trump. he directed me as i said in my elocution and i said as well in the plea, he directed many toe make the payments, he directed know become involved in these matters. >> he was trying to hide what you were doing, correct? >> correct. >> and he knew it was wrong. >> of course. >> and he was doing that to help his election. >> yes, he was very concerned about how this would affect the election. >> to help his campaign. >> to help him and the campaign. >> you heard it there. cohen making it absolutely clear. two key claims. one, trump directed the payments. builds on nbc reporting that trump was in fact in the room with cohen and david pecker discussing the hush money payments in the campaign. the second claim is that trump knew it was illegal. here's the potentially danieling news for trump today -- new audio emergencies from 2012 showing that trump was indeed familiar with the relevant campaign finance laws, specifically how the law applied to the john edwards case. arguing that payments

, been with trump forever. and it's clear that he was involved in orchestrating the repayments, if we want to trace how these payments flowed. michael cohen made a payment to stormy daniels to silence her so she wouldn't come forward with her claims of an affair with the president. he organized a payment, he organized -- orchestrated a payment that went through american media, the parent company of the national enquirer that purchased a story of another woman who is going to go forward. so what we realized is that repayments to michael cohen went through allen weissleberg at the trump organization and done in a way that they were filed as legal expenses. so in the filings on friday, and in what we have learned since then, my colleagues and their sources have been able to piece together questions about what the legal implications are for at least weissleberg. we know that he's talked to the prosecutors at least with regards to what he knew about cohen's involvement. i think the question now with cohen being rele

would be trump organization that would be donald trump. and he is the one who i'm reading here would have conferred with cohen about reaching out to the russian government. then when you talk about the payments to the women that ken was just discussing, the individual one goes on to become the president of the united states. pretty clear that's donald trump, and that he also worked with him, talked to him about the payments to those women. so in a lot of ways, it cannot be underscored that these memos really aren't about cohen. i mean, they are about cohen, but they really point to the president in a way we hadn't seen before. >> sure. >> and point to this administration. not just the campaign, but what's going on inside the white house. >> let me go to barbara on this because i think the language is very strong. i was really impressed by the spirit of the prosecutors' language. they talk about how people go door to door in politics, they lick envelopes that. >> do all the cut work in politics in an open and transparent way, because that's

but the trump campaign was very much managed by donald trump and his children. it was a small operation just like the trump organization is a small operation. >> which goes back to the report on monday which is the fact that federal prosecutors are looking into the trump organization and the trump family. >> to the extent we have been hearing senators in congress on the political side of this question since there isn't going to be a criminal indictment despite dan's statement which is important on the law, those senators are saying we don't care. it becomes harder and harder not to care. >> to real quick things. you don't have to take my word for it, the southern district put it in their sentencing memo that clearly it was a clear sign they have a lot more evidence that donald trump was orchestrating this and the other thing to remember, that was one recording. there were 11 others that were subject to some dispute between trump and the u.s. attorney's officer and ultimately, trump's lawyers with drew their claim of privilege with i believe is because they are i

trump said you're fired. i love that part. >> he's teaching madison to talk. >> make america great again. >> our second nominee goes to the 18 republican members of congress who nominated donald trump for a nobel peace rise for his efforts to denuclearization the korean peninsula. north korea still has a full control of all their nuclear weapons. our final nominee is sean hannity. hannity joined trump on stage during the president's final rally ahead of this year's midterm elections. >> by the way, all those people in the back are fake news. mr. president, i did an opening monologue today and i had no idea you were going to invite me up here and the one thing that has made and defined your presidency more than anything else, promises made, promises kept. >> this is difficult. this is a gut punch to all the people on the panel here, i don't even have to talk about this, dana, you know how to do it. sean hannity joining the guy he's covering and supporting him. >> the desantis moment by itself is special becaus

trump. back with our own people in the room. jeff tubin, before the break senator santorum he thinks the justice department is politically motivated. do you agree with that and are out to get donald trump? >> i don't. and i think it's especially evident here in the southern district of new york, which is not even part of the special counsel's office. and the political appointees have been recused. so the people making the decision are career prosecutors who, you know, i am unaware of any political -- political bias there. i mean, it just strikes me as kind of a last motive -- last refuge of desperation to criticize people you know absolutely nothing about, to say that they have bad motives. you have no evidence of that. >> you're absolutely right. there is a long history of that office and other u.s. attorneys offices of people making a name for themselves by going after politicians. and so my biggest problem with this whole thing is -- and i think members of congress, particularly when they

trump said, you're fired. i love that part. >> he's teaching madison to talk. >> make america great again. >> in the days of mao tse-tung, that would have been normal. it goes to the 18 members of republicans who nominated trump for a nobel peace prize. back in may this year for his efforts to denuclearize the korean peninsula. in case you're wondering, north korea still has a full control of all their nuclear weapons. and our final nominee is fox news anchor sean hannity. hannity joined trump on stage during the president's final rally ahead of this year's midterm elections. [ cheers and applause ] >> by the way, all those people in the back are fake news. [ cheers and applause ] >> mr. president, i did an opening monologue today and i have no idea you were going to invite me up here. and the one thing that has made and defined your presidency more than anything else, promises made, promises kept. >> this is difficult. this is a gut punch to all the people on the panel. don't even have to talk about this. dan

howie: you have trump versus the nfl, trump versus snl, trump versus hollywood celebrities. can that be wearing on the public? bill: wearing or weary. is there a subject in which he has no interest? is there a subject he's not prepared to declaim? probably not. he's acting more like a regular person than we are used to president's acting with scripts and people explaining it and careful language. he talks like someone in your family would talk. i don't like what they are doing in the nfl. howie: he's not getting the nuance and he overstated that. that's part of his appeal. way that he talks. but he's also not just a voracious consumer of media, he cares about television. you would think they would be focus as much time on how they are played in the media. bill: he canceled the white house press party, he doesn't go to the white house correspondents dinner. i think that's great. they know he doesn't like him. he knows they don't like him. he's a huge cultural figure. not just here, but around the world, the conversations about donald trump. howie: better known than nike i was

it's the rise of donald trump. he's the one who built his political career by trashing the first black president, barack obama. he even questioned whether obama was an american citizen. trump followed on the so-called birther movement by stating that his residential -- starting his presidential campaign, i should say, by calling mexicans criminals and racists. he's attacked an american judge born of mexican parents as being unable to deliver justice because of his mexican heritage. the speaker of the house, paul ryan, a fellow republican, said that was an explicit example of racism. and it was trump, of course, who recommended that all muslims be temporarily banned from entering the country. i don't have to remind you, and you know, it grieves me to go through this litany but he called nfl players sons of bitches for kneeling during the anthem to protest police brutality. he tweeted that a black woman was acting like a dog and he responded to the terrifying display of white supremacy in charlottesville by saying th

donald trump. prosecutors say those payments were meant to influence the campaign, which is a violation of campaign finance law. that's a felony. listen to what former acting solicitor general neal katyal just said to chris. >> tonight, the southern district of new york prosecutors, career prosecutors, and trump's own justice department said, you know, in no uncertain terms, cohen, you committed a felony, and the man who directed you to commit that felony is donald j. trump. >> it is impossible to overstate how important that is. here's the question. now the question is what are they going to do about it? what are they going to do about it? and there's more. in cohen's sentencing memo from robert mueller, the special counsel makes it clear that his interest in the trump tower/moscow project is not just about cohen's lies. it's about russia's influence in our presidential election. another quote for you. the fact that cohen continued to work on the project and discuss it with individual-1 well into

individual one is donald trump. federal prosecutors, not robert mueller's team, the sdny, are saying that donald trump committed a serious felony, that he was intimately involved in the illegal scheme to pay the hush money. actually, he was more than intimately involved, no pun intended, trump directed the hush money scheme. think about that. faced with this reality, trump decided to create his own, the president tweeted. totally clears the president, thank you. no. that's not just a lie. that's the actual opposite of the truth. federal prosecutors are saying in black and white that donald trump broke the law, that he directed his fixer to make an illegal payment, which is a felony. and that's not even close to how much we have to cover tonight, including this passage from the mueller filing, "cohen provided relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the white house during the period of 2017 to 2018." wait a minute. 2017 to 2018? that's not during the campaign. that's once trum

that's where the trump administration comes in. they listed the -- cohen put the money out to begin with, and then to pay ami back is complicated and then the trump organization paid cohen back and lied and said it was a retainer. there's other possible crimes, not just campaign finance crimes. there could be bank fraud. wire transferring fraud. he opened up the shell company. it's one of those things where once again you have to ask what were they trieding to hide. one, yes, the campaign donation which it really was in kind, but it's really what the whole scheme was. that's where the trump organization comes in and that's where people involved in the organization could be in trouble. >> jennifer, i listened to the next line of that tweet i just read. even if it was a campaign finance violation, it's a civil case. it is only a civil case like obama's, but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. lawyer's liability, if you make a mistake, not me. can the president have it both ways? >> we always start of

that's what trump does. he's crafting the party to be all about him, basically. >> casio cortez is about rebuilding the party her way. it's polarizing, and sometimes frightening. thank you to my panel. happy holidays to everybody. >>> when we return, i'll finish tonight with the reminder comfort and joy our political leaders are capable of bringing us. stay around for the inspiration for the holidays. you're watching "hardball." i'm ken jacobus and i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. what's in your wallet? - [narrator] meet shark's newest robot vacuum. it powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. one dock, two sharks. the shark ion robot cleaning system. ♪ spread a little love today ♪ spread a little love my-y way ♪ ♪ spre

perhaps most notable, questions about the trump organization's efforts to build a trump tower in moscow for which he'd need approval from the russian government. michael cohen has admitted to lying to congress about the timeline of those dealings. in addition, there are questions about foreign governments buying blocks of rooms at trump properties. potentially with the institution's emollient clause. we have new investigations into trump's inauguration spending now with crimes like bribery, tax fraud, and misuse of non-profit status. it goes on and on. that's not even an inclusive list. this represents an avalanche of legal jeopardy for the president and the people around him. okay, to get all of these threads together, bring in former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, cnn legal analyst, honig. great people for a complicated 30,000 foot view of all the things that are going on in trump's universe. eli, i'll start with you. the trump battles are so numerous and oftentimes interconnected. it's hard to keep them all straight. from where you sit as a former u.s.

the trump campaign, the trump transition team, the foundation, the trump organization and of course the trump administration. just think about that for a moment. the one common denominator in each of those, president trump himself, who is lashing out and blaming other people around him as his personal life and professional life are increasingly under siege, as the walls close in, michael cohen is talking publicly. he sounds like a different man than the former fixer willing to take a bullet for his boss, now a convicted felon freely speaking his mind. cohen giving his first interview to abc news this morning. gone is the man who touted everything from trump's intelligence to his compass. >> one thing donald trump is is a compassionate man. he's a man of great intellect, great alkt great alkbilities. >> the words the media should be using to describe mr. trump are generous, compassionate, principled, kind, honest and genuine. >> he will ultimately go down in history as the greatest president. >> in his place, a man who says he is done covering up for the president. >> he knows the truth,

because he worked for donald trump even though he said should trump run was independent of donald trump. >> but in 2011, the fec ruled in cohen's favor. for michael cohen, the win was another way of proving his loyalty. >> the way he initially described it to me was a father/son relationship and when i asked him why he has blind loyalty, he also threw the question back to me as, would you do this for your father? >> the end of the day, the only people donald trump really considers as family are his own family. anyone who considers himself to be almost a trump family member, should really take a reality check. because they tend not to stay around very long. >> but michael cohen did stay and proved his willingness to fight for his boss by aggressively attacking donald trump's enemies, real or perceived. >> now to a war of words between a beauty queen and organizers of the miss usa pageant. pennsylvania's representative claims that competition is rigged. >> just after the 2012 miss usa pageant, which was co-owned by donald trump contestant sheena mown claimed the pageant's finalists were p

a putin likes trump yes the russians favored trump wouldn't you given a choice between hillary and trump where one says she's going to bomb you and the other says he wants to cooperate with you there are rational people but today and i was in moscow to let me think november twenty fifth have to be my birthday and it happened to be the day of the naval conflict between russia and ukraine. i was there for a week i have contacts then up i just put myself in prison contacts with russians are criminal now that's another bad thing that's going on but i have heard repeatedly not from putin himself but from people close to hit them that they have all but given up on trump all but given up for one reason trump cannot deliver stop and think what happened trump went to helsinki in july for a summit something every president since eisenhower has done trump comes home he's accused of treason what does trump do he takes all sorts of russian actions to prove he's not putin's puppet what happened next he canceled to a meetings with putin that's embarrassing to putin who treats another world leader like

donald trump delivers theater. but the people around him actually have to now do a negotiation in an environment that is increasingly inhospitable to them and they know they are trapped. >> ben rhodes, from the standpoint of democrats, because it looks like this thing is now -- this shutdown, this dispute over the wall, the border, is going to spill over into 2019. january 3rd, 2019. first major political event of the year, democrats get back control of the house for the first time in eight years. from the democrats' standpoint, if this is a shutdown fight that stretches into january that maybe defines the month of january, how comfortable are democrats having their first month back in control of the house be benigned by this shut down potentially over any other plans they had? >> i don't think democrats are going to budge. donald trump tried to close the midterm election by focusing on the border, as you know well. that did not prevent the blue wave from taking back the house of representatives. all the public opi

trump. who knows that he can't abandon the wall. he can maybe abandon policy. he can't abandon it rhetorically. they are putting him in a box. a very uncomfortable box. >> it's a waiting game. once january comes, the democrats take over, trump can say, atried, it's out of my hands. >> maggie said she noticed a shift the chaos had become too much for some trump supporters, including those that helped get him elected. let's listen. >> the number of conservative bhos i have talked to in the last day who worked on the campaign, supported the president, who now say you know what, i regret doing that, this was a mistake. this administrationsome, you know, off the rails, all of these investigations will be a . they are disgusted for lack of a better word with what they have seen. >> se, have you heard more sentiments with the republicans that you know? >> yeah, yes. in particular, for house republicans. this is a very local problem. house republicans are going home to their constituents right now a

a putin likes trump yes the russians favored trump. wouldn't you given a choice between hillary and trump where one says she's going to bomb you and the other says he wants to cooperate with you there are rational people but today and i was in moscow let me think november twenty fifth happen to be my birthday and it happened to be the day of the naval conflict between russia and ukraine i was there for a week i have contacts then up i just put myself in prison contacts with russians are criminal now that's another bad thing that's going on but i have heard repeatedly not from putin himself but from people close to hit them that they have all but given up on trump all but given up for one reason trump cannot deliver stop and think what happened trump went to helsinki in july for a summit something every president since eisenhower has done trump comes home he's accused of treason what does trump do he takes all sorts of russian actions to prove he's not putin's puppet what happened next he canceled to a meetings with putin that's embarra

so the wall was trump's strength. it can also be his undoing if democrats drive this message that on his number one promise he was not telling the truth and he failed. because something that not a lot of people have recognized yet, the wall is dead. it is not going to be built. there will not be a wall across the southern border of the united states. not only because mexico's not paying for it but because the democrats control the house of representatives and they won't appropriate the money. and even if they gave him $5 billion that's a rounding, that's a tiny tiny portion of that wall. so the basic dream that trump had is dead. and once the american public realizes that and that he couldn't deliver on his biggest promise and that he was lying about it, that might hurt him politically. >> and that goes with all due respect to all voters who make up their own minds, if you're a trump voter and you look at the priorities, you know, a deficit spike in tax cut got done. that got done. but this wall while they had republi

why is donald trump still standing? >>> and are donald trump tweets witness tampering? the former director of the fbi weighed in on both of those topics. we'll show you his answers. >>> also siege warfare. that's what's ahead according to new reporting in "the washington post." stay with us. introducing fidelity stock and bond index funds with lower expense ratios than comparable vanguard funds. and we're now offering zero expense ratio index funds. that's value you'll only find at fidelity. ♪ one thing leads another that's value you'll only find at fidelity. - [narrator] meet shark's newest robot vacuum. it powerfully cleans from floors to carpets, even pet hair, with ease, and now for cleaning surfaces above the floor, it comes with a built in shark handheld. one dock, two sharks. the shark ion robot cleaning system. this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating sho

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

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

trump tower. goldstone would bring the russian lawyer. >> trump jr. said he would bring the candidate's son-in-law, jared kushner and campaign chair, paul manafort. before joining the trump campaign, manafort worked as a political consultant for oligarchs and pro-russia clients. >> first it was of interest to me, frankly is mr. manafort. he has been in russia. he has been in ukraine. if donald trump jr., and jared kushner, took this meeting innocently, and ignorantly, and sort of stepped into it, you know, it is possible, but mr. manafort, we have clearly known what the russians were up to. >> two nights before the meeting, on june 7, trump greeted supporters with what now sounds like a curious promise. >> we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. i think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. >> we just don't know if the speech that donald trump made is a coincidence or not. and so the timing seems awfully strange. >> for all of the attention the trump tower meeting would la

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

trump and candidate trump. he and mary pat have been friends of the trumps for almost two decades. so i think you'll see governor christie operating as an outside adviser to the president. they still speak on a regular basis but also may come a time when governor christie decides we want to city serve the cup fry in -- and president trump will bring him into the administration. >> you told fairly earlan about he kind of advice president trump was get being who he was getting it from, not having plowed this ground before. you talked about how speaker paul ryan coming in and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, the two leading republicans in congress and you talk about msnbc hosts joe scarborough, former congressman in the republican pear and mika brzezinski, co-host on -- who used to work with me at cbs, and they were giving president trump advice. this is before i guess things went completely wrong between them because now they speak as mortal enemies. can you explain mat? what was the advice they were giving president trump and how did that relationship go from being one where

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

trump, where'd the wall go?" "it went to a farm upstate -- [ laughter ] to live with all the other walls."la hter ] because he knows he's never going to get any money for his wall. trump has been lying and claiming he's already building it just by putting up some y.fencing with existing mo but now supporters are starting to figure out that's also a lie. here's trump lying about the wall followed by a very confused laura ingraham trying to figure out what he means. >> a lot of wall has been built. we don't talk about that. but we might as well start.'s because uilding -- it's being built right now. big sections of wall.nt and we will ue that. >> i must have missed the wall being built. what wall? [ laughter ] where's it being built, tom? i hink what he means they're upgrading certain parts of the wall. >> that's not a wall. stop saying it's a wall. there's no wal if you want a wall, say we don't have the wall. i know it's bad. because he made the promise. but they're not building the wall. >> seth: wow. she went t

trump. >> and mr. trump asked you? >> were you ever in prague? >> and your answer? >> never. >> in your whole life? >> i've never been in prague. >> and he wanted to see your passport? >> he said michael, i really need to know. i said mr. trump, i have never been to prague. he said okay. do you want to see my passport? i live close to the office? and he said yeah, do you mind if i see it? of course not. you're the president-elect. i'll be there in about two minutes. >> so michael cohen was and has been insistent on denying this. two sources, the "wall street journal" and mother jones say cohen told them shortly after the election that he has not been to prague since the early 2000s. since those reports, he has denied being there at all, ever. and in terms of what the dossier alleges, he says he was in california at that time in 2016, visiting a college campus with his son. since the steele dossier was published in january of 2017, the allegation that cohen was in prague, coordinating with the russians a couple of months before the election, that has remained an enti

according to cnn, president trump had no idea th first lady melania trump was going to issue a statement calling for the firing of deputy nationalecurity adviser mira ricardel and was furious that an internal matter was now public. said melania, "yeah, it really i sucks whente things become public, doesn't it?" [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] president trump yesterday expressed his support for prison reform that would reduce certain mandatory minimum sentences. and i have to wonder about his motivation. because he also said that prisons shouldn'have walls. and they should serve kfc. and they should just be mar-a-lago. [ laughter ] [ applause ] president -- president trump coeeted today that the inner workings of speciasel robert mueller's russia investigation are a total mess. and i don't know, mess isn't the word that comes to mind when i o at robert mueller. [ laughter ] oks like he parts his hair with a protractor. [ laughter ]kf for brt, he counts out exactly 100 corn flakes. he looks like when he goes to sleep at night, he makes the bed again from the inside. [ laughter ] [ che

today there are trump channels and anti-trump channels. you want the anti-trump you turn to cnbc, the pro trump news, you turn to fox. walter cronkite's are no longer on the major television shows watched. everyone trusted walter cronkite . i'm told walter cronkite did not even vote because he did not want partisanship to intrude on his objectivity. today we have silos. not only on television but in newspapers as well. it's a terrible tragedy. we need a return to objective, neutral principles of law, reporting. donald trump causes many of these problems. his use of extreme language, his putting down of his opponents. he has helped to divide the country. he's responsible for a lot of that division. i would have thought some of the media would be above that and would at least report more neutrally and objectively. have twond i televisions and we watched the state of the union and then the analysis of the speech afterward . it was as if we and seen two different speeches. you could not find out what was said by the various media already inter

trump saluted and mrs. trump held her hand over her heart. >> they will visit the bush family across the street today. lines stretched into the early morning hours. more now from cnn's sunlen serfaty on capitol hill. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. there have been so many moving moments to honor the life and legacy of george h.w. bush. up here on capitol hill, there was so much emotion from his family as they watched his casket slowly brought step by step into the capitol. his body lies in state at the rotunda. it was opened all night for the members of the public to come in and pay respects. earlier in the day, a ceremony on capitol hill where the common theme was not only speaking about the achievements of the former president, but mostly about who he was as a man. he was humble and he was kind and someone who established deep relationships here in washington. >> he showed us that how we live is as important as what we achieve. his life was a hymn of honor. his legacy is grace perfected. hi

trump. that is, china not only has to buy more from the u.s., it also has to change its economic structure and stop using unfair trade practices. and these are the points long resisted by president xi and his government. so now it is still a little difficult to envision. they reach a mutually agreeable permanent solution on the thorny issue, but at least the two sides are sitting down again to talk. maybe they are buying more time, but in the short run i think people are breathing a sigh of relief, george. >> a temporary truce. steam enzhong, thank you again for the reporting. >>> qatar has announced it will withdraw from opec. the organization of petroleum exporting countries on january 1st of next year. our anna stewart is following this story live for us in our london bureau. anna, qatar not exactly a major player in opec, but it does come at a time when that organization is under pressure to increase its production. >> reporter: have a look at oil prices today, george, because you'll see

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

prosecutors say trump's former lawyer cohen, quote, acted in coordination with trump in paum for two women who claimed that i had affairs with trump. in his response, he states he's totally clear. the court filings tell us nothing of value. but cohen's statements reveal he had contact with him after he was indicted. cohen did not take them up on that offer. in the third critical filing. trump's former campaign chairman jer paul manafort lied and with an associate linked to russian intelligence services. another white house statement from sanders says the manafort democratic congress mmacongress cohen had this assessment. >> what we've known for two years is that donald trump is a criminal enterprise, the trump family is a criminal enterprise, and i think you're gong to find republicans say their skin is going to come around. there was a cancer on the presidency. >> meanwhile former fbi director james comey has testified to congress behind closed doors, house republicans grilling him fraud on the hillary clinton email investigation. >> two things are clear to me. one, we could have do

it laid out that trump tower deal could have meant hundreds of millions of dollars for trump. that trump tower deal, they make it explicit, probably required the involvement of the russian government. that trump tower deal was being arranged at the same time as the june 9 meeting with her to about over and over again. so there is that paragraph in the cohen memo which lays out the stakes of what it meant for trump, for cohen, for don jr. to be open to a meeting with vladimir putin and open to a meeting from russians offering election-year assistance on behalf of the russian government. so the language that rob goldstone, the music promoter who set up to do nine meeting, he talks about a package of assistance from the russian government. the cohen memo makes it very clear now what that would have meant to don jr.. to don jr., it would admit hundreds of millions of dollars if vladimir putin would buy off on this trump tower deal. so it really changes his willingness, most of the witnesses in that meeting say that at the end of that meeting he said, sure, we will revisit these sa

more exposure for team trump. >>> the alarming news out for team trump about what the russians tried to do to robert mueller. >>> and james comey begs his fellow republicans to find some courage somewhere as "the 11th hour" gets underway on a monday night. >>> on a monday night, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters. day 697 of the trump administration and just hours from now the president's former national security advisor will be sentenced in the russia investigation. as we've been getting our best view yet of flynn's fbi interview as we're learning more about the crime he pleaded to. this comes as wired magazine highlighted 17 known trump and russia investigations. it comes as we get a look at a pair of new reports today that detailed the extent of social media propaganda efforts by russia before and after november of 2016. the washington post points out tonight that months after the election russia's disinformation teams went after robert mueller. we'll have more on all of those stories in a moment but first the feds on mueller's team did something rare tonight.

and i think one of the reasons why we are here is because i think donald trump, his family, the trump organization, for a long time, they've operated a private company. they have never been under scrutiny, the type of scrutiny that an elected official would find themselves under. and so the idea that he chose to run for this position, not recognizing that he would be under a microscope is telling. and i'm not even sure if he thought he would ever win. but the idea that they are facing this level of scrutiny with respect to how their foundation operates, with respect to how the trump organization operates, with respect to how they do business in general. and they see it carrying out in the manner in which he deals with saudi arabia and the manner in which he deals with russia. any place he has a business, he thinks he needs to make a deal. like he's still running his business and not the united states of america. i think that's telling. >> i was speaking to somebody close to the trump organization last week about this. and he was pointing out that, look, donald trump was a real estate

trump wants just another $3.4 billion. if a year ago, as we pointed out, democrats were willing to offer up to 25 billion, for again, a tradeoff, getting some pathway to citizenship for daca recipients, why not just pony up the $3 now, and end this shutdown? >> well, i don't think they want to do that without a valuable tradeoff, and right now the tradeoff is not really up for discussion so much as the president's demands for the extra money. also, there is no more faith really between the two sides. we've been talking about that in various ways. but the president for a while, remember the good old days of, you know, him wanting to work with chuck and nancy, that doesn't exist anymore really. they have been beating each other up for the last two years. they don't really have very much faith that the other person is going to negotiate in good faith. and also, we are heading toward a political change. in a few more days, you are going to have a different balance of power on capitol hill. that means a different leveraging. a

he was at trump tower a lot. he was on donald trump's plane a lot. he introduced the president at rally after rally after rally. he led chants of "lock her up." he was called the donald trump whisperer. those two men had a very close relationship, and had a lot of influence over donald trump's policies and what he would say about foreign relations while they were on the campaign trail. he was not one of those who was telling donald trump to back off bear hugging russia, back off bear hugging vladimir putin. he was not doing that. so yeah, we'll see what he had to offer the special counsel. you have one more? >> one quick one. remember, this is the obstruction investigation. it's trump trying to put a quash on the investigation of flynn that leads to the whole obstruction issue. that suggests trump is afraid of it. >> we will see. gentlemen, thank you so much for sticking around. ken, i hope it's not too cold out there. >>> still to come, we have much more on michael flynn, including the curious case of the president's support. we've been talking abou

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

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

what about all the trump transition officials and the trump administration folks who knew that flynn was under investigation for potentially being a foreign agent, who had to know that flynn's business partner was also under investigation as a potential foreign agent while he had served in a senior role in the transition on intelligence matters? what about the other people in the transition and the trump administration who knew all that and just let those guys in, let them stay in their anyway? i mean, pence, mcgahn, priebus, all these guys who got these warnings, it's fine that they just blew them off? i mean, maybe this is just the way these things work, but what we saw today is the guy who is literally the lowest link in the chain getting charged, plus a foreigner, a guy in turkey who nobody is ever going to be able to find. but all these other people, all these other ranking people who had very senior and important national security roles and decision making roles in the federal government of the united states, they were either in on it themselves or turned a blind eye to it and