statue of confederate general robert lee is set to be taken down in new orleans. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin and louis burgdorf. >> have a great weekend. >> did you ever urge former fbi director james comey to close or back down the investigation into michael flynn? >> no, no. next question. >> that was quite a press conference, by the way. we're going to get like a four-minute chunk of him. i'm going to straighten my tie first and then we'll get a four-minute chunk of him contradicting himself. check mark on the tie. this white house, they can't keep up. is willie up in new york? >> yes. >> llie, how are you doing? >> it's like home alone 2, the one where he's left in new york alone. >> that's the one where he meets

trump. >> it's very sad. jen is here, joe is here, a few of the guys, but just me and donald trump in the lobby of the plaza. >> go to the plaza, maybe you'll see the donald there. maybe michael jackson will wander around, all of your friends. anyway, the white house is so bad at what they're doing -- everybody is trying to think there's a grand conspiracy, there may be. just on the surface, they're so bad that donald trump in his press conference yesterday says, first of all, and throughout the day, well, i understand why they're doing what they're doing and i have great respect for it. but it's the greatest witch hunt in history and it's terrible and will divide the united states. and they're also doing the same thing about mike pence, denying that the white house had any knowledge of the investigation, and then statement leaking, well, we're very troubled that

mike pence is being kept out in the dark about all of the flynn investigation. they have two or three story lines going. they're just not consistent with each other. >> that's been the case for the last few weeks as well. i think you put your fenger on something really important which is vice president mike pence, people around him now talking to news outlets and saying he was left in the dark on these decisions. i think he's gotten to the point now where he's gone out three times and been asked to say something that three times later proven to be untrue. he's been such a good soldier since the time he was named nominee to be vice president, this is the first time we've seen a rift between pence and the trump white house. >> bob woodward is here. i'll introduce everybody. i'm doing all of this wrong. this is the first time i've ever done it before, so be patient with me. washington anchor for bbc world news america katty kay, pulitzer prize winning columnist and

associate es tore for "the washington post" eugene robinson and bob woodward and michael schmidt who again has a front page piece this morning. you were whacked by the alt right as carlos slim's blogger. >> i've become carlos slim's blogger. the right doesn't like me anymore, but that's okay. >> the right loved you when you were tearing into hillary clinton's story every day. >> how quickly they forget. but that's okay. it's part of the job. >> bob woodward, we're faced with two options. mike penn, a man i like very much personally, like his family very much personally. as it pertains to michael flynn, as it pertains to rod rosenstein and the firing of donald trump, as it pertains to more and more things -- >> the firing of donald trump.

>> mike pence, the vice president of the united states is either a sucker and a dupe for donald trump, is being set up that way to go out and lie and lie and lie again or he's a liar. there's no middle ground. if it is the first, i think it's about time for mike pence to go to donald trump and say, as i think most of us would, if you set me up to be your liar again, i'm walking. >> but it's not just pence. it's the whole team in the white house. if you look at this from some distance, it's very clear trump and this team were not ready for the presidency, not even close to it. all of these troubles lead back to no one who can come to trump and say, you know, you need to

put the cork in the bottle. we need to plan. we need to think strategically, even if it's just in 24-hour cycles, and it does not happen. i've never -- we describe it as unraveling. it's really not unraveling. it started that way and there was no way to sit down and say, remember, all the presidents before would have a kind of, okay, what's the message of the day, how do we organize the day? they don't even organize five minutes. >> they can't. willie, whatever say they, whatever they do, donald trump will be sure to contradict it in ten, 15 minutes with a tweet. in the case of mike pence, this has happened time and again. it sort of happened yesterday to rod rosenstein. he got tangled up in some

testimo testimony. of course, the big news coming out of that which we'll get to is that several senators came out and said this investigation has become a criminal investigation. >> they say that rod rosenstein inside that meeting came out and said in the meeting, yes, i knew ahead of time that comey was going to be fired and i was asked to draft a memo saying that he should be. let's talk about deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. he'll brief all house members about the controversial firing of fbi director james. yesterday he spoke to the senate and his explanation of the timeline of events did not set well with many democrats. >> he knew that comey was going to be removed prior to him writing his memo. >> do you believe ha the deputy attorney general knew before he wrote that memo that james comey was going to be fired? >> yes. >> what was it that he said that led you to believe it?

>> he knew the day before. >> did he indicate he was pressured into writing the memo? >> no. >> democrats pressing rosenstein on the scope of mueller's investigation, why sessions was involved in the firing and why the attorney general was playing a role in choosing comey's replacement. then there's the approach of the investigation going forward. some lawmakers interpreted rosenstein's brief as saying the investigation had crossed from a counterintelligence probe to a criminal one. >> has the investigation changed from counterterrorism to a criminal investigation? >> assume this has been a counterintellince investigation primarily, but as deputy attorney general rosen stein said, this is going to be up to director mueller under the appointment he got as special counsel. >> as someone who is on the intel committee and perhaps open to much more information than many of the other members, i don't want to comment on that.

>> i think the shot to the body, this is now considered a criminal investigation, and congress's ability to conduct investigations of all things russia has been severely limited, probably in an appropriate fashion. >> joe, we go back and forth. yesterday rosenstein was celebrated for naming a special counsel and perhaps redeeming himself, but yesterday confirming what donald trump said in the interview to lester holt last week, that the decision to fire comey had already been made and rosenstein was willing to go out and draft a memo to show reason and give cause for that. >> that is incredible. you look, gene robinson, at lindsey graham -- by the way, if they give a lifetime achievement award, capitol hill reporters give lifetime achievement awards to members of congress, lindsay should get it. i will tell you, he will tell you what other people want. i remember when we were running or weekly coups against newt gingrich, we would have secret

meetings. as we walked out of the secret meetings there would be all of this press, we'd all turn around to lindsay, you've got to stop telling where our secret meetings are. are you really going to take down newt gingrich. no comment. finally i just stopped going, i forget who it was. the press loves him. somebody says that's mott the guy you want guarding the pentag pentagon. let's talk about what lindsay said. this has become a criminal investigation. >> if you triangulate what all the senators said when they came out, it doesn't sound as if rosenstein pronounced that sentence right clearly. but he did give the impression that the investigation was going in a different way and it could become a criminal investigation and that they should be prepared for that and deal with it in

that way which sounded to me like a broad hint to watch your witness list, you may not get all the people you want because mueller is going to have them. >> which is what, katty, we heard and we talked about earlier this week, the fbi is looking not just at the election but a lot of donald trump's dealings with russia going back years. >> he has the capacity to expand his brief. that's why you're getting members of the intelligence committee, both the house and the senate, particularly democrats saying we have to protect our investigation, we still want access to those sources and witnesses as wealth. while is great mueller is doing his, that could take years. they want to be able to carry on moving fast on the investigations they have already going. >> willie being the good reporter that he is, picked up that rod rosenstein told people yesterday in the senate that you pronounce it rosenstein. thank you, willie. as we talk about rod rosenstein, one of the things i found so

fascinating about your piece is that when comey was talking to benjamin witis, he expressed concerns we he heard rosenstein had been selected as the deputy attorney general. why? >> comey is having lunch with his friend in march, ben wit tis and he says, it's great. you've got a new deputy attorney general coming in, senate confirmed. this will be good. it will give you stability. comey says he's okay, a solid guy, but i have concerns. he's a survivor. this is a guy in rosenstein -- >> this guy is a bureaucratic survivor, he'll do what it takes. >> i think he had been one of the longest serving u.s. attorneys in the country. comey says to be a survivor, you have to make some compromises. what wit tis said that comey was saying was basically, if trump is asking me for my loyalty,

asking me for a pledge, what has he gotten from rod and what has rod had to give up? at wittis points out, it only took two weeks for comey to find out what rod was going to be like under trump. >> you also talk about comey's discomfort with a couple of interactions, the first one was the one where trump had a lot of people in the room and this 6'8" giant tried to be a salmamander with his blue suit. >> comey is standing there, very concerned about being in the white use. he knows all the criticism he's taken because of the election, afraid of what trump can do, how can trump 'em base him public, he's standing in the back of the room and thinks he's gotten through because he's standing there trying to blend in with the curtain with his blue suit. >> he's on the other side of the room, too. he gets as far away from donald

trump as he possibly can. >> standing there hoping he won't get called on. he thinks he's almost made it through the ceremony, and then trump looks up and says and there's jim. >> comes in and shakes his hand, an awkward hug. there's another very, very telling interaction that you write about that you report on and it really doesn't sound so troubling, but it is actually. it reminds me an awful lot of the spirit around bill clinton getting on the plane to shoot the bull with loretta lynch about golf and kids. >> comey is about to get on a hole copter, the beginning of march, trying to fly down to richmond, virginia, to give a speech on opioids. the phone rings. they said it's the white house. he says, well, what como told

others is, look, i never get calls from the white house, that never happens. this must be really important. he picks up and the president just wants to chitchat and talk about crowd sizes and talk about what's going on. the thing is, the idea that we thought comey and trump were going to work together, we should have seen this coming so much -- >> this the trump doing what trump does. he was trying to build a relationship, a chummy relationship. >> comey is obsessed with this distance. he's like, i don't want to chitchat with the president. >> i forgot to mention, gene, the most important part of michael's article which was comey let him know at the very beginning, if you want to talk to me, go through proper channels. do not talk to me. i'm not talking to you about an investigation. so michael set it up very well in the story that, of course, we botched it here, i botched it

here because i'm just so bad at this. he set it up, don't call me, don't reach out to me, i'm not going to tell you about the investigation. yet trump keeps doing it. >> right. >> you're right about the mismatch of personalities. trump, who values loyalty over everything else, and comey who values independence over everything else. that's not going to work. but the larger context was this investigation that was going on. and so that made it utterly impossible that they were ever going to -- >> joe, i have a question of michael about this because it's superbly reported and clearly reflects comey's view, but why does he keep going and talking to trump? why does he take the calls? you say, oh, he didn't want to go to the white house for this law enforcement meeting, but he wanted to represent the fbi. but he knows what the stakes are here. why doesn't he say no?

and what surprises me who d doesn't take the sally yates model, she's got something, she goes to the counsel, mcgahn and says, hey, we've got this problem, let's deal with it. why does not comey take himself out of the picture. they can't, at least to the best of my knowledge, kidnap him and brg him down to the white house. there's something about, he likes it too much. >> is james comey part survivor that he sees in rod rosenstein? >> i think comey is someone that skates towards the puck of the dramatic. >> hold on, hold on. write that down. we're going to use that.

>> i think that he has some explaining to do. if trump february 14th says to him, hey, you've got to move past this flynn investigation, should comey have filed a crimes report? should comey have told the justice department? there's a lot of explaining of how they dealt with the white house that needs to be done. >> that's exactly what he did in the ashcroft case, too, he went home, he kept notes, wasn't revealed until he felt there was a need to reveal it. >> maybe he doesn't think his role is to come out and reveal it publicly. he said several times in the reporting that you have that you don't want to be totally dismissive of the president of the united states. he was trying to walk the fine line between being polite enough to the president he felt and documenting the concerns he had about the president trying to behave in a way that was inappropriate. >> willie geist as well, he also said that some of these things he wanted to keep to himself so it wouldn't prejudice the fbi

investigators against the president. >> right. if you listen to wittes' account, it sounds like trump is trying to keep comey around as long as he can to try to get some loyalty. when he realizes that's not going to happen, he cuts him lose. one question for michael over your reporting the last couple weeks, how do you square it with the testimony he gave 15 dayis o, may 3rd, when he was asked about whether or not he had political pressure put on him to halt an investigation. he said, quote, it's not happened in my experience. given all he's saying, it sounds very specifically like it's happened in his experience. how do you square with what he said in front of the judiciary committee on may 3rd? >> when we were writing the story yesterday, the white house said you have to look at the comey testimony. i said send me the testimony. i looked at the quote.

that's pretty interesting and very specific. then i went back and read the larger context of the quote. the larger context of the quote was in terms of the justice department telling the fbi to end investigations. so indeed comey could have said there, look, this is something we've experienced with the white house here, but in the context of the quote, they were talking about the justice department, the attorney general and the interactions between the fbi and doj which can be these odd, difficult and tense things. >> the distinction was that it wasn't the president himself asking. >> correct. comey could have offered it at that point. if the fbi director had come out two weeks ago as he was still in office and said, yes, the president has tried to influence the flynn investigation -- >> a bombshell. >> i just wanted to ask you, i'm carrying around the final days with me, your book about nixon's

last year in office. what's so striking and what you forget is, all of the president's men didn't get thrown in jail because of connections with the break-in. it was a variety of things. they got the vice president on tax evasion. they got other people on money laundering. when i hear it's a criminal investigation, not lined up neatly with russia, you can see there are a lot of people around trump that have lived very compted lives over the past five to 35 years, and a lot of people could be in jeopardy for reasons that aren't lined up straight. one other thing, too, i want you to explain, there is such a misperception about impeachment, we're nowhere near it, but crimes and misdemeanors are not crimes and misdemeanors. you go back to the federalist papers, and i saw people describe them last night, it's a

breach of public trust as defined by the members of congress. it's not as tight and neat -- we're well beyond just looking at collusion. >> nothing is tight and neat in all of this. there's no question about it. but i mean the superb reporting about comey, there is a remedy, and that is comey goes to the white house counsel and says, we all understand donald trump. he doesn't understand obstruction of justice. he doesn't think legally. you've got to call him off. you need to have a talk with him and say stop coming to me. >> bob, how many stories are there where bob mcgahn doesn't do his job? it doesn't get past mcgahn. >> you need to make an effort to protect yourself. comey needs to protect himself in all of this and say did i always act in a way to not just

protect the fbi and myself, but the president and presidents are about to go off the rails -- without elaborating, i've had presidents tell me things that are top secret, and then after the interview, the aides run in and say, oh, my god, don't use that. if you do, this and this and this will happen. look at it reasonably and do that. presidents do things like this, part of the process. what trump is not doing, and this is theatal problem, potentially fatal problem. he has not said to his staff and people around him let's organize what we're going to do. it is chaos, and the chaos is causing all of us to kind of

have gas pains, but the world is having gas pains about this. >> that is one way to put it, and the world seems to be skating toward the puck of the dramatic, statement i made up earlier this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump is asked to reflect on the first six months. his answer is worth all four minutes that we'll be playing to you straight ahead. back in march, michael flynn's attorney said the former national security adviser had a story to tell. now it appears he's telling it. we'll bring you the new details emerging this morning. first here is bill karins, a check on what can be another severe day of weather. tell us about it. >> we got lucky yesterday. high risk of severe weather. almost 20 tornadoes, didn't have any fatalities or injuries. they were all misses. that was great. they were all out in the open fields in areas of rural oklahoma and kansas. we had impressive hail, wind damage and really cool lightning

shots. this is upward lightning, starts at the ground and comes up, really impressive. there it is, sheet lightning coming from the ground. colorado, take a look at what happened in colorado springs, a little slow motion, big huge snowflake footage. this was 18 inches of snow in the foothills in colorado in the middle of may. let's get into today, st. louis is by far the worst weather this morning, severe thunderstorm warning over the top of you now. stay indoors for another 15 minutes or so. today, 24 million people at risk. if we get any tornadoes, most likely between abilene, wichita falls and the ft. worth area. we could get the strong storms back to indianapolis. then on saturday with 10 million people at risk from memphis to indianapolis, this storm system will weaken as it heads to the east. this is the last day of the mini may heat wave. things cool off in the northeast this weekend including new york city. a quieter weekend compared to the messy and severe weather

we've dealt with this week. washington, d.c. after a sweltering day in the mid 90s, one more hot day today before you cool off this weekend. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. so you miss the big city? i don't miss much... definitely not the traffic. excuse me, doctor... the genomic data came in. thank you. you can do that kind of analysis? yeah, watson. i can quickly analyze millions of clinical and scientific reports to help you tailor treatment options for the patient's genomic profile. you can do that? even way out here? yes. even way out here. and it's also a story mail aabout people even way out here? and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you

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welcome back to "morning joe." yesterday began about this time with if president lashing out on twitter against what he sees as the witch hunt that's against him, saying it's the single greatest witch hunt of a pollation in american history. his pushback against the russia charges continued during a joint news conference at the white house yesterday with the president of colombia. >> as you look back over the past six months or year, have you had any recollection where you've wondered if anything you have done has been something that might be worthy of criminal charges in these investigations or impeachment as some of the left are implying? >> i think it's totally ridiculous. everyone thinks so.

we have to get back to working our country properly so we can take care of the problems we have. we have plenty of problems. we've done a fantastic job. we have a tremendous group of people, millions and millions of people that are looking at what you just said and said what are they doing? director comey was very unpopular with most people. i actually thought when made that decision, and i lot got a very, very strong recommendation, as you know, from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. but when i made that decision, i actually thought i would be a bipartisan decision, because you look at all the people on the democratic side, not only the republican side, that were saying such terrible things about director comey. then he had the very poor performance on wednesday. that was a poor, poor performance. so poor, in fact, that i believe -- you'd have to ask him because i don't like to speak for other people, but i believe that's why the deputy attorney

general went out and wrote his very, very strong letter. and then on top of that, after the wednesday performance by director comey, you had a person come and have to readjust the record which many people have never seen before because they were misstatements made, and i thought that was something that was terrible. we need a great director of the fbi. i cherish the fbi. it's special, all over the problem, the fbi is special. the fbi has not had that special reputation with what happened in the campaign, what happened with respect to the clinton campaign and even you could say directly or indirectly with respect to the much more successful trump campaign. we're going to have a director who will be outstanding. i'll be announcing that director very soon and i look forward to doing it. i think the people in the fbi

will be very, very thrilled. just in concluding, we look forward to getting this whole situation behind us so that when we go for the jobs, we go for the strong military, when we go for all of the things that we've been pushing so hard and so successfully include health care, because obamacare is collapsing. it's dead. it's gone. there's nothing to compare anything to because we don't have health care in this country. you just look at what's happening. aetna just pulled out. other insurance companies are pulling out. we don't have health care. obamacare is a fallacy. it's gone. we need health care, we need to cut taxes. we're going to cut taxes. forget what i want. it will be the biggest tax cut in the history of our nation and that's what i want. it's going to bring back companies, going to bring back jobs. we lost so many jobs and so many companies to countries that are not so far from you, mr.

president. they're very close to you, actually and many other places through out the world. we're going to change that. we're going to have expansion. we already do. you look at what's happening with ford and general motors in michigan and ohio. you look at the tremendous number of jobs being announced in so many different fields, that's what i'm proud of. that's what we want to focus our energy on. the other is something i can only tell you, there was no collusion, and everybody, even my enemies have said there is no collusion. so we want to get back and keep on the track that we're on because the track that we're on is record setting and that's what we want to do, we want to break very positive records. >> joe, i'll let you decide where you want to begin with that answer. the thing he said over and over there is he's back to the rosenstein defense of why he fired james comey. he said deputy attorney general rod rosenstein drafted a memo

and that's why i fired james comey. that's not what he said yesterday. go for it. >> go for it is right. i love literature in high school and clenl, but i just could never understand "as i lay dying" because faulkner's stream of consciousness would leave my teeth hurting. i was as confused with faulkner as i was yesterday watching donald trump actually sounding far less articulate than the esiden colombia who actually seems to speak our language much better than donald trump, even when he's not speaking our language. it was bizarre, meandering, wandering group of statements. he's changing his story on rod rosenstein. there are a lot of americans out there. i know there are a lot of reporters out there that are very frustrated by the fact that the truth doesn't matter to

donald trump, and reality doesn't seem to matter to this white house; that they change their stories every day. one of the good things about bob mueller being appointed is facts do matter. he's a "just the facts, ma'am" sort of guy. donald trump can change his story on rod rosenstein as much as he wants to. it only impeaches his credibility even more as this investigation goes forward. bob woodward, i want to go back to something donald trump tweeted yesterday morning saying this is the greatest witch hunt in american history. we are all reminded by when richard nixon said what you were doing, what woodward, bernstein, what "the washington post" were doing against him was a great, quote, witch hunt. >> yes. of course he didn't like it. the problem here is trump -- one

of the criticisms in the obama white house, i spent a lot of time reporting on that, was people would say they're being mean to him. people would say what's the budgetary implication of this, what are the allies thinking? no one ever asked the question what are we trying to accomplish? that's what president trump needs to do, needs to start out the morning and say what am i trying to accomplish. you know him well, i don't think he wakes up in the morning and says how can screw things up and cause damage to this country and the presidency. >> i want to ask -- >> what is he trying to do? >> willie, i'm going to bring you into this. i was telling somebody this yesterday afternoon. if you want to understand donald trump, you don't have to read "the art of the deal." you need to read the first page

of "the art of the deal." has anybody read "art of the deal?" willie, on the very first page donald trump says -- this is back in the '80s? >> '80s. >> he said i don't plan ahead. i show up in the office. i wait for phone calls to come in, i wait for things to happen. i don't plan things out, things just happen, and when they happen, i react to them. that really was for anybody who knew donald trump in new york, that's how his business ran. at times that worked for him. it certainly worked for him personally. but it's clear that's how he's trying to run his white house. that's why four months in he's having to hire criminal lawyers. it's just an absolute train wreck. this man at 70 years old is stuck in his habits. he does not appear to be changing, willie. >> he's an add-lib guy. now what we have is an add-lib

presidency. which is to say if there is a plan at the beginning of the day, if the white house does come up with a strategy, they can't count on their principal to carry it out through the rest of the day or even the next day, cat they. i'm thinking again about the lester holt interview, where they said it was rod rosenstein's memo that caused the firing of comey and in a single interview with lester holt, he blows that up. it was his strength during the campaign. it's why people liked him, said what came to his mind, reacted in real time, was honest and up front in the way h spoke. that's more difficult when you're president of the united states and you have an agenda to carry out? >> probably why they came in despite all the people telling him you shouldn't appoint general flynn to be your national security adviser, we have to go back in time and remember that moment of incredible confidence that the trump team had after winning an election that no one thought they would be able to win. they thought they won it by doing things against the conventional wisdom.

one thing on going in and not having any plans, not all of the white house is working like that at the moment. i had a meeting this week in the white house on the foreign trip. it has been -- they've spent a lot of time planning that. they have an incredibly ambitious agenda. >> on foreign policy, you look at secretary mattis and you look at general mcmaster, you look at dina powell, you look at that group, yes, they're planning this out. they believe they have a chance to make a real difference in u.s. foreign policy. but what they also understand is, though none of this will stay this publicly because they're so disciplined, or privately, what they have to be worried about is how a single tweet can undermine their relationship with israel. >> or a single phone call or comment about nafta. >> single aside at a press conference. i would love to know what their

position is on a lot of the controversies that erupted in israel. it's everybody just going in their own different direction. we'll keep talking about this going in different directions, talking about president trump and president trump reportedly having a personal message to michael flynn last month saying, quote, stay strong. read into that what you will. we'll have investigative reporter michael itzkoff here talking about the former national security adviser who is still in contact with the man who fired him. he joins us with that reporting next on "morning joe." you seek audience. yes, wise man. i'm confident in my credit score...

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donald trump and his associates are facing multiple fbi investigations over foreign payments and possible collusion with a foreign government as well as investigations in the house and senate and now a special counsel. i just wish someone had warned us about the disastrous consequences of a president who would be under investigation while in office. >> the fbi now has multiple open criminal investigations into hillary clinton. >> this election will determine whether we remain a free country

in the truest sense of the word or we become a corrupt banana republic controlled by foreign governments. >> i will ask to appoint a special prosecutor -- >> it's literally the only campaign promise he's actually kept. >> oh, my god. >> can't make it up, joe. in his own words. >> you can't make it up. i will appoint a special prosecutor. whoo. >> or cause one to be appointed. >> his words, michael schmidt, you can go back into the campaign and find something where he actually, his own words are the most devastating -- is the most devastating evidence against him. >> the most interesting thing i saw recently was the disclosure

of the secret information to russia. this is a guy who ran on the issue of how hillary clinton managed classified information. it was what mike flynn pushed. it was their whole thing. she never -- we have no evidence those secrets were ever given up to a foreign power. here he was in the oval office doing that exact thing. >> still ahead, we'll bring in senator sheldon white house that had sally yates testify last night, deputy republican whip congressman adam kinzinger when "morning joe" comes right back.

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welcome back to "morning joe." special counsel robert mueller may have something else to look into, ongoing contacts between president trump and general michael flynn.

michael isikopf says not only does michael remain loyal to the president but the two are still in communication. according to the report, flynn was meeting friends for dinner when he indicated he just received a message from the president saying, quote, stay strong. michael isikopf joins us now. when was this, put it in context and is flynn still talking to the president in the last couple of weeks? >> that was the evening of april 25th. that was a tough day for michael flynn. because jason chaffetz and elijah cummings had just come ought saying flynn had not disclosed the foreign payments he had gotten from turkey and from russia. and that this raised legal questions. so, his legal woes were deepening. he's got mounting legal bills from his lawyers. he knows that the fbi is

investigating him.and, you know question on everybody's mind is what are his views at this point about president trump, who fired him? you know, his lawyer had suggested, said he wanted immunity. was he going to offer damaging information about the president? far from it. flynn indicates he is completely loyal to the president and then he says, and this started some, as the meal was leaving, he had just gotten a message from president trump to stay strong. now, you know, we were talking before about how president trump doesn't recognize boundaries. he was talking to the fbi director about pending cases. this is almost just as starting in some ways. here is a guy who was w.h.o. is in the crosshairs of a federal investigation that involves, in part, his work at the white

house and the president is still in touch with him. >> so this is not something that any counsel would advise him to do. did the president just reach out independently? do you know how he has been in touch with general flynn? >> we don't know. there's some indications that this has been ongoing contact. what's significant about this is, you know, there's multiple areas where flynn has potential legal liabilities, but just go back to what got him fired in the first place. that conversation with the russian ambassador, kislyak, december 29th, in which he indicated they would revisit sanctions. that was not known to vice president pence and others. one key question here that has not been answered is did president trump and president-elect trump authorize him to have that conversation? was he briefed on it at the time? you remember, vice president pence said he didn't know about

it. the white house gave misleading, false accounts. what did the president know? >> and that's obviously going to be part of the investigation and mike flynn has a story to tell, katty. he's going to tell it. but on these phone calls, any lawyer -- i don't know what the political impact would be, but any criminal defense lawyer would be horrified if their client made the phone call that donald trump made and then said "stay strong." it certainly does sound, at that point, like he's telling him don't give in. don't give an inch. don't reveal any information. >> getting involved in the investigation in some way. >> i'm on your side. it's not direct but any criminal defense attorney would be horrified. you look at donald trump's staff. again, this is a pattern. why wha have they complained about? they can't get his private cell phone out of his hands, a cell phone that could be listened into by everybody. and you continue to hear that they can't stop him from talking to a stream of people all over

the place. >> yeah. but they're also -- first of all, they all signed up for those jobs. they've been with donald trump for a long time. the reporting does now suggest it wasn't just donald trump who wanted michael flynn. ivanka trump, jared kushner also supported that appointment as well. this is the staff that is trying to have the best of both worlds. they want that maverick politician who makes decisions that are not part of the tradition but also wants him to be contained. >> when you start having the possibility of a criminal investigation maybe it's time to reel it in a tad. >> you think. >> michael isikoff, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> always good having you. president trump and james comey have very different recollections of what went on behind closed doors. one of the men is not telling the truth. white house, russia and an investigation that may have just turned from counterintelligence

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many other things. so i can tell you that we want to bring this great country of ours together. believe me, there is no collusion. russia is fine. whether it's russia or anybody else, my number one priority, believe me, is the united states of america. there was no collusion and everybody, even my enemies, have said there is no collusion. >> welcome back to "morning joe." it's friday. where is mika, willie? >> south of france, as far as i know. >> where she is always. >> yeah. >> who is with us today? >> associate editor of "the washington post" bob woodward, associate editor of "the washington post" eugene robinson and senior politics reporter at usa today heidi prizbella.

>> heidi, did he say the name right? >> actually, he did. >> yeah. it's not the chris matthews. >> we're not going to get to the polish version but you're all saying it right in american. >> what is the polish version? >> the prz is a psh sound. >> i'm stunningly superficial. that's why. michael isikoff story about stay strong. he said there were echoes. there were echoes of a certain message that richard nixon sent to john -- >> johndean. >> oh, john dean. >> in the middle of the cover-up nixon said to dean, good job, john. and dean interpreted it, rightly, as stay on the reservation. now, it's unfair to say this is

what's going on in this case but, again, it's where is the mute button on donald trump? who can find it? whatever the intent is, it sends that message of, oh, yeah, we're part of not coming clean on this. >> gene, it may be unfair to draw any conclusions from him, saying stay strong but it's not inappropriate to say that that was wildly out of line. if there ever criminal investigations, that will be an exhibit. >> exactly. >> that will be a line of questions, something that the jury will look in to, to say was donald trump trying to influence a juror? and what other evidence do we have of that? >> exactly.

all this behavior that looks very much like a cover-up. that's just the situation and he keeps doing it. >> joe, as someone who covered the hillary campaign -- covered the campaign at all, i find it highly unlikely that donald trump didn't know that that type of interaction with law enforcement official during an active investigation was highly inappropriate given the outroar that there was over bill clinton simply talking to loretta lynch on the tarmac. another thing i want to mention, joe -- and looked at -- i don't knowf ts has been mentioned yet. i went back and looked at the timeline last night. after trump was pressuring comey in this way, it was only a week or two that you saw some of those committee chairs like chairman burr somewhat, in some people's views, inappropriately speak out and try to poo-poo the can connections between the

white house and russia. so, there's also evidence that there was a broader campaign going on here to try and squelch this from going forward by also starting to pressure members on the hill. perhaps it was in coordination. perhaps it was because he couldn't get comey to do what he wanted. >> and we heard, obviously, people on the hill getting phone calls from the white house, saying, hey, you need to go out and echo our line that there's nothing here to the collusion charges. let's talk about the james comey phone call and your story, which we'll get to in one second. let's talked about where he summoned a -- >> comey is about to get on this helicopter and say the white house is on the phone. he thinks it's an urgent

national security matter. he gets on the phone, sitting in his suv as the helicopter is waiting for him. and the president wanted to chitchat. and for comey, who is obsessive about his independence, perhaps too much some people think, maybe too far, he says, why is he doing this? he has asked me for my loyalty. he has asked me to look past the flynn investigation and now he's calling to chitchat. i don't want to be his friend. this is not appropriate. >> right. certainly, willie, has echoes of bill clinton sauntering on to lore yatta lynch's jet and decig it might be a good time to sit and talk about golf and grandkids in the middle of an investigation into hillary clinton. >> that sounds like the donald trump a lot of people have known for so long. he picks up the phone and calls people to touch base. sometimes he's got an agenda, sometimes he just wants to talk. and it's another case of a man who spent his life in the private sector, a man who has

been a ceo, a man who has lived in the new york tabloids, calling around, controlling a message, being educated in what it means to be the president of the united states and how different it is. he needs to have guardrails and needs somebody, to your point before, next to him, who has that mute button, as bob woodward put it. >> and, willie, there are guidelines -- we're showing them up on the screen right now. guidelines that prohibit that sort of contact. and michael schmidt's article reveals today, comey already told trump if you want to talk to me if, you want to talk about the investigation, go through proper channels. this is a guy who wouldn't play basketball with president barack obama. >> he said respectfully, sir, have white house counsel call

the department of justice if you have an inquiry. rod rosenstein will brief all house members about the firing of fbi director james comey. he spoke about the timeline of events yesterday that did not add up or sit well with some democrats. >> he knew that comey was going to be removed prior to him writing his memo. >> do you believe that the deputy attorney general knew before he wrote that memo that james comey was going to be fired? >> yes. >> what was it that he said that led you to believe? >> he knew the day before. >> did he indicate that he was pressured into writing that memo? >> no. >> reports behind closed doors, things grew heated. democrats pressed deputy attorney general rosenstein on the scope of mueller's investigation, why attorney general jeff sessions was involved in the firing and why sessions is playing a role in choosing comey's replacement. then there's the approach of the

investigation going forward. some lawmakers interpreted rosenstein's brief saying it crossed from a counterintelligence probe to a criminal one. >> i think the shot to the body is it's now considered a criminal investigation and congress' ability to conduct investigations of all things russia has been severely limited, probably in an appropriate fashion. >> the attorney general confirm that it is now a criminal investigation? >> i never got to ask my question specifically about that. but the takeaway i have is that everything he said was that you need to treat this investigation as it may be a criminal investigation. >> it seems to me that with all of the various oversight investigations occurring in the senate intelligence committee, judiciary committee, subcommittee of those committees that that is a train wreck waiting to happen. >> and, of course, the takeaway is that this could, in fact, be

a criminal investigation. lindsey graham and others suggesting that yesterday which, obviously, ups the ante. reports that the white house was lawyering up, donald trump lawyering up. so, michael schmidt, rod rosenstein, very interesting. he writes the memo, despite the fact that he knows that trump wants to fire comey, regardless. so, it's a very strange thing for rosenstein to do. but it seems to be a guy that's deciding to be a team player and go along. and, actually, undercut the inpendence othe justice department. but that was a concern that james comey had, according to your reporting in "the times" this morning. >> comey, sitting in his office in march, having lunch with a friend and the friend says to him, hey, you know, rod's coming on. you're going to have a senate confirmed deputy attorney general and comey says yeah, he's good but i've got some concerns and the friend says

what do you mean? this is a long-time federal prosecutor, has been a u.s. attorney. he's respected. and he said rod's a survivor. and to be a survivor in the justice department, you have to give something up. and the thing is that it only took two weeks for comey to see what rod was really going to be like when he writes that memo. >> how interesting that rod rosenstein, as a survivor, makes a call earlier this week that is hailed as strong and independent and then he goes to the senate yesterday and he doesn't try to script the issue. if he were another member of the trump administration, he would try to muddy things up and say, no, i'm not exactly -- i wasn't exactly sure. he could have answered that a thousand different ways. instead he said, yes, i knew about it. >> joe, a couple of days ago, i sat down with senator durbin on judiciary, second ranking democrat. he said we strongly believe that

this man was essentially set up. that he was instructed to do this. either by someone in the white house or someone higher in justice department which, of course, would be sessions. and that is what we're going to try to get to the bottom of. they got their answer in a sense and he confirmed that this decision had already been made. they couldn't get answers from him on who done it. was it the president? he said i don't think that the president would do tt but i think he might have someone else do it for him. and that was the answer that they couldn't get. today, previewing today in the house, i think you'll see house democrats now in this meeting take that baton and push him a bit further. rosenstein had been warned up and down, your credibility is on the line here. >> joe, this is really -- but then rosenstein appoints bob mueller as the special counsel to investigate this. and when the histories of this

are written, i think -- >> that's what it's going to say. >> that is the pivot point here. there will be before may 18th and after may 18th. mueller, if you look at the history, he came in as fbi director one week before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. he was, my god, what the hell have i got here? he sat down with president bush and president bush said to him, this can never happen again. and so what did mueller do? 12 years as fbi director, he essentially took half of the fbi and made them counterterrorist investigators and we had no attack. he had a theory if there's any information about a terrorist plot in the united states, we're going to go all the way to investigate. >> this is rosenstein, you know,

getting his credibility back. but i wouldn't call it out of the question that he, himself, because of those circumstances become a witness. >> right. i think so. and, willie, all of this plays a backdrop to a possible upcoming vote on the next fbi director. >> right. >> withemocrats agitated by what they learned yesterday, with a criminal investigation coming along the way. i have always liked joe lieberman a great deal. he's from my now home state. but at the same time, there is deep concern, inside the fbi and also on capitol hill, that you replace a fired fbi professional with a politician of any kind. >> yeah. i think they would be wise to step outside the political realm with this choice. it came out of trump's mouth himself yesterday. he floated the idea that he's going to make a decision very soon. remember, they said it could happen as early as this week. it would have to happen within

the next few hours as he leaves for saudi arabia. he said himself it could be joe lieberman, former senator. peggy noonan writes "history is going to judge us how we comported ourselves in this murky time. it would be good if top hill republicans went en masse to the president and said stop it. clean up your act. shut your mouth. do your job. stop tweeting. stop seethig. stop wasting time. you lost the thread and don't even know what you were elected to do anymore. get a grip. grow up and look at the terrain, see it for what it is. we have limited time. every day you undercut yourself, you undercut us. more important, you keep from happening the good policy things that we could have done together

f you don't grow up you'll wind up abandoned and alone. act like a president or leave the presidency. could it help? for a minute. about it would be constructive not carping, leaking, posing, cheering and tweeting but actually trying to lead. the president needs to be told, democracy is not your play thing. >> it's very disturbing because like many of mr. trump's critics are becoming infected by trumpism in the sense that they say on the one hand he needs to be, perhaps, removed from office because of his indifference to constitutional norms and then they say it's a misunderstanding of constitutional norms by trying to invoke the impeachment provision as though he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors or that he's unfit to discharge the duties of the office which clearly is stretching the constitution for short term and partisan measures. with regard to mr. mueller, it's

mildly amusing to me. especially on the right but also on the left. there's been a nonstop screech against the establishment for years. if you had, in the dictionary, the word establishment and illustrated it with a picture next to it, it would be a picture of mueller. st. paul school where he's athlete of theyear. princeton unrgraduate. officer of marines, university of virginia law school. reticent. this is what the establishment looks like at its best. >> wow, george, you just depressed me, thinking about my misspent life. that's quite a line up. you are right, it is the establishment. i want to ask you, though, to follow up on what peggy wrote this morning and ask you, because we talk about it around the set. george, have you seen anything at all that would suggest that

donald trump is capable of absorbing facts, retaining facts and then processing those facts to get an outcome that may not be positive but is less destructive to his presidency and to this republic? >> let me answer your question with a question. can you name one thing that we've learned about donald trump since the inauguration day that we didn't know a year before inauguration day? i think he's in character. the american people voted for this project. that is, they said, let's try improvisational amateurism. let's try making the presidency an entry level job. let's try putting in the presidency the first person in american history to have not a day's experience in public service, civilian or military. they voted for this. whether this man can be made compatible with the functioning rb agenda is one question.

two good things are certain to come from a trump presidency, if it persists as it ist now is. first, congress will be less invertebrate than it has in the past. it's been spinning off its powers and becoming more and more differential to the president, less and less protectional to its prerogatives, less and less acting as madison wanted it to act, a rivalrous protector against the government. we've been treating the presidency, under both parties, as a semi sacred moritude of the nation. chief of state with all the symbolic trappings associated with it. maybe now we will begin to demystify the cult of the presidency and shrink it back

from its grotesque, swollen nature to something that it is, the head of one of the three branches of one of our governments whose job is secondary to the congress, to see that the laws are faithfully executed. >> well, i'll tell you, that would actually be a positive development out of all of this, if that, in fact, ended up being the case. george will, as always, thank you so much. really appreciate you being here this morning. >> glad to be here. >> great insights. willie, i wanted actually to answer that question because it's a question that comes up a lot. have we seen anything since donald trump has been sworn in as president that we didn't see in the year before that? i can answer yes. you may feel comfortable answering yes as well. we've all known him for some time. and never told this story before, but i called in -- very

busy with my kids. it was andrew's birthday. andrew is my second son, who was born january 20th. so every four years, his birthday falls on inauguration. well, it was andrew's birthday. we were having a birthday party and i started getting calls from people in the white house, who i had known, who were very concerned about that press conference that sean spicer was about to give, about crowd size. >> crowd size, yeah. >> they said we just want your opinion. i said i think it would be a disaster. i think it would be the stupidest thing. you better stop. you're going to -- it's a horrible way to start it. and then they called back after spicer's press conference and i said, you all look like fools. you just made a fool -- go back in. cut the cake. go through the night and then i

get a phone call from the white house that says the president would like to talk to you. so i go in the other room and talk to him. and after about three minutes, we have a call. i'm trying to explain why this wathe wst thing that he could have done on his first day in office. and he just -- he didn't get it. it was a different guy. you could just tell. he was completely mesmerized by the office he was in, and the surroundings. and i called mika and said he's gone. he's lost. the guy that we have known is now in a bubble and any chance for anybody to get to him seems to be lost. he was so taken -- you could hear it in his voice. he was taken by the phone systems for some reason. i don't know what the phone systems are like in the white house -- >> maybe they're recording the conversation. god help us. >> i can tell you as somebody

that knew him for over a decade, it was subtle but i knew immediately he was inside that bubble and he had changed. and i will say there are a lot of things in donald trump that i have seen and other people that have known him for a decade that don't recognize him now. >> definitely caught up in the trappings. after the ribbon cutting ceremony where he got the health care bill through the house and said i'm the president. he's fond of showing the diet coke button on his desk in the oval office and all the things that come with the presidency. >> let's hope that's the only red button he ever pushes, but go ahead. >> exactly. i think it was too much to ask to think that donald trump was going to change and would bring in these people who could suddenly steer him and tell him who to be at any given moment. this is donald trump. this is, as george will said, what people voted for. he will do what he thinks is right, come hell or high water, even if a plan is put together

by communication staff or senior advisers, he may sit down in an interview and say something that blows the whole thing up, as he did last week. the idea of bringing the wise men in, people who can steer m, he is always going to be donald trump. >> who is the perso you can talk to and come in and stop you and make you think twice about it? and he said i am that person. and i said -- >> that doesn't work. >> and i said to him, that's unfortunate. he said i know you don't like that but that's how i've run my career and that's how i'm going to run the white house. it underlines that whole saying that the presidency doesn't build character, it reveals it. i would say it not only reveals character, it exaggerates character. it amplifies whatever character traits you take into the oval office are amplified by your four or eight years there, or 2 1/2 years there.

michael schmidt, great reporting. who is calling you slim's personal blogger? >> the far right has taken that as my nickname. >> the far right or alt right? as a conservative, there is a difference. >> i haven't done a case study yet on all the people going after me on twitter but -- >> don't. you don't want to know. >> what does that mean? >> i don't have a lot of fans right now. >> carlos slim's blogger. >> what does carlos slim's blogger mean? >> historical reference. >> what is that spoetsed to suggest? >> an attack on "the timings," trying undermine our credibility. but that's okay. >> you guys are doing so horribly now. >> we're doing really, really, really terribly. >> we all are. this has been devastating. we've had two of our four highest rated shows over the past week only behind election day 2008 and election day 2016.

it's the same with "the times," with "the post," ""the wall street journal", "usa today." >> for the first time it's really cool to be a journalist. maybe only ten more minutes but it's really cool. >> i don't know. did you ever see all the presidents men? >> i want to be like this. >> this guy here? >> taking a picture of this. >> exactly. let's take a picture. >> stick to the reporting. stick to the reporting. and you have done a great job. of course, one of the realities here is that we've got an old newspaper war going between t ""the new york times"" and "the washington post." >> it's good. >> it's time to dial back a little bit. there are people around -- certainly not you. certainly not the reporters at

the post who have been kind of binge drinking, the anti-trump kool-aid. and that is not going to work in journalism. let the politicians havehat binge drinking but don't add -- this is about -- >> i completely agree with that, bob. and i'll add to that. the one thing, there has been incredible reporting over the past year and a half. what's been happening the past three months has been absolutely stellar. the one that i keep going back to is context. context. everything is not watergate. everything is not the biggest scandal ever. the job is to report and to provide context. and that's not your job. that's an editor's job to make sure that the articles lined up on the paper provide that context so every day doesn't look like it's the last day of this presidency. >> just -- i'm sorry.

i know they want to move on. >> got to break. you're going to get good at this. i'm going to keep you with me. >> alex, i can blame bob woodward. you can't do anything about that. go ahead, bob. >> gene robinson knows this from the post. when ben bradley was the editor of "the post," it was always, don't gloat. you know, get self satisfaction out of doing the job. no gloating. and he would -- >> ever. >> -- literally at times during the nixon period run around the newsroom and say no gloating. >> keep your head down. still ahead, nancy pelosi urges his caucus to cool it with talk of impeachment. there we go. she's not holding back her own scathing criticism. we'll play you that sound when we come back. and we'll talk to senate democrat shelden whitehouse. you're watching "morning joe." we shall return. ♪ (woman) one year ago today mom started searching for her words.

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what can i say? the place is unruly, undisciplined, unreliable and unsafe. they need some adult supervision. didn't the president say something like nobody has been subjected to more criticism. really? you're telling me that? you've got to have thick skin. get some thick skin, okay? >> despite those comments yesterday, house minority leader nancy pelosi is calling on democrats to show restraint when it comes to talk ton impeachment, urging them to, quote, curb their enthusiasm until the facts are known. we'll get some of those next with the member of the judiciary committee shelden whitehouse when "morning joe" comes back. ♪

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much more information to many of the other members, i don't want to characterize or comment on that. >> i think the shot to the body is now it's now considered a criminal investigation and congress' ability to conduct investigations of all things russia has been severely limited, probably in an appropriate fashion. >> with us now, member of the judiciary committee, democratic senator shelden whitehouse of rhode island. thank you for being with us. has this now moved to being a criminal investigation? >> i think it's both a criminal and a national security investigation at this point and one of the issues that bob mueller will have to sort through is managing the criminal investigation independently while still providing the necessary intelligence feeds out of the investigation to the broader intelligence community. >> and tell us generally, what does a criminal investigation involve? >> hard to tell. and that's part of what gave

deputy attorney general rosenstein such difficulty yesterday because it's not his call and it's not our ca. it bob mueller's call and can include things as -- there are a lot of questions yesterday about the rosenstein memo and rod was very cautious about answering any of those questions because he said it is possible for the very creation of that rosenstein memo to be part of the mueller investigation. until it's clear it's not going to be, he doesn't want to start muddying up the waters for the mueller investigation. >> so, senator, he admitted to you what some have speculated here on the set this morning, that that memo may bring him into the middle of this investigatio

investigation. >> how does that change the senate investigation and what's the distinction between the two? >> it really doesn't very much. you have a situation in which congress would love to peer over the shoulder of bob mueller and see everything that he's doing and bob mueller would love to have all of us just plain go away. the fact of the matter is that there's going to have to be deconfidential between our legitimate oversight and legislative investigative efforts and his criminal investigative efforts and we're going to need to get a system in place so that that deac deaconfliction. and you have the secrecy, privacy and independence of his criminal investigation and the fact that any intelligence information that comes out of it

needs to be fed to the intelligence community so that we can be making appropriate national security decisions. it's not going to be all that easy. i think mueller is a capable guy >> gene robinson?hrough it. >> slightly different question. you're a member of the opposition now. this is a republican white house that's kind of in chaos. is there any sort of constructive communication between senate democrats and the white house that moves the country forward on any issue? >> well, i'm in touch with the white house on their cyber security executive order, was consulted beforehand i think there are issues outside of the immediate tumult of the oval office and all these investigations where, you know, good people have been around

government for a long time are trying to get important things done. we're more than happy to work with him on that. >> senator, katty kay here. what's the sense on your timetable of your investigations and the fbi's investigations following your hearings with rod rosenstein? quite a lot of frustrations that things are moving slowly and we're not getting much information out of both the congress and senate from their intelligence committees. any sense of the timing of things? >> we need two really rapid things to happen from former director mueller, now special counsel mueller. we need him to set up whatever the air traffic control is going to be so we are deconflicted and not bumping into each other. you don't want him dragged in front of the intelligence or judiciary committee to give further complicating testimony. examples like that need to be deconflicted. i don't know that that is a true

statemt but it's examples like that that need to be deconflicted. second, at some point, they'll have to make clear what exactly the new structure is now that the department of justice has to incorporate bob as a special counsel. what does that look like? who reports to whom? where does dana buente, for instance, figure into this? once those questions are answered we'll be able to engage much more directly and know whose lines are whose. we should be able to go forward more directly with what the russians did with a view that our defenses are up so they can't do it so easily again in 2018. those are legislative matters and laws that need to be changed. that's a really important task that has not gone away because bob mueller was appointed. >> bob woodward? >> senator, bob woodward. >> yes, sir. >> key lingering question in all of this that has not been answered, is president trump

under investigation? >> i think it is clear that the investigation leads into people in his circle. whether he is directly under investigation or not, as you know, as well as anybody, if you flip somebody and they give you a new bunch of material and that leads you to somebody else and then you flip them and that leads you to a new bunch of material, you can walk your way to the oval office pretty quickly. i do not know that they are there yet. >> heidi? >> senator, heidi przbyla here. house democrats say that senate and house committees simply do not have the resources to address the magnitude of what happened here in 2016 with the russians and they say they are definitely coming back in 2020. there's a lot to be examined there. do you need something bigger like a commission, like the 9/11

style commission that has the staff and the resources to quickly examine this? >> i think an independent commission would be a really good idea to do exactly that. again, that adds yet another player on to the field because our responsibilities don't go away. and so that raises the deconfliction problems but nevertheless i feel that is a very good idea because they can be more independent. for instance, one of the things that may be important in all of this is to get a better handle on the dark money that is flowing into our elections. because if it's dark enough to hide the hands of, for instance, exxonmobil, it's dark enough to hide the hands of vladimir putin. very strong political interests in washington that want that dark money to continue to flow. independent commission would not be as burdened by those kind of restraints. >> senator shelden whitehouse, thyou for being with us. >> my flesh

. >> my pleasure. bolt to a 100-yard dash or john cena to a cage match. a reference, i'm sorry, i'm old, i don't get. how they've been preparing their entire lives to this moment. secretary of veterans affairs, david shulkin joins the table next.

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taking care of our veterans, for me -- and this has been one of my absolute highest priorities, and the highest priority just about of the entire administration. david has been working to take care of our veterans that they

so richly deserve. it should have happened years ago. >> the head of the largest health care system in the united states, secretary of the being . mr. secretary, thank you for being with us. what is the state of the va right now? weave obviously heard horror stories over the past five years. where are we today? >> well, you know, joe, i'm a doctor, so i like to put things in those terms. the va has been in critical condition. when you're in critical condition, you need intensive monitoring. but i feel pretty confident we're headed towards being stable and improvement. >> how are we doing with the white lists? >> we're doing much, much better. first thing we've done this year, as soon as i became secretary, is we put all of our wait time data out there for the public to see. everything we have people can look up and see what the wait times are. and we have same-day services in primary care and mental health in every one of our vas now. >> same day? >> same day. >> willie geist is in new york.

i'm sure he has a question for you. >> yeah, secretary shulkin, good to see you. can you tell us what it is about the va and its bureaucracy that it's so difficult to get your arms around? people look at this and say, this should be easy. these are people who volunteered to go fight wars as the rest of us sat here in comfort. these men and women ought to be taken care of. why is it so hard to get the care to the people who need it? >> i think it's a great question. first of all, we are committed to making the va a place all of us are proud of, that does its mission to serve veterans, but this is a very, very large system. and it's been years of bureaucracy and red tape that's grown one year after another. and now we have to make some changes that have been delayed for a long, long time. >> but, for example o a wait list, mr. secretary, w do those even exist? why ould any veteran sit for days, months and years in some cases to get the care they need? and sometimes tragically in the

interim, take their own lives, for example? why should that even exist? >> well, it shouldn't exist. and we're not allowing that to exist. i think in 2014 when this crisis came out, the american public was absolutely outraged. that was an appropriate response. we've now focused on veterans that need care right away. those that have urgent care needs and they're being addressed. there are some veterans waiting for routine care needs 30 days or longer. if you're waiting for a routine physical exam, that doesn't bother me as much as any veteran that needs to wait for urgent care. we're not going to allow that. >> i'm curious as to how you work with the white house. is there a go-to person that you go -- when you have a problem that needs to be solved, that they can solve with a phone call or by changing a simple rule or something like that? who do you go to? >> i think that there are several people in the white house. we work closely with the domestic policy counsel. we're also working closely with the american innovation office -- >> jared kushner?

>> yes. making sure we are looking at the best practices that business has and that technology can offer. certainly, i work directly with the president and the vice president. >> heidi? >> given all of the repeated deployments that are thrust upon these service members, unlike really any other war in our history, mental health has become such a huge issue. what are the steps that are being taken to try and screen and immediately interject when these guys come back home? because so much of what we see in the news, tragedies taking their own lives or taking the lives of their family, what are some changes being made to interject early? >> well, i talk about one clinical priority and only one that i have. that is, to reduce veteran suicide. i think it's a crisis right now that's happening not only among veterans but among all americans. but for veterans in particular, this is our focus. sowhat we're doing is we're hiring more mental health

professionals. we're getting our telehealth out to areas of the country where there aren't mental health professionals so that veterans can get access to some of the best care. i just announce aid new policy change that we'll be providing mental health services to those who have been dishonorably discharged. when we look at the suicides it's higher among those that are homeless and those that don't have access other than those honorably discharged. >> mr. secretary, the question i have is who dropped the ball here? this didn't just all of a sudden pop up as a problem. it accumulated over years. what person or what group of people did president bush, did president obama just tune out? >> well, i do think that there is a lot to look back upon and learn from. i think the basic lessons are that our demand for services did not match our capacity.

and i think that there's a lot of blame to go around. this was a cultural problem in the va that our leaders in the field didn't feel comfortable to speak up and say they weren't getting the right resources. >> all right, mr. secretary. thank you so much for coming by. >> thank you. >> we greatly appreciate it. hope we'll see you again some time soon. just ahead, the president says he respects the appointment of the special counsel to look into the russia investigation. despite challenging the investigation as a witch hunt. plus, james comey didn't even want to be seen shaking hands with the president let alone being pulled in for a big old hug. we'll have the story behind that awkward exchange in the white house blue room and how he tried to hide himself in curtains. much more ahead from washington. and willie geist, home alone in new york. it's so sad. ♪ >> excuse me, where's the lobby? >> down the hallndo the left. >> thanks. s was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count.

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did you at any time urge former fbi director james comey to back down on the investigation into michael flynn? also, as you look back -- >> no, no. next question. >> that was quite a press conference, by the way. we'll get a four-minute chunk of him because it's just great. i'm going to straighten mai tai first, then we'll get a four-minute chunk of him, contradicting himself. i got that checked, check mark on the tie.

but this white house, they can't keep us. is willie up in new york? >> yes. >> how are you doing this morning? >> it's like "home alone 2" where he's left in new york. >> that's the one where he meets trump. >> yeah, look at this. just me in the lobby the of plaza. >> go to the plaza, maybe you'll see the donald there. that would be very cool for you. maybe michael jackson will wander around. all of your friends. anyway, the white house is so bad at what they're doing. i mean, everyone's trying to think there's a grand conspiracy. there may be. but just on the rface, they're soad that donald trumpn hi press conference yesterday says, first of all, and throughout the day, well, i understand why they're doing what they're doing and i have great respect for, it

but it's the greatest witch hunt in history and it's terrible and it will divide the united states. and they're also doing the same thing about mike pence, denying that the white house had any knowledge of the investigation. then at the same time, leaking, well, we're very troubled that mike pence is being kept out in the dark about all of the flynn investigation. so, if two or three story lines going and they're not consistent with each other. >> yeah, i mean, that's been the case for the last few weeks as well. i think you put your finger on something very important, which is vice president mike pence, people around him talking to news agencies saying he was left in the dark on these decisions. i think he's gotten to the point where he's gone out three times and asked to say something that was proven to be untrue. he has to look out for himself. this is the first time we've seen a riff between pence and the trump white house. >> bob woodward is here. i'll introduce everyone.

i'm just -- i'm doing all of this wrong. this is just -- this is the first time i've ever done it before, so be patient with me. washington anchor for the bbc world news america katie kay, pulitzer prize winning columnist eugene robinson, editor for washington post, bob woodward and "new york times" reporter and blogger michael schmidt, who has the front-page piece this morning. you were whacked by the alt-right last night as carlos "slims" blogger. >> the right doesn't like me anymore but that's all right. >> the right loved you when you were tearing into a hillary clinton story every day, about her home server. >> how quickly they forget. it's part of the job. >> bob woodward, we are faced with two options with mike pence. a man i've known for a long time. a man i've served with. a man i like very much personally, like his family very much personally.

as it pertains to michael flynn, as it pertains to rod rosenstein and the firing of donald trump, as it pertains to more and more things -- >> the firing of donald trump. >> oh, yeah. >> mike pence, vice president of the united states, is either a sucker and a dupe for donald trump, is being set up that way to go out and lie and lie and lie again, or he's a liar. there is no middle ground. if it is the first, i think it's about time for mike pence to go to donald trump and say, as i think most of us would, if you set me up to be your liar again, i'm walking. >> well, but it's not just pence. it's the whole team in the white house. you've got a -- as you look at this from some distance, it's

very clear trump and this team were not ready for the presidency. not even close to it. and all -- all of these troubles lead back to no one who can come to trump and say, you need to put the cork in the bottle. you need -- we need to plan. we need to think strategically. even if it's just in 24-hour cycles and it does not happen. and so, i've never quite seen any kind of -- and we described it as unraveling. it's really not unraveling. it started that way. and there was no way to sit down and say, now, we -- you know, remember, all the presidents before would have a kind of, being on, what's the message of the day? how do we organize the day? they don't even organize five minutes. >> they can't because whatever -- willie, atever they say, whatever they do, you

know, donald trump will be sure to contradict it in 10, 15 minutes with a tweet. in the case of mike pence, this has happened time and again. it sort of happened yesterday to rod rosenstein. he gets tangled up in some testimony and, of course, the big news coming out of that, which we'll get to now, is that several senators came out and said, this investigation has become a criminal investigation. >> yeah. and they say rod rosenstein inside that meeting came out and said to -- said in the meeting that, yes, i knew ahead of time that comey was going to be fired and i was asked to draft a memo saying that he should be. let's talk about deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. he'll brief all house members this morning about the controversial firing of fbi director james comey. yesterday he spoke to the senate, as we mentioned, and his explanation of the timeline of events did not sit well with many democrats.

>> he knew that comey was going to be removed prior to him writing his memos. >> do you believe that the deputy attorney general knew before he wrote that memo that james comey was going to be fired? >> yes. >> what was it that said that led you -- >> he knew the day before. >> do you thing he was pressured into writing that memo? >> no. >> "the washington post" citing three senators says behind closed doors things grew heat. asking why sessions was involved in the firing and why the attorney general is playing a role in choosing comey's replacement. then the approach of the investigation going forward. some lawmakers interrupted rosenstein's brief saying the investigation crossed from a counterintelligence probe to a criminal one. >> the nature of the investigation changed from counterterror to criminal investigation, and if so, what are the repercussions? >> i assume this has been a counterintelligence investigation primarily, but as

deputy attorney general rosenstein said, this is going to be up to director mueller under the appointment as special cosel. >> as someone who is on the intel committee and, perhaps, open to much more information than many other members, i don't want to comment on it. >> i think the shock to the body is now considered a criminal investigation and congress' ability to investigate all things. russia has been severely limited probably in an appropriate fashion. >> we go back and forth. yesterday rosenstein was celebrated for naming a special counsel and perhaps redeeming himself, but then yesterday confirming what donald trump said in the interview to lester holt last week that the decision to fire comey had already been made and rosenstein was willing to draft a memo that showed reason and gave cause for that. >> that was incredible. and you look at lindsey graham, who, by the way, if they give

lifetime achievement awards -- capitol reporters give lifetime achievement awards to members of congress, lindsey should get it. i will tell you -- he will tell you what other people won't. i remember when we were running our weekly coups against newt gingrich. we should have secret meetings. as we walked out of the secret meetings, there would be all of this press here and turn around and say to lindsey, lindsey, you have to stop telling them where our secret coup meetings are. are they not secret? you'd have to walk through this line of reporters saying, are you really going to take down newt gingrich? no comment. finally stopped going because -- >> say on -- >> the press loves him. but seriously, somebody said, that's not the guy you want guarding the pentagon. >> well, thank god. >> he reveals secrets. let's talk about what lindsey said. this has become a criminal investigation. >> yeah, right. if you triangulate what all those senators said when they came out, it doesn't sound as if rosenstein pronounced that

sentence that clearly, but he did give the impression that the investigation was going in a different way and that it could become a criminal investigation and that they should -- should be prepared for that and deal with it in that way, which sounded to me like a broad hint to, you know, watch your witness list. you may not get all the people you want because mueller will have it. >> which is what we heard, and we were talking about earlier this week, the fbi is looking not just into the election but also to a lot of donald trump's dealings with russia going back years. >> he has the capacity to expand his brief. that's why you're getting some members of the intelligence committee both in the house and the senate, particularly democrats saying, we have to protect our investigations. we still want access to those sources and those witnesses as well because whilst it's great mueller is doing his, that could take a long time, that could take years, and they want to

carry on moving fast on the investigations they already have ongoing. >> willie picked up that rod rosenstein told people yesterday in the senate that you pronounce it rosenstein. so, thank you, willie. as we talk about rod rosenstein, one of the things i found so fascinating about your piece is that when comey was talking to benjamin wittis, he actually expressed concerns when he heard rosenstein had been selected as deputy attorney general. why? >> comey is having lunch with his friend in march, been wittis, who says it's great you, have a new deputy attorney general coming in, senate confirmed, this will give you some stability. comey says, yeah he's okay. he's a solid guy but i have some concerns. he's a survivor. this is a guy in rosenstein who's been around -- >> this guy's a bureaucratic survivor. he'll what it takes. >> he had been the longest

serving u.s. attorney in the cotry. comey says to be a survivor, have you to make some compromises. he was reading between the lines that comey is saying, if trump is asking me for my loyalty, if he's asking for a pledge, what has he gotten from rod? what has rod had to give up? as wittis points out, it only took two weeks for comey to find out what rod was going to be like under trump. >> you talk about comey's discomfort with a couple of interactions. the first one was the one where trump had a lot of people in the room and this 6'8" giant tried to be a salamander with his blue suit. >> comey is in the blue room, standing there, and very concerned about being at the white house. he knows all of the criticism he's taken because of the election. he's afraid of what trump could

do, how trump could embrace him publicly, could that jeopardy comey's independence, he's obsessed with it. he's standing in the back of the blue room and he thinks he's gotten through because he's trying to blend in with the curtains with his blue suit. >> and he's on the other side of the room, too. he gets as far away from donald trump as you possibly can. >> he's standing there just hoping he won't get called on. he thinks he's almost made it through the ceremony, and then trump looks up and says, and there's jim. still ahead on "morning joe," president trump asked if he's done anything over the past six months to warrant a criminal investigation. four minutes stream of consciousness answer straight ahead on "morning joe." it will make you dizzy. we'll be right back. hey allergy muddlers

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welcome back to "morning joe." yesterday began at this time with the president lashing out on twitter as what he sees as

the witch hunt against him, saying it's the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. his pushback against the russian charges continue during a joint news conference at the white house yesterday with the president of colombia. >> as you look back over the past six months or year, have you had any recollection if you wondered something you have done would be worthy of criminal charges in this investigation or impeachment as some on the left are implying? >> i think it's totally ridiculous. again, we have to get back to working our country properly so that we can take care of the problems that we have. we have plenty of problems. we've done a fantastic job. we have a tremendous group of people, millions and millions of people looking at what you had just said, what are they doing? director comey was very unpopular with most people. i actually thought when i made that decision, and i also got a very, very strong remmendation,

from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, but when i made that decision, i actually thought that it would be a bipartisan decision because you look at all of the people on the democratic side, not only the republican side, that were saying such terrible things about director comey. then he had the very poor performance on wednesday. that was a poor, poor performance. so poor, in fact, that i believe, and you'd have to ask him, because i don't like to speak for other people, but i believe that's why the deputy attorney general went out and wrote his very, very strong letter. and then on top of that, after the wednesday performance by director comey, you had a person come and have to readjust the record, which many people have never seen before because there were misstatements made. i thought that was something that was terrible. we need a great director of the

fbi. i cherish the fbi. it's special. all over the world, no matter where you go, the fbi is special. the fbi has not had that special reputation with what happened in the campaign, what happened with respect to the clinton campaign, and even, you could say, directly or indirectly with respect to the much more successful trump campaign. we're going to a director who will be outstanding. i'll be announcing that director very soon. and i look forward to doing it. i think the people in the fbi will be very, very, very thrilled. just in concluding, we look forward to getting this whole situation behind us so that when we go for the jobs, we go for the strong military, when we go for all of the things we've been pushing so hard and so successfully, including health care, because obamacare is collapsing. it's dead. it's gone. there's nothing to compare

anything to because we don't have health care in this country. you just look at what's happening. aetna just pulled out, other insurance companies are pulling out. we don't have health care. obamacare is a fallacy. it's gone. we're going to cut taxes. forget what i want. it will be the biggest tax cut in the history of our nation, and that's what i want. it's going to bring back companies. it's going to bring back jobs. we lost so many jobs and so many companies. two countries that are not so far from you, mr. president. they're very close to you, actually. and to many other places throughout the world, we're going to change that. we're going to have expansion. we already do. you look at what's happening with ford and with general motors in michigan and ohio. you look at the tremendous number of jobs that are being announced in so many different fields. that's what i'm proud of. that's what we want to focus our nucle energy on. i can only tell you, there was

no collusion. everybody -- even my enemies have said, there is no collusion. so, we want to get back and keep on the track we're on because the track that we're on is record-setting and that's what we want to do is we want to break very positive records. >> joe, i'll let you decide where you want to begin with that answer. i mean, the thing he said over and over in there again is he's now back to the rosenstein defense of why he fired james comey. he said, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein drafted a memo which is why i fired james comey, but is not what he told lester holt yesterday. but, go for it. >> go for it is right. i loved literature in high school and college, but i just could never understand, as i lay dying, because faulkner's stream of consciousness would just leave my teeth hurting. i finally got him when i read "absolom" but until that point i was as confused with faulkner as

i was listeni to donald trump sounding far less articulate than the president of colombia, who actually seems to speak our language much better than donald trump, even when he's not speaking our language. it was bizarre, meandering, wandering group of statements. and he's changing his story on rod rosenstein. i know there are a lot of americans out there, a lot of reporters out there that are very frustrated by the fact that the truth doesn't matter to donald trump. and reality doesn't seem to matter to this white house. they change their stories every day. one of the good things about bob mueller being appointed is, facts do matter to him. he's a just the facts, ma'am, sort of guy. and he writes it down and he's going to follow it. so, donald trump can change his story on rod rosenstein as much as he wants to. it only impeaches his credibility even more as this investigation goes forward. coming up on "morning joe,"

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[fbi agent] you're a brave man, your testimony will save lives. mr. stevens? this is your new name. this is your new house. and a perfectly inconspicuous suv. you must become invisible. [hero] i'll take my chances.

in just a few minutes we'll get to the other big political headlines but let's bring in bill rins. >> yesterday the setup was prime for a tornado outbreak. thankfully, they all looked like this. we had about 20 tornadoes reported. we didn't have too many monster big ones but they were open the open plains, rural areas, farm country. that was perfect. no fattalitiefatalities, no inj no destruction from yesterday's storms. we did have lightning, wind damage. this is called upward lightning. pretty rare. starts from the ground and heads up into the clouds. finally, our friends in colorado in the foothills are digging out. colorado springs and areas near boulder picked up about a half a foot to foot and a half of snow. i apologize. this morning, storms already rolled through st. louis, chicago. these will die out before they get there but maybe a little rain for you. today 24 million people at risk.

more population centers in the way but we don't have the great tornado threat. wichita, abilene, this little area right here, best chance of tornadoes. your weekend forecast, one last day of our mini may heat wave. still around 91 for new york today. that will be three days in a row above 90 degrees. hot from tampa through atlanta. there are the storms in the middle. poor denver today, struggling up to 40 degrees with the snow ending and exiting the area. saturday we cool it off from d.c. through the mid-atlantic. not so lucky in the southeast. storms chicago to st. louis. we end our weekend with nice weather. west coast, you're fantastic. great through the midwest. nice, calm weather in the northeast. just the southeast left to deal with some more of those storms. new york city, we've done it already. our first heat wave of the summer, 90 degrees three days in a row. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. at fidelity, trades are now just $4.95.

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we should throw their ambassador the hell out of the united states of america. these are not just average people that did this beating. this is erdogan's security detail. somebody told them t go out there and beat up on these peaceful demonstrators. and i think it should have repercussions, including identifying these people and bringing charges against them. >> so, that was senator john mccain yesterday right here on "morning joe." it gets worse. there is new video that shows turkey's president erdogan watching as his security detail clashed with those protesters outside the turkish embassy in washington on tuesday. in the footage you see president erdogan sitting in his car, in the vehicle there, talking to a body guard from the car, who then gets up and says something to another man, who nods and runs towards the protesters. seconds later that brawl breaks out. later, president erdogan gets out of the car, stands and

watches before entering the embassy. there he is right there. the turkish embassy has stated they were responding in self-defense, were those gentlemen, and turkey's state-run news agency said wednesday, quote, police did not heed turkish demands to intervene and erdogan's security moved in to, quote, disperse them. meanwhile, u.s. officials say turkey's ambassador to the u.s. was summoned to the state department on wednesday and met with under secretary tom shannon. two members of the turkish security detail were detained and subsequently released due to international immunity laws. the white house has yet to comment on that incident. those are extraordinary pictures if you watch the full clip. erdogan is in the car, says something to the security guard, who says something to another security guard and they rush in to take out those protesters. erdogan stands and watches the brawl cooley before walking into the embassy.

>> it's thuggish behavior, absolutely breataking. why d he feel like they could get away with that in the united states of america? because he was meeting with the president in the white house after detaining more journalists than any addition i think more than putin over the last year or so. worse for press freedom. also stole the last election and seized power there. got nothing but an embrace from donald trump. >> so, exactly what president erdogan wanted he got when he got the red carpet treatment at the white house. he got the photograph with the president, who had said they had a solid conversation. that was the image that erdogan wanted beamed back to turkey to show that he was getting western approval after a referendum that was widely slammed by european leaders after autocratic treatment that has been

disparaged by european leaders. he comes to the united states, he gets that kind of approval. this is exactly what people in developing countries with autocratic rulers are worried about. what is happening here in washington, d.c., whether it is the firing of jim comey, treating erdogan the way he has treated them, it emboldens autocrats around the world. that's what people are nervous about and we saw it happen right on the streets of washington. >> certainly did, willie. we need a stronger response, obviously, than the response that this administration has given. >> senator mccain said, you ought to throw the ambassador out of the country. president trump is set to embark on his first official foreign trip later today. joining us from the white house, peter alexander. what does the white house want to get out of this trip? >> reporter: remember the southwest airlines commercial, wanna get away? that's how the white house must be feeling like as they prepare to take off this afternoon. the first stop is saudi arabia where the president is expected to deliver a major speech on

islam. one of the challenges is to reconcile or erase past comments he made about islam during the campaign. this morning we were running through the list. among the statements he said, i think islam hates us, calling for that total and complete ban of muslim immigrants into the country. he said, maybe we're going to need to check mosques and went on to say about iraq's oil, we should have taken iraq's oil. maybe we'll get another chance. so, we'll be watching to see what he says. this is the man, of course, who talked about radical islam terrorism, how he can frame this in the conversation with arab world during the first visit over the course of the weekend. jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, has taken really a heavy role in the preparation for this trip. also the defense secretary james mattis and national security dina powell trying to set the table as well, which is expected to be the saudi king rolling out the red carpet for the president. he heads to israel as well. national security advisers here say they hope this is an

opportunity to focus on a positive foreign policy agenda, but we know the way this president sort of views these things. he likes to focus on when. they're hoping to come home with some wins, good headlines to celebrate. obviously, this is an ambitious trip, the potential for gaffes is high. compare this nine-day, five-country trip and president obama's first trip to ottawa. nine days, five countries, a ton at stake. >> throw in the vatican and nato as well. peter alexander at the white house. thanks so much. joe? >> with us now we have deputy republican whip k k kenzinger. congressman, let me start with you. so, yes, the president has

insulted all 1.5, 1.6 billion. >> yes. >> worshippers of islam. and that wasn't enough. he decided to insult israel over the past week. how does israel, how does the united states -- let's start with our ally, which should be easy, get past the fact this administration keeps saying the western wall is not a part of israel. >> yeah, you need to throttle back on some of that. i mean, i think -- >> why are they doing it? >> you know, i don't know if it's kind of naivety in terms of the details of israel. i don't know. i think part of it is the president kind of sees himself as a champion of, you know, being able to make big deals. maybe this is part of giving some verbal concessions to the palestinians ahead of some big deal. i don't know. i will tell you, though, i think once the pictures come out of the president meeting with netanyahu, paying this kind of homage to israel, it will look

very powerful. >> do you think he'll tweet if he goes to the western wall, selfie, or write something in permanent marker on the western wall? i think peter said this, the chances of self-inflicted wounds on a trip this long is pretty massive, my friend. >> all right. but it also could be an opportunity to really kind of reset on some of these issues. what i've said is, look, the president addition i wish we could take twitter away from him. i wish he'd discipline what he said, obviously, way more. but his policies as a republican, his policies and foreign policy have been pretty solid. we'll see. >> you know, jake, that's what's so interesting right now. most foreign policy observers say donald trump has some remarkable opportunities. he has remarkable opportunities in asia. there are a lot of countries including vietnam that want to be aligned with the united states because of the continued rise of china. especially across the middle east with sunni acorroborarab c

that felt shoved to the side by barack obama. he has some great opportunities. but there are, of course, risks if he does this in a nondisciplined way. >> there are. you've seen reportsel that stephen miller is heavily involved in some of these speeches which addition he's not somebody who has any background at all in the middle east or foreign policy. so, going to a country like saudi arabia and giving a speech on islam, its probably not advisable that you have an adviser who's never studied islam in a serious way. like peter said, this is a nine-day trip. there is -- he gets tired. he doesn't like being away from his own bed. there's a huge risk but a lot of opportunity if he takes advantage of it. >> stephen miller, also, though wrote this speech for the president before congress. he pushed back a lot of people that were trying to put carnage language in there. i guess it all depends on what his boss wants. does donald trump and does jared

kushner, do they want the president to be more measured as he moves around and actually move towards what they consider to be their greatest prize, a middle east peace deal? >> so, they are very confident going into this trip that, as you say, there's this unique opportunity because the israelis and sunni arab states are more aligned and because they believe in the power of the president's personality to get things done. >> and historically aligned. like the sunni arab states have never been this aligned with israel, right? >> no, they have never been this aligned with israel. i'm not so convinced as they are that donald trump's ability to charm everybody and get deals done is going to be enough to overcome some of the big hurdles we've had for 30 years in the middle east peace process. the intractable issues of refugees, jerusalem, settlements. can trump did the by sheer force of his personality get people to the table and get them to make major concessions on those issues? netanyahu is not in position to

give a lot on the settlements. he'll have the right of his party slamming him if he does. there's a lot of confidence. it's all focused around countering tehran. that will go down very well in some of these countries. we'll see where they get on the deliverables. it's a very ambitious agenda. if they get some of the things they want to do, pledge by sunni states not to allow funding to terrorist organizations, that's great. that would be great. >> from the very beginning, even before they got in the white house, their goal was to move toward middle east peace in a nontraditional way. don't sit down with israelis and the palestinians, but take it state by state by state. >> right. >> okay, saudi arabia, you want r support, you want our financial help, you want our military help? stop exporting radical ideology. and start moving closer towards israel. egypt, you want us to put our arms around you and give you support and give you financial backing? great. you're going to have to stick

your neck out and take a chance with peace, again, with israel. it is a unique approach. >> we'll see what tone the president takes beginning today with saudi arabia and also reassuring both saudi arabia and israel that the united states is committed to them given their feelings about the obama administration with the iran deal. i did want to ask congressman one question because there was some big news on syria that got lost in this talk about syria. first of all, you passed new sanctions in the house on the syrian regime. also yesterday there were american air strikes in southern syria on assad's forces. this follows up, of course, that air strike that president trump authorized a few weeks ago. what is the strategy right now in syria? are you seeing any change? are you seeing any movement there? >> i think -- in my view the administration is so focused on the isis fight right now. every time you talk to them, they're like isis first, isis first. i have a bit of a disagreement. i think isis will continue to

exist or some form of radicalism as long as assad's in power because he's churning these candidates for radicalism. however, the air strike against the airfield was incredibly powerful and the mesge it sent. 39 tomahawk cruise missiles made it through the defense system which russia said was amazing. the russians had no response to that. a lot of people thought if we did anything, it would be world war iii. this strike yesterday, which we believe is against actually iranian-backed militia shows addition i don't want to say major expansion but it's a courageous thing to do because that's the first time americans have directly taken that on. last thing i want to say on that really quickly. when i was in iraq and you wanted to stop something from happening, you do a show of force first. you fly a fighter jet in 100 feet over a convoy. they did not respond to that fighter jet and after two or three of those, it's like, you choose your own fate here. breaking news from "the new york times".

"the new york times" is reporting anthony weiner, ex-congressman, will plead guilty to transferring obscene information to a minor in sexting inquiry. from an to anthony weiner b syria, there's belief at dod, there's belief in the trump administration that they are actually going to defeat isis. its not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. they seem to be completely focused on that. the secretary of defense and the secretary of state and others. they're just assuming this is going to happen. it's just a matter of time. >> there is indications as we move in on some of these strongholds as well in iraq that we're having a lot of progress. my question for the congressman is, you know, trump's whole grand idea with this new realignment with russia is we

would partner to defeat isis. have you seen any indications -- >> no. >> -- that that is actually the strategic goal of russia as well, or what exactly is our strategy and how does it differ essentially from what the obama administration was doing? >> i think the strategy, from what ie seen, is more robust. its more of a let's engage terrorists wherever they exist anywhere. see strikes yemen increasing, strikes in the african continent increasing. that's definitely more robust. russia can never be a partner in this. russia is to embolden russia and make it the old soviet union. that's their top objective. so whatever they have to narrate to gain that -- they're saying, we're fighting isis. the truth s almost none of your air strikes are against isis. they're against hospitals that innocent people are in in syria. let's go to cnbc at the new york stock exchange. ahead of the president's trip to saudi arabia, trump senior

adviser jared kushner is calling the ceo of lockheed martin looking to lower costs for the u.s./saudi arabia arms deal. fill us in. >> personally making that request there, according to "the new york times." the whole idea is if you want to green light this deal, one of the big sticking points -- you were talking about missile defense, and peter mentioned it before, they to want get this missile defense system in saudi arabian hands but the price tag might be the sticking point. if they can get this deal to go through, and the ceo of lockheed martin is the person who personally took the call from jared kushner about looking to see if they could lower the prices there, lockheed martin one of the biggest contractors when it comes to making missile defense systems. we'll watch that. defense contractor stocks like lockheed martin have seen a nice run since the election cycle. also want to keep an eye on what's happening with apple ceo tim cook because he's been seen walking around with a glucose monitoring system. some people say it's because apple may be looking to make a real push into developing wearable technology that lets

diabetes patients constantly track their glucose levels. some call the holy grail in terms of the diabetes treatment philosop philosophy. on the tech side of thing, uber and wamo, the company owned by google, they're in a heat legal battle right now. google has accused uber of stealing some technology. this goes back to an executive with uber who was formerly with wamo. they could terminate him if he does not comply with an order by a judge to turn over documents. they hope he doesn't have to do that in violation of his fit amendment rights. something to watch there. >> thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. who is uber not in a fight with right now? it's crazy. congressman, thank you so much. >> that's great. >> we greatly appreciate it. coming up next, new evidence of just how much the democrat

space is energized. at the same time, some conservatives wonder if their party is at a tipping point with president trump. we'll talk about that next on "morning joe." . how old do you want to be when you retire? i was thinking around 70. and before that? you mean after that? , i'm talking before that. do you have things you want to do before y retire? i'd really like to run with the bulls. wow. hope you're fast. i am. get a portfolio that works for you now and as your needs change with investment management services. hey, i've got the trend analysis. hey. hi. hi. you guys going to the company picnic this weekend? picnics are delightful. oh, wish we could. but we're stuck here catching up on claims. but we just compared historical claims to coverages. but we have those new audits. my natural language api can help us score those by noon. great. see you guys there.

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over the justice department's russia investigation president trump's campaign says it has seen a spike in donation from supporters on date robert mueller was named. the campaign sent out an e-mail blast saying despite weeks of unrelenting and political attacks against the president the combined total for may 17th and the campaign and joint fund-raising committee for the national republican committee exceeded $314,000, the most since election day. maybe that can channel that legal fees for one week. democrats say their effort to retake the house is seeing new energy in the trump era. the democratic campaign committee announced it's raised $20 million in on-line contributions so far in 2017. that's a lot of cash. and that surpasses all of the money it raised in 2015, since january 2nd, 2.2 million people have joined the e-mail list with

156,000 new donors and $18 average donation. in montana the democratic candidate in next week's special congressional election says he's raised more than $5 million. that's after jon ossoff raised an unprecedented $8.3 million in the first round for georgia's special election next month. so with us now talk about this and much more, senior writer for "the weekly standard" michael warren. michael, there is a -- i've tweeted this out only because not because of the networks but because of the political impact of it. fox news, third place again last night in the demo. msnbc for first time in like 8,000 years, first place in a lot of these nights over the past two weeks. so much of that points to -- we can always tell, something happens in the day, every network goes fox will have a huge day tomorrow. >> right. >> it's not that case. conservative energy is just down. >> right. liberal energy is up. >> way, way up. >> way, way up.

that tells you that democrats should be winning in some of these special elections. if they don't you have to wonder why is that. georgia six is a republican district but it didn't vote for trump very -- >> i want to underline a fact that you say because if democrats win georgia. >> right. >> and/or montana, we're going to be hearing chants of happy days are here again. i want to repeat it again. trump only carried that district by 1 point after all of this, if a republican holds on to that seat the democrats need to go through a deep, deep round of soul searching. they should win that thing going away. >> yeah. and so that suggests maybe that energy that we're seeing in sort of cable news ratings doesn't necessarily translate. but -- >> or in fund raisi. yeah, yeah, exaactually. >> we remember that from the 2016 campaign, if you're judging by that hillary clinton would have won in a landslide. that being said i think republicans are really sort of the steam is coming out of their

shirts. >> what are you hearing on the hill? >> that's true. georgia, everybody is looking at that as a radar for what's going to happen in the mid terms but there's many other districts when you look at the democrats' hit list much higher up. that is not a hillary district. if you look at what happened in kansas they moved by double digits, so i don't think that we can necessarily say that democrats are going to retake the house, but the house is in play and we know that based on what's already happened. these districts are very red. and granted georgia is a better marker than montana right now, but i definitely think we're seeing movement. >> and you look at the districts, it was really surprising to learn about a month ago that 24 districts that republicans hold, hillary won. you win those districts you're one or two away of taking over and one out of three republican seats are suburban seats. so republicans have a fight on their hands. >> huge fight. but i want to reiterate what you were saying in 2011 remember

democrats won a bunch of special elections, they've been out of power since then. this is not a harbinger for anything to come, but i mean i've been talking to senior republicans involved in the campaign effort and they are scared. paul ryan is on the road almost every weekend raising money. they are scared about georgia and the message it will send, scared about montana. democrats put up $700,000 additionally in georgia to shore this thing up for ossoff. this is scary. >> if republicans lose, let's say they lose one or two of those seats, certainly that changes the way the house republicans start treating donald trump. >> definitely changes the way. and i think we're already starting to see some of that. people will not stick with him. i've heard from republican senators that are three to four or five-point drop in his approval ratings and you'll start seeing the drift happen. we're watching a strong disapprove numbers and they are rising. the strong approve numbers are falling. we don't have enthusiasm numbers

because it's too early before the midterm. can you use that as a proxy for whether people will turn out and vote in the mid terms. >> possibly. here's the problem here is we started this week not knowing there was going to be a special counsel, there's so much that happens every day that suggests that you can't predict that far out and you have to wonder about enthusiasm if you have a republican president who's just getting hammered by an investigation one day after the other, if things are coming out every single day, news. that's really going to hurt republican enthusiasm and i think that is -- you look back to what happened in 1974, to republicans, you know, and look at where nixon was. you look at sort of where things were in 1998, that would be a really bad har binger. >> real blood bath. jake, a lot of talk about joe lieberm lieberman walking through -- somebody said yesterday lieberman will get 100 votes in the senate, he may not get 50, talk about the democrats moving against him and a few republicans concerned about

having a politician in the spot. >> a lot of republicans concerned about a politician in the spot. democratic leadership thanks but no thanks. yes, he was a democrat once but only once. not going to happen. >> once but only once. all right. well that does it for us. it is funny, though, listening to republicans saying oh, joe lieberman, great. and then people bring up the sore loser signs. how quickly they forget. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. thanks so much for being with us this week. >> thanks so much, joe. have a great weekend. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle with a lot to cover. all the president's lawyers, president trump meeting with his legal team as he denies pressuring james comey to drop the russia investigation. >> no. next question. >> and adds a new line to his blanket defense. >> there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can only speak for myself. >> i can always speak