Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Our colleague Kristen Welker there is still a steep hurdle to an interview with robert mueller. It would, quote, raise significant article ii questions going to the heart of president ial authority. Its not just about this president but about the presidency. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani spokes with axios. They report, quote, there are two topics the president s lawyers want to rule out in order to agree to a trump sitdown with mueller. One, why trump fired fbi director james comey. Two, what trump said to comey about the investigation of former National Security adviser michael flynn. Tonight, bloomberg has also spoken to giuliani and also reports that those two topics are off limits. According to bloomberg, giuliani said, quote, if asked the president would tell the Special Counsel that he didnt urge comey to stop Investigating Flynn and Didnt Fire Comey to cut off his investigation into russian int
Brian Williams examines the days top political stories and current politicalcampaign news. Election, that means the more careful you have to be in how overtly you investigate or charge someone who is going to be on the ballot in that election. First of all, donald trump, as far as i know, is not on the ballot in 2018. So this whole issue about them affecting the election is actually pretty tangential. Its not clear how much it applies. But mueller is so clearly cautious and observant of precedent and law. Yes. So he will take it into account. But its sort of a sliding scale. Trumps not on the ballot. So you dont have to be quite as careful as, for example, charging someone like collins who is up for reelection. So there they had to be very, very careful. And also, you know, you have to not you dont have to stop the whole election the whole
investigation. Can you pause some aspects of it . You just dont want to do something overt. He can keep doing lots of stuff, its not like theyre goi
By the thousands still left. Theres approximately 8,000 of those still left. And so we will not have a winner, we will not have a concession by a loser, in this race until all of those votes are counted by august 18th. That is tonights last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Tonight, President Trump calls the russia investigation an illegally brought rigged witch hunt but says stay tuned. While Rudy Giuliani puts the chance of a sit Down With Mueller at 50 . In the manafort courtroom, the judge tells the jury disregard my criticism of the prosecution. And nearly one year later are we getting closer to learning the truth. What really happened in the dark aftermath of Hurricane Maria in puerto rico. The 11th hour on a thursday night begins now. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 567 of the trump
presidency. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani spoke with axios. They report, quote, there are two topics the president s lawyers want to rule out
lot of this, he may find it comical that giuliani is setting these deadlines and issuing what are in effect demands and orders. i just think mueller is doing what he s doing on his own time frame, has a huge amount of information at his disposal, is really the guy in charge here. and there s something you know i could be completely wrong in the way this turns out, but from where i sit right now, there s something almost a little satirical, rudy raging at the dying of the light here, and i just don t think there s much to it. lisa, no judgment here because a number of us are, but the president is cable addicted. having established that, what are the kind of unique pressures? here he is on vacation, playing golf, as far as we can tell, every day, although our lenses are kept far, far away from his golf course. what are the pressures he is seeing and feeling? he s certainly seeing a lot of coverage of the manafort trial, which has not been particularly flattering either
and i suspect that mueller a lot of this, he may find it comical that giuliani is setting these deadlines and issuing what are in effect demands and orders. i just think mueller is doing what he s doing on his own time frame, has a huge amount of information at his disposal, is really the guy in charge here. and there s something you know i could be completely wrong in the way this turns out, but from where i sit right now, there s something almost a little satirical, rudy raging at the dying of the light here, and i just don t think there s much to it. lisa, no judgment here because a number of us are, but the president is cable addicted. having established that, what are the kind of unique pressures? here he is on vacation, playing golf, as far as we can tell, every day, although our lenses are kept far, far away from his golf course. what are the pressures he is seeing and feeling? he s certainly seeing a lot of coverage of the manafort trial, which has not been particularly