i've given the letter to senator lindsey graham. he has the letter and i think frankly, i assume he's going to give the letter out but it says i am not

do you agree with senator lindsey graham? >> well, what i've said in the past is that we like the fact that with the intelligence committee we've taken a bipartisan approach. we respect the members on that committee. we'll listen to what they have to say and we'll respond after they've made their decisions. that decision and the investigation itself being held by that particular committee, which as i say has the respect of the united states senate, i think is a positive thing. if senator graham in going back to the intelligence committee makes that recommendation and they adopt it, we'll support their decision. >> senator mike rounds, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, sir. >> right now the vice president mike pence is weighing in on the future of health care here in the united states. he's meeting with the republican senators as we speak. he's also planning on making a weekly visit. this is part of his weekly visit to capitol hill. phil mattingly and joining us now. what are you learning about the vice president's

and what lindsey graham says is, look, the president himself is very loyal. that's a quote, very loyal to flynn, and the white house needed to build this case. what's your read on that? >> well, first of all, i have a lot of loyal friends, too, from high school and everything else. it doesn't mean i put them in as national security adviser, okay? so, i don't think there's any excuse for leaving him in for 18 days, and most specifically, two days after they were formally warned three times by the acting attorney general, including two formal meetings, they put him on a call with the president and vladimir putin for an hour. and so, it makes no sense to me when you see a foreign power that is trying to influence our democracy, our intelligence agents have told them this. we've heard that president obama, there have been reports yesterday, warned him about this at the meeting. so, there is this loyalty, but sometimes you have to put your country in front of the loyalty to your friends and your supporters, and this certainly is one of those times. >> so, the pres

lindsey graham nixed the idea. his own colleague saying this is not the time whose been in elective office. so it's a precarious situation that the president is in. it again, those that care about it, more people say that they think he did it because of russia than because of the clinton e-mail scandal. that also is something that is growing out there. but there is one -- the only -- you could take heart in that his people are still with him. >> long, the audition for his job has been going on over at the white house, and the president says that he plans to make an announcement sooner than later and really when you talk about the possible picks, he could go two ways -- >> right. >> right. >> look, he could go the political way, but yeah, even lindsey graham saying don't do it. good things about john cornen, don't do it, i think that's a signal that he's sending the president on that. look, i think you're going to see more graham's calling for an fbi -- somebody that has experience in the fbi. chuck schumer on show

guest: lindsey graham is reflecting the views of a substantial number of public and senators. frustrated with the way the president is commenting on the investigation into the russian interference. lindsey graham is sending a signal to the president that he could be a major problem for him if he does not stop intervening in this delicate area. host: how would you describe the white house indications strategy communications strategy in the past six days? what do you hear in the white house briefing room? guest: if you really want to hear why -- i laughed because it uses the word "strategy." what happened was that about 98% of that white house press shop learned about the james comey decision by learning -- looking up at the television. shawn spicer and the communications director, they had about one hours notice. there was no strategy, no plan. the president does not care, friendly. he thinks they are -- does not care, frankly. he thinks they are incompetent and that they had enough time to line up people to go on air and defend him. he was trashing shawn spicer privately throu

fellow republican lindsey graham disagreed with that. take a listen. >> john cornyn is a wonderful man under normal circumstances would be a sur person choice to be fbi director. these are not normal circumstances. we have a chance to reset as a nation. the president has a chance to clean up the mess he mostly created. james comey has declined to testify tomorrow. according to "new york times" he is willing to testify, but wants it tote be public. perfect timing for lindsey graham who said this on chuck todd, meet the press. >> need to have comey come before the judiciary committee and clear the air. did the president ever say anything to the director of the fbi that would be construed of trying to impede the investigation. the president called me about the firing and referenced the comey testimony last week and judiciary committee about how bad it was. that's all i know. it's time to call the fbi director before the country at large and explain what happened at the dinner. >> the dinner is significant considering it happened just two da

that was lindsey graham. so with former fbi director robert mueller taking over the investigation, how will that impact the other ongoing investigations in congress? is congress side lined? let's break it down with, let's break down what the appointment of a special counsel or prosecutor means. one of the lead prosecutors during watergate and he served on the bipartisan 9/11 commission. special counsel versus independent commission. what is the difference? >> a special counsel is far more powerful in the sense that a special counsel is in the same position as the attorney general of the united states for could not this investigation. mr. mueller will have at his resources the fbi, he will have the benefit of everything that has been investigated to this point. he will have such agents as he needs, resources, he will have a staff among prosecutors who are now in government as well as others who he will bring into the fold. the task of the independent, rather, the special counsel, is to investigate and then if

senator lindsey graham talking to reporters. an interesting had distinction he's making between what the investigation by congress would look at versus the investigation from robert mueller as special counsel. our chief legal correspondent is with us. what do you make of that? >> senator graham just made some news there. this is what we would call hearsay because he is describing what mr. rosenstein briefed in a closed session. an unusual closed briefing from the senate. we have heard from trump's defenders and the president that this is a counter intel inquiry. what lindsey graham just said, that it is more like a criminal inquiry. and a report he said does that mean it is one? and he said mr. rosenstein didn't go that far. so that's not great news for trump. it is not any kind of confirmation of who the targets are and how domestic it is. but that is news. >> you say that it doesn't, the outcome, if writ counter intelligence and someone broke certain laws, it would make it criminal. >> if you have american citizens working for

but senator lindsey graham tells chuck todd on "meet the press" that may not be necessary. >> let the process work. i promise the people of south carolina, the people of the united states i do care about this. i'm got nobody to punish and nobody to reward other than get to the facts. >> some americans do not agree with lindsey graham. in that new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll it shows a very large number, 78%, believe an independent commission or special prosecutor should handle the russia investigation. only 15% want congress to lead that process. lawmakers may be divided on a special prosecutor, as you have heard but they agree on the resume of the next fbi director. take a listen. >> i think it's time to pick somebody that comes from within the ranks or is such a reputation that has no political background at all. >> certainly somebody not of a partisan background. certainly somebody of great experience and certainly somebody of courage. >> let's bring in jonathan allen, columnist for "roll call" and co-author of "shattered, inside hillary clinton's doomed campaign." we also

that was a view held by south carolina senator lindsey graham today. he was talking about one of his colleagues, john cornyn of texas, a senator who had also been a judge, who is one of those being interviewed, and here's what graham had to say about the kind of person president trump should pick. >> john cornyn is a wonderful man under normal circumstances would be a superb choice to be fbi director, but these are not normal circumstances. we got a chance to reset here as a nation. the president has a chance to clean up the mess that he mostly created. he really, i think, did his staff a disservice by changing the explanation, so i would encourage the president to pick somebody we can all rally around, including those who work in the fbi. >> reporter: now, another figure on this list of eight is mike rogers, the former chairman of the house intelligence committee, former representative republican of michigan. he left congress a handful of years ago, and he has been selected by the fbi agents association. they represent 13,000 current and former fbi ag

>> yeah, in fact, i just sent a letter from lindsey graham from one of the most prestigious law firms in the country. a tremendous, highly ritted law firm, that i have nothing to do with russia. i have no investments in russia, none whatsoever. i don't have property in russia. a lot of people thought i owned office buildings in moscow. i don't have property in russia, and i am in very -- i'm in total compliance in every way. i have to tell you, i file documents, hundreds of pages worth of documents with the federal elections bureau. everyone's seen them. i built a great company. but i'm not involved with russia. i have had dealings over the years where i sold a house to a very wealthy russian many years ago. i had the miss universe pageant, which i owned for

i'm thinking about folks like ben sass, jeff flag, lindsey graham. these are people that take their role very seriously as checks on the executive branch, and you're already seeing them coming out last night with statements saying they can't justify this so i think that problems are about to get worse, not better. >> important to note the actual letter did not say thank you for the service of fbi james comey, but thanking him for telling president trump three times he is not under investigation. jonathan swan, live in washington. thank you. >>> and james comey dismissal has drawn sharp criticism from the left. many including chuck schumer are calling for a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into the trump campaign ties to russia. >> president trump called me and informed me he was firing director comey. i told the president, mr. president, with all due respect, you're making a big mistake. first question the administration has to answer is why now. if deputy attorney general rosenstein does not appoint an independent special prosecutor,

and i agree with lindsey graham. what we need is an fbi agent of good standing, independent to head that agency. and to put a politician as head of the fbi, that's going to be an added disaster. >> you worry that a candidate will consider the way in which james comey was fired and maybe less apt to take the job because of either the perception that it may be political or the potential treatment of not being a neutral force but instead a political decision? >> oh, absolutely. i think the fbi has become politicized with this firing of comey. anybody coming in heading the russian investigation has got to wonder am i going to be the next one fired? if i state what i believe are the facts? a lot of times in bur rock rgov officials prefer to stay out of the lime light and they do not want to be in a political maelstrom in washington and they'll take other jobs and i think that's unfortunate. >> attorney general jeff sessions said he had recused himself. he had recused himself from all things in the investigation as it rela

i've got to go. >> thank you very much. >> senator lindsey graham with lots of questions. there's been a closed-door meeting with rod rosenstein, the person who appointed the former fbi director robert mueller to be the special counsel in this russia probe and so carl bernstein, tim natali, you guys are still with me. the headline out of that, carl, is that senator graham says it seems no longer will this probe be seen as counterintelligence but as a criminal investigation. that seems significant to me. your take? >> i think that's absolutely right that the gravity of the criminal investigation has taken precedence over a public -- more public investigation by the congress of the united states. but i think we ought to look at this in terms of what the president of the united states said to the anchors, including wolf blitzer, which was extraordinary. that looking at a legitimate investigation as evidence of a divided country and a kind of sadness without, once again, taking into consideration what apparently has occurred with the russians and their attempt to destabilize a

you have lindsey graham in south carolina who is rejecting these claims and in fact urged president trump to pull back claims he's made about the november 2015 election and urges the focus on real issues like western influence on our democracy. so across the board, we see folks from the left and right who rejected this whole concept of unsubstantiated notion that there is widespread voter fraud in our country. >> you have democrats on the news today that the democratic national committee is launching a new voting commission of their own and that that trump administration commission that we've been talking about this morning , democrats fear as you said that the trumpet initiation will leave their suppression in minority communities reporting from usa today noting this new commission will document reports on voter suppression tactics and make recommendations for strengthening access to the full access for all americans according to the statement provided to usa today. is this effort that you think the democratic national committee should be launching? is this something that should be bipar

i've given the letter to senator lindsey graham. he has the letter and i think frankly, i assume he's going to give the letter out but it says i am not involved in russia. no loans, no nothing. >> did you worry at all when you made the decision to fire comey when you did? the day before lavrov was here in the white house, and the russian ambassador, did you think through the optics of a way this would look? >> i never thought about -- it was set up a while ago, and frankly i could have waited, but what difference does it make? i'm not looking for cosmetics. i'm looking to do great job for the country. i'm looking to create jobs. i'm looking to create strength and security. i'm looking to have strong borders. i'm looking for things like that. i think it's really a good thing that i meet with people. now, this is a public meeting, because when you cover this, the people watching may say, oh, he met with lavrov. well, this was announced that i'm meeting with lavrov, just like a number of days ago, i spoke at -- had a very good conversa

lindsey graham had not been afraid to question the president before ted cruz. will they be regretting those statements as more information comes out? james comey had his detractors, his defendants. they will be out getting their side of the story. david: all right, megan, tim, eli, thank you. tim o'brien, executive editor of "bloomberg view," megan murphy of "bloomberg businessweek," and eli lake, a columnist with "bloomberg view." coming up, former house advisor pico struck -- pete hoekstra. that is coming up. and a life conference is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. we will carry that for you live here on bloomberg television. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ i believe the investigation will go forward. both parties at different times have called for the dismissal of mr. comey. this is not watergate. in terms of what the congress is going to do, i want to know all things russia. david: republican senator from south carolina lindsey graham third lawmakers continue to react to james comey's dismissal. richard burr issued the following statement that says, "i am surprised by th

marks a rare break with mccain from lindsey graham. lindsey graham voiced support for the firing of comey. >> on the other side of the aisle, democrats calling for a special prosecutor. senate minority leader, chuck schumer. >> this investigation must be run as far away as possible from this white house and as far away as possible from anyone that president trump has appointed. >> president trump ready to fire right back on twitter. quote, crying chuck schumer stated recently i do not have confidence in him, james comey any longer then act so indignant drain the swamp. with more reaction let's bring in phil mattingly. >> reporter: two words uttered most by both republicans and democrats in the wake of that stunning firing of fbi director james comey was shock and surprise. with the exception of top congressional leaders the vast majority of lawmakers on capitol hill simply were not informed. according to several gop aides i spoke to they didn't know how to respond. they were calling office to office to unify their statement. they weren

senate lindsey graham backs the president's decision and he joins us next. ♪ the sun'll come out for people with heart failure, tomorrow is not a given. but entresto is a medicine that helps make more tomorrows possible. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ i love ya, tomorrow in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto helped more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entresto. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure... ...kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow i love ya, tomorrow ♪ ask your heart doctor about entresto. and help make tomorrow possible. ♪ you're only a day away. >>> we are joined now by senator lindsey graham. good morning, senator. >> good morning. >> do you support president trump's firing of director comey and the way he did it? >> yeah. i mea

secretary of state rex tillerson and senator lindsey graham and senator chuck schumer. and brand new numbers about what a very skeptical public is now thinking. west wing shake-up watch, a report this morning says frustrated president trump is considering firing many of his top white house aides. we'll get the latest. joining me for inside analysis are nbc news white house contemporary, hallie jackson. "washington post" columnist, and you -- eugene robinson. katty kay from bbc and math new, editor of the washington "free beacon". welcome to sunday. this is "meet the press". >> this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning and happy mother's day to all the mom's out there. after the firing of the fbi director, james comey, conflicting administration explanations and what president trump and james comey said to each other at a dinner, what is like a per fek capstone to a whiplash week. tweeting james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversation before he starts leaking to the press. are there tapes? here's what the president later told fox n

despite what lindsey graham said, what happened in 18 days. i can give you a guess of what was going on in the white house during those days but boy that is serious interaction, not a heads-up. >> and you know, wolf, the question that asked, and what phil is meeting, she was asked, what is the likeliness that a criminal case would be against flynn. she did not answer that question. phil, i ask you, is that something that the justice department could have been pursuing against him? >> sure. i'm sure he is wrapped up in the investigation they started last july. it is clear what white house is doing. they aretive r differentiating something that justice didn't isn't responsible for. did someone else lie to someone else in the white house. it is not like the school principal for the united states. clearly the white house council is concerned about, is a white house official, in this case, general flynn, going to be embarrassed bay criminal prosecution later on? i'm sure they had going into president trump and say, this is not just about whether or

a reputation for being bipartisan on capitol hill it is lindsey graham and she issued a week excuse, you didn't give me enough time, you gave me two week notice but after the unmasking scandal she was available so to testify in front of congress is pretty important and seems disrespectful to the people you are serving. when we talk about sensitive issues that affect american people's lives, come before them. if you are not hiding anything, let's do that. the public deserves semantics from susan rice, the washington post fact checkers, she has issues with the truth. dagen: are these hearings worst taxpayer dollars? >> they are. it will be interesting to hear from sally yates, we heard after the wiretapping from republicans and democrats she didn't break procedure to know what was going on in trump tower so that without but i agree but the larger point please should talk about the nsa, who can be requesting this information and is curious the invitation was only 1-sided and i am a big fan of lindsay graham in the trump era, him and john mccain, really put the country above party in und

david: kevin, in your interview with senator lindsey graham, you pointed out that lindsey graham has not always supported the president, so this is not someone going blindly along with the president, but on this issue, he seems rocksolid with president trump. kevin: yes. spokepublicans i spea with suggests democrats a few short months ago, including hillary clinton, have had concerns about director comey. i would note that i spoke with democrats such as senator richard blumenthal, who has received the wrath of president trump's twitter this morning, he directly through the comparison to watergate. he told me that history does not always repeat itself, but it rhymes. that is what we will be hearing more as we just heard from the senate minority leader on the floor, chuck schumer. david: at the same time to go into politics a little here, it seems critically important that the republicans stay with president trump in order to make this thing go away. we have to remember that at one point, candidate trump did not think it would be an investigation at all. your pumpkins have to be concer

i have nobody to punish or reward other than get to the facts. >> senator lindsey graham. i hope you don't regret coming on now. i appreciate you coming on. >> happy mother's day. >> that's the most important message to say. there you go. >> happy mother's day. >> appreciate it. >>> to the other side of the aisle, senate democratic leader chuck schumer of new york. i hope you're a little more enthusiastic about being on than senator graham was? >> i didn't see senator graham. but i want to join him in wishing all the moms of america, yours, chuck, and particularly mi mine, god willing, who will turn 89 in three weeks. >> all right. let me go to the issue of a special prosecutor. why do you believe it needs to be done? as you know, senator ben sass indicated if you do that it is sending a message you don't trust the intel committee to do their work, a vote of no confidence there. shouldn't you let them do their job to see if they can do it without a special prosecutor? >> well, there are two separate lines of activity here. one is the oversight function of the intelligence

. >> joining me now is senator lindsey graham of south carolina. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> you're laughing. i assume it's dark comedy these days. >> why did i agree to do this? >> oh, because you're a glutton for punishment, sir. >> okay. >> welcome. let me start here. the president said that russia was on his mind when he was making this decision. how concerning is that to you when it comes to him admitting that was among the things in his mind when he made this decision to fire james comey? >> i think we need to have comey come before the judiciary committee and clear the air. did the president ever say anything to the director of the fbi that would be construed as trying to impede the investigation? the president called me about the firing and referenced the

i have a real problem with what lindsey graham did. what he did was, he brought sally yates, who was fired, summarily fired off after ten days of acting attorney general. and james clapper, who lied, willingly and knowingly, admittedly lied to a senate panel years ago about whether the nsa was spying on americans but he gave them a huge platform to state their case. my question is this: where was the extensive interview of the clinton -- coat >> cruz. >> eric: john mccain was asking questions as well. john mccain and lindsey graham have been never trumpers. >> they voted with the president every time. >> eric: why do you on the left have a problem -- the real issue here and the only law broken by any measure so far is the leaking of michael flynn's name to "the washington post." yes, it is. everything else -- >> flynn lied to the vice president, met with the russians, and allowed to stay in the administration for 18 days after they knew he lied. >> eric: the fbi didn't tell them. >> the russians could have turned him. they have informa

lindsey graham says the democrats cleaned our clocks. he said that this is not winning from the republican point of view. this is reacts that it needs a good shutdown in september to fix this mess. >> what part alet university railroad living in. by the way, the results of every government shutdown starting with newt ging run in 1995 have hurt the party that forced the shutdown. americans want their government to work. >> so you can tell yourself this mantra, and maybe you can convince that 40% base that that is the case, but there's stalls always going december not that any of those other 40% aren't reasonable, but people are not going to buy it, okay? i don't buy it. and i'm not -- i've seen it hurt republicans. >> alice, when paul ryan this morning, when asked about trump's tweet, when he says the pr machine that democrats are pushing, don't look at the press releases, look at the bill. we're still continuing obamacare efforts, not as much epa uss. where can we go on? the democrats did not get what they wanted. on the other hand i gue

they didn't have to play around in the ways that lindsey graham might be. i always watch what they're doing? he's having a hearing about what? he wants what? i don't care what political stuff he says on the side. none of what lindsey graham is good news for the trump white house. >> if you take yourself back -- you are a starffer for a republican senator in 2018, what is the marriage risk abandoning donald trump and getting republican support or sticking with donald trump and having hist story call infamily or winding up on the wrong side if he goes down. >> i personally advise each senator to stick with his or her own actual view of the situation. play it honest with your voters. that's one of the things -- i know in pli politics, it's usua last resort, i can't get away with this or that, okay, i guess i'll tell the truth. in this instance it's your only guide. trump is too erratic. the voters will recognize in most states that raur just being honest about it. bernie sanders rise, i think, was fueled almost entirely by the sense this guy is honest. one of

the follow-up with lindsey graham saying he can't touch that and now lindsey graham saying he's interested, that this sort of essentially raises to the level of wanting to investigate this further on democrats of course saying that's why we need to see donald trump's tax returns. but that's the thing. it's sort of like reading tea leaves in a wind storm. you don't really know what's going on and what's going to come of this investigation. you had donald trump later tweet we haven't really seen him in public much, but in this hearing essentially saying this whole thing proves that this is a hoax and there's nothing there. no new information out of the yates hearing. >> we don't know where it leads, but there are a lot of new clues and red flags in that hearing. you're right the @tweet-- she s some very important new things. russia story is a new hoax. when will it end? we don't know the answers to collusion but both sally yates and james clapper made clear there's a reason to have an investigation into that question. clapper said the president keeps saying this almost didn't happen, it wasn

lindsey graham said he was outrageous. he tried to divert him into questions about weeks. they participate in attempting to change the subject to hik's e-mails, whatever he wants them to do. they're divided even the ones who get credit for the media for being courageous, they're so deeply divided on the heart steaks there. you're seeing intense pressure for independent counsel. i think the second area of question is going to be on mr. rosenstein. >> he's testifying thursday. >> he doesn't want to do it. how do you not. no one mentioned that we know the names of at this point seems qualified to be of this investigation. >> the life changed today on the question of special prosecutor. >> it's hard to imagine. he is a part of it now. he was a member of the sort of ka gal, even if he was misused. >> we'll have to take a break there. david, thank you very much for joining us. always appreciate your giving us that perspective, what they're thinking and not thinking. thank you very much on this very important night with this terrible, this is terrible news for the united states f

i think that's what lindsey graham is talking about. we added money to the bill, which the senate will complete the job of making sure that the tax credits for those people in their older cohorts, 50s and of 60s, will have a much larger tax credit to reflect those changes. the fact that their health care costs more. what we learned with obamacare is making younger people buy unaffordable insurance that they can't afford, they're not going to do it. that's one of the reasons it's collapsing. >> sounds like you wouldn't be comfortable with this bill being signed into law. >> no, this bill takes $85 billion and adds to it the tax credits. what the senate is going to do is the specific adding to the tax credits. the senate is going to say, let's figure out exactly how much more of a tax credit a 50-year-old gets and how much more a 60-year-old gets. so what the house bill did is it took this bill and said, we need to add more money to those refundable advanceable tax credits for older people. the senate is going to complete the job of sayin

lindsey graham is not calling for a special prosecutor yet. there's distance yet to cover, i think, before you see any sort of mass defections. >> how that plays out we look ahead to 2018, particularly on the republican side with one gop operative saying you might see people redistance themselves from donald trump the way you saw in 2016 if it continues the way it is. >> you have several congressman running less popular than the president. how do they run on something like healthcare when people don't want to necessarily distance themselves from donald trump? >> a lot of unfinished business, healthcare, tax reform. >> i have unfinished business. i have to stop there. that's all we have for today. happy mother's day to all those mothers out there. mine, my wife, a great mother and katty. there you go. >> thank you. all four of my kids are home. >> all of washington is united behind one wall, john wall. good luck and see you tomorrow and next sunday. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> you can see more end game i got a mortgage offer from

wasn't lindsey graham that donald trump released his cell phone number during the campaign? i feel like i remember that happening. i want to talk about senator graham and other members of congress attitude towards the president. but i have to segue into anotherling that senator graham said. there was an article in which he was asked about the way that trump is being treated and about him calling when he's asleep. and he said, quote, he's under siege unlike any other president i've seen my entire life. they don't believe he won. i do. now obama was somewhat hard for us, but i thought we were somewhat respectful. i could not resist asking you about that. do you believe that the republicans were somewhat respectful toward president obama? >> usually i think senator graham tries to walk down the middle and tries to be straight. that statement is laughable. you know, now maybe they were respectful when they met at a hotel on the night of the inauguration to plan ways in which they could cause the president to have an unsuccessful presidency or maybe it was when joe wilson interru

lindsey graham is not calling for a special prosecutor yet. there's distance yet to cover, i think, before you see any sort of mass defections. >> how that plays out we look ahead to 2018, particularly on the republican side with one gop operative saying you might see people redistance themselves from donald trump the way you saw in 2016 if way it is. >> you have several congressman running less popular than the president. how do they run on something like healthcare when people don't want to necessarily distance themselves from donald trump? >> a lot of unfinished business, healthcare, tax reform. >> i have unfinished business. i have to stop there. that's all we have for today. happy mother's day to all those mothers out there. mine, my wife, a great mother and katty. there you go. >> thank you. all four of my kids are home. >> all of washington is united behind one wall, john wall. good luck and see you tomorrow and next sunday. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> you can see more end game and on the front lines of health care, there

lindsey graham is not calling for a special prosecutor yet. there's distance yet to cover, i think, before you see any sort of mass defections. >> how that plays out we look ahead to 2018, particularly on the republican side with one gop operative saying you might see people redistance themselves from donald trump the way you saw in 2016 if it continues the way it is. >> you have several congressman running less popular than the president. how do they run on something like healthcare when people don't want to necessarily distance themselves from donald trump? >> a lot of unfinished business, healthcare, tax reform. >> i have unfinished business. i have to stop there. that's all we have for today. happy mother's day to all those mothers out there. mine, my wife, a great mother and katty. there you go. >> thank you. all four of my kids are home. >> all of washington is united behind one wall, john wall. good luck and see you tomorrow and next sunday. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> you can see more end game and >>> this week, lyft nur

senator lindsey graham getting ready to begin the hearing. pher saeu tky dy, what do you e to hear? >> sally yates, there is a sense she will contradict what the white house has said. i don't think it really changes very much unless there's something revealing. we're not going to get details. the lot of the information that she would have to deliver is classified. we might only get a limited scope in this testimony and during this committee hearing because of the fact that most of the information is classified. >> maria: jump in here, chris, as we watch the cameras take pictures before they begin. we'll take you there as soon as you're done. >> sally yates is poised to become an even greater hero to the democratic party than ever before. i believe by the time today is over they will be talking about sally yates for president. they love her. >> maria: let's listen to senator lindsey graham beginning this hearing now. >> -- followed by some questioning and be seven minute rounds initially. we'll try to do a second round of five minutes to both of the witnesses. thank you for coming. t

and it seems this is what's following from republican senator lindsey graham. let's listen to what he wants. >> the russians funded any of these trump golf courses? >> i don't know. that's -- you know, this is -- hopefully, people are looking at that kind of stuff. and it's not wrong to do business with russians. there's no crime in that, but the trump team said they never did business with russians. so, all i want to know is i want to know everything about what happened in 2016 between the russian government, trump campaign, and don't complate the two. the russians tried to undermine our election. that's different than colluding with the trump campaign. >> that's an important distinction as well, but there also seems, perhaps, to be some bipartisan appetite for dissecting the president's business dealings. >> well, i think lindsey graham was one of the republican senators on the panel, and there were a few others, you're right, that show a bipartisan effort, but to get to all questions about russian interference with the election. and if business ties are part

and lindsey graham has an important point. if we care about protecting our diplomats in these dangerous places, maybe we should fund the state department. >> in the meantime the russian investigation continues on the hill. the senate intelligence committee issuing a couple of subpoenas and i want to play what senator mark warner said about that. >> we issued two subpoenas to the two michael flynn businesses we're aware of. while we disagree with general flynn's interpretation of taking the fifth, clear -- it is even more clear that a business does not have a right to take a fifth if it's a koupgs. one has been served, one in the process of being served. and we keep all options on the table. but we think the committee has moved forward aggressively. >> -- the investigation is going? >> at this point you see that they're basically trying to corner flynn as best as they can. they're trying to do what they can. that's why they're going after his companies, not necessarily -- not trying to push all the way towards a contempt citati

you heard lindsey graham trying to make that point. >> a balancing act, a tight rope. it's called a circus. welcome to america. here we go. thank you both so so much. what a show. do not miss tomorrow night, this is going to be must see tv. of course it's a thursday. lester holt's exclusive one on one interview with president donald trump from the white house. that's tomorrow on nbc nightly news with lester holt. wow. so much to cover, so much going yore watching msnbc. nobody's h, but there will still be pain. it comes when your iurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. could be preventedrrent with the right steps. and take it from me, every step counts. a bayer aspirin regimen is

senator lindsey graham took a phone call from the president yesterday and we'll ask him what was said during that conversation. the former a.g. alberto gonzalez said this last hour. >> i have to believe in the judgment and opinion of rob rosenstein. one of my attorneys when i was attorney general. there is evidence to support the ultimate conclusion by the president of the united states. the firing of comey, drop in here now. >> possible connections to associates of the trump campaign and administration. one thing, mr. chairman, that sticks in my mind is the classified briefing that you and i had from director comey on march 15th. at this briefing, director comey outlined the counter intelligence and criminal investigations the f.b.i. is conducting involving russia's covert action to influence the presidential election. i can't go into the specifics but you and i know that it was rather comprehensive for this kind of briefing. the f.b.i. director was precise and he presented us with substantial information. it was clear the f.b.i. was taking its job seriously and that a substantial in

so, now, we're hearing from lindsey graham saying he thinks lieberman would be a great pick. spoke to him and said he thinks he would be interested in the job, as well. a couple days ago the president holding some of the interviews in person here at the white house. joe lieberman was one of those in attendance. frank keating the former oklahoma governor was there as well as an fbi official. his name is richard mcfeely from the baltimore field office, a special agent there, as well as the acting fbi director andrew mccabe. you remember fran townsend on a list the doj, department of justice, put out that they were looking at. she was the homeland security adviser during george w. bush's term in office. just spoke to some aides here a short time ago trying to get her sense if we would find that out today. sean spicer told us, we have nothing for you on that. >> peter, thank you so much. >>> you know, there is a sense within this white house that that this is an opportunity for reset. right. he's going out on the country. he is going to be focusing on something different. they ho

lindsey graham essentially said the democrats cleaned the republicans clock with this and he's talking about possibly not voting for it ends want to shut the governm doesn't want to continue to fund obamacare for all the republicans who are like him, where does this leave them moving forward? >> i think you know, there will be republicans that probably won't vote for this bill, i think image mcconnell is calling for a vote here tonight to have one, but you know, i think they're going to live to fight another day in the sense they're going to look towards fy 18 and authorizations bills on 18 and try to work with the new administration. but you know again, this is something that this is why congress has the lowest approval ratings in history, you know, around the 15% because they failed to do their jobs, here we are, seven months past october 1st and they're passing last year's budget. if we had paid our taxes in october instead of april, i think we all would know what would happen. it's kind of a failure on part of congress, i'm sure lindsey graham is upset but he should be upset at the

. >> lindsey graham is sort of the gold standard of going and stating the music and disarming people with humor and facts. >> yeah, tom cannototton is knor it as well. the president and his hearty control congress, and they have to jam through something that is problematic. >> you vote on something and you won't face your constituents over it. >> and jimmy kimmel certainly fired it up with the comments about his son and he returned to the stage last night. >> as a result of my powerful words on that, republicans in congress had second thoughts, they realized what is right is right and i saved health insurance in the united states of america. thank you. what's that? i didn't? i didn't save it? they voted against it anyway -- >> i would like to apologize for saying children in measuring should have health care. it was insensitive. offensive and i hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. >> what does the senate do now, bill? mitch mcconnell has 13 men, that has been pointed out they're meeting at this hour. we have seen them arriving. none of the five republican senators -- the

guest: so senator lindsay gram -- instagram agrees with that -- lindsey graham agrees with that point. believes that president trump should withdraw that point because it threatens the ntegrity of his own. i believe we should have conversations about voting in our country that is supported by data, that are supported by evidence. and when we do that, we know that there are close to 40% of americans who didn't participate in november. and that many americans are locked out because states make it hard for people to vote. we need a conversation that focuses on reforms like same-day voter registration. and early voting opportunities making those more widespread. preregistration opportunities for 16 and 17-year-olds. this is the kind of conversation we should be having in our democracy today. one that's focus on figuring out how do we get all americans to the ballot box? host: on twitter, mark stoughton asks this question. how do we know if there's no voter fraud if we've never studied it? guest: it has been studied. a center released a study today looking at 10 counties across our country

this as senator lindsey graham opens a new line of questioning when it comes to president trump's ties to moscow. >> i have no evidence that the trump business organization did anything illegal with the russians. i have no evidence of collusion. do i want to know about business ties? yes. >>> plus, fresh questions and new finger pointing at the white house. why did it take 18 days to fire michael flynn after warnings from sally yates? >>> and boots on the ground. is the united states about to up the ante in afghanistan. we'll see if sean spicer comments on that, too, at today's briefing. >>> our team is here. nbc's peter alexander is at the white house. peter, i know you are standing by waiting for that briefing to begin. what do we expect sean spicer to address? >> well, we think among topics addressed today is the issue of michael flynn following the former acting attorney general sally yates after testimony before the subcommittee yesterday. what's notable is 18 days passed between the warning from sally yates to the whi hse council and president actually firing his national securit

john cornyn, though, is who many would like for this job, and lindsey graham said, no. he's a great man, well respected, very successful, but not in this environment. how politicized will this nomination get over the next five, six days? >> very. i mean, significantly so, considering everything that happened. if it's true that donald trump made the decision because he wants the russian investigation to end, and he himself admitted that he asked comey to make a pledge of loyalty, it's fair to assume that he's going to ask this next person to make a pledge of loyalty. and the question that arises from all of that is how does that affect people outside the white house? will this person be more loyal to the president than the american people? and now, also to the senator's point, i think it's wise to want someone who has experience with the fbi. why bring someone into this situation who will have a huge learning curve? >> sure. >> some of those people on there have no experience with fbi. >> it's so fascinating. the "washington post" has a piece this morning, the headline "