York day 399 in the Trump Administration administration, one day shy of 400 days in office and we have a lot to get to. We begin with a fresh round of charges from Robert Mueller against Paul Manafort and rick gates. A 32count indictment was filed in federal court today, tax fraud and bank fraud and hiked the amount of money the pair allegedly laundered to 30 million. It paints a picture of a scheme by manafort and gates to hide tens of millions of dollars by moving money through bank account gs around the world. It comes from charges in october, manafort and gates pleaded not guilty. Some of todays charges mirror ones filed but they touch on aspects of manaforts personal life, financial deals, money troubles, they include, quote, when manafort was 90 days behind on paying a 300,000 American Express bill which affected his Credit Rating he lied to a bank saying gates ran up the charges. And another one gates gave bank an outdated insurance report on a loan on a property that manafort had. And another one said gates asked a bookkeeper to juice the revenue for manaforts company. Paul manaforts spokesperson provided a statement to nbc news tonight that reads in part, Paul Manafort is innocent of the allegations set out in the newly filed indictments and he is confident he will be aquited of all charges. The new allegations once again have nothing to cowith russia and the 2016 election interference collusion. Mr. Manafort is confident he will be acquitted. Its a further move from mueller, stepping up the pressure on manafort and gates. Michael schmidt reporting it this way, mr. Muellers indictment is an effort to pressure him into providing information about mr. Trump and his campaign a lot of mr. S here. But mr. Manafort is adamant he does not have information that could hurt President Trump. The allegations do not indicate mr. Trump, but the man who ran his campaign. Lets bring in jeremy bash, stephanie douglas, now a senior managing director at guide post solutions and peter baker back with us, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times. Jeremy bash, a question for the lawyer in you. I know tax cases can be plotting and take longer than other aspects of an investigation, but what do you read into the mueller strategy learning of this new indictment. If you look at this 32count super ceding indictment, you see mueller is increasing the pressure on both manafort and gates. There were reports last week that gates was cooperating with the special counsels office, that appears to be off the table now. And mueller is trying to put the pressure on them in increasing not just the severity and the significance of the conduct but increasing the over all criminal exposure and time these two guys might spend behind bars. Hes putting pressure on them to see what they know not just about the 2000s, the time they were unregistered agents for the oligarchs but really the time they ran the trump campaign. Thats what bob mueller is interested in. The indictment covers that period. So is this a giant attempt to get two big fish to flip and by inference to say to mueller, jeremy, if we nick you on all of this, if you dont cooperate, youre going to die in prison . I think it is that dire for these two defendants. I think bob muellers first and foremost is to punish these two for this conduct because the conduct was way outside the bounds of american law. But i think the ultimate goal is to figure out what leverage russia had over the chairman and deputy chairman throughout the election. What stands out to you in this indictment . There are very specific facts and very well documented intentions on the part of both manafort and gates and falsifying financial records, lying to lenders, misleading irs about the tax records. The thing that stands out most to me just how prolific they were in their efforts. How unrelenting they were. When faced with push back by lenders they came up with more creative ways to falsify information. I think jeremy is right, the key is what impact will this have to the overarching russia investigation. Does bob mueller anticipate that mr. Gates or mr. Manafort knows more and can provide more information that would link others into the campaign and possibly with the russian government. Peter, our executive producer remembered the following piece of writing in your paper in april of 2017, quote, he began, this is how manafort sold himself to trump. He began by telling the cant he lived on an upper floor of trump tower. This was no trivial point it signalled his wealth and a willingness to work 15 hour days in a building that housed his apartment and mr. Trumps bare bones campaign. It meant that mr. Man tort had already put his money into mr. Trumps brand, which meant a lot to the candidate, a transactional developer and politician, aides said. Plus he had a powerful closers move, he would work for free. I think you said in the past, peter, when trump can see you more as a peer, hes more likely to have a different relationship with you as an employee. Certainly, thats exactly right. He has spoken in the past of other people in terms of their wealth. Wealth impresses him. It means that this person is successful, this person can get things done in his mind. Thats an indicator he wants to hire somebody. But to go back and look at that article from last year, the idea that Paul Manafort was working for free when he had money problems, why was he working for free . What did he think he was going to get being Campaign Manager for donald trump, what was that going to do for him given the money problems he had and who was he in hawk to . That would be the russians and some of the proukrainian figures. That raises questions that make it about the russia probe and not just about his personal financial misdealings. Theres nothing in this indictment or charges that impact directly on the campaign or suggest any misconduct on the part of the president or people around him. But you have to wonder what was going on the Campaign Manager so in hawk, such financial are trouble was willing to work for free and what he thought he was going to get out of it. Im duty bound to ask about pardons because im picking up parts of conversations on both sides of the isles about pardon. He said maybe well talk about the flynn matter but here come more names and charges and i think its going to force more of the conversation. Just to be direct, brian, the president s power is not limitless because, of course, he cannot pardon himself or pardon his own impeachment. Impeachment trumps pardon in the constitution. But his power to pardon individuals who are accused of crimes, who are indicted and face criminal exposure, it signals to manafort and others saying we dont have a lot to say about the president were digging in and fighting the prosecutor, not waving jurisdiction were going to litigate this. I think thats a signal to the white house were open for business if you want to talk pardon. This calls for an opinion on your part, jeremy, do you think its among the possible . Very much so. I think the president is weighing whether to extin kwish all of these criminal charges and put bob mueller out of business using his power of the pardon. Stephanie, we ask you to look into your crystal ball, how far along do you think mueller is . Where does this put us on the time line . I think its a wild guess on our part. Bob mueller will take his time, he will continue to develop information. Im sure hes continuing to talk to people. This may motivate other people to come forward with more information. So i think right now its a guess to see how far along he is. Peter baker here we are, more is the constant in this president s life were going to talk about in the broadcast he has the australian Prime Minister coming in tomorrow and new visitors and issues every day. The constant the mueller. Thats right. Just last week we had the indictments of the 13 russians and three russian entities. We havent had a chance to get at him, we are tomorrow with the australian Prime Minister, there will be a joint press conference where hell take questions. You can imagine the questions will include issues along this line. And he said he saw last weeks indictments as vindvindication. Not a lot of other people elsewhere did, they didnt indicate any campaign but they did contradict his assertions that russia interference was a hoax. Now he has to explain in a public setting with the Prime Minister of australia most likely what he thinks of that russia interference, what hes prepared to do it, and how it impacts his presidency. Our thanks to our lead off panel tonight, thank you all very much. Coming up for us, the nra Leadership Today accused american elites, as they put it, of not caring about American School children. They further said some in the media love School Shootings. This is the backdrop as the president looks to find Common Ground on gun control. Later, a sitting governor is indicted, seismic results in the heartland and gop, the 11th hour is just getting underway tonight. We have to harden our schools not soften them up. A gun free zone to a killer or somebody that wants to be a killer, thats like a going in for the ice cream. Thats like here i am, take me. We have to get smart on gun free zones. When they see it says this is a gun free zone, that means that nobody has a gun except them. Nobody is going to be shooting bullets in the other direction. The president today at his second listening session in as many days on guns and School Shootings, this one involving state and local types he teed up this morning with a series of tweets Offering Solutions to stop School Attacks while also defending the National Rifle association, called them patriots, the nra endorsed him during the 2016 campaign. At todays white house meeting the president talked again about having teachers carry concealed weapons. I think a concealed permit for teachers and letting people know there are people in the building with guns in my opinion you wont have shootings because these people are cowards they wont walk in when you have 10 of the teachers maybe 20 or 40 . And i recommend we give them a bonus. He says he also supports background checks and keeping weapons like the ar15 out of the hands of anyone under 21. Heres what he said when Hallie Jackson said just how much he supports age restrictions. Thank you very much. I dont think ill be going up against them. I think the nra wants to do whats right. Theyre very close to me, im close to them. Theyre great people. They love this country. Today we also heard from the nra, including a speech by the head of the organization, wayne lapierre, occurred at the Political Action conference where he made his first public remarks since last wednesdays shooting. We were all horrified by another terrible tragedy at an American School. Each and every member of the National Rifle association mourns the loss of the innocent and continues to keep their families and that community in our prayers. We share a goal of safe schools, safe neighbors, and a safe country. As usual, the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain. The elites dont care not one whit about Americas School system and school children. They want to sweep right under the carpet, the failure of school security, the failure of family, the failure of americas Mental Health system. And even the unbelievable failure of the fbi. Evil walks among us and god help us if we dont harden our schools and protect our kids. Earlier in the session and coming off her appearance at last nights emotional florida town hall, nra spokesman dana lash who said this about the press. Many in legacy media love Mass Shootings. You guys love it. Now im not saying that you love the tragedy, but i am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you and many in the legacy media in the back. It is still an open question what happens with donald trump, the nra and gun legislation. Ashley parker of the Washington Post tonight reports, quote, the president is insisting that he be seen as spurring action and at times seeming reactive rather than deliberative spurred on in part by what he sees as an opportunity to fix a problem that former president barack obama and others seemed unable to solve. On a day the president wants to arm schoolteachers we are learning that a deputy at Marjory Stoneman douglas was there with his gun but failed to enter the school when the shooting was taking place. What i saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of building 12, take up a position, and he never went in. What should he have done . Went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer. The sheriff was talking about security video he was just able to review. With us tonight, the afore mentioned Ashley Parker and jackie collins. Ashley, two questions one kind of rhetorical. Remind us of how barack obama is guilty for not doing or saying enough after newtown and number two, this is not an issue this president wakes up in the morning knowing about. He doesnt have the usual Institutional Knowledge of the contours of an issue he tends to land in an issue, as is the case with this. Thats exactly right. On your second question, this is a president who was born in queens and spent most of his adult life in manhattan, as his own aides pointed out to us, he doesnt come from a gun culture. Part of that you saw today and over the past week is he would sort of float general ideas but offer no specifics or say maybe congress should do something. So he put himself in the center of the debate but without knowing where the exact fault lines were in the specifics of the policy. That said he has an incredibly fine tuned antenna for where the gun issue and where Second Amendment rights are culturally and out in the country. Thats true in large swaths of the country that voted for him. So he does have the intuitive sense as he does on a number of issues, while he may not know the policy he knows where his base stands and feels he has a little wiggle room but cant go too far. Jackie, twopart question for you as well does the president have the stomach to go up against the nra and after the public shaming of senator rubio do these student haves the power to keep shaming the nra . I was struck in his round tables of the last two days that were televised, extraordinary to watch the president sort of off the cuff try to make policy. And he said, it was a striking parallel to me to what he did just recently some weeks back in the subject of immigration and relief for the young immigrants who came here as children and the daca children. In that same way he had one of these extraordinary hourlong televised events where he spoke in a bipartisan, conciliatory way, he said he would stand up to both sides. He would provide cover for republicans to take a hard vote that might make the Republican Base angry. And then he himself heard from that base and hardened his position on immigration. And then made demands of the democrats and some republicans that they balked at and we heard nothing on immigration. I see the same thing here, he said he told the nra that theyre going to have to bend, some of the laws have to toughen. There was no sign at the cpac event and you played dana loeschs and Wayne Lapierres comments, there was no movement there. They stand by the position theyre against raising the minimum age. And i dont think the president will stand up to them. This is a new factor, i dont know how this will play out. Those of us who have watched these debates cant help but be skeptical. Ashley, you said this was an example of classic trump were seeing play out right now. Thats right. Its sort of he wants to be at the center of every sort of issue and every debate and thats what he did this time as well, he inserted himself and there is admitedly a role for the president to play as a con solar in chief, and this familiar playbook he floated general policy ideas again but no really specifics. And he also what we understand from our reporting is a lot of these ideas he was floating they came to him watching cable News Coverage and surveying friends and advisers. So for instance the idea of raising the age from 18 to 21 that came from two places, one was senator marco rubio, they shared a flight to florida and talked about that idea and rubio explained to him on some of the back story why it made sense at one point and why it was maybe time to think that. And also over the weekend he was at his private club and Geraldo Rivera and he said the same thing. He more or less debated dana loesch tonight on cpac, on the sean hannity show. Im told we have no business we have 30 seconds until a break but whats the appetite on capitol hill where were short on profiles and courage these days . I dont see much appetite for getting into this at all. Were in a midterm election, the democrats see a chance to take back the house and the republicans are in fear for their seats. This is not an issue they want to have a fight over. They can argue the president can do some of these things by regulation and thats the most we can hope for. Thanks for both of you for coming on tonight. They say theyre up for the fight, High School Students might be the force to bring about change. They might be doing something right as in their grief, burying their friends theyre already under withering attack. More on that when we come back. Prestige creams not living up to the hype . Olay regenerist shatters the competition. Big hype. Big price. Big deal. Olay regenerist hydrates