It is tuesday, may 21st. Along with joe, willie and me we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor Mike Barnicle, Jonathan Lemire, Washington Bureau chief and author of the mate tr matriarch, susan page and jeremy bash is with us well. We have a lot going on, including investigations into the Trump Presidency and attempts to hold the administration accountable. The white house has directed former counsel don mcgahn to defy a congressional subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this morning. In a letter to Committee Chairman jerry nadler, white House Counsel said the Justice Department has, quote, advised me that mr. Mcgahn is absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony with respect to matters occurring during his service as a Senior Adviser to the president. He went on to say the president has directed mr. Mcgahn not to appear at the committees scheduled hearing. A lawyer for mcgahn later said the former white House Counsel would, quote, respect the president s instruction and not appear today. Congressman David Cicilline says it is time to launch an impeachment inquiry if mcgahn doesnt testify. Were going to speak live with the rhode island democrat just ahead. Meanwhile, a federal judge sides with the House Oversight and Reform Committee in President Trumps lawsuit aimed at blocking lawmakers from getting eight years of his financial records from an Accounting Firm. According to axios, trumps lawyers argued the subpoena was unconstitutional because it wasnt tied to any specific legislation. But attorneys for the Oversight Committee said the Financial Disclosures will serve to improve existing ethics and disclosure laws while giving new insight into whether trump is compliant with the emoluments clause of the constitution. The president said he will appeal the decision. Also yesterday we learned that Michael Cohen told lawmakers that trumps attorney, jay sekulow, encouraged him to falsely claim that negotiations to build a trump tower in moscow ended in january of 2016. And more from republican justin amash, who essentially said to trump ill see your tweet attack and raise you another twitter thread. He is doubling down on his assessment that the president engaged in impeachable behavior and is now explaining to the people who say one cannot obstruct Justice Without an underlying crime, why that is just not so. With all that swirling, President Trump clapped along as supporters chanted for the jailing of his perceived enemies. While he touted the attorney general, who the a. P. Describes as trumps champion and advocate. Well, we have a great new attorney general who is going to give it a very fair look, a very fair look. So theres an awful lot to sort through here, mika. Goodness gracious. Willie, we can start with executive privilege. They are claiming, the white house is claiming executive privilege had there is no basis in fact for executive privilege here. Jerry nadler wrote a letter again, its quoting established law. So the white house wont care about it. But the courts most certainly will as they proved yesterday. He says in one part as judge bates previously explained, the notion that a former white House Counsel is quote absolutely immune from a congressional subpoena has been, quote, virtually foreclosed upon by the supreme court. You take this move along with the white House Counsels move to try to block those financial records, which a judge said, sorry, no luck, along with jay sekulow, reportedly advising a former white house lawyer a former lawyer of the president s to lie in testimony, and you take barrs own statement. This is actually it appears to be a white house being run by corrupt lawyers and theyre just shamelessly trying to delay the inevitable for as long as they can while the president of the United States is actually churning americans up into chanting about locking up the fbi. Where would you like to start on that . You can see why the president in that clip we just showed is so pleased can the attorney general. This memo came from the Justice Department from jerry nadler and the Judiciary Committee saying that don mcgahn cannot testify before the committee. Robert mule aeller in volume twy no conclusion on obstruction. Don mcgahn says the president asked him to fire the special counsel and talk to jeff session about revisiting the idea of recusing himself from the investigation. Don mcgahn because the question of obstruction was left open by bob mueller, if anyone, is the man who should sit before the Judiciary Committee. Often times congressional investigators will try to get evidence from other sources if for some reason because of privileges they cant get access to a main witness. Here there are no other witnesses. Don mcgahn was asked, he was directed by the president to do something that was unauthorized, illegal and to lie about it to the records and to investigators. So congress has no choice. Of course we cant live in a society in which the president is above the law, above inquiry. The constitution allows congress to investigate the president s high crimes and misdemeanors. Don mcgahn is going to have to provide testimony if congress is going to be able to discharge that duty. Jonathan lemire, the president has finally found, as he said, hes finally found his pit bull as an attorney general, who doesnt care about the law, who commits perjury before the United States congress and who sends out who sends out letters claiming executive privilege where it does not exist. Give us a birds ive view of what the white house strategy is moving forward. First of all, to any democratic probe, the white house strategy is simple, three words, just say no. They are going to attempt to stonewall at every possible turn. They are going to claim executive privilege, they are going to defy subpoenas, they are going to withhold witnesses and testimony. They are going to try to play this in the courts, play the long game, thinking that they could get perhaps a favorable legal ruling. But even short of that, that they can extend this, punt this into next year with the thinking that the longer these Court Battles go, the closer they get to the election that the white house and republicans will be able to point to the democrats and say, look, this is purely political. The election lets say is only a few months away. Lets just let the voters decide. Lets not have these outstanding legal fights and theyre try to paint this as partisan overreach. In terms of the attorney general, thats our story today about the growing relationship between the president and william barr, how we all know that President Trump was deeply disappointed with Jeff Sessions, himself first attorney general, for, mind you, doing the right thing according to Justice Department guidelines in recusing himself from the russia probe. But trump viewed it as a betrayal, and he never forgave sessions. Barr feels that the president should more or less not be investigated on any measure while in office and trump has been grateful for his efforts, the wave he framed the Mueller Report with that fourpage letter that set the terms of the debate before we all saw the document, the combative press conference with reporters, his testy standoff with democratic lawmakers on capitol hill when he testified then. And in an overlooked moment earlier this spring when the president issued his veto when congress tried to stop his National Emergency declaration at the border, you height recall he had an event in the oval office justifying what he was doing and barr said the president had legal standing to do that and then he went further, surprising even trump, and saying, sir, you have a moral imperative to the American People, youre keeping us safe. And trump told people around him that he finally had my attorney general, he had someone who was going to have his interests at heart. You know, gene robinson, just since the show started, ive just sketched a few fots about Donald Trumps lawyers and what theyve been doing. Its really shocking. This is just really all whats unfolded over the past 24 hours, its all in the headlines. First you have reports that the president s lawyer encouraged a key witness to commit perjury before congress. You have an attorney general of course who committed perjury before congress. Lied. Its on tape. Three, you have an attorney generals claims of executive privilege that at least call where i used to practice law in northwest florida a sham pleadi pleading. There is no basis in fact for that, for fact or law. You have a call for rebuking white house lawyers and getting Donald Trumps finance record. And five, i found just shocking, the attorney general of the United States of america lying on camera about the origins of the Mueller Investigation and actually talked about the steele dossier when he knows hes a liar when he says that. He knows that was not the origins of it. This has been talked about for months and months. And yet he goes on tv the attorney general of the United States of america, not only has he been caught lying to the house and lying to the senate, he is now lying on camera about the origins of that investigation. So, gene, where do we go from here . Youre writing about justin amash this morning. Any other president would be going through impeachment hearings by now. For sure. Absolutely. Any other president would be going through impeachment hearings and this one may be going through impeachment hearings sooner than we know. Because, you know, this reafuse everything and runouttheclock scenario may not be working. That judge had no patience for the sham pleading, as you say, that was made by the president s lawyers about those records and refused to stay his order and basically put it in the lap probably of the Appeals Court. The Appeals Court may do the same thing and say get out of here and follow the law. And so it the First Court Ruling in this whole thing, this whole multiheaded this evening is ve encouraging because it indicates that maybe the courts are not going to play along with the runouttheclock strategy and are actually going to step up and say you got to do what the law says you got to do. You know, that would restore one as faith, i think, in our system and its ability to exercise the checks and balances that are built into the constitution. This president has no respect for them, the attorney general has no respect for them. You know, his idea of a lawyer is tom hagan of the godfather. He wants a bunch of them and apparently has got them. Mika, a lot of people might Start Talking about impeachment. Thats a very long process. I think at the very least you see all these ads by tom steyer talking about impeach President Trump. I tell you something that could be done more quickly and more effectively is looking back at what happened with bill clinton. Blnt got bill clinton got impeached but he got disbarred from the Arkansas Supreme Court for committing perjury. You have the attorney general of the United States of america who has committed perjury. Its on tape. It would seem to make a lot of sense or tom steyer or other people who want to move this process forward and get honesty back in the white house to actually get some lawyers and actually start moving to get the attorney general of the United States disbarred. The truth is out there, the evidence is out there and theres a certain new york City Broadcasting legend said, lets go to tape. I mean, thats what they should do. He is unworthy to be attorney general of the United States, and he is unworthy of even being an officer of the court because he is lying every day. Well, i asked the speaker of the house about that. Well get to that in just a moment. But first, i spoke with nancy pelosi for a headliner special that will air next month. I asked her whether a conservative stepping up changes anything. Bipartisan support for impeachment has to be in the senate. In terms of congressman amash, his voice speaks to the silence of so many other all the other republicans not to hold this president accountable for the oath of office that he takes to protect and defend the constitution, respecting the coequal branches of government. So amash may be one voice but the fact that it is in the absence of other voices, it speaks very loudly. Doesnt it put more pressure on you that a conservative republican says the threshold for impeachment has been met. No. No . No. Why . This is not about passion, not about prejudice, its not about politics. Its about patriotism and the presentation of the facts so that the American People can see why were going down a i dont know. I feel very confident that the American People know that they deserve to know the truth and thats what we want to present to them. In a way that they dont perceive to be without the presentation of the facts. Should congress be working to impeach who lied and committed perjury before the eyes of congress . The fact that the attorney general of the United States would lie to congress again, were on the path of contempt for him. You are . Thats what i would hope. The definition of subpoena is literally under penalty. What is the pnl fusing respond to a subpoena. Is there article three that he did not honor the speen of the congress of the United States. Before they got to that place at that time, they had a long investigation. And thats what were doing now, then we have some options available to us. One in particular is theyre saying you have no purpose for these subpoenas. Well, under the constitution one of purposes would be to see if you want to go down the path of impeachment. The oth there are other purposes as well. So what have you learned . Well, so much about her life and what an inspiration she is, how smart she is, how confident she is and how disciplined she is. Theres no doubt that everything that has happened in her life has brought her to this moment and that she is the ultimate challenge for president donald trump. Whats so interesting is its very clear she has deep feelings about his lack of fitness for office, deep feelings, very clear feelings, but she is not driven by that. Shes driven by whats best for the country, what best process to follow so that people can feel the American People can feel that they are represented in this process. So while impeachment seems like the easy way to go because there and there are processes that she can trigger to hold this president accountable, she really feels that getting the facts and the process of getting the fact exacts is far more important so that the well can stand what has happened in this presidency. Nancy pelosi is in a very strange was. Nancy pelosi has warned that President Trump is trying to goad House Democrats into impeachment. I think thats true and in a way its working. Nancy pelosi physicals increasing pressure from some i that the congress has a will the purpose in going after them and that gives nancy pelosi some breathing room. You heard in your interview how Law Enforcement, proochl, in moving had bass she understands that there are some significant costs, tus, if they do that. So Mike Barnicle nancy pelosi is rootoned from the beginning of the term on as have they would all do themselves a great disservice if they do not read this article and understand the importance of it. Heres sort of the key line out of it. While democrats harp on trumps unfitness for office, his taxes and impeachment, the president is solidifying plu and, working class person was struggling who said i dont give a damn about Donald Trumps tax returns, i give a damn about pie job. Theres not on that, theres also a quote from another young peacekeeper and that trump doesnt, know, i lou that. But wow, these past 20 minutes, there as a lot to unpack here in pao pof you have to wonder out there in the country, in youngstown ohio, and this story for the democrats to receive some kind of victory or storing in this this nar tiff, need bo bob actual are. Joe, mook oo. Right aftery lyft where she heard from a lot of fellow democrats, many of this many on the jacket becauseshe knows, shes been around long enough, she understands donald trump brung neff that hes baiting them into its january 20th, 2017 many progressives have been beating the drum of impeachment. Nancy pelosi is pulling the long game here. Playing the long game and, willie, listen, i understand why the democrats are frustrate