the scenes work going on. Thats a real question right now. Youre okay with the president is negotiating phasing out, if denuclearization is more of a longterm goal, if, for instance, north korea says, hey, wed like to have a deal more like pakistan, is Something Like that more comfortable, i say more comfortable, obviously denuclearization would be the most comfortable, is but that something could you live with . I think that were going to have to live with that. I think that the North Koreans realize that total denuclearization on their part is not in their national interests. Thats how they see it. I dont think the rest of us see it that way, but thats how they see it. So i do think that a freeze or something short of total denuclearization is certainly better than the situation that we have right now where we had an escalating situation. North korea was continuing to test and thats not good for anyone. Theres been some speculation that chinas involvement suddenly and their own talks with kim jongun and the trade talks have all sort of gotten thrown into this. Do you believe this whole controversy over the Chinese Telecom company zte is part of the on again off again aspect of the summit . It may well be. We dont know completely. We dont have window into that. But it sounds as if zte is certainly part of a broader conversation and thats the way the president sees it and i think that thats okay with the president. Some of us in congress are questioning that, however. I think that if china did involve themselves in espionage, erb commercial espionage, which i think they have, they ought to be punished and we cant put that aside to have chinas cooperation on other issues. Youre against this deal. I know senator rubio very strongly is against any deal that gives zte any new access to american vendors or the United States in any form. Yes im with senator rubio on that. Let me move to the president this week and that idea that truth is relative. You had quite the commencement addressed to Harvard Law School. Let me actually play an excerpt from it and ask you exactly what youre calling for on the other side. Take a listen. How did we arrive at such a moment of great peril wherein the president of the United States publicly threatens on fox and friends, historians will note, to interfere in the administration of justice and seems to think that the office confers on him the ability to decide who and what gets investigated and who and what does not . Obviously ordering investigations is not a legitimate use of president ial power. Well, do you believe hes abusing his power and, if you do, what does that when does that get to the point where you think Congress Needs to do something about it including potentially look at impeachment . Well, let me just compliment the congress in the last couple of days. The president had this diversion tactic, obviously, with socalled spygate. I dont think any of us were referring to it in that way. But the republicans in congress said, no, to have a briefing like the president wanted with Just One Party was not right. And so it wasnt just some of the democrats saying that that was not proper, a lot of republicans were saying that as well. So i saw the kind of pushback that we need to have. But it needs to happen more often. When the president says things that are just totally wrong, its responsibility of members of congress, particularly those in the president s party, to stand up and say, that is not right. Truth is not relative. And there are no alternative facts here. And i have seen instances where we havent done that well and weve got do it better. It seems as if you and i have had a lot of discussions in the last year. It seems as if youve gotten more alarmed while many of your colleagues publicly act less alarmed, particularly your colleagues on the republican side of the aisle. Is that the way it is behind the scenes too or is this public posture also the private posture . I can tell you behind the scenes there is a lot of alarm. There is concern that the president is laying the ground work to move on bob mueller or rosenstein and if that were to happen, obviously, that would cause a constitutional crisis. There is concern behind the scenes. Ive been concerned that we havent spoken up loudly enough and told the president you simply cant go there. And hes obviously probing the edges as much as he can. Right. To see how far congress will go. And weve got to push back harder than we have. Why do you think theyve been hesitant . Is it frankly your experience watching you . Watching the republicans response to you . Sure. This is the president s party and if youre running in a primary right now and you stand up to the president or stand up in some cases for empirical truth, then you have trouble in primaries. And thats no doubt. So i do think that, you know, as we get through the primary season perhaps then many of my colleagues will find a voice. But right now its difficult politically. Let me ask you one question about some hometown politics. Vice president pence had some kind words for somebody that wants to replace nut senate, joe apyo. Here it is. Great friend of this president , a tireless champion of strong borders, spent a lifetime in Law Enforcement, sheriff joe arpaio, im honored to have you here. Whatd you make of Vice President pences kind words. Well, hes a kind man and i think that his words reflected that kindness. Having said that, there arent many people in arizona who look to joe arpaio as a paragon of the rule of law. I think it was unfortunate because we need the rule of law. Thats not what we had under joe arpaio, under his time as sheriff. The voters turned him out by double digits and i dont think its proper to refer to him in that way. Im going to leave it there, senator. One quick thing. One quick thing. Have you ruled out running for president . Thats not in my plans but ive not ruled anything out. I do hope that somebody runs on the republican side other than the president. If nothing else, simplily to remind republicans what conservatism is and what republicans have traditionally stood for. If you ran, would you only run as a republican . I think so. I mean, i cant imagine doing anything else. Fair enough. Senator flake, now i will really leave it there. Senator, thanks very much for coming on and sharing your views. Much appreciatesed. Thank you. You got it. All right. Pannestists here, amy walter, and now host of wnycs the takeaway fridays Andrea Mitchell and matthew. Were going to get to north korea in the next seg meant to lets focus here on the president this week. Amy walter, look at the headline over this column today which says that trump is making progress, trumps war of attrition against mueller bears fruit among republicans. Thats the keyword, among republicans or key words. He has done a very good job in terms of getting republicans on to the same page that hes on. But its very a symmetrical, not just because democrats are, you know, very much against what the president s saying, but the intensity behind the support for the president has never been as solid as the opposition to the president , right . When you when the wall street journal nbc poll asks strongly approve, strongly disapprove, the strong disapprove has been twice as big as the strongly approve. He does not have the solid support of the party behind him in the is where it will finally get tested, the 20 2018 election. It worked to win a president ial election very narrowly but now this intensity opposing him is that much stronger. What do you make of this, matthew . Think for the president his political position seems secure right now. If you look at the polls, his aruffle rating is rise together mid40s. The average of the generic ballot is closing now within a space where republicans might feel more confident about keeping the house. From his point of view, the russia story has been working out. I think the reason for that hes been able to turn it into a tale of two swamps. From mueller we hear about the swamp of lobbying, access, foreign involvement in american access. For trump its become the tale of permanent washington, the bureaucracy. And trump always found a great base of suspect among conservatives and republicans by being a agent of disruption. Trump every day he produces great guysers of fantasy, some of which tug. Obama had ply wires tapped. The thing about his fantasy world is not when it dissolves into nothing its when he da suss the rest of us to move into it. You know, the key phrase in that pass sage to me receiver day. Its constant, every single day. Its not a matter of seducing everybody into that world, its just he creates more of that world every day. And everyone reacts to it. And they dont react favorably necessarily, but even reacting against it is participating in it. And so theres just like this parallel trump reality that he creates that really does distract us from reality as we know it. Is jeff like a man on an island by the way . Yes, very much so. You know, i think to eugenes point, the president has an enormous mega phone through social media and through the distraction that you so expertly cataloged at the beginning of the program. Every single day, every moment of every single day we in the media and the American People by consuming all of this are not focussing on one thing for an extended period of time. And he does it so expertly and the white house media machine and the president s own instincts here, we had the wonderful return negotiated by bob corker and oren hatch and others from utah of a mormon missionary who had been in jail with his wife in venezuela in a hideous situation for two years. Its a great moment. They came right to the oval office for a photo opportunity on saturday night. So the president was embracing this as i was at Andrews Air Force base when the korean detainees arrived at 4 00 in the morning. They dont go to bethesda naval or ram stein on their way back and be debriefed and treated medically immediately theyre paraded, if you will. What would happen if we didnt cover all of the tweets . It kind of goes to the point there is a whole lot going on and he does very well because all of this gets covered and so it becomes this circular squad. If we were talk about the things that other people were talking about outside of washington, this panel would look very different. By the way, were going to have that other conversation. Were going to talk about the nfl which we know more people are debating this morning. Gas prices, averaging over 3. But this is the trap that we in the Political Press corps are in. Theres an existential threat to the presidency, thats a big story reason and trump is taking advantage of it. Hes changed the norms. Yes. And for a while we havent had a big bombshell in the russia investigation. Weve had a lot of little mini shells but were still waiting for that big bombshell that may reset the calculus in a way that disadvantages trump. How long ago was it that Michael Cohens office was raided . Our expectation of how often bomb shells thats an eternity ago. But thats only two months ago. Like, go read the final days, go read like these were, you know, there where are big moments and two months later a big moment and that seemed fast. He has branded it witch hunt and thats whats taken hold if you look at any kind of polling, not only with the base. And now spygate is another branding attempt. And there are a lot of people who are going to believe that there was a spy embedded in the Trump Campaign. There was no evidence of that, but