Well have more on that. Unrelated but also having to do with medicine, the late story tonight that the president s choice for v. A. Secretary is in trouble. The Washington Post first reported that dr. Ronny jacksons confirmation hearing has been postponed. Nbc news has since confirmed that. Well have more later on this now threatened nomination of dr. Ronny jackson to run veterans affairs. But we begin with what was day 459 of the trump administration. And as the president launches his first state visit welcoming french president macron, he is increasingly worried about the investigations plaguing his presidency. Trumps agitation took shape in a familiar form. Nearly a dozen tweets alone on just the russia inquiry as well as the criminal investigation of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. The New York Times reporting on his relationship as well as other reports that cohen might start cooperating with prosecutors, well, that struck a particular nerve. Trump responded by accusing the times and Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Maggie Haberman of, quote, going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will flip. And the quote, most people will flip if the government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, i dont see michael doing that. Throughout today, the white house was asked to explain just what it is the president meant. President trump tweeted over the weekend that he doesnt expect Michael Cohen to flip. Has he been offered any assurances from mr. Cohen . Im not sure about any specific conversations. Is the president open to a pardon for Michael Cohen . I dont think that were going to talk about hypotheticals that dont exist right now. It was noticed by some that you didnt close the door one way or the other on the president pardoning Michael Cohen. What is your whats your read on that right now . Its hard to close the door on something that hasnt taken place. The first is what the president believes his personal attorney might have done to get him in trouble with the government . And, secondly, what the president s done that he is worried Michael Cohen could flip about . The president s been clear that he hasnt done anything wrong. I think weve stated that about a thousand times. Tonight victoria toensing, who serves as an informal Legal Adviser to the president , offered one explanation for the president s tweets about Michael Cohen. The concern could be that hes just very upset that this has happened to somebody. I dont like this kind of system that i see. The feds can put the pressure on anybody and say if you do such and such, you know, well let you go. The questions about the president and Michael Cohen came as the white house also declined to categorically rule out any attempt to bring an end to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. The white houses response to questions about that possibility also emphasized the word intention. Whens he going to fire rosenstein . Whens hes going to fire mueller . We have the same conversations. As far as i know, the president has no intention of firing these individuals. Right. Its always as far as i know. He never says definitively. Why not . Because you dont know how far off the investigation is going to veer. Right now he has no intention of firing them. As weve said many times before, we have no intention of firing the special counsel. Weve been beyond cooperative with him. We continue to repeat that we think that the idea that the Trump Campaign was involved in any collusion with russia is a total witch hunt. It was chuck todd, also criticized by the president , who seized on that word over the weekend. With that, lets bring in our leadoff panel for a monday night. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post. Also happens to be moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Ashley parker, Pulitzer Prize winning White House Reporter for the Washington Post, and jonathan lemire, White House Reporter for the a. P. All three are msnbc political analysts. Ashley, a question i would not have asked, could not have asked just a few weeks ago. What does this white house, in your reporting, fear more now . The Mueller Investigation writ large or the cohen investigation headquartered in new york . Well, i think its so the short answer is probably a little bit more the cohen investigation, but i have to say for them, thats sort of what theyre more worried about at least. It is inextricably bound up with the Mueller Investigation, and so they dont necessarily separate the two. And certainly the president doesnt. Of course one is being done in the Southern District of new york, and it was referred to that district. So, for instance, if something were to happen to the Mueller Investigation, that would still proceed at pace. But to the president especially, the cohen thing was so upsetting for him in part because he saw it as a sign of the Mueller Investigation run amok, an overreach, and going a bit more afield than he is comfortable with. And when you ask those questions, you are just playing, you know, would the president ever actually fire bob mueller . Would the president ever actually pardon Michael Cohen . Theres this sense that basically if there is a red line crossed and in the president s mind, its not just his business and his families, its basically the investigation, muellers investigation goes outside the scope that the president understood it to be, which was russia collusion and then obstruction. That is when white house aides say the risk becomes really real, the threat becomes more than sort of a near constant boil and these angry tweets that dont necessarily mean any imminent action. Bob, talk about the relationship as you know it between trump and cohen and, you know, especially this weekend. This got down right scorsesian. The president wasnt tweeting about cohens innocence. He was saying, no, he wont flip. This is a long relationship between these two men. At times it seems father son. According to people close to both of them. At times it can be quite acrimonious over the past decade. But cohen was not so much a legal mind at the side of Businessman Donald Trump and then candidate donald trump. He was a political adviser, a media adviser, a relationship builder. I remember during the beginning of the president ial campaign process in 2015, he was someone trying to reach out to evangelical pastors in iowa, someone who did he was an every man for mr. Trump, and he has retained that role as we all know throughout the campaign and even the presidency. Jonathan, lets talk about this president on twitter this weekend. There were many not so great hits. His use of the word breeding on the subject of immigration. He got north korea policy wrong, went after Maggie Haberman before she even had a chance to pick out what shelf her pulitzer is going to go on in her house. Two misspellings while we were on the air friday night that started this whole cavalcade. My question to you, what about the anxiety inhouse . Knowing only that theyre coming, but not knowing what theyre going to say. Right. That points to the mood of the president right now. Remember, its sort of laughable looking back on it, but the white house had hoped that last week in maralago would be a nice distraction for the president , to keep him out of washington as the james comey book lands, as the cohen probe intensifies, you know. He originally was even supposed to spend a couple days in latin america. That of course got scuttled. They thought he would be jampacked with events with Prime Minister abe of japan, who was in florida. But then of course we had a lot of executive Time Starting friday and over the weekend. These tweets, i think, are an excellent indication of where he is and the people weve talked to around him suggest he is rattled. He is unnerved. Hes upset, as ashley said, about the cohen investigation. You know, the people around him arent sure right now about cohens loyalty. As much as the president talks about it and, as you point out, talks about flipping rather than saying, well, hes got nothing to say because nothing bad happened. No story. They are worried this is someone who does have a family, who potentially could be facing a lengthy prison sentence if he doesnt cooperate with prosecutors, and in the president s world, people around him, they find loyalty often is a oneway street. The president demands loyalty. He doesnt always give it back. The question is will cohen reciprocate . Ashley, serious question intended without snark, and that is what is Rudy Giuliani supposed to help with on this laundry list that so far weve just run through . That is a great question and a fair question. And the answer is sort of twofold. His stated role is that, you know, hes basically going to allegedly come in and talk to muellers office and put an end to this probe very quickly. Thats simply not going to happen. Lets just be clear about that. And even some of the president s aides sort of question the wisdom of bringing in someone who they sort of say, look, hes a smart guy, but he is in the twilight of his career, and he hasnt practiced law, and certainly not law of this type and this caliber and this pressure, in decades. That said, there is some role they believe that he can play. One is that the president likes familiar faces. He is a familiar face. The president likes people who look the part, and he sees on tv and can go out and play a sort of forceful attack dog role on tv, and thats something weve seen Rudy Giuliani do, and he will likely do in the probe. And thats something thats been lacking. There was also a hope that sort of a big name like giuliani would bring the imprimatur of credibility to a legal team thats had trouble bringing on topnotch lawyers. So theres a thought if hes the public face and kind of the big name, then it may help the president actually hire some people who can do the real work. So there is sort of a potential role that rudy could play, but it is not the publicly stated role that the president has, you know, seems to think he will play. Robert costa, the story that broke shortly before we came out here tonight has to do with the problem the white house really didnt need. The ebullient doctor we got to know during the Health Briefing about the president , dr. Ronny jackson, also a rear admiral assigned to walter reed, nominated to run the second largest bureaucracy in all of government. Its on the rocks. Its officially in trouble. What can you add to what we know . President trump did not have an extensive search process for replacing secretary shulkin at the v. A. , but he had a personal rapport with the doctor, admiral jackson. Because of that lack of Due Diligence on the white houses part, the rush to nominate dr. Jackson, you have a lot of wariness among Senate Republicans at this moment tonight, but also among Senate Democrats. Senator jon tester is leading a push today to try to look into the conduct of admiral jackson while he was at the white house, serving as the white house physician. About different reports that may have surfaced in recent weeks. So you have a postponement of this whole process as Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats start to dig into someone who is seen as perhaps an outside contender to say the least for this extensive and complicated post. Jonathan, the question to you is, again, absent snark, serious question. Usually the vetting goes on the front end of a nomination, not after it lands on the hill. Yet another president ial norm that donald trump seems to be casting aside. Thats exactly right. There was no formal interview. There was very little vetting process. You know, there are certainly these reports now coming out about questions about mr. Jackson dr. Jacksons behavior at the white house. But the concern runs deeper than that. He has no experience of any sort of managing any sort of large bureaucracy. He has very little leadership role outside of the relatively small unit there at the white house. This is a moment where the president valued sort of personal rapport over experience. And, you know, we saw dr. Jackson. Youre right, in front of that press briefing in the Briefing Room a couple months back, making some sort of perhaps hard to believe claims about the president s health. But it must be said, he is someone who people veterans of the Obama White House also spoke very highly of. Including the president. Thats exactly right. And his colleagues in this white house have also largely sung his praises. But it goes to show again sort of the haphazard nature that this administration has had towards these positions. The transition moved very slowly. Lots of questions about the qualifications of other cabinet members. Lets remember of course the sea of empty desks across this government, positions that have still not been filled. This one is just another highprofile example of this administration struggling to find good people to take the important jobs. Robert . And that empty seat that jonathans talking about is an important point, because when im talking to Senate Republicans and their advisers, theyre saying its enough of a struggle right now to deal with the nomination of pompeo, mike pompeo, to be the next secretary of state. That was a process today, trying to get senator paul to come along, moving it to the floor. Then they have to deal with the next cia director. That nomination is already coming under scrutiny. So the Senate Republicans looking ahead to the midterms, looking at the calendar, theyre saying enough. Even if it takes time to vet dr. Jackson, theyre okay with it because theyve got a lot on their plate already. A fair question to ask because we did in realtime today watch rand paul and jeff flake come around on this nomination to be secretary of state. And reasonable people could reasonably ask what did they get . Based on your experience, is this a federal judge or an infrastructure program, or was it just ideologybased, a change of heart . They heard from the nominee what they needed to hear . Senator flake is more important in a sense than senator paul who has a relationship with the president. The president knows that paul counts on the president s support to keep his conservative base in line even though he has libertarians, he wants to have the trump voter as well. Senator flake is heading for the exit door, but they know that senator republicans priority paul wing to the flake wing that pompeo may be the best at this moment they can get as republicans into that secretary of state slot, someone who actually has a relationship with the president and can get approved by the senate in the next few months. So is he a perfect nominee in their eyes . No, but they also know theres not a lot of other people on the agenda, on the docket, who could step up and fill in if he fell away. Ashley parker, the malfeasance that cost the job of the secretary of health and Human Services now looks like jay walking i say that because mr. Pruitt at the busy, to be perfectly honest, every day in our editorial meeting and im quite sure in yours, someone goes through the litany of charges, sometimes just that days revelations or accusations, regarding mr. Pruitt at the epa. Again, relying on your reporting, does he continue to enjoy the blessing of this white house . Its a good question. I mean you saw Sarah Sanders today was asked about it and equivocated a little bit. She said theyre certainly looking at those reports. But this is someone who on the whole, the president likes. Its not that they have a particularly warm or longstanding, close, personal relationship. But in a white house that has struggled to really do anything and certainly anything on the legislative front, the president believes that scott pruitt at the epa is successfully, through a series of rollbacks and regulations, promoting and enforcing his environmental policy. Now, i do have to say there have been some great articles that sort of detail theres some nuance missing there because sort of in his eagerness to push stuff through, some of it has been done in a sort of shoddy and sloppy way and is not standing up to court challenges. So he is not actually doing all the things that the president thinks, but he is someone who the president can affirmatively point to and who conservative groups are still really strongly supporting as pushing the president s agenda. Now, if that is enough to carry him through, i dont know, another cascade of stories, we sort of dont know yet. But even when people in the white house and the administration are sort of furious and ready to throw up their hands, the president isnt, and he is the person whose voice and decision matters at the end of the day. You guys all brought your midweek game to start us off on a monday night. We sure appreciate the conversation and the reporting from robert costa, ashley parker, jonathan lemire. Great appreciation on a monday night. Coming up for us, Donald Trump Holds his first state visit as he welcomes the french president to was