House with nbcs hans nichols. This bomb sheel tweet effectively confirming hes under investigation. Its stunning because yesterday he didnt answer shouted questions about any of this now the confirmation. Reporter this is the investigation not into collusion with the russians but the obstruction of justice part of the investigation. Ive read the president s tweet several times and whats clear is hes referring to Rod Rosenstein. He wrote a memo to President Trump where he laid out the case for firing fbi director james comey. He got similar advice from Jeff Sessions. Its clear from this that he thinks the person who is investigating him is not Robert Mueller, the special counsel but in fact Rod Rosenstein, the same Rod Rosenstein that President Trump nominated to be Deputy Attorney general. This is a remarkable turn of events when you look at who the president nominated to fill out his Justice Department officials, he only has three that have been senate confirmed. When you look at the total number of people that hes nominated, under a dozen. And the position of Deputy Attorney general needs to be senate confirmed. Even if the president did fire Rod Rosenstein and thought he was turning against him, leading the investigation, the person underneath him is an attorney named rachel brant. Another trump appointee. You include Jeff Sessions and those are the only three people that would have the authority to remove Robert Mueller leading the investigation in which the president himself seems to confirm is into obstruction of justice. It comes as we got this very curious statement from Rod Rosenstein overnight. Tell me what hes saying and why its so significant. This seems to be a general defense on anonymous sourcing. And if theres any specificity to it, its criticizing u. S. Officials. I would note that after the most recent reporting that Rod Rosenstein may have been referring to, a Washington Post report, an investigation into Jared Kushners finances. They lated updated the story and said u. S. Officials. The criticism that sometimes the officials dont say whether theyre american or nonamerican. It seemed like the post cleaned that up. As you and i know, a lot of times when we say officials here we try to be as specific as we can. It could have been an oversight from the Washington Post that rosenstein seized upon. But they cleared it up and its clear its coming from u. S. Officials. He of course in general is decrying the leak, the unauthorized disclosure of information which is something we hear quite frequently just over in the west wing. Absolutely. It certainly fits into all of the talking points that were hearing from the house. Theyve gone after the leaks and the anonymous sources. One more thing before i let you go. There were other headlines as it relates to Jared Kushner and of course Vice President mike pence getting his own outside counsel. This is significant and underscores the gravity of this investigation. No one ever wants to lawyer up. Richard cohen is a respected lawyer around town. Hes now, the Vice President office confirm, will be served as mr. Pences personal lawyer. The other investigations weve had is this idea of the Washington Post looking into the finances of Jared Kushner, what sort of Financial Arrangements hes had with a bunch of other countries. And then the other really significant moment, this piece of news this morning, the fact theres been a request of preservation from documents from the trump transition official, from the general counsel of the trump transition to anyone who was working on russia or ukraine related matter, mentions carter pink, mentions paul manafort. Thats lawyer speak. Let me put it in basic terms for you. Dont shred any documents. Thats what that edict is coming from trumps own transition officials. Thats an indication they could be expecting some subpoenas quite soon. All of it highlighting the fact that the probe continues to expand. Tremendous reporting. Thank you so much for that from the white house. I now want to bring in former federal prosecutor Kendall Coffey and my panel here, White House CorrespondentSara Westwood and National Political reporter for the boston globe, stead herndon. Kendall i want to start with you and that stunning tweet. I in my head hads a split screen of the president tweeting and his own outside Council Reading the tweet. Can you break down the legal implicatio implications. Why is this so significant . The president is obviously recognizing there is indead an investigation and hes punching back. One of the things i keep seeing in this is a white house reaction that is simply not consistent with recognizing the serious ness of the matter. You look at some of the other people, theyre staying as quiet as possible. Theyre listening to their lawyers. And so what we continue to see is frankly more of a political reaction to what is going on with the special counsels office, to what is going on with the investigation rather than a thoughtful recognition that there could be some serious issues here and its time to deal with them accordingly. For correspondents like myself who cover the white house were witnessing a incredible divide, you have his staffers, the people charged with talking to the press saying theyre not going to discuss the russia probe at all. It is in fact only the president discussing the russia probe. Does he not potentially risk getting himself into more legal jeopardy with these tweets, this lack of message disciplining . Abts absolutely. At the time james comey was fired, the official documented statement was based on the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney general. Who was the one that connected that to russia. None other than the president himself. And for him to get through this, at some point there has to be more thought to the legal consequences rather than political reactions to things that he doesnt like to hear about or read about. Kendall im going to bring in my panel. Sara, let me play a sound bite from morning joe. The political fallout. Lets take a listen. Look, i think the president can do some very good things with twitter. Hes done some very good things with it. But my advice is its better not to comment on it. Let the professionals do the job. The more quickly they can do it and get it done, the better off youre going to be. Sara, the fact that you have republicans repeatedly saying, lay off the twitter, how much is this making the Republican Party jittery, not only the stunning develop thamt the president is under investigation but because of this message discipline or lack thereof. The less President Trump says publicly about the investigation, the less he can get himself into trouble down the line if more information emerges. Republicans in congress are struggling to come out from under this cloud, to move on their agenda thats been stalled for more than a month. Clearly this isnt helping. And the president s tweet this morning was contradictory. Remember after james comey was fired, the white house came out and said this was a result of Rod Rosensteins recommendation and President Trump goes to lester holt saying no, i made the decision. It just shows you how muddy the waters still are. Lets look at that exchange and then im going to get your reaction on the other side for analysis. I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. So there was he made a recommendation, highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. The democrats like him. The republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. As sara points out, the president is contradicting himself. As this investigation expands, how damaging is it politically . Thats been an interview thats come back to haunt the president significantly. We had a message coming from the white house saying that the fbi comey was fire specifically because of the mentions, the reasons that were given in those letters and then we had in that interview him saying i was going to do it regardless. And so that contradictory message, that lack of discipline has been the reason this things has expanded. The reason they cant seem to shut it down. Even republicans in congress who have often agreed with the president s message, agreed with the president colkol policy wis. Weve seen Mitch Mcconnell say i wish he would start tweeting. Weve seen republicans largely supporters of him and backing his policies on things unpopular still be upset when it comes to tweeting because that has been the vehicle, while it helped him in the election, a legal jeopardy is a different things. And so many republicans concerned its putting their agenda in jeopardy. Kendall want i want to talk about the significance of the Vice President hiring a lawyer. This is answer investigation that is expanding. Everyone expected it to. Thats what happens when there is a special counsel in place. What the you make of this move by the Vice President . I think its a smart move. Not that i think hes in any legal jeopardy but hes going to eventually be brought in for questioning from the special counsel. He obviously had interactions with flynn who is a very very significant person in all of this. And he wants to make sure that even if hes not worried about looking bad criminally that he doesnt get damaged politically. And to do that you get a smart experienced lawyer, which he has, who help yos navigate it so that the moment of truth comes in the interview, your answers are credible, consistent and youre fully prepared. Thats a good move and i believe that a lot of others around the white house may be thinking the same way and there may be more people lawyering up. I think youre right about that. Thank you so much for helping us understand these breaking developments. I want to turn now to another Big Development this morning. Russia claiming its taken out one of the most wanteds terrorists in the world, the leader of isis reportedly killed in a may 28 sair strike. Lucy is in our london bureau. Help us to understand this. Theres a lot of skepticism in part because al baghdadi has not been heard from in quite a long time. Theres been no confirmation at this stage neither from the pentagon, the u. S. Led coalition tweeting just a few moments ago, coalition cannot confirm death of baghdadi. No definitive proof. Welcome that day. Even Sergey Lavrov said he cant confirm the death of the isis leader. The only information we have is coming from the russia defense. They say on may 28 300 fighters gathered to plan their escape from raqqah, a city currently under assault by the u. S. And its allies. Russia drones dispatched a group of fighters and bomber jets to strike. And in a statement russia said i sis leader al baghdadi attended the meeting and was killed in the air strike. The Ministry Says it warned the u. S. Of the strike in advance. There have been several reports of his death in the past, including least weekend when the Syrian Television announced baghdadis death by an air strike. He was only publicly seen once. Some reporting suggesting shes hiding in the thousands of square miles of desert rather than living in mosul and raqqah where the american troops are fighting isis. Neither city a good location to be in if youre the most wanted man in the world with a 25 million bounty on your head. Thank you for that report. We know you will continue to keep us updated. Two big stories coming out of cuba this morning. President raul castro announcing his retirement effectively the end of the 40year castro grip on cuba and President Trump set to tighten travel and trade restrictions with havana. Were live with the latest. Thats next. Stay with us. At lincoln financial, we get there are some responsibilities of love you gotta do on your own. And some you shouldnt have to shoulder alone. Like ensuring hes welltaken care of. Even as you build your own plans for retirement. Ask a Financial Advisor how lincoln can help protect your savings from the impact of longterm care expenses. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. 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Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where. Certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb,. Hepatitis b, are prone to infections,. Or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Just managing your symptoms . Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Welcome back. Just minutes from now President Trump will Board Air Force one on his way to miami where he will roll out his administrations new cuba policy this afternoon. Youre taking a live look at joint base andrews where marine 1 as touched down ready for President Trump to board within the hour. Kelly odonnell is already in miami for us and also joining me is former ambassador vickie hudd huddleston in cuba. Thanks to both of you for joining me. Kelly, i want to start with you. Walk us through the terms of this policy, what do folks need to know about what the president is going to announce later today. Reporter well the president will be here in this theater thats in the heart of little havana. Thats a political signal and a place hes been welcomed today based on the signage i saw on her way here. Part of what the Trump Administration is saying theyre trying to empower the cuban people and deemphasize the power of the government and military structure. This is a huge turn around from the normalization of what president obama brought about after decades of a real freezeout between the United States and cuba. What will not change is the embassy plans for the United States in cuba. What people will see in their own lives is if youre an individual wanting to travel to cuba, that will be changed. There will still be opportunities for american to visit but there will be different restrictions. There are a dozen categories with educational groups and business groups would be able to visit but simply booking your spring break will. Harder under this policy. The policy goes into effect today. The time line for when the changes will be based on how the regulations change. This is about trying to deemphasize any kind of u. S. Spending toward the military in cuba, for example, hotels they may own. Now there are democrats who were consulted on this but there are much louder voices coming from capitol hill saying this is a rollback in an unfortunately that caters to a limited group. Of course the cubanamerican community in florida is a powerful group. President trump needed their support in the election. This is a place that he loves to talk about his electoral victory. I could imagine that could come up today. But this is also about keeping a promise that he made and there will be controversy in this but it is not an entire rollback of the changes brought on by president obama, one of his signature achievements. But there will be some differences and part of what the trump seem is saying they believe this will put more emphasis on empowering cubans and to emphasize human rights. Something we dont always hear the Trump White House leading with. But this is clearly the product of a lot of bobbying by President Trump by influential people, including senator marco rubio in florida who was helpful in craft this plan. We just witnessed President Trump boarding air force one about to take off for miami. You see his top advisers there trailing behind. I want to go now to ambassador huddleston and ask you about what we just heard from Kelly Odonnell. You heard her make this point, that the goal, according to the white house, is to put the emphasis back on the people and to deemphasize the military. What do you make of that and is that an accur