providing information to federal prosecutors. weisselberger's ties to the president go back decades. he acted as trump's financial gatekeeper overseeing the trump oregon and trump foundation. now he has been granted immunity and is talking to prosecutors about hush money payments to two women ahead of the 2016 presidential election. this a day after trump's long-time media ally david pecker accepted his own immunity deal and two days after his former lawyer implicated him in a campaign finance violation. yesterday, i said the walls were closing in on this president. today this is how "time" magazine is illustrating a presidency in peril. they filed this cover "in the deep." our "in deep." excuse me. "the new york times" reported that manhattan district attorney's office is considering criminal charges against the trump organization, and two senior executives. a probe would focus on the documentation of $130,000 payment to trump's long-time attorney michael cohen and whether business records were falsified to cover it up. so the big question we are asking today is, what will ultimately be more damaging to donald trump? the russia investigation or his attempts to hide extramarital affairs? joining me from the white house is nbc's kristen welker, nbc national security reporter ken dilanian and nbc news investigations reporter tom winter, political reporter for "the washington post," philip bump, and former prosecutor for the southern district of new york and former senate counsel to the senate judiciary committee john flannery. welcome. let's start with allen weisselberger. tom, you confirmed that weisselberger has been granted immunity. what would he need to to do to that immunity? >> what he would need to say, they would approach and say, hey, we'd like to talk with you. we need you to walk through some certain things. whether that be for a grand jury or just a sit down and have a discussion with fbi agents and federal prosecutors. he might say i could talk to you but i might be going into an area where i'm incriminating myself. they would say we are going to imunize your testimony or anything that you tell us. the kpkt mechanics of this, because the press office for the southern district of new york is not commenting on this, we don't know the exact mechanics. did it happen in front of a grand jury, in a discussion with prosecutors? basically, what they would want is to walk us through this payment. this stormy daniels payment. that's where his information would be helpful, too. they have statements in here that detail him accepting michael cohen's referral for payment. so he could be paid back for that stormy daniels payment. then him directing another person in the trump organization to make that payment, to cut the check, figuratively speaking, or maybe literally speaking. >> and we don't know who that second person is? >> not yet. this would really be a way, anything that he could tell them could help them walk through the mechanics of this in the trump organization. i think anything that he provided might be helpful. >> we were talking about allen weisselberger the other week. his name came up in a recording that michael cohen made as he was talking to the president about a payment made to karen mcdougal. the president denied initially knowing about it. this tape revealed that he did. let's play that tape. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david see that -- i'm going to do that right away. i have spoken to allen weisselberger about how to set the whole thing up with -- >> where are we -- >> funding -- yes. and it's all the stuff -- >> certainly puts the president in a problematic position. that's probably putting it lightly. he says he doesn't know about this payment. then it comes out he does. at the time when allen weisselberger's name was heard, folks in the trump organization were talking to sources, reporters saying that allen knows where the bodies are buried. of course, that presumes there are bodies to uncover. it seems he is given immunity, there is at least one body and it has do with one hush money payment if not more? >> that's right. they dug up a body. we don't know what the scale and scope of what weisselberger is being talked to about is. we don't know if it is limited to this particular issue. we don't know if there are other investigations he may be able to provide information on. that is to your point. that was the big question, how much were they going to be able to get out of weisselberger. we know or it seems extremely likely he helped contribute to the information used in court when cohen pled guilty, as was this information for american media, inc. and ceo david pecker. that made its way into these documents from the government. we don't know. we found out today he is able to provide this information, has provided the information, may provide further information. we don't know what scope of that is. >> we don't. here is something. he is a former federal prosecutor as well. and he says, for example, according to weisselberger, he did not know that the retainer agreement with cohen was meant to repay cohen for money cohen personally paid to stormy daniels. this suggests, according to marriotty, that the payment was falsely described in the trump organization financial records and he lists this curious passage from the "wall street journal" article that caught my eye as well. this passage says last year mr. weisselberger arranged for the trump organization to reimburse mr. cohen who had in october 2016 made a 130 grand payment to stephanie clifford, a former adult film actress who claims she had sex with mr. trump a decade earlier in exchange for her silence about the alleged affair. a person familiar with mr. weisselberger's thinking said he did not know that money was meant to pay stormy daniels when he agreed in january 2017 to a $35,000 monthly retainer from mr. cohen. john, does that strike you as odd in any way? do you have the same reaction as renato does? >> it's more than odd. it kcontradicts the tape conversation when you have mr. cohen telling mr. trump that i've already gone over this with weisselberger. so that's september of 2016. and by how i understand calendars, that's somewhat before january of 2017. so i wonder if they gave him immunity to tell that story that you have just referred to. so i find it very difficult to believe. and i don't know how a chief financial officer decides to pay out $420,000 or 35 payments a month in 2017 for services rendered that are invisible. and i wonder who that second executive is that they referred to as well because the second executive in the trump organization could be a trump family member. one of the three half-siblings, if you will. don jr. so i get the feeling that the immunity is created because they are going after the family. as well as, perhaps, the corporate structure. >> we don't know those names yet. that certainly could go in that direction potentially. kristen welker, i have been making calls today trying to figure out how money was paid out in the trump organize. i talked to two folks who worked for the trump organization. one told knee when they needed to be rebersed for an expense, donald trump had to sign that invoice. that person had to go to donald trump's office, explain what it was and get donald trump to sign it before they went to allen weisselberger to get paid out. both people said that donald trump was a huge micromanager when it came to the finances, that he knew about everything leaving the trump organization, that he personally signed checks. there was no auto sign. he knew all of it. what is the white house saying in regards to what the president knew and if they're not saying anything, which i imagine they're not, what is the mood like at the white house when it's day after day of massive revelation or trump ally flipping or, if not flipping, getting immunity from prosecutors to tell them what they know? >> to the first part of what you are saying, and i think it's a really fascinating and important point, that is how president trump governs. he likes to be engaged in every detail. that means not just the policy, but also the communication strategy and often he is the one driving it. that's why, as you'll recall several months ago, we reported that he was mulling the possibility of not having a chief of staff because he likes to be engaged in every single knee auns. so i think that is reflective of your reporting. in terms of the mood here at the white house, i can tell you that, look, this morning has been spent in a lot of meetings. i have been talking to press officials. they have been shuffling back and forth to high-level meetings. that's in part because, of course, we got that breaking news that the president is calling off the talks north korea. i know you will get into that later in the show. there is no doubt that this is a white house that has felt besieged by these series of headlines. but it's also important to note, this is a white house that is no stranger to dealing with these types of controversies, although this week is certainly different and there is an awareness of that. how is president trump doing? we have been talking to a number of sources who are close to him, who have been in meetings, familiar with his thinking. they say he is fine right now. at the same time they are bracing for a potential meltdown. and we have started to see that sort of unfold on twitter. we saw it a little bit in the fox news interview. the president with very harsh words for michael cohen, for his attorney general jeff sessions, for the russia probe, in general taking fresh aim at all of those various targets. so the sense here is that he is growing increasingly more infuriated about all of this. as you mentioned. >> and you may or may not be able to hear marine one behind me getting ready to take him to drews and on to ohio. we are hoping reporters can get questions before he takes off. >> we just found out that, no, he did not take any questions from reporters. looks like he is not walking to the cameras. somebody is keeping him away from reporters who are, obviously, going to want to ask him a lot of questions about what is going on. ken dilanian, talking about donald trump's strategy here, his explanation for what he knew or did not know has evolved, has changed. first he didn't know about the payments at all. then they are okay because he paid out of his own pocket. then nothing about this is illegal. everybody does this sort of thing. campaign finance violations are very common. >> yeah, that's right. i mean, his evolving stories were such that "the washington post" fact checker branded them a lie. a term they don't use very often. it's clear that's what's going on here. look, this could turn out to be a turning point in these investigations of donald trump because don't forget michael cohen walked into court and implicated him in a crime, said he ordered cohen to make this illegal campaign finance payment. and more importantly than that, a prosecutor from the southern district of new york said those same words in court. now with these immunity arguments, with weisselberger and david pecker of the company that owns "the national enquirer," is that prosecutors have other witnesses. they have other evidence to back up this story. so now the question becomes, what will be done with these allegations against the president? will the southern district of new york investigate this further? or because they can't indict a president, does it fall to congress or another special counsel? how do we get to the bottom of donald trump's coupleability in this matter? >> it's not just the sdny. it's now the manhattan d.a., tom? >> yeah. so i want to provide a little bit of context here. first things first. michael cohen pled guilty to five counts of tax evision. so according to the documents, that's $4 million of his income that he didn't declare to -- on his federal taxes. chances are if he didn't declare those on federal taxes, you probably didn't declare them on state or city taxes. so it's kind of like i think we've got a case here. so this is something that's kind of right up their alley. that's the first thing. the second thing, just by reading this count eight that we're talking about, the one that allen weisselberger is implicated in, it's very clear from reading it that the nature, the true nature of this payment was obscured. it's for legal payments is the way it's mapped out here. the manhattan district attorney's office may have an avenue to pursue as far as were the books being kept correctly for the trump organization. those things in court documents that michael cohen pled guilty to, it's laid out right there. so i think the manhattan district attorney's office has to probably hold off a little bit. they have officially told us no comment at "the new york times" story. my understanding of this talking to several people in the new york state, new york city law enforcement community is, look, this is not something that's going to happen tomorrow. this is something where they are going to wait until mueller and the southern district are wrapped up with what they are going to do. let's put it this way. i would not kpexpect them to be pulling him out in handcuffs monday morning. >> i wonder what will happen with the new york a.g.'s office. >> i think it's worth remembering, and this struck me this morning, the red line that donald trump established for the mueller probe was -- >> finances. >> this is all at sdny right now. >> he can't stop. >> no. >> he can't fire everybody in the sdny h. >> guys, thank you so much. nbc's kristen welker, ken dilanian, tom winter, tom flannery, phil bump, appreciate it. >> president trump has tweeted about north korea in the last hour. he asked secretary of state mike pompeo not to go to north korea at this time because i feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the korean peninsula. additionally, because of our much tougher trading stance with china. i do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were despite the u.n. sanctions which are in place. secretary pompeo looks forward to going to north korea in the near future. most likely after our trading relationship with china is resolved. in the meantime, i would like to send my warmest regards and respect to chairman kim. i look forward to seeing him soon. so there's that. >> also, coming up, arizona senator john mccain has decided to end treatment for his aggressive brain cancer. we'll have more later in the hour. >> plus, donald trump continues to troll his attorney general. up next, there is a safe somewhere in the david pecker empire that at one point held damaging secrets about the president. what does david pecker know? 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joining me former senior vice president of american media, inc. stu -- that's daily beast white house reporter -- that is stu right there. welcome. the ap report is suggesting there is a big vault and all of the information, catch and kills, negative stories about trump and others, went into that vault so david pecker could use it to his advantage. he could bend celebrities to help him with stories. what exactly did david pecker want out of donald trump? >> well, first he wanted the acce access of being with trump. that's where he sees himself. when they became friends in the '80s, they were both powerful players. trump was in real estate. he got things that he wouldn't get, brush a fame. david likes to have a brush with fame. as trump's reputation grew through "the apprentice" and he became a celebrity. they bonded. >> donald trump running for president, deal started i guess in 2015, but going well, and him leading in the polls and him winning primaries as time went on, it seemed like the more that they could do to help donald trump, the better it would be for david pecker. in fact, if we can put this up on our giant screen here, david pecker and "the national enquirer" released story after story about hillary clinton. negative story after story about hillary clinton. she failed a secret fbi lie detector. she gained 103 pounds. it just goes on and on. she is corrupt, racist, criminal. they did donald trump's dirty work for him, it seems? >> they did. one of the -- when you own a media company, you own it for a couple of reasons. to make money, which pecker is good at. to have influence over public opinion, what people think. looking at that wall of covers, when you are at a newsstand, an airport or a train station, and ami owns vast properties in different categories. you walk by, you see those images one after the other. it's going to make an impression on your mind. you don't even have to pick it up and read it. you are getting this message communicated by the covers. >> they knew that just a cover alo alone enough to siend a signal. let's listen to michael cohen when talking about the relationship that donald trump and he had with david pecker. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david -- >> you never where that company -- you never know what he's going to be -- >> i'm all over that. >> also in the vault, i know this is ap reporting, it makes you wonder if they are at least talking about one payment to karen mcdougal. we know about stormy daniels. what else could possibly have been in there? >> well, exactly. david pecker, given the sort of tabloid supermarket tabloid media empire he plea sides ov--s over, he has killed stories and kept and held secrets for an assortment of famous and powerful people, than a certainly includes donald trump. who knows what else could have been in this alleged stash in this vault? but it doesn't -- given the position that david pecker has had over the years, this hardly applies to just someone like donald trump because of the perch he has given american media, "the national enquirer." david pecker has held and kept secrets and killed stories, not just for people such as republican president donald trump, but also democratic hollywood power player and hillary clinton's superfan ariya manuel. >> interesting. i was talking to somebody who used to work at "the enquirer" who said that david pecker would need this immunity because of all of the things that he has done for donald trump. was there a spoken message, an official policy where if something about donald trump came in, it was to be buried? >> well, i haven't been there in a while. i can't speak to that point specifically. >> they have had a relationship for years. >> looking at the facts, it wouldn't be hard to assume it happened. maybe not in writing. maybe it was implicit. i am sure that message was delivered. >> he has immunity. what do you expect to happen? >> i am not sure. it's anybody's guess at this point. he is someone who, over the past few months, has definitely been taking a retrenchment in trump world. as we reported at "the daily beast" earlier this month, "the national enquirer" itself, which used to be one of the most reliable pro-trump outlets on the face of the planet, hasn't featured donald trump on its front page or on its cover after many issues. so this is just the latest very public and in this case legally dicey example of david pecker becoming less and less of a prominent trump world figure. >> thank you very much. happy friday. >> happy friday. up next, come on, jeff, you can do it. will the attorney general do what the boss wants? 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"washington post" reporter carol len ig and eli stokols. eli, we have been watching the president taunt jeff sessions on twitter for months now. this is nothing new. he is obviously upset for him not taking control of the mueller investigation, for recusing himself. yesterday i found it shocking that sessions would release that, that very strongly worded statement before he went to the white house to meet with the president to talk about criminal sentencing reform, and yet, eli, it seems like there was no tension there, but still this morning the president woke up and was tweeting about him all over again. >> yeah, it's remarkable. it speaks volumes about this administration, that's the way the president and his attorney general communicate, attacking each other or trolling each other on twitter but they can't work it out face-to-face behind closed doors. putting that aside, the president we know his frustration with sessions, his view of the justice department. he believes that the justice department should work for him and that that's the top consideration. loyalty is paramount. jeff sessions has not operated that way to trump's, you know, it's upset trump obviously. so that's sort of where we are here at this point, and, you know, the president, there is a lot of speculation. people on the hill yesterday talking about lindsey graham saying outloud that he expects trump to get rid of sessions possibly after the election. a remarkable thing to just say outloud, but not that shocking given what we see every day on twitter. >> let's play lindsey graham saying that. he flip flipped on that in the past year. >> this effort to basically marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the senate. if jeff sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay. >> clearly, attorney general sessions doesn't have the confidence of the president, and all i can say is that i have a lot of respect for the attorney general, but that's an important office in the country and after the election i think there will be some serious discussions about a new attorney general. >> frank, it's not just lindsey graham. chuck grassley flipped on this as well. initially, a while back he said there was no time in the judiciary committee to confirm a new a.g. now he is saying he'll make the time. it seems like suddenly jeff sessions has lost two pretty powerful allies in the senate. what's going on here? can you make sense of any of it? >> so, first of all, it's very disappointing. secondly, any member of congress that's now publicly mentioning the possibility of yanking the attorney general is, in my mind, complicit in the president's attempts to obstruct the russia investigation. look, the attorney general of the united states is the highest law enforcement fer officoffice land and he needs to act like that. his push back against the president was a sign that that's happening. i think he is measuring the equation here. he is saying, look, i have upset the president because i recused myself from day one. i can't take that recusal back. so if i can't take it back, if i can't please this president, then there is two things left to do. i resign. he is not going to do that because he sees the writing on the wall. he knows what's coming. so he is going to fight. i think he is going to try to go down swinging and it's going to get uglier before it gets better. you will see certain senators, members of congress lashing out at him, trying to align themselves with the president, see which way the wind is blowing. this attorney general is going to become the mouse that roared. he is going to fight back and stick with the men and women of the justice department. >> interestingly, it's not all republicans. it makes you wonder whether or not the president could even get a new attorney general confirmed. take a listen to, corker, ben skas, and john cornyn talking about this. >> look, i mean, of course, he wanted him, if he wants to make a change, he can. i think it would be very harmful to in his own situation. >> it would be a very, very, very bad idea to fire the attorney general because he is not executing his job as a political hack. >> i think it would be a mistake, and i don't think it would be good for the country. >> strong words from republicans, carol. would they be backed up with actions in refusing to confirm somebody else? >> so far we haven't really seen any action to back up some of this effort to hold the president back from some of his worst instinct, not in the white house and not in congress. so it will be curious to see. i do think it's a dramatic seismic shift, however, for lindsey graham to go from stop trying to berate the attorney general out of his job to maybe he won't be here in november. >> carol, one more thing. you were reporting about pardons and manafort and what the president would do with that. rudy giuliani has responded to that. he said we discussed it in early june and we agreed no pardons during the investigation and that has not changed. it's interesting, carol, that he says during the investigation. >> right. so giuliani and i had a conversation about this yesterday. actually, it ended up being about three phone calls. but his strong advice to the president along with jay sekulow, he said, was, look, you can't pardon any of these people, manafort, flynn, anyone linked to the probe, because we want to wait until these investigations are over. and here's the part, katy, that i thought was the most interesting about giuliani's logic. it's pretty good legal advice, actually. he said, our jury is not in a court of law. our jury for the president is going to be the american public. if mueller finds criminal wrongdoing by the president, it's going to go to a report to congress potentially, at first to the dep attorney general underneath sessions, because he has recused, then to congress, and ultimately the american people are going to be what guide the decision if there are every impeachment proceedings because congress will be sensitive to their constituency. giuliani's view is if you start pardoning people now, people will wonder what you are trying to hide, president trump. >> he might lose some of his base. we will see what happens. thank you very much. and a quick programming note. next hour alli velshi will spea with paula duncan, a juror in the paul manafort trial. that's at the top of the hour on msnbc. >> according to a memo that was floating around the white house, my next guest is part of a deep state conspiracy to undermine the trump administration. 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shifted from the white house into the private sector and is now being used to undermine president trump's foreign policy. with me now former special assistant to president obama and msnbc national security analyst ned price. he is listed in the memo as, quote, likely operations officer of the echo chamber. ned, so are you the operations officer of the echo chamber? what can you tell us? >> katy, this memo was news to me. the structure detailed in this memo was not something i was previously familiar with. i do know all of these individuals from our shared time in government. in reading this, as a former cia analyst, as someone who used to write memos looking at studying overseas al qaeda cells, this some of the same terminology i would have used looking at those entities. the leadership, the foot soldiers, operations chief. i can't begin to describe how chilling it was to read this memo written by my own government about me, about my former colleagues, and circulated, circulated within the national security council. the national security council being the preeminent coordinating body within the white house responsible for overseeing the execution and implementation of america's foreign policy. i never thought i would see a document like that, and i never hoped, nor did i ever expect, a document like that would be circulated at the highest levels of the government. >> let's show who is part of this echo chamber according to the document. it's a number of your col leaks. ben rhodes, ned price, jon favreau, john pfeiffer. some of them have prominent podcasts like favro and pfeiffer. you are on tv a lot. ben rhodes is on tv here and there. some of them, we don't hear from whatsoever. when you look at this document and so far nobody has said who wrote it, do you have any idea where it could have come from? >> i have my suspicions, katy. i think those suspicions are predicated on something else we saw with ties to this administration. several months ago it was reported that an israeli private intelligence company spied on two of my former colleagues, the same two colleagues mentioned in this memo, ben rhodes and cullen cole. given what we know of that operation, it looks like at least this is a theory right now, sebastian gorka who served as a senior advisor to president trump, as a senior advisor to some of those in the national security council, his fingerprints seem to be all over that. there are eerie echoes between that operation and what we see in the memo. the language, the targets, the emphasis on this echo chamber. it has a very iran/middle east slant. something that gorka was quite obsessed with in his writing and speaking. the answer is we don't know for sure. we have only seen the first page of this document. those of us who have looked closely at this and looked closely at this administration's political retaliation over the course of months see his fingerprints certainly all over this. and it's my suspicion we are going to see more clues pointing to him in the weeks and months to come. >> let's look at that report that you just referenced. it's from the guardian. it says trump team hired spy firm for dirty ops on iran arms deal. people in the trump cam contacted private investigators in may last year to get dirt on ben rhodes, who had been one of barack obama's top national security advisors, and collin kahl, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal. real quickly, your concern about what this could do to our national security apparatus if a conspiracy theory like this is being passed around? >> absolutely. this is not the first time. there have been other paranoid conspiratorial memos that have surfaced from this national security council. what really bothers me, what really gets knee is -- me is the knowledge that the national security council is relentlessly busy. they don't have time to speak to their spouses and partners, let alone their children and family and friends. who on the national security council has time to come up with something like this, to waste their time on an effort like this, targeting fellow americans? it's astounding, katy. >> ned price, operations officer of a deep state conspiracy. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> up next, is there an american gangster in the white house? et . but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. it's a revolution in sleep. the new sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now, from $899, during sleep number's 'biggest sale of the year'. it senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it even helps with this. so you wake up ready to put your pedal to the metal. and now, all beds are on sale. save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 24-month financing and free home delivery. ends saturday. 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ask about enbrel. enbrel. fda approved for over 18 years. i've been making blades here at gillette for 20 years. there's a lot of innovation that goes into making america's #1 shave. precision machinery and high-quality materials from around the world. nobody else even comes close. now starting at $7.99. gillette. the best a man can get. as the details of michael cohen's legal jeopardy come in focus, many critics of the president think he's beginning to sound like a mob boss about the you'll remember what he said in an interview with fox news earlier this week. >> this whole thing about flipping they call it. i know all about flipping for 30, 40 years i've been watching flippers. everything's wonderful and then they get ten years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go. it almost ought to be outlawed. >> my next guest suggest the suggestions to organized crime go a lot deeper. joining me, craig unger who's out with a new book called "house of trump house of putin" the untold story of donald trump and the russian mafia. craig, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for coming. i want to read a small portion of your book. you say donald trump was no virgin when it came to organized crime. in fact, the trump family had a taste for it dating back three generations. detail for me if you can what the relationship was and what that could have to do with the presidency. >> well, i went back to the beginning. trump has repeatedly said he has zero contacts with russia. i found he's off by at least 59 people. and i went -- i decided i wanted to do -- you can't really understand ha happened unless you understand the history. i wanted it know how and when this happened. and i went back all the way to the '70s and in the '80s and in 1984 i found a russian mobster went into trump tower, bought five condos for $6 million. that's the eye equivalent of $15 million today. and this was the first episode of laundering money for the russian mafia. it continued for many, many years. and over time about 1300 units of trump property were sold under conditions that set off alarm bells in any money laundering circles, that is they were sold to anonymous shell companies in all cash transactions. and the number of russian mobsters of who been in and around trump tower over the years is incredibly disturbing. and i think a lot of americans don't really understand how serious this is because americans think of the mafia, they may think of the godfather or john gowdy. the russian mafia is different, it say state actor. it's part of the russian government. they report to the kgb. >> you say off by 59 people. let's put those people up on screen. this is one of them as is his son. we are familiar with those two names. the others not to such. but just pushing back a little bit on the disproportionate number of russians who bought apartments in trump tower, couldn't you say that about any real estate mogul in new york, person who owns a lot of properties in new york, don't a lot of the high-end properties end up being sold to shell companies and the like? >> that maybe true, though they're new york real estate magnets, to some extent, but they are not president of the united states. the security concerns here are very, very serious. i interviewed general olig who was head of counterintelligence for the kgb and he was telling me how the mav gentleman is just another branch of the kgb. they report directly to them. so in vent days we've seen trump revoke the security clearance of john bren nap. i would argue this is a very serious security breach to have people with ties to russian intelligence in the home of the president of the united states. >> tell whaution you know about trump tower moscow. >> it never got built, obviously. i think one of the reasons, really, is the real attraction of trump properties to a lot of people was the ability to launder money. if you want to launder money, you don't want to do it in russia, you want to get your money out of russia. >> interesting. craig unger. the book is "house of trump house of putin" i like your russian nesting dolls here. the untold story of donald trump and the russian mafia. here it is. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. next up, one more thing about an american hero. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts, and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests 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your doctor if you have an infection experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms, or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio®. if your uc or crohn's treatment isn't working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio®. entyvio®. relief and remission within reach. with my bladder leakage, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were very saggy. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with new sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. introducing more sizes for better comfort. new depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. one more thing before we go. a year after his diagnosis of aggressive brain cancer, senator john mccain has decided to let fate take its course. the mccain family released a statement saying in part, john has surpassed expectations for his survival, but the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. with his usual strength he will discontinue medical treatment. the american hero, a past prisoner of war has been ab sfrent capitol hill for months while he's undergone treatment in his home state of arizona. his last big act on the hill, though, was bold giving a thumbs down, you can see it right here during roll call on his parties and the president's partial repeal of obamacare. given the news, we thought we'd play you senator mccain in his own words when asked what impact he hopes to have made on america. >> do you love your wilife, joh >> oh, yeah. i love my life. i can't tell you that i've never -- for 60 years now i've had the great honor of being involved in the arena. and i've loved every minute of it. the disappointments, up, downs, wins, losses. but no one has had the wonderful life that i've had. no one that i have ever known. >> that will wrap things up for this hour. ali velshi picks it up right now. >> that's saying something. . >> that man suffered torture. he was a prisoner of war. so to be able to look at your life toward the end of it and say that i love the totality, the ups and downs, i think what he implies is the highs look higher when you've seen the lows that he's seen. but that's got to be hard to look back at your life imprisoned, tortured, shot down, beaten, and still be able to say loved it all. >> but considering what he did after that, the mark he made on government, the mark he made in american history, what he was able to accomplish. >> absolutely. >> that maverick role he played in the senate for so long. he ran for president. he's got a family that loves him and cares about him deeply that are surrounding him right now. >> and to this day he's still -- >> when you consider it all, that's a good life. >> he's still managing to be a thorn in some people's sides and that's who that man is. i think that's important because when you reflect on a life like his, you have to take it all. there have been good things and bad things and people don't like him and people that admire him but he was given a life of service to this country and that's something we should be talk about. good afternoon, i'm ali velshi. the president says what he calls flipping almost ought to be outlawed. but will a key trump associate