ambassador of the holy sea. i am tell you in rome a controversial decision as well as some here. "hardball" with chris matthews -- you're not going to want to miss this one -- starts right now. >> bombshells bursting. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. another afternoon, another bombshell report, actually two today. remember that oval office meeting with the russian foreign minister and ambassador, the one in which president trump reportedly revealed highly classified information? according to the "new york times" today, president trump also told those russians that firing james comey had relieved pressure on him. the times quotes a document summarizing the meeting. the president said, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nut job. i face great pressure because of

russia. that's taken off. that's the quote. he added, i'm not under investigation. that's also what he said to the russians. the white house did not dispute the account today, saying by grandstanding and politicizing the investigation into russia's actions, james comey created necessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with russia. a very different reaction from democrats. a senator from pennsylvania tweeted, if there was any question as to why comey was really fired, donald trump just answered it. as i said, nixonian. meanwhile, the "washington post" stated that the state of the investigation, quote, the law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between russia and the trump campaign has identified a current white house officials a significant person of interest, showing tt the probe is reaching into the highest leveled of government now, according to people familiar with the matter. the senior white house adviser under scrutiny right now by investigators as someone said to be, quote, close to the president. according to these people who have not further identified the

official. a anyway, the probe is said to accelerate in the coming weeks. that doesn't mean criminal charges are near. meanwhile, in another development, james comey has agreed to testify in an open hearing before the senate intelligence committee that will be scheduled after memorial day, which is coming up quickly. for more on both of these huge stories, i'm joined by the "new york times'" michael schmidt, the author who co-wrote today's big scoop, national correspondent leslie clark and director howard feinman. we've got all the breaking stories today. michael, tell us about today's meeting and what did the president say about comey? and why did the exposable commentary about the guy being a nut job to an adversary country? >> the president has done this with comey, as he's tried to explain. he's tried to make him look crazy, like a nut. he said it more than once here. he also said inside the fbi he didn't have a lot of support and

he was a very bad fbi director. we know there is a lot of criticism of comey, democrats don't like him, republicans don't like him, whatever. but one thing our reporting continually shows is he was pretty good at running the building. people inside the fbi liked him. they thought he was competent. they may have questioned some of his judgment on e-mails and the trump investigation, but they trusted him as a leader and they certainly didn't think he was crazy. >> and he was loyal to the troops. >> correct. correct. and these are people that said, look, we don't always agree with him, but we have respect for the fact that he's independent and he does what he thinks is right. >> to me, not the smoking gun yet, but the admission that he was worried about the russian investigation. he still is, but he was telling his russian friends, and they look like they're yucking it up together, lavrov and kislyak -- why would they tell him he's off their tail? >> it doesn't make sense that he said the pressure was removed and now ten days later he has a special counsel looking into it.

this move has completely backfired on him if he thought he was going to make this go away. >> why would he think he got rid of comey to get off his tail? why didn't -- did he admit he was being investigated by the fbi? why would you admit that? >> he wasn't just speaking to anybody, he was speaking to the main russians, including the one that putin himself had called the president and asked to arrange a meeting with. that is lavrov, the foreign minister. trump is basically saying, don't worry. i can still deal with you. i'm not damaged goods here. i'm putting this aside, i'm still your guy. and we can still do all the things we were going to do. which is actually even riskier than the original thing, because he's portraying himself in this meeting, which he knew everyone was going to take notes about, as the hand maiden of the russians, which then plays back into the original collusion thing he's also denying.

>> this is like dancing. let's go to the report you've got about the significant person of interest. you've got a white house person that -- i have to tell you, matt, that narrows it down pretty completely to one person. you said it's also somebody close to the president. that narrows it down still further. why not just say jared kushner? >> we haven't said the name and i won't say it here because we don't have it rock solid confirmed. buwhat we do have confirmed is this investigation now reaches into the white house. it is a current person in the white house who investigators are looking at very seriously. >> how do you get information about a person's basically profile, who they are, close to the president, and they are in fact a white house official? is there anyone else besides the man i just mentioned who is a white house official close to the president? >> well, sure, there are lots of people in the white house. again, i'm not going to get into exactly who it is. what i can tell you is this probe reaches into the white house and it involves a person close to the president.

>> we're going over a list here of people who have met with the russians. last april you had trump meeting with kislyak, last july you had sessions meeting with kislyak. last september you had sessions meeting with kislyak in trump tower, in december we had kislyak meeting with jeff sessions and we had trump meeting with kislyak. it does seem like a limited number of people. do you agree with that? >> sure, and i would say, too, just because we're saying the investigation goes into the white house does not mean they have abandoned looking into these other people you mentioned. flynn, manafort, carter page is still very much at play. what we're reporting today is the investigation is intensified and is looking at someone in the white house right now. >> is carter page a serious person? he doesn't seem like one. >> do you mean a serious person in the campaign? >> in this intrigue. the whole connection of this russian connection.

is he a serious player? >> the fbi is looking at him seriously. i don't have any sense of how serious he was in the trump world. the trump campaign has tried to minimize that. >> he seems like a sort of peripheral personality. anyway, let me go to our guy, kevin delaney. they can't name them, the "washington post," as the person who is a subject of interest. what do you know about that part of it? how close are they getting to trump? >> chris, nbc news has confirmed a white house official is under investigation. our sources are not naming this person. and do you know what else we don't know, chris, we don't know if it's related directly to russia collusion or about some other business activity. what we're seeing is once you turn a bunch of fbi agents loose on international businessmen, they're not going to ignore other crimes that they discover. so we have not seen any public evidence of collusion with russia, but what we've seen is mike flynn with his turkish lobbying, we've seen paul manafort with a series of real estate transactions that have

come under question, and so it could be that the fbi is looking at other conduct that may or may not be illegal that have been engaged in by trump and his associates. i want to go back to the timeline you mentioned. when you talk about people in the u.s. government, when they meet with russians, they are very careful how they handle those meetings. they are running at americans all day long. they chronicle those meetings, they write down what happened, they report. it seems like the contacts with russians in this campaign were just casual and they were done at a level and a frequency that we haven't seen before. you haven't seen that with other campaigns, chris, and it raises a ton of questions. >> what about the question where they're trying to set a back channel relationship with putin? that's serious. >> absolutely. >> they're getting around our national security apparatus, they're trying to get around the bureaucrats who deal with this and have some sort of chatter line between their president and our president.

>> look, putin believes they can have some ally against terrorism. russia has never been an ally against terrorism, but they believe that fehr vervently and they're trying to make that happen. >> you wrote, quote, this is a cover-up. by former fbi director james comey that president donald trump had tried to dissuade him from pressing an investigation into the actions of trump's first national security adviser, michael flynn. leslie, take over. >> thanks for having me, chris. the justice department has sort of clarified to us that mueller will be able to look at that, that his authorization will include the possibility it was a cover-up. members of congress, though, think it's already started, but the doj has told us they have the authorization to do so. >> who i investing here, congressiol committees, the fbi or some other agency -- some

other section of the justice department, do you know? >> well, the fbi is looking into it and there's a number of congressional committees that are also looking into it. >> and this would be with regard to the efforts by trump in his relationship with comey to get comey off the case? >> what several members of congress told us is that the rosenstein letter to trump, or the memo to trump, is believed to be part of an investigation. and that would be -- you've got the investigation into russia's activities in the 2016 election, you have the investigation into whether or not trump associates were kohl lecolluded in that, a third part of the investigation could be whether the white house tried to cover up any of those two parts. >> are they trying to investigate whether trump trumped up the charges, literally, using the statement put together by rosenstein?

>> i think that could be part of the an investigation, definitely. >> what we learned today about what led the president's decision to fire comey. first back in late january, comey rejected the president's request of a loyalty pledge. that was big. according to nbc at the january 27th dinner a week after assuming the presidency, trump sought a loyalty pledge from comey. comey replied that he couldn't offer loyalty but he could pledge his honesty. well, a few weeks later at a private meeting in february, trump reportedly told comey to drop the investigation into michael flynn. according to a memo written by comey, the president said, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, letting flynn go. then in light of the firing due to the clinton nomination last year, let's listen to that. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.

>> michael, there is a -- for lack of a better reference, a sinatra aspect to trump. no matter how complicated his affairs are, no matter how strategic he should be at protecting his interest, and his freedom at some point, and certainly his presidency, he reacts like a pugilist. you punch me, i punch you back on the spot. there he says, comey, a nut job. it's like sinatra in the men's room punching back with julio rizzo behind him. >> firing back at your associates is probably the most sensitive personnel decision you can make as a president. it's almost two weeks since then, and we still have not been given a real coherent reason as to why. how did they get to where they did on the decision? what role did the deputy attorney general play, and was it reverse engineered or was this truly a firing on merit?

>> it seems to me we know from the reporting that he basically got rosenstein into his office and -- do you have any problems with this guy comey? he had some problems with him. can you put it in writing? that became his instrument. >> but rosenstein told the senators yesterday, and i guess the house members again today, that he, rosenstein, knew in advance that -- >> then he was being used. >> yes, he knew he was being used. but rosenstein said that because rosenstein wanted to get himself away from being in the line of fire of an obstruction of justice himself. in other words -- >> that's how you trump up a charge. you get a guy to write something down that says, this is a reason -- >> if he knew in advance -- in other words, he wasn't part of a conspiracy because trump already decided, that was my point. but i've also been told that rosenstein is himself concerned about at least being a witness in an obstruction case which is why -- one of the reasons he took himself out and named the special counsel. >> i think this all makes sense. >> let's just look at the public

statements. if you look at the public statements from the white house, tell me why comey was fired. >> the public statements -- does lester hold a public statement when he says about the transgression thing? >> this is the most sensitive personnel decision you can make. >> let's get back to matt. how far is this investigation going? where is it headed? i always like to say, where are we going on a story you just broke, and congratulations on that story, that thatere's somee in t white house, someone close to the president that's an official in the white house. i think that does narrow it. where are we headed? >> where we're headed is there's not someone above the senior in the white house, the president, and what does the president know about this stuff? is he involved personally in this stuff? i think this is a big, significant development. we're not just talking about michael flynn who is out, we're

not just talking about paul manafort who is out, we're talking about someone in the white house now and it's just a question of what wrong was wronged, i guess. there is lots of breaking news on the trump russian connection. you're watching "hardball," where the action is. at's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ scalpel. i have no idea what i'm doing. i'm just a tv doctor. i never went to college. (scream) i don't do blood. but now, thanks to cigna, i can do more than just look the part. is that a foot? we are the tv doctors of america.

and we're partnering with cigna to help save lives. by getting you to a real doctor for an annual check-up. so go, know, and take control of your health. doctor poses. cigntogether, all the way. the deputy attorney general met with members of the house today to discuss the russia investigation, ronz stei rozen clarify his own role in the firing of james comey. he stands in his determination to hire special counsel. they found the deputy agent to be very honorable and we'll take a close look at the timeline he presented. >> the deputy a.g. said it very well. his reason for doing this appointment is as much about returning public confidence. >> again, when we're dancing with angels, the question is,

will we look back? will people look back and say, what did you do to make sure that our elections were fair, transparent in the way the founding fathers meant for them to be? >> we just saw one inconsistent member. we'll be right back. we gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. any hotel. any time. go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. "blue monday" by new order. cheers. ] [ music and cheers get louder ] the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. it's travel, better connected.

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i need one number... not two. i'm always moving forward... because i can't afford to get stuck in the past. comcast business. built for business. we're continuing to follow a couple major stories tonight. the "new york times" reported that president trump told the russians the firing of james comey relieved a source of great pressure on him, the russian connection. and a washingt"washington post" that the russians have identified a white house official, a current white house official, as a person of interest in this investigation. james comey will testify in a hearing right after memorial day. matt from the "washington post," leslie clark, nbc's kevin

delaney and author from the "washington post." who has the hottest news of the testimony? ken, it seems like you have daytime ratings for television like you've never seen. this guy is the john dean of this affair. he is the star witness for the public because he's our fbi director recently, and he's the one that will tell us what happened to him. he's also a victim, which makes him a very interesting person, a victim. >> chris, this will be absolute epic. you're the historian, you tell me, but this could be the biggest hearing since watergate, right? despite michael schmidt's fantastic reporting, i'm sure there are things for jim comey left to tell us. there are revelations yet to be had. the only question in my mind is will bob mueller let this go forward? the special counsel generally does not want witnesses testifying before congress, particularly if he's investigating an obstruction case.

does he really want donald trump or anyone else to know what jim comey's exact story is before he goes and interviews other witnesses in the case? >> he'll lose popularity quickly, by the way. whatever counts, people don't like being denied information about the running of their government. they don't like it. they want to know what happened. >> you can argue there is a great interest among the american public and for the health of american democracy to hear the other side of the story here. >> it's not so important who goes to jail in three or four years, it's important we find out what's going on. and michael you reported on this frought relationship with president trump that included efforts by the president to win over comey. in one case president trump called comey weeks after heook office and asked him when federal authorities were going to put out worded that mr. trump -- that's him -- was not personally under investigation. then there was this january 22nd encounter at the white house ceremony honoring law enforcement officials.

let's look at it. >> oh, and there's jim. he's become more famous than me. >> well, not since michael kissed fredo have we seen anything like that. comey said as he walked across the room, he was determined there wouldn't be a hug. it certainly looked like a hug. then he was called at the white house and said, the president needs to speak to you urgently. when the president gets on, he just wants to chitchat. what is this warming up thing about? mr. trump is still trying to get him on the team. all this stuff, all the chitchat and fuzzy-wuzzy i'm your buddy stuff to try to get him off the russian case. >> the idea that we thought this relationship between comey and trump was going to work, and we

didn't see this coming -- it's a huge failure on our part. this is a guy who prizes loyalty, this is a guy who is obsessed with acceptance. it didn't work. the idea of winning over comey was a complete failure and may have led to some real consequences for donald trump. >> this is about donald trump expecting to hang out with ray kohn. thank you again for helping us keep it straight. michael schmidt, start reporter i would have to say the last couple weeks. leslie clark, thank you for that. matt pezutowski who is making an amazing comeback. and of course the memorable lou gehrig. i always have to be lou gehrig, you be lou gehrig. coming up, president trump is heading to his first overseas

trip and there could be a rocky reception. he's insulted all three of them. saudi arabia, the gardens of mecca. has he said nice things about muslims? and is he going to move the embassy? pope francis? don't get me started. we'll be right back. all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. real. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that. can we do that? we can do that. before fibromyalgia, i was a doer. i was active. then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. my doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. she also prescribed lyrica. fibromyalgia is thought to be the result of overactive nerves.

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passenger tried to break into the cockpit. he tried t lunge at the cockpit and was carrying a laptop. they accompanied the plane as it landed in hon lolulhonolulu. 50% of united states territory has been retain from isis. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." president trump embarked on his first trip overseas among a cloud of negative headlines breaking here at home, of course. we've been covering them. three explosive stories in the last two hours that does raise the question of a white house cover-up. now the president's nine-day trip tests his discipline on the international stage, especially in the first three places he'll visit. look at the picture there, saudi arabia, israel, and the vatican.

in saudi arabia, the president plans to address muslim leaders this sunday. according to national security adviser h.r. mcmaster, this speech is intended to, quote, unite the broader muslim world against common enemies. that's a challenge. first the president needs to get past the rhetoric he used to describe islam on the campaign trail. here is a rep rirksrise of thos words. >> we have to do something about muslims. we cannot watch our country being destroyed. >> i think islam hates us. there is something there that's a tremendous hatred there. we have to get to the bottom of it. >> when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. they care about their lives, don't kid yourself. but to say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families. >> donald j.rump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the

united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. >> for a muslim judge, would you also feel like they wouldn't be able to treat you fairly because of that policy of yours? >> it's possible, yes. yeah. i talked to him about muslims. we have a problem. nobody else wanted to mention the problem. i think we have to look at the mosques. i think we have to be extremely careful. >> you will find out who really knocked down the trade center because they have papers that are very secret. you may find it's the saudis, okay? >> the president's visit to israel poses other challenges. israel was in an uproar wednesday after they confirmed that trump shared highly intelligent visits with the russians. they're also complicated with trump's remarks over the pope's criticism of his proposed border wall last year. >> if and when the vatican is

attacked by isis, which, as everyone knows, is isis' ultimate trophy, i can promise you that the pope would only have wished and prayed that donald trump would have been president. for a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful. >> the pope should have prayed. well done, mr. trump. joining me right now is matt, chairman of the american union and congressman smith. congressman smith, we're getting all kinds of information about mr. trump, people now being investigated for cover-up. we've got someone inside the white house, someone close to the president. we're not supposed to know his name yet. maybe we can imagine who it is. meone ve cse to the president, perhaps in his family. who knows. then we have a lot of stuff going on with the president admitting to the russians he's meeting with and saying, you know what, i got rid of this guy comey, the fbi director, because he was investigating me. there's something that smells in the third world in this whole thing. your thoughts? >> i think iltst's a terrible

situation. one of the things democrats and others need to stop doing, and i saw senator feinstein say this last night, they see no evidence of collusion. i don't know what their definition of evidence is, but there is an incredible mountain of evidence at this point of collusion. evidence does not mean conclusive proof, evidence does not mean conviction, but when you look at the contact between top officials in the trump campaign and russian officials and the russian hacking, there's clear evidence of collusion. that's why a special prosecutor was appointed. now, where does that evidence take us? we'll have to see. then, of course, there's the second issue which you raise, which is obstruction of justice. did president trump try to stop the investigation? he's pretty much said that he did. he pretty much said that he fired comey to make it go away. so based on his words, you've got two big issues. then the third issue, which we haven't quite talked about, is what is the relationship between trump's private business and his finances and russia? a couple years ago we had quotes from the trump family about all the money that russia had loaned them. what is the nature of that?

one of the things i hope special prosecutor mueller does is get trump's tax records, gets his business records so we can see what allhose connections are. we have to stop saying there is no evidence. there is evidence. is there proof? not yet, but we're investigating. there is absolutely evidence of collusion. >> well, against all that backdrop -- >> what is that? i'll be happy to tell you. >> it's your game. >> first of all, you have what happened with michael flynn, michael flynn's relationship with the russians, his constant meeting with the russians while he was a top national security adviser to the trump campaign. then he was dishonest about what he said to the russians, then he got fired. you've got the fact there was a plank in the republican platform calling for arming ukraine to defend themselves, then all of these meetings happened between russian officials and various trump campaign people. that plank got pulled out of the platform. you've got roger stone who said it's going to be podesta's turn next, and then two days later,

his e-mail was hacked. now, is that proof? is that proof? it's not proof but it's certainly evidence. >> it's definitely not proof. i don't think what we're really talking about -- >> can you turn to the points you'll make? >> i will. i don't think anything here is anything about michael flynn. i think the news that came out today is there is a person of interest at the white house who is close to the president. it's not really about any of those things the congressman talked about. >> the investigation is about those things. >> just to make the point, he said there is evidence of collusion. isn't there? you said there's no evidence. >> no, i see nothing. in fact, if you look at the fbi, i think -- if you were going to stop this investigation by firing the fbi director, that would be a pretty stupid thing to do because there is only one political, and it's even really tough to call this job a political, the fbi director. the number two man who is now running the fbi has said there has been zero pressure by the white house to stop any of our

activities. so if the president was intending, and i don't think he was, to do anything, the investigation still continues. and i think the reason why the president thought that jim comey was doing a bad job at the fbi is what a lot of democrats have been telling me, chris, for months, which is that he's a political lightning rod and he had lost confidence of a lot of people on the right and the left. it was actually the right decision to have somebody new. >> what about the report that president trump asked comey to drop the investigation of flynn as national security adviser? what was that? >> i think it was not a smart thing for the president to do. >> it evidenced a cover-up. >> i don't think that's true at all. >> why not? >> because the fact is this, if you have an investigation going on with the fbi, no matter what the president tells them, they're going to investigate -- >> you said they aren't. congressman -- >> can i make a point here? obstruction of justice does not require you to be successful,

okay? it doesn't mean that -- well, as long as the investigation continues, you should not have tried to obstruct it. if the president tried to get comey to stop the investigation by asking him to lay off flynn, if, as the president himself has said, he fired comey because he didn't like where the russian investigation was going, that's evidence on obstruction of justice. and also, you still haven't countered any of this evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and the russian hacking. there is a lot of evidence of that. to say there is none is simply factually incorrect. >> let's go through this again. you have the fbi in testimony before the congress, the director of the fbi, the acting director, saying that there's been zero influence by the white house to stop their investigation. so investigation continues whether jim comey is at the fbi or is not at the fbi. if the congressman's assertion is that because of the actions of michael flynn that that is what this is about, i think we have been talking about --

>> it's not just michael flynn. >> that was the major thrust of what you said. >> no, i mtioned a whole lot of people. it's not just michael flynn. there is evidence of 18 different trump campaign officials meeting with russian officials. michael flynn is but one example. >> meeting with russian officials -- by the way, the hillary clinton campaign met with russian officials. >> you're mccabe and your boss just gets his head lobbed off for pushing the russians too strongly. do you think that might be intimidating? i just found your boss to be too aggressive. >> this is my feeling of the fbi, and i admit to you this is serious, and i admit to you that the white house better get ready for a very long process. but the fact is this. the fbi is going to do their job. if you try to go after them politically and if they take this as a threat, they're going to double down and investigate even more -- >> that's exactly what happened.

>> this is "hardball," congressman. should the president move our embassy to jerusalem? should he? >> no, he shouldn't. what he just described -- >> yes, he should. because he promised to do. >> that's the answer i expected. go ahead, congressman. >> what i was going to say is what he just said is what trump did, okay? he did try to slow this down, okay? i mean, clearly. the president has admitted that he did that. to say that -- look, i'm with you. i'm with you. i'm with you that -- >> he wanted comey to not be the head of the investigation, but you can't control what the fbi does. >> i'm with you that it was a very dumb thing to do by the president. if he thought firing comey and telling comey, hey, lay off flynn, if he thought that was going to reduce the investigation, you are absolutely right. it was going to have the exact opposite effect. it was very stupid. but he said he didn't.

>> all democrats wanted comey fired just a few months ago. >> no, he didn't. find me a democrat who said, fire comey. find me one. >> john podesta, it's senator schumer, harry reid. let's keep going. >> there is a reason the congressman is off the air. thank you, panel. president trump calls the russian investigation a witch hunt. remember, this comes from the guy who supported the birtherrism. remember he sent people to hawaii to try to figure out where obama came from? you're watching "hardball."

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some build walls to keep people out. but these are walls that welcome you in. within these walls, california's educators create safe places for every student to learn and grow. where teachers open minds to history... unleash creativity... and show our kids the future. some build walls to divide us. but the california teachers association knows these are walls that bring us together. because quality public schools build a better california for all of us. the entire thing has been a witch hunt, and there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but i can always speak for myself and the russians, zero. >> look at the way i've been treated lately.

specially especially by the media. no politician in history, and i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. you can't let them get you down. you can't let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of your dreams. >> see the halo on his head? welcome back to "hardball." it's friday in the nation's capitol, and as i mentioned for a while now, there are three bombshell stories out just this afternoon. the "washington post" reported the probe into the trump campaign and the russians have identified a mystery man as a significant person of interest. in fact, someone close to the president. it shows the probe is reaching the highest levels of the white house. the senior white house adviser under scrutiny, someone called "close to the president." you figure it out. they also said the investigation is intensifying and using the grand jury to issue subpoenas. meanwhile, the "new york times"

reported in his may 10 meeting with the russians, the one we saw there in that picture in the oval office, trump bragged out loud. he said, quote, i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy, a real nut job. he was talking to the russians. i face great pressure because of russia. that's taken off, like it's all behind him now. trump also said that to the times. now let's go to bloomberg view. ken vogel with the boston globe. i want to start with you, endeara. it's got an oval office, it's got a cabinet room, it's got a couple bedrooms, at least a couple bedrooms. he's there with his wife, his whole family. he's got jared who might be a part of this story. he's got his daughter ivanka. it's like a traveling royal

romanof family, yet he's going to three countries where he's already messed it up. >> it's weird to travel with the entire clan, like you said. imagine if hillary clinton had taken her entire family, if she had chelsea clinton, mark venvinsky -- it's hard to imagine. i think people would have a pretty dim view of that, the people who were sort of giving trump a pass on bringing his entire family along. >> what is this, a picnic? >> remember, he's not a politician, right? he's someone who is used to being the sort of king of his business, and he's used to being surrounded by sycophantic yes men. this is what's gotten him in trouble, is his own mouth. i call this the most sycophant witch hunt in american history. witch hunt is like the witch

saying -- going on tv telling lester holt, i'm a witch and then tweeting it. >> i wonder how manyoks h said it's a witch hunt. >> you mention all the amenities on air force one. it also has cable television and you know trump is watching and fuming these two stories that broke moments after he took off, the post story and the times story. >> how can he be fuming about a story that basically played out his conversation with the russian foreign minister ambassador in which the notes were taken by a u.s. official? we're not going by some secret taping of the russians. this is us. somehow a bureaucrat, that security person, has put this out. that must drive trump crazy. >> his perception is that these are all leaks and, in fact, they are a deep state out to get him. >> they are leaks. >> how much is leaking out of his administration? margaret and i were talking, i can't ever remember a transcript

of a meeting between a u.s. president and foreign leaders leaking like that a week after the fact particularly when it's such damaging information. it just shows that he has alienated so many people within this sort of permanent security, national security intelligence establishment, not to mention people within his own white house. you noted in that story sean spicer, the white house press secretary, did not push back, did not really offer any effort to spin or push back on this account from this transcript. >> that is so insightful because, margaret, a lot of people who have fallen in businesses like this one, like journalism, usually were bad guys with other people. they weren't nice. >> no. >> and on the way out, they were s.o.b.s. and on the way down, they were reminded of that. i think it's probabl those mid-level people that trump dismisses bureaucrats, looks down on.

oh, you only make a hundred and a quarter a year, what kind of man are you? you know? he's the major difference in our public service and he looks down on them. you can tell he does. but then they say, oh, yeah, i got your notes with kislyak and lavrov. i can get you. >> these are faceless bureaucrats who are beneath notice. they're chumps. they're chumps. >> they pay taxes. >> and you fired sally yates, too, because 27 years in -- one point we're missing, trump leaks on himself. he busts open the cover-up that sean spicer has put out about why jim comey was fired, and the next day trump rats on himself by saying, no, no, no, it wasn't for that reason, it was because i wanted to end this russian implication. >> how do you keep up with trump's story? first he has to tell you the truth first. he only comes around with the truth if he's bored of the

flakery. i'll at the you the truth. >> it took bernstein to get to that at one time. the roundtable is next. these three will tell me something, i don't know. be right back. ♪

♪ ♪ i'm dr. kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. ♪ energy lives here. former congressman anthony weiner plead guilty today for sending obscene material to a 15-year-old girl. he faces up to 27 months in jail. those texts were the reasons why the fbi reopened the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mails just days before the presidential election

last year. the computer seized in the investigation was also used by weiner's wife, huma abedin, who filed for divorce today. what a sad, tragic story. in a statement, weiner said, begwenning with my service in congress and into the first half of last year, i have compulsively sought attention from women who contacted me on social media, and i engaged with many of them in both sexual and nonsexual conversation. i accept full responsibility for my conduct. i have a sickness but i do not have an excuse. that was well said. and we'll be right back. that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

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deported. they are not bad hombres. 70% of the people in the -- >> so she was deported? >> well, she's in line to be deported. >> i think that is the world they live in which is -- you break any little law and -- >> a traffic fine. >> "time" magazine had a great report about the way that russia uses social media to spread information. they reported that russian agents paid for facebook ads to disseminate damaging information about hillary clinton during the 2016 election. i talked to an fec commissioner who said she's going to push for her agency to investigate this as a possible violation of laws that prohibit foreign nationals from spending money to influence elections. >> she should have run ad campaigns about how much the russians were afraid of her. that might have solved -- >> she's not a puppet. >> all right. so we've all been looking at the numbers of donald trump, his falling approval rating. >> well, not among his peeps. >> this is what i'm getting to.

monmouth has a poll showing in the 300 swing counties where the difference where donald trump won but his margin over hillary clinton wain the single digits in those 300 counties, donald trump's approval rating has dropped from 41% to 34% as of the poll coming out today. so those people who were maybe -- >> maybe this stuff is hurting him finally. it's not about them. it's about him. it's not about looking out for the little guy. thank you so much. this is "hardball" where the action is. at red lobster's seafood trios

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trump watch friday. may 19th, 2017. over the past 24 hours, we've heard the president has called the recent fbi director a nut job and told the russians he was glad to have fired him because he was pushing too hard on, you guessed it, the russian/trump investigation. also in the news tonight, a white house official said to be close to trump is the subject of investigation into the fbi investigation of the russian connection. add to this the report that federal investigators are now looking into whether there's been a high level cover-up of the russian connection. to connecting all those three reports shows the live potential for an early trump catastrophe. and if it becomes clear that trump and his people become engaged with the russians during last year's presidential election, the reason will be quickly understood. it will be seen as resulting from the amateur involvement by trump. his two keen recruits and family

members in a worthy but perhaps ill-timed adventure. if they tried to forge a new relationship with moscow to bring about a peace deal in the middle east centered on syria, they did it with a moscow simultaneously engaged in manipulating who won the american presidency. and this led to the danger, that the future president's aggressive push for friendship with vladimir putin would come to appear as a hand in glove engagement with put ip's own effort to decide who that president would be. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> there's no collusion. russia is fine. >> the russia investigation moves inside the white house. >> but i can always speak for myself and the russians. >> twin scoops from "the new york times" and "the washington post." a senior trump administration official is now a person of interest in the trump/russia investigation. >> you're going to see suoe