>> we need to remember, also, that white women have a long history of voting republican when it comes to the presidential election. we can't get excited because we have a woman at the top of the ticket. >> that didn't work last time. >> white women don't vote for the democratic candidate. >> thank you very much. appreciate you guys joining me. that's "all in" for this evening.

>> day 354 of the trump administration brings reports of what could be an extraordinary moment of the russia investigation. it appears president trump faces the real possibility of being interviewed as part of the russia investigation being run by robert mueller. nbc news broke the story reporting team including our own julia ansley will join us in a moment. lawyers of trump's have been talking with the fbi of a special review by the special counsel with the president. the president's legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format including written responses in lieu of a formal-sit down. the discussion is describing as preliminary and ongoing. we'll talk about that as well.

other news and organizations have been reporting on this development, the washington post which writes, quote, "special counsel mueller have told president trump's legal team is likely seeking an interview with the president and how to avoid a sit down encounter or set limits on such a session according to two people familiar with the talks." the question of what the president is willing to do came up in a new conference at camp david. >> if robert mueller asks you to come and speak to his committee, are you committed to do that? >> just so you understand, there is been no collusion. there is been no crime. in theory everybody tells me i am not under investigation, maybe hillary is, i don't know, but i am not. >> john dowd says this in a statement.

quote, "the white house does not comment on communications with the office of special counsel out of respect of the osc. the prospect of the president testifying under oath and answering questions on the fly, that's likely to cause right anxiety for members of his legal team." you will note the effort by fellow republicans to discredit the special prosecutors. here is what senaor lyndsey graham said today. >> i think mr. mueller should be able to do his job without being interfered with. we cannot let anybody be above the law. they're offering to help. we have yet to find out if they took up that offer.

i think mueller should look at that. >> tough to get a read on lyndsey graham that day. our lead off panel, and our msnbc political analyst, former watergate prosecuor and msnbc legal analyst, good evening to you and all happy new year to you. julia ansley, lets talk about this latest one. my question to you is what do we know of the what the mueller team wants to get out of this and what the trump team would like to get out of this or avoid. >> that's a great way to break it down, brian. when you look at what the trump's legal team wants, that keeps their clients from speaking to prosecution or in

criminating themselves in a court setting. their client is the president of the united states. he cannot plead the fifth because that looks very bad and it looks like he had something to hide. and you know with the way this president tends to be very unfiltered. he could in criminate himself. the one thing that of course we have to think about the other side is the mueller's team. he's a thorough investigation. he leaves no stone unturned. he's going to want to sit down with president trump and be able to read body language and cues and pauses in the conversation, anything that may indicate that he's being truthful. he's basically going to be getting something that's come over by legal minds and not

coming from the president himself which is not authentic. >> nick, i have so many questions for you, some of which we can plow through. do you concur that he cannot say no? >> talk about the format. do you think it could be that mueller or mueller's team come over to the white house using the conference room with a court reporter needing a transcript but maybe not a video. >> i don't know about a video. a video is not used in a grand jury setting. what they would do is this is under oath and there would be a transcript and questions and answers transcribed. the idea of simply questions asked or he submits statements and response to questions later on. they are looking for certain pieces of evidence and admissible evidence that they could use in this investigation

to either say there was no conspiracy or there was a conspiracy. they certainly are not going to be handed in and prevented from actually following through and questioning the most important person in this entire investigation. >> lets talk about this president. he's used to holding court and kind of back and forth with journalists. people forget what an entertainer he is, he likes to command attention and makes people laugh in a m roochlt he's not used to answering questions on the fly like this. talk about the degree of exposure of this president won't have the benefit knowing what flynn and manafort have already told mueller's team. >> we know that flynn cooperated and trump's lawyer certainly don't know what was said. he has not probably does not remember half of what he told flynn and what mueller's team is

going to do is they're going to go through methodically of all the questions that is being told and documents or tapes that they have or wiretaps, they are going to be able to go through all of that and none of which the defense would have. so, there is a real mind field here that is mueller is clearly going to take advantage and should take advantage of. >> phil rucker, i cannot imagine a more heroining circumstances where legal exposure for this president and his team is concerned. what is your read on the level of concern? >> the level of concern i think is quite high, brian. according to the reporting out today including by julia and her colleagues at nbc, that's a

great scoop. trump is eager to participate and he wants to show that he did nothing wrong. there is tremendous risk for him. this is a president who states falsehood and sometimes lies all the time. he rarely gets to a media interview without saying anything that's factually inaccurate. for him to sit down to have a free flow conversation with mueller under oath, transcribed, there is tremendous danger that he may say something that's not true. >> julia, you know how much i love walking up to the edge of what you are reporting. what have you learn of what this means for the mueller's time line that they are saying to team's trump, hey, we want to talk to your client. >> one piece of reporting that the washington post had was not in our original story.

it was going to come potentially in the coming weeks that something we are still digging into. if that's the case, that really could put a faster time line on the investigation that a lot of us are expecting because i think nick would agree with this, that's one of the pieces you would do as a capstone at the end of an investigation like this. you are not going to be able to go back to the president after you learn something else. this is something you do after you have your pieces in a row. >> counsel, do you agree with that? >> i agree with it. only to the extent that i think what they got is michael flynn's system. he's a super insider here. he was with the president during the campaign and he was with the president after he was inaugurated. they know the only other person that may know more than michael flynn is going to be manafort. manafort is not cooperating.

they still have to convict him or try to convict him and get him to cooperate. what they want to do at this point in time is take advantage of the fact that they have all of this information from michael flynn. i think that's who we are. it still does not mean that this investigation won't go on for a while that there won't be the prosecution, ultimate conviction and cooperation which may lead to more indictments. i think they're at a very key cross roads right now with the flynn cooperations. if i am team mueller, i want to show the grand jury video, especially of this president and all that is answers and tales physically. you can see anger and you can see nervously that's read back of a transcript does not get you. is that kind of the thing that'll be back and forth, a concession that maybe someone will make? >> possibly. part of the problem of that is is that normally you don't have

video tapes before a grand jury and you don't have the witnesses themselves. what you are pointing out is those grand juries are not going to be able to see him. maybe they should have a video tape of what goes on here, and that would not be unusual. i think you are going to have some trading here as to how the process is going to work. the bottom line is mueller is going to insist there is going to be a transcript and under oath and that it is to the grand jury and make it clear onset. >> phil, what do you think is more worst inside team's trump. this book, the wolff's book or continuing worries over russia. >> that's a cloud that hung over this presidency all year and could continue to hang for most of next year.

the portrait in this book is devastating of this president and in particular the portrayal of his mental facility, mental acuity and his fitness for office, there is real doubts in this book revealed to a number of interviews with trump's insiders about how this president conducts his business. it is a real concern in the white house, they struggled all week and including today trying to contain what is becoming a national conversation about the president's mental health. >> what is also as we mentioned the subject of an article of in the washington post tonight, phil, i save something for you. i want to show you and our viewers part of the president's appearance today before a farming convention in tennessee. he went there relitigating the election results. >> oh, are you happy that you voted for me.

you are so lucky that i gave you that privilege. there is no way to 270. we got 306 or 304. we ended up with 304 after two were taken away with us. you will explain that to me some day. >> phil, do you this i the members of the farm bureau gathered in nashville were interested in the final electoral count? >> that's a good point. the election was more than a year ago. this was not a political campaign rally. it was a convention of american farm bureau and he was there as the president and a commander in chief to give what was supposed to be an agriculture policy speech. the president thinks of his campaign victory all the time, we are now in year two after the election. >> he does wear his electoral votes on his sleeves.

>> nick akerman and julia ainsley, thank you all for joining us on a monday night. a fire storm speculation of the potential political future of one, oprah winfrey, when "the 11th hour" continues. i realize that ah, that $100k is not exactly a fortune.

well, a 103 yeah, 103. well, let me ask you guys. how long did it take you two to save that? a long time. then it's a fortune. well, i'm sure you talk to people all the time who think $100k is just pocket change. right now we're just talking to you. i told you we had a fortune. yes, you did. getting closer to your investment goals starts with a conversation. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today.

the man is among other things. the man is about obsessive. that's how he responds to things. it is literally crazy to write a -- a president has never done that to say his privacy have been invaded that he's been defamed.

this has never happened before. >> michael wolff on with lawrence tonight and he had the best seller on his hand, the explosive book "fire and fury" among other things question the president's fitness for office and his mental state by quoting all the people around him. all the talks had the president posting on twitter this week. >> "crooked hillary clinton also plays these cards very hard and every one knows went down in flames, i went from top tv star to president of the united states as my first try, that qualifies for not smart but a genius and later surrounded by republican senators."

>> this morning about tweeting our mental state, why did you feel that you need to tweet about that this morning? >> i went to the best college and i had a situation where i was an excellent student and came out and made billions of dollars and became one of the top business people. went to television and for ten years, was a tremendous success as you have heard. ran for president one time and won. and i hear this guy that does not know me, does not know me at all and did not interview me for three hours in the white house, that did not exist, okay? it is in his imagination. >> when asked today, the white house says a psychiatric won't be apart of trump's annual physical. we are joined by robert costa, and moderator washington and msnbc political analyst, vivian soloma and msnbc political analyst, good evening to you all

and happy new year to you all. robert costa, the headline in the washington post tonight about this ongoing struggle, white house struggle to silence talk of trump's mental fitness, where does this go from here and where does it stop? >> one key moment that physical how the white house decides to read out the physical itself, whether the physician inside the white house chooses to speak publicly about that experience will say a lot. the white house knows this michael wolff book is not going away. it is the number one best selling book right now in the country. it is being read by americans who are raising questions by the west wing but it is being read by lawmakers and capitol hill.

a point of relief today is republicans are standing by the president and they still see him as politically useful and ally in pursuing their agenda. >> jonathan lemir, i was going to save this for later. how much of a role will sarah huckabee sanders have in disseminating a results of a military examination of walter reed. we heard of the president's adl and ldl, is it up to the white house and withhold from the results of the physical. we'll see what they choose to do. they can choose to read out as they want. traditionally is a thorough review of the data compiled in the physical. we'll see how much this white

house whether would be from sarah sanders or the physician or someone like that come out and sort of painted a picture of the health this president is in. it is clear this is not a competition the white house is willing to have or wanting to have. >> his question is not going to go away. this book has gotten the story line right here and setting up narratives for 2018. is the president's fitness for this office. certainly, i am not in a position to diagnose him. what we do know that this is the president who's managed to staff differently than his predecessors. we know he had a sha shaky polic and his attention span is short, he receives them orally rather than written words. there is maps and graphics and his name is highlighted because he knows that captures his attention. this is the way the white house works around this president.

>> vivian, i noticed tonight a trump's surrogate went on cnn and started calling michael wolff, dr. wolff sarcastically. you work around the world and i am wondering how all of this is echoing and being heard and read around the world? >> i think everyone is really astonished of the mental fitness of the president of the united states whether it is warranted or the details in this book are completely accurate. i have heard from diplomats around the world getting text messages and e-mails of what do you make of this book. all of this country has something at stakes. if the president of the united states is not in sound mind, will he wage war against them?

will he deprive them of any kind of rights or military support or political support. everybody has something at stake here. everybody wants to know. is this president of a sound mind and is he able to make decisions? is he a man of his words? it is been really interesting from europe to east asia and everyone in the middle east. i gotten calls from senior government officials all saying please make sense of this. we have to understand what's happening. >> robert, you talked about gop support for the president. we saw leadership in the hanger of camp david there lined up behind the president. what about another lost monday in the selling of the agenda i presume they were there to discuss. >> at this point, the administration is in negotiating

a fiscal deal along with congressional leaders to see if they'll avoid a shut down. the real challenge facing republicans right now is not questions of the president's mental fitness. the republicans have far few questions, they are concerned of whether the president is going to push for a border wall or not and there could be a government shut down if there is not an agreement by late january and the faith of the dreamers, young thousand of immigrants who are waiting for their faith to be decided. that's all in the hands in some part by president trump. >> jonathan lemire, president trump is starting his official day much later than he did. often around 11:00 a.m. and holding fewer meetings according to copies of his private schedule. this is largely to meet trump's demands for more executive times. something of a thing in the lexicon which means tv and twitter time alone in the

residence. then he's back to the residence, during that time he has a meeting of two and spends a good deal of time watching cable news in the diner. he's so busy with documents that he does not haves time to watch all this. this is part of the thing that gets baked in the biographical cake. >> president obama would be in the office by 9:00 or so. but, this is something, this is a president who campaigned on his work ethics and endurance and stamina. how many times we hear him say i will never golf, i am too busy.

this is a president on christmas day tweeting out a message merry christmas and he perceives to golf. they say he's working hard for the american people and certainly needing to keep a finger of the pulse of america and watching television could perhaps and should be apart of that. i think he certainly does not more than most and he has defined what general kelly tried to do when he first came into give more structure time to keep him away from television or away from his twitter or away from some of the late night phone calls to his friends which the white house itself sort of fed into his unpredictable and darker impulses than creating political problems. >> vivian, we came to know you as you were in the briefing room

back when you were at the associated press covering the administration, how have you noticed the president change since those early days of the administration, we are now in early 2018. >> well, you know, in some ways he's a bit quicker to pounce. he's definitely, you could see he's quickly irritated by a lot of the news increasingly. i guess he's a bit short temper when it came to news report that criticizes him in general and he's still going back to a lot of what he accomplished during his campaign and if anything, we don't see enough changes. he has not learned a lot from his lessons. i can tell you of one of the major concerns that i have been heard about with his executive time is that he's taking calls at the residence and is he doing it on a secure line and is there any of his advisers present to

help monitor the discussions that are taken place. president trump last year had a lot of allegations of sharing a classified intelligence of the people and taking calls on his cell phone with foreign leaders which was not on a secure line and had major national security implications. if anything to answer your question, we are not seeing as much change as you would think in the beginning, he says he was growing hands and learning the ways of the presidency but we are a year in now and it is quite surprising as john was just pointing out, you would thought we would see a lot of change when general kelly came in but unfortunately, has not changed as much as people thought. >> good point to make. that's why this is the business of the american people. >> robert costa, vivian salama, and jonathan lemire.

>> coming up, steve bannon is suffering heavy damage and trying to control it when "the 11th hour" continues. hi, i'm thu know what's difficult? armless bowling. ahhhhhhhh! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour.

i realize that ah, that $100k is notwell, a 103fortune. yeah, 103. well, let me ask you guys. how long did it take you two to save that? a long time. then it's a fortune. well, i'm sure you talk to people all the time who think $100k is just pocket change. right now we're just talking to you.

i told you we had a fortune. yes, you did. getting closer to your investment goals starts with a conversation. schedule a complimentary goal planning session today. steve bannon has walked back a bit. yesterday, bannon issued a statement about his description about donald trump jr. meeting in the campaign as ttreasonous.

he's been relent less for his father. my comments were aimed at paul manafort, a season campaign professionals with experience and knowledge how the russians operate. he should have known. those comments were not aimed at don jr. today the white house made it clear that bannon and trump were done. the press secretary says quote, "there is no way back for mr. bannon at this point." >> jeremy peters, it is great to have you on our broadcast. steve bannon used the royal "we"

on behalf of a movement when he says things like mitch mcconnell were coming for you, we are coming after you. does he have a constiuency? >> that's the funny thing of revolution, brian. that's what's happening to steve bannon at this moment. it is difficult to see where his constituent si is. his backers in the mercers, i don't know how you build a movement if you don't have political capital and financial capital. that's what bannon lacks at this moment. >> where does a statement like that comes from and walks back something about don jr. , is it because his funding was threaten, do you think? >> i think it is a few things.

his job is in danger. he could be forced out of chairman. so you have that and you also have the fact that as bannon tries to build what he hopes will one day be an apparatus that supplies the modern republican party. he lacks credibility and he did not have, not just the financial backing but political backing of the people who are most important to him. that's people in and around the white house and the president himself. so looking and if he's truly honest of himself, looking at the situation, he had to see how dire this was and how isolated he was. >> final question, are you ever truly out, done with trump's world or are you joining with so many of our colleagues who are saying he will be back in, just give both parties time to come down.

>> i would not be surprised one bit, brian to see bannon back in trump's good gracious. i have what hard time foreseeing at this point. maybe it is a future fight with mit romney. i will tell you what i don't anticipate happening and don't believe it will endure. that's the tabloid where we saw over the weekend where trump's standing on stage with paul ryan and mitch mcconnell and the republican party says i am with you. trump's heart is more with the bannon's wing with the republican party. i eventually see him drifting part of that part of republicanism and not the establishment. >> jeremy development between n south korea. tensions will be focused on the

peninsula. we'll go there next.

well, we'll put it in your head earlier. it is hard to believe that one month from tonight, we'll hear that music for real. the winter olympics will be under way in pyeongchang, south korea, 50 miles give or take from north korea, which makes this an ideal time for the north and the south to hold their first face to face meeting in two years.

the meeting will determine whether the north can send delegations to the games. many people would believe if the north had a stake in the game's and actual skin in the game as it were. many believes that talks of any kind will have a deescalating and calming effect. this is an attempt to drive a wedge between seoul and american allies. the u.s. can take any kind of military action against pyongyang. on that front, the journal already has this nugget which would be an interest in the piece loving world. well, with us to talk about all of this, retired four star u.s. army, former battlefield commander of the persian golf and our analyst, former white house senior director and former state department senior adviser, welcome to you both, general, you first, is there such a thing as a limited military attack on a nuclear nation with a grudge?

>> i would say not, these dialogues of north and south is signaling in a phase, they run this for 40 years now provoking the u.s. and south korea and negotiate and get a reward and provoke again. that's what's happening. the thought that we can go after so called bloody nose option and strike a missile site. we should expect there would be an unbounded reaction from north korea. we are not going to do that. i also don't think we are going to make a major conventional attack to try to take out most of their nuclear capability. we get 90% of it but we never get all of it. we never know where it would all be. i don't think, we have a likelihood of the u.s. preemptively carrying out the war.

what may happen is miscalculation particularly if the president keeps goating this young desk spot who's unsettled on his throne. >> are talks of my kind by nature good that we can see a good handshake. >> that's what south korean friends have done for us. they have brought us a breating room and not donald trump in the way he's been tweeting. the idea, this is the entire purpose of the olympics to bring all the nations together. unfortunately, donald trump himself has the idea of ever having the conversations and it is going to rely on our military and other folks on the ground, limited resources that we have, lets note, we do not have a u.s. ambassador of south korea right

now. who will do the follow through and south korea has opened for us. unclear, there is an opportunity that we should not be missing. >> general, it is stunning that diplomatic post is unfilled. let me ask you what do you think, a duo question, what do you think should be u.s. strategy for the next six to twelve months and does the president have the message to discipline to step away from his phone and not screw that up on twitter? >> the ladder part, very unlikely, the president demonstrated he's impulsive and not well grounded in these issues. frighten at the thought of military action that could conclude for the nuclear exchange. so i think we are in a tricky situation. in the coming 24 months, north koreans are going to finish an incredible icbm program. enough of 20 missiles of nuclear

devices on them. i think there is no longer a binary choice, we'll have to learn to live with a lethal threat from the north koreans. they'll use it and not just preventing aggression, they'll use it as leverage in their regional dealings. we are about to enter 15 or 20 years of some apparel to the american people. we got to get ready and mitigate it. we have to isolate them and push the chinese who could not possibly want a major war on their frontiers to help us. >> when i ask you is it a good thing if the north is involved in the olympic games, is that by nature a good thing? >> lets hope having athletes and representatives, they'll not launch any type of attack on south korea or the united

states. any nuclear attack by the united states on north korea will hurt millions of south koreans and for most. >> it should be a good thing for all. our thanks, general mccaphery. if you give a campaign style speech, be ready to be asked if you are running for something.

in 2011 i told some jokes about our current president at the white house correspondents' dinner, and some have said that night convinced him to run. so if that's true i just want to say, oprah, you will never be president! you do not have what it takes! >> seth meyers last night

discouraging her enough, figuring oprah winfrey might run for president. but then later in the evening, hours later in the telecast which may still be going on, after receiving the cecil b. demilliaward, oprah delivered a stemwinder of a speech that left people wondering if she's running for something. >> i want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon! [ applause ] and when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say "me

too" again. >> now, to bring you up to speed, a person in the know tells nbc news that oprah has no intention of running for president. but her long-time partner stedman graham stoked the fire by telling the "l.a. times", "it's up to the people. she would absolutely do it." whether or not oprah decides to run, she already has one big name endorsement, albeit for a very different position and at a very different time. here now with a short history of oprah winfrey and donald j. trump. >> would you consider a woman for your running mate? and if so, who? >> well, i would consider. and as chris can tell you, i threw out the name of a friend of mine, who i think the world of. she's great. and some people thought it was an incredible idea. some people didn't. but oprah. i said oprah winfrey. who's really great. and i think would -- we would be a very formidable team. >> i know people have talked to you about whether or not you

want to run. would you ever? >> probably not. but i do get tired of seeing the country ripped off -- >> why would you not? >> i just don't think i really have the inclination to do it. i love what i'm doing. i really like it. >> also it doesn't pay as well. >> don't you love videotape? today the white house responded to the possibility of oprah as the democratic nominee in 2020 by saying this -- "we welcome the challenge, whether it be oprah winfrey or anybody else." tonight, first daughter and assistant to the president ivanka trump has chimed in as well, writing this on twitter. "just saw oprah's empowering and inspiring speech at last night's golden globes. let's all come together, women and men, and say #timesup #united." and as someone added tonight, hashtag you can't make this stuff up. another break for us. coming up for this president, we have learned it's all about reciprocity.

something we'll explain when "the 11th hour" continues. hi, i'm the internet! you know what's difficult? armless bowling. you got this, jimmy! you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. pick a domain name. choose a design. you can build a website in under an hour. now that's a strike! get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral.

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we're reviewing all of our trade agreements to make sure that they are fair and reciprocal. reciprocal. so important. >> last thing before we go here tonight. president theodore roosevelt wrote give or take 35 books in his lifetime. he knew and employed a lot of words. but never claimed to have the best words. that came from our current president, who like all of us has favorite words. and in his case cannot hide his glee when he uses certain words. you heard one of them just a moment ago from his speech tonight in tennessee. there'sing? about the words reciprocal and reciprocity that this president loves saying. as if there is pride in having learned them and knowing their definitions.

we went back and found the evidence of his love of these two words, which sometimes have had the power to stop him in his tracks. >> it must be fair and it must be reciprocal. such an important word. hasn't been used very much in the united states. reciprocal. >> we both seek a trading relationship that is balanced, reciprocal -- i love the word reciprocal. because we don't have too many reciprocal trading partnerships, i will tell you that. >> fairness and reciprocity. >> we will be reciprocal. meaning if they're doing it we're doing it. >> we're fighting to create fair and reciprocal trade. >> and reciprocal. >> reciprocal. >> reciprocal. >> a fair and reciprocal one. >> and the word reciprocal is so important. >> reciprocity, my favorite word. reciprocity. >> the president winding up our broadcast tonight, which has been brought to you by the words "reciprocal" and "reciprocity." and that is our broadcast on a monday night, the eighth day of january to 18.

my thanks to my friends who filled in here so i could sneak away for just a bit. thank you so much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. the prospect of interview appears to be growing. nbc following new information about a possible meeting between president trump and special counsel robert mueller. plus a breakthrough decision after high level talks, north korea has agreed to send athletes to the winter games in south korea next month. and then there's this. >> make up for it. fires to the end zone. touchdown. alabama wins. >> an epic comeback and overtime. crimson tide win another national championship title after stunning victory against the georgia