there are moving pieces to report to you at this hour in the overarching russia investigation. "the washington post" is reporting tonight that rudolph personally sat down and met with special council robert mueller on tuesday to reopen ne negotiation y negotiations for an interview. convey the on going resistance of trump and his advisers for an interspru did not rule out the possibility the people said adding that he pressed him about when it is expected to end. he would like a chance to ask trump about key steps during his administration and early months. emphasized as he did in conversations with trump's team.

essential for trump to understand trump's intent as they wrap up the portion of the probe focused on potential obstruction of justice and "the post" points out that he knew him for decades. and described the session as relaxed and an opportunity for both sides to feel each other out. last thursday after hired by president trump, giuliani said he hopes to join the russia investigation in a week or two. we are also following developments tonight in the on going legal drama relating to the president's long time attorney michael cohen. saying he will assert his fifth

amendment rights. he site, the on going criminal investigation allegation in the southern district of new york is the reason for taking the fifth, daniels suing president trump arguing a nondisclosure agreement she signed is invalid because the president never sign it had. we should note that the white house denied trump had an affair with stormy daniels so a lot to talk about. let's bring in the panel for wednesday evening, julia and justice reporter, former u.s. attorney joyce vance spent 25 years as a -- and welcome to you all. philip let's start with a story that we are watching minute by minute it is 11:03 and change here on the east coast. where does the president's

nomination for v.a. stand right now? >> the nomination is in extreme pearl. jackson indicating to white house officials considering withdrawing. he wants to keep fighting and a chance to clear his name and a chance to defend himself in a confirmation hearing and some that he denied to the media. he realizes how ugly it will be and unlikely that he will be confirmed by the senate. there's a number of lawmakers speaking against him. so the white house is in limbo at the moment. i would not be surprised to see an announcement that he is out or maybe he will make it to the morning, i think his days are numbered. >> i want to ask you fiphil abo

the jewel lan any effect. where the talks stand with mueller? >> remember he came on board as the president's head attorney replacing john dowd. there was a meeting between mueller and giulani and seemed to indicate to mueller that the president was willing to consider that interview although we know from reporting over the last few weeks serve since the raids against michael cohen, trump has been hostile of the idea of doing the interview with mueller. let's see if he does it. it may be a game that giuliani is playing and then provide trump an explanation and excuse

if it were to decide ultimately not to do it. >> joyce, as the former fed on this panel, it is clear that he has been anxious to get his side of the story out and talk about his exploits and talks on behalf of his client. if you are mueller or the mueller team, how do you react to seeing a once private meeting on a tuesday afternoon come out in the press closer to wednesday? >> you expect that it's going to happen. that's been the trajectory of this entire investigation. i think mueller like most prosecutors is happy to try his cases in the courtroom and leave it to others to try their cases in the press. >> julia, there's reason to believe that people have spoken publicly about investigations wrapping up real soon by thanksgiving, christmas, by

tonight. for an audience of one. have you and all of your reporting given indications this thing is going to wrap up anywhere close to soon? >> i think what we have learned as the investigation continues is that it is possible that mueller will be able to lob off part. the obstruction probe. spf may be able to wrap some point this summer. as "the washington post" points out, mueller wants to see trump interviewed. he wants to get to the key question that underlies obstruction. and that is intent. what was his intent about air force one and the trump tower meeting. and decided to fire gjim comey and if he was intending to talk to flynn to lie about russia. so for mueller to be able to

wrap up this one piece of the investigation, he wants to talk to the president. this could be a game as philip pointed out. gui liani wants to open the window and if he talks mueller may be able to wrap it up without the interview. >> there's no surprises. he can say i want to talk to your client about the heart of the case. >> i'm not sure that i agree that mueller is all that interested in interviewing the president. we have speculated about that, but when you have an obstruction case, you don't get to interview the target and you build as a prosecutor that case based on what took place and what resulted from what took place. here, mueller got all of the facts out and got the president writing this letter trying to

explain away the june meeting in trump tower and using facts that were untrue. he has the comey firing. i'm not sure that interviewing the president adds that much and we are assuming here that the president is the target of an investigation. that may not be true. mueller has already told we have learned the president is a subject not a target. the president may never be a target. mueller may have decided that he can't be indicted and in that case interviewed like any other witness with a grand jury subpoena and if he's a target, subpoena is frowned upon on the policy. >> that meant it was only tuesday for us, but the piece you did about the president's utterances and calling it a witch hunt and the tone and content of what he's saying on

twitter doesn't sound like he is trying to proclaim michael cohen's innocent. >> talking about the russia probe and the legal challenges such as the cohen situation in new york. from a perspective of guilt almost and it may be unconscious on the part of the president. but the way he speaks about it gives the impression that he has something to hide and he may be guilty. we saw that on twitter, he was talking whether michael cohen can flip and arguing that he doesn't think he will flip. if he doesn't have incriminating evidence on the president, what is there to flip about? he casts himself in a with a i that is unusual but as joyce on the panel i interviewed her for this story and pointed out this

is behavior that is reminiscent in criminal behavior. >> it was fantastic. julia, i have a dramatic for you. this is "the washington post" reporting, let's call this segment -- trump hired the raskins after meeting them for the first time. decision over shadowed that former new york city mayor would join the team and take the lead in negotiating with mueller. they have tried and defended clients in criminal cases and hardball negotiation with prosecutors, skills trump would need. and trying to use attorney/client protections if keeping investigators skou we

aring -- who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential discussions. i love modern day disclaimers in 2018. julia, what do you make of that? these will two attorneys, husband and wife. met them at march ra maro lago t matured. >> they haven't got enough attention and dark horse liars indicative of the president's broader legal strategy. he brought on giulani someone who understands and what co men may be able to say about hissen client, the president. and bringing on the husband and wife team that are notorious able to get people off. it seems like all of the

evidence is stack against them and the clients walk away scot-free. it is to someone like andrew wisemen. they are trying to build up a team around a defense based on what is going on in new york. for people who i have spoken to, it sounds like the president is worried about what it coming out of the southern district. what information they might get from michael cohen and building his legal team around that. hearing less about rod ros rosenstein. and now focused on the husband and wife team in florida. the hiring of people who are loyal to him and can fight back against someone like andrew who is good at being able to flip witnesses. this is indicative of not only the anxiety that the president is under and where the anxious

is being focused. >> i had to read twees that the president is making himself available to go over everything seized from his lawyer's office. and go through what they have and talk about the precedent for this and how it lives in reality. >> well, the president of course, has objected to the use of the government's tainting procedure. this is how government attorneys typically operate to ensure that a prosecution team doesn't see material covered by the attorney/client privilege when they search a client or attorney's office. it is a standard procedure. the president objects to it here and he has a dilemma created for him. michael cohen asserted the fifth amendment privilege in the

stormy daniels case, he can't testify and the payment of $130,000 without subjecting himself to criminal liability. and that would seem to me that any files in his office aren't attorney/client privilege files. if there's criminal conduct between a attorney and client they are not protected. so we have trump coming in offering to review then files. his lawyer told us that it would not be attorney/client and saying i will personally be available to look them over and wants to get a first cut at the evidence. >> makes easy for we civilians to understand this. we are covering every denied. to julia, and joyce and philip thank you.

coming up for us, michael cohen announc announces he will take the fifth in the daniel's case. and stormily daniel's lawyer has something to say about that. the president's navy doctor nominated to run the v.a. faces newal gags of prescribing himself meds and drive ago vehicle and more on "the 11th hour. " hey, want the fastest internet?

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united states for at least the last ten to 12 years. that same individual that the president appointed you, other members of the media and the american people for answers is refusing to provide the answers and claiming he can't answer the questions because the answers will inkrim that hicriminate hi. this is staggering development, it cannot be over exaggerated or overstated, this is a big deal. stormy daniel's attorney speaki speaking to our colleague moments ago. michael cohen taking the fifth and stormy daniels filed against him. the on going criminal investigation in the southern district of new york the reason to assert his fifth amendment privilege. earlier this month raided the offices and residences of cohen

relating to the $130,000 pay out he made days before the election to stay silent about the affair with trump. it came from his own personal funds. and now president trump said on air force one, he didn't know about the payment and the white house said that president trump never had an affair with daniels. today's news comes when his lawyer said he will make himself available. nbc nie nbc news says that the president will aid in a potential review of the materials taken by the fbi to determine which items are subject to state's attorney/client privilege. over seeing the filtering of the materials. trump's involvement would need to be authorized by the judge.

to repeat in plain english, the president of the united states saying i would love a crack to see what you gathered up at my lawyer's office as you open it and go through it. senior correspondent and former assistant attorney for the aforementioned southern district of new york. daniel, let's start with taking the fit before fth before we ge image of the president going through box that say evidence. we no it doesn't imply guilt, what does it mean? >> the bare case that it doesn't mean that much is that following the searches and the reflation and that there's an intensive investigation, any defense lawyer would say i'm not going

to have him under oath even if he is innocent because somebody else thinks he is committing crimes. it is not as michael said, necessarily, an admission that if i speak under oath i will be incriminating myself. that is not what the fifth amendment is and that is in the what he is doing. >> are you telling me that stormy daniel's lawyer is protecting he is client and may have over stepped the bounds? >> he said it cannot be exaggerated or overstated t. is an event that he is sitting here and taking the fifth in a lawsuit by trying to force the nd skparks i think now he wishes he took the settlement that

stormy daniel offered. it can't go away because michael and stormy daniels add add claim of defamation against cohen or else he would get rid of this as fast as he could. >> i have a question for you, can the president remain silent on these doings were talking here? >> remain silent? could he take the fifth? >> is he going to remain silent from commenting on michael cohen, for example. >> i'm glad you asked, i saw this evening and the president tweeted that he will be appearing tomorrow morning on 8:00 a.m. on fox and friends but the president watches quite faithfully and gets excited about and the fact that he is appearing on fox and friends

which will be stoking his pressure points and his resentments, i can't imagine -- we are used to waking up and the president tweeted three or four times and in the newsroom we are scrambling to respond. it is going to be a banana za. he may be weighing in. he can't remain silent when you have -- he knows how to enflame the situation. i expect we will be hearing a lot from mr. trump. >> daniel, when the president says he will make himself available to go through evidence, isn't he and i don't say this argumentively, the last person who should be decided on

attorney/client privilege? >> i agree with you on the last point. that ship has sailed because the judge ordered last week for the government to turn over the materials that were seized to michael cohen. once she did that, the cat is out of the bag. whether it is the judge who is going to make the decision or a special master or a magistrate judge, someone is going to have to make the decisions and once trump and cohen have the information, it is trump's privilege to assert. so i don't expect as you mentioned him to be on the dprou ground weaving through boxes. the hot docs that the lawyers find may be relayed to him. the sub text is that the judge issued a surprising order to hold a conference to ascertain

what is going on. in reading the documents, the sub text is is this special master that the defense asked for going to delay things exponentially and so i think trump and his team were paint in a box where he had to say he was available or otherwise, they were not going to get the relief they wanted. >> and everybody worried about undue delay. the president snapped at someone and called the potential pardon of cohen, stupid. >> i think it is a valid question. pardon, scooter libby who was not a front burner topic of conversation and came -- an act to come a the a moment like this and reintroduce in everyone's mind whether a pardon could be part of a legal political strt

and we know from good reporting from newspapers that the president has at least, the president's lawyers have raised the ideas of potential pardons in conversation. it is not something that reporters are conjuring out of thin air. it's been a conversation within the president's legal team. it would be encredibly dramatic act but the president has unlimited power to pardon. not much people can do about it. so it is kind of his nuclear bomb at this point and we don't nowhere he is willing to use it. it is a president not interested in historical norms or tasted of people commenting about his behavior on television. you can't rule it out. >> just when i thought we were not in the nuclear bomb business, apparently we are. thank you for tonight. coming up, the veterans the most important thing about the

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talking with senior white house officials about taking his name out and his future can come early tonight or tomorrow. "the washington post" first to report on jackson's thinking saying, quote, jackson has grown frustrated with the nomination process and told colleagues he may remove his name with consideration with deliberations. comes as a summary released today from democrats on the senate veterans affairs committee. new allegations against jackson. involve miss handling like opioids, writing prescription ps for himself and wrecking a government vehicle while intoxicated. today in a brief comment to nbc news, jackson denies the car

crash. >> i did not wreck any kind of car, thank you. >> haven't been confirmed. tonight "politico" reports collapsing and the question of the day is not if but when president donald trump pulls the plug on ronny jackson. in the senate no one is predicting that jackson will be confirmed and no republicans stepped up to his defense and the report is cratering. phil rucker agreed to stick around to talk about this and we welcome back jackie. it being now 11:33, 11:34 p.m. what is your current status of this? >> i thought he would have been gone 24 hours ago. we were prepared for him to

announce the withdraw for nomination yesterday. after what the president said at the press conference at the white house with french president macron. where he said he stood by him and then he said i don't know why he wants the job and why he wants to go through process. it seems like an invitation to withdraw and it is astounding. >> phil, i know this came up in the briefing today and as i'm watching i hope no one is confusing a promotion procedure with a vet. vetting is a term of art in washington and it means an fbi full field investigation and they take a hard look at your life. working in proximity of the president we since known about all kinds of bad characters who worked around this president and others. does this point out a vet problem and a procedural problem

that was allowed to hang out for enough days to attract more allegations as it did tonight? >> clearly, brian, there's a vetting problem in the white house if the allegations are coming to late and were not known to the white house before president trump tweeted that he would be the nominee to head the department of affairs. sarah sanders said there were four separate background checks. and at one point used the phrase vetting. did not detail what it was entailed. one conducted by the fbi, unclear if most or all of them took place before jackson was nominated for the v. a. it is likely he would have these sorts of procedures going on because of his proximity to the president. he was the personal physician so there's an interest on the part of the fbi and white house and

the executive branch as a whole to make sure he was up to snuff to do that. talking to white house officials, they are confused about the allegations about jackson. they travel with him and know him. he is close to them personally and this is not the behavior they have seen and they are startled by it and caught off guard. >> i don't blame them. this is explosive stuff. jackie, as far as your reporting and understanding of this. whose decision will this be? >> the president said yesterday at his press conference he was leaving it up to ronny jackson. there is not anybody who think that is true. it is i can loo the -- like the chicken and egg situation. it is clear -- it is an

astounding situation. the president talks about extreme vetting for immigrants but should apply that to his appointees. in this case i don't think there's indication of vetting much at all. he announced the firing of the pr predecessor by a tweet and naming dr. jackson. i think he knew him on a personal level. 15 months into the presidency at a time when most administrations would institutionalize and gotten better at it and the president became unilateral actor and acted on whim. the represents are not defending dr. jackson and losing support. the v.a. is one of the top agencies that members as much as they defer to a president to pick his own officials.

>> one of the few things ermember of congress has in common. they go home to constituents. >> thank you for helping to explain this still moving story at this hour. coming up, let us not forget at the center of this political fight over the v.a. are the veterans who volunteered to serve our country and we'll talk about the president who promised to help them once he took office. more on that when we continue. p. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's. what are the three p's? the three p's of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54. alex, what's my price?

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we are going to make the veterans administration so good, so prop are which is going to be run so well. i have some of the best people in the world to run it already. >> i love the vets. >> the veteran's administration is a mess.

it is corrupt and run poorly. our vets are going to be treated well. >> that was the campaign trail. let's talk about the veterans. set up just for customer service. just to serve those who serve us. presently, there is no boss and it is not like the v.a.'s problems have gone away. they are in the news because of the president's nominee to run it, dr. ronny jackson. the domination is in deep trouble. current and former colleagues most of whom active duty military describe the admirable using unethical, explosive, toxic, abusive, dishonest and vindictive. founder and ceo paul.

platoon leader in iraq. i have raised money for iava apply and not near enough for this guy, our next guest. paul, welcome. >> good to see you. >> what got my attention is when democrat of montana said he had 20 active duty military. this means they busted out of the chain of command and might mean the chain of command did not help them in this case. felt the need to approach the u.s. senate. what does that tell you? >> i have been talking this for over a decade. it takes some crazy stuff to push stormy daniels and comey out of the headlines for two days. this is bonkers. this is a whole new level. i think you bring up an important point. these folks haven't come forward yet and the senate is depending on the media and public to vet him.

he was not vetted bit white house. the senate may not have the resources. the the chain of command in the military is different. folks can't just say something about their boss and walk out and quit. maybe tomorrow morning we'll start to see faces on the names and if they are substantiated and it is important to note, we don't know if they are. it is constant chaos an agency that had seven nominees since iraq and and the stuff that trump talk in the campaign trail is for not if we have to deal with this. >> one of the great iran war ground commanders what he said on twitter tonight. these a-- feel badly for ronny jackson, sharp and 12 years in the white house. if returned to navy, not

competitive for a senior service position. totally unprepared for v.a. secretary, should withdraw and look at new charges. that's interesting coming from a retired four-star with tons of credits. who is not speaking up? your view? >> folks who served near him and over him. >> con pick would you sayly? >> absolutely. you haven't heard from the joint chiefs of staff. it steams like it is half cooked. usually you are ready for opposition and folks who talk about combatx experiences and what it was like during training. if they were ready to step forward, they would have done it by now. i feel bad for ronny jackson, the vet who came home and lost

his or her leg and waiting for care. those are the people we should be feeling bad for. >> customer service, you brought a graphic with you about a word cloud design that came out of polling you did with your membership. this should break the heart of everyone watching tonight? what are they looking for from the v.a., leadership? what does the military teach? leadership. but look at that needs, care, that's heart breaking. >> yeah. we poll -- over 2,000 members in 48 hours and only about 28% supported jackson. we closed the poll tuesday morning before this stuff fell out. and we posted hundreds of questions from the members they wanted to hear jackson answer today if they had the hearing. whoever the next nominee will be the eighth since 9/11 we have hundreds of questions from average veterans.

they have hard question frs the nominee and the american people. in the meantime, the american people can support organizations and local v.a. staff and the nonprofits. they are at the point of attack. the v.a. can't do it all even at its best. the this is time for america to send in reinforcements. >> thank you for keeping the faith and being a friend. coming up, all of the hugging and kissing aside. we'll show you what happened when the french president did get down to business today in washington. that and more when we continue.

it is 1778 and the french -- and benjamin franklin met in paris. skr john adams tells the story that after they shake hands they

embrace etch embrace each other by hugging each other and kissing each other's cheeks. >> french president emmanuel macron began his address to a joint meeting of congress today a wink in the nod towards the physicality with the relationship he developed with president trump. the at times over the top petting and pawing and hand holding came close to over shadowing, the reason from the gathering. from the iran nuclear deal and the paris climate accord. today, macron got down to business to remind the host, he is a the head of a power, nuclear nation and oldest alliance. standing in the house chamber with the senate in attendance. he made it clear he has significant disagreements with his host, president trump.

>> we are killing ouren planet. let's face it, there is no planet b. i'm sure, one day the united states will come back and join the paris agreement. there's an existing framework called the jcpoa to control the nouk lar activi nuclear activity of iran. we signed it at the initiative of the united states. we signed both the united states and france. that is why we cannot say we should get rid of it like that. to protect all democracies we have to fight against the every growing virus of fake news which exposes our people to irrational fear and imaginary risk. we have two possible ways ahead. we can choose isolationism,

withdraw, and nationalism but closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world. will not doubt but in flame the fears of our citizens. >> we have had a little fun with his accent. interesting opponent ask yourself when was the last time an american president spoke to the french legislature in french. president macron flew back to france and the big next guest is merkel on friday. it went over big with one republican political veteran, steve schmitt said it is perfectly clear that macron is the leader of the free world. trump vacated the job. that is lifelong republican steve schmitt. another break come up. proof that even president's get buyers remorse from time to time.

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one last thing before we go tonight, a reminder of what it takes to be president. let's start with a bigger than average sense of self. running for president means by definition at some point in your life you get up in the morning and look at the image looking back at you and say yeah, they need me. i'm the person for the job and to run the country but like most things in life, the job of

president sure looks different from the cheap seats. some of our presidents have really disliked the job and i'm looking at you william howard taft and others have complained and revelled in the job by being bad at it and on top of whatever else you want to say about this president, he seldoms misses an opportunity to point out how he seldom liked his job before he had this job. he did it again this week in relation to the white house doctor under siege and has done it before. >> i said to dr. jackson, what do you need it for? if i were him, i would love to be him. i wouldn't do it. what does he need it for? >> what advice would you give to the 25-year-old donald trump knowing what you know now? >> don't run for president. >> they treated me so good before i ran for president.

i am somebody who has given up a lot. my other life was very good. i had a very good life. i had a very good life. >> i loved my previous life. i had so many things going. i actually -- this is more work than my previous life. i thought it would be easier. i'm a detailed-oriented person. >> as doctors say our current president presenting with a possible case of president's remorse. good night from nbc head quarters from here in new york.

>> we have breaking news and damaging new allegations against the white house and the president picked to run the v.a. what happened with the officially for the record, he will plead the fifth in the stormy daniels case. we begin with the big news from the "washington post." with the report just about lawyer old that rudy giuliani, the president's new personal lawyer met yesterday with special counsel robert mueller in order to reopen negotiations for a presidential interview. according to three people familiar with the talks. at one time, at least according to this reporting, the president seemed keen to sit down with mueller and his investigators even telling reporters "i would love to do it." but trump reportedly soured on the idea early this month after federal investigators raided the offices and home of his closest associate and attorney mike cohen. according to "post," giuliani conveyed to mueller the ongoing resistance of trump and his advisers to an interview with