under trump's executive order. this is attorney banan al-akhras speaking as swileh landed at the san francisco airport. >> let's be clear. issuance of her visa this week was not an act of kindness on their part. the embassy and department of state had a legal obligation to adjudicate her request within a reasonable amount of time, and they failed on that obligation. result of that failure is that a dying two-year-old boy has suffered for the last two months without his mother by his side. an egyptian court has acquitted 40 ngo workers, including citizens from the us -- the u.s. and other countries after a retrial of a case dating back to 2013, when 43 people were arrested and convicted of illegally using foreign funds to stir up opposition to the former military government. many of the foreign defendants, including 15 americans, left egypt after posting bail in 2013 and were sentenced in absentia. at a christmas address at the vatican today, pope francis pledged that the catholic church will "never again" cover up

donald trump. all of this matters because if it's true, it could prove trump was seeking business with russia while moscow was secretly working to get him elected. and speaking of hotels, attorneys general for maryland and d.c. have filed a lawsuit and subpoenaed financial records from the trump organization and the trump international hotel in d.c. >> this is the most coveted piece of real estate in washington, d.c. the best location. >> reporter: the hotel plays host to foreign officials and leaders from around the world. the lawsuit suggests the president breached the emoluments clause of the constitution, which prohibits the president from accepting payments from foreign powers while in office. all said, at least five committees in congress now poised to probe the trump organization on everything trump's touched, including his yet to be released tax returns. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> thank you, randi. >>> next up, california's largest utility could face manslaughter, maybe murder charges fo

trump. in his opinion, the president should not be impeached. >> i hope donald trump is not removed from office by impeachment, because it would let the country off the hook. and it would drive into the fabric of our nation a third of the people believing there was a coup. >> a coup. is comey right or will democrats move full steam ahead? shimon properez is live with more. >> the president is the central figure in this investigation and the sdny here in new york, campaign finance investigation. he's the central figure in this. and it was michael cohen whose soul purpose in cooperating with the sdny. prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum, the reason they cooperate was to provide information on the campaign finance charges. there was nothing else they provided information with. and when you think about the way in which prosecutors explain that the president, individual number one, directed and coordinated with michael cohen in making these payments, also in the way that these payment

with trump, by which i mean, fighting trump with trump's own words, not with trump's vul garrett, not with trump's ugly brawling style, but with trump's own words. but nancy pelosi and chuck schumer have been in washington too long and have become far too professional to see how easy and clarifying it is to fight trump with trump's own words. they make the mistake of approaching oval office meetings with this president the way they would with any president. they put a serious proposal together for funding the government, and they brought it in to the office to discuss it seriously with a man who has no capacity to discuss anything seriously -- nothing. nancy pelosi and chuck schumer have not yet figured out how to publicly deal with the unserious man who is the president of the united states. and so they did not force donald trump to wrestle with his own words in the oval office today. they did not force him to say, mexico is not going to pay for the wall, and so i need ten democrats in the senate. instead, the president lied and said he could easily pass a bill through the republican

the trump organization, they got in t in. the trump family, they got in. the trump campaign, we know they got in there. how about the democrats' e-mail servers, they got into those. the clinton campaign e-mails? they got those. facebook? they got in through the front door there. the nra? they might have gotten in is this proof of collusion? perhaps not. does this mean donald trump won the election because of the russians? not at all. but it's remarkable how hard the russians seem to have worked to help a new york developer move to washington, d.c. we'll have more on the russian connections to the trump campaign in just a moment. i switched to liberty mutual because they let me customize my insurance, and as a fitness junkie, i customize everything. like my bike and my calves. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ so shark invented duo clean. while deep cleaning carpets, the added soft brush roll picks up large particles, gives floors a polished look, and fearlessly devour

day 692 of this trump administration, and today a man who was once central to donald trump's world and/or b orbit han sentenced to three years of prison time pleading guilty to what the judge called a veritable smorgasbord run by human greed and kbigs. michael cohen with tax evasion, lying to a financial institution, causing an unlawful corporation contribution, illegal campaign contributions and lying for donald trump. it includes a payment to two women. donald trump has denied the payments. michael cohen's family was looking on while saying, quote, i chose to participate in the elicit act of the president rather than listen to my own inner voice which should have warned me that the campaign finance violations that i pled guilty to were insidious. time and time again i felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass. my weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to donald trump. here is what that loyalty sounded like. >> he's more to us than just a boss. he's a mentor, he's a sage, he's like family. the words the m

the former trump attorney tried to set up a meeting between president putin and candidate trump. the allegations and revelations were so damning, a key person in the watergate scandal used the "i" word. >> the house is going to have little choice going other than to start impeachment proceedings. >> president trump ended the horrible very bad no good day the same way he started it sending robert mueller a thank you note, quote, totally clears the president, he wrote. thank you. joining me this hour, amy rocca from the southern district of new york. ali is a contributing op he had -- op-ed writer. let's take a step back here and look at some of the key developments from robert mueller over these past several months. we have a timeline here. let's start in august where president trump was hit with a double whammy while paul man na fort was found guilty on eight counts of fraud in virginia. michael cohen was pleading guilty to tax fraud and financial implications in a courtroom in new york. a few weeks later, there was a bombshell report that cohen agreed to plead guilty and coopera

according to reports, the trump campaign, the trump transition, the trump inauguration, the trump administration, the trump organization, and the trump foundation are all being probed for things ranging from campaign finance violations to accounting fraud. over the weekend another one of president trump's cabinet members was forced to resign under a cloud of ethics inquiries, setting another record for the president who has the most cabinet replacements by i first-term president in 100 years. if this were not enough, president trump and the republican trolled congress have just four days to avert a second shutdown of the u.s. ghochlt in just two years. and looming overall this is special counsel robert mueller's investigation. rudy giuliani, the president's out-front lawyer, insisted that his client will never speak to robert mueller now, never. let's watch. >> the special counsel does he want to interview the president? >> good luck. good luck, after what they did to flynn, trapped him in perjury -- >> when you say good luck, no way, no interview? >> they're a joke. over my dead body, but, i co

behavior that people in new york who know trump and have covered trump and written about trump have known for a long time. and one of the things that i continue to wonder about is if new york had been the meets ya center of the country, knew donald trump best and were unable to convey to the rest of the american people what he was really like. and they're finding about it now, unfortunately it's two years in and we're suffering the consequences as a result of that. he says ryan zinke has accomplished so far? like what? other than opening up drilling to an war, i'm not sure what he's accomplished. >> on that note, we talk about agencies that do dramatic things, who go about doing that in a way that's unchecked or unguarded. and i think you could put the interior department and all that's been accomplished into that camp. >> if you are looking for something great to read, michael lewis has a book about the inner workings of government agencies actually are are. but the point he makes very clearly, and it's so relevant now, is when government agencies don't work, when they're not overs

meanwhile, the trump children including donald trump jr. has given no less than three congressional testimonies. any of those can be compared against what michael cohen says to see or determine whether or not trump junior or any of the other trump children, if they've been giving testimony or speaking to congress, have been not telling the truth. that is something they should be very concerned about. >> there was a question as to why michael cohen didn't fully cooperate with the southern district of new york. in court yesterday he basically said it was because he wanted to sort of take the limelight off of his family, he wanted to get through this as quickly as possible. a, do you buy it? b, who is he trying to protect here and is there a possibility he could now make the decision to cooperate further with the southern district and get that sentenced reduced? >> first, there is a mechanism that allows defendanted who have already been sentenced to cooperate and get another sentence reduction. it's not something that's very commonly used. as

we have heard cnn report that trump said, i didn't know about the trump tower meeting in advance. we may get some real hints about that from manafort and cohen this week. >> what are you looking for? obviously, we're all looking for everything that everybody else is. what else are you looking for? >> i would zero in on the flynn document, as well. i think that is the black box and greatest unknown. we also have to say that president trump's reaction so for me going to be the key. when you -- when we see some of this information coming from the special counsel, we have seen him have flurries of insults, flurries of his most outlandish titter moments or moments that have sparked deep interest. so to me, it's going to be does the president turn on some of these allies he's held close to in the last year or is this the point where we see the president pull out the full arsenal against the special counsel. >> the president just praised roger stone and attacked michael cohen. stone, obviously, not cooperating. cohen cooperating. what do you want to know? >> look, if donald trump is the

we're not sure exactly what trust, but it could be a trump family trust which don junior and eric trump are involved with. >> it could be a number of different venues here, but the idea here, you know, there's a famous saying that says, b "everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face." at the time that the david pecker and ami first learned about this being in the news, their plan was to talk about this being a 1st amendment issue. the reason they were going to quash the story, they had a 1st amendment right to do so. using journalistic discretion to say we quashed and killed the story because we didn't want to run it. now you have the question of what the figurative punching in the face that led them to, one, get an immunity deal and change their story away from we were exercising our journalistic endeavors and discretion here, and instead, say we did it, not only with the knowledge of somebody who was a part of the campaign -- >> right. >> -- or an agent, but also we did it for the expressed purpose of trying to help this candidate gain office. you have to buwup to wonder w

they're standing up to president trump. he won't get funding for his wall and it's commented by his spons sibility. >> democrats work on a hill two blocks from here. "trump's down in marijuana. is that an advantage? >> i don't know. it will create, as you said in the beginning, sort of a video situation in which it will look like he is insensitive. the democrats are in a situation where this is a symbol to them too, right? he made the wall a ten yent of their campaign. the truth of the matter is sarah huckabee sanders said we night to eval u because because of enurged that is -- >> what good is building 1.6 of a building? why waste even a dollar on a wall that's not going to be completed. >> as you were saying before, it's a largely symbolic arrangement. it's almost god like or you don't. i think one of the problem here and i was looking back at the trump book:art of the deal. you're supposed to make these gr grandiose table, 11:13 functioning. there's nowhere to go. this is the government. this is the country. i r you can'

did the trump campaign conspire with russians to try and violate federal law and then did president trump, while president, obstruct justice trying to cover it up? that's what the real focus is on. none of this cohen stuff -- none of this "national enquirer" stuff that really bears on that, i think. in the end, that's where we want to see mueller and the president come to a close. i am so convinced i've said to you before, the best thing for the president to do is to sit down and have an interview on live television. it will get the highest readings in the history of mankind, the president will love that. to answer the questions, and for mueller to make his report. i don't see anything here that would be -- >> harris: that would be fascinating, trying to keep him gated in terms of that on live television prepeople would watch it. i don't know if it would get as much as you would want to get out of it. john you, thank you very much. i'll be right back. >> thanks, george woke up in pain. but he has plans today. hey dad. so he took aleve. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pill

donald trump. all of this matters because if it's true it could prove trump was seeking business with russia, while moscow was secretly working to get him elected. and speaking of hotels, attorneys general for maryland and d.c., have filed a lawsuit and subpoenaed financial records from the trump organization and the hotel in d.c. >> this is the most coveted piece of real estate in washington, d.c., the best location. >> reporter: the hotel plays host to foreign officials and leaders from around the world. the lawsuit suggests the president breached the clause that prohibited the president from accepting payment from foreign powers while in office. all said, five committees in congress now poised to probe the trump organization on everything that trump's touched, including his yet-to-be released tax returns. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >>> the daughters of a new york podiatrist say their father diagnosed donald trump with bone spurs in 1968 as a favor to trump's father, fred. now, according to "the

whether it's donald trump jr. and the trump tower meeting. whether it's the financial issues involved with manafort and others and the president himself. so either you believe that these 16 people are the biggest idiots in the world and had no idea that they were getting played or you believe this was -- the russians could not believe how great this was. because they found 16-plus people who were willing to play with them and they had something of course on donald trump, which is his financial desires regarding trump moscow. you know, it was a win-win for those two parties and a total loss for the american public. >> i know you want to get in but i just want to get greg in. this list includes two of trump's children, his son-in-law, his long-time personal lawyer, campaign chairman. is there any way that these meetings and conversations were happening without trump's blessing? >> well, i mean, it's hard to fathom that his inner circle and as you say his closest parts of his inner circle would do things that they thought might go against their

of trump. you will instantly hear the trump from who you want to hear from. >> i built a great company. you don't build companies like that unless have you the right temper meant. republicanning want to -- republicans want to protect medicare for the seniors who are earned it and paid for it all their lives. >> wow, that makes sense. >> women's unemployment has just fallen to 3.6% which is only the lowest rate in 65 years. i'm sorry. >> wow, that's a good point. >> the elite, the elite, why are they elite? i have a much better apartment than they do. [ laughter ] >> i'm smarter than they are. i'm richer than they are. >> how does obama come up with this stuff? >> get your trump blockers today. >> i love my trump blockers. even when i'm not wearing them, there's one side effect. you hey, jimmy, how was your weekend? >> the end of the week i meet with china, i meet with a lot of other countries that have not treated us too well but we're doing extremely well. >> see what i mean? hey, cat, looking

president trump: we need border security. we all agree we need border security. >> we have a disagreement about the wall. president trump: the wall is part of border security. >> we are coming in good faith to keep the government open. >> experts say you can do border security without a wall. president trump: i'm proud to shut down the government for border security. the people of this country don't want people with lots of problems and drugs pouring into our country. liz: the dow turned south after a knock down-brag out with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. the president says he's willing to shut down the government if he doesn't get funding for the border wall. new data. illegal immigration across the southern border hitting the highest level in a decade. gallup estimating 158 million people from around the world want to come to the united states. that's equal to the entire population of russia. and in some central american countries, nearly half the population want to leave with u.s. the goal. and to the media meltdown over

and three times visited the elder trump at trump tower. on one visit, not long before donald trump declared his candidacy, goldstone says trump was there listening to a rap song. >> he said look, 90 million views. a rapper called matt miller, who recently passed away. has recorded this song. it has 90 million views. and it is about me ♪ take over the world. >> and i said to him, do you think you maybe should listen to the words and what they're saying about you perhaps, just an idea. ♪ look at all this money. >> and he went, it doesn't matter. 90 million views. and then the third time we went, we said to emin, maybe next time i see you, i will be hosting you at the white house. >> but before there was trump in the white house, there was trump the candidate. and the next time goldstone set foot in trump tower would be when he arrived for the meeting. coming up -- >> i get a phone call and he said to me initially i would like you to set up a meeting with the trumps. ke you to set ug with the trumps. the clock is ticking on irreversible j

what do you think of trump? for trump, you blame democrats. against trump, you're going to blame republicans. low 40% in the polls. somewhere around 50% disapproval. polling will probably line up with that. >> steve, the bigger issue, the reason for the shutdown is because of this wall and going hard line on immigration. we recall right before the midterms he dug in on immigration there too. warns about the caravan. starts warning about all the people will come invade the country and bring in drugs and diseases, all that stuff. it failed m eed massively. something like nine percentage points democrats won the popular vote and 40 house members lost their seats. it was a losing strategy then. why does he think it will be a winning strategy now? bearing down on the base did not work for him then. why would it work now particularly shutting down the government? >> the base was waiting for the wall. that was the promise. the promised land and donald trump hasn't delivered on that with both chambers of congress for the past two years. what happened,

some had trump flags. certainly i don't think it's worth chastizing junior soldiers for being excited for their commander in chief being there. but it is department of defense regulation that there is a department of defense regulation that forbids such paraphernalia being exhibited while in uniform. this really crossed that line pretty openly. and if i had to guess, some senior officers got chewed out and embarrassed last night because of this. and when senior officers get chewed out and embarrassed, that means some noncommissioned officers are laying down hard, clear guidance to those junior personnel and that's probably been going on all day there at al assad air force base in iraq. >> and talk about norms aside because at the end of the day that was behavior. it was our own troops. i want to go to my friend rob who has been a great tutor to me on all things military related and talk to him about what donald trump's proposed shift in strategy means if he wants to prosecute the war on isis from iraq inst

trump won the election. so, you know, whether or not that was a result of these ads or russian propaganda, i don't think we'll know. but certainly both sides got the outcome that they were looking for. >> josh, mark, thank you. i appreciate your time. >>> according to these reports, bernie sanders supporters were specifically targeted by the internet research agency and encouraged to stay home instead of voting for hillary clinton in the general election. bernie sanders' former press secretary, symone sanders, reacts next. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again! >>> the reports commissioned by the senate intelligence committee sh

is this not just donald trump being donald trump? is it maybe some sort of bigger thing. rage tweetsi intwaet tweeting i phrase we used. >> he's gone up to 11 and then it's 12 and 13 in the subsequent week. there's no ceiling on his outrage and ability to avoid real news and be self-obsessed with the mueller investigation. >> which is not to eliminate the reality this is somebody under a lot of pressure. >> i think fst the sign ofit's pressure. he said michael cohen has pleadsed guilty to crimes that has nods to do with him. absolutely wrong. he's pleaded guilty with two crimes that have a lot to do with donald trump. one is the payoff from stormy daniels. he pointed to trump as a co co-conspirator. it's possible that in the memo that comes out today that maybe more details on both of those crimes that will make trump look bad. that's one reason to be upset. he seems to think that mueller is coming out with this grand final report that may not happy. mueller is not obligated to do anything. he's doing what he does best. >> it is fair to say the president is not having a g

if you look at it from defending trump or believing trump has done something wrong, once you get to whitaker, now nobody can trust what's happened. and that's the great tragedy of the whitaker and also the bar appointments. >> cynthia, that's actually joyce's argument in a new piece she has up to slate about william barr, the president's nominee for attorney general. and, joyce, you say that the integrity of the justice department is indeed at stake with the appointment of william barr. and this is a view that i have heard from some former bush 41 individuals who served alongside william barr saying that it was actually a master stroke for donald trump to appoint barr at the moment he did right after h.w.'s funeral, and he managed to creep in some of the good publicity and good will that was more -- should more be towards h.w. than barr himself. and so can you talk us through that argument? >> i think cynthia captures it just right when she says it's a tragedy. and the problem that we face is that, you know, barr had a great reputation as an attorney general. he's someone who democrats could

manafort attended the june 2016 meeting at trump tower with donald trump jr. and a russian lawyer who offered dirt on hilary clinton but never delivered. his time on the campaign coincided with russian hackers' efforts to steal democratic party and clinton campaign e-mail, eventually distributing them publicly. manafort was the campaign manager when they back off the stance to provide information. now with the deal called off, prosecutors are taking off the gloves and manafort could even face more criminal charges. manafort's lawyers plan to hold more talks with the special counsel in the next few weeks to negotiate what happens next. both sides will be back in court on january 25th for a hearing, at which point it is possible that mueller's team could call witnesses and even present evidence about how paul manafort allegedly lied. but, of course, until then we will be left wondering about the exact details of manafort's alleged lies. wolf. >> good point. jessica, thanks very much. jessica schneider reporting. >>> let's bring in our senior justice corresponden

guest: i don't think there is a trump hotel in china. host: trump ties being made in china. things made in china. guest: his critics have pointed out when you go into trump tower there is a gift shop to buy souvenirs. you turn them over and of this tie is made in china. products like that are more efficient and inexpensive to manufacture. that is part of the issue of the 2 economies. the economies are so inter-blended. the so-called global production chain. it is difficult to re -source. many companies are doing it now, going to indonesia and india, for manufacturing. a couple went into ivanka t rump's boutique in beijing. ivanka is very popular in china. with's a biography of her her smiling face looking very beautiful on the front cover. positive.book is the idea has been raised in american politics chelsea clinton will someday run against ivanka trump for president. who will win? they think ivanka will defeat chelsea. this is the image we have. the supply chain is part of it. they are very proud so many american products are made in china. host: grand rapids, michigan. ca

new details overnight about the trump organization's plan to build a trump tower in moscow. president putin's press secretary telling nbc news new details about direct communications between michael cohen, who is donald trump's personal attorney, and the kremlin, saying there were inquiries made to the russian government, and then all of a sudden, they stopped. >> this is different. this is from the lawyer -- >> for us, it's not different. >> it's future president trump. >> huh? >> this is from a lawyer to the future president trump. >> this is different. for you, he is future president trump. for us, it's one of the applicants. >> nbc news has asked michael cohen and the trump organization for comment, but we have not heard back yet. on thursday, there was that blockbuster announcement, michael cohen had reached a plea deal with robert mueller's team after lying to lawmakers. the special counsel's office was looking into whether the lies or the cover-up were connected to an attempt by donald trump to secure a real estate deal in russia back in june of 2016. that is somethin

donald trump? no. is he a role model for my sons? absolutely not. >> the widespread information across numerous social media platforms taking place over several years with a damning conclusion, quote, all of the messagi messaging clearly sought to benefit the republican party and president trump. >>> it's now suggested president trump is being persecuted by his political enemies but with more than a dozen investigations under way, it seems almost everything donald trump has ever touched has become a legal liability. first i want to explain exactly where we are and give you an overview of what we're talking about. by one account there are as many as 17 investigations surrounding donald trump, his family, his businesses, his campaign and his presidency. and remember, there's going to be way more when the democrats teak over the house in just two and a half weeks. it is not surprising the president is feeling a whole lot of pressure. he lashed out with a tweet storm on sunday slamming michael cohen, j

the feed back loop between trump and fox, trump and talk radio is as strong as ever because as he plays to the base more and more, that's his way of knowing what the base apparently cares about. >> yeah, and so every lawmaker i have had on who's been confident, right, about the shut down, i'm like are you sure, the president. i ask, oh, yeah, we're sure. i'm like, okay. because we know. and you say the same thing. you have been saying that. you said it on this show, didn't you. >> i said it on the show, donald trump could have his head turned by conservative media. donald trump said he was going to step up and sign the bill, there was huge backlash, saying he shouldn't do this, and at that point in time, he said i'm never doing this again, i hate this bill. what we saw this week, it's not only ann coulter and the problem is that as brian says, there is this universe that talks to itself, which fox news has been at the center of, and donald trump is the first time there's been a prominent republican elected official who comes from that world. donald trump used to be on contract on fox ne

trump. he directed me as i said in my elocution and i said as well smt plea, he directed me to make the payments. he directed me to become involved in these meters. >> he was trying to hide what you were doing, correct? >> correct. >> and he knew it was wrong? >> of course. >> and he was doing that to help his election? >> yes, he was very concerned about how this would affect the election. >> to help his campaign. >> to help him and the campaign. >> all right, so you heard it there, cohen making it absolutely clear. two key claims. one, trump directed the payments. it builds on nbc reporting that trump was in fact in the room with cohen and the national enquirer david pecker discussing those hush money payments during the campaign. and the second cohen claim is that trump knew it was illegal. and here's the potentially damaging news for trump today. new audio emerging from 2012 showing that trump was indeed familiar with the relevant campaign financial laws. specifically it features trump d

trump's inaugural committee and to the trump invesgatioorgn. we have a "wall street journal" poll on th the president's honesty. >> plus, obamacare struck down. a texas judge rules for republicans that the individual mandate without a tax is unconstitutional and the law must go. >> big ruling. great ruling for our country. 'l be able to get great health care. rats vow to appeal and the case appears headed to the supreme court. my guest this morning, senate minority leader chuck schumer of new york and roy blunt of missouri and democratic congressman adam schiff of telifornia. >>> also, that wouse showdown over a government shutdown. it's trump versus pelosi and schumer. >> i will shut down the government, absolutely. >> we disagree. we disagree. >> i am proud to shut down the government for border security.s >> is preview of the battles to come?me join for insight and an ysis are "washington post" columnist eugene robinson, katy tur, host of msnbc live and david brody and eliana johnson. national political reporter for politico. welcome to sund

you know, the trump organization, the trump family, the trump inauguration, the trump transition, the trump white house, the trump foundation are all being investigated for various shades of wrongdoing. you know, even though this stuff has been known for a long time, the value of david art reporting in all this reminds us of how remarkably craven the president has been in these various walks of life that he's inhabited. you know, let's not forget that one of the events that the attorney general pointed to was an alleged fund-raiser, a purported fund-raiser that trump held in iowa in 2016 in which he had military veterans on the stage with him. he was raising funds ostensibly to help out vets. and he staged that event as an alternative to appearing at a debate in 2016. one of the presidential debates. and we have yet to get a full accounting for how the money was spent that trump raised during that event, and that ostensibly went into the trump foundation. >> and what did donald trump tweet when the new york state attorney general first started moving on this case? he tweeted, i won't

that's trump. trump has an instinctive sense of how to protect himself and how the people around him, by and large, are the ones to take the hit. brian: you mentioned newhouse. what was his role at that time ago -- time? peter: the very important newhouse family owned random house at the time. they owned the new yorker and so on. they owned gq. most of the glamorous magazines. brian: so there was a power base he could say, i want donald trump on the cover of gq. peter: he owned it. in addition to which, trump was immensely flattered. he was immensely flattered to meet si newhouse and to have newhouse come to his office and say, i want to be your publisher. as far as i know, there were only two books that he personally brought into the house. one was trump and the other was the writer norman mailer. random house put him on a monthly salary. very little is known about si. that's the kind of man he was. what he was responsible in so many ways -- for vanity fair, the new yorker, he had random house all

trump crossing the rubicon. this was, as one historian said, this was basically jacksonians in the trump coalition rising up and saying enough. >> you know, one of the surprises of the past two years has been the willingness of top republicans, including congressional republicans, to accept president trump's provocative rhetoric and some of his outrageous statements in the interest of policies that they supported, but i wonder if at this point we're going to see changes especially in the senate with republicans. we heard that from pat too many. >>> he yesterday on "meet the press," a more critical tone. the other thing that's going to change as we go into this new year, of course, is democratic control of the house which gives the opportunity and, in fact, the inevitability of a kind of congressional oversight we haven't seen in the past two years. it's about to begin. i wonder if president trump's behavior over the last few weeks represents him kind of girding his base against two things that's going to happen,

, according to trump alert -- the trump alert bot on twitter, he unfollowed ann coulter. i mean, the base is revolting, at least the greed. >> when he unfollows ann coulter you know it's serious, but issue is his base is right. this is an essential promise that he's made, and the white house has said this is an essential promise, but how does he deliver now? now maybe there was a way to deliver on this earlier on, but this election, before you had a lame duck congress, but now how do you deliver on this when you know that democrats are going to take over the house in february? what leverage does the president have? i think right now it seems like what the white house do is show that the president is doing everything that he can. he's throwing down a marker and then he can kind of say maybe democrats, they just wouldn't give it to me, but he's still going have to deal with the fact why don't you have a wall after two years of republicans controlling the house, the senate and you in the white house? >> so, you know, this reminds me of obama with closing gitmo. he wanted to

is the trump/putin bromance over? after president trump snubbed the russian leader at this weekend's g20 summit, calling off a bilateral meeting last minute, claiming it's because russia seized several ukrainian military boats and 24 sailors, snarky comments from vladimir putin. >> translator: we've had two small boats, gifts from the u.s. to the ukrainians that couldn't pass through the strait. >> reporter: despite the fact that the boats were not an american gift to ukraine and the white house saying the meeting was cancelled to show vladimir putin that the seizure of the ships was unacceptable, kremlin-controlled media going into attack mode. tv programs that until recently called the president trump nash or our trump now ripping into the u.s. president. >> translator: what kind of person is this? at first he says it's happening. then it's not happening. so we should do what? wait till he gets re-elected and only then we can start communicating with america again? what kind of stupidity is this? seems like this per

in problems related to the trump business and the trump campaign and the trump presidency. but now this is different because the special counsel is telling a court that the family's involvement is relevant to at least one indictment, as michael cohen discussed his status and progress of that moskow project with individual one, donald trump, and quote, briefed family members of individual one within the company about the project. shortly after this plea deal was revealed then reported multiple sources asserting that ivanka trump and donald trump, jr. were also working to make donald trump moskow a reality. another source saying that questions have been asked on trump tower moscow. joining me now a former district attorney for the southern district of new york, and joyce vance, a former northern district attorney. what do you see as legally important for the family? >> i think you can put it into three different tran were -- tranches, ari. you've got the big unknown, which is what their role was in what we've been calling collusion. and your right to point out that michael co

trump, and remember, almost all of them never expected trump to win. so they were trying to use a moment when they could to advance their own personal interests. at least that's, to me, the theory that is most plausible to try to explain this pretty deep, complex web of contacts. >> yeah, that's an important point that we need to keep repeating. julia, i know you traveled recently to russia. is this the talk of the town? the mueller matter? >> you know, it's actually hard to be up right now. i'm about eight hours ahead. >> oh, boy. so you just came back. >> yes. but it actually -- you know, i agree with mike, i think that on both sides, there is a very good nose for opportunity, and both sides are very short on scruples. so it was sort of a match made in heaven. as for whether moscow is talking about this, they're not. you know, if you see mueller's name floated in the news, in the state news, it is about how crazy he is. you see it kind of mirroring the witch hunt narrative you see on fox news or you see recently news items that donald trump might be

, the trump campaign and the trump administration and also this belief that donald trump himself can never fail. he can only be betrayed or undermined. >> yeah. >> the buck never stops with donald trump and you're going to see that theme a lot. >> you know, gabe, i'm curious to see again how long the fox news establishment, roger aisles w -- roger ales was very good at that. rush limbaugh it was the same thing. they're coming after you, they, that amorphous they is out to get you. fox news did hire some people who still want to be journalists, right? >> yeah. >> chris wallace who often is in that pivot position of being doing conservative tv but also doing journalism, here he is again. i wonder how long this kind of thing can survive. take a listen. >> michael flynn, president says, you know, mueller says he lies. flynn said he didn't lie but what he neglects to mention is that the president fired him three weeks after he became the national security advisor. why did he fire him? for lying. so the president fired the man for lying who he's now defending against lying. >> i'm always d

president trump. they are mr. trump's former lawyer. >> you obviously realized it was coming from the office of the candidate -- of a candidate of presidency. >> every week dozens and dozens are approaching this. mentioning possible investments, searching for contacts. >> this is from the lawyer. >> for us it's not different. >> but a future president trump. >> this is from the lawyer to the future president trump. >> this is different. >> for you he's a future president trump. for us it's one of the advocates. i mean you to understand that. you to understand that. we have an e-mail address that is public. dozens are coming every week from businessmen and from where ever. because they become formized ill is worth knowing they are denying any kind of contact with the organization, any kind of business contact. here you have someone like him who is in the creme len talking so -- such a relaxed way that. >> thank you for chairing that with us. we have reached out to trump's attorneys for comment. joining

trump elected president. last week he admitted covering up trump's ongoing effort to build trump tower moscow. before that, he admitted to illegally paying off trump's alleged mistresses to keep them quiet before election day. that's a lot of trump-related crime. remember, michael cohen is far from trump's only problem. tomorrow robert mueller is scheduled to file a memo regarding former trump national security advisor michael flynn. remember him? he pleaded guilty to lying about contacts with the russian government. in the memo they're going to file in court, we will all see information about any bad acts flynn committed for which he was not charged and details about his cooperation with the special counsel. senior u.s. official tells nbc news that memo will be made public with possible redactions or an addendum filed under seal. then on friday, we're going to get another detailed memo from mueller. this one explaining why mueller's office pulled out of a plea agreement with former trump campaign chair paul

motivation for donald trump. but i think anyone that works with the trump organization knows that all you have to do is show up with a sack of cash and plop it on his desk and he'd do business with you. that's how trump university got started, how he got soho built. clearly one of the pieces of information for prosecutors is felix seder. nonetheless, these sort of statements in that document get to the kind of horse trading that people are curious about. why did donald trump treat vladimir putin with kid gloves in helsinki? what did they talk about when they met alone in helsinki? what was trump going to get beyond, you know, just getting elected president if he was going to try to engineer the lifting of sanctions against russia? money is an obvious answer. and i think it's even more important in the context of what we know about the run-up to the general election, which is that trump didn't think he was going to win. and none of the people around him thought they were going to win. everybody in the trump univer

zero interaction between donald trump and the clintons or for that matter trump and the carters. phillip rucker of the "washington post" describes the tableau this way. "trump took his seat on the aisle next to his wife, with three past presidents and first ladies seated to her side. first was the president trump said was illegitimate, barack obama. then the first lady he called a profligate spender of taxpayer dollars, michelle obama. then the president he called the worst abuser of women, bill clinton. then the first lady and secretary of state he said should be in jail, hillary clinton. and then the president he said was the second worst behind obama, jimmy carter, and his wife rosalynn. put it this way. it was a cloudy, somber day in d.c. and there was no shortage of shade in that front row. with us for more, kimberly atkins, washington bureau chief for the "boston herald." sabrina siddiqui, political reporter for "the guardian." good evening and welcome to you both. kimberly, i want to start with graciousness and a clip i want to show you that's already been around the world

who helped trump are going down now. do we want a candidate who & going to have a reckoning after this administration or trying to put the pieces back together? i think that's the fundamental fight of the primary season. >> one thing that i think we have learned from the past two, three elections is that voters want someone who speaks to them. voters want to feel you're authentic. i thought it was notable that president trump referenced beto o'rourke from the white house. take a listen to what he said earlier this week. >> also congratulations on your race. you won easily. now he's running for president. i thought you were supposed to win before you ran for president. >> he was talking to ted cruz there and that's a reference -- >> the least experienced candidate in the history of america who won nothing is saying oh -- it's just this is the kind of infuriating stuff that again the primary season needs to sort out. either you'll have a candidate who reacts to donald trump, like okay, well, or have a candidate saying figh

this is about trump. trump listens to trump. you know what? there's nothing wrong with that, but trying to find a good fit for chief of staff that the president is going to listen to i think is outrageous. >> the premise of my point is that nick ayers does understand politics. and what we know throughout his historic, trump likes to win. if that means listening to someone who will give him that advantage, i think he likely will. >>> last word to peter emerson. your thoughts on nick or anybody else. even the name jared kushner was once bandied about as a potential chief of staff, because based on what noelle is saying, at least president would listen to, he's been proven to listen to his son-in-law over the years. >> a big issue about pence and what did he know. a theory having been in washington last week since pence and ayers were involved in the transition and know everything that went on and are vulnerable. another set of opinions believe because pence and ayers were close to trump in the campaign they understood they needed to step aside a

this is from the lawyer to the future president trump. >> for you he's the future president trump. for us it's one of the applicants. you have to understand that. you have to understand that we have an open e-mail address that is public and dozens and dozens of applications are coming every week from businessmen, from -- well, whatever. lots of people from all over the world. >> i asked him, ayman, what happens as time went on? he says that, quote, they just disappeared. but these contacts are from the trump organization just disappeared. the question for many people, of course, is that a true reflection of what happened or there were other contact, were there other communications through 2016? is it really the case that the communication over the potential for a trump you toer in moscow just stopped? >> keir simmons live for us in argentina. it's not that often we hear from russian officials. good for you on getting that sound. let's bring in my panel. kevin, david corn, washington bureau chief. also the co-author of "russian roulette". ben is the editor in chief and senior fellow

trump. that's significant. >> that's such a significant point you raise because there's been a lot of this that's boiled down to black and white where people wrongfully think, well, do you go after a sitting present for obstruction or not if that's the only thing and where does that go? but, in fact, as you eludegh bo into the record and into court, the two keep people, the campaign chair and the long-time personal lawyer, both actively came in and lied to him. one of them got blown up over it, paul manafort, the other tried to dial it back, michael cohen. then the question becomes, who knew about it at the white house, who knew about that? did other lawyers know about that? fraud is going to come into play if you had lawyers or others at the white house committing new criminal conspiracies. that's implicated in here. to say nothing of the campaign finance crime. i want to thank nancy very much. i may come back to each of you in our rolling coverage. i want to bring in neil. a striking deal

the trump tax cut, would you repeal the trump tax cuts? >> i would repeal the trump tax cut, yeah. i think it's clear that that tax cut was intended to benefit super wealthy folks and also corporations. it doesn't do anything for the middle class. what we see now are jobs that the president promised would come to the united states. in fact, we're losing jobs i think in part because of that tax cut and also because the president has played a reckless game and engaging in trade wars with different countries without thinking it through. so yes, i would repeal that tax cut and i also believe that we need an approach that is more sensible when it comes to making sure that we protect american jobs. >> on the trade war that you just referred to, the trump tariff, these are actually illegal tariffs that the president is using a clause in tariff law that says for national security reasons only the president can unilaterally change tariffs. he is using that against canada for which there's obviously no national security issue, and so what would you do about the trump tariffs? >> well, i thin

we talked about the trump foundation, trump organization. let's not forget what happened right before trump went into office. he had to pay $25 million for defrauding people for trump u. what he did basically he took this criminal enterprise, the way he was running his business, nobody paid attention to it before until now, he's president, now everyone is paying attention to him because he's being vetted now, not before. and we're seeing how that is all playing out. >> he's being vetted now. >> we're doing vetting and so have the reporters at the table. let me ask you, there's a new, equally aggressive, some might say more aggressive, attorney general in the united states. what's on the horizon for the trump organization, trump foundation, all of the trump entities from her perspective? >> it's really interesting. letisha james is the newly elected new york attorney general. she told nbc the other day she has a really ambitious plan to investigate trump's businesses, which are all located in new york state. that includes the trump foundation

is trump ready, is the trump white house ready for what's about to hit it? >> what type of chief of staff does the trump administration need right now considering what it's facing. >> a former military chief of staff didn't work, former political operative didn't work with reince priebus. >> trump should name trump white house chief of staff. >> it seems like that's who has been the chief of staff. >> it's the one person he is routinely happy w i said that only half-jokingly. he was frustrated with reince priebus who was the first chief of staff, frustrated with kelly, he often gets frustrated with his staff. he essentially operates as his own chief of staff, his own communications director. different times people in the white house have speculated maybe he doesn't need a chief of staff, everything else is unorthodox, why not use a new structure. >> with the democrats taking control of the house a lot of people are saying you need somebody like mark meadows as a possible chief of staff. >> thank you very much. we will see you on "morning joe" in just a bit.