michael wolff quotes steve bannon saying exactly that about ivanka trump in an article that michael wolff wrote today in "the hollywood reporter" explaining access to the trump white house for his book "fire and fury" an michael wolff will join us here michael night describes factions in the trump white house this way. jared and ivanka against bannon and priebus and practicing dark arts against them. priebus everybody's punching bag just tried to survive another day. by late spring, the larger political landscape seems to become almost irrelevant with everyone focused on the lethal battles in the white house and screaming fights in the halls and in front of a bemused trump in the oval office when he was not the one screaming himself. today president trump, the trump staff, and the trump lawyers did everything they possibly could to sell more copies of michael wolff new book, including the utterly empty threat to sue steve bannon for things he said in the book, to sue michael wolff for writing the book and to sue the book's publisher for publishing the book. the cease and desist letter by

a hostile relationship with michael wolff. you had everybody in the west wing who had no idea who michael wolff was, which is mind blowing for people running the country, don't know who michael wolff was. all they had to do -- and jared kushner and donald trump and people in the west wing were in daily contact with rupert murdock. if they just asked him about michael wolff, he would have said get him the hell out of there now. >> reveals the lack of discipline that michael writes about throughout the book. let's go back to how he even got access to the white house in the first place. in june of 2016, michael had done a cover story at the hollywood reporter on donald trump, and trump had invited michael to his house in beverly hills. the story was not flattering. this was a story where michael was questioning trump about brexit, and he was quite confused, didn't know what brexit was, didn't seem to know who peter teal was, who was about to speak at the republican national convention at his behalf. when michael brought up peter

if you willingly talk to michael wolff the way steve bannon talked to michael wolff, you almost have to believe that your president is not going to survive his first term. >> well, as i've reported and others have, steve bannon has said in private he only believes donald trump has about a 30% chance of making it a full four years. whether it's the mueller probe or the 25th amendment that ultimately removes him from office. in some way i don't want to be in steve bannon's head, judging by his comments, he seems to be make a kag ccalculus in a short war, but if trump is out of the picture he's playing a much longer game. >> i don't know if rex tillerson is one of the people wolff had a conversation with. rex tillerson was just asked. let's listen. >> everybody in this book questions his mental fitness. have you ever questioned his mental fitness, and describe your relationship with him, because some people would think it's -- you know, through his tweets and stuff, it's not a very good relationship. >> i've never questioned his mental fitness. i have no reason to question his mental fi

i'm not here to defend michael wolff. will tell you. >> you're going to promote it. >> i'm not here to promote -- >> you just gave him a half hour on your show. >> i gave him 18 minutes as a matter of fact. and i think it's very news-worthy. most journalists and most people don't get that much access to an administration, especially a president to write a book. and so -- >> so i think this cuts really to the heart of michael wolff's, dr. wolff's credibility, here's a guy that claimed he interviewed the president. he's been asked that point-blank. he did not interview him ever for this book. i am told that the longest conversation he had was in a phone call with the president, michael says it was a half hour, the phone logs obviously said -- the phone logs show it was 12 minutes. something like 12 minutes. he had a brief meeting with the president to pitch the book, the president said, why should i do a book with you? there's other authors that want to do the book. it was a very brief meeting. there were no questions asked

he should not be paying so much attention to michael wolff or steve bannon. >> but he does. this is the worst of donald trump. i grew up around him and you know him very well and i have seen him do this time and again, he's doing it more often and less appropriately and it raises the question, okay, i am sure his mind is strong and he's one of the smartest guys in the room as he will say, all the time, fine, but it's all about conditions and circumstances and situations and he's not used to this and it's bringing out in him objectively his worse side on a regular basis. couldn't that be a fair assessment? >> i think that's a fair assessment because of all the attacks he's going down, punching down and getting in the gutter with these guys and he's focusing too much -- it's generally a fair assessment with what you are saying, chris. >> that's the distraction. that's why i say certain things are getting done despite how he's behaving, and the picture of the white house is not news to me or you, and you know a lot of people running around trying to manage his emotions and keep

the picture michael wolff paints is complete -- >> michael wolff, who was defending the president early on in his report and saying the media was too negative about him. remember the source matters as well. >> we will get to that, how he explains his reporting. if you take this book at face value, it paints such a disturbing picture of how the president is behaving and the people around him know it. and they're trying to manage around it. here is one -- this is a reporter's note from michael wolff about some of his process. and what the people around the president told michael wolff. hoping for the best with their personal futures as well as the country's future depending on it. my indelible impression of talking to them and observing them through much of the first year of his presidency is that they all -- 100 percent -- came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job. >> remember, wolff was saying the media was being hard. this was not a man who went into this assignment trying to take the president down. >> a.b., what do you make of that? >> well, several things. i think t

that's from michael wolff. the book is full of gossipy details, yes, david, but the thread throughout it is donald trump's mental acuity, his ability to lead, his ability to take in information, to process the information, and then to go out and act on it. is it alarmist for people to seize on this? is this too much? if critics are coming out and saying we're making a big deal about this, what would you say to those critics? >> alarmist, sure, but more importantly it's a grave conversation to have as a nation. you know, in law there's a principle called res ipsa loquitur. the facts speak for themselves. the fact the nation is having a national conversation about whether or not our president is fit to serve, whether he has the capacity to serve, that speaks for itself. that suggests the president does not reach the bar that the american people have set for the fitness of a president. and this is very grave because it's different than politics. i was a republican member of congress, disagreed a lot with president

the position from trump loyalists is that michael wolff is an outsider. it is from my experience with michael, i don't see that. he was such an intimate and a so warmly received by steve bannon and roger ailes and roger's wife and had such a level of trust with them that the conversation we had was stunning. it was... the things from start to finish, forfive hours, they poured their hearts out about the republican party and how they were going to, who they were going to put into cabinet. roger ailes offered to coach candidates in their congressional testimony. they talked of rudy giuliani. steve bannon said they owed him something because he had come out forcefully and spoke on the shows in the united states, when no—one else would after the access hollywood tapes. roger ailes said, you know, just let him be photographed walking out of air force one. just detail after detail that, were they openly spoke so comfortably in front of michael. to any way characterise him — you can try to dispute the facts, but you can't dispute the relationship he had with

he's a psychiatrist, michael wolff, i call him now dr. michael wolff. >> you're being sarcastic. >> don, you have to ask yourself, what is his expertise to declare the president's psychologically unfit? there is probably 100 high-powered journalists that cover the white house, talked to all the same sources he supposedly talked to, no one has ever reported the president psychologically unfit. >> i'm not here to defend michael wolff, what i will tell you -- >> you're going to promote it. >> i'm not here to promote -- >> you just gave him a half hour on your show. >> i gave him 18 minutes as a matter of fact. and i think it's very news-worthy. most journalists and most people don't get that much access to an administration, especially a president to write a book. and so -- >> so i think this cuts really to the heart of michael wolff's, dr. wolff's credibility, here's a guy that claimed he interviewed the president. he's been asked that point-blank. he did not interview him ever for this book. i am told that the longest conversation he had w

we have michael wolff here with us tonight. his first public reaction to what we learned yesterday that the president ordered the firing of the special prosecutor. >> amazing. can't wait for that. >> thank you joy. >> thanks, lawrence. >>> last night the obstruction of justice case took on a new and dramatic turn when it was reported that the president ordered the firing of the special prosecutor in june and don mcgahn refused to carry out that order and threatened to resign if the special prosecutor was fired. here is every word the president said about that important story today. >> mr. president why did you fire robert mueller? why did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks. "new york times" fake story. >> in the nixon era that's what they called a nondenial denial. joining us with his first reaction to the public reaction is the author of the best selling book in the world right now, michael wolff, the author of the "new york times" best-seller "fire and fury," inside the trump white house. thank you for comin

equally remarkable, michael wolff didn't come out of nowhere. he's had a reputation, been around for a very long time, and i guess my question for bryan would be, how did this person get so much access inside the white house? because he was there. even if the president says that he didn't necessarily speak to him, which wolff disputes, he had incredible access. other reporters saw him not with a reporter badge but with a visitor badge in the white house. that is -- that in and of itself is remarkable. >> and i would note if you really read each word of the president's tweet this morning, he says, he didn't talk to wolff for the book. >> right. >> he didn't say he didn't talk to wolff. wolff told savannah he had three hours of conversations with the president. >> jackie, peter, bryan, great to have you with pus. a lot to digest this morning. >> thank you. >> remarkable to say the least. >>> all right. north and south korea will sit down for their first formal talks in more than two years. we are live in seoul, next. mom, i have to tell you someth

michael wolff book "fire and fury" says this about how the trump staff views the president. for steve mnuchin and reince priebus, he was an idiot. for gary cohn, he was dumb as -- for h.r. mcmaster, he was a dope. the list went on. and an e-mail that the book describes as purportedly representing the views of gary cohn, white house economic adviser, said trump won't read anything. not the brief policy papers. nothing. he gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. and his staff is no better. kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. bannon is an arrogant -- who thinks he is smarter than he is. trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. no one will survive the first year. but his family. i hate the work. but feel i need to stay because i'm the only person there with a clue what he's going. i am in a constant state of shock and horror. republicans continued to hide under their blankets in their cribs today as the president tweets us ever closer to nuclear war with north korea. here is a sample of the republican reaction to th

do you know if michael wolff has received a letter directly? >> i don't actually. that's something that his publisher would probably receive. >> okay. so can you talk to us about the fact-checking process that went into all of this? >> well, that's a question for the book publisher, but i do know that when i've edited michael wolff for "the hollywood reporter" and he interviewed trump he got the trump interview on tape, so we understand there are tapes that have been made from his time in the white house. the other thing is, i know the president issued a lengthy statement but as we know and cnn has reported, a lot of times this white house's reputation for pushing out the truth is not stellar. >> you talk about the book, but there was also this article posted this morning in the "hollywood reporter" written by michael wolff a summary of what we're about to see in the book that comes out. talk not about the fact-checking process but how he got in there. he was inside the west wing as he says it, sitting comfortably on a couch for much of a year and then back and for

that is what michael wolff is reporting. i asked a friend of the president, you just played a little bit of our interview a second ago, about this particular passage and about the president apparently according to wolff being unable to recognize friends at mar-a-lago over the holiday break. he says the president oftentimes likes to repeat things for dramatic or theatrical effect. he also says the president recognized him on new year's eve at mar-a-lago several times. no questions about the president's mental fitness. in this briefing room about 24 hours ago, you might remember, sanders pivoting to talk about the mental fitness of kim jong-un in north korea. remember, nbc news has not independently confirmed a lot of what's in michael wolff's book. some things in the book that now appear to be just factual untrue, for example, that the president did not know who former house speaker john boehner was. you search twitter, it's obvious the president's been tweeting about john boehner for a long time. i would also point out a cou

you don't give michael wolff 45 minutes. after the show, why don't you come back to the house and we'll hang out. that was interesting, because nobody knew he had a house in the middle of beverly hills. >> i learned it through your article. >> amazing. >> let me go to something that tony blair has said, this goes to the contesting elements of the book, this is the most significant one i've seen. some of the others are about how many l's in the name hilary rosen. i learned through the correction of your book that there is only one. i've known hillary for decades i didn't know that. tony blair, in the book, this passage, page 1157. in february, blair visited kushner in the white house on this trip, the now freelance diplomat, seeking to prove his usefulness to this new white house imparted a juicy nugget of information, there was the possibility that the british had had the trump campaign staff under surveillance, monitoring its telephone calls and other communications, and possibly even trump himself. tony blair said about th

it's a crisis when welcoming michael wolff inside, and michael wolff calls the president after the election, i want to write a book, can i come? sure. he sat on a couch in the west wing for almost a year. >> it's an indictment of the political judgment, not just to steve bannon and president donald trump, but everybody who cooperated with the book. it was almost every senior official that talked to wolff, so they are all complicit in the humiliating disaster. >> in the first bush administration, you have seen the inner workings of a white house before and you have been very critical of donald trump for a long time, bill, and what does this book now mean, all these revelations mean, and i put revelations in quotation marks, you believe what you want to believe, and is anything different today than yesterday? >> there are tell-all books, but nothing like this, obviously. an awful lot of people who have been close to donald trump have a certain amount of contempt for him, and that's different from any white house i know of. >> thank you all so much. former white house chief straf gis strategis

that's not reflective of what michael wolff presents. what we have seen is reflective after coherent strategy, policy staff that's competent. and i think the results speak for themselves. as far as i'm concerned the michael wolff book is tabloid fodder. >> how do you respond? we see the open questions about daca and immigration. he still talks about the wall. poolcy priorities he hasn't been able to go to. where do you see us going undfr here? >> we didn't have much done that the president can take credit for and yes contrast with democrats going in. here is the telling part about michael wolff's book. he did most of this on deep background. which is the challenge for the author of the book. but this is most telling, the president himself is questioned about his mental fitness. in politics, if you are explaining, you ain't campaigning. if he is having to defend his mental fitness before the american people and world stage he has lost the message, he is losing the american people and is doing very poorly entering mid term election year. >

, michael wolff about their father? it doesn't make sense. liz: here's the other thing, too. the other errors we're finding is he said michael wolff said that wilbur ross is the labor secretary, he's not. he's the secretary of commerce. you know, the other things -- >> they should google stuff. liz: yeah, he misspelled the word differed, meant deferred and it was differed. i thought the media was about fighting against fake news, we're not fake news, and michael wolff is saying he's questioning the mental instability of the president and saying the errors are minuscule. we don't get it. >> you're getting basic fact us that could literally go to google and find out, and you want people to believe in your book. second of all, i don't think anyone, unless you are a life professional that have physically examine the president should be talking about his mental health. i think that's wrong. i don't believe that people who are officially not qualified should be having these conversations. so this whole book was written as all

how did michael wolff do it? that's one of the big conversations that's happening in journalism circles this weekend. his process started back in june 2016 during the presidential campaign. in this interview with the hollywood reporter, trump talked at length with wolff. trump liked the cover and how he treated him, interviewing steve b bannon. this story came out two weeks after the election and then right after the inauguration, a profile of kellyanne conway by wolff appeared in "thr." he seemed to be warming up his sources for the book. and then his appearance here on "reliable sources" from february 5th of last year." he said i was being approached as a ridiculous figure. let's take a look at some of the interview that shows how wolff was talking about the press. >> i think individual journalists are, in many cases, having a nervous breakdown. >> you seem to think that the media is at war with trump. is that fair? >> absolutely. yes. i don't think that there would be anybody who would credibly disagree with t

he said, you don't give michael wolff 45 minutes. and hen the said, why don't after the show come back to the house and we'll hang out. that was interesting because nobody knew he had a house in the middle of beverly hills. >> i learned it through your article. >> amazing. >> let's go to something that tony blair said because this goes to the contesting elements of the book and this is the most significant one i've seen. some of the others are literally about how many "l"s in hillary and hillary rosen and learned through the correction of your book there's quun. i have known hillary for decades. i didn't know that. tony blair in the book, this passage, page 157 -- in february blair visited kushner in the white house on this trip the now freelance diplomat seeking to prove his usefulness to this new white house imparted a juicy nugget of information. there was, he suggested, the possibility that the british had had the trump campaign staff under the vur vail lance, monitoring the telephone calls and other communications and possibly e

this is bannon's creature, michael wolff. it's a lot like bob woodward's style, you might get one or two people who work with you. imagine if woodward was living in the nixon white house and the oval office during the watergate years. it shows a big error on trump and the white house to have allowed i think a reporter that kind of roaming access. our country may be benefitting from it. we may be able to see now that perhaps the president isn't mentally stable. >> wow. all right. professor douglas brinkley and david gergen, always a pleasure to talk to you. >>> republican senators recommending charges publicly for the first time in the russia investigation, but who are they going after? next. nobody knows pot pies better than banquet. with tender cuts of meat, sweet veggies, and rich, savory gravy, banquet makes everyone at the table feel like family. good to have you. banquet pot pies. made for the moments that matter most. to find smarter solutions. to offer more precise and less invasive treatment options than before. like

by day two, michael wolff's bombshell book had mr. trump lashing out again. steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. >> furious, disgusted would probably certainly fit when you make such outrageous claims and completely false claims against the president. >> by day three, the president's legal team was threatening to sue bannon, wolff and the publisher. in "fire and fury" bannon describes the june 2016 meeting with the russians hosted by the president's son, don junior, as unpatriotic treasonous, predicting special counsel robert mueller's investigators will crack don junior like an egg on national tv and speculating that the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, in a long-running feud with bannon, is involved in financial crimes. trump allies attacked the insider account. >> this is obviously a hit job on the president. >> it's outrageous. >> he's a sleaze bag. >> absurd allegation by someone who's talked to a lot of disgruntled people at the white house. >> complete fantasy and

michael wolff quoting steve bannon saying he's lost it. talk according to wolff within the west wing about the 25th amendment. not just wolff. i have sources who worked inside the white house, have known donald trump for many years as well telling me that, and asking me if i think he's lost a step, because they think he's lost a step. this is not just confined to wolff's reporting. >> look, there is no question that donald trump is a controversial political figure to a lot of people. i will give you that. i don't know who your sources are, but i know you're a good -- >> fans sashgs porters of donald trump. not people who don't like him. >> i'm not questioning your sources. i'm saying all i can know is what i know, and i've read a large part of this book and think michael wolff is simply not a credible source. i have seen journalist after journalist go on news shows talk about all the inaccuracies in the book and the fact he's made a career spinning what he sees as his version of the truth, which he starts the book out, michael wolff does,

brian: word is that mike michael wolff was seen often in steve bannon's office. would you say that's true? >> no. i know there were a number of times that he met with steve and i think they have both said in repeated that that happened. we looked at the logs. we know that they met on multiple occasions. he was frequently seen meeting with him. so i think that's a pretty indisputable fact on that front. steve: yesterday, during your press briefing, i heard you describe in some detail about how some parts of the book are just flat out wrong. you detailed john boehner thing and stuff like that. additionally, we are learning, sarah, that apparently a number of people who were quoted in the book have revealed that they spoke to him. but it was off the record. but he still put it i in book. any idea to what their reaction is to thinking okay it's off the record now it's in the book. what am i supposed to do. >> not only that not only did they say it was off the record. a number of them have said that the things that are attributed to them they simply just didn't say. i

and michael wolff pushed back on that this morning saying he, quote, absolutely spoke to the president, and more specifically he said he spent three hours with president trump over the course of the campaign and during his time here at the white house. when savannah guthrie asked if wolff flattered his way into having access to the west wing, he said he had to do to get access. we can see how many times he was cleared for access on to the grounds of the white house, if the white house releases the visitors logs which is a decision where they decided not to release the visitor logs, and so we don't know how many times michael wolff was let into the white house. another note here, the president's plan to send a cease and desist letter to the publisher backfired, because not only is it being published but four days earlier than originally planned to do so. >> and we don't think there's a lawsuit right now because of it. the white house just not dealing with the book this morning, but the explosive new report in the "new york times" that raises new questions about the obstruction, and the

these are the thoughts of the author, michael wolff. nobody survived him to survive mueller, whatever the substance of the collusion, trump in the estimation of his senior staff did not have the discipline to navigate a tough investigation nor the credibility to attract the caliber of lawyers he would need to help him. at least nine major law firms turned down an invitation to represent the president. that's new. >> i didn't know the number was as high as nine, but we knew there were some that turned him down, and even in the face of a special counsel investigation, it has been an ongoing problem throughout his presidency. we have seen time and time again, he will be quiet for a little while and then erupt on twitter, his legal team, which bannon was instrumental in bringing together before he was pushed out of the white house his struggle from the get go to get him not to tweet or attack robert mueller and the investigation. >> this is really long, so everybody just settle in, and get comfortable because this is a fascinating one becau

the other stuff is from michael wolff. now we called katie walsh and she referred us to what she cold jonathan swan was that she never said the things attributed to her. and the passage does jive with how sam nunberg described his mind. he was sent to the constitution and i got to the fourth amendment before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back into his head. does that -- >> that is understated. >> there has been a lot out about how the president doesn't read and how he processes information. so it is not really -- >> look, that first of all -- i think nunberg is on the record on that anecdote, in some fashion. so that doesn't seem completely out of line. i think that there are several areas where there is something that is accurate but the facts are not quite right. he got -- and i hate to take it back to this, just standing on my head, he got minor things -- shots at other media outlets, he got basic details wrong about stories. about things. and i worked with a lot of journalists early in

meaning that the assumption was, yeah, you can -- you can talk to michael wolff. we've, meaning the president, was that the assumption was you were blessed, it was okay >> i think it was. there was no official -- i was certainly not brought in to be the -- >> you weren't invited to write this book. >> the court chronicler. i was sort of invited. i mean donald trump is sort of, oh, yeah, yeah. i said to him, i said, listen, i'd like to do a book. and i remember because i remember he seemed deflated, a book. who cares about a book. and i said, no, no, i'd really like to do this. then he named a couple of other authors who he knew who he said, oh, yeah, they'd like to do this too. and i said, but, you know, is it okay? yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. so i went around -- it was basically me saying the president says this is -- this is -- he likes this idea. and then everyone would say, oh, okay, great, sit down. talk. >> you said something to savannah guthrie on the "today" show. you said whatever it took to get this story. would people feel as if you intentions with this boo

the other stuff is from michael wolff. now we called katie walsh and she referred us to what she cold jonathan swan from "axios" was that she never said the things attributed to her. and the passage does jive with how sam nunberg described his mind. he was sent to the constitution and i got to the fourth amendment before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back into his head. does that -- >> that is very understated. >> there has been a lot out about how the president doesn't read and how he processes information. so it's not really -- >> look, that first of all -- i think nunberg is on the record on that anecdote, in some fashion. so that doesn't seem completely out of line. i think that there are several areas where there is something that is accurate but the facts are not quite right. he got -- and i hate to take it back to this, just standing on my head, he got minor things -- shots at other media outlets, he got basic details wrong about stories. about things. and i worked with a lot of jour

do you feel them like michael wolff right now? >> i have been so busy with the story, i have not followed anything with michael wolff this week >> how does it feel to have the patriots saying this is not true >> i have been working on this story for the next two months and i had multiple conversations with the patriots. and the weeks leading up to this and the days feeling incredibly comfortable and standby everything that i wrote. >> sorry >> what was the reason you pursued this story was it because of the tom brady blow at the offensive coordinator. is it somebody coming to you, what set the story in motion patriots, it is not like they are 4-12 and missed the playoffs, seth >> yeah, i will tell you what it was. right at the nfl trading deadline in late october, early november, the patriots traded jimmy garoppolo for only a second round pick. it made no sense the patriots had decided not to trade him in the offseason coach bill belichick had told every coach that he was going to be on the roster this season and it just came out

watch how they handle him when he was there. >> there is a michael wolff here to see you. >> read michael wolff. thank you lucky stars, he's not writing about you today. >> this is off the record >> really good. >> do we know anything of past controversies. >> the idea of that about ten years ago. the owner of fox news and 20th century of fox. he wrote a flat ritering profilf murdoch. the book that came out about the murdoch empire was not very friendly. murdoch was fieri of the book when it came out. he seems very friendly and i remember this time last year, wolff says attack me. the immediamedia was out there him. i am on your side. i am the friendly voice that is here to take your side. he was doing that obviously to warm up to his sources and cozy up to the white house. now, a year later, we see the results, he was able to get inside and he was able to write what it turned out to be adaming illustration of a white house in crisis. you may criticize his tactics saying it was under handed or inappropriate to be out there saying one thing and now saying something very different. now, he

>> so michael wolff became an ally of roger ailes fired from fox news. roger ailes and steve bannon, from my understanding, formed an alliance to help belittle or stop rupert murdoch's influence on trump. >> when you spoke to michael wolff, at whose behest did you do that? >> not any anybody's behest. michael invited you. >> all right. sam nunberg, thank you for making the time. >> by the way, i like michael. sometimes a little out of context. >> thank you very much. appreciate your time. >>> just ahead, amidst questions for trump's fitness for office, republicans are trying to protect him. the most ridiculous stunt they pulled right after this. ♪ you don't like my lasagna? no, it's good. -hmm. -oh. huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. blow on it. you see it, right? is there a draft in here? i'm telling you, it's so easy to get home insurance on progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents. but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. >>> michael wolff's book portray as president seen as incompetent, childish and unable

we've seen michael wolff come in. when the white house, this press secretary said earlier today, well, this is a book full of lies. it is tabloid trash and so on. yet it was the white house that was allowing michael wolf to come in time and again. apparently he was talking on steve bannon time and again and was not obstructed by anybody inside this administration. it was only when these revelations came out that they really urged to this book and turned on steve bannon. until this point we didn't hear much a people in terms of condemnation for this book. the publisher of michael wolff's book. that only served to draw interest and now it is coming out tomorrow morning. it is pretty typical of how they deal with damage control. they tend to deal with it after the fact when they really could have dealt with it months ago by not giving michael wolff as much access that they had. they would have gotten attention anyway. that certainly gave the president front page access. >> there are a few koipss circus lating in the west

book passage i read, disclaimers about michael wolff and sourcing. president on air force one talking about characterizing the trump tower meeting. president insisted that meeting in trump tower was purely and simply by russian adoption policy. that's what was discussed period. even tho it was likely if not certain that the "times" had the incriminating e-mail chain. president ordered that no one should let on to the more problematic discussion about hillary clinton. jeff, if this part of the book proves to be true that president of the united states ordered people to essentially lie about this meeting in trump tower, saying it was about adoption or not tell the full story, does that put him in some legal jeopardy? >> this is obviously something mueller has looked into and continues to carefully. we know that not from mueller but witnesses who have talked to his office. when the "new york times" story broke about the june 20th meeting in trump tower with jared kushner and the russian lawyers and donald trump jr., the initial report was that this was

by day two, michael wolff's bombshell book had mr. trump lashing out again. steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. >> furious, disgusted would probably certainly fit when you make such outrageous claims and completely false claims against the president. >> by day three, the president's legal team was threatening to sue bannon, wolff and the publisher. in "fire and fury" bannon describes the june 2016 meeting with the russians hosted by the president's son, don junior, as unpatriotic and treasonous. predicting special counsel robert mueller's investigators will crack don junior like an egg on national tv and speculating that the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, in a long-running feud with bannon, is involved in financial crimes. trump allies attacked the insider account. >> this is obviously a hit job on the president. >> it's outrageous. >> he's a sleaze bag. >> absurd allegation by someone who's talked to a lot of disgruntled people at the white house. >> complete fantasy

this book by michael wolff, michael wolff doesn't have a lot of credibility as a journal eufjournalist. he burned a lot of sources. this book rings true. there's nothing in it we're really surprised about exempt the degree steve bannon was willing to throw his boss under the bus. the idea that katie walsh called him a baby. we chronicled that every saturday morning here. the fact that the president sometimes acts like an idiot. we chronicle idiocy every saturday morning. he's firing back. these tweets don't really lend to his credibility or give us the impression that he is mentally stable. >> what about what politico reported this week, zerlina, that dr. lee, a yale professor, that president trump will unravel and we are seeing the signs. according to this report, those who met with dr. lee were all democrats. there was one gop senator in the bunch. how much of this is about an effort to remove the president from office, to talk about the 25th amendment? >> i think that's where this conversation is going. i think we have tip-toed around this issue every year. we analyze his crazy twee

wolff here to see you. >> read michael wolff and thank your lucky star he's not writing about you. "usa today." >> this is off the record! >> reporter: wolff once wrote a scathing book about rupert murdoch calling him the whore -- >> reporter: it is that buzzie catty way of reading and writing that readers gobble up. >> he would make really cutting personal observations about the rich and the famous and their wives and children. he once sent his child as a spy to steve ratner's house when he was writing about ratner and people were appalled, but he knows that readers love that stuff and controversy is his friend. >> reporter: and that means he's in friendly confines now. randi kaye, cnn, new york. >>> well, still to come, that huge winter storm that hit the u.s. has airports struggling to get back on track. why international travelers have been special hard hit. remember our special night? abdominal pain... ...and diarrhea. but it's my anniversary. aw. sorry. we've got other plans. your recurring, unpredictable abdominal pain and diarrhea... ...may be irritable bowel syndrome with

how trustworthy in your view is michael wolff? i know michael wolff personally. i had lunch with him as he was working on the book. he is not a fraud at all. he does know donald trump. they know each other from new york media elite circles. he was let into the white house for months on end. he would ta ke house for months on end. he would take the train down from new york to dc, stay in a hotel near the white house and basically report to work and bea house and basically report to work and be a fly on the wall. so trump should have known that this was happening to stop him from writing his book, which has proved very damaging to his image. his book, which has proved very damaging to his imagelj his book, which has proved very damaging to his image. i assume you have read some, if not all of the book. i have it here! excellent. what would your criticisms of italy? what would your criticisms of italy? what are its shortcomings?m what would your criticisms of italy? what are its shortcomings? it is on the whole mostly right. and we hear the whole mostly right. and w

obviously working closely with michael wolff. she was on "morning joe" talking about the access that he gained to this white house. >> he said i don't know what they think i'm doing and different answers at different times would be, but i'm going to keep doing it until they tell me not to. i said to michael, is the jig up now kelly is there? and michael responded to me. there's so much chaos, i think i'm last on the totem pole of kernels. and he did proceed to be in there even with kelly in the white house. >> this validates what a lot of you reporters have been saying. that there is chaos in this white house. >> it does validate it. and part of it is that it shows that chaos isn't just entertaining to people. something we laugh at. it can be problem attic and dangerous to the president. what we see is that chaos loud someone who was adversarial, who did not have the president's best interests at heart go into the white house and be able to report all these details that are essentially embarrassing and be able to say, i was in th

but there was widespread cooperation with michael wolff. he says he's got the tapes to prove it. >> we know that from sebastian gorka. >> right. even gorka is making it very clear that people say cooperate, nobody would have done that if the president wasn't on board. i go back to the point that they're trashing michael wolff, this is very much the swamp that donald trump, the citizen, swam in in new york, in tabloid journalism and all the rest. i have no doubt that he invited wolff in to capture the brilliance of the first year of his presidency and doesn't like some of what he's finding now. again, you can't -- steve bannon had scores to settle. we said this every day. but he was a senior adviser to the president who was right there and was driving a lot of this policy. so, there's just no getting away from this. there is a united front now to say that he is mentally fit. but people can make up their own mind in terms of how the leader of the country behaves, how he reacts, particularly to criticism. and it tells you a lot short of having

we didn't need michael wolff's book to do this. i love michael wolff. almost went into business witht. but i don't think anybody with any reasoning would come up with any of the conclusions. i'm not calling him names. it's a behavior analysis. if somebody runs through the subway naked and is throwi inin towa turds against the wall, we don't need to diagnose him. >> joe scarborough has known him for a long time. let me show you what joe scarborough observed with the same sort of period of familiarity having known him a long time. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> for the past year we've had people around donald trump. even during the campaign saying he's not mentally fit to be president. and there is such a reluctance and i'm not knocking "the washington post." they are being conservative with a small "c." i've written twice in my column a quote about one of the people closest to donald trump during the campaign saying he's got early stages of dementia. he repeats the same stories. it's getting worse and not a single person who works for him does

the fact that they trusted him, michael wolff, and let him in. it's a weird deal between bannon, mourdock and ales. bannon mahated rupert mourdock. mourdock had donald trump's ear. p it was one of the key elements of donald trump's appeal. trump would brag that mourdock was always calling him. mourdock would complain he couldn't get trump on the phone. how much of this book happened in part because of the growing feud because of rupert mourdock and roger ales? >> that's part of it, joy. michael wolff around the time he was working on this book about donald trump was working on a book about roger ales that people tell me was a book 2456s going to rehabilitate ales. ales thought mourdock stabbed him in the back. that does not comport with all of my reporting that say ales committed serial sexual harass am. wolff developed this relationship with ales because he liked how wolff's book took down rupert mourdock. he parlayed that and transitioned that into a relationship with steve bannon and that appears to be one of the avenues which he entered the w