Even stronger. As were keeping our eyes on 2020. Poll after poll shows joe biden with a clear lead. Steve kornacki is here to dig in to what the numbers mean now. We must begin this morning with the stunning new revelation first reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by nbc news. Special Counsel Robert Mueller expressing frustration. In a letter and phone call to attorney general william barr shortly after barr released his initial fourpage summary of the Mueller Report march 24th. This was the same memo which barr cleared President Trump of obstruction, mueller expressing frustration, specifically over the lack of context and substance in that memo, saying it caused public confusion. And this new development is now shining a light on barrs backtoback congressional testimony last month. Let me jog your memory. Take a look. Reports have emerged recently, general, members of the special counsels team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your march 24th letter, and it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the reports findings. Do you know what theyre recognizing with that . No, i dont. I think i suspect they probably wanted more put out. Did bob mueller support your conclusion . I dont know whether bob mueller supported my conclusion. Hmm, nbcs Geoff Bennett on capitol hill where attorney general barr is set to testify starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. But i want to start with nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams. Pete, what were you learning about Robert Muellers letter and specifically that phone call to the attorney general . When you look at the sound bite from last month and bill barr saying, i dont know, tough to spalio given this information. A couple questions. Number one, there was a phone call from barr to mueller. He sends the letter and barr says lets talk about it. What the Justice Department is saying about the sound bite you played, what do you think mueller makes of your conclusion, and barr said i dont know, i think barr there is talking about the attorney generals conclusion that the president didnt commit a crime, which is not the subject of the letter as well understand it. Let me read part of the letter to you. It says, the summary Letter Department sent to congress and released to the public Late Afternoon march 24th did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this offices work and conclusions. There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the department appointed the special counsel, namely to ensure full Public Confidence in the outcome of the investigation. And what were told in the subsequent phone conversation is that mueller did not say that he thought the letter was inaccurate, but it had led to confusion in the public mind and inaccurate reporting about what the report says, 480 pages. So i think thats the direction that the attorney general was taking in the conversation with barr and now we know more about muellers concerns. Pete, what are your sources telling you about the reaction inside the Justice Department . Well, two points, stephanie. Number one, when they found out that mueller was not going to reach a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice, which they found out on march 3rd, they were quite surprised about that. They didnt expect it. They didnt see it coming. Apparently even rosenstein, the daytoday supervisor on the investigation, didnt see that coming. Secondly, when mueller sent his letter to barr on the 24th, the letter to congress is the 24th, and barr was the 27th, they were surprised he wrote a letter and the tone of the letter, they didnt see that coming either. Youre there on capitol hill, bill barr will be there within the hour. I know democratic lawmakers had a lot to say in the last 14 hours or so. What are they telling you . Theyve had a lot to say, steph. The attorney general now faces a grilling from democrats who are now armed with evidence who backs up what theyve been saying for weeks. They say barr misrepresented Robert Muellers work, misled congress in the American Public and he undermined the Publics Trust in the overall investigation. So what youre hearing from democrats, both in the house and senate side, is they say look, theres one thing for an attorney general to be devoted to the unitarian executive theory and one thing for an attorney general to have broad, sweeping views of the power of the authority of the executive, in this case it would be President Trump, but what they say is theres something deeper and more nefarious here with the way the attorney general has handled the Mueller Report and they want to know why and some lawmakers are going beyond that. You have adam schiff, as you know is the top democrat, the democratic chairman of the house intelligence committee, hes now calling for barr to resign. Chris van hollen, that had that exchange you and pete talked about earlier, where he asked barr if mueller supported his conclusions and barr said he didnt know, he also called on barr to resign calling are b. A. President trumps chief propagandist. And the chief of the Senate Finance committee wondering why barr was there in the first place. And now all of them want Robert Mueller to come up here to testify as soon as possible, steph. Nbcs Pete Williams and Geoff Bennett, thank you. Lets head to venezuela where the political standoff is intensifying with violent protest breaking out after the Opposition Leader called for an uprising and military defection to oust nicolas maduro. Associated press reporter Philip Crowder is live in caracas. Philip, a lot of chaos yesterday. Disturbing images overnight. What is the situation like there this morning . It was a really quiet night actually. It almost seemed too kwie eliminate with what had come before in tense moments and violent protests on the streets of caracas and other cities in venz wail yacht today were expecting the Opposition Leader, juan guaido, to call for the biggest protest in the history of the whole country. Those might very well take place here today this wednesday. It mayday here. Thats a traditional day for protests. But the support erez of juan guaido will not be the only ones who will be on the streets here of the capital, caracas. Because the venezuelan president , nicolas maduro, has also called on his supporters to take to the streets. In other words, what you have there, of course, is a very difficult cocktail there, a possibility of confrontations between those two groups. Maybe similar to what we saw yesterday. Maybe even worse, of course. Because it does feel a little bit like a last chance saloon, if you will, for the Opposition Leader and selfproclaimed interim leader juan guaido. He wants , wants, first of all, his supporters out on the streets today and for them to no longer sign with him. He said theyre no longer with the venezuelan president but he will have to prove that today in caracas. Thank you very much, Phil Crowther joining us from caracas. Keep it here on msnbc. My colleague andrea mitch ul wi mitchell will interview john bolton when kooncoverage of ther hearing concludes. I want to go to pete alexander, who is standing by. They have been quite vocal about the confrontation in cuba and the president seems to be taking it in as well. We heard from john bolton the last 30 minutes or so behind me outside of the west wing where he was critical of russia, saying russias interference here to support the maduro ra regime is what he described as a mistake. He said there could be additional sanctions on venezuela as they continue the effort to sort of tighten the screws on that country there. As you know hes been heavily critical about cuba as well but also tried to undermine maduros authority, effectively saying a lot of his own inner circle, including the defense minister, are prepared to turn on him. The defense minister, according to bolton, is ready to sign documents pledging support for guaido. Saying folks around maduro now, are in his words, scorpions. Heres what the president said about the support maduros been receiving from cuba right now. He said if cuban troops and militia do not immediately crease military and other operations for the purpose of causing death and destruction to the constitution of venezuela, a full and complete embargo together with highest level sanctions will be placed on the island of cuba. Hopefully all cuban soldiers will promptly and peacefully return to their eye and lad. Just moments ago bolton told us maduro is surrounding himself with cuban troops now because he doesnt trust he has the support of his own military. Yesterday our colleague lester holt spoke to the secretary of state mike pompeo and he asked him whether any administration officials, perhaps including the president , had spoken to juan guaido in the last two days. Take a listen. Weve continually spoken with juan guaido all throughout this. You see, too, you see juan guaido was in the streets and we have not seen mr. Maduro since this morning. We did see his airplane. It was parked at the airport. We understand he was actually getting ready, contemplating leaving the country and the russians told him to stay, not to depart for havana. Those the comments of the secretary of state mike pompeo to our colleague lester holt late yesterday. John bolton bringing up the idea of the Monroe Doctrine effectively saying to russia and to china, this is our hemisphere. Stay out. Steph . Take me to the hill. Bill barrs testimony set to begin in less than an hour. Focus has changed now on the new reporting that Robert Mueller voiced frustration over barrs summary and maybe mischaracterization of the investigation. What is the white house saying about that . Yes, steph, thats right. In the last few minutes for the first time we are now hearing President Trump reacting to this. His position over the course of the last several days, even weeks, since that fourpage summary initially came out was lets move on, enough, this thing is over. Heres his effort to punctuate that thought this morning within the last few minutes writing, no collusion, no obstruction. Besides, how can you have obstruction when not only was there collusion by trump but the bad actions were done by the other side . The greatest con job in the history of american politics. Late yesterday i spoke to the president s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who described it in his words as very odd. That was the quote from giuliani, about this letter from mueller to barr saying that if mueller didnt want there to be any confusion, giuliani told me, he could have made a decision. He was put in that position to make a decision. The fact he didnt make a decision on this says President Trump is innocent. Well, there was obviously no criminal wrongdoing as it related to conspiracy between trump or his aides and russia. But as mueller was specific to write, he also did not exonerate the president on the topic of obstruction of justice, even making note of the fact in our checks and balances system its up to congress ultimately to play a role as well we. Well, things are about to get pretty exciting. William barr set to testify in about 50 minutes. Now joe bidens jump in the polls and support from the firefighters seem to be getting under President Trumps skin. Trump insisting hes done more for firefighters than, quote, the duessucking union and retweeting posts from dozens of firefighters or tweeters posing as firefighters, who say they support him over biden. But does the president have to have a reason to be worried . How telling is bidens early lead . Guess whos here to tell us, Nbc News National CorrespondentSteve Kornacki here to break it down. The president , 60 retweets in 18 minutes this morning, most of which were specifically in response to the firefighters endorsement of joe biden. Got to be getting under the president s skin. The polls say at least right now a long time to do but joe biden starts out as the frontrunner on the democratic side. There were three yesterday. Heres one biden getting not just a bounce but big bounce. You see 24point lead over his nearest rival, now 39 . Look, it is very early. Its a giant field. A lot of people can jump up. There will be a lot of opportunities for it. Joe biden has a history. Hes not always held up well in president ial races. There are possibilities he will not be the nominee but its worth pointing out there are examples where somebody starts in front, stays in front, and wins the nomination. Especially when youre talking about a party looking for a challenger against an incumbent president. Lets go back, this is going way back, but 1980 republicans needed a candidate to run against jimmy carter. Reagan started out, this is what the poll looked like when he announced his candidacy. Reagan was the nominee. There were hiccups along the way, lost in iowa to bush but won the nomination. Mondale, former Vice President , started out in front. Again, he some hiccups but he did win the nomination. 1996 republicans needed a challenger against bill clinton. Bob dole the Senate Republican leader started out in front, he did lose New Hampshire to pat buchanan, solidified his campaign after that. Won the nomination. 2012, midromney, there were a lot of hiccups for mitt romney. He was a very weak frontrunner. This is where he was in our poll in 2011 but he did start out in front and won the nomination. Sometimes it happens. Not always. 2004, guess who the early frontrunner was on the democratic side . Joe labieberman. And john kerry ended up being the nominee. There was a moment howard dean surged to the front runner. And the other example that always haunts every early frontrunner, Rudy Giuliani. You talked about him a minute ago. This was openseat race in 08 but giuliani started out near 40 , around with biden is now. What happened with giuliani was no big major event. He just slowly, steadily faded out. And thats the nightmare scenario for a frontrunner like biden right now, stephanie. Then i hope all of the 2020 candidates are watching. Steve, hes telling you, so youre saying theres a chance. Talk to me about Elizabeth Warren for a moment. Because joe biden seems to be going off of her script, throwing that red populous, telling people at his rally corporate ceos are not beholden to shareholders, that is malarkey. In fact, thats not malarkey. That is the case. Its their legal obligation. But Elizabeth Warren is proposingal policy to change that. How is she going in the poll . Thats interesting, we will go back to the beginning and rewind it. I went too far there. Third place in this poll you see look, shes ahead of buttigieg by a point in this. I say there were three polls yesterday that came out. What was noteworthy about warren is shes ahead of buttigieg in all three of the polls now. Had not been the case in polling before this. Another poll had her moving double digits ahead of sanders. So you have seen some movement on warrens front in these polls. One thing i think is interesting, buttigieg has gotten a lot of attention early on. Warren, unlike buttigieg in her surge, youre seeing nonwhite and white support. That indicates to me at least the potential for some growth there. Lets see what she does with it. Steve kornacki, thank you so much. It is a busy day ahead here. Right now youre looking live at the long, long line waiting to get in to the Senate Judiciary hearing where at the top of the hour attorney general bill barr will be testifying. 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