Nunberg. Tell him i said hello. Hello back. Its all good. He says h eloqueello back. Im alex witt at msnbc world headquarters. High noon here. New reaction to north korea, Stormy Daniels and the impeachment attorney hire that the president says did not happen. Our policy is pressure. The economic sanctions have a very big impact. What i want to see, i think what all of us want to see is the prep work done for this kind of meeting. Did the president approve the payment that his personal lawyer made to Stormy Daniels . Not that im aware of. That hire has yet to happen officially but witch hunt or not, former Trump Campaign aid sitting here. Hes setting the record straight and will give me his take on Robert Muellers investigation into russias meddling. Plus, flying solo, who could be a strategy for the president by relying less on staff and going at it alone. But we begin with this live picture where the president is answering questions about a hush money payment from trumps lawyer to porn star Stormy Daniels. Here is the Deputy Press Secretary a bit earlier. Did the president approve the payment that his personal lawyer made to Stormy Daniels . Not that im aware of, but Michael Cohen, the attorney in question, has addressed this. The white house has addressed scary addressed it earlier this week and i have nothing further to add. Did the president reimburse Michael Cohen . No that i believe. Does the president believe stormy dan yeiels has a right t speak or demand she remaremain silent . The president slamming a New York Times reporter on an Oval Office Meeting on ing with a la that represented bill clinton. The president saying the failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that im unhappy with my legal team on the russia case and im going to add another lawyer to help out. Wrong. Im very happy with my lawyers, they are doing a great job and shown conclusively that there was no collusion with russia. Just execution for losing. The only collusion done by the dnc, democrats and crooked hillary. As i said, former Trump Campaign aid sam nunberg is here. First, lets go to nbc Kelly Odonnell who will join us with more with a spokesman from the Mueller Investigation. Good day to you. Whats the latest at this noon hour . Good to be with you, alex. These questions what the future is for President Trump and the russia investigation always persist and there was specific focus on whether the president himself would be involved in an interview, would he consent to talk to investigators, maybe mueller himself. That has been a Sticking Point because when the president has responded to it over a period of months, he has shown a willingness to do so, even enthusiasm about doing so at times speaking about it as if its a way to cap this investigation. But the specifics from his team at the white house have always been that the president needs to rely on his legal team. The Principle DeputyWhite House Press secretary was asked about this this morning. The president has told me twice now, once last year and once this year that he will meet and talk to the special counsel, answer questions under oath. I assume the president plans to keep his word on that . Look, hes also said that that will be in consultation with his attorneys. They are going to be communicating back and forth. He said 100 to me, 100 yes. Is there any im sure he intends to. His attorneys are communicating with the special counsel on the specifics. A challenge to bridge the divide between the public statements and legal strategy that is being employed at this point from the president s team. What we have been reporting for sometime is that the president s legal team has been in touch with the mueller team talking back and forth about possibilities for an interview. We dont know the terms like would it be under oath . Would the length be . Would there be demands . Those complications go in on a matter of this scale. We dont know the timing. Certainly we heard the president is eager to have this wrapped up and we know the special counsel team believes you need to speak to the president in order to do that. Alex . All right. Kel Kelly Odonnell, thank you. Former Trump Campaign advisor sam nunberg is talking about the sevenhour appearance on friday before a grand jury on muellers probe. He went on a media blitz threatening to defy a subpoena that requested documents for ten people. He agreed to compile and sam nunberg joins me here in studio. Thank you for joining me. An honor. The last 15 to 20 minutes we got to know each other. Your demeanor is different than that depicted at times during this earlier week. Thank you very much. Before i get to the grand jury appear raance specifically right. I want you to explain to the viewers what your role is in the orbit of Donald Trumps world. How long did you work with him in the campaign . In a nutshell from mid 2011 to mid 2015. I was the First Permanent hire in late 2014 for the campaign. I helped recruit campaign manager. I helped recruit the staff for the early states, and i would say that roger stone and i had a Critical Role in helping President Trump who is always his own strategist develop a script that would really help make him who is gold in the hotel brand be gold in the political brand. Did that for officially six months from the beginning of the campaign, about that long . Six weeks. Just six weeks. He announced in june there was speculation before hand, you were trying to figure out if he would run, you were part of that team, as well . Basically, i knew he would run by around mid 2014 after he appeared in a New Hampshire freedom summit, which was done by afp and david boss group. It was the first time he attacked jeb bush and i remember meet the press and chuck todd saying i cant believe it, donald trump is attacking jeb bush and the crowd is clapping. They couldnt believe it. I could. Donald trump could. There was something going on there. Okay. And then with whom did you work most closely . You mentioned roger stone . He your point person . The way i like to describe it, first of all, roger had an eye problem. I dont want to go into detail so he couldnt be there that much until the campaign was officially announced but lets just say robger was the senior parter in. I have needed counsel before i would take something to mr. Trump. I would go through roger and i needed rogers opinion. Hes one of the greatest political minds. People can think what they want about him but thats just a fact. Since you left the campaign, how closely are you in touch with people in the white house or people with whom you had previously worked . All the people that i was in touch with the white house are no longer there. Im a very good friend of Steve Bannons. I believe in Steve Bannons most of his philosophy. And a lot of his team is not there anymore. Thats fine. Alex, ive never made a point to want to make money off this white house. Im in a separate sector now. Im in a separate career. All i want is this president to be successful as all americans should want. I want to get to your appearance now before the grand jury. Yes, maam. Did you come away from that feeling like you are in any personal legal jeopardy . No, i was never in any personal legal jeopardy and let me explain one thing about monday. What i was saying on monday was, was that somebody who and i dont want to go over personal ends and outs of donald trump but i want to Say Something else about donald trump. He did give me a lot of chances and i could have been a better employee and people should know that, as well. Even though it didnt end up well and i was sued. He meant a lot to me. Maybe once day we can have a relationship, maybe not. Im always told im not a subject or target and as long as you dont lie in the grand jury or your interview, thats it. Thats it for me. I have no criminal liability to the best of my knowledge and to what they have told me. But you could have put yourself into egg willlegal jeo bedefying tby defying the subpoena. What changed my mind to make my best effort to do the subpoena and produce the document, go through the effort is when i was sitting on this studio or that floor and i was on a panel after being interviewed with professor wiley who is very, very smart and what professor wiley said to me was you look like you have something to hide. Whether you think this is fair or not, this is the process and this is it. My point of saying that maybe its a witch hunt is there is no way i colluded with the russians because i wasnt on the campaign during that time. Right . I wasnt on the campaign when things were going on in the general election, possibly, i dont know, maybe, maybe not. And to put me through Something Like this and to be honest with you, it was very, very hard for me personally, as well and then to have to relive it and do this, it was a process. I want to make sure i get the quote right but you said it is not a witch hunt, it is warranted this investigation. Yes, it is. Because there is a lot there and thats the sad truth. So you do not believe this leads to the president. I dont believe it leads to the president. The president is going to have to explain and the president has to do an interview, i would say. I would highly suggest that he does. He has to explain why when they fired james comey and if it was up to me, the president would have fired james comey the day after he was elected during the transition but he has to explain why when he based the logic on the rosenstein memo and then the next day gives an interview to lester holt saying it had to do with russia. Okay, fine, maybe then we dont have a special counsel but then he has the russians in the oval office and by the way, who the hell in that white house let that happen . He was so ill served by his staff. It was unbelievable. Therefore, i dont think rosenstein had any choice but to put that special counsel. Here is what i also want to say. If they charge the president with and they are smart enough to know this, whatever they are going after the president , if they believe they have something against the president , it better be within the scope of that investigations mandate and not the wide brath of it. It better be within the scope of collusion with the russians, which i dont believe he did. To that end, what kind of questions did they ask you . My question, so obviously, i cant talk specifically about the questions. What i would say one, i like to say it was so back and forth and i dont know if the attorney who was doing it, i dont know if i can identify him but to me it felt like he was a teacher, boom, boom, boom, boom. There was nothing subjective. They didnt want to know my opinion. They didnt know what for facts. For facts. What do i know . Was this . What was that . What did you see and didnt see . Thats it. There was nothing there from what they wanted to know from me where they were looking once again, what do you think . Do you think about this . Did you refuse to answer any questions . No, absolutely not. Ill just say i dont know. There werent many instances of that. I went in for a voluntary interview where you tell you youre not a subject and target. You dont lie. So once they bring you into the grand jury room, they dont want to waste the time of the grand jury. The grand jury is not meeting every day. So they have limited time with them. So they just want to get through the factual elements that i gave them in my voluntarily interview. Okay. Did they ask you about russian involvement in the campaign, and you have said and youve just said it here that you believe there is no collusion but in order to prove whether or not there is collusion, they are trying to establish i would presume the presence of i will say. I will say and this is i dont think im leaking anything that the grand that the special prosecutor that the special counsel would be upset with. They are looking into whether there was coordination with the emails, of course they are and the and the hacking. They are looking into that. I have no idea, but i dont believe see, here is why i dont believe it. Vladimir putin is running an operation. Hes too smart to do it directly with the campaign. He didnt need to do it directly with the campaign. Are they asking you questions. I know you said they need to stay within the scope of russian collusion. If they indict the president. If they indict the president , it cannot be anything about a business thing. It cannot be anything before lets say he was running for office. So are they asking then questions about, say, obstruction of justice . Are they asking about Money Laundering . Thats the other reason i tell you they are very professional. They dont ask me anything about obstruction of justice because im not in the white house. So of course, they didnt ask me. Thats why im also saying this isnt a witch hunt. This is not a witch hunt and the taxpayers are getting their moneys worth. These people, people like me republicans, we have this idea all government workers are burro cats and do nothing but surf on the web. The people ive dealt with, these are people that fortune 50 companies would hire and i was so impressed by them. Okay. But you say this is not a witch hunt, sam and say there is a lot there. What is the there . Does that consist of . What happened is when i first got the call, i hadnt studied any of this. I was rude to the fbi agent who i have later apologized. Hey, youre a new yorker. [ laughter ] but when i have to go into when i have to go into lets say, not a lions den but party against party, im not interested really in looking lets say in a campaign. Im not interested in looking initially i know it as an a exert how to message to republicans. I have to see how the message to dem kra democrats. I studied everything writers have written. There were books about this. Yes, this is legitimate to have the special counsel, and thats why i also think the president should meet with him and get this over with. Get it over with because does that mean youre implying you do not think Robert Mueller has anything regarding russia and this president . I would hope not, and i dont think the president would do Something Like that. Maybe im wrong, maybe im not. I dont believe he would do Something Like that during the campaign. I think hes too smart. I think he really is too short, as well. The same way putin wouldnt directly collude with the campaign. There are other issues, though, too. There are a lot of weird connections. There is a lot of stuff going on there. I dont understand why carter page had to go to moscow when there are issues talking about weird russian connections with the campaign. Were you asked about that, about carter page . I was asked to produce any communications ive had with him. I never communicated with carter page. I heard about him in the city a long time and heard he was trying to do Russian Energy projects. Vladimir putin is not a threat to america but hes the number one benefactor of assad and iranians. Okay . Im i think that those are two major threats to america and american interest. So with regard to russian collusion or russian influence in the Trump Campaign and ultimately potentially in this election, do you have any personal knowledge of anything that you disclosed to the mueller team . No, because i wouldnt anyway because as you recall, i dont know if the audience knows, i endorsed ted cruz during the primaries. You did. I was sued during the summer, it was actually the week before the convention. I was sued. And then frankly, as ive said, i really wanted the president to lose with blinding out my feelings about Hillary Clinton up until the access Hollywood Tape was released and i thought that was too much for me, for the tape to be released, not what he said, for them to release that tape. That was a bridge too far for me and i thought about the Supreme Court and i thought about other issues. So do you have a sense based on the questioning how large a role obstruction of justice may be playing in the Mueller Investigation . I dont. Once again, they didnt ask me about it because i would have no once again, as i said before, and this is why this is not a witch hunt, this is not a witch hunt is all they want to know is knowledge that i could have firsthand knowledge of. All they want to know are facts. They are not asking sam what do you think about this . Are your feelings about that . So seven hours a is a long time. Wasnt seven hours. Thats misreported. I was in the bidding sevuilding hours. How long were you asked questions . Four, four and a half maybe. Still a long time. Give me a sense of the tenure. They were very professional. The people across this country are fascinated by this. Let me explain the room. You walk into the room and its almost like i describe it like a classroom because the attorney whose asking me the questions is standing up and standing there. There is a screen there when they want to show exhibits behind him. There is he has an assistant attorney standing next to him assisting him and handing him documents and writing things and thats typical, too. When i worked for jay secular he would do that. There was somebody else next to me and i dont know if that was another attorney but they were there watching the room. Then there is me sitting here and what i did is just faced him and just went back and forth with him, with the person who was asking me the questions. And then the grand jury is in front of me. I would