Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. A source says Michael Cohen is prepared to tell Robert Mueller that donald trump knew about that meeting before it happened. He did not participate in any meeting about the russia transaction. The president . The president did not. Im happy to tell him, he wasnt there. He wasnt at the meeting. The meeting with the russians. How can you be sure that the president didnt know beforehand . Youre saying its just a he said, he said. Nobody can be sure of anything. Earlier this evening, a long time former Trump Organization employee said this about the possibility of such a meeting occurring without trumps knowledge. Based on my experience working with trump and everybody that worked for trump, something major, something newsworthy, something press worthy, would always go before trump. Always. I think that he would have told donald about the meeting and then if it didnt amount to anything, it would have been fine. Giuliani also added to the controversy around cohens allegations. He said he heard reports that Michael Cohen is alleging that
lanny davis speaking for Michael Cohen. Certainly michael avenatti. He wants somebody out there to muddy the waters. Weve seen muellers Approval Rating drop. Giuliani has been effective there. But this one around people close to the president just wonder what he was doing and its raised concerns again whether giuliani is too often out ahead of his skis and is causing more trouble than hes helping. Counselor, as the former fed here at the table, how do the feds view the day that Rudy Giuliani had and all that he said on television . So, brian, i think as a prosecutor, im seeing this and what im seeing is a little bit of panic from the president and from Rudy Giuliani and ive seen it before. When a defendant and a defense team starts to feel the facts and the evidence closing in on them and theyre feeling like theres nowhere else to go, you see this change in tone that jonathan referenced. And whats been happening over the last two weeks . Were learning more and more every day about what Michael Cohen knows. We heard the tape from Michael Cohen. We know the Southern District
has now subpoenaed the longterm accountant. You can see the Panic Setting in and theres a couple the big tell here is when they lashed out at the mueller team and this is right out of defense lawyering 101. Its personal. Its personal and its nothing new. Its in the desperate defense lawyers playbook. Everyone whos been a prosecutor has had it done to them. Its a sure sign that youre on to something and its a sure sign theyre running out of options so when you see the president Lash Out At Mueller and the team, know thats coming. I believe thats coming from a point of weakness and a point of panic and as jonathan pointed out, when people panic, they start selfdefeating and some of the things that Rudy Giuliani said today and walked back are really problematic for the president. Anita, lets go to you because youre the closest to this. The view up here in new york as youve heard is that it was a day of confusion, at minimum. Is anyone of the view that its helpful . Well, maybe the president. I dont know. If the president didnt think that Rudy Giuliani was the right guy to be out there, he probably
wouldnt be out there. But you know, what you all said before is exactly right. I have people that are close to the white house, republicans who are scratching their head and saying this is not helpful and the white house saying theyre not sure Whats Going On. Remember, this is exactly what happened last time, the white house said on the Stormy Daniels issue that Rudy Giuliani had two different versions about that they didnt know what was going on with that either. So, if this is a strategy, its one that very few people know about. Theyre not giving a head up to anyone. But remember, Rudy Giuliani, ill just go back to what i first said, is out there. Hes brash. Hes aggressive. Hes doing all these interviews because the president wants him to. Elie, once and for all, for all the nonlawyers watching, who have heard Rudy Giuliani and others today say more than once, collusion is not a crime, what is it . Hes right. Collusion is not a crime. Its something, i think, the president made up. You just showed the graphic. The president s the only one whos ever said the word collusion. Robert mueller and his team have never used that word, collusion. Of Course Conspiracy is a crime and of course receiving aid from foreign nationals in an election is a crime, and Obstruction Of Justice is a crime. But its word play and its so flimsy and its so transparent that i think, again, its another sign of desperation, and you know, as jonathan said, theyre trying to sort of they have nowhere to go. And so theyre trying to play semantics and its another sign that theyre panicking. So jonathan, the president today allowed that hed be
perfectly willing to sit down with rouhani of iran with no preconditions. Now the mueller interview is something different. Where do those chances stand . I think we saw singapore, weve seen helsinki, this ones probably, you know, book your flight now. The president is drawn to the spectacle of these summits and as an aside on that, lets remember the criticism the republicans levied against barack obama when he was president and made a similar idea that he would sit down with leaders like this without preconditions. The mueller in terms of a mueller interview, the reporting sort of has remained the same on this, where President Trump wants to do it. No one else thinks thats a good idea. Giuliani himself told me over the weekend theyre advising against it. The reasons for that have shifted over the weeks and months but they have settled on they think mueller is biased. Giuliani told me they would be liars and he doesnt want to walk the president into what he thinks would be a trap. Other people around the president , privately, feel like the president just simply couldnt do that. That he is someone who, you know, though he has lots of practice giving depositions, that he would perjure himself three time in the first 30 seconds. They feel like this is a nowin situation. They think that an interview for trump would only go badly for him but the president himself,
he has such faith in himself, believes hes his best salesman, his best spokes man, he thinks he can get in there and acquit himself. Anita, elie correctly points out it got personal this weekend and now tomorrow begins manafort. Tomorrow night, as luck would have it, the president s holding a rally in florida. What is that likely to be like after just reading his twitter feed this past weekend . Right, i mean, what have all of them been like . Even his official speeches have turned into political speeches. Even his official speeches have turned into places where he pushes back on this investigation, talks about the 2016 election, and everything else. So, we can definitely expect that to be tomorrow in florida. Obviously its a rally for a particular candidate but he tends to take these and just kind of talks about really whatever he wants. So you can bet hes going to push back on manafort. Hes going to push back on mueller. Hes going to push back on all this. You know, as he always does. He has actually another rally on thursday, so were going to be seeing him two to three times a week coming up these next few months so hell have a lot of opportunities to talk. Elie, just to confirm proper lawyer behavior, Rudy Giuliani starts talking about this premeeting and as jonathan points out tonight, this daily beast story leads us to believe that Maggie Haberman of the New York Times was calling around about a premeeting. Youre not supposed to introduce a negative story into your clients life unless its been your practice to go out and grab the bad stuff and try to take ownership of it, so when it does come us, it doesnt seem so bad. I think thats what theyre doing. You know, its sort of a Central Tenet of Trial Practice that you want to get the bad stuff out there first, right . We always say pull the sting. Be the first one to let the jury know bad news and i think giulianis trying to do that. I think hes doing it in a ham handed and confusing way, but again, the evidence is starting to pile up. Theyre now, i think, the new thing is now theyre probably seeing they should be seeing the witness statements for the manafort witnesses. Those statements have been turned over to manaforts attorneys now. No reason manaforts attorneys arent sharing those with giuliani and trumps team, and so theyve been reading, we all them the 302s, which is the fbi reports of what the witnesses are going to say, rick gates being one of them. So an educated guess might be that giuliani knows somethings coming, and hes trying to get out ahead of it. We welcome you to the broadcast. Thank you very much for joining us as we thank our two returning veterans, jonathan and anita, thanks, gang. Appreciate it. Coming up for us on a monday night, we are, as we mentioned, mere hours away from the start of this first trial of the mueller overall investigation. Well get you up to speed on all things manafort, about the case, how it could impact the president. And later, what President Trump said today that sounded a
lot like something obama once said. The difference, when obama said it, republicans were outraged. The 11th hour just getting under way on a monday night. Correspondent Pete Williams points out if manafort is convicted, prosecutors would have powerful leverage for attempting to compel his testimony before a grand jury about whether he knows of any improper dealings between the Trump Campaign and the russians. The trial itself is not expected to shed any light on russias meddling. Meanwhile, President Trumps attorney, Rudy Giuliani who we might have mentioned in the previous segment, said today he is sure manafort has nothing on President Trump. He has no Information Incriminating of the president. I know that for a fact. They can squeeze him, Paul Manafort does not know anything nor could it possible he did. He was with him for four months. I was there when Paul Manafort was there. Paul manafort was a brilliant gatherer of delegates. He was the chairman he was, but he really wasnt jared and the sons and bossy and these other people were really running that. Note that he was the chairman of the campaign but he really
wasnt. Here with us to talk about it we welcome Barrett Berger former u. S. Attorney with the eastern and Southern District of new york and ken delaney is back with us, nbc news intelligence and National Security reporter who will be inside the courtroom tomorrow covering the trial. Ken, i would like to begin with a headline from the New York Times tonight. And it reads russia is not on the docket at manaforts trial but it will be in the air. What would they mean . That is well put. One prosecutor said he did not expect the word russia to come up at all in the trial. It is not clear that the jury will be told explicitly that Paul Manafort worked for donald trump. This is a significant trial, nonetheless. In no small part because Paul Manafort has been a fixture in republican politics going back to the 1970s. He ran the campaign of gerald ford, ronald reagan, bob dole, and he also was one of the first people to monetize his service as a political strategist with
his old partner, roger stone, and thats really sort of getting us where we are today, because he went to work for this russianbacked Ukrainian Oligarch and as you said, prosecutors allege he was paid some 60 million for this service over many years of Public Relations and lobbying for this rather unsavory character, and for reasons that maybe only manafort can explain, prosecutors say he tried to avoid paying u. S. Taxes on these millions, and he structured the payments in the forms of loans and they funded a lavish lifestyle that included 10,000 suits and a 21,000 watch and multiple, multimillion dollar properties, and then when this man, victor, fled to ukraine, the spigot of cash dried up and then prosecutors say manafort started to commit other fraud by essentially trying to get loans from the real estate that he owns and doing things like disporting profit and loss statements, overvaluing properties, so as you can imagine, brian, this is going to be a document heavy case and i fear that it may be boring in
some parts, but to lead the jury through it, prosecutors have a star witness, and thats rick gates, who was Paul Manaforts righthand man, another republican political consultant, who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating. But you know, the times is absolutely right and Pete Williams is right. We may not learn very much about Russia Collusion in this trial, but we will, i think, it will be reinforced to us that Paul Manafort came to the Trump Campaign essentially broke and deeply in debt to some russian oligarchs and that may have made him a ripe target for recruitment by russian intelligence. Now, whether he has anything to tell about that, whether that actually happened, i think were going have to wait to see whether hes convicted and whether Robert Mueller can then compel his testimony in exchange for perhaps a lighter sentence, brian. That laid out the case very well. Counselor, welcome to you. A couple of procedural questions. How long does Jury Selection take in a trial like this . It really depends. I think in this case it may be challenging for them to get a jury. Certainly its going to be hard
to find people that havent heard about the case, that havent already formed some strong opinions about this case, so this may take a few days. It may take into the second week. I think we could expect to see this Jury Selection may go on for a little while. Isnt it kind of true that until the u. S. Presents its case and were under way, thats not really thats the time when well know how this is going to progress, what do they have, how do they plan to lay it out. Absolutely. I think the minute we hear the prosecutors give their opening statements, that will give us a great road map of what we expect to see as far as the evidence goes. Well also certainly get to hear from the defense and it will be really the first time that we get a chance to see what their strategys going to be in this case. What are they doing tonight . What are the feds doing tonight . This is a heavy white board and boxes of documents case, isnt it . Its a paper case. Exactly. And you know, i think theyre
doing the exact same thing the prosecutors do across the country every time they have a criminal case. It is the unglamorous work of sitting in rooms and marking exhibits and making sure you have your paperwork and in a case like this, which is a heavy paper case, theyre going to be going through those things with a fine tooth comb. I have to ask you about the last bit of drama up until we begin tomorrow, i guess up until opening statements. There could be a deal in this case. Isnt it possible . Oh, its incredibly possible. We see that all the time. Defendants that really just want to push it right up to the limit. Its probably one of the more frustrating things as a prosecutor when youve gone through all the steps that are necessary to get ready for this, but that definitely happens, and i mean, i think it would be unlikely in a case like this, but certainly. Hey, ken, Last Question for you. Paul manafort says to donald trump, ill work for free. Why is that a red flag as the law sees it . Well, in part because of
other evidence. Its pretty clear that Paul Manafort was trying to monetize his service to donald trump. We know that he was offering private briefings to this russian oligarch, a man he owed some 10 million to, its now emerged from Court Filings so yeah, absolutely a red flag and a potential that he was recruitable by foreign intelligence assets, and thats exactly whats at the heart of Robert Muellers investigation, whether manafort was involved in any potential coordination with the Russian Election interference campaign. I cant thank you both enough. Barrett, ken, thank you for laying out what begins tomorrow and we maybe talk about it a time or two on in broadcast in the weeks to come. The one thing President Trump said today when we come back that will spread legitimate worry in his own party with the midterm elections 99 days away. Thats where our conversation goes next when The 11th Hour continues. To make me feel sluggish but now, i take metamucil every day. It traps and removes the waste that weighs me down,
he first issued the threat over the weekend saying, quote, i would be willing to shut down government if the democrats do not give us votes for Border Security. Which includes the wait a minute capital w wall. Republicans on the Senate Appropriations committee today appeared opposed to that idea. I think it would be bad politics for the Republican Party to shut the government down. We would get blamed. It seems to me theres a way to get wall funding and deal with the daca population. None of us want a shutdown to go. No one wins. I think the American People expect us to do our job. If the president wants to shut down the government, you know, thats his prerogative. I think it would be a mistake and i dont think it will be necessary. President trumps threats of a shutdown came days after his private meeting with the Republican Leadership in the house and senate. Afterward the president said he was open to delaying the Border Wall Debate until after the mid terms. Its an issue that vulnerable gop candidates, for that matter, all gop candidates, would like to avoid in the leadup to november. And nbc news Wall Street Journal poll found a majority of people surveyed disagree with the way the president has handled Border Security and immigration. 51 , 41 . And axios report out today puts it this way. For some vulnerable republicans running in Swing Districts not only does the trump bag of tricks not work for them but they believe it actively hurts them. With us tonight to talk about it, Jeremy Peters, political reporter for the New York Times, and jim warren, a veteran print journalist and political commentator. Well get into his line of work in just a minute. So, jeremy, you dont teach Political Science that i know of. Maybe you should. Begin with explaining the recent history of Government Shutdowns long regarded to be a War Of Last Resort between warring parties, not when the same Party Controls white house, house, senate, am i correct . Youre absolutely correct. And in the shortterm, at least, when these Government Shutdowns have occurred, they have hurt the party that was viewed as responsible for that. So lets just play this out. President trump shuts down the government, presumably by vetoing a bill that Congress Sends him that does not include funding for the wall. Voters then look at that and see the chaos and dysfunction In WashingtonAnd Dont Vote to hold in power to keep in power the republican majority that President Trump needs to govern and pass his and the Republican Partys legislative priorities. I mean, brian, this is about as
clear a case of political selfsabotage as i could imagine, but then again, im not a republican. Im not a democrat. Im not anything. Im just a journalist whos trying to figure all this out and the best i can tell from my reporting is that there are a group of republicans that believe heading into the midterms this will galvanize the most loyal Trump Supporters who are motivated by President Trumps stance on immigration. The way someone put it to me tonight was effectively that this would be a Hail Mary Pass because you look at it this way. They are very likely still to lose control of the house. Its, you know, if the election were held today, its very likely that would happen, so they need to pull something out of their bag of tricks and there are enough of them, including the president , evidently, that believe that might be it. Jim warren, you have worked for some great metropolitan newspapers. You love looking at local paper websites around the country to see local news. I do the same thing with local television stations. How do you think this kind of thing would play in the great state of illinois, if people learned that this was the kind of shenanigans going on In Washington. Not well. Let me tell you a firm grasp of
the obvious. We still have 99 days to go. Were not sure whats going to happen. We journalists tend to find odd constructs, make dubious distinctions when reality is can be pretty obvious its going to be a matter of how popular the president is and what kind of campaigns are being run. The Illinois Sixth District is the sort of district that a lot of us think is going to be key, even though a colleague of jeremys made a case today that theres a different sort of district, namely a more working class, Rural District that trump won rather than well educated districts like the sixth. Peter is running against a totally novice democrat, and as hard as that novice democrat, a former clean air, clean energy executive, is running against trump, peter is running away from trump. And it, to me, is inconceivable
in this district of about 125,000 Median Income 85 white, it is inconceivable that the republicans could win the house, retain the house, and lose this sort of district, which i might add if you hop into your car is a short drive from the district in wisconsin over the border of one paul ryan, speaker of the house. Including the town of janesville. Hey, jeremy, whats the 60second version of the headline some people might have seen today involving steve bannon on one side, the Koch Brothers on the other and the modern day definition of whats
becoming President Trumps Republican Party on the other. The Koch Brothers made the decision that because of trumps positions on trade and the economy, they were really no longer going to just stand by and watch as republican politicians supported these. This, of course, is part of the beating heart of the trump movement. You have trade, you have immigration, you have economic policy, all very populist positions on those issues. That is the antithesis of the very libertarian koch agenda. They are completely opposed to the government getting involved in anything that has to do with the market, so they just said, enough. And this is part of a pattern, although i think its the most aggressive step that the Koch Brothers have taken, certainly the most aggressive step that the Koch Brothers have taken from sort of a passive resistance that you saw in 2016 when they just stayed out of the president ial politics. Now what they are saying is we will punish republicans who go along with these policies, and thats a skirmish in this
republican civil war, a magnitude of which we have not seen given how much money they have at their disposal. Which really raises a good question about what is the trump strategy going to be about rousing the base. Is it going to be shutting down the government . I dont think so. He said hes willing to go out six days a week if thats what it takes. Will there be interest . And what else . Is it calling Brian Williams and Jeremy Peters and jim warren the enemy . Im not sure if that gets you there and we dont know what other possible event could happen that plays a part in all this. But what is the strategy . For rousing the base. And can it overcome what seems to be a pretty substantial lack of popularity, which is why people like peter roskam, going for a sixth term, traditionally safe republican district just outside chicago, is running as hard as he can away from the incumbent president. Well put. Two very smart gentlemen helping out our conversation tonight. Our friends Jeremy Peters and
jim warren, thank you both. And coming up for us, one week after threatening irans president with historic consequences, President Trump says, yeah, hes willing to meet with him with no preconditions. That was hours before his Secretary Of State was suggesting some preconditions. Today in Foreign Policy, when we continue. From the very beginning. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. And its time to get outside. Pack in even more adventure with audible. With the Largest Selection of audiobooks. Audible lets you follow plot twists off the beaten track. Or discover magic when you hit the open road. With the free audible app, your stories go wherever you do. And for just 14. 95 a month you get a credit, good for any audiobook. If you dont like it exchange it any time. No questions asked. You can also roll your credits to the next month if you dont use them. So take audible with you this summer. On the road. On the trail. Or to the beach. Start a 30day trial and your first audiobook is free. Cancel anytime, and your books are yours to keep forever. No matter where you go this summer make it better with audible. Text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. In another dramatic shift from past protocol, President Trump today said, as you heard, hes willing to meet with iranian president hassan rouhani, with, as you heard, no preconditions. That would make trump the first president in 40 years to meet with an iranian leader and it was a big change in just the space of eight days, mind you. It was just a week ago sunday night when the president tweet threatened the iranian president
in all capital letters. Remember this one. Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. Before trumps comment today could pick up much traction, his Secretary Of State, mike pompeo, quickly weighed in to lay down some ground rules. If the iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their malign behavior, agree that its worthwhile to enter into a Nuclear Agreement that actually prevents proliferation, then the president said hes prepared to sit down and have the conversation with them. Two things to note there, the new phrase winding its way into our language, malign behavior, you heard it here first, and second, that was the Secretary Of State after the president said he would demand no preconditions. You might remember back when president obama suggested meeting with an iranian leader,
the Republican Party was not pleased. Here to talk about all of it, Retired Four Star u. S. Army general Barry Mccaffrey, happens to be former u. S. Drug czar and a man with extensive experience around the world. General, if i hired you to give the president the iran brief about the country and about rouhani, what would you tell him . Well, look, a couple of concerns. First is ive worked for both republican and democratic administrations. I think one of the concerns is that we have a National SecurityForeign Policy process, its not bureaucracy, but its bringing together the key people in government to understand what options are, to understand the history and the secondary effects of what we might say or do, and i think that process is lacking in this administration, specifically for the iran accord deal, and i think the second one is, you know, the notion that a personal relationship with senior foreign political leaders is a good one. If youre dealing with Angela Merkel or theresa may. When youre dealing with these brutal autocrats, they could give less of a hoot how friendly you are with them. Theyve got very pragmatic, in some cases murderous objectives to achieve, so the president winging it on iran is unsettling. Speaking of personal relationships with autocrats, i want to play for you what the president said, because it gets us into our next subject of north korea. Well listen to that and talk about it on the other side. General, the problem is no sooner had he said that, tonights Washington Post, newly obtained evidence including Satellite Photos taken in recent weeks indicate that work is under way on at least one, possibly two liquid fueled icbms at a Large Research facility on the outskirts of pyongyang. General, here we go again. Well, exactly. Predictably, the north koreans probably have as many as 60 nuclear devices. Theyve got the beginnings of an icbm program that they intend to complete that capability. So, kim is very straightforward. Hes trying to break the economic sanctions, which i
think is starting to occur, particularly with the chinese now because of the singapore summit. Hes trying to get the u. S. Out of south korea, which hes partially achieving because the president came back and said our presence was provocative behavior. That was language right out of the north korean playbook. And then finally, i think the outcome of the singapore summit, in particular, was to unsettle both south korea and japan. This is not a good outcome. The Nuclear Threat did not go away. This was a Fantasy Appreciation of Whats Going On in the world. General, whats the danger of not knowing what was talked about between trump and putin for over two hours together . Well, i think enormous. You know, if this was Franklin Delano roosevelt or eisenhower, id be less concerned but at the end of the day, im not sure why President Trump would be confident that hes capable of handling a kgb agent like putin whos well briefed. By the way, the whole thing was on video for sure, and the
russians are now selectively using their public understanding of what was said and the deals that were made. The notion that the president would go in and get putin to order the iranians out of syria is laughable. So, look, Foreign Policy, this gigantic, wealthy, powerful country is a team support. Its not an individual winging it dealing with other senior leaders, particularly when theyre people of no honor and who have murderous control over their own populations. General, its always a pleasure to have you on and to get your viewpoint. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Good to be with you, brian. General Barry Mccaffrey from Our Washington headquarters. Coming up, what we learned today about the people our government is watching on board flights in our country. The story when we come back. This a story you might have
this a story you might have heard something about today. It has to do with a Spying Operation that goes by another name. Its a tsa program. Its just been revealed, and its attracting attention and comment from both the world of civil rights advocates and Law Enforcement officials. Under this program, Federal Air Marshals follow and monitor american citizens who are not suspected of any crime. The boston globe, which broke this story, reports dozens of air marshals have themselves internally raised concerns since this initiative launched. Nbc news correspondent tom costello has our report tonight. Reporter the program is called quiet skies. Federal air marshals following two to three dozen americans every day through airports and
on to planes, even sitting right next to them. The marshals told to report back if the traveler changes clothes in a restroom, perspires excessively, fidgets, trembles or stares, uses a phone or computer. Passengers are selected for monitoring if theyre foreign travel and other factors raise concerns, including criminal records, curious financial transactions, email or Phone Numbers linked to terrorist suspects. Among the passengers followed, a businesswoman who was in turkey, even a flight attendant. You have over 2 Million People a day that currently travel in and around the United States. Youre looking for a threat thats so small, its less than a needle in the hay stack. Reporter the tsa tells nbc news the primary purpose of this program is to ensure passengers and flight crew are protected during air travel. We recently talked to the tsa chief about the air marshals. For passengers, i think they should feel very safe and secure that we have a federal air Marshall Service that does provide that inflight security. Reporter but travelers are never told theyve been followed, raising privacy concerns. It should go without saying that government agents shouldnt
be monitoring travelers without a good reason for doing so. Reporter and the air Marshals Union complains the program is a waste of time. The American Public would be better served if these marshals were instead assigned to Airport Screening and checkin areas so that active shooter events can be swiftly ended. Tom costello, nbc news, washington. Another break here tonight. When we come back, the latest evidence that the Trump Administration has meant big things in the book business. We learn tonight about the next big book on the way. That when The 11th Hour continues. Last thing before we go tonight is about what will happen on September 11th of this year. Thats the day Bob Woodwards new book will be published. Its called fear and its about donald trump as president. Bob woodward, who famously was half of woodward and bern stein is 75 years old now. The book is said to rely on hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, contemporaneous meeting notes, files, documents and personal diaries. Credit where credit is due, the press strategy for this book has already been superb, especially considering its not out until september. Tonight, an article on the Washington Post website reported with a straight face that the post had obtained a
copy of the Press Release from Simon And Schuster announcing the book. Bob woodward is, of course, an associate editor of the Washington Post. Hes also a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist whose name will be associated with perhaps the best piece of reporting of all time. The post article says hes gone through a rebirth of sorts by returning to his Signature Moves of old. The publisher tonight called the book the most acute and penetrating portrait of a sitting president ever published during the first years of an administration. Its a reminder that, if nothing else, this presidency has been very good to the publishing business. Thats our broadcast for this monday night as we begin a new week. Thank you so very much for being here with us and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york