Like this and it isnt even over yet. An afternoon of major breaking news. The New York Times reporting that President Trump told the russians last week during a meeting at the white house that the firing of fbi director james comey eased pressure from the russia investigation. I just fired head of the fbi. He was crazy, a real nut job. Mr. Trump said. I faced great pressure because of russia. Thats taken off. The white house notably is not will disputing that account. And the Washington Post is now reporting that the russia probe which is now in the hands of a special prosecutor has identified a Current White House official as a significant person of interest. The white house isnt disputing that report either. These two bomb shells cap off a week of sheer chaos. Why wont you just explain whether or not there are recordings . The president has made his position clear. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. There are National Security has been put at risk by those violating confidentiality. Watergate took a few months. This thing seems to be taking hours. The special prosecutor is doing an investigation of criminal allegations. The entire thing has been a witch hunt. There is no collusion. I stand for impeachment of the president. Did you at any time urge former fbi director james comey in any way, shape or form to close or back down investigation into Michael Flynn . No, no. Next question. We have never seen a week like this. Weve never had a president like the either. Well try to make sense of the chaos. The president is on his way to saudi arabia. Hours ago he boarded air force one for his first president ial trim abroad. Hell hit five countries in eight days. His supporters are desperately hoping it will be a chance to reset an out of control narrative. Before the president departed, his Facebook Page seemed to address the chaos. It said they are trying to sabotage us. Clearly, its my hope that he does right the shipment. I think we can do with a little less drama from the white house. On a lot of things. Obviously i wish we could take twitter away from him. The white house on multiple fronts. Weve put together an incredible panel as we try to chart a way forward. Steve kornacki is a national correspondent. They have worked hand in hand with the, with four president s in the past. The deputy chief of staff and bush 43s chief of staff, mat was the chief of staff, the director of speech writing, and anita dunn was the communications director. Guys, damage assessment. How bad with these new developments . We have the Washington Post, the New York Times, does this make it worse than it was for him. I think you have the two there that youre talking about. The New York Times and the Washington Post. I think one brings a lot more specificity. The New York Times and the reporting of what donald trump said in the meeting the other day. The key element. In story is that the white house isnt disputing it. So then it becomes a question of the white house, trump defenders coming one an interpretation of this. They will try to offer as more benign than what i think it sounds like the a lot of people. Here you have a very specific account of words that were said to the russians and you dont have the white house saying no, that didnt happen. Not denying. T Washington Post, one, i put it more in the category of potentially explosive. Potentially blockbuster. But the material, when they say person of interest. Just because that is such a broad term. Such a nonspecific material. That could be something devastating to the white house. That could be something that falls more in the benign end. So i look at the New York Times one. Thats immediately more difficult for the white house. Were getting more and more every day. Does this indicate only further that donald trump was trying to impede the russia investigation . Well, i think we need to let the process play out. Clearly, you got a lot to work with. A lot of empregss that have been made. I think weve got processes in place and we need to let them work. My real concern if i were in the white house, it is hard enough on move your agenda forward without all of these distractions, controversies and just stresses on the white house. It is going to be even more difficult now. Michael, if your president had said Something Like this. Had been the oval office with the russians and denigrated a former fbi director, what would your reaction have been . First of all, i would have been shocked. Thats not the man i worked for. He would 97 have done such a thing. I think what were seeing is an extraordinary high stakes contest between leaks that are coming from intelligence and from Law Enforcement. And the president here, that represents something just extraordinary. Something that i havent seen. It is a fraying of the relationship between institutions in our country. It is not good. Even on the face of it, it is not good. Lets line this up. He has publicly criticized the fbi investigation, calling it fake news and a total hoax. He said he asked comey for his loyalty according to the New York Times when he talked to donald trump, excuse me, when he talked on lester holt. He said he was thinking about the Russian Investigation when he decided to fire james comey. Weve got this news today, calling him a nut job. We have the memo comey wrote saying donald trump asked him to end the investigation into flynn. What more do people need other than that for their to be evidence that donald trump was trying to get involved . And at the very least, influence the investigation. Well, you know, katy, in many ways, this has been the farther he was thing from a coverup since donald trump last week went on your network to say this was why he had fired director comey. Or come as close as you can. This is now the second report. It makes you nostalgic for earlier in the week will the worst they know he had done with the russians was to share intelligence about a trusted ally. All four of us worked in different administrations. When you are trying to do anything in this town, to have the alignment of enemies, that this white house has managed to line up very quickly and to have so few allies, were going to stick with you. Richard nixon, three years into the watergate investigations, still had a fairly solid block of support on, two years in on, capitol hill. And only when that crumbled did he resign. People hung in there with him. This is a president who ran against his own party as well as my party when he ran for president. Who took on the intelligence agencies and said he didnt believe what they were saying. Who has basically attacked press. Who has come into town. And yes, he has shaken things up. I think he is about to findut how shaky his own ground is. Give us your assessment. The challenges that President Trump has, he envitd on himself. Theres been a lack of discipline from him which means a lack of discipline seen as permission around the executive branch. The president should have more discipline for people in the government who work for him. They do work in the executive branch. It is critically important. This is a new stage. We have a special counsel that is going to be reviewing all of this. People should find the discipline to do what is right. I hope that Reince Priebus convenes a meeting of all the people who boring in the white house and says, well cooperate with this special counsellor and the work that has to be done. If you cannot cooperate, go see the white House Counsel or the chief of staff. Then i would say President Trump should call for people who boring at the white house to cooperate with the special counsel effort to understand what happened. It would be good if this could be done quickly so this review doesnt go on for years and years and years. I think it should be done well. We should cooperate with them and find a solution so we can get back to doing the job of running the country. Thats the real job at the white house. President trump must invite people to work with him so he can continue to do the job and not be distracted. Especially now that we have a special counsellor who will be reviewing all of this. Stop talking about it. Focus on the job at hand. Hopefully, it will then go into all the intelligence agencies and hell start to do the job rather than talk about their job, the job that somebody else is not doing well. And talking to the press. I think they have to get back to discipline. The special counsel is an excuse for the white house to say, we wont talk about this anymore. The special counsellor will hale all of this and lets see what happens. Thats the near universal advice that people are giving donald trump. And donald trump is not somebody who listens tom. He is somebody who will send out a measured statement about the counsellor and then watching cable news in the morning and wake up and tweet angrily. So i think Reince Priebus going out and trying to give a stern lecture to the staff is futile if the president of the United States refuses to get on board. What do you do when the commander in chief is not someone you can could not convenience to put down his phone . Well, i twoth white House Counsel and the chief of staff should sit with the president and outline the importance of having a special counsellor ascened to conduct an investigation. You have to have discipline and probably shouldnt talk about the past publicly if it relates to it. If it will invite you into the process of being distracted by having a special counsellor calling you as a witness and appearing before grand juries or anything else. The president has a job to do. He has an impossibly difficult job to be president of the United States under any circumstances. He doesnt need to complicate it by trying to secondguess what will happen in an investigation that he has to control over. It is what it is. She find discipline to follow the recommendations of his white houser counsel and his chief of staff and invite greater discipline on the whole process, including the white house staff. The president ran against the Republican Party and the democratic party. Thats 100 true. He only embraced the Republican Party after they embraced him. Even then it was touch and go. They decided to back away from them, he would go out guns blazing against fumbles. Because of that, because he was not, he doesnt have a real allegiance to a party and his supporters didnt have an allegiance to a party, they have an allegiance to him. What does he have to listen to anyone in washington for . Yeah. I look at this from a different angle. I look at it from the standpoint of the republican members of congress, on paper, this is their president. They harbor hope thats they can fast agenda. As long as donald trump has that r next to his name, their fate is tied to him in a lot of ways. It is so complicated because so many didnt embrace him. Soap ran away from him in the last month of the campaign when that access Hollywood Tape came out. They believed he would doom them and their party. The fact that he won their nomination last year. He then survived those october revelations and won the presidency, i think has in the back of the mind of just about every republican member of congress is the thought, wait a minute. Does this guy know my partys base better than do i . Is he more in touch with them . Are they more in tune than they are with me . I think that is what has given them so much pause to come out and break with him. What i have thursday is next thursday. Next thursday, monday tan. A dont and me why it is a thursday and not a tuesday. A special election in montana on thursday. You made goo pnt that nixon, theupported forim started to break after a special election. Michael, i want to get you in on this quickly. Not if hes in the mid 30s, in the polls coming up. I think members of congress are at the remaining strength, where his floor is in all this. It makes a difference if it is 40s or 30s as far as intimidation factor, going against the president. The stronger he is, the more difficult that is for members. And anita, ill sorry. My producer was in my ear for a second. I didnt realize you stopped talking. Do democrats understand how to capitalize on this or are they going to fall into the same trap during election, which was criticize trump say, that hes a horrible person, he is not fit to be president , are they going to present their own ideas . Are they going to turn out at the polls . What do you think . Well, its interesting. Steve just mentioned the Montana Special election which is being held next thursday. The final ad that the democratic candidate, rob quest, has put on the air is about health care. It is very specifically about the Republican Health care bill. Tying his opponent to that Republican Health care bill. And i think it is an interesting dynamic. Clearly, were dealing with a lot of things out there when it comes the these special elections. Hillary clinton got 36 of the vote in monday danieltana so i s a very tough state to went in. Having said that, obviously, democrats have to go out and they have to make the case at some point to this coury that they are ready to govern and to lead it forward. In particular, they have heard from the people who havent done as well. That they have ideas to move this country forward. Donald trump ran a very Good Campaign when it came to appealing to the people who felt left behind. Democrats have the challenge of coming one the economic message. Every day that goes by, this white house is making this midterm. Easier for the democrats to make significant gains in the house and to at least hold their own in the senate where two months ago, everyone was talking about the democrats losing significant numbers of seats in the senate. Well get back to you a little later in the hour. I didnt get to circle back to you in this block. But steve, appreciate it. Michael and anita, were just Getting Started in this hour. Next, well talk to members of congress with reaction to todays new round of breaking news. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you are making the move to nissan. 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And according to Foreign Policy magazine, Israeli Intelligence is furious over President Trumps disclosure of classified information to the russians. Well hear from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle next. And well go to saudi arabia ahead of the president s arrival. Verything, so we know how to cover almost anything. Even a coupe soup. [woman] so beautiful. [man] beautiful just like you. [woman] oh, why thank you. [burke] and we covered it, november sixth, twothousandnine. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night,blind. And stay awake during the day. This is called non24. Learn more by calling 8448242424. Or visit your24info. Com. Were winding up as busy a week as you can have in Congress Without having any monumental votes. Joining me now, the florida congressman francis rooney. Thank you for joining me, number one. And i would be remiss not to start with a couple of breaking news stories that have come out of both the Washington Post and the New York Times. First with the Washington Post, they say their Law Enforcement sources are what u. S. Official sources say the investigation into the russian probe has reached a senior white house adviser. Somebody close to the president. Given that, do you still believe that a special counsel was not necessary . I think as long as it is an intelligence issue and the issues being talked about pertain to classified documents is that who has the right to receive them, who should be their names disclosed, yeah, i think they should keep the jurisdiction. If a white house Senior Adviser, some